Author Archives: Pete Baston
Alvin’s Dream
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) has been closed since the beginning of this year (2012) because of premature degradation of new steam generator tubes installed in 2010 and 2011. The two pressurized water reactors (PWRs) at SONGS provide about 2,200 megawatts of electricity, about 20% of Southern California’s usage. I’ve been reading about […]
Continue readingThe Power of Ugliness in our Industry
We are attracted to beautiful things and repelled by ugly things—the words “beautiful” and “ugly” are in fact often defined in terms of the human response to the things so described. Fear of ugliness may not be rational, but it is always real and it always changes behavior. I was aware of this in a […]
Continue readingRisonanza™: AATG’s Quantum Monitoring Ushers in the Future of Cyber Information Modeling Systems
Pete’s an avid science fiction fan. He wrote this “Future History” mock Forbes interview with the CEO of the fictitious Advanced Application Technology Group (AATG) at the turn of the 21st century, thinking that by 2026 rule-based cyber information modeling technologies would surely be a reality.
Continue readingBlack and White is Clearer Than Color
“If you are lost, going in the wrong direction, you had better go real slowly,because you have to come all the way back again to get where you should be.”UnknownThis is not a scientific article, just some musings about the way Pete looks at things, both physically and metaphorically. Life, as well as design, especially human-centric design, means just that: […]
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