by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs updated February, 2023 Latest news (2/21/23) – the Microship has found her new skipper, and will be going through a series of development tests in Seattle before launching on the upper Missouri River in Montana. I’m leaving the narrative below for historical context. This photo shows her in…

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These tattered drawings recently turned up in the lab… and it occurs to me that I have never done a proper article about the rather too-elaborate engineering of the hydraulic systems on the Microship for rudder and landing-gear control. Here is a quick overview of this essential subsystem. The boat’s hydraulic system is made up…

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by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs As I settle into Datawake, wrapping myself in a console of rackmount blinkies, I often reminisce about the obsessive Microship project that occupied me for almost a decade (1993-2002). This amphibian pedal-solar-sail micro-trimaran is still in my life, though really should find a new skipper one of these…

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(Photo above: Nomadness moored at the end of Cannery Landing, hopefully flying her “try sale” to catch the eye of visitors arriving by ferry.) Oh good grief, I’ve done it again. All those good intentions to blog frequently, and it’s been seven months since my last post! But I have a good excuse, and it…

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I didn’t expect this nautical non-sequitur, but even a career technomad needs to get shaken out of a rut now and again. Way back in 1993, after ten years and 17,000 miles of wandering the US aboard my “computerized recumbent bicycle,” I decided to build an amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimaran and chase the same crazy dream…

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Cold, dark winter days are demotivating and I didn’t get it together to go see how the boat handles a foot of snow loading, but I am happy to report progress on three simultaneous fronts: the ship’s Shacktopus network, the Boat Hacking book, and an online store to conjure a nickel generator from the first…

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Note: this was written in 2008, while I was trying to make sense of the network architecture of the boat. Both Shacktopus and Datawake have since been re-used for other systems in my life. Sorry for the confusion! Real physical tasks are queuing up, but it’s a rainy holiday weekend and I find myself more…

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Java walking on air

How bizarre it is to be at anchor in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, confronting the daily challenges of field electronics projects and keeping up with battery/food/water usage while slurping catastrophic financial news via the Internet and trying to assess the impact. Talk about a cognitive disconnect… kayaking the harbor at sunset while numbers…

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This piece was written during the 132-mile MEME — the Microship Experimental Mini-Expedition, launched a few days after 9/11/2001. It was a strange time, but the boat performed beautifully. by Steven K. Roberts October 14, 2001 I’m perched in Microship Wordplay, trapped in a Poulsbo marina by a small craft advisory, slowly adapting to life aboard…

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Conducted by Eolake Stobblehouse The Mac Observer April, 2001 Steven K. Roberts is famous for being the computer geek (sorry, genius) on a bicycle. In the eighties and nineties he travelled America on three heavily computerized and communicating bicycles, culminating in the technically impressive BEHEMOTH (Big Electronic Human-Energized Machine Only Too Heavy). After that Steven…

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