In Defense of Solar Roadways

If you haven't been living under a rock in the past month or so you may have heard of this new company called Solar Roadways, founded by Scott and Julie Brusaw.  They purport to have the miracle answer to solve our antiquated roadway system.  They propose to do this by replacing our asphalt roads with modular, tempered-glass units embedded with solar panels and electronics.  That's the short answer.  Watch their video below if you haven't seen it: 

Visit their indiegogo campaign page for even more detailed information.  Pay special attention to their FAQ as it goes over a lot of the nitty gritty details.

  By nature, I'm an optimistic skeptic.  When I hear something that sounds too good to be true I tend toward the axiom that it usually is, but I leave room for the possibility that I could be wrong.  On the internet we should be skeptical of any amazing claims... but it shouldn't end there: Fact check, research, ask questions, and above all be aware of your own biases.

Before seeing this campaign I had never even heard of Indiegogo and I was skeptical about the whole situation, so first I did some research to make sure Indiegogo was a legitimate and respected crowdfunding company.  Apparently, they are.  At this point, I have to have faith in Indiegogo's trustworthiness and competency to not allow scams on their site.  But after watching the videos and reading through the Brusaws' website, it's hard to question whether it's real.  If it is a scam, these people sure went through a lot of trouble to create it and they have earned whatever money they get.

After being satisfied that everything was on the up and up, I wanted to hand my paycheck over to these people.  Don't worry, I'm not homeless, I did manage to resist the temptation.  I don't normally donate to charities or crowdfunding campaigns or anything of that nature, but something about this campaign really resonated with me.  For years we've all been told that the global environment is crumbling around us due to human activity.  We haven't lacked for decent ideas to ameliorate the situation so much as we have felt powerless, at the individual level, to push these ideas forward.  Solar Roadways presents us with a painless way to help push green technology innovation that could, in principle, actually work.

Principle and theory are great, but will it actually work in practice?  Detractors say that Solar Roadways will never work because of unknown variables like initial cost, maintenance cost, electrical infrastructure incompatibility, noise pollution, solar blockage from dirt and grime... the list goes on.  And when you read these articles it can be very disheartening, particularly if you were excited about the possibilities for the future.  Fortunately, however, unknown variables will not mean that a project is not possible, just that it may be challenging.  If it becomes too challenging it might not take off, but that hasn't stopped the Brusaws yet.  They've already pushed the physical boundaries of what's possible and are asking for our help to do more.  I, for one, think they deserve a chance to prove they can keep pushing those boundaries.

Here are what I see as the top three hurdles Solar Roadways will have to clear and ways in which I think they might approach it.

PROBLEM #1: HUGE COST

The elephant in the room is the possibly multi-trillion dollar budget needed to get this project from dream to reality.  There are A LOT of roads out there.  But who said they have to do it all at once?  The whole idea of a decentralized power grid will lend itself to a piecemeal project.  Maybe only certain cities will use it.  Maybe it will be for highways only.  Maybe it will become cost effective once the cost of oil rises so drastically that it outpaces the cost of the Solar Roadways.  The point is that, although our dreams may be for perfection, in reality we do usually settle for what will work.  Why should Solar Roadways be any different?

PROBLEM #2: SOLAR BLOCKAGE

Yes, dirt will inevitably cover the shiny new roadways which will undoubtedly reduce the wattage output of the solar panels over time.  Here is why I think this is not as big a problem as people think; we already have street sweepers that wash and clear the roads at night, why not beef up that system already in place and make those streets shine anew each day?  Too naive?  Perhaps, but no one really knows for sure how much impact the dirty roadways will actually have on the panels or how easy they will be to clean until this is fully tested on a stretch of heavily trafficked roadway somewhere.  Until then, I'm fine being labeled with naiveté.

PROBLEM #3: NOISE POLLUTION

Even the Brusaws have admitted on their FAQ page that they do not know how loud the roadways will be at full highway speeds.  Lots of detractors say they will easily exceed FHWA sound regulations for interstate highways and the like.  This may very well be the case as the prototype exists now.  The Brusaws are looking to hire materials science engineers which, quite possibly, may be due to a need to address this very issue.  Maybe the foundation needs to be spongy, or perhaps the roads will have to come with some kind of noise cancelling technology, or it could be as simple as putting up sound barriers next to the highways.  I'm no engineer, so I can't tell you what the solution will be, but engineers are expert problem solvers and the Brusaws now have over two million dollars with which to hire the best engineers they can find.


Can this whole thing work?  I believe it can.  Will it work?  Only time can tell.

Debunking An Old Myth About Lightning

When I was younger, my father used to tell me during lightning storms that if you counted the seconds after lightning struck until you heard the thunder, that would tell you how far away the bolt of lightning was. Which is actually true, but not quite the way he suggested. You see, most people think that the seconds translate directly to miles. In other words, counting five seconds after a strike means the bolt is five miles away. This is incorrect as a little math will show.

Sound is known to travel through the atmosphere at approximately 768 miles per hour at sea level (with possible minor variations due to temperature and pressure). Knowing this, we can deduce how far sound waves travel every second. Take out your calculator and type in 768 divided by 3600. This will give you the number of miles traveled every second. Don't believe me? Look it up. Wikipedia is a great resource for information.

 In any case, this means that the sound from a lightning bolt is travelling about a mile every five seconds.  So that scary bolt is much closer than we were given to believe in our childhood.

To put this in perspective, the average human runs between five and eight miles per hour, so if you hear a lightning bolt that is only one second away, you could hypothetically jog to that location within two and a half minutes or less.  Or put another way, throw a baseball as far as you can toward the bolt, then run and pick it up.  Do this four more times and you will arrive at the bolt.

But I'm a lazy American, so I won't be doing any physical activity to reach the bolt.  So I will drive to the bolt at 60 mph.  At this speed, I would reach it in 12 seconds.  Count that on the freeway the next time you're out there and realize that's how close that bolt is to you when its sound is a second away.

Few more little tidbits about lightning:  Laying down is a bad idea, don't hide under a tree, don't stand on ladders, rubber tires in a car or the rubber on the soles of your shoe are not insulating you from a lightning strike, you can and should touch someone to help them after they've been struck by lightning, and finally and possibly most importantly: lightning often strikes the same place numerous times.

Play Those Old Saturn Games Online

Do you remember the Sega Saturn? Don't feel bad, its heyday was short-lived and quite a ways back now. But for those who do, you probably think back longingly and lovingly at this system that reminds you of your youth and carefree days.

So, is this a nostalgia blog? Nope, not really. My wife wanted to play a Saturn game from her childhood and, me being a CS major, I figured I could find a way to do that for her online. In fact, it turns out I could. I bet you're thinking "that seems like it might be too complicated for a layman". And it turns out that in most cases you're probably correct. And this is the reason I wanted to write a blog about how to do it; there just is not a very good guide out there on how to get this accomplished easily (at least I couldn't find one).

So, let's begin.

Step 1: Download an Emulator

You will need a Saturn Emulator. An emulator is like a virtual version of the thing you are using, in this case a Sega Saturn system. There are three major emulators for the Saturn out there: SSF, Satourne, and Yabause. The Yabause emulator is by far the most user friendly, but it also seems to be less flexible and prone to errors. If your game won't work on Yabause, you will have to try another one (I really recommend getting all three, they're small files).

Step 2: Download Your Game

You can find just about every Saturn game ever made out there online. Here is a list of options and there are plenty of other sites out there with games for download. If you can't find yours there, do a google search, odds are somebody has it. These files are large, so be prepared for a good wait if you have a slow connection.

Step 3: Set Up Your Emulator Bios

First, download the Sega Saturn bios. You can google it to find it; apparently there are legal reasons this can't be linked to directly. If the files are zipped, unzip them into the same directory as your emulator that you want to use. I know this already seems like a lot of work, but bear with me, it's worth it.

Next, you will need to point to the bios file from your emulator. Don't panic, I'll explain. If you're using Yabause, it will be under file->settings->General Tab, look for bios and click the button on the right with the ellipsis (...). Locate the files you downloaded and select the bios for the appropriate region. On SSF emulator it's under option->option->peripheral tab, look for Saturn Bios and do the same.

Step 4: Set Up Your Emulator Controls

Like all games, you have to have controls of some kind, and I'm assuming if you're trying to do this online you don't have the original Saturn controller. Setting up controls for your keyboard is easy, if not intuitive or consistent across multiple emulators. For Yabause, go into File->Settings->Input Tab, click on the drop-down under under input and be sure it is set to QT Keyboard Input Interface. Select drop-down under port 1 and select Pad. On the right of this, you should see a wrench symbol, click on it and a nice graphical display of the controller will come up. You can click on the individual buttons and it will prompt you to hit the keyboard button you want to use to correspond with that controller button. When a green check mark appears over the button, you are good to go for that button. Repeat until all buttons are checked.

For the SSF emulator, it's not as user friendly, but much easier to set up. Go to Option->Option->Controller Tab, select direct connect under port 1. Under Player 1A select Control Pad. Hit the Redefine button next to this. It will bring up a dialog that asks you to hit a button to remap to the controller. Follow the prompt until all buttons are mapped.

Now you have a controller to use! Keep in mind however, that these instructions may be subject to change as the emulators are occasionally updated. But the general idea should pretty much stay the same.

Step 5: Create A Virtual Drive

What the heck is a virtual drive? Well, it's basically a digital version of your CD-Rom drive. A virtual drive is not necessary for Yabause (hence the aforementioned user-friendliness). However, SSF and Satourne both need it if you don't have an actual disc with the game on it.

Download Daemon Tools Lite. Select the free version; I'm assuming you aren't planning to commercialize this setup. Install it, follow the wizard. Open it and click the Add Virtual Drive button as seen below:

Step 6: Mount The Virtual Drive

What good is a virtual drive if you don't have a game loaded onto it? Good question, let's rectify that.

You "mount" the virtual drive by right-clicking on the drive you just created and selecting mount. Simple enough. Now, locate the game image file you want to use (probably the one you downloaded earlier in this tutorial). There are generally two files: a large one that contains the content of the game, and the smaller image file that tells the emulator which files to load. Generally, this will be a .cue file, whereas the game contents will be contained in a .iso or .bin file. If the game is located in a .bin file, you might have issues with Daemon Tools, but I will get to that issue in the final step.

Step 7: Add The Virtual Drive To Your Emulator

Again, adding the virtual drive is not necessary for Yabause (but it does have the option). For the SSF emulator, go back to the peripheral tab in the options and under CD-Rom select DTSOFT BDROM. And while you're on that page, make sure the Area Code is set to your preferred region.

Step 8 (Yabause Only): Select ISO-File Virtual Drive

On Yabause, go to file->settings->general tab. Under CD-Rom select iso-file virtual drive from the drop-down. Click on the ellipsis button on the right and locate the .cue file in the game files you downloaded previously. As soon as you hit OK, the game should begin playing if you have everything set up correctly.

The Hopefully Optional Final Step: Convert The .bin File To .iso

I had problems getting my game to play using Daemon Tools until I converted the .bin game file to .iso. This sounds easy, and it is, but not so simple as renaming the extension.

And here it comes... that's right, another download. Download MagicIso, install it, open it, click "try it", and go to Tools->Convert, then locate the .bin game file, make sure the output file is named appropriately and click "convert". Easy as pie.

Congratulations!

You now, hopefully, have a working Saturn virtual game system on your computer. Try it and see! Not working? Post what you tried here and let me know what's happening, maybe I can walk you through it or help you out with where to look for solutions. Generally speaking, these instructions should be similar for other virtual consoles you want to set up too. Also, feel free to post any suggestions or hints for other people who might be less experienced at setting these kinds of things up.

My Goal

My goal is to destroy the blogging community. I feel that there are too many people giving half assed opinions out there that have no clue about what they're actually talking about and have a disproportionate amount of people actually listening to what they say as if it's actually credible. The irony is that I'm going to do this through blogging. Sort of like how Hitler destroyed democracy democratically. Not that I'm comparing myself to Hitler you understand, but it's a useful analogy.

Well alright, I don't actually want to destroy blogging. But seriously, the online craze of blogging and chain e-mails with fallacious or suspect information is getting out of hand. There are a lot of trusting people out there who have no idea how unscrupulous and deceitful people in the world can really be. It doesn't help that a lot of the people doing the deceiving are quite educated on the subjects they are maliciously falsifying.

I've always felt that truth, the whole truth, is much more believable than half-truths spun with liberal or conservative slants. The problem is there isn't enough true information out there for the general public to access, but they are being constantly bombarded with this endless onslaught of rhetoric that drowns out any legitimate news that would otherwise reach them. One person can't end this rueful situation. But the revolution has to start somewhere.