| Solar Farms |
[Nov. 3rd, 2009|07:36 pm] |
I've seen quite a few news items recently on plans to build large scale solar farms.
On the surface this may seem like a "green" or "sustainable" power source, but as the Earth does seem to be going through a warming period currently, is lowering the planet's albedo really the right thing to do? |
|
|
| Kitchen installation has begun... |
[Aug. 19th, 2009|10:38 am] |
We (mostly Diane) got the last of the kitchen stuff packed away around midnight last night. Builders arrived 7:40 this morning, and got to work immediately.
Today is demolition - tear down cupboards, sink, hood, remove floor, punch a couple of holes in the wall to see why there are cracks over one doorway... |
|
|
| Astronomy.... |
[Aug. 15th, 2009|10:28 pm] |
Sigh.
I went to a few astronomy panels at Worldcon, came home, dug out my binoculars and spent a frustrating while peering through the smog.
It's been a while since I did any serious amateur skywatching, but I think it's about time I put more effort in.
Seeing ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sharikkamur's Galileoscope has prompted me to order one too. I've just looked up details on the LA Astronomical society who hold a public meeting at Griffith Observatory once a month. Next one is in 2 week's time, so I may go along and see where that leads.
Meanwhile I've been playing around with some nice software. Stellarium is a very nicely rendered, free, sky display application, and I also found this iPhone app, which on the 3GS will use the GPS, compass and accelerometers to auto-update your location and the display on the iPhone depending on the direction you hold it.
Tonight's major achievement was picking out the Galilean satellites of Jupiter through the orange haze that is the normal nighttime sky here in the LA area, with just my cheap binoculars. |
|
|
| We won a BAFTA!!! |
[Mar. 10th, 2009|04:30 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  ecstatic | ] |
Seriously. BOOM BLOX just won the Video Game BAFTA for "Best Casual Game".
:D |
|
|
| The instrument of the day is... |
[Mar. 6th, 2009|09:47 pm] |
The Xaphoon
I read about this on a Saxophone forum I was lurking on, and was amazed when I followed the link to the site and read about this little instrument. The sound they produce is amazingly sax-like, doubly impressive given the size.
These are definitely not toys, nor are they easy to play. Not difficult to pick up the basics if you know how to get sound out of a saxophone, but the fingering is a little awkward (as you would expect for a 2-octave chromatic scale out of a straight tube).
I'm going to have to practice a lot to get more than the bottom half of the first octave out of it. :) |
|
|
| You could not make this stuff up.... |
[Oct. 8th, 2008|08:13 am] |
Seriously, this is not a Blackadder Goes Forth plotline
"In another mission, the sapper with the Royal Engineers Special Branch crawled to within a few yards of an enemy HQ and drew a tree so accurately that his comrades were able to create a hollow steel replica.
The real tree was then removed under cover of darkness and replaced by the replica - with a soldier stationed inside who was able to report back on German activity."
Also, count the puns: Sapper, in the RE Special Branch, sketches a tree.
Sorry. It's early, and I am easily amused. |
|
|
| Private spaceflight is Go! |
[Sep. 28th, 2008|07:16 pm] |
After 3 failures, SpaceX finally managed to achieve orbit with their 4th flight. Designed and built in Hawthorne, CA (just a few miles from our house!).
Their plans are to grow from a single-engine two-stage rocket to a 9-engine heavy lifter. they will be hopefully supplying the ISS and be used as a replacement for manned flights there once the shuttle retires.
The company employs just 550 people, and has been around for 6 years. Successful orbital insertion of their 4th ever launch is pretty darn impressive.
In his post-launch celebratory speech, the CEO/CTO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, said that their long-term goals included missions to the moon and Mars. Now that would be cool! |
|
|
| New Mouse |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|03:54 pm] |
asimovberlioz posted yesterday about discovering the Logitech MX610 left-handed mouse.
Being left-handed, and a gamer geek, I've always been envious of those right-handed mice with the extra buttons under the thumb. Useful for twitch-reaction gaming, and also very much more comfortable to use. I've always had to use "symmetrical" mice, as, of course, right-handed mice are incredibly uncomfortable to use in your left hand, and the extra buttons are on the wrong side anyway.
So off we went to Fry's, and now I have one!
First impressions: it's a little heavier than I'm used to, but that's not a bad thing. Out of the box it was in fact too left-handed for me - the left and right mouse buttons were swapped. I've always left-clicked with my middle finger and right-clicked with my index finger, so I had to swap that over. Strangely, I had to swap it in the Windows control panel as the Logitech software didn't have that option. The software did have options for programming what all the other buttons do - from standard UI messages through to specific keystrokes.
So of course I now have it programmed to assist me while playing World of Warcraft. :) |
|
|
| Squeezed |
[Sep. 11th, 2008|12:16 am] |
I read a week or so ago that Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze turned 51 on 31st August! The article linked to a youTube video of one of their hits, and amongst the usual dross of comments, there was one which said "I can't wait to see them live next week". I checked, and was amazed to find they are currently touring the US, and even more amazed to discover we hadn't actually missed their Los Angeles tour date.
That was this evening. We got back about 10 minutes ago.
They were amazing. The years haven't been kind to the waistlines of Tilbrook or Difford (but I can't claim to be exempt from that problem myself either); although their vocal work and guitar playing were as good as ever.
Sadly, no Jools Holland on this tour, but the keyboard player they are touring with was astoundingly good anyway. Drummer was brilliant too.
All in all, a very, very enjoyable evening. Now I just need to unwind enough to get to sleep. |
|
|
| SpaceX flight 3 failed :( |
[Aug. 3rd, 2008|09:25 pm] |
I watched the countdown, launch and failure of the 3rd launch by SpaceX last night via web feed.
This one apparently failed because the first stage failed to detach prior to second stage ignition.
I amazed my self by exactly how much I enjoyed watching the hours of countdown, hold, reset, repeat...
They got to T-2 seconds at one point and the computers aborted the launch because of instrument readings, so they simply reset the clock to T-55 minutes, analysed the fault, corrected it and launched... Totally worth it for the 2m 30s of successful flight time, and of course totally worth it in the search for cheap (relatively), reusable spacecraft.
Astoundingly, The company headquarters, where they build these rockets is in Hawthorne, less than five miles from our house.
Sadly, the payload lost on this mission included amongst other things, the ashes of James Doohan and Gordon Cooper (or, more likely, samples thereof). |
|
|
| Wheeee!! |
[Jul. 29th, 2008|12:16 pm] |
5.8 quake hit 30 miles due east of here.
That's the strongest I've experienced. A good 20 seconds of sideways motion (on the 3rd floor of a 4 storey building). No damage locally. Hopefully nothing significant at the epicentre either. |
|
|
| 3 things meme |
[Jun. 26th, 2008|12:39 pm] |
This looks fun. Let's give it a go...
Rules: Post 3 things you've done that you believe nobody else on your F-list has done.
1) Vapourised a diamond using a low-density plasma generated in methane.
2) Sat becalmed in a dinghy on Loch Rannoch watching the wind blow snow of the peak of Mt Schiehallion.
3) Photographed Halley's comet using the largest telescope in the UK. |
|
|
| Yay me! |
[Jun. 4th, 2008|02:11 pm] |
I just got promoted to "Senior Software Engineer".
A rare breed here at EA. Most Software Engineers with my level of experience seem to move onto become "Technical Directors", but that involves going to many more meetings and actually writing less code, which seems very strange to me. |
|
|
| BOOM BLOX ships today. |
[May. 6th, 2008|12:55 pm] |
We've only seen 3 reviews so far, the first 2 are both 80/100, which is good.
Then this one popped up:
1up
It doesn't get much better than that! :) |
|
|
| Vacation |
[Apr. 15th, 2008|05:41 pm] |
We shipped BOOM BLOX.
In celebration of this, and to prepare myself for doing it all over again with the next game, I'm taking 4 weeks' vacation. (Actually 8 days' paid vacation, the rest is known as "refresh time", and is designed to make up for the 12-hour days and 6-day weeks needed to ship a game).
I have grand plans, including gardening, decorating, walking and cycling around the local area, and catching up on some games which came out over the last 12 months and I didn't get time to play.
( So far, I have: ) |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|