Everybody has passed dozens of construction sites. Usually you get a quick snapshot – heavy machinery, a half finished structure and dozens of workers. How often do you pay attention to the logos on the side of the trucks? I’ve been walking past the same construction site every day for... [Read More]

One tool in the control/dynamics engineer’s toolbox is the Kalman filter. It’s one of those big intellectual hammers that makes many problems look like nails. Put simply, a Kalman filter combines noisy external measurements with an internal simulation of the system in question in order to estimate the system’s true... [Read More]

This week, Russ Roberts of the ever-excellent EconTalk is having a short essay contest. The prompt is to compare the visions of our technology-future as portrayed Tyler Cowen and Joel Mokyr (both guests on the podcast.) Here's my take on the matter, but I highly recommend you listen to both podcasts... [Read More]

SpaceX took anybody who was paying attention on a roller coaster today with back-to-back countdowns to less than T minus 60 seconds before aborting. Way more nerve-racking than any Thanksgiving football game. Your initial reaction to the aborted launches might be 'SpaceX clearly screwed up and got their just desserts... [Read More]

A friend told me an excellent story: When I first started seeing "FTFY" (fixed that for you), I originally thought it meant "fuck that, fuck you." I was *so* confused when people used it because they didn't sound angry at all! If anything they were being helpful. It’s a great illustration of how regularly... [Read More]