Simple systems: It's about design, not quantity

What do we mean when we say a boat's systems are "simple"?

There's a temptation, at times, to say that simplicity is about cutting back. About leaving out whole systems to save on installation and maintenance dollars. I don't think that's really what it's about.

What we're really looking for when we say "simple" is, more often than not, elegance. Maintainability. Reliability. The least complex, least costly way to fill a stated specification. The ability for the captain to understand, and repair, every system on the boat.

Ice Storm Aftermath

Part of living in Kingston is that we have to deal with ice storms.

It's cold, it's slippery, the roads are barely passable, trees fall down, the power goes out, the buses are late, and it takes the better part of an hour to chisel your car out from a solid block of ice.

But it is oh so beautiful at night.

User interface done right: McNeel Rhinoceros 3D

I was ranting recently about some stupid UI design decisions in a certain piece of CAD software.

There is, of course, no requirement that sophisticated, powerful tools be hard to figure out and use. A case in point is McNeel's Rhinoceros 3D, a popular CAD / modelling program based on NURBS mathematics.

Part of the beauty of this program is that it does not force you to use any particular user interface paradigm. Almost every command you can think of has a menu item, a toolbar button, and a command-line syntax.

First Snow over Lake Ontario

The first snowfall of the year is always a special moment for Canadians. We are, after all, a country of winter. A country of hockey. A country of snow shovels, sleds, parkas. A country that, despite going through the exact same thing every single year, routinely forgets how to drive on bad roads for a week every December (but that's another story).

If you're lucky, you'll find yourself outdoors for the first snow of the year, watching the storm come in over the lake.

Crossbeams Closed In

With the temperature now dropping below zero on a regular basis, temporary permission has been obtained to bring boat parts indoors for short periods so that the epoxy can fully cure. (In this weather, the resin will kick off and gel just fine, but the reaction slows down dramatically once it starts to solidify.

Matthew's blog