Long, Slow Burn

I am embarrassed to announce that by far, by far the greatest traffic generator on my site (disregarding this blog) is my water rockets site. http://cullytechnologies.com/demo/h2orockets I get hits from all over the world hitting these pages. Spain, Canada, Australia, the UK, Brazil, Malaysia, Poland, Germany, and others. While I would rather be known for my FoxPro skills, or Python skills, or Linux skills, or nunchuck skills, why fight the success of one of my favorite hobbies.

I recently signed up for the Google Adsense program to see if I could get some help in paying for my web site. I’m not expecting to make any money, but it’d be nice to cover the $8 a month I spend on the web site. If you’d like to help out, visit the site and click on some of the links. So far, I think I’ve generated $0.06! I’m on my way!

It’s pretty cool the advertising sites that show up. For the most part, the content of the advertising fits the content of my site. On occasion, there will be an advertisement for Cully Travel Programs from Switzerland or something.

I’ve placed the ads as I am preparing to publish a new section on the H2O Rockets pages. I’m about to go on vacation to the beach in Flordia and I’m building a more portable rocket launcher which will be more appropriate for beach launches. My current launcher, besides being too bulky and heavy, wouldn’t divert the water blast from the rocket and it would splash the beech sand all over the place. My new launcher is made with a plywood platform that should sufficiently divert the water blast. Sand is the enemy of all mechanical things. I can also dis-assemble the columns on this launcher. I’ve got it all glued together I just need to do a pressure test on it. I had to machine a few of the connectors myself and I’m not sure if they’ve properly sealed. We’ll find out soon enough.

Another reason that I’m excited about going to the beach is that this will be the first time that I can get some accurate altitude estimates. Here in Georgia, there are too many trees and hills in my area to get a reliable distance from the launcher. At the beach this shouldn’t be a problem. [Rocket's Altitude = Your distance from launch point * tangent (angle of elevation)] This reminds me that I need to buy a protractor to get the angle of inclination. I’m hoping to launch the rockets with a slight angle but to have them land in the gulf. We’ll then use a sea kayak to retrieve the rockets. Now, that’s what I call fun! I’m excited!