Author name: Ian Robinson

‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!

| | General

From the Mudflats Blog in Alaska. Heartening news of an anti Palin rally in Anchorage. Quote from the site:

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.

[From ‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE! « Mudflats]

Tip of the hat to Gia via Twitter.

The LHC defended

| | Science, Technology

There is an excellent response on the BBC site to those questioning the expense of the LHC in general, and by the current head of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in particular. The LHC is a marvellous endeavour and suggesting that the money would be better spent on climate change, or medical research is missing the point. We need to do both, and more. Humanity needs to explore. We need to probe the quantum realm. We need to explore the cosmos. We need to research for new medical advances. We need to find new cleaner energy sources. We need to do lots of things, but not at the expense of basic research into the way the Universe functions. The money spent on the LHC is not that much in comparison to other national expenditure. The UK contribution is equivalent to the cost of a pint of beer per head per year. It’s peanuts. Both figuratively and in a real sense. More is spent in the UK on peanuts every year than the UK contributes to the LHC. Maybe we should stop pouring money down the Iraq rat hole if we want to save. I’m looking forward to many years of interesting data and results from the LHC.

The plan

| | General, Science, Writing

I like to set goals. I’m not that keen on keeping to them, but I like setting them as targets and frameworks to work with. I’ve got a set of personal and work related goals that want to work to over the next few years. Sort of my own personal Soviet style 5-year plan.

Work Stuff

Become the go-to guy for VMware VI3 questions and also for Mac OS X integration into Windows environments. Also be the person people search out when they have questions about current and new technology.

Personal Stuff

Learn mathematics. Using this selection of self study books:

mathbooks Click picture for larger view

I want to be able to read Penrose’s The Road to Reality and understand the mathematics in it.

Do several Open University courses to finish a BSc I’m doing with them:

S366 Evolution

SXN390 Science in Society Project

Do the Open University MSc Science and Society. As long as they let me in. [Update: They did!] I’ve pulled out a few courses recently and they have a rule that stops you registering for new courses. Which is fair enough. They don’t get paid by the government if people don’t complete the courses. In any event I’ll be doing something in the science communication field (including many more posts here on the Soapbox) as we need to fight the hoards of superstitious nut jobs. We can’t cede any of the ground won in the last 400 years with rationality and the scientific method.

Continue to work on some science fiction stories I’m writing. One is set in a space opera scale universe and the other is set in the Frank Herbert Hellstrom’s Hive universe.

Music – I’ve got about dozen songs in various stages of work (all have full lyrics). I want to continue to work on them and maybe package them together as an actual album. That’d be cool 🙂

Write a cricket match scoring system for Macintosh and iPhone using Cocoa. Unless someone else develops on that meets my needs first. I’d be happy if they did. Programming projects always bore the tits of me after the initial requirements specification and design are done! [Update: I’ve also had an idea for an app that uses the Twitter API]

We’ll see how I get on…

Back on the bike

| | Uncategorized

I’ve started using my exercise bike again. I don’t think I’ve used it for about 10 months. Recently I’ve been feeling overweight and just generally not as fit as I usually do. I’ve also had a more or less continuous pain in my side (near the incision scar from my TC operation) since last January. I think I did a mischief to myself last year between Christmas and New Year when I went to Ikea Belfast to get some new drawer units. The ones I bought had warnings all over the flat packaging that they should be handled by 2 people. I picked them from the warehouse on my own and also loaded them into my car and house by myself. I was in a hurry. It may have been a mistake. In the 2nd week on January I was at the BETT show helping set-up and staff the stand for the company I work for. I had to take it very easy when helping move stuff onto the stand. The next week 3 of us flew to Macworld in San Francisco. I had to get a colleague to lift my case from the carousel for me in SFO. I thought it was just a pulled muscle and it would heal up after a few weeks. But it didn’t. I started thinking it was a mild hernia of some description. I went to see my GP in June and he gave me ibuprofen gel to use on the area. I did this for a month but it didn’t make any difference. If anything it’s been worse recently as I’ve been lugging servers about in work as part of a new VMware based system I’m deploying. I went back to my GP but the upshot of that was to continue with the gel and either get my yearly TC check-up brought forward or wait until November and get them to do a scan. I decided to wait. I also decided to do some exercise and eat more healthy food to boost my general fitness. So I bought a pair of scales to see how much I weigh. I know from when I played cricket that 80kg (12.5 stone) is the weight that I feel healthiest at (I’m 6’2′ ish in height). Rather worryingly the new scales give a different reading depending on where they are. In the place where I will always use them they are reporting that I’m currently about 86.6kg (13.6 stone). So about about 6.6kg (1 stone) above my optimal weight.

I’ve been exercising on the bike for a hour a day for the last 3 days. Unsurprisingly it does give you a lift. I think I’m inherently fit. I always have been generally fit so I get an instant payoff from exercise. In the 24 hours after the 1st day using the bike I noticed that the pain in my side was a lot less than it had been. In the 3 days since it has remained a lot less painful. It’s still tight and tender to the touch but it’s not the constant pain that it was before. Could it have been an internal hernia of some description that popped back to where it should be during the 1st hour on the bike? Here’s hoping, but time will tell. I’m putting a pile of Dell, HP and Apple servers into a rack tomorrow in work. Lots up lifting (carefully!) and crouching, bending during that. Be interesting to see how it reacts.

UPDATE on 30th August: The pain in my side is definitely better. It’s still tight and tender to a vigourous poke, but it’s not the pain I’ve had for the last 8 months. I’m so happy. That was starting to worry me a bit.

Try not to get the donut in the face

| | General

I think planning a project is ultimately a little like throwing a donut at the moon. You can never actually hit the target, plus you’ll be lucky if you aren’t hit in the face on the way down.

From Task Times, The Planning Fallacy, and a Magical 20% on 43 Folders.

London’s new skyline

| | General

The BBC is showing a new series called Britain from Above. The first programme had a section showing some new skyscrapers that are proposed for central London. I like the look of them all, with the possible exception of the pyramid shaped one. All are shown in the video below.

Soapbox and Twitter

| | Writing

Since I started Twittering I’ve been posting things that used to appear here on the Soapbox, like Song of the Day, as tweets instead. I can see this increasing with Twitter been used for short posts and this site being used for longer screeds. My 3 latest tweets also appear in the sidebar on the right here. If you are not on Twitter then give it go.

Vindicated!

| | Uncategorized

When I was thinking of buying a drum kit, I searched for info on the web to show that it was a good way to get exercise. I was looking for justification to spend the cash. I couldn’t find any info to show that it was good exercise. A study showing that drummers are fit, because they drum, has been done. Hah! Retrospective vindication 🙂

Christened the wok

| | General

I used my new wok earlier. It was as quick to cook something myself than it would have been to jump in the car and drive to the take-away. Plus it tasted better, was healthier and probably cheaper as well. Only took 10 minutes to clear up afterwards. First use of the wok was as follows:

Sliced chicken breast quick fried in groundnut oil (with teaspoon of mixed Chinese spices in a some water to flavour)

Diced pineapple

Sliced fresh red, green and yellow peppers

About 9 mL of pineapple juice (for sweetness)

Tablespoon of Rice Vinegar (for sourness)

Served on rice (Uncle Ben’s Egg Fried Rice from Microwave this time) with fresh quartered tomatoes and a big glass of cider. It was really nice 🙂

View wok on Amazon UK

Wok.jpg

Audiobooks and reading

| | Uncategorized

I’ve discovered an interesting thing with audiobooks and real books (both paper and electronic). If I try to read a book via audiobook for the first time then I find it hard to sustain my interest. On the other hand if I use an audiobook edition as a way to reread a book I’ve actually read (i.e. the words on a page) then I like it a lot. I think that’s how I will use audiobooks. As a way of rereading books I’ve physically read before.

Ordered a 16GB iPhone

| | Technology

Was out at lunch today to get cash. Dandered into a Carphone Warehouse.

“Have you any iPhone’s left?“, I asked, “Or are you all sold out?“

“We’ve got some 8GB ones here, but they are reserved for people. If you come

back after 2 we’ll have released any that haven’t been collected yet.” said a

sales representative sporting an iPhone 3G t-shirt.

“You’ve no 16GB ones then?“

“We have about 1000 in the warehouse. We can order you one if you like.“

“Can you do upgrades for existing O2 iPhone customers?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Lets do that then!“

I pick it up from the store on Tuesday. It’s a holiday weekend in Northern

Ireland this weekend. £59 + £20 for a Griffin hard shell case. Painless.

Chinese Food Made Easy

| | General

The new BBC TV show called Chinese Food Made Easy looks interesting. I love Chinese food. Probably be better, healthier and cheaper to cook my own. Don’t know if I have the time though. Looking forward to the new show.

Update: It was good show. Looked gorgeous on BBC HD. I’m going to do more cooking. Just ordered a Le Creuset wok 🙂

Internet speed bump

| | General, Technology

VirginMedia sent me a letter a while back saying that my cable internet connection would be increased to 10Mbps at some stage in over the summer. Looks like it’s been done. I don’t know when it happened but in the last day or so I’ve noticed much faster downloads. I’ve just done a speed test using Speedtest.net. Here are the results:

speedtestresults.png

Yeah. 10Mpbs download and 512kbps upload.

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