Captains Log

Digital Message from Foredeckies Union!!

This Email has been doing the rounds. Apparently there is too much to read for those down the other end. The patience level isn’t too brilliant as well.

Captn Tup

Telefonica Negro flies First Class from New Zealand to finish preparations for Volvo Ocean Race.

Great series of photos on the Volvo Ocean Race site of squeezing the Spanish Contender in the plane for it’s flight home after Farr have done their part toward this great race.

Captn Tup

The Yacht Fancy of the Rich

by: Stockerblog posted on: October 24, 2007

BillionairesLife.com recently released a report on all of the mega yachts owned by executives of publicly traded companies. Mega yachts are also known as luxury yachts, and super yachts.

Here are the companies that provided the wealth to the CEO’s so that they can afford their yachts:

Rising Sun is 452′8″ long, and is owned by Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle (ORCL). Oracle has a P/E of 25, and a PEG of 1.20.

Octopus is 413′4″ long, owned by Paul Allen, founder of Microsoft (MSFT), and chairman of Charter Communications (CHTR). He also owns the Tatoosh at 301′8″ long. more…

All motor yachts and not my cup-a-tea still if you have it flaunt it the best way that suits you.

Captn Tup

The Times of London reports that seven robotic craft will compete in a race across the Atlantic Ocean in October 2008. One of them, ‘Pinta the robot sailing boat,’ has been designed at Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK. Pinta is expected to sail for three months at a maximum speed of four knots (about 4.6 mph or 7.4 kilometers per hour). Its designers hope the Pinta will become the first robot to cross an ocean using only wind power. This 150-kilogram sailing robot costs only £2,500 (US $4,900 or €3,200). The transatlantic race will start between September 29 and October 5, 2008 from Viana do Castelo, Portugal. The winner will be the first boat to reach a finishing line between the Northern tip of St. Lucia and the Southern tip of Martinique in the Caribbean. But read more…

Beagle B sailing robot

You can see above Beagle B, the previous sailing robot developed at Aberystwyth University. It had a length of 3.65 meters, weighed 280 kg, and was built for a cost of £40,000 (about US $78K or €50K). (Credit: Aberystwyth University). Here is a link to additional details about this sailing robot.

These sailing robots have been designed at Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK, by Mark Neal, Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and member of the Intelligent Robotics Group. For more information about what he does, you can read two pages about Biologically Inspired Robotics and
a previous autonomous sailing robot.

Here is a quote from Mark Neal about these sailing robots. “This is the first time anybody has attempted to sail across any ocean with an automated boat. The big issue in robotics at the moment is longevity and flexibility in a complicated environment. Something that can survive for two to three months completely unassisted while doing something interesting is a major challenge. If it does get there I will be seriously cheerful. It will open up all the oceans to environmental monitoring by robots.”

In fact, and if the robots finish the race, the autonomous boats used in this Microtransat Challenge could help scientists to collect data about climate change and the oceans. “Sensors would be able to measure the carbon dioxide content of the water, chlorophyl content, pollution, air pressure, air and sea temperatures, and wind speed. The data gathered would provide invaluable information to scientists, and events such as plankton blooms and oil spills could be tracked by the robots to monitor their progress. Scientists are able to gather such information already but the robots would offer a much cheaper and more flexible option. And because no one is on board it would be easier to operate them in dangerous conditions.”

Captn Tup

Country Boy can’t understand all the Commotion!

I’ve been enthralled with this phenomena web 2.0 social networking and how it’s being used for marketing business. Then the other day a friend asked me how I got customers in my various businesses over the years. I told her that I always asked for personal referrals. After all I had tried various mainstream advertising, and measured the results, only to find that the value was nonexistent.

I think we all appreciate value for money spent and lets face it referrals offer the best value. I considered all this and I think web 2.0 is just a new name for personal referrals. Web 2.0 happens mostly digitally and personal referrals happens mostly face to face, however they both work on exactly the same principals.

Lets look at the features of both systems, they both are person to person contact with a common interest or interests, this personal contact creates a social atmosphere underlying the whole relationship, creating believability or at least removing skepticism, we perceive an element of trust and since our inclination is to stay safe we do the same as those we believe we can trust, there is interaction with both parties so as individuals we feel as if we are choosing our own direction, there’s no sales push although these feelings of recognition and trust are strong encouragements for us to choose to buy, we also know that bad news travels faster than good so we feel we have the power to eliminate trust offenders.

So I raise my glass of red, that my mate Graeme told me about, to salute, something a friend in toastmasters taught me, the rebirth of the good old fashioned method of referrals reinvented and remodeled especially for the digital age.

Captn Tup