Author Archives: jlredford

Ukraine v Russia Is a Tech War Like Union v Confederacy

Posted on May 23, 2022 by jlredford

In the 1860s the Europeans watched the American Civil War in horrified fascination. It had been almost 50 years since the Napoleonic Wars, when they had been in a real war with matched combatants. They had been mainly fighting colonial … Continue reading →

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My Mother Was a Ukrainian Refugee

Posted on March 6, 2022 by jlredford

Let me start by encouraging you to support the Ukrainians in any way you can. I gave money to AmeriCares, a relief outfit that is sending medical supplies and personnel to help refugees in Poland. The International Red Cross was … Continue reading →

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Following in the Parents’ Footsteps

Posted on February 22, 2022 by jlredford

I just read a fun steampunk-ish novel, Angelmaker, by Nick Harkaway (2012). It’s set in the present day, but takes place in a London that is just as ancient and weird as one would hope. A morose young man who … Continue reading →

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Launching US Rockets From Soviet Bombers

Posted on February 4, 2022 by jlredford

In the last post I complained about how ugly the Soviet ekranoplans were. I’m glad I can now pass along a story about one of their really beautiful planes – the TU-160 supersonic bomber. It almost got used for doing … Continue reading →

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Ekranoplans are Back! Maybe. The Regent Seaglider

Posted on January 23, 2022 by jlredford

The Soviets used to build the world’s biggest and ugliest airplanes: They called them by the ugly term “ekranoplans”, or “screen effect” in Russian. They flew low over water, and got lift from the cushion of air between the wings … Continue reading →

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How Re-industrialization Now Works: GO Lab and Wood Fiber Insulation

Posted on January 15, 2022 by jlredford

I was driving through central Maine recently, and was struck by how dreary the landscape looked. The houses and towns looked run-down, and store fronts were vacant. This is an old story about industry leaving rural areas, and can be … Continue reading →

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Why Care That “Foundation” Is Bad?

Posted on November 29, 2021 by jlredford

The new TV miniseries “Foundation” is full of meaningless CGI, ponderous religious imagery, thudding messages about terrorism, imperialism and climate change, and dialogue so clunky that even a serious actor like Jared Harris can’t deliver it. So what? There are … Continue reading →

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Space vs Balloon Tourism

Posted on October 22, 2021 by jlredford

After a long hiatus, space tourism came back this year. The last trip was in 2012 to the ISS, but there have recently been four trips: two sub-orbital flights by Blue Origin in July and October, one by Virgin Galactic … Continue reading →

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The First Exa-Transistor Computer

Posted on June 5, 2021 by jlredford

That is, the first single system to have more than 1018 transistors, more than a quintillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 . It’s the Fugaku supercomputer in Japan: It’s the world’s fastest machine as of November 2020, as defined by the benchmarks on … Continue reading →

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Every Thing Can Be Improved – GRK Fasteners

Posted on May 8, 2021 by jlredford

Here’s a story of tech success by immigrants with a rather sad ending – that of the wood screw maker GRK Fasteners. I came across these products in Home Depot, where they get a whole bay to themselves: They’re the … Continue reading →

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