The Kite boat project

The Kite boat project

I have been following these guys (and some others) for some time: project kiteboat.
Kites have long been an interesting means of traction, not only can they "make" their own apparent wind (by figure eighting), but their force vector is always upwards, not pressing the boat in the water but lifting it.

First have a look at some of the pictures below, at their website, at this youtube movie and their youtube channel.

When you are still interested maybe look lower down on the page some contect from the pioneers of kite sailing.

 The jacob's ladder  project might interest you, when large kites did not exist, you had to use a large number of smaller ones.
When speedsailing was still for crazy amateurs/inventors 

Daylight Visualiser

At the moment I am contemplating putting a small extension on the back of my house. As you can imagine I modelled this in Revit, it would have been wrong to develop it in anything less. :-) But whilst I was looking for a Velux Revit window family I came across this….

http://www.velux.co.uk/professionals/architects/tools/daylight_visualiser

BTW the families on the Velux website are very poor; instead go to the BIMstore you will find some very good Velux families which actually work rather than a dodgy DWG import. Why do manufacturers still continue to do that?

Anyway, to better understand lighting I tried the Velux Daylight Visualiser. Daylight Visualiser works for Mac & PC. I created a separate export 3d view in Revit, limited just the geometry I needed & exported as a DWG 2007.

I was then able to import this into Daylight Visualiser, setup the location, apply some simple materials, setup the time of day & render away. It works well, its reasonable quick & quality is good. So after a few hours of rendering I managed to knock a animated lighting analysis which was good enough to understand the lighting impact on the extension.

Isle of Skye, small= ECO=affordable

Isle of Skye, small= ECO=affordable.

That small blended houses can be beautiful is once more illustrated in episode 7 of series 12 of Grand Designs. That nice people make nice building is also prove again. The calm builder battling the elements!!

If you are not from England it is complicated to watch Grand Designs online, so have a look at project free TV, grand designs

In the TV program the North Scotisch, Findhorn community is mentioned you can find them here.

 

Just for inspiration another eco village/neigbourhood "de Buitenkans"

Temporary Storage Buildings Are Not Just For Construction Sites

Temporary Storage Buildings are a very common site at construction sites and so they often get pigeon-holed. Many people do not realize how versatile these buildings are and how many more functions they can serve. Shelter Structures is here to dispel that notion and show just how much these buildings can do. From practice facilities for sports teams to aircraft hangars they can do it all. Read about their many uses here.

Some motorcycle images

Some motorcycle images

Just some designs I like.
Unsorted, uncommented, unlinked.
for now

Using Maintenance Buildings on Construction Sites

On some construction sites this may not be a problem, but on sites that are building new homes, there is typically no electricity or maintenance buildings to repair or store damaged equipment. In these scenarios a temporary structure is the answer. To learn some of the other benefits of temporary structures as maintenance structures read the rest of the article.

Festo free R&D philosophy

Festo free R&D philosophy

Amazing what Festo has been able achieve with their "free" R&D work.
Jellyfish, Penguin, manta ray and most famously Smartbird.
Look around their website Festo


Smartbird, lightweight carbon fibre RC ornithopter, one of the first truly controllable ornitopthers. (good subject for a later blogpage)
Nice youtube movie of smartbird

 

The Festo Manta Ray floating around their atrium, nice!

Youtube movie

   

Festo Air jelly movie   

 

Festo elephant trunk manipulator
video

 

More large companies should invest in this way.

The corporate image will also be enhanced.

Who is next?

Aerobike, New Zealand enclosed motorcycle

Aerobike, New Zealand enclosed motorcycle

Roger Dunkley from New Zealand has made an enclosed motorcycle in record time.
As a designer I am very impressed by his work, if you like the photo's below chack out his weblog
Aerobike weblog
And/Or have a look at his track testing on youtube
 

HTC Desire HD 升級 Android 4.1.2

升級請參考這篇

http://walker-a.com/archives/1914


由於當初這支手機就給我Root + S-OFF了..........所以我這次升級可以說是easy升

我只做了三個步驟= =


1. 升級4EXT Recovery Touch.........下載apk直接升級

2. 安裝4.1.2的rom

3. 安裝google懶人包.......這邊我是安裝gapps-jb-20121212-signed的版本

(要安裝懶人包是因為這版android乾淨到連google的程式都沒有XD)

但出現跟這位網友一樣的問題......

-------------------------------------------------------
4.1 滑起來真的很順
但當我繼續灌gapps-jb-20121011-signed時
灌完後卻無法使用鍵盤? (AOSP鍵盤無法運作)

請問是我哪裡漏掉了嗎?
-------------------------------------------------------

意思就是.......無法使用鍵盤XD

所以我又重刷, 刷跟他一樣的gapps-jb-20121011-signed版本

就成功了......



使用狀況良好~~~~~~~可以用相機~~~

(聽說之前釋出desire hd的rom好像都無法用相機......還有一些零零碎碎硬體上的問題)


少了HTC Sense..........

速度快到靠杯

也可能因為版本是4.1.........加上少了大便 HTC Sense

手機整個超順#@%$#^$#^$#%#@$%#@^

像之前裝的2.3 with HTC Sense的rom

裡面就很多奇奇怪怪的HTC service............都在背後跟htc船些奇怪的data.....

拖慢速度......shit


總之~~~~推薦Desire HD的使用者趕快刷這版rom~~~~~~好用~~~

來兩張截圖XD

還是習慣用Go Launcher........雖然4.1內建的launcher也很酷

Absolute Sailing speed record 65,45kts (121,12 km/h)

Absolute Sailing speed record 65,45kts (121,12 km/h)

Paul Larsens's Vestas sailrocket smashed the olf record by almost 10 knots  (>5%)
Some links (to find more out by yourself), pictures and context of the rocket.

Youtube record video
youtube video here


These photo's clearly shows the layout. The clever trick is that the sailforces are balanced by a pullin (not lifting) hydrofoil. The design and all the work on the prototypes and the eraly rc models certainly went into this balancing act.
The little horizontal wing on the leeward side of help the lift ooo, of the leeward float reducing water contact and consequently resistance.

 An early version of the rocket during the Weymouth speedweek?

A major setback when Sailrocket 1 went flying

 

The vestas blog gives more info about the vestas sailrocket

Just for some reference, some other projects using similar techniques or part of techniques

Macquarie innovation

website

youtube 50kn video

 

 Kitesurfer Sylvain Claudel using a Didier Costes pulling foil. For me this seems to have great future!
youtube

Didier Costes has been working around this principle already for many years as you can see from the following pictures. You can Also have a look at the webpage  about the Didier Costes work. That is where below pictures come from (by lack of time to scan my old Yachting World clippings)

Some more tests of the seaglider concept in Hawaii

Didier Costes calls his craft Exoplane.

Finally some (1970's) thougths of my own, which can be found on the website wind-water.nl
and then the Water section, menu option Hydrofoil ideas.
Maybe it is time to make a more detailed design of these ideas and at least an artist's impression rendering.

enjoy, play and learn
life is precious
life is short