The long slow curve of technology Part One.
Posted by Wayne on Aug 1, 2007 at 2:00 PM |
Where's it from? Me and some links.

Given Moore's law you would think that portable home fabricating supercomputers would be cranking out solar panels, jetpacks, RC Cola etc.. and simply paying for the raw materials to do so by now. "Hello Rumpke, I need a drop off of 300lbs of carbon, 52lbs of copper, and I have some surplus aluminum for you to pick up", but it seems that "The human condition" is a big ol' resistor in the circuit board of progress no matter what the tools. My interests are as varied as my skill set, so I keep up on most "cool new technology" in most sectors. What really amazes me is how slowly things are progressing in the sciences of medicine, transportation, housing, commodities, and the overall convergence of technology. (Or more importantly how slowly things are advancing as they pertain to making MY life better)

Housing
If you've looked in the photo album in the houses section, you'll know that I am an avid supporter/devotee of monolithic dome houses and if I had the time/money/resources I would be living in a dome. Domes are great for safe efficient construction, and can be made with materials readily available in any part of the world.  One of the many great things about domes is that they can be made quickly into mansion sized behemoths or a single person survival shelters. Granted you have to look through 200 designs to find one dome design that you would actually want to live in, but last time I went house shopping I looked at over 60 houses and still didn't find anything I wanted. I mean what's not to love 80% thermal efficiency, fire/hurricane/tornado proof, spacious, adaptable. It's like living in a modernized cave (ok some people don't like that, I do) and you have a lot of "build it in" options as well.

Unfortunately when it comes to housing I will admit to a certain "greed' on floors space. Living in a small house has made me yearn for serious sq/footage. I want a gallery (as opposed to a galley) kitchen that could seat 20 people. I want "get lost in" closets and extra rooms for all functions. (recording studio, gym, computer room, home theatre, library etc..) Even the reduced construction costs of a dome add up when you're trying to build to my insane wishes. So I was interested to see how far building with cargo containers has come. Pretty far it seems . It's actually cheaper for overseas companies to just leave their cargo containers here than to ship them back, so you can get a nice container for $1500ish from people who resell them after drop off. They are waterproof and basically give you an insanely strong solid steel frame system for your house. Even if you cut all the corrugated metal out and replace with other materials, you've still got this super thick welded steel frame that is structurally sound. (They stack them 20 high on ships when they're full of stuff so.....
I started thinking,.. grabbed my crummy cad program and came up with this quick and dirty container house.

My "Cargo Container Home" using 40ftl x 9.6fth x 8ftw Cargo containers
4 Ground Level + 4 Garage + 4 on 1st floor + 8 on 2nd Floor + 4 on 3rd floor + 8 on 4th floor + 4 on 5th floor
Total containers  for house 32
Extend the garage and eliminate the covered patio 34
Burry 2 put in a liner and make a pool 36
Cost per container $1500 X 34 = $48K
Sq footage = 10240 square feet (after framing walls/insulation etc.. more like 8500+ sqft livable space.

Now the big questions are:

Get some land!
Cost to ship container from reclamations site to local area ?
Cost to Assemble (construct) Structure?
Cost to "Finish" (all glass walls, Creating decking on roof surfaces?
Solarize the top level roof etc...?

My thoughts are that you could run a spine up the center of the back of the house to provide combined plumbing/electrical, and just call them out at each level (maybe 2 containers on their sides with stairwells and utilities inside) Every roof is a potential deck and/or solar site. The roof would be high enough to support a wind turbine effectively. I'd also love to have a "gutter drain dynamo wheel" that uses drain water to add wattage to the house.

Now I'm sure the costs are way more than I'm thinking but even at 50% over my estimates, you're still getting a LOT of sq/footage for the money. And turning a multimillion dollar house into something most people could afford. Consider making it modular enough that you can add the levels as you go and this gets really viable for anyone. In this case your primary goal is to get a nice parcel of land, test the zoning issues and start with a 1 or 2 level. There are prefab builders out there, but their markup is insane at this point and they're more interested in building onsite and shipping to you for assembly than what you can do after you're already living there. Granted they do look great (cool and small though they may be) but that price point is just insane.

With a perfectly defined framework it's easy to frame, drywall run electric and insulate a house yourself (I've done this and if I can do it....).
Keeping the corrugated exterior would save money, but I'm thinking it just cries out for stucco and glass ala some Miami Vice drug kingpin's house.

 

Feeling too pretty?, Try these tips!
Posted by Wayne on Apr14 1, 2007 at 6:30 PM |
Where's it from? The gut baby,..the gut.

Aside from Mars and Venus, (all the feelings and emotions and the like,..) women don't have a clue what men want, or what makes them look good/bad. The only rule that they seem to grasp is "The more nude I am the better I look" Ok most of the time that one is right, but the other things women *THINK* make them more attractive,...well 99% of the time just,..don't. I mean I KNOW attractive, I had to gain massive amounts of weight, get a personality disorder and start playing WOW just to keep all the fly bitches off my junk 24/7 and even that doesn't work all the time.
So I'm like an authority here!

Here are a few that I just couldn't let go any longer....

Item #1 Big Sunglasses.

                      
Huge sunglasses instantly make every woman look 10-30 years older, and about 50% less attractive. The only people who can pull this look off are stage performers (Elvis, Elton John, Harry Caray (ok he was a radio personality but that proves my point even more).

Hint: It's not 1952, you're not a movie star, and even if you were everyone would still know it was you behind those glasses. Paris Hilton does it to hide the wonky eye and the herpes sores. No other woman on the planet should wear these things unless they have a long white cane and make a tappity-tap sound when they come towards you. Oh yeah I went there!
         
Item #2 Short Bangs

                     

What the hell is up with this?!,..What fashion dumbshit  told women that short bangs were good? "Short bangs help frame your face". Yeah I hate to tell you but frames can be ugly too. Short bangs,..short bus,..they go hand in hand, ever watch the special Olympics? (More short bangs than a Japanese whorehouse!)

There are very VERY few women who can pull this off, and none of them have light skin and black hair. Pagett Brewster tried this recently because she gained some weight and it worked,..I didn't think "Wow she's put on some weight and she's still kinda sexy" I thought "HOLY FUCK WHAT HAPPENED TO HER HEAD!!!???",..
Mission accomplished, drew my attention right away from the ol' waistline.

Hint: You're not Bettie Page,...Even Bettie Page was only hot because despite her short bangs she was also naked most of the time. If you want to wear short bangs, be willing to go topless most of the time too, and come over and serve me tea on a leather serving tray with D&D miniatures on the tray enacting the epic struggle of Flipbung.

Item #3 Showing people that you're hot w/out being made up, then ruining it by "Making yourself look pretty"

             

One need go no further than an episode of Survivor to see this phenomenon in action. Most women wear 40% more makeup/foundation/"Oh god don't let anyone know that I have freckles/pores/a slightly north-facing shadow of 10degrees off my left cheek where there should be a 24degree angle!" cream than they need to.
      
             

The problem is, if you look good without being "all made up" and we see that, and then you put on the makeup, style the hair, get the spray tan out etc.. you're then a huge disappointment because after all that effort you've only managed to detract from your looks.

Hint: Guys know about foundation when we see it we wonder how horribly grotesque you must be under it all, is that really worth it for an "even blend"? A little bit of color here and there is fine, but a face full of foundation sticks out more than anything you can possibly be hiding!