Wednesday, April 28, 2004


Team Enterprise

Dragonfly : An Epic Adventure of Survival in Outer SpaceMy old consulting buddy Shawn sent me a note. A little bit of background: after a stint consulting at P&G for the Information Security folks, Shawn was called up for activities in Afghanistan which he might tell you about someday over a beer. Now he's back, working for one of the largest defense contractors in the U.S. And, it appears, he's doing some fun stuff on the side. Shawn is a very bright engineer and developer, with a lot of experience in messaging, directories, and now, it would appear, spacecraft guidance systems. Here's the tail end of this message:

BTW, I'm also doing some independent research outside of work. I'm working with some associates (aerospace engineers, mechanical engineers, astrophysists, etc) on a team to build a design proposal for the Earth Return Vehicle used in future manned Mars mission. I'm responsible for design of command & data handling subsystem, computing architecture, infrastructure/environmental control net, and navigational system. I think we're seriously going to turn some heads with this one. Our team's website is http://www.spacemagnetics.com/teamenterprise/home/index.html. Check it out and tell everyone you know. Publicity and notoriety are worth 20% of the evaluation criteria for our proposal! So if you know of any contacts to media outlets/venues to do a press release (i.e. home-town news, radio, Internet mags, etc.) let me know.

Hey Shawn, I don't think the JVM license agreement allows you to use it on mission-critical stuff like spacecraft nav systems! ;-)

Team Enterprise

Village Voice: Kerry Must Go

I guess things are worse in the Kerry camp than I thought. The Village Voice, well known for their conservative viewpoint - not, writes:

Note to Democrats: it's not too late to draft someone—anyone—else... ...With the air gushing out of John Kerry's balloon, it may be only a matter of time until political insiders in Washington face the dread reality that the junior senator from Massachusetts doesn't have what it takes to win and has got to go. As arrogant and out of it as the Democratic political establishment is, even these pols know the party's got to have someone to run against George Bush...

Mondo: Kerry Must Go

BM... V

Mr. T's blog has an entertaining rant on a recent visit to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Seems he needed to perform the oh-so-simple task of converting a leased vehicle into an owned vehicle ("I OWNZ YOU NOW"). Hours later and one AK carbine short of an ABC News Special, he came away with his mission accomplished. Guess he doesn't know about the tiny, but very efficient, BMV office located in Montgomery. My all-time longest wait was maybe six minutes. If I didn't know better, I'da thought he was describing the Reichstag-like BMV in Watertown, Massachusetts. Ah, the memories. Good times. Good times.

Bureau of Motor Vehicles

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