Cavehill on Sunday
Some photos from a Cavehill dander on Sunday afternoon, including a photo of the devil's punch bowl which never ceases to give me vertigo.
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« January 2005 | Main | March 2005 »
February 28, 2005
Could you make it up?
Junior Kick Start
Searching for nostalgia after the 100 greatest cartoons of all time, I found some kick start memories from Peter Purves. The theme tune for kick start was Be My Boogie Woogie Baby by Walkie Talkie. That will win you a pub quiz some time.
February 27, 2005
Google Zeitgeist
I love scanning through the Google Zeitgeist to try to work out patterns, they have just added Ireland, whivch seems to show a desire to get out of the country and an unexplained fascination for Sky News which appears sixth, but doesn't appear in any other country's list.
via http://www.google.com/googleblog/
Link Spam Interview
Probably old news but here's an interview with a link spammer . I find his legal justification interesting:
Using proxy servers, Sam argues, is legal. (There seems to be some confirmation of this: you're not altering the machine's configuration, which would be illegal under the Computer Misuse Act, you're just using it to do something.) Sending viruses and using bots is not. "As well as being illegal, how much email spam gets through? The big link spammers, and me, we don't want to end up sharing a cell with a 300-pound guy called 'Bubba'. The moral argument, of whether this is the 'right' thing to do, is for the individual," says Sam. "The legal question is another matter."
Hypergraphia
This months National Geographic as a short piece about Alice Flaherty a neurologist, who suffers from Hypergraphia, a manic disorder characterised by an irrepressible urge to write-and write and write. The arfticle mentions the diatribes of the Unabomber, Theodore Kacynski, or the verbal pablum of Internet blogs as typical output of someone suffering from Hypergraphia.
Tree of Life
Explore the tree of life
February 25, 2005
A trip to the Mournes
Following on from the Friday places you love in Northern Ireland I am going to add some photos of the mournes, and particularly the dander from Donard Park up the Glen River to Slieve Donard. I did the walk today and it was bloody cold but very enjoyable.
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Donard Lodge Ice House
Here's a picture of the ice house:
and here's a link to a photo of the info board to save me typing.
February 23, 2005
http://www.melonride.com/Wunder/curios.html
Remix the psycho shower scene
http://www.saulbass.net/psychostudio/
From the excellent http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/
Crossposter for Movable Type
An interesting approach when you post to multiple blogs.
Flickr Graph
February 22, 2005
Belfast Lough
Sunrise over Belfast Lough on my way to work this morning:
All you can eat express shipping
Amazon.com launch all you can eat express shipping for $79.00 a year:
Movable Type Forgotten Password
If, like me, you have set up a movable type install with one author and have given the author permissions to the customer, who subsequently changes the password. The customer uses auto save for his passwords, and buys a new machine and throws the old one out.
If like me you panic and can't find a way of recovering the password, the movable type support pages direct you to MT-Medic. MT-Medic allows you to do some useful or emergency tasks on your MovableType installation.
February 21, 2005
Olympics in Northern Ireland
Read each comment, the last one is the one to wait for:
February 04, 2005
Julian and Gregorian
George washington was born in Virginia on the 11th February 1731 and celebrated his birthday on that date for 19 years. Virginia was a British colony and used the Julian calendar.
Then things got complicated.
The Julian calendar had a 12-month year measuring 365.25 days - an attempt to duplicate the time it takes the Earth to make a complete revolution around the sun. However, the calendar exceeded the solar timetable by about 11 minutes a year. Over time, that error compounded so that every 128 years the calendar shifted out of sync by a full day.
As a result, by the late 16th century there was a 10-day discrepancy between the astronomical definition of time and the calendar's definition. Easter, for example, was sliding toward summer.
To rectify this, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed a calendar reform, starting with a new way of determining leap years, that cut the annual time discrepancy from 11 minutes down to about 30 seconds. And, to bring the secular calendar back in line with the sky calendar, 10 days were dropped from the month of October that year.
In essence, 'You went to bed on October 4 and woke up October 15,' said Geoff Chester, public affairs officer for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington.
The change to the new Gregorian calendar wasn't universally accepted, however. Great Britain and its colonies, for example, continued on the Julian system until 1752, by which time they were 11 days out of whack with most of the world.
In another oddity, the British celebrated New Year's on March 25.
The switch to the Gregorian calendar meant dramatic changes for the British Empire: The year 1751 was cut off at Dec. 31, rather than extending to March 24, according to reference books.
The day after Dec. 31, 1751, was Jan. 1, 1752 - meaning, in essence, that the days Jan. 1 to March 24, 1751, were dropped from the outgoing British Calendar, and became Jan. 1 - March 24, 1752, under the newly adopted Gregorian system.
So while George Washington turned 19 on Feb. 11, 1750 (under the Julian calendar), his 20th birthday was celebrated in February 1752 (under the Gregorian).
In the changeover to Gregorian, Britain eliminated 11 days from the month of September (similar to what was done in 1582) and Parliament ordered that dates prior to 1752 on the Julian calendar be moved 11 days.
That pushed Washington's birthday back to Feb. 22. The switch acknowledged that even though he was born Feb. 11, 1731, according to the Julian calendar, to most of the world (which was using the Gregorian calendar) it was Feb. 22, 1732.
February 03, 2005
Namesakes
My family are from Aberdeen and after doing a little bit of vanity googling, I discovered this page:
http://www.bgantiqueclocks.com/longcase_pages/clockc132.htm
It appears that Thomas Kilgour died in or before 1713 as in British Clockmakers & Watchmakers Apprentice Records 1710- 1810 there is an entry for Thomas Kilgour (deceased), Inverness, recording that his son John was apprenticed to Andrew Jaffrey, Burgess & Merchant, Aberdeen 5 April 1713.
Also this page.
Early records are lost, but it is known that the congregation existed in 1716 when Andrew Jaffrey, formerly parish minister of Alford, became minister of this congregation
Vancouver
Just spent a few days in Vancouver with work, two 10 hour flights and a three day turn around, but I really enjoyed the brief time I spent there.
Went for a ten hour fishing trip with the very professional valleyfishing.com. Pick up and set down in downtown vancouver for me and a colleague and with the great exchange rate the trip cost a superb £140.00. My colleague caught a lovely Dolly Varden char (named after the pattern on a dress belonging to a Dicken's character, green with pink polka dots.), I missed a couple of fish but failed to hook or land any. We fished the Squamish and Chekamus rivers. Travelled along logging roads, past old mines and through Native American community. We watched bald eagles feasting on Pacific salmon, saw a deer and enjoyed a truley memorable day.
Other highlights for me included the Granville Island market and the wealth of unusual restaurants. If you like sushi I can't imagine there's a better selection of sushi restaurants outside Japan.
I loved the fact you could see snow capped peaks, and the fact that Vancouver city centre is so walkable. I walked from the Harbour out to Granville Island over the Granville Bridge from one side of the city centre to the other in about 45 minutes.
Thanks Trish and Cory for all the tips, I'd love to move the other way...the grass is always greener.