The Singing Laser

My entire family quilts, winning ribbons at the fair (champion, grand champion, superintendent’s choice). Emily is piecing together her latest project. I have only supplied technical support for the computer-driven quilting machine… until now. I have a vital role for this year’s fair—I get to operate the laser. I’m not joking. Igor calls it my disintegrator beam.

My wife ordered an Emblaser laser cutter for her birthday so she could save time cutting out appliqués for her kits. The idea is that she scans in the pattern and has the laser cut it out for her. She didn’t want any wimpy off-the-shelf fabric store stuff. Tammy bought the newest, biggest, most powerful she could get without needing a Bond-villain license. She can etch or cut just about anything with the right settings. I’ve already explored using Autodesk 123D to build 3D dinosaurs from cardboard cutouts.

The laser took six weeks to arrive from Australia, and we assembled it ourselves. Software took almost as long to assemble and debug. We've finally reached the stage where we're able to try it out on a project.

Emily has a chain-link border pattern with 72 rings to piece together in less than two weeks. Since the links come in nine groups of eight, we thought the laser cutter would be a real time saver. I scanned the pattern into a black-and-white bitmap and isolated just the oval with cropping. I used MS Paint to clean up the noisy and rotate the two-inch oval on its side in order to pack eight into the sixteen-inch cutting area. Then I pulled the bitmap into CorelDraw ($100 onWalmart.com) to vectorize the image. The magic command is bitmap/centerline outline/line drawing. Vectors are scalable, smooth curves and lines. I wrote the result out to a PDF file. 

Serious hackers can get this converter for free by writing a centerline function for the open-source potrace program, but I decided that my time was worth a few bucks. To do the same thing in Adobe Illustrator would run you $20 a month.

Next, I pulled the vectors into the Cut2d tool. I set the workspace in the program to the size of our cutting area (in mm) and imported the oval. I replicated the image to the right, with barely any space in between the pair. I grouped the first two and replicated them, giving me four clones. After one final group and dup, I had all eight rings lined up.

Based on experience, I told the program that the laser needs to travel at a speed of no greater than 400 mm per minute to burn through all layers of fabric and heat-and-bond completely in one pass. Normally, someone would schedule two passes to avoid areas that hold on by a thread, but I don’t trust the precision yet. Then I clicked the button which transforms the vector set into a tool path, which means cutting instructions for the Emblazer. The commands are simple like: go to this XY position, turn the laser on at power level W, move the laser at speed Z, go to second XY position, and turn laser off. Even as a novice with a tight fit, the entire pattern to instructions process took less than forty-five minutes.

Tammy ironed heat-and-bond to a 4 by 16 inch piece of fabric (less than four minutes) and opened windows. Burning any material generates smoke that needs to vent outside. We also taped the fabric down to ensure precision. Air currents from the cutter head and window can move your fabric or paper otherwise.

As the last step, we employ the PicSend command to transmit all this to the cutter. There is a bit of ritual to this. We connect the USB cable to the laptop, turn on the laser, hit the laser enable button for 10 seconds until the light comes on, open the channel from the software to the device, wait for it to give you a go-ahead, send a Home command to the device, load the “oval 8” instruction file, and hit send. The eight-oval engraving takes about 10 minutes, and the cutter actually “sings” going around curves. Watch the video.
There were a few glitches, but Emily didn’t have to spend days tracing onto heat-and-bond with a maker, cutting out the shape with a buffer, ironing it to fabric, and cutting out the shapes a second time precisely. The laser seals the edges of the fabric neatly so the pieces won't fray, but we also saw a little scotching at the edges for this project.

We peeled off the resulting rings, lined up the next color of fabric, reset PicSender, and transmitted the same instructions again. The sticky residue on the base board actually helps later cuts achieve higher precision. 

Note: always keep an eye on your cutter with your tinted goggles on. That thing is bright. Trying to cut too much in too small an area (like fancy lettering under 3 mm high) will burn a big hole in your material. You also can’t let your computer go to black screen or skip any step, or you have to start the cutting process all over again.

Here is what the multi-color result looks like:

Rewriting Cinematic History

In the future, image and sound manipulation will be so easy that high-school and college students will be able to “fix” their favorite movies and songs, much the same way that Trent Resnor does twenty versions of his NIN tunes. Computer generated images and voices can splice into the existing work. One day, kids will pass around personal remixes of their favorites the way they pass cheat codes and pokemon today. I think about this as I watch today’s movies and wish I could do it now.

Kingsmen was awesome until the first head exploded. As long as it stayed PG-13, it was perfectly in genre and cool. However, I fast-forwarded the entire church scene. Nobody wants to see a knife or bullet penetrate the top of a skull a hundred times with slow-motion, color-enhanced spray. The attempt at sexual conquest of a prisoner at the end also turned stomachs. Someone with an iPad could edit that out today, including the projectile vomiting, making it watchable.

Jupiter Ascending had a great concept and design but fell flat. It had potential to be great and spun off into a TV series. If I were going to remix a movie, I’d start there. Sure, this could be considered hubris, but it’s my blog and I want to try it. Realize that I probably spent way too much time thinking about this for one viewing, but I joined Netflix DVD for a month just to see it. Humor me.

My first and biggest complaint: the main character, the child of geniuses and duplicate of a woman who ruled star systems was a docile, almost silent drone with no flicker of intelligence or spine. Women should want to be her, and guys should admire more than her yoga pants. A close second gripe was the flip side: the male lead, who I shall refer to as Wolfie, beat hordes with his pure machismo alone. Third, to make this sustainable and more enjoyable, some of the operatic portions need to be dialed back a smidge. Fixing these problems could make the movie several times better and convert it into a long-term viable franchise. 

1. Instead of having her scrubbing toilets in silence, show Jupiter with plans to be something more. Perhaps she listens to something educational related to her secret dream on her earphones while she scrubs. Irony points for reading about planet search techniques in a client’s magazine instead of cleaning and loaning her spare computer cycles to SETI. Bonus for any obscure skill that demonstrates quick learning and adaptability, even if it’s just dodging INS or her mother reacting to a power outage with aplomb. “It’s still Tuesday. The same rooms need to be done. You are spoiled. In Russia, we had no elevators.”
2. Then show how being an “illegal alien” and loyalty to the family prevents her reaching her dream. Build verbally why she decides to have surgery under a stolen identity before the aliens probe her friend. Unless people read the DVD cover, they were lost about what was happening. The scenes hopped POV far too much, with too little input from Jupiter herself. We need a chance to root for her before the operation.
3. Ax the second set of bounty hunters narrating how studly male hero is. We get the idea when he kicks their collected butts.
4. Missing mechanics: How does Jupiter speak alien throughout the movie? Invent something because none of them would learn English. Perhaps she is studying Ancient Sumerian or Sanskrit in school, and there are similarities. Maybe she touches the translator device she finds on the floor of her friend’s room. Or Wolfie gives her a shot of babelfish after the rescue. Bonus: This understanding of seeming static on TV/radios would make her sound insane to others. The aliens wouldn’t expect her to understand the “Kill her” order. This should be a big moment.
5. When the bounty hunter bursts into the operating room, rather than staring like a victim, have Jupiter loosen her own gas mask against her shoulder and pull out the IV with her teeth. Have her recognize this person is helping, even if she has no idea why. As her rescuer is about to get jumped, shout a warning to save him and perhaps draw the dart. Get a nod of thanks before she passes out. This enables hunter to see her as mate material.
6. Have her joke with Wolfie about not being the only illegal alien in the city to show him her wit. Perhaps complain about how the existence of galactic society makes her small dream pale.
7. Shorten the fight scene where Wolfman kills seven fliers. Way beyond belief. The whole skyscraper being replaced by morning was also over the top.
8. Give us some reason why the space police are in a ramshackle farmhouse—to keep our population from killing itself off before harvest, and to make sure the corporate aliens follow certain rules. Show how his old buddy has actually saved the Earth from itself and alien exploitation so we trust him a little.
9. Give the invisible, more numerous, high-tech, tiny aliens some weakness, even if it’s just fear of bees in order to give Jupiter some way to resist briefly. For a good series, they must have limits of some kind.
10. Before the bureaucratic maze, Jupiter should know that the Earth is doomed unless she saves it. “I couldn’t even get a driver’s license.” This will add tension and humor to the waits. Reading the manual immediately was awesome to talk about, but maybe we show her flipping through in desperation.
11. Have Jupiter suggest the bribe that gets the license because she’s seen her uncle do it a dozen times. Take control instead of being herded mutely.
12. Cut the hero getting through the air defenses just because he screams in defiance.
13. Get into the spacesuit before exposure to vacuum. Doesn’t any film writer know what zero pressure and three degrees Kelvin does to a body?
14. At the end boss battle, have Jupiter not wolfie use the magic-door sealing trick to kill a pursuer. This is one piece of tech she actually worked herself earlier in the film.
15. Giving the Draconians wings was too comic book because winged creatures are lighter than humans, not heavier thugs.
16. Don’t have Jupiter run screaming like Goldie Hawn in Bird on a Wire. If she does run away from her family and protection, have it be to intentionally lure away the black hats because she thinks she can evade them. Bonus points for use of tech like the light beam that she knows how to disable while the pursuers aren’t free of the beam yet… or some way that experience with low tech saves her when the high-tech, low-g crowds are panicked. I could see her shutting off the main power grid with her new ownership override.
17. Don’t have the only parapet in the complex that collapses consistently be hers. I just wanted to thin that whole long, contrived sequence. I want her to make fun of the rich son’s weakness in the clinch the way her mother might. “You are spoiled.” Show nurture and environment over pure nature of genes.
18. When she returns to her old life, give Jupiter some contact with galactic civilization and some tech/power that nobody else will see. Give her bigger problems to ponder while she scrubs. Leave the door open for the series: show challenges like her needing to learn corporate rulership, hostile takeovers, and the possibility of slowly making changes to Earth. Most importantly, we need an excuse for wolfie to hang around and keep tabs on her but not seen by the locals.
19. Unresolved: Give us hope that the series will investigate the mysterious crime that was wiped from Wolfie’s memory. The movie mentioned it many times without resolution.
20. Logic flaw to resolve: If the output of 100 humans is worth a king’s ransom in product, why aren’t they already processing recently-dead humans? I can’t imagine that the people stay alive during the extraction. Perhaps that’s why there are so many wars, periodic sampling.

Cover Reveal: Union of Souls

Book 3 of the Gigaparsec series, Union of Souls, just went to my editor. Renee just finished the cover, which represents the Convocation on Giragog, sort of an Imperial Senate meeting.

Reuben Black Ram has been a hacker for Special Forces, a DJ for pirate radio, and a real pirate who hotwires spaceships. The richest Goat in the galaxy, he is being asked to give up everything to save a race of alien mimics and his Human girlfriend. To accomplish this, he must cross Union space to reach the Convocation of Souls. The space battles, spies, and dangerously experimental tech don’t bother him as much as what MI-23 expects of him—to grow up and become a world leader. Reuben still has a few tricks up his bulletproof sleeves, including a psi talent that up until now has only made him an object of ridicule.

Goodreads Giveaway of Void Contract Paperback

We already have 100 people signed up from the first day. I want to get as many people as possible for those five copies, especially those in Canada or Great Britain, which I added for this event. Click the enter button for your chance to win!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Void Contract

by Scott Rhine

Giveaway ends May 16, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to Win

For my Daughter

I already wrote a blog post for my writing career today. This one is for my daughter.

As a programmer, I've noted for years the dearth of women in the STEM field. I vowed to shield my daughter from influences that block access to these male-dominated fields, but the interference is subtle and pervasive. My wife taught both our children to read before kindergarten, and both have IQs within three points of one another. However, Emily idolizes Pierce because he's "so much smarter." My kids play the same nerd games like Pokemon, read the same books, and watch the same geek shows. However, no one raised an eyebrow at my son skipping a year. My daughter on the other hand has been questioned from all quarters for the last six years. We have to constantly tell her that she belongs there. That bugs the crap out of me.

We do our best to balance the family reading list. For every story with a male lead, we try to find one with a female or at least a balanced cast (Sisters Grimm, Fablehaven, Percy Jackson). TV is more difficult without going fantasy (Wizards of Waverly, Mermaids, or RWBY). I always try to treat my wife with affection and respect around the kids, so they can see how to treat and be treated by members of the opposite gender. This demands constant vigilance, but all it takes is one peer to wreck it.

Two years ago, Emily had her picture hanging in McDonalds for a month because she had the highest scores in math. This year, some kid two years older than her (in the same grade) crushed her self worth with a casual comment. What can I do? Well, hours of dodge ball practice with my daughter helped the most. Seems this boy is considered a whiz at the game, and she can smoke him at it now. She feels powerful and capable now. That's what I can give her.

Most recently, I go to her volleyball games and cheer. At this age, there isn't much volleying. With encouragement and confidence born of her own hard work, I'm proud that Emily runs toward the ball instead of shying away like some of the "girlier" team members. At ten, we're lucky if the players on either side can get it over the net more than they miss. But beyond practicing, Emily has earned something critical--encourage the girls next to you at every opportunity, I think this will help turn the tide for her generation more than my math tutoring or endless setting the ball.

Let's face it, Emily isn't nearly the introvert I am and would likely be bored by number theory and programming combinatorics. She's much more social. The lesson I meant to teach her was that she can do anything she sets her mind to. Yet she shouldn't be a standout in this. If she's the only woman, however exceptional, she'll spend the rest of her career in the same battle she's faced in school. "You don't belong." I think she has the right idea in helping those around her. Life is a team sport. You can't win if you're the only player. She's learned to develop her own support network when I'm not there anymore. But that's hard to shout approval for from the sidelines.

Space Opera Begins with Void Contract

With help from my associates, I should have the first TWO novels in the Gigaparsec series out by mid April. I just started writing the third book. By May 1, I want to have a big give-away or sale of some sort. Normally, I interleave series novels with stand-alones, but I seem to be putting a lot of eggs in one basket because a) the beta readers liked them, b) the reading level is smoother and shorter than anything I've done before (average 6th grade reading level 80 K words versus my usual 120K and 7th or 8th grade), and c) I need to reconnect with my sci-fi fan base.

Book 1, Void Contract: A veteran of the Gigaparsec War, Dr. Max Culp hunts alien war criminals. Suddenly, his only surviving teammate is kidnapped. To free his friend, Max is forced to take a mob contract on a fugitive hiding at the borders of Human space. But Max is tired of wet work and alien conspiracies. Can he find a path back to civilian life without losing what’s left of his soul or those closest to him?

After all the work I did on star travel tech and the history of planets, Max takes this for granted, using whatever tools he finds to do his job. He tries to shake of injuries like John Wayne, even though his scars keep accumulating. Because he cares much more about the adventure than the tech, and this series has a sweeping galactic backdrop, I've categorized this novel as my first space opera.

The female engineer, Roz, takes over Point of View in the last chapter and retains it through her mission to the "Supergiant" system to complete the equation for a new Magi star drive that can go ten times faster. She delves deep into the tech, but personal relationships and ethics are equally as important to her. Most of the bombshells in this novel tend to be verbal. She plans everything mechanical in advance, but people still confound her. (Renee should start work on the cover tomorrow. I'll post when it's ready.)

In book three, "Union of Souls," the Goat side kick, Reuben comes into his own. During a race across the extremes of Human space, he is forced to give up his own childish desires for the good of his own people and another proto-intelligent species. This is rather like the time after college graduation where people choose to grow up and pay for the debts they've incurred over the last couple decades. I just finished the brainstorming phase and am on chapter two. I anticipate finishing the first draft about the time I'm having the give-away in May.

For the pictures to be readable in ereader format, I had to carve this master star chart down to contain only those systems mentioned in each novel. I present it here in its raw form. Note that all various of the color blue are refueling stations belonging to Blue Giant Fuel. Also notice that the name Laurelin was chosen from Tolkien Elvish to denote both the golden tree and to honor the matriarch of the clan, Laura Llewellyn, from the Jezebel series.

As a total aside, I've been giving several talks to high school kids about being a professional author. The positive response has encouraged me to investigate starting a writers' support group at the local community college. I'll look into the prospect when I give a talk there tomorrow.

Hobbit 3: the Mighty War Moose -- Canadian

As I watched the third installment of the Hobbit from a dangerously chilly theater in Minnesota, I recall complaining about the lack of physics in the film. Sir Isaac Newton would have been aghast. But when the Wood Elf, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), came on the screen, someone whispered, "Canadian." [film still from wikipedia] And she is. Just as Galadriel (Cate Blanchet) is Australian. [photo from IMDB]

Suddenly, Mr. Jackson's instruction became clear. The entire series was illuminating the allegories buried in Tolkien.

You doubt? It's no coincidence that Tolkien was sending the stories to his son, Christopher, fighting the returning menace of Germany in the Middle East (Sauron in Middle Earth). I knew in middle school when I read the series originally that the dwarves represented the Jewish people -- twelve tribes, the last split into the two half tribes as twins. At the birth of the country of Israel, there were indeed five armies engaged around the Holy Land. In my youthful innocence, I assumed this was the extent of the metaphor, but Mr. Jackson opened my eyes.

When the mighty war moose of Thranduil [from the lotr.wikia] thundered onto the screen, I knew--the northern Wood Elves were indeed Canadian. Their armor was spotless, and I think I even saw them picking up trash from the street of Dale while they delivered their humanitarian supplies. Moreover, elves as a whole represented the immortal United Kingdom. Mighty in their magic but few in numbers, these colonists of the Holy Land are forced to give up their colonies after the second war and sail back across the waters to their original home, the gray and rainy havens. How could I have missed this?

The elvish men were pretty and slightly effeminate, indicating a high incidence of estrogen in their river, like London. Okay, that's taking it too far. I'm not jealous of Orlando Bloom, just repeating what a London resident told me on the train to Paris. Not wishing to offend any other ethnic group, I cannot speculate on who the orcs, goblins, and trolls allies of Hitler might have been. Nor can I speculate on the politician who may have inspired Gollum. My family did, however, take a vote. In this long battle film, the moose was the best and most realistic fighter. We all mourned his passing. He was, we all agreed, Canadian. We were proud to have him as one of our considerate neighbors of the north.