Beowulf - Single Board Computers? -- Progressing off topic

[Robert G. Brown]

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, Capt Bohn, Christopher A. wrote:

> > I never could figure out hot to get the
> > processors airborn, the little fins from the movie never really worked out
> > in practice.
> 
> The other problem here (and with the movie) is that it's really hard to get
> in front of a tornado when you really want to.  And to do it without getting
> yourself killed in the process.  As far as the movie's concerned, I always
> thought it would've been smarter to mount the telemeters on katyusha rockets
> and fire them from a safe distance (and you could be in front of, to the
> side of, or behind the tornado).

Or get a stack of those nifty palmtop's (libretta's?), mount them inside
model airplanes with DtoA converters running the servos off of the
parallel port, and instruct them on coordinates via Walters radio net.
Rockets can't turn around and chase if they are blown around a bit on
the way into the funnel, and tornados tend to move slowly enough that RC
airplanes can easily catch up.  Sort of a like the poor-man's cruise
missile (a beechcraft filled with HE controlled by a laptop connected to
GSI), but for a halfway decent purpose.  Cost per plane might well be
$1-2K, but they had to have spent $50K on wrecked trucks alone making the
silly movie.

"Tornado"; a cool name for an autocontrolling, airborne beowulf...

    rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb@phy.duke.edu