Anybody remember Seymour Cray?

The son of an engineer who worked for the City of Chippewa Falls...  I knew about his fantastic super computers as an undergrad studying engineering a long time ago. Today I had the great good fortune to get a personal tour of some of his most amazing inventions....

The Black Widow...

The list of customers is still "Secret"

Seymour's own hand written boolean logis for the Cray-2 and the logic worked out on mylar! I was struck that I have lived through this crazy cool time.

A peak inside the C-90

I so remember reading the technical journals of the day and seeing this monster

AND the Cray 2 with its liquid cooling - what an incredible invention

I may very well have used this guy as a grad student running near eal time multi-body dynamics simulations on my HPUX workstation in Lafayette, Indiana using gopher to make the linking commands from the command line...

Oh yeah, waaaay back then Hollywood recognized what computing horsepower could do for CGI

Oh yeah, these are Hoss's boots!

A T-90 in like new condition

Man, I remember when they did this work and made this poster...

What a great day!

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The winter that won't end gets a historic snowstorm!

"On track to become the biggest April snowstorm ever to hit northeastern Wisconsin, a dangerous storm left roads impassable Saturday and created whiteout conditions in some areas that could make travel impossible into Sunday evening. "

That pyramid ahead is last night's snow nicely piled up awaiting today's snow to join it...

Another 20 inches or so since Friday...  The snow falls at a rate of one to two inches an hour making the task of keeping roads open nearly impossible while the winds and the snow fall

My old John Deere seized up this morning making for a quick "yooper overhaul"

Got her back running and ready for the next foot of snow in the winter that won't end!

Great day to sip hot chocolate and  watch the snow pile up.  This time of the year people around here are getting their yards cleaned up... getting the gardens ready for planting...  We are still shoveling and wondering... when this stuff actually does melt, we hope it does so slowly so we don't have to worry about flooding!

Hope you all enjoyed the pics!

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I've never understood the market for Lear Jets

But now I do.  If you travel a lot your probably very familiar with all of the programs the major airlines offer.  Maybe you even have the seat maps sort of memorized... Yeah, the bulkhead on the Embraer doesn't allow you to sneak your backpack in front of you so you better board quick or your micro overhead will be gone... Or which Boeing has that odd joggle in the seating...

After years of flying commercial air, you get to know what works for you.

Lately I've been lucky enough to fly in some Beech and a steady run flying Citations... but then I flew in a Lear

All of the private jets are a treat and a step up in comfort from squeezing into economy plus and even the occasional bump to first....  But I have to say now I understand the market for a Lear.

A cabin that you can stand up in (almost)

your very own 526 mph rocket...

Getting from point A to point B in comfort and speed.  Very nice!


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Trail City

Today I had the good fortune to wander a part of the Appalachian Trail .  WOW, what a cool experience.  I've also been lucky enough to have trekked a part of the Virginia Creeper Trail.

The old railroad trestle still stands from another time

April in Virginia is waaay better than April in Wisconsin!

Beaver Dam Creek was high and clear

Excuse my shadow!  If you are hiking the AT and want to stay in the smallest hotel, make your reservation!

Damascus, Virginia is a kind of cross roads of several trails the wind through the mountains.  Some are shared by foot traffic, horses and bikes.

Damascus IS Trail Town!

Need any camping gear?

Perhaps a night in the "Duck Inn?"

What a beautiful place

The old mill and the pond are still here, but gone is the old water wheel.

Still early spring on the trail. No bugs, cool temps, but no green cover from the braod leaf forest

I've never seen a wayside like this before!

The AT map... this section is so beautiful!

The Creeper Trail is around 35 miles long.  A nice bike ride that many enjoy.  It's called the Creeper because of 1. The creeping vines that grow up and around everything around here or 2. The slow 'creeping' speed of the steam locomotives that navigated the switchbacks and steep grades of this old rail line.

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

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Happy Easter in the West

Greetings to all the blog visitors who celebrate Easter on this day!

Icon of the Resurrection, with Christ having kicked down the gates of Hades and pulling Adam and Eve out of the tombs. Christ is flanked by saints, and Satan—depicted as an old man—is bound and chained. (See Resurrection of Jesus in Christian art.)

 

 

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Icon of the Resurrection, with Christ having kicked down the gates of Hades and pulling Adam and Eve out of the tombs. Christ is flanked by saints, and Satan—depicted as an old man—is bound and chained. (See Resurrection of Jesus in Christian art.)