Archives for category: Thoughts

The beeping snowman

August 9, 2004 //

Ok so I’m blatantly stealing this idea from ‘I’m sorry I haven’t a clue’, the BBC radio 4 light entertainment show. Still I thought it was pretty funny.

Censorship of songs on the radio is generally done with *beep*ing out the offending language, this makes the song of course suitible for audiences before the watershed. However if you apply the same *beep*s to a completely innocent song, the effect can be rather amusing (for the adults of course)

Observe example A, The snowman (we’re *beep*ing on the air):

We’re *beep*ing in the air
We’re *beep*ing in the moonlit sky
The people far below are sleeping as we fly

I’m holding very tight
I’m *beep*ing in the midnight blue
I’m finding I can *beep* so high above with you

yeah well its probably better if you hear it but hopefully you get the idea, why not try it yourself with a home-made beeping machine made from a washing up bottle and some foil.

Categories Thoughts

Slow down and chill out

August 6, 2004 //

Strangely I seem to have developed a backlog of things that I want to blog about, so I think I’ll try and get myself in gear and get them up. Although having said that some of them haven’t been posted because they require some research and I’m feeling a bit idle in that department right now.
Others just haven’t yet seemed to fall into place properly with wordage and stuff. So anyway onto the first on the list:
I was stimulate to think about the hecktic pace of modern life by an article on slowness and its follow up, both interesting and the follow up has some disturbing facts.
So what has happened to the world that has created all these problems with people rushing around and not spending a decent amount of time with family and friends or even sitting down to a decent meal?
Read the rest of this entry »

Categories Health, Thoughts

Statistics

August 5, 2004 //

I have recently added bbclone to the behind-the-scenes of my website. For those that don’t know this tells me how many people have visited, which pages are most popular and how often my site is being indexed by search engines.

I have much to my shame become slightly addicted to the information though. Imagine the scene….
Rob sitting at computer, idly wonders ‘how many people have visited my site so far?‘
*checks*
‘Wahoo!!! 7 people!’
*dances around in joy for a bit*

*sits back down*…..

‘I wonder how many people have visited now‘….

And repeat.

I have since been told that AWStats is even better, but after having a bash at getting it working and getting nowhere, I think I’ll leave it for now.

Categories Thoughts, Website

Self censorship

July 24, 2004 //

In a chat with Pete not that long ago we were joking about being carried away by men in white coats for things written about in a blog. I thought that it was certainly pretty easy to censor yourself enough to prevent this from happening. However this did get me to thinking.
I some article somewhere I read that some of the more tech savy companies will read the blogs of job applicants as this is the easiest way of getting a handle on what they are really like. Thinking about this I wondered if knowing this fact would cause me to censor myself more that usual.

After a bit of contemplation on the subject I came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t change my blogging at all, I’ve already decided that I won’t use sware-words on this blog (mainly because I like the challenge of using more interesting language) and I don’t get upto anything that I feel would influence any job making decisions (plus what are the chances of that actually happening to me?)

On a completely separate note I had a really enjoyable day at work yesterday, I was working with my boss on some initial simulations for our next major project and found the challenge and the free exchange of ideas to be stimualting and rewarding…. 😉

Categories Thoughts, Website

Microwave info

July 22, 2004 //

The reason that we can’t put metal in the microwave is similar to why its a bad idea to run a microwave with nothing in it. If there is fat or water molocules to absorb and transform the microwave energy to heat energy then there’s no problems. However, if there is no absorbtion then the amount of radiation energy builds up in the microwave until it reaches a point where sparks can occur. This of course is a bad thing.

Source: Ask a scientist

During my searches for this info I also found Unwise Microwave experiments 😀 most of the things on there are just silly, but one piece of information was not only startling but also something I think that everyone should know (assuming its true).
If you heat water for a few minutes in the microwave, it is capable of actually reaching temeratures above 100 degrees C.
‘How?’ you ask?
Well its a bit difficult to explain but I’ll give it a go (much better explination on that site).
Water can only change to steam at a liquid/gas surface, in normal boiling (with an element or on a hob) the temperature is so extreme near these heat sources that seed-bubbles are created and they rise up through the water. In a microwave however, the water is in effect heating itself (by absorbing the microwave radiation) and so there is no localised hotspot for these seed-bubbles to be created. True there will be some micro-bubbles due to the un-even surfaces of the container that holds the water, but this will not be enough to cool the water (as with normal boiling).
Now, you have your superheated water and you take it out of the microwave, you add your sugar and…. KA-POW (not in a good way) with the introduction of all those micro-bubbles (and generation sites) the water will immediately equalise and rapidly cool by changing to steam. This is a pretty explosive reaction and will send boiling water all over the place, burning anyone nearby.
Not good !
So the advice is be damn careful and if you must re-heat coffee or boil water in the microwave, do it for less than a minute.

Categories Random, Thoughts

Random question

July 22, 2004 //

Why is it so bad to put metal in the microwave?

If I find out I’ll post an answer.

[Answer]

Categories Random, Thoughts

Blogging restraint?

July 20, 2004 //

Yesterday evening, after eating my tea and generally relaxing I had several thoughts that I considered blogging about. However I decided to restrain myself see as I’d already blogged twice that day (two times is enough surely).

Since then I have had time to reflect on this attitude and have now decided to take a completely different tack.
I will now blog anything and everything that I think is worthy of the small amount of effort it takes. This will of course mean that there will be a lot of useless and boring information on here, but in time I think this will work out for the best.
‘Why?’ you ask?
Well simply because the more I write the quicker my writing style will improve and I will get a better idea of what is interesting to blog about… hopefully this will happen through the comments, so the more you comment the quicker I’ll learn ;).
(Is that hint subtle enough?).

Well I’m off to play farcry for a bit now.

Categories Thoughts