Christian Nally's News

In a landmark class action suit heard in a Federal U.S. district court, there is now legal precedent requiring some sites (like Target.com) to have their websites be accessible to blind users.

The implications are this: does your site have support for the visually impaired? your HTML will need to be well structured, and you'll need to have CSS that shows how to express your content on a screen reader.

Are hydrogen powered things all that green? Not if the hydrogen you're using comes from power sourced from a coal fire power plant. In that case, I personally prefer nuclear, unless your power needs are small.

So long as you're sourcing your hydrogen from a solar panel, as these folks are, the hydrogen economy actually makes some green sense. Will it ever be a 'high power delivery technology'? You wouldn't be fired for betting against that.

But every now and again a niche application comes along that makes things a little better in a very worthwhile way.

Hydrogen powered sailboat motors make sense, because of its nicheness... a lower power application where you have a hope of storing enough hydrogen straight from solar arrays to be of some use.

A recent advancement saw AGO Environmental rig up a 6 meter boat with a hydrogen power plant.

[ update: images viewable here ]

Picture this... you're on your sailboat, with a full day's sailing still ahead of you. You have an uncontrolled jibe, and the boom snaps in half, and that turns out to be the least of your worries.

It's experiences like these where we get to do some real learning, the kind of learning that isn't motivated by curiosity, but necessity.

This happened to me last Saturday. I'd just rounded the bell buoy off Point Grey near UBC. I'd been enjoying a tremendous morning sail, moving through the start area of a race. There were 50+ boats out in English Bay. I'd been curving my way around, downwind, wing on wing for the whole leg out, so making the corner at UBC didn't feel like I was that far by the lee.

Moments later I was snapped out of my reverie. I've got an image in my mind of the boom coming across, I thought "Ack. Damn. Jibe. Oh well... it'll be ok." Microseconds later... BANG-SNAP. I then had two booms, in series, each half of the former solid one hanging from the bottom of the sail by its foot rope.

Stunned, i let the "new normal" wash over me for a few minutes. To clear my head a few minutes later, I swore, loudly, at the top of my lungs, quite certain no one else was listening.

Assessing the situation, I thought, "Ok... well most times I make this trip under power alone, and it appears that I'll be able to jury rig a new boom situation, so there should be no problem pressing on." I'd decided not to turn back for Vancouver. A little while later I had duct tape covering the newly-sharp ends of what was left of the boom and had run lines in a few directions, trying to recreate the best shape in the mainsail that I could get.