| CRU leak... |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|08:10 pm] |
I quite liked this when I read it earlier, although I'm not entirely sure I agree with Monbiot that the guy running the research unit should resign over the content of private emails sent within his department. Getting a little close to the 'thought police' really IMO; I'd rather rely on their end product and the steady grind of scientific scrutiny, which would appear to weigh in heavily on the side of 'yeah we're screwing the planet and need to calm down'.
It's like near constant exposure to a bunch of flat earthers sometimes (ones that get press coverage and television slots).
Anyhow I skimmed a couple of the leaked emails out of a morbid curiosity before feeling grubby and leaving the site.
There may be a good deal of flaws surrounding scientific peer review and funding methods, but I would still argue that it's the best system we've got. There are likely a few wingnuts out there fiddling the stats, and concocting evidence (likely none more so in climate science than any other field of endeavour) - but it's the consensus and trend in evidence (and desire to truly test a given hypothesis) that forges progress in science.
We're living in a world of little magic black boxes, things that fly; a whole raft of 20th and increasingly 21st century achievements that have increased human llifespan, made it easy to cross vast distances and even get to other planets - and yet just 'because it suits us at the moment' a whole domain of scientific understanding is under apparent challenge from a bunchof cretinous fools. Using computers. Brought about via science and engineering. Fail.
And it's still only Tuesday.
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| RM strike... |
[Oct. 18th, 2009|11:56 am] |
As I was reading this, I came across this link which someone had posted in the comments.
The second is certainly worthwhile reading, which surprised me not at all. The first is typical of the media whitewash; though I am generally surprised at the lack of serious analysis from the standpoint of the workers themselves.
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| (no subject) |
[May. 24th, 2009|05:54 pm] |
I enjoyed watching Atlantis land this afternoon. I actually felt quite moved as it touched down, noting that they'll not be making another manned trip to Hubble; the next visit will be an automated one, to dock with it and push it into an unstable orbit before sending it to its grave...
NASA TV is fantastic - full streaming video and audio commentary of the landing where the TV stations only bother to give a 5 sec overview these days (unless something goes wrong). It's a shame I think - and this sort of poor coverage is one reason we no longer have a TV license (that and the fact we have no TV antenna).
Anyway, this all got me thinking. The ISS has been whirling round every 90 minutes for a few years now. I knew that ham radio played a part onboard manned orbiters (and remember the brush off a friend and I had when we attempted a QSO with the guys on Mir back in '98...). Anyway, it turns out that the guys up there are often bored and are frequently heard calling CQ on 145.8Mhz.
I'm not sure how well my current VHF antenna is, but am going to give it a shot next time I'm sitting here and they go over.
The ISS can be tracked at http://www.n2yo.com. It's also fun to take a look as it goes overhead if it's a clear night and not too low on the horizon as to be obscured by buildings etc.
We're gearing up for the RSGB national field day in two weeks (where we'll be on Mull, looking across at Iona). 12 hours of CW contesting on 80m. I've now got half the required Morse character set. The trouble is, I've also got my second TMA due in in two weeks.
The Morse is currently winning.
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| (no subject) |
[May. 13th, 2009|06:41 pm] |
Izzy and I returned on Monday from our road trip to Switzerland. Not too much went wrong, and other than for a couple of blown lamps, the car held up once underway. Camping under the Eiger was certainly a pleasure. I'd definitely recommend Grindlewald if pointy mountains are your thing. I assume it's possible to fly in too.
All in we covered about 2700 miles and saw some interesting things in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and France. In Germany we were puzzled by the magic toilets and cross that the wonderful roads we'd been promised were worse than the polished stretches of golden Tarmac I has been led to believe (having said that, they do put on a good Medieval town). The security was out in force at Dover on our way out, where they chose a lone sleeping bag to X-Ray out of all our luggage, and didn't even look at our passports. Presumably they did RF-ID scan for compatible passports (although unsure how effective that would be within a screened car?). It was slightly disconcerting when we arrived at the ticket booth to learn that they had used automatic numberplate recognition, knew all details of the vehicle, all passenger details and our booked ferry time. By the time we got to that point they'd printed the boarding card out too. At 4am after a 12 hour drive it seemed in no way short of 'a little creepy'.
The slickness if the English side brought us to the conclusion that the situation on the other side of the channel would be run in a not dissimilar fashion. Not so - with the threat of illegal immigrants round every lampost in port the French omit the numberplate checks and other stuff, don't man their border booths, and use a ball point pen at the ticket office in leu of computerised wizardry. On balance I'd rather it was that way both sides.
It was good to get back to my first TMA score of the course. My tutor pointed out that if I actually answered all the questions, I'd be well on my way to a first [I guess in both senses of the term...]. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|09:04 pm] |
Well I didn't get the Forensic job. No surprises there, really. In fact I was going to have a morally inventive time accepting a place in an institution which still encourages the kind of thing witnessed by everyone with a lens down at the G20 in London. My thoughts on the exact definition of "IT crime" might not quite align with theirs, either. Maybe that came across in the interview...
Just got back from a jaunt with Izzy camping in the Highlands. The Red Squirrel site at Glencoe is not to be recommended. Far too many white stones and a rule book thicker than the fault log on a 1980s-era Skoda. We ended up decamping to Respiole, on Ardnarmuchan. Nice site, decent stony beach (and a slipway to launch the boat when done). Once the rain stopped it was great to chill with beer by our campfire "designed by Izzy, built my me".
I still seem to be running short of useful hours to do stuff with. I have a devil on one shoulder telling me to get cracking with mobile radio installations, and a devil on the other telling me to continue piling hours into the Morse practice.
On the other hand I have my Space/ Time/ Cosmology tutor on the phone arranging a telephone tutorial for Friday lunch and pointing out the TMA due in in a little over a week.
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| Gmail "inbox" |
[Mar. 31st, 2009|07:13 pm] |
Today was mostly spent with a distinct feeling something was wrong. Something not quite right in my world.
I was having trouble pinpointing the cause of this, but was reasonably sure that the something in question was being displayed on one of my two monitors.
I finally twigged what was wrong this afternoon after I arrived home. Gmail's "Inbox" has lost its capitalisation. Both the "Inbox" link within their interface, and the label displayed on the taskbar, and on the header of the web browser, have lost their rightful capitalisation. Izzy confirmed this when I mentioned it with "Good - I thought that only just happened today..."...
Only one question remains: "Why?"...
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 18th, 2009|09:47 pm] |
So, I was sitting in my car, my usual long haired scruffyness and cigarette, in the car park of the Anstruther Co-Operative earlier. A couple of late teen/ early twenty-ish looking girls park up alongside in a silver Vectra, go in and do their bidding, come back out, empty a good quantity of rubbish out into the car park, and get back in with the intention of driving off.
I don't think so. Not this time. I've seen it happen time and again, but this time was convieniently positioned to take action.
Me: "Excuse me - You're not Seriously going to drive off and leave all your rubbish in the car park are you?"
Girl #1: "I'm not driving" [sitting in the passenger seat].
Me: "Oh, OK. Well, I couldn't really care. We can do this one of two ways. The simple way is you guys pick up the rubbish and bin it. The hard way is I report your Reg no. to the police, with time and date of the offence.".
Both Girls: <verbally ignorant abuse>
(Then, as they realised I'd been behind the car and got their plate [I hadn't; but quoted enough numbers repeatedly for them to panic...], they begrudgingly picked up the rubbish and binned it. It took them all of 15 seconds to reach the litter bin).
So the system works. I'm always a bit reluctant to commence verbal altercations in the name of society, but something just stirred in me this time. I think it was the careful, deliberate nature of their act in plain view of everyone else (including myself, a mere 10 feet away) which resulted in my indignance.
When they returned from the bin, they did give me more lip (since I was on the phone at the time and as I had to put my call on hold to deal with them, I rightfully mentioned the 'couple of scumbags trying to get away with leaving a car-full of litter behind for everyone else'). They even saw fit to condemn my windows, as they wind up, with a handle. Yes, using exactly the same measure of counter-laziness it takes to make a trip to the dustbin occasionally.
I've been ferrying a bag full of "Greg car rubbish" around with me in the front passenger footwell for the last couple of weeks. I'll put it out when I remember. In a bin. Maybe even sorted and recycled. It might take me longer. But I'll never leave it in a car park.
The smugness doesn't end there either - I pointed out a Cadbury Cream Egg amongst their rubbish... "Oh we do want that"...
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 25th, 2009|09:35 pm] |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/feb/25/ryanair-socialnetworking
Which continues to cement my opinion of the airline. I really, really hope they go under in the downturn. It's about time the era of below cost air travel (resulting in huge profits for the airlines themselves but with a potentially catastrophic reduction in safety, not to mention the environmental issues) was brought to a close in my opinion.
Judging from what I've heard O'Leary say the attitude of their staff seems to come from the top down, 'n all. I know O'Leary has an awful lot of it, and the house of cards economy was built on it (that and financial services and bad debt anyhow), but all we need to see is a little bit less confidence in their business model and maybe...
And no I can't afford to fly BA, but it's hardly the point.
I wonder do RyanAir fly to the Caymans?
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 30th, 2009|10:15 pm] |
I was amused to read about Google's car having incorporated the footage of one of their cars colliding with a baby deer into their 'streetview' imagery. Last summer as I was leaving work I caught one of their cars "at it" out of the corner of my own eye... It was a bit of an SEP at the time, but one which peeked my interest when I noticed the 'Google' logo blutacked to its rear quarterlight. It slowly slunk (and that's the only word for it) out of the car park at work, and off down the street at about 6mph. Less like a petulant child and more like a scolded cat. It was only after the event that I twigged the bugger was performing visual street level mapping made possible courtesy of the rather large appendage protruding 10 feet above its roof... They could have used a cloaking device to greater effect...
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 23rd, 2009|10:01 pm] |
Yay! We're "officially" in a recession! (As opposed to those "unofficial" recessions - you know the ones I mean - hanging out in the world's media and at the US National Bureau of Economic Research - they really make my blood pressure rise they do - I mean - of all the cheek... It's Two Quarters. Two. Damn it.)
I've been looking forward to a good downturn for a while now; it couldn't have been better placed. I'm preparing the mangle (thank the Lord for Ebay), and some clockwork appliances for when we can't afford electricity. Also, when I lose my job and can't afford to pay the rent, we'll be "OK", as Vango have just replaced our tent under their wonderful lifetime warranty, so we wont be homeless either. It might even shorten the queue to the dole office, as if we paint it in bright camouflage colours we should get away with pitching right outside. The benefits of this downturn promise to be numerous...
I was sitting in a meeting at work the other day, scheduled from 9am until 12pm. The meeting was really a presentation, entitled "Holding Effective Meetings". I was seriously struggling to control my giggles when by 9.15 several of the attendees had not arrived (as the meeting was not arranged using Outlook's calendar), and the section entitled "Avoiding Overruns" commenced at 12:10pm...
I'm just starting my next course with the OU. A spot of Cosmology (S357 I think). I'm not looking forward to completing it from my tent, but, should the need arise, I will be prepared. I seem to remember "Education" being important to Labour. I guess these days their Mantra may have changed somewhat.
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 10th, 2008|08:36 am] |
I got my course result yesterday for the 3rd level OU course I took this year in Electromagnetism. The best I really hoped for was to muster enough marks in the exam to scrape through to a resit, so was quite surprised to learn I've passed. I actually obtained a solid margin of 4% in the exam over the fail grade. If ever there was an injustice in academia this must surely rank...
Next up - quite likely - Space Time and Cosmology. I need to make a decision soon on whether I'm going to spare the time for it or take a year off from my "intensive studying regime"...
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| Luing |
[Nov. 16th, 2008|11:29 am] |
After the MOT the other weekend, Izzy and I had a great time wildcamping in Glen Etive (~14 miles off Ranoch Moor). The area has been churned up rather considerably by loggers, but as long as you can put up with that and the slightly rough ground the views are stunning. After that we headed on round through Glen Coe to Oban, and eventually found ourselves on the island of Luing (reached by a bridge "across the Atlantic" to Seil island and then a very reasonably priced ferry. I feel compelled to point out that that little island of Luing is one of the friendiest places we've ever visited. Roughly 150 people reside there. They all smile and offered us fresh fish on our first night. We shared a beer with Ben the local boat builder who hasn't really retired, and ended up staying from Saturday until Monday as the ferry doesn't carry cars on Sundays. The people of the hamet of Toberonochy didn't in the slightest mind us using a patch of land jutting out from the (historic old slate mining) harbour area to pitch for a couple of nights. I even saw a seal.
We took lots of photos, but they remain "undeveloped" (having not yet been uploaded to the PC).
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|10:50 pm] |
Tonight is the first time I've seen CNN's rolling bollocks up close. My, my wot an awful lot of utter drivel.
Seriously, we've got the laptop streaming that, and the Linux box streaming another 4 feeds coupled with multiple maps up so Izzy and I can see which bent network calls it first for each state.
This ought to be fun. Since I have to be at work in the morning the sleeping bag is also on standby - that way I can kip down here between 1 and 4am and learn the interim results by osmosis.
The disadvantage is I may have nightmares about oven chips. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 31st, 2008|07:22 am] |
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more.
In fact, I would see this as a perfect opportunity to dispatch these 30,000 people (who should, in all fairness, have been identified at birth and either slung out of number 2 airlock - or included on Arc Ship B - long before they learnt to talk).
Interestingly, I'll wager these very same people only complained by email - not in a genuine letter or anything. It has become all too easy to further the agenda of the Daily Mail crowd by clicking submit to a pre-filled web based form - which is I'll bet what happened here.
"I'm sorry but you're too stupid to own a computer" would be a good line to take as their systems are seized. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 27th, 2008|05:49 am] |
It's never mentioned in the headlines. I don't listen to radio 4 on a Sunday. TheTV's antenna is broken. I'm just starting a week of working 2 hours overtime per day.
But yes, for yet another year, here I sit at bloody quarter to six after 5 hours sleep not needing to go to work for over an hour as no one thought to remind me that the bloody clocks have gone back again.
I should maybe rejoice in the extra hour of conciousness.
Intead I'm mourning the sleep loss.
Damn it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2008|07:45 pm] |
I had to give up the car this morning for repair work on the door. The insurance people have lent me a top of the range VW Passat Sport. It's rubbish.
It actually took both me and an engineer from the workshop to suss it out, as the hire firm had removed the one thing that would have been really useful - the instruction book - from the car*. Anyway it's some freakilly complex system of electromagnetically controlled computers, levers and string rendering the whole handbrake mech thing fully automatic. All I knew is I reached for it and found the bloody cupholder. Being a simple soul (and barely awake in truth), I repeated this 'Reach for handbrake/ get surprised it's a cupholder' routine about 5 times before it sunk in. Then I decided it 'must be 'ere somewhere' - and proceeded to open covers and look all over the place for the blasted thing. That's when I sought help. Honestly - I'll tell you why cars aren't stolen much these days - the would be thieves can't operate the bloody things! Even with keys!
To top it all off, the dashboard looks like some kind of child's toy. The steering is far too sensitive and feels insecure. Don't even get me started on the seats.
*On closer inspection, I found the manual. But it was so well hidden it was pointless for the first 60 miles. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 15th, 2008|07:01 am] |
Oh dear. It would appear that it's examination day for the OU Electromagnetism course I'm doing.
On the face of it it seems that I've spent all together far too much time playing radios and getting enthused about everything other than the course. It's time to get tactical.
I reckon I might just scrape the 40% pass mark, if I'm really really lucky. My main fear is that I get more than 15% but less than 40% and am thus entitled to a resit. That would add months on, and at the moment I'd really rather be able to just go and learn CW without feeling guilty.
What I really need is Bernard's Watch. And beer.
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| I have a radio room at last... |
[Sep. 27th, 2008|01:00 pm] |
I'm spending some time today sorting out my radio room (or the shack) following aquisition of the nice shiny Yaesu FT-857D transceiver.
We've now got an antenna up (of sorts, running around the upstairs ceiling in a rather haphazard manner which will undoubtably have a most perculiar radiation pattern), and I've resurrected Izzy's desktop PC to use to my own end. It's reasonably powerful for my applications (P4; 256MB RAM, with a 40GB HDD and a rather nice 19inch CRT...). It's running badly at the moment with XP pro, and I'm going to stick Ubuntu on it this afternoon, if I can ever get it down the pipe.
I'm not impressed with the way Chrome handles downloads - closing the tab where the download sits unobtusively (so one forgets it's there...) has the effect of cancelling that download. When you're half way through a 700 meg image file that's just pants, and expletives ensue.
Once it's done, I'm going to learn morse (CW).
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