What’s up with Black Grass?
One of the fictions in Spark is black grass. Current trends in solar use only a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to provide energy. Solar panels (rooftop, satellite, etc.#) use primarily the visible spectrum – red to violet. Solar thermal facilities, like Solar Two, use mostly the infrared part. Both have advantages and both leave…Read More
Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality
Spark takes advantage of a technology referred to as Augmented Reality (AR). It’s similar, but different in important ways from Virtual Reality (VR). In VR, once you put on your headset, all of the real world is replaced in your vision by the fictional creation of the software. Orcs and dragons, damsels in distress, and…Read More
T minus 30 days and counting
Talked with the publisher – Fern Brady at Inklings Publishing (https://www.inklingspublishing.com) last week. The book is on track and should be published next month. Pretty excited about the whole thing. We had a long discussion with the editor, Steph Mathieson (https://www.wordgrower.net/) about the title. Solar Prime is a vast solar power facility situated in California’s…Read More
Isolation Socks
No. That’s not a typo. A while back, my daughter gave me these socks. In the past couple of years, I’ve grown fond of wilder, more expressive socks. I’m also a Trekkie. Spock socks. What’s not to love? At first, I only wore these on weekends. The ears, you know. They stick out and when…Read More
Blog Dogs
These are the hounds that hang out with us. This is Luna. She’s our Primary Dog. Responsibilities include eating, sleeping, and barking at the UPS guy. She was a rescue dog who’d been at the Humane Society ten months. We adopted her when she was just over a year old. Luna weighs in at 98…Read More
Where did it start?
As an Air Force Test Pilot, I spent a lot of time in the Mojave Desert. Close to Barstow, there was a thing called Solar One. A large tower with a circular array of mirrors that focused the reflected sunlight on a central point atop a tower. Originally the project used water/steam to power a…Read More