Zedagain

Tag: technology

  • Rocking the Night Away. Camping in My Future Hammock/Tent/Shelter

    Thurston Meadows
    Chilliwack, British Columbia
    Canada

    My two boys and I decided to go camping last weekend. I was very excited, a field test for my Hennessy hammock was needed!

    The weather was hot! 32 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Fahrenheit depending which side of the thermometer you read. I was proud of my boys, we built inukshuk in the middle of chilliwack river, found a couple rock fossils and maintained a well kept campsite for almost 72 hours without my wife.

    The boys had their own tent that didn’t fit any stinking adults. I was freed to sleep over night in my hammock. I had made some preparations based on my test nap and front yard setup. I also followed some online advice.

    The biggest difference between my nap and a full night rest is about 7 hours. The hammock fit me best when I was laying on my back, I normally sleep on my side. I could get used to the change though. The shelter was VERY comfortable, I did wake a few times both nights aware of differences but it was a great way to catch shut eye. If you are concerned make an effort to sleep on your back in bed for a few days.

    I had read online that adding an inflatable pad was a necessity. The tent is suspended off the ground and during the night, wind will cause considerable heat loss. I purchased a Thermorest Trail lite regular length self inflating pad at MEC. I feel I choose the wrong pad for the task. The regular length pad obstructed the womb style entryway and my legs did not need the extra support. Once settled it did give great shaping to the hammock though. I had plenty of breathing room for a guy in a water proof cocoon! I plan on trading for a short length mattress somehow.

    The next consideration was tent pegs. For a complete setup four ground pegs are required if there are no laterally located anchor points. I feel the shelter is more comfortable when the side tether straps pull straight out, at the forestry campsite there was nothing to anchor to and I was forced to use ground pegs. I went through 7 plastic tent pegs making 4 stick. I was disappointed. I am going to look for some titanium or aluminum pegs designed for gravel. If I find something better, I will let you know! Until then, I will be trying for campsites that allow me side anchor points which I prefer anyway.

    I am a voracious reader. I carry books everywhere I go. This was a problem. As a novice hammock shelter user I had no tolerance for anything loose in the tent. Which was why about an hour after going to sleep, I woke up, pulled the trade paper back out of my back, threw it out the womb opening and fell back asleep. My advice is that you leave everything but yourself, your pad and your sleeping bag out.

    The hammock looks like a tight fit but allows freedom of movement. The second night I watched an episode of True Blood on my iPhone. I had plenty of room to hold the phone up. My shoulders were not restricted either.

    The Hennessy hammock impressed me at every turn. I couldn’t recommend one more. I drifted off to sleep rocking in the wind. Just like a normal hammock, gentle movements turned into pacifying sways.

    I am thrilled with my Hennessy hammock. On Sunday morning packing my tent took 4 minutes. I plan on buying the Hennessy Snakeskin, a sock-like tube that makes packing it down even easier.

    Next test, Radium lake trail in Chilliwack. 13 kilometer hike, 1 kilometer of elevation. I am very excited.

  • One World, Six Billion Votes

    Technology has changed every facet of life as a human more than once in the last century. What is slower to change is human thought. Even though we live in times of great prosperity, there are huge areas where children go without basic needs.

    In a recent conversation, I was discussing government options with an insightful friend. Could democracy work world wide? Was a utopian socialist government possible assuming unlimited energy? What is a reasonable quorum when your voting population needs to represent a one world decision? In “Starship Troopers” by Robert Heinlein the right to vote and call oneself a citizen was earned with military service in defense of the Earth in an interplanetary war!

    By the end of the discussion/debate/disagreement we had made lots of insightful forecasting, but only one thing we both consistently agreed to. Before there could be a world wide vote taken, there would need to be a foolproof voting process.

    Technology is slowly reinforcing the security of the world wide web. If all the world powers could cooperate long enough to pick one system, the possibility of an Electronic Vote exists. An Evote system would need to be self regulating and operate outside of any single government’s control. The Evote regulatory would require exceptional military support and the ability to lock or remove voting privileges to offending regions and people. Could such an entity even exist in a truly democratic community? If you have an opinion, I would love to know!

    Check out growing world population and more http://www.worldometers.info/population/

  • iPhone Accessories, Stat!

    I have an iPhone. I do stuff on it. Games are my preference. I also use it to organize my life across the calendar. Word processing came next. Then movies and old television programming. My iPhone kicked my laptop’s ass. My iPhone ruined my desktop time. My iPhone sees more airtime on the family television than cable!

    So far I only have four iPhone accessories. I have an Invisible Shield membrane over the screen, a Roots rubberized shell, an audio/video cable to plug it into external display and the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. I want/need/obsess over more.

    Apple opened up the code needed to use the iPhone port to third party vendors with the release of iOS4. Be ready for lots of accessories to hit the market. Pico projectors, keyboards, external speakers and microphones are already out there. What comes next?

    My shopping cart is currently topped by a pico projector. The specific model keeps changing but the concept is awesome! I already use my iPhone as a portable media source but up until now have actually needed a TV or computer monitor to play my data. With the projector I will be able to view my data anywhere. I watched 3 seasons of Chuck while camping, it would have looked WAY better “bigger than life” pasted across rock face or my tent. Who needs movie theaters?

    I also want a Bluetooth joystick, a solar recharging system, the Personal Area Network sweatshirt from thinkgeek.com, a corkscrew attachment….. and more.. Santa are you listening? This list keeps growing I had better CC Baby Jesus….

  • Starship Recycling Systems. Urinated Water on Ice!

    Hollywood loves to glamorize space colonization. In “Avatar” we were presented with massive commercial vessels that crossed the stars and spared no luxury, George Lucas gave us a massive galaxy spanning society that client races gained access to when they left their homeworld in “Star Wars, New Hope”. I think the most accurate depiction will be more like “Ice Pirates”, a horrible 1980s science fiction film that offered bad guys being good guys in space, everyone needed water and there wasn’t enough, it was dirty, diseased and unappealing.

    Crossing the voids between the stars will tax our most intrepid explorers. Our most clever engineers will need to build a device of unparalleled technology. Our philosophers will need to imagine protocols of communication to use between fleet and home and between our explorers and possible alien encounters! But it will be dirty, white surfaces will not stay white and somebody will be drinking urine.

    Thats right. I went there. To cross the voids between stars the way we currently imagine it. Someone is going to eat a feces burger with a side of recycled paper potatoes and a large recycled urine beverage. Not just one somebody. All the people on the first successful inter-solar crossing will have shared the re-eaten lunch.

    Lots of people have been reduced to drinking their own urine on the vast oceans of Earth. For a week or two, they would plug their nose and choke it back, rehydrating and preventing fast death. In space, voyages will last years, or decades, or in some particularly ambitious plans for centuries. So basically, get ready to get used to that unappealing yellowish stain on your teeth if you want to touch boots under a foreign sun. See you there!