Category: Weblog

Why coffee and iced tea refills suck

This morning the team at work was in early (before 6AM) in case of problems with a power wiring upgrade. There were no problems and we all went to breakfast at Bob’s Big Boy, a local coffee shop (in the pre-Starbucks coffee shop sense, meaning a restaurant that serves basic food).
Besides my hash browns, bacon, and rye toast, I also had a cup of coffee. I carefully added the proper amount of sugar, stirred and happily sipped away as we debated the fine points of HVAC design and the risk of running on split generators.
I had drank about half the cup when waitress walked by with coffee pot in hand and refilled my cup. I hate that shit.
Yes, I know she’s just trying to provide good service, but to me, it’s a disservice and here’s why.


Note that with a fresh cup of coffee (or iced tea) you add the proper amount of sugar and/or cream (or in Sean’s case, soy) and once you find that perfect combo, you can enjoy the entire cup.
When you get halfway through the cup, the coffee to sugar ratio remains correct.
Now, when a waitress pours more coffee into the cup, they have diluted the ratio and you need to add more sugar. It’s not the end of the world, but at some coffee shops, they’ll try to refill your cup everytime you take a sip.
The same problem occurs with iced tea, and it’s even worse. With hot coffee, the sugar dissolves easily. In saner countries, they give you sugar syrup to sweeten cold liquids, but here in the good ole USA, you get granulated sugar. Dissolving granulated sugar is a pain and requires much stirring to accomplish properly. The last thing you want is to spend more time re-sugaring and stirring your iced tea everytime the waiter walks by and ‘tops off’ your iced tea.
You may be saying, “Mike, why do you worry about these things?” and I’ll agree, I am a wee bit eccentric on a few select topics, but this is a problem that happens to everyone. Many just suffer in silence, drinking poorly sugared beverages.

Not surprisingly, I think I have the solution. I took an old beer coaster and drew on it a bit. The idea is to place this over the coffee cup to ward off the evil refillers.
This could be worth millions! What do you think?

The plane will not take off

OK, I read the post on Jason Kottke’s site about the The case of the plane and conveyor belt, and quickly concluded that the plane cannot take off.
I was shocked, SHOCKED, to find smart people like Matt Haughey and Mike Buffington believing that the plane can take off.
Let me clear this up.
For an aircraft of any type to fly, it must overcome the constant acceration downward of gravity. Flying, for the most part, has little to do with speed and everything to do with the lifting force that counteracts the pull of gravity. Got that? Lifting force is all the matter to leave the ground and fly.
The question then is how do you generate enough lifting force. With a balloon, the lifting force is based on the fact that a bag of lighter-than-normal-air gas (usually hydrogen, helium, or hot air) will rise above normal (cold) air. Make sense? A balloon has no direct thrust or “push against air”, it simply has the lifitng force of the gas.
Now let’s look at an airplane. How does an airplane fly? An airplane flys off the ground solely because it can generate a lifting force. An airplane generates this lifting force by air flowing over an airfoil (known as a wing). The faster the air travels over the wing, the more lift is generated.
Planes that go fast can generate a lot of speed (air moving past the wings) can generate a lot of lift. If an airplne goes too slow, it doesn’t generate enough lift to counteract the force of gravity, and it falls to the ground. This is called a stall.
So, now that you are versed in the basics of aerodynamics, let’s look at the question of the airplane on the conveyer belt. The airplane will sit on the conveyer belt with engines blasting, tires rolling, and to the outside observer, standing in place. While tremendous forward force is being generated, there is no increase on the airflow over the wings.
So, if there is is no increased airflow over the wing, there is no lift. Without lift, the airplane CANNOT take off and fly. Let me repeat that key part, without lift, the airplane CANNOT take off and fly. It doesn’t matter how hard the engines ‘push the air’, there is no lift being generated in the conveyor belt scenario.
I hope you can now see clearly the correct answer to the ‘question’ is that the plane will not take off.
If you start to argue about the validity of the basic aerodynamic theory of lift, you might as well start arguing that the earth is flat or in creationism.
Update: After reading the comments it seems like the debate is hinging on whether the plane stays stationary or not. Obviously above I’m assuming the plane/conveyor belt contrapion is designed to hold the plane still. If that is not assumed then then the entire question is stupid and ridiculous. It’s then like asking can a plane take off in the rain or snow when the wheels slip.
If that’s really the point that the question poser is making then it’s fucking stupid. It’s like those stupid tests where the first line says “1) Read all instructions carefully before taking the test” and the last line says “57) Now that you’ve read all the instructions carefully, don’t do 2-56, write your name in and turn in the test.” Fuck that shit.

Four Things

I have been stirred out of my winter blog hibernation to heed Anil’s call to answer about Four Things. Far from me to refuse an internet rock star like Anil anything, so I present:
Four Things
Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Taco Bell food slinger
2. Technician at an electronic warfare company
3. Consultant on building television facilities
4. Technology Exec at Disney
Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Dune
2. Last Temptation of Christ
3. Apocalypse Now
4. The Fifth Element
Four places I’ve lived:
1. Harbor City, California
2. Troy, New York
3. Venice Beach, California
4. San Francisco, California
Four TV shows I love:
1. The Wire
2. Deadwood
3. Good Eats
4. The Daily Show with John Stewart
Ten highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I’ve never watched a single minute of:
1. Battlestar Galactica
2. Lost
3. Desperate Housewives
4. 24
5. Family Guy
6. The Shield
7. Rescue Me
8. My Name is Earl
9. Gray’s Anatomy
10. The West Wing
Four places I’ve vacationed:
1. Macau
2. Cancun, Mexico
3. Yellowstone Park, Wyoming
4. Duck, North Carolina
Four of my favorite dishes:
1. My mother’s Chicken Crepes
2. My wife’s Turkey Meatloaf
3. Yoshinoya Beef Bowl
4. A souffle for dessert
Four sites I visit daily:
1. Slashdot
2. Yahoo News
3. Gen[M]ay Forums
4. Jason Kottke
Four places I would rather be right now:
1. At home, playing World of Warcraft
2. Disneyland
3. Wapiti Meadows, Idaho
4. In outer space
And now that I have discharged my duty, I hereby tap the following four people to post their lists:
Martin Diggs
Judi (my mother)
Suw Charman
Bill “Squidly” Bessette
Update: Once I posted the list and looked at it, I realized that it should have been four items not ten for the movies… C’est la Vie.

N51°30.282 W000°08.987

Yes, if you enter that location into your favorite mapping site, you will find that I am in London.
Despite my jet lag, I’ve already been out shopping for Michele’s list of items to return with. The exercise will do me some good.
I’ve got a week of business here and just arrived a few hours ago. If you’re in London, drop me a note.

Big 10

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Zoe’s big 10th Birthday.
Hard to believe, but my oldest daughter is 10 years old and rapidly approaching teenagerhood. We had a small family party on her birthday at Farrell’s. A week later, we had her birthday party for school friends at the local lasertag facility. Good times.


I think Michele’s idea on how to make a birthday for Zoe out of cupcakes is fantastic.

Zoe’s big present was a bass guitar. She’d been asking for one for a while and who are we to stand in the way of Rock? She’s definetly got the attitude going.