Best of luck to our N.A.S.A. program in making this a success!

I am working on developing a new method of measuring atmospheric profiles by use of a product called a SkySonde, derived from the two words skydiver and radiosonde. It was envisioned during a visit to a skydiving site this last summer and realized through a set of sensors and a mini computer which was strapped onto skydivers while they partake in their dive. What does this mean? This is a method of making vertical measurements of the atmosphere over a specific point and have the ability to measure trends over time. Due to the fact that the instrument is reusable the calibration can be tracked over time. The SkySonde method can be used by skydiving sites to collect and provide fine variability measurements of atmospheric profiles over a set of static sites around the world. We are looking forward to seeing this network coming online as our product approaches our first public version.

Remember to tell your dad that he is great! Please do this now, outside the fact that guys need to feel appreciated, your dad needs to know that he means something to you. Don't wait another second. I have recently heard from a person in the area that just lost his dad that he never had the chance to make it up, so I am passing on his encouragement that now is not the time to wait. Life is too short.

The house is cleaner than ever, and maybe in the near future I will see if I can get the ceiling fixed in the living room. As it is an old house some of the plaster is coming off; it has probably seen better days.

Take care and love the world,

- Paul Schou

Song: My December - by Linkin Park & Josh Groban ! : ) ]]> http://www.paulschou.com/?cid=1131 http://www.paulschou.com/?cid=1131 Mon, 27 Apr 09 03:26:22 GMT paul youtube:calendar16 video and youtube:Marauder1024 video, or just take a look at the great pictures.

Tasks have continued to abound here, today things have been going well in getting the house taken care of and doing lots of cleaning. The neighbor kids came over yesterday and we made a few dozen cookies and on the side I have been working on wiring a circuit for my sound system which will give me more mobility by making a mini spider that will interconnect all my preamp channels, thus bypassing the need for a mixer. It was an idea I had last semester but never got the chance of implementing. Now that I am rewiring my TRS cables with Neutrik silent ends I have extra ends to use for this next project.

In other news, OpenDAP is a really simple yet powerful protocol, but in my testing with Christopher Lynnes (and the HDF group) it seems there is a bug that really slows down the protocol when one starts requesting ~100+ fields. It's disappointing, but at least `dumpsds' is still working fast and smoothly. I am working with subsetting airs data and it is a severe hinderance to have to download a full data file before learning that it wasn't needed.

Hope all is well for everyone, and that life is treating you well. ]]> http://www.paulschou.com/?cid=1130 http://www.paulschou.com/?cid=1130 Fri, 30 Jan 09 21:11:50 GMT paul Back in the swing of things as school has started back up. I'm doing research and continuing to get work done. I am keeping busy and have moved into a new place closer to Baltimore, it's wonderful living in the city. I'm finally able to enjoy some public transit and have the chance to go dancing multiple times a week.

This weekend I am heading up with a group to PA for some skiing, this will be the first time in a few years that I'll have my feet back on the slopes. The last time I remember skiing was when I was a student at Michigan Tech and had their student season pass for the slope that was owned by the university. That school by far has probably the most number of outdoor sports than any other school I know.

Anyone interested in engineering erector sets? I'm selling some old erector sets from a friend if anyone is interested in getting a set or two.

Things are going slow here, nothing special. Still at school keeping things going / working, writing code in my spare time, and dreaming. Fish are doing well, still no gold fish babies yet. I fear the angel fish may be barren, but I'll keep cleaning their tank and hopefully someday their eggs will get fertilized and hatch.

It rains again today. Fortunately I have a new umbrella that I get to carry around campus, a gift I got from my recent visit to the Red Cross blood donation center. It's really nice that the Red Cross has began to give out things other than t-shirts for their blood drive. Hopefully I'll be able to get one of those fancy sweatshirts they've been touting about.

I have to admit, I'm addicted to dancing. This has become more of my life where I have been taking a class at UMBC for latin dancing on the weekends and then going about once a week to a live band locally. It's a bunch of fun and a great way to keep those kg's off.

Scottie has a good point in his reply to my previous post. There are a good many of things to be careful of in this world and being aware of them is a first step. Working towards improving the world is what I try my best to do. The worst thing to do is to denounce that the problem even exists, this is nothing but blasphemy.