Update insert of 30 December 1999- Upon checking my site from the library while sending email, I found that most of the graphics on this page were corrupted and wouldn't load! Hmmmmm... I resent them to the server at 8:30 PM, and hope it was a "normal" glitch instead of.... ANYway, hope that solves the problem! I also added a few midi tunes to my site, hope you like my selections! - Back to the original update! :)
24 December 1999 (hey, this is a hobby now, with unususal roadlocks! :)
Welcome back! First on the plate for this update, is for me to report on the cyber-assault that I've been plagued with from the beginning of this project, since it has gone to a new level. I can no longer reach the internet from my home, and have been unable to get email or even browse the net for several months now. After sending out an alert and continuing with email with the IIC Group and occasional new contacts from my mother's computer (she lives next door), her net connection ability was knocked out as well!
Currently I am forced to use public computers for email and internet access. Apparently I have become a "danger" to whomever is giving me grief, but a mere inconvenience will NOT stop me! What WAS mere snooping, has now become a concerted effort to shut me up! I am hoping that I can get this posted in the very near future, since the efforts to hobble me, only makes me angry and more determined!
I will follow with the latest variant, the ALFA MAX (pictured above), one that should be the most powerful configuration of ordinary matter in a mechanical IP machine, destined to get us inexpensively into space! I have decided to release the latest improved version of this project series, feeling that any monetary desires (patents for me), have to come in second to the world's need for this technology, and the danger to me appears to be increasing. I'd better get the info out NOW, just in case! :)
The fact that a Netherlands physist Jan Kees (now a member of the IIC group), figured out the mechanism from it's "what it does" description (and to his credit, freely shared it with the group), is also a factor in the public release! His math analysis has also indicated that the ALFAMAX is the most efficient means to convert angular accelerations into linear thrust.
This will be an in depth discussion with graphics (and a lot of words of course! :), explaining just why the MAX variant is the best, and how it works.
I will close this update with a discussion on the increasing quality of correspondants and researchers, detailing (in general terms), the growing number of physicists, professors, and engineers (and all important free thinkers!), now involved in getting this technology into the main stream, and follow up with a discussion on perhaps the first products that I will make available, now that I have gotten closer to doing so! SO, in spite of the flaming hoops I have to jump through now, ON WITH THE SHOW! :)
This update is being written on my original computer that was taken off-line with the last rebuild, (so I could model and stuff in private, and keep sensitive files "secret"), and a stand alone firewall machine was instituted by Tim to act as a barrier between the internet and my main working machine.
My off line computer worked beautifully for exactly 20 days after Computer consultant Tim Benedict visited me here in Oregon from the Boise Idaho area (see last update)). Then it crashed dramatically! After several attempts to repair and rebuild, I finally managed to get it partially operational, so I could at least continue the work requiring computer power. The net machine that Tim installed, was running a locked-down, administrator only, high security configuration, (including a hard-wired bios re-write lock out) Windows NT 4.0 setup. After less than two weeks it could no longer make internet connections!
On forensic examination, after my machines went into total lockout, I found many (over 150!) system files rewritten on the internet machine, and several system files in the machine taken off-line, wiped and rebuilt, were "modified on" the exact time of Tim's rebuild on my off-line machine. To me this indicates that an unknown and here-to-fore resident bug was still in operation, in spite of everything we could think of to start clean, including a brand new hard drive! Apparently the convenience of EEPROMs for changing component configurations has become "SOP", and any one of them can hold aberant code beyond any reasonable attempt to wipe out software that "messes up".
Recently Tim tried to install a much more hardened system for internet interface with his latest visit here, including a CD rom boot system. Unfortunately, it stumped him, and refused to "be healed". He took the HP system (running NT), back with him to study at length, and perhaps get assistance from others that work in his well known computer company (his "day job"), that may help us find out how the perps do this!
A minimalized bug was still in my original machine (even though we tried everything we could think of to start clean), since the video mode was locked into 640 by 480 resolution, with 16 colors (VGA) after 20 days, and 4 wipes and rebuilds. Rendered models in that resolution are so ugly as to be unrecognizable!
Tim was able to retrieve the full function of my video system by updating the direct X drivers (so they were the likely infected culprits for THAT particular effect), but had to get back to Idaho to work half a day late, and my internet connections are still NOT working. He has been doing this on his own time and expense (including the parts for the on line machine(s)), so I can't complain! :)
I WAS able to get WSFTP to work on my original machine (I reinstalled the modem in my original machine), hence this update got posted! :) I can at least now do modeling and rendering of current and future machine improvements, and do email composition from batch downloads and sends. I have to do email now via floppy transfer on a public machine (library or schools), but that means that email now is rather delayed.
Happily, my wife Rosalie got a brand new system for her school and work needs, assembled and loaded (and hand delivered and set up by Tim from Idaho! :), which includes a writable CD rom system and scanner, so my own capabilities have increased (more on that later in this update)!
If you have written to me in the past month and a few weeks, and didn't get a response, it's because I lost over 30 letters not yet answered, along with ALL of my email stored on the net machine. Please write me again (especially the guy asking only "what is this supposed to be good for?")! I lost your letter and email address in the fray, and boy-howdy, do I want to bend YOUR ear! :)
Expect a lengthy delay in the response though (it may be more than a month). I often can't get on a public machine, even when I have the time to do so (they are rather popular here! :).
Please don't send me any attatchments without prior permission, and I REALLY appreciate TEXT ONLY email ! The fancy stuff (rich text, html, Java, Word documents, etc.), are much more likely to hide vicious code, that I no longer want to play with! The public machines either won't allow attachments, or large graphic files won't fit on a floppy!
The "bubbleboy" virus (and feared vector means for more vicious actions) seems only to work with the combination of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Perhaps that "double doorway" ease of system access, may be one of the ways that whomever keeps breaking into my computers, uses!
Although I've been working with computers since the TRS-80 and Commodore 64 days, studied electronics in college, and am familiar with x86 machine language, boolean algebra, and programming (in 5 languages), this assault has me stumped! Since the advent of Windows, I lost interest in continuing with computer science (far too many operating system files cross-linked, in a system that seems to me, to be deliberately confusing)! I've had to get reinterested in the guts of binary thinking!
I did NOT need this now, but I have little choice, if I want to continue with my mission to launch the human species into space. It will slow me down a bit, but not stop me!
If your system is behaving strangely, check your system files for altered file creation dates ("modified on" dates, found on Windows sytems by right clicking the file and selecting properties), OR set up Explorer window settings for details, arrange by date, and that will give you a list by modification dates (rewritten on, not the copied on dates).
Particularly targeted files include commctrl.dll (the keyboard driver), VMM32.vxd (virtual machine manager), the RAS (remote access system) files, disk compressors (smartdrv, dblspace, drvspace, etc), winsock, or other internet relevant files in the windows/system folder. Previous sleuthing also shows infrared drivers installed (I don't use IR equipment), and a second mouse driver, both means to invade the system that would look like user input to the security software.
The .exe, .dll and .vxd files should be the dates of most of the other files published on that date, and a recently modified-on date may indicate remote tampering. Don't get freaked out about files that SHOULD be modified, such as .inf, .bat and .ini files, or the constantly changing registry files (absent any other evidence), user.dat and system.dat. Be cautioned though, I've seen evidence that the clock can be changed to anything they want, to disguise modification dates.
Apparently renamed backup files (.bak, .000, ba_, etc.) are used to get around direct system file tampering (which is normally watched for and protected by system security routines), then a small "glitch" causes the system to retrieve an earlier modified backup file to do it's dirty work! There are other ways the assault laughs at "security" programming, and I'm pretty sure I've only identified a small number of the tricks used.
I've been hollering about this invasion from nearly the beginning of the project, and only recently, is serious attention being focused on a problem that can effect us all!
In my opinion, Internet Explorer is so full of security holes (or has deliberate "back doors"), that I will no longer use it any longer than I have to! Forget the fact that I read the extensive text of Federal Judge Penfield Jackson's "finding of fact" document from digital cover to cover! HEY, I have PERSONAL experience, and I personally don't care about the monopoly stuff, only about what the products do for (or TO) ME!
Think about a world where shadowy unknown perps can roam all about your system at will, change, delete, and/or add files to your computer (such as "evidence" to jail you with), and if it doesn't send a chill down YOUR spine, keep in mind my only "crime", that precipitated this kind of high level assault, is my wanting to break through mental inertia with a terrific idea and new capability for us. I took unusual steps, and gave away my patent rights, to get around what I believe to be a deliberate effort to keep new inventions from reaching the public! It IS happening, so I'm now gathering better evidence, and witnesses to this capacity to...uhmmm.. mess with us!
Tim has a new web site concerned with computer security, and is collecting evidence for this sort of thing on his web site.
OH! Here's a link to a downloadable packet logger (it captures and records ALL internet traffic including the "ugly headers", layer transactions, and packet information (net address info and content both ways), so that if you are getting net traffic in your machine that you didn't order (watch your byte counts!), you should be able to find it!
See: http://netgroup-serv.polito.it/windump/ , for Win95/98, or NT versions. Thank you Adam Reynolds! (I only wish I'd had it before this latest KO punch!) It has helped me identify one way my internet connections are being remotely cut off, using my own computer to do so!
By trying to connect with failed Windows programs to communicate with the net, I found that my system is changing it's own IP address (without direction or request from the assigning server), when Explorer or Outlook Express (or even Eudora!) is called. This is once the simple connection is made (user and password), and I'm logging time on the server, and though WS_FTP works great for now, nothing that uses windows drivers will operate!
Those that need to operate in secret (we peons just wouldn't understand the "noble" asperations behind the crimes they commit! ;), will NOT win if we keep up an honest and open dialog, and remain vigilant to surrepticious activity. Paranoid I may be, but I believe with good reason, and I'm finally getting those that CAN do something about it, involved! ANYway, enough bitching, let's get back to why this web site is on the WWW in the first place! :) [DavidC - 2:43 pm Tuesday, 19 October 1999 - Continued and edited 30 November 1999, addended, corrected, and generally fussed with 23, 24, and 28 December 1999]
This is the ALFAMAX!
On the right is a closeup of the changes that the MAX improvement looks like!
The object of this excercise in slinging mass about, is to generate linear thrust, and do so as efficiently as possible! Earlier models all exhibit some "washing machine" motion characteristics, which represents wasted energy (not to mention some nauseous passengers! :).
The MAX ring drive alteration brings the driven diameter of the orbitals to the inside of the maximum variable pitch limit. The effect is to increase the spin rate accelerations in relationship to the tangential change rates. The Tangential forces are a torque on the system center of mass, caused by the speeding up and slowing down of the orbitals.
Out on the speeding up and slowing down orbital arm, (either actual, or effective virtual arm in this case), the spin up (and subsequent spin down) of the orbitals in the ALFA version, creates a "wrist bending" torque force in the opposite angular direction to the tangential, a force leveraged to disadvantage by increasing distance from the center of system mass.
In the MAX variant of the ALFA, the spin torque aspect is given greater imputus! The torque of the spinner is better matched against the tangential torque, by a spin change increase that improves the force against the "short end of the stick" competition with the tangential torque force on the center of system (point) mass, and the system's "angular mass". If the smaller radius of the orbital's "angular mass" (moment of inertia) is beefed up by a more rapid change, to create equally acting angular forces through an uneven "teeter totter", NO nodding of the system will result, putting that formerly wasted energy into thrust!
I chose sprocket and cylinder (rollerchain) type gearing for this model, with a 1/4 inch roller diameter (and 1/2" pitch), which gives a convenient 12 rollers per orbital (matching orbital tooth count and construction possibilities! :), and 103 sprocket teeth in the ring.
Ok, I had to fudge the pitch to .518", but who's counting? HEY I'm the one drilling the holes! :) The drive ring makes 559 degrees of rotation for a complete orbit (160 teeth of rotation, one turn plus 199 degrees).
In this version, tangential velocity at the nose is 1.86 times it's tail velocity, and spin at the tail is 2.06 times that at the nose.
The result of bringing the driven diameter in closer to orbital spin center, is to decrease the tangential accelerations relative to the spin torques, and THAT results (if we are careful, calculating or just plain lucky) in SLOWING DOWN THE ORBITAL (it's "point mass") against the ANGULAR MASS of the system, and storing a portion of the linearly acting reverse momentum on the "angular mass" of the orbitals for the negative portion of the cycle.
We are effectively transfering momentum to the ANGULAR MASS of the orbital for time storage, rather than having it act negatively against center of system mass! This removes a maximal amount of reverse tangential from external (linear) expression, which frees up that much more centrifugal force for getting up, up, and away with! :)
A preliminary graphic study (I'm waiting for this update to complete yet another animation study), the detailed model is enabled at over two to one accelaration rate difference in orbital torque force. Previous models would only get around 75% (spin torque to tangential torque ratio), such as a 1.5 spin increase at the tail with half the tangential velocity, double orbit rate and a 2/3rds spin at the nose). The animated model is getting closer to what we want!
Of course this is just one design, and the smaller the drive ring and driven diameter on the orbital, the greater becomes the spin acceleration changes versus the tangential. At a zero radius of the driven gear of the orbital (just an axle at that point), the tangential accelerations become zero, effectively just a "spider" carrier for planetary gears.
Remember that for this thing to work, we need the three force system (centrifugal, tangential, and spin torque), and a simple spider carrier that only allows the orbitals to have reversing torque on each side would be the failed SpiderGIT (see past updates), proven not to work by IIC member Joao Andrade. The greater centrifugal force in the forward direction is ordinarily canceled out by the negative tangential forces in a variable velocity "thruster", and we use the orbital spin torques to "internalize" the tangential forces, allowing the NOW greater centrifugal force of that "tug of war" to express externally.
A balance on the MAX design should be reached when the two acceleration rates are effectively equal, considering the radius of action. The object is to increase the spin torque to equal the tangential torque effect, such that the leverage force factor of the smaller orbital "angular mass" radius (compared to it's orbit radius for it's "point mass"), is effectively equal to the tangential.
An analogy would be a "teeter totter" with the pivot point dividing the plank into 1 unit and 4 units in length. To achieve balance, the short side would have to have 4 times the pressure (weight in this analogy) to bring it into balance.
The 5 orbital version shown is driven at a diameter on the orbitals of 2 inches. This represents the model I WAS building, but the animation showed me it wasn't nearly effective enough (it was close to two to one for both accelerations, but the radii of the competing aspects are clearly NOT equal ).
Several tries at smaller and smaller driven diameters now has me working on orbitals with a smaller driven gear diameter. The latest that I've tried is a 3/8ths inch diameter waist, which gives an orbital torque nearly 3 times greater than tangential torque. It's not "perfect", but it's the smallest gearing I feel comfortable doing with the crude tools I have access to. I'm also not exactly sure how the squaring of force for accelerations will effect the exchange.
The fifth (or sixth) generation of the cone gear is done, including the master mold. It looks rather close to the pictured shape, has a pitch diameter from 5 inches down to a half inch (ten to one difference possible), but it should reasonably accurate down to a one inch smallest used diameter which is a 5 to one ratio, but even a 6 or 7 to one won't be too far out of tolerance. Hey, I couldn't get to the internet, so decided to get back to working on the hardest part of the latest machine!
I will be making copies of the cone gear as plaster tools available to the public, or more expensively, reproduction molds of silicone rubber for the glove mold (MUCH easier to use repeatedly!), and hard cement plaster inner core molds for cone gear shell making. For liability reasons, you'll have to decide on materials and machine parameters, but NOT until I test the design to make sure it works as expected!
The ALFA hasn't been tested yet, and though I've built and tested 5 earlier models (two of which never worked because of inadequate traction), the theory has progressed to where I believe the ALFAMAX should be the best performer yet.
The next improvement (might as well release that too! :), changes the shape of the center variable path gears, such that the accelerations take place on the sides more evenly. The flat gear plates give almost no accelerations for the majority of the nose sector travel, then large acceleration rates as the orbital approaches the tail. We want the accelerations to take place on the sides, with none at the nose and tail, and the gear plate best suited to do that has a parablolic shape, rapidly changing at the nose, and leveling out as it nears the tail contact, where the narrowing cone changes more rapidly compared to the distance from center.
The same sort of effect could be obtained by a hyperbolic profile of the orbitals, but of the two gearing shapes (cone gear and variable tooth size plate gears), the planar (bent to the parabolic shape) gear would be the easiest to construct.
Sigh.... every time I think I have the best machine designed, it changes for the better! It was three years ago this month when I first tried this concept with a physical construction, scared myself because it worked, and became obsessed with trying to get the concept into the world. After that amount of time, I am clearly slowing down, and feeling that my efforts are mostly falling on deaf ears.
Bright spots via email have kept me going despite growing disgust at dogmatic rigidity, and feelings of wasted effort. Now I'm in communication with physicists, engineers, professors at prestigeous schools, and others that could really put this project into high gear!
One such person is a member of the launch team for an LEO (low earth orbit) networked satellite communications system, slated for future deployment! He is involved with my project personally (not as an "official" duty of his position), and doesn't want to be publically identified, thus the rather sketchy details.
As customers of launch capacity, with literally billions of dollars at stake, the customers of launch capacity are MUCH more likely to be interested in furthering this new way to get us out there! I've given up on NASA and others of that type of institution, whose current knowlege base and infrastructure would be made less valuable by this technology. Conflict of interest you know! :)
I have no idea when I can get reconnected to the net, since the onslaught of remote net tampering went into high gear. It has me unwilling to put our only "clean" machine on the internet! The snooping turned into direct and vicious attacks designed to wipe out any computing power (totally useless, with residual "bugs" that prevent internet communications even after total brain burn and rebuilds! This new phase of the "worm" began shortly after meaningful contact with the satellite engineer, and a concerted effort to root out the "hooks" for remote tampering with my computer. Interesting!
Three years of uncompensated effort, combined with the shear exhaustion of concentrating on one subject for such a long time, combined with a concerted cyber assault on me and anyone that allows me to use their computer to keep up the effort is wearing me down. Remember that this concept is public domain, so even if money were suddenly available to continue this work, I have no financial claim to these concepts, and it would be silly to hand me money for these inventions, when everyone else gets it for free! :)
SO, this may be the last update for several more months. I will continue to work on a good physical model as my meager finances and time will allow, and I will report on the results once it's up and running. However, you may hear about it first from the news, if I can clearly demonstrate the "impossible", and videos and such will be made available both publically, and as an "underground" distribution effort. Given the apparent high skill level of interference with my work, it will only be wise to disseminate the proofs through several, some hidden (cellular) channels.
Since I now have the capability to reproduce CD roms, that will likely be the means I will chose to pass along the information, including video of past tests (even the failed Mars Conference demo, that worked while traction was being destroyed in the motel room, which was also taped).
The digital nature of a CD will allow an infinite number of copies to be produced without degradation, so even in the event of a physical "search and destroy" effort, just one copy that slips through their fingers will keep the concept alive! With video, 3D models, and "how to" information, HEY, SOMEone will eventually obtain cheap space flight! :)
ANYway, I do appreciate your interest, and if you can do anything to further this concept, you have my blessings and support! Email is welcomed, but for the above described reasons, expect a long delay for a personal response.
Hey, it takes a LOT of effort to overturn an entrenched dogmatic paradigm, and frankly I'm wearing out here after three years, so anything you can do to carry the ball forward, you will have my support!
Past updates contain a LOT of information, some of the information is dated, but a lot of relevant info is in those past updates, have a look! The OldSite.zip compressed file folder also has a lot of good information, along with the first efforts in a running history. See my site list page for a linked catalog of available files.
I've overrun my net account web site limits, and will be storing some files on my mother's (now dormant) account (such as the animations on this page). If the FTP program stays up and running long enough to post this, you will be reading this, otherwise, it may be a distant future for this info to get out. Again, thanks for your interest, and if you believe as I do that this is our future, DO SOMETHING, for if it's only me working toward this future, it will NOT happen!
David Eugene Cowlishaw - 2:46 PM, Tuesday, 28 December 1999
Addendum of 8:53 PM, 28 December - After jumping through some more hoops and the assistance of open.org tech support (thanks Becky and John! :), I was able to lodge files on my mother's website account. One of the latest animations (basically a reversed direction motion of the ALFAMAX animation study for visual variety :) is now posted there. I've also transfered my OldSite.zip file there, to free up more room on my main site. If I didn't get all the links on several pages changed, use the sitelist.htm page for the most current links. Note added 19 July 2000 - Due to a doubling of my site space by open.org, I've relocated OldSite.zip to this (~davidc) folder. More later!
Whatever it takes, even at a virtual snail's pace, I plod on! ... Later! :)
David E. Cowlishaw
New Alphabetic listing of this site will be updated regularly
Use the Old News link to download previous updates, a LOT of good info is to be found there and nowhere else!
Forums and Chat at:
http://www.ctoday.com/git
http://www.inter-corporate.com/forums/engineering.html
http://mercury.beseen.com/chat/rooms/w/4610/
* OLD NEWS * . NEXT UPDATE .^ TOP of Page ^ . * INDEX * . * SiteList *
.