Finally got testing cooking today.

We now have 27 laptop computers in our 40-capacity rack. We also have about a dozen sophisticated instruments to initialize whenever we "boot the Jeep." Start-up is now an automated process, but it still
takes 26 minutes for a cold boot from power-off.

Time synch is working really well. Time synch keeps the computer clocks all within about 1 to 5 milliseconds of each other. If a clock gets off, time synch automatically corrects it. It's important to have all the clocks the same, so the events they report to each other can be coordinated to the same time. When a LIDAR sees something, we need to know where it is (Latitude, Longitude) and when we saw it there.

Great weather. Temperature in Barstow (about 50 miles) is 88, but we're a couple-thousand feet higher. Feels about 80 here. Humidity is 7%. Cold drinks don't sweat.

Lots of bees up here. They seem to be especially attracted to Mountain Dew (around here the combination of Mountain Dew and M&M's is called software fuel). 

Spirits are pretty high now that some of the integration is working. We have a long way to go, but the progress is now more visible.

Because of the complexity of the system that we've built, we're reducing everything we do to a formal checklist. We now have  20 checklists. More coming.

A week ago, we installed a new fan in the hood to get rid of heat build-up. Looks like it's working to keep the engine compartment cooler.

Our new hotel in Victorville is working well. Travel time is down from two hours to one. No additional sleep, but more time at base camp.

Our official milage sign shows "50 miles to civilization; 25 miles to water; 10 miles to pavement."

Back to the testing.