Reaching Escape Velocity: Launching gonzo engineering projects with sponsors, media, volunteers, and other potent forces (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781929470051)

My own career has been the proving ground for the techniques revealed in this book. In 1983 I took off across the US on a computerized recumbent bicycle, freelance-writing and consulting while underway. This was bizarre at the time, though of course it would now be unremarkable. But the project took on a life of its own, and I eventually covered 17,000 miles on three versions of this increasingly geeky machine. With a handlebar chord keyboard, heads-up display, head mouse, console Macintosh, and 24/7 satellite net connection (in 1990) it was a sort of geek extravaganza... and the project had about 150 corporate sponsors, 45 volunteers, and almost continuous mainstream media coverage. It became self-supporting, then segued through the '90s into the Microship project - an amphibian pedal/solar/sail canoe-scale micro-trimaran with similar technological overlays. As this book goes to press, I am making the transition to a full-time voyaging life aboard a 44-foot steel pilothouse sailboat. Naturally, this is extensively networked with embedded data collection and control systems, streaming telemetry to a public web server, and a user-interface layer somewhat reminiscent of the Enterprise. I have published 6 books over the years (ranging from travel and adventure to microprocessor design), and prior to all this nomadness spent a decade developing custom industrial control systems, early home computers, and other paleo-geekery. Home base is in the Pacific Northwest, and you can see my projects and bloggage at http: //microship.com