Security Lock for Portable Computer

Leave your laptop/notebook/netbook computer unattended and you may well become a victim of "grab and run", the most common kind of computer theft, which can happen even when you are using it. Portable computers are a tempting target for thieves because they are so easily fenced.

To prevent this kind of theft, pretty much all portable computers have a Kensington Security Slot, a small reinforced hole for a locking mechanism that looks somewhat like but a bit smaller than a USB slot.

A variety of computer locks are available ranging from complete junk to complete overkill. A good balance of function, security, and convenience is the Targus DEFCON CL PA410U, which features a 4-digit combination lock (no key to lose) that you can set to the combination of your choice. (It won't stop a determined thief with heavy bolt cutters, but pretty much nothing will.) Find a good price with Google Shopper.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Due to serious deficiencies, I now rate the Targus DEFCON CL PA410U unacceptable -- see A Tale of Two Locks.

Knots Every Sailor Should Know

Alpine Butterfly

These eight knots will cover 99% of your marine knot needs.
[click links to more information and instructions on how to tie]

1. Alpine Butterfly (animation)
   Strong and secure, will not shake out, will not jam, better than bowline. Use Method #4 (video) instead of Bowline.
2. Bowline (animation)
   Strong, easy to tie, but can shake out if not locked.
3. Buntline Hitch (animation)
   Great knot for halyards, securing fenders to lifelines, etc, but can jam.
   
4. Cleat Hitch
   Use for securing ropes to cleats.
5. Figure Eight Knot (animation)
   Good stopper knot, can be adapted for other purposes.
6. Gripping Sailor's Hitch
   Great for securing one rope to another rope under load.
7. Slipped Half Hitch
   Quick-release knot for sail ties and bags, not secure. Also useful as temporary stopper knot; e.g., for spinnaker sheet at a block (animation).
8. Square (Reef) Knot (animation)
   Famously used for tying reef points in sails.

Sheet Bend is deliberately omitted because it's weak and unreliable.
Two Alpine Butterflys tied together or two bowlines tied to each other (Bowline Bend) are better alternatives, or for ropes of roughly similar thickness the Alpine Butterfly Bend. 

More Knot Resources

Carbon Fiber Spinnaker Pole Repair

When our 14-foot carbon fiber spinnaker pole snapped (due to excessive lateral loading) and we were confronted with a very expensive dilemma (a thousand dollars for repair by professional riggers or thousands of dollars for a new pole), we managed to repair our pole ourselves, quickly and much less expensively, by means of a repair tube custom built for us by Jeffery Kent of Composite Solutions Inc, who:

• promptly built a 3-foot carbon fiber tube to match the outside diameter of our pole,
• machined down the ends to match the inside diameter of our pole,
• leaving a center section to replace the broken pieces we cut away from our pole, and
• rushed it to us by air.

We bonded the two pieces of our broken pole with epoxy to the machined ends of the custom repair tube, and the resulting repaired pole both looks and works great. (To complete the repair we will wrap the repaired area and clear coat to protect it.)

Highly recommended.

Free Sailing Lesson on the Water | Berkeley

The Cal Sailing Club, a non-profit, volunteer-run sailing club located in Berkeley gives free Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Sailing Lessons on Monday and Thursday afternoons at 1pm.

To take a sailing lesson come to the clubhouse at 1:00 PM. Lessons are taught on a first-come, first-served basis by qualified fellow Cal Sailing members.

You don’t need any gear whatsoever. We have loaner gear for everything you need…. everything from the boat to life jackets to sailing bibs to foul weather jackets – even wetsuits if you would like to get really wet. All of these are available in a variety of sizes for you to borrow while sailing.

Questions? Give Cal-Sailing member Joel a call at 510-343-5635

What Can you Learn at This Sailing Lesson? A Cal Sailing beginning sailing lesson typically provides an hour and a half on the water with one instructor and up to four students in a 15′ dinghy sailboat.

Students rig the boats (put them in the water and raise the sails). On the water, each student gets about twenty minutes at the helm (driving the boat) to practice steering, adjusting the mainsail, coming about and jibing, man overboard drill (picking up a float from the water), hiking out (using your weight to balance the sails’ force), docking, and other maneuvers. When not at the helm, the other students practice keeping watch and applying right of way rules, adjusting the jib (front sail), hiking out, and identifying wind direction and point of sail (angle of boat relative to wind). Students who pass the written, rigging, and sailing test (and contribute 2 hrs extra work) get the Junior Skipper rating that allows them to practice and take out friends and family in club boats.

Android apps for Sailing/Racing

If you have an Android smartphone, these are the sailing/racing apps I use and recommend:

• Beer Can Racer
  Tactical racing app, much like a held-held GPS but with racing specific features. Excellent, but still a work in progress.
• EarthNC
  Display of NOAA raster marine charts. Excellent, but still a work in progress.
• Marine Traffic
  Displays real-time data for (mostly commercial) vessels with AIS. Excellent, but still a work in progress, try the mobile website as well.
• Tide Prediction
  Best of the (mostly mediocre) tide apps for Android.

Also useful (when you have a data connection) are these mobile websites:

• NDBC mobile (real time data from buoys)
• NOAA mobile (weather related information)
• PORTS SF text screen (real time data for San Francisco Bay)

So which Android smartphone do I use?
Nexus S, pure Android, best smartphone for my needs.

Healthcare: we do live in interesting times!

Passage of healthcare reform, whether you're for or against this particular bill, is an amazing landmark event that I frankly feared would never happen in my lifetime. I have my reservations about the bill, but something had to be done, and any sort of action is better than prolonged inaction. Congratulations to the courage and conviction of both President Obama and the Democratic party!

"At every crossway on the road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past." -Maeterlinck

UPDATE (December 13, 2010): A federal judge in Virginia has ruled the insurance mandate (one of my reservations) to be unconstitutional. If upheld, this will probably wipe out the insurance reforms, further calling into question this particular exercise. I still applaud the effort, but now think it was probably the wrong idea at the wrong time. The top priorities should have been economic recovery and jobs (and the home mortgage mess).

LED Headlamp/Flashlight

The best LED flashlight/headlamp I've found for boating at night is the Photon Freedom Fusion. Click the link and scroll down for full information. Notably:

• Red as primary or secondary color
  
• Full range dimmer
• AA (not AAA) batteries
• Safety beacon modes
• Water resistant
• Rugged
• Headlamp or flashlight
• Constant brightness

UPDATE: I've now learned that red color doesn't really preserve night vision -- what matters is (low) light intensity, not color (see Night Vision, The Red Myth), but the Photon Freedom Fusion (White) is still a good choice, because it's fully dimmable.

Your Own Logo Gear in Your Own Storefront

It's cool to have logo gear (hats, shirts, etc) for a boat you cruise or race on, and it's even cooler when the crew gear matches.

You can of course order custom logo gear from a wide variety of suppliers, but that usually means the hassle and expense of ordering in quantity.

A good way to avoid such hassles is to use a supplier that makes it possible for you to have your own "storefront". Some will even host your storefront for free, with no order minimums. Once you've designed your logo (for which there is typically a reasonable setup charge), your crew can order what they want without having to design or coordinate orders.

Storefront suppliers:

• CafePress
• Company Clothes
• Printfection.com
• Spreadshirt
• Zazzle

SSD or 7200 RPM Hard Drive?

SSD (Solid-State Drive, based on non-volatile memory) has finally come of age, and is now a realistic alternative to rotating hard disk drives for certain purposes.

Pro

• Fast read speed
• Low latency (delay)
• Low power
• Silent
• Instant starting
• No moving parts

 Con

• Cost
• Write speed not as good as read speed
• Performance decrease over time
• More limited lifespan

It's important to note that there are great differences in performance between different SSD, with the slowest and least expensive SSD (e.g., OCZ "Value Series" SSD) not significantly better than 5^th generation 7200 RPM hard disk drives (see 7200 RPM Laptop/Notebook Hard Drives) despite being considerably more expensive, with average read and write speeds (higher is better) of about 80 MB/s. Only much more expensive premium SSD (e.g., OCZ Vertex) offer substantial increases in performance.

It's also important to note even a premium SSD provides only a modest system performance gain (on the order of about 15% overall) as compared to hard disk. Is that worth the cost and other drawbacks?

Best Product

• OCZ Vertex (200MB/s read, 160MB/s write)
  Find it at the OCZ Store

Honorable Mention

• Intel X-25M (250MB/s read, 70MB/s write)
  Find It Online with Google Products

7200 RPM Laptop/Notebook Hard Drives

Over the past few years 2.5" hard drives for laptop/notebook computers have greatly improved, to the point where they are now comparable in performance to most 3.5" desktop hard drives while still being quiet, cool and thrifty on power.

That improvement has been made possible by (a) increases in recording density (the amount of data squeezed on a disk platter) that translate into corresponding increases in transfer performance; (b) increased performance of the SATA interface, now 3 Gb/s; and (c) faster 7200 RPM drives that increase transfer performance and reduce latency (delays) over slower rotation drives.

Each generation is faster than the last. It's important to get the latest generation, and since each generation is offered in a variety of capacities, it can be hard to figure out which generation is which. 160 GB 7200 RPM, for example, is available from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in 3^rd (Travelstar 7K200), 4^th (Travelstar 7K320), and 5^th (Travelstar 7K500) generation versions, identified only by model number.

In addition to generation, similar drives from different manufacturers have significant differences in performance due to differences in technology, including architecture and on-board control firmware. Different brands are not the same!

Best Product

• Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 - Hitachi took the time to get it right, and the result is a superb product with blazing performance, smooth and quiet operation, and high reliability. Encrypting and high availability versions are also offered. Find It Online with Google Products

Honorable Mention

• Western Digital Scorpio Black - Very good, but only 4^th generation. Find It Online with Google Products
• Western Digital Scorpio Blue - Only 5200 RPM, but higher capacities than 7200 RPM, and very good performance due to excellent architecture and on-board control firmware. Find It Online with Google Products

See Also SSD or 7200 RPM Hard Drive?