Comments for The Shamblog

Comment on Virtual Trackballs: An Interactive Taxonomy by Glenn

Glenn — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 11:20:10 +0000

This page is a true gem, thank you !

Comment on Presenting: The Antikythera Mechanism by David Goodchild

David Goodchild — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 08:49:27 +0000

In reply to Bob.

Sorry to butt in here, but I’m just curious to know if you included the full planetarium in your machine? I’ve been building these wonderful devices from wood for several years now and love seeing what other people are coming up with!
Cheers.
Dave Goodchild.

Comment on Presenting: The Antikythera Mechanism by Bob

Bob — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 11:59:06 +0000

I’ve produced a CAD of the mechanism in Solidworks at a scale of approximately 1.4 to 1 and subsequently produced one almost entirely in brass. I was using a 1mm end mill to cut the gears which forced the scale

Comment on Presenting: The Antikythera Mechanism by Scott

Scott — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 20:57:54 +0000

In reply to Lucas F.

Hey Lucas that’s great to hear! Let me know when you finish the project, I’d love to see it!

Comment on Presenting: The Antikythera Mechanism by Lucas F

Lucas F — Thu, 29 May 2025 06:08:48 +0000

Hello Scott, I am also making a CAD model of the Antikythera. I made quite a few changes on mine to make it 3D printable, but I just wanted to say that this article that I read so many years ago was what inspired me to work on the project. Thanks for all the work you have done, and I look forward to hearing new updates in the future!

Comment on Presenting: The Antikythera Mechanism by Anton Viola

Anton Viola — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 15:12:46 +0000

Hi,

Great work, thanks! I followed another approach, modelled the device in Excel (see http://www.astronomy-morsels.ch/morsels). First the gear train, and then the back/front dial. On the front dial, there are both a Date Pointer and a Solar Pointer. Do they represent respectively the mean and true solar time?

Greetings from Switzerland,

Anton

Comment on Can SpaceX land a rocket with 1/2 cm accuracy? by FTL

FTL — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 09:53:55 +0000

Superheavy wouldn’t use traditional GNSS as positioning, instead it would use Starlink, wouldn’t it? The position of Starlink satellites has much lower error than other GNSS satellites because of the lower orbit, and because they can measure positions against each other, and against many ground points with which they communicate (unlike other GNSS sats).
Additionally, superheavy sees many more Starlink sats compared to GNSS sats, so this further improves accuracy.

In the end, laser rangefinding or otherwise triangulation from the ground can make it arbitrarily precise, although it is doubtful they use this for two reasons: They claimed half a cm accuracy in the ocean, and they want accurate landing on Mars, both of which are incompatible with ground-based triangulation.

I suppose a combination of absolute positioning from Starlink and relative positioning from accelerometers (especially when moving very slowly) does the trick.

Comment on Can SpaceX land a rocket with 1/2 cm accuracy? by Sergiu Iliev

Sergiu Iliev — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:21:11 +0000

That was a great and fun analysis to read – thanks!

Comment on Can SpaceX land a rocket with 1/2 cm accuracy? by IBTheseus

IBTheseus — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 23:56:16 +0000

Thanks for spending so much time to explain many of the aspects of the landing that are extraordinary, yet perplexing in how the engineering works

Comment on Can SpaceX land a rocket with 1/2 cm accuracy? by Rod Bowler

Rod Bowler — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 21:03:56 +0000

Excellent, detailed analysis. Thanks.