I just recently discovered that the online version of the site didn't have a lot of its javascript/emca working. The problem was that the last import of the .js file had partially corrupted. Needless to say, the solution was quite simple - just reload this version that worked on my local network. Viola! Happy website again. Sorry for any inconvenience that this might have caused.

So I decided to change the look of the site... Really, it's nothing more than a stylesheet swap. All of the content is still there.

My latest project is a PHP based generic form file set. The how-to set-up is up and available.

At this point, I'm looking at the big scheduling unknown regarding the summer... maybe I should just pick a weekend... (Hmmph - apparently, my first choice got trumped - I guess I should have seen that coming.) June 26-27-28! There. Thanks for coming to TTW 8.5(part 2), I heard that you had a great time. By the way, TTW 8.5(part 1) was sometime in October 2009. And remember, TTW 1 for December 21, 2012 as the Mayan had predicted.

Meh... I don't really have a rant in me lately - I've been trying to focus on the positives lately. The only problem is that there seem to be a lot less positives hanging around lately. Sad, really.

Okay, so I really do have one rant. Many more people really need to think about driving, actively and consciously. Lately, there's been a lot of stupid out there on the roads.

I find the following driving maxim, in its current context-free incarnations, a detriment to driving safely: stay right except to pass. No, really. Let me show you what blind faith to this maxim gets us. For example, it's one in the morning, the highway is empty except for me in the right hand lane and you, the slackjaw who feels compelled to drive right up my tailpipe before entering the middle lane fully frustrated with the fact that I was doing the speed limit - okay, time out: it's not like a big surprise that I was in the right-hand lane and you wanted to pass me!!! It's simple, move over earlier. It's called planning. Try it. Oh, but wait, you were planning. You planned to stay right except to pass. Well, thanks, but no thanks. Don't tailgate me in the process.

But folks, wait, it gets better! The very same car that finally pulls around to pass me then immediately cuts back in front of me (with about a 40% success rate on the turn signal). What the bleep is that?! I'm not even talking about road rage here - I'm talking about the average alpha-trance driver who is trying to stay right except to pass. Look, if it wasn't okay to tailgate me in that proverbially safest right-hand lane before you passed me, what makes you think that forcing me to be tailgating you is any better. Time out - logic fail... I presumed thinking on your part. Ah, right, alpha-trance driving is the latest fashion.

By the way, who remembers that in this example, the only two cars on the road are me and you, and it's one in the morning, and there's three lanes of travel available. Why did this exact situation happen five times in a single 15-mile trip the other night. Five times. It's not like I keep finding the same dumb driver out there. This is five separate drivers pulling this dumb maneuver. (What? I thought you said there were only me and you... yeah, once a car has passed me, it's effectively gone into the event horizon and soon thereafter a new bad driver sneaks up behind me. Apparently one per three miles.)

So I have been giving some thought to the unsafe tailgate distances involved here. What would it take to safely pass the only other car on the road. Let's assume highway speeds around 60mph. So there should be about 6 car lengths (which is about 5-and-a-half more than what is typically afforded) in order for reasonable safety. Note: that's 6 in back when you change lanes and 6 in front when you come back to the right-hand lane. Now, the average length of a car is around 16'-17', so 6 times that amount is essentially 100'. So the total amount of extra distance that a passing car must travel during the pass is 100' (before) + 16' (the passed car) + 100' (after) = 216'. So, at 60mph, how long does it take to go 216'? The portion of a mile travelled is 216/5280, which should take about 2.5 seconds.

Oh, but I'm so wrong. That's the amount of time it takes a car to travel 216' of road, as if the passed car were parked in place! We can't use the 60mph because the reference frame there is wrong - we need the reference frame to be the car being passed. Let's assume that the passing car is now going 5mph faster than the car being past (which would be 65mph in road terms). To estimate: since that's one-twelfth of the original speed used in the calculations, the time would be twelve times as much. That means that it takes about 30 seconds to complete the safe pass. Wow... there's the problem. That's waaaaay too long of a conscious attention span to persist when it has been so effectively inculcated that it's always required to stay right except to pass. Thank you, driving instructors everywhere for this beautiful gem that results in my being cut off just about every time a driver wishes to pass me. Really, I owe this lack of higher quality in my life to you, the simplistic maxim regurgitators of the driving world.

My recommendation: every driver should be required to spend time going through the calculations in a classroom setting, followed by a video game lab to facilitate the experience, followed by a discussion of the implications of lesson. Then, introduce the maxim to the class and have in-depth discussions about when it should and should not apply. Failing to have that mechanism in place, my next recommendation is to get your alpha-trance out of your [anatomy deleted] and start thinking that the single most important detail about sharing the road is the optimization of safety. The painted numbers on metal placards and the pithy maxims without their context both do so much damage to the optimization of safety in the hands and minds of people on the edge of autopilot. Come on: Think, people - think!