The BBC seems to be running a series on UK computer history. Code breaking at Bletchley Park. Packet switching. The Manchester Baby. Computer pioneers.
After nearly 10 years of living in the Bay Area, we visited the Bay Area Model in Sausilito. The model is of the water flow in the San Francisco Bay, and...
After nearly 10 years of living in the Bay Area, we visited the Bay Area Model in Sausilito. The model is of the water flow in the San Francisco Bay, and surrounding areas. Construction was started in 1956 as part of a feasibility study for building a dam. Based on the modelling work they decided not to build the dam, but the model grew until 2000 when it was replaced by computer models.I had imagined that it would be table-sized, or perhaps the size of a room. It's not. It's...
After nearly 10 years of living in the Bay Area, we visited the Bay Area Model in Sausilito. The model is of the water flow in the San Francisco Bay, and surrounding areas. Construction was started...
Just back from the break. Spent some time doing odd jobs around the house. We use the compact fluorescent light bulbs around the house, I'd noticed one of them...
Just back from the break. Spent some time doing odd jobs around the house. We use the compact fluorescent light bulbs around the house, I'd noticed one of them flickering when it was supposed to be switched off. The reason dawned on me when I was thinking about the illuminated switch that controls that particular light. I started thinking about where the power to make the switch glow came from, after a moment of reflection it was clear that there had to be a small current...
Just back from the break. Spent some time doing odd jobs around the house. We use the compact fluorescent light bulbs around the house, I'd noticed one of them flickering when it was supposed to...
We recently became citizens, so this was the first election in which we'd be eligible to vote. Probably somewhat enthusiastically I sat down with the thick set...
We recently became citizens, so this was the first election in which we'd be eligible to vote. Probably somewhat enthusiastically I sat down with the thick set of documents and tried to figure out what to vote for.What was surprising to me, voting for the first time, was that did I not only get to pick the President (well, I guess they'll let some other people have a say too ;), together with various Senators etc. They also have a bunch of propositions which I can be for or...
We recently became citizens, so this was the first election in which we'd be eligible to vote. Probably somewhat enthusiastically I sat down with the thick set of documents and tried to figure...
The BBC has some footage of the 1st August solar eclipse which started in Canada, covering part of Russia, before ending in China ("The Olympic Eclipse").The...
The BBC has some footage of the 1st August solar eclipse which started in Canada, covering part of Russia, before ending in China ("The Olympic Eclipse").The NASA website has a bundle of information about past and future eclipses. Probably most useful is this map which shows a world map of future eclipses.Wikipedia has this to say about the four types of solar eclipse:A total eclipse occurs when the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon. The intensely bright disk of the Sun...
The BBC has some footage of the 1st August solar eclipse which started in Canada, covering part of Russia, before ending in China ("The Olympic Eclipse").The NASA website has a bundle of information...
Got woken up at 12:30am this morning by the magnitude 6.8 quake near Morioka. The epicentre was a fair distance from Tokyo, but the hotel where I'm staying is...
Got woken up at 12:30am this morning by the magnitude 6.8 quake near Morioka. The epicentre was a fair distance from Tokyo, but the hotel where I'm staying is tall, so I guess that makes it sensitive.
So we were given a number of photos on a CD and I wanted to copy them onto the XP machine. The problem I hit was that the CD appeared in Explorer, but I could...
So we were given a number of photos on a CD and I wanted to copy them onto the XP machine. The problem I hit was that the CD appeared in Explorer, but I could not open it and browse the contents. I could open it as Administrator, but not as a normal user. Of course there was no error message, and no way of identifying where the problem was.Anyway after a bit of googling and rejecting of the more time intensive "solutions" (reinstall XP, or try some utility from an unknown...
So we were given a number of photos on a CD and I wanted to copy them onto the XP machine. The problem I hit was that the CD appeared in Explorer, but I could not open it and browse the contents. I...
Spent a couple of hours on the phone to my dad, over in the UK. He had home network troubles, the wireless network wasn't working, and the USB modem was...
Spent a couple of hours on the phone to my dad, over in the UK. He had home network troubles, the wireless network wasn't working, and the USB modem was sluggish. We switched to the the wireless router, which eventually came up with a combination of multiple reboots and ensuring that the cables were firmly plugged in. The PC got solved with a (typical) reinstall of the wireless network card driver.Once the PC was up and running, I wanted to check the performance issues. One...
Spent a couple of hours on the phone to my dad, over in the UK. He had home network troubles, the wireless network wasn't working, and the USB modem was sluggish. We switched to the the wireless...
It was father's day the other weekend, rather strangely, a bundle of things seemed to align. My folks were visiting from the UK, so we were actually going to be...
It was father's day the other weekend, rather strangely, a bundle of things seemed to align. My folks were visiting from the UK, so we were actually going to be spending father's day together, and on the Saturday the San Jose Earthquakes were going to be playing LA Galaxy. It's been on my list of things to do to take both my dad and the kids to a football match, so this was a great opportunity. Of course the bonus was that Beckham was due to be playing.Watching the game was...
It was father's day the other weekend, rather strangely, a bundle of things seemed to align. My folks were visiting from the UK, so we were actually going to be spending father's day together, and...
