OceanPark

10-28-04 New Project for Distributed Computing

When finances permit...

Dual Opteron workstation
Chenbro Mid-tower workstation chassis w/435 watt power supply
Tyan ATX Dual opteron motherboard
AMD 8111 chipset AUD RAID GETH AGP DDR333
2 64-bit AMD Opteron 246 CPUs @2GHz w/ 1Mb L2 cache
1GB PC2700 DDR333 ECC registered RAM
Maxtor SATA150 200Gb 7200 rpm hard drive w/8Mb cache
ATI Radeon Pro 9600 video card w/128Mb DDR
Silicon Image 4 port SATA CTLR RAID/STORAGE CTRL

Which would give me a 9.4GHz home network with just three boxes (Intel P4C 3.4 + dual opterons + AMD XP 2400+ @ 2.0GHz)
That would be formidable.

10-27-04 Cool St. Helens image

Typical autumn weather means that the St. Helens volcano cam is often obscured by fog, rain, drizzle and low clouds, but today was amazing as you can see: snow covered with steam rising from the new lava dome.

St. Helens Volcano cam link on Johnston Ridge.

10-24-04 Honshu Aftershock 5.7

Magnitude 5.7 - NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2004 October 24 21:04:57 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

A moderate earthquake occurred at 21:04:57 (UTC) on Sunday, October 24, 2004. The magnitude 5.7 event has been located in NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN. The hypocentral depth was poorly constrained. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Magnitude 5.7
Date-Time Sunday, October 24, 2004 at 21:04:57 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Monday, October 25, 2004 at 6:04:57 AM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 37.308°N, 138.621°E
Depth 16.7 km (10.4 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances
75 km (50 miles) SSW of Niigata, Honshu, Japan
85 km (50 miles) NNE of Nagano, Honshu, Japan
110 km (65 miles) NNW of Maebashi, Honshu, Japan
210 km (130 miles) NNW of TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 8.8 km (5.5 miles); depth +/- 22.8 km (14.2 miles)
Parameters Nst=155, Nph=155, Dmin=92.6 km, Rmss=0.85 sec, Gp= 94°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

10-23-04 Honshu 6.5

Magnitude 6.5 - NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
2004 October 23 08:56:01 UTC
Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

A strong earthquake occurred at 08:56:01 (UTC) on Saturday, October 23, 2004. The magnitude 6.5 event has been located in NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Magnitude 6.5
Date-Time Saturday, October 23, 2004 at 08:56:01 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Saturday, October 23, 2004 at 5:56:01 PM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 37.199°N, 138.812°E
Depth 15.8 km (9.8 miles) set by location program
Region NEAR THE WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances
80 km (50 miles) SSW of Niigata, Honshu, Japan
85 km (50 miles) NE of Nagano, Honshu, Japan
90 km (55 miles) NNW of Maebashi, Honshu, Japan
190 km (120 miles) NNW of TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 6.7 km (4.2 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst=232, Nph=232, Dmin=91 km, Rmss=1.02 sec, Gp= 65°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

10-23-04 Success is Easy; Just Work Harder Than Everyone Else

A little inspiration from my cycling idol, six-time Le Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong:

"I believe that the man who works hardest deserves to win. When it's pouring rain and you go ride for six hours with no one on the side of the road cheering you or booing you, that's why you get nights like tonight.
"I know it's a mix of talent and hard work, man. What are you doing on Christmas Day? Riding. What about New Year's Day, are you riding? Absolutely. Six weeks before the tour are you 10 kilos overweight? No way. It's total and complete commitment."

10-17-04 Santa Monica Pier at night

In the rain...
I just love this photo.

10-12-04 New Lava Dome

USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington

Mount St. Helens Update, October 12, 2004, 7:00 a.m, PDT

Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color code ORANGE

Seismic activity remained at a low level overnight. Small earthquakes (maximum about magnitude 1) continue to occur at a rate of about 1 per 5 to 10 minutes. Visual observations and thermal imaging of the crater, the 1980-86 lava dome, and the intensely deforming and uplifting area on the south side of the dome were made yesterday afternoon. Thermal imaging of the western part of the uplifting area revealed temperatures of 500 to 600 degrees C on a large pinkish-gray fin of rock and in nearby fumaroles and cracks. These observations are consistent with new lava having reached the surface of the uplift. Additional visual and thermal observations will be made today to further evaluate this interpretation.

Once again, the cool link, so to speak, to the Mt. St. Helens cam can be found here.

10-11-04 Reading List

I'm working way too hard--another 12 straight days without a break, including a trip to San Francisco and back--and it caught up with me yesterday. Today, I'm chilling, reading and surfing the Web while the story that I have to write has finally begun to take shape. The less I think about it, the more it comes together subconsciously.

Reading three books at the moment, a few dozen pages on each at a time. When there is so little free time in my life, practically none in fact, I exert as much freedom as I can when I'm no longer beholden to anyone. Part of that is jumping from book to book. All nonfiction at the moment, and, oddly enough, all set within a period of less than 40 years--1880 to 1919.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen, 2003. One of the first recognized serial killers takes grisly advantage of two great moments in American history. One is Chicago's attempt to emerge from the shadow of Paris and New York City as one of the great metropolises by putting on the most opulent World's Fair in history in 1893. The other is the one of the first waves of single American women to strike out on urban careers of their own.

Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester, 2003. Okay, so maybe it was only the fourth or fifth most powerful eruption in earth's history, but the hairy little hominids or reptiles who were around for the first four weren't so good at jotting down their thoughts for posterity. On the discovery of plate tectonics and that nasty things happen when they collide.

The Great Influenza, The Epic Story of the Dealiest Plague in History by John M. Barry, 2004. Boy, when did authors begin to think that every book title ought to be as long as a Stephen King novel? Well, anyway, as per the others, the subplots are as interesting here as the main event or events on which the books are based. American medicine in the 19th century was a joke, especially when compared to the true sciences such as bacteriology emerging in Germany and France. A few intrepid scientists emerge to bring the Americas up to speed, just in time to confront the world's worst ever epidemic.

10-8-04 On assignment in San Francisco

This is without a doubt my favorite city on the planet. Apparently, the city by the Bay, the city that rocks, the city that never stops* has gotten under the skin of a lot of other people, too...
*--We Built This City, by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, Peter Wolf.

''I still love you, I still want you.
I still need you, don't hang up and say goodbye.
Walking on the beach last night, hoping things would be all right,
my baby lying on her bed, it's you I saw instead.
Thinking of the one I love, your the one I'm thinking of.
San Francisco days, San Francisco nights.
I meet a girl in Mexico I should of told her then I know,
that I still think of you, we never will be through.
San Francisco days, San Francisco nights.
San Francisco days, San Francisco nights.
I still love you, I still want you.
I still need you, don't hang up and say goodbye.
Walking down to market street feeling my heart skip a beat,
to see someone who looks like you, I guess that I'm not through.
Dreaming of the one I love, you know what I'm dreaming of.
San Francisco days, San Francisco nights...''
--Chris Isaak, San Francisco Days

"Got the blues from my baby
Left me by the San Francisco Bay.
This big ocean liner took her so far away.
Didn't mean to treat her so bad
She was the best girl I ever have had.
She said good-bye, and she made me cry
I'm gonna lay right down and die.
Well, I ain't got a nickel and I ain't got a lousy dime.
If she don't come back I think I'm gonna lose my mind.
If she ever comes back to stay,
Well, that'll be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby down by the San Francisco Bay..."
--Peggy Lee & Milt Raskin & Bill Schluger, San Francisco Bay Blues

"If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion
For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there..."
--John Phillips, San Francisco

"When I look back, along the track
that left me here, when I'm standing
there is a place, where love begins
a certain town I left my heart in.
Chorus:
San Francisco love is all around
San Francisco you've never let it down
I have seen you open every door
San Francisco love is what we're here for
I'm eight miles high, and feeling free
and in my eyes, the sun is shining
The Golden Gate and Haight Asbury
I'm always California dreaming
San Francisco love is all around
San Francisco you've never let it down
I have seen you open every door
San Francisco love is what we're here for
I'm always California dreaming
San Francisco love is all around
San Francisco you've never let it down
I have seen you open every door
San Francisco love is what we're here for..."
--Olsen Brothers, San Francisco

"I never will forget
Jeannette MacDonald
Just to think of her, it gives my heart a pang
I never will forget
How that brave Jeannette
Just stood there in the ruins and sang
and sang
San Francisco I'm coming home again
Never to roam again outside your door
San Francisco, here is your wanderin' one
Sayin' I'll wander no more
Other places only make me love you best
Tell me you're the one in all the golden West
San Francisco, I'm coming home again
Never to roam again, never to roam again..."
--Gus Kahn, San Francisco

"I left my home in Georgia,
Headed for the Frisco bay.
I have nothing to live for,
Look like nothin's gonna come my way.
So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay,
Watching the tide roll away.
Ooh, I'm sittin' on the dock of the day,
Wastin' time..."
Otis Redding and Steve Cropper, Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

"Hello, San Francisco
Oh, we finally got a chance to meet
Hello, hello San Francisco
Woo, we finally got a chance to meet
I knew someday
That I would walk up and down your hilly streets
You know I left Chicago
Someone tell me nineteen and sixty eight
You know I left, I left Chicago
Somewhere around nineteen and sixty eight
For some of my good friends had told me
That my baby was headed toward that Golden Gate
You know, I heard she had a boyfriend
And this cat's name was Buddy Joe
You know, I heard she had a boyfriend
And this cat's name was Buddy Joe
I heard he was a big time gambler
And he was running a game down on Fillmore
Oh somebody tell me, tell me
Where can this Fillmore street be found
Oh somebody, somebody better tell me
Where in the world can this Fillmore street be found
You know I'm gonna find my woman down there
You don't think I'm gonna try to find that Fillmore district down."
--Robert Geddins, Hello San Francisco

"The loveliness of Paris
Seems someshow sadly gay.
The glory that was Rome
Is of another day.
I've been terribly alone
And forgotten in Manhattan
I'm going home
To my city by the bay.
I left my heart
In San Francisco
High on the hill
It calls to me.
To be where little cables cars
Climb halfaway to the stars!
The morning fog may chill the air.
I don't care!
My love waits there in San Francisco
Above the blue and windy sea.
When I come home to you
San Francisco
Your golden sun will shine for me!"
--Douglass Cross & George Cory, I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

10-6-04 Mt. St. Helens Alert Relaxed...

...an explosive eruption is no longer considered imminent.

''U.S. Geological Survey, Vancouver, Washington
University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, Seattle, Washington
Mount St. Helens Alert Level Change

Past Alert Level: Volcano Alert (Alert Level 3)
New Alert Level: Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2)

October 6, 2004 9:15 A.M., PDT

Following yesterday morning’s steam-and-ash eruption, seismicity dropped to a low level and has remained low. Low-level tremor observed following the eruption is also gradually declining. Lack of earthquake and rockfall signals suggest that deformation of the uplift area on the south side of the 1980-86 lava dome has slowed. Brief visual observations this morning from Coldwater Visitor Center showed weak steam emissions from the crater. We infer that the vigorous unrest of the past few days has lessened and that the probability of an imminent eruption that would endanger life and property is significantly less than at any time since Saturday, October 2, when the alert level was raised to Volcano Alert (Level 3). Therefore, we are lowering the alert level to Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2).
Such decreases in the level of unrest, which may reflect a decrease in the rate of magma movement, have been common at Mount St. Helens during eruptions in 1980-86 and also at similar volcanoes elsewhere. Episodic changes in level of unrest over periods of days to weeks, or even months, are possible. We don’t think that the current episode of unrest is over and we expect fluctuations in the level of unrest to continue during coming days and months. Everyone should be aware that escalation in unrest and perhaps an eruption could occur suddenly or with very little warning. There may be little time to raise the Alert Level before a hazardous event occurs. Therefore, we continue to monitor the situation closely and will issue additional updates and changes in Alert Level as warranted.''