I just love “transparent mode” on my Samsung Galaxy S6, one of my favorite smartphone photo tricks… It works close-up as well, since it is not dependent on focal plane… And you can tweak it to give different effects. Ahh, technology.

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This beautiful glossy city magazine targets expats, travelers and English-speaking Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City. It published this 4-page article about digital nomads in 2015, opening with the story of my technomadics beginning in 1983. The front page is in the photo below, and the full text is on their server (article starts on page…

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These are the voyages of the hand truck, Shacktopus. Her continuing mission… to seek out new loads and strange environments… to boldly blink where no one has blinked before. On a voyaging sailboat, stable power goes with the territory: a huge battery bank charged by isolated shore cable and solar panels, diesel genset with a…

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Planned Ranger 27 console sketch

Phew. I was in irons for a while, taking over a year to complete a tack, passions luffing as I eased my bow through the eye of the wind. I wondered if the sails were ever going to fill again, and held my breath as she hung there… weathercocking with indecision, a confusion of wavelets…

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This article is my own theorizing based on a systems-engineering approach to neurological analysis. In other words, please note this disclaimer and don’t make life-changing pharmacological decisions based solely on this! I present it as a data point of possible interest to others affected by similar phenomena. (There is related subtext in the graphic above,…

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The caption reads:  Proto “Glass” hacker Steven Roberts and the “Brain Interface Unit” for his 1991 nomadic “BEHEMOTH” bike project. The BIU offered a heads-up data display (via The Private Eye), a head-gesture-controlled mouse, radio communications and entertainment audio, spot and flood lights, a rearview mirror, and even a helmet liquid cooling system. My BEHEMOTH…

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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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Sailboat power panel

Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs One of my frustrations with this boat has been difficult serviceability in a very critical place: power-distribution. This a region that needs to have easy access, excellent lighting, clear labeling, and a lack of clutter… not only is it otherwise maddening to make changes, but it can be a…

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It is often said that cruising is the art of fixing your boat in exotic ports, and indeed, a large percentage of the epic to-do list is about repairs and maintenance… not shiny new things. That’s the curse of a used boat. A few months ago I was alarmed to discover salt water in the…

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