Tuesday, November 30, 2004

In Car Traffic Reports

Hi. It's 2004. Why in the heck aren't devices like this already built into the GPS navigation systems on new cars? Yeah, I know they are coming, but you'd think they'd be here by now. Anyway, I ordered one of these and I'll let you know how it works out. I just wish it extended into Riverside.

Monday, November 22, 2004

Let It Snow!

We awoke Sunday morning to a white blanket of snow in the yard. In Southern California. Where it never snows. Never. Ever. Did I say never?

Here's some more photos.


Thursday, November 18, 2004

Figuring the Mass of the Earth

This morning's commute centered on how scientists were able to compute the mass of the Earth, without ever leaving the planet. One of Newton's laws was that every object exerts a force on every other object, proportionate to it's mass and distance from the other object. Although I'd never know, when I walk into my living room, my cat is drawn towards me and I'm drawn towards my cat by our own tiny gravitational force.

That's pretty cool in it's own right, however, scientist used this knowledge to survey a large mountain to determine it's volume. They were able to figure the gravitational force of the mountain by dropping a plumb line near it and noticing that the line was pulled toward the mountain. After careful measurement and more math than a human should have to endure, the scientists were able to figure the mass of the mountain, extrapolate that to the mass of the Earth, as well as other objects in our solar system.

Now, I'm certain I explained this far too simply and I will probably get flamed by someone, but that's not the point. The point is a non-scientist type person now has a better understanding on these things, even if it is a simple understanding.

Also, Newton was a complete nut case. He once took a large needle, used for sewing leather together, and stuck it into his ocular cavity. He inserted the needed between his eye and eye socket and swirled it around there, just to see what would happen. On another occasion, he stared at the sun until he could no longer stand it, just to see what would happen. And this is the same man who was annoyed at the limits of mathematics while he was a student, so he invented calculus!
CPU Idle Time


How about dumping that really cool screen saver, and donating your idle CPU cycles toward a worthy cause. It comes with a neat-o screen saver as well!

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

A Short History of Nearly Everything

After finishing the most excellent Ender's Game (how in the heck did I miss this book growing up?), I've downloaded and burned all 18 hours of my next audio book, A Short History of Nearly Everything.



I'm only about 45 minutes into the first disc, and I can tell you that I'm absolutely enthralled with the material. The book is actually more of a source of answers to all of those science questions an inquisitive person has probably wondered about. What's more important, is that the answers are descriptive enough for the reader to have a good understanding about each subject, yet not terribly technical to the point where you'd need to be a scientist to understand.

I did have to turn off the CD player after the first 45 minutes simply because of the weight of the subject material. He quite clearly explains the prevalent theory on the Big Bang, and it hurt my brain. :) Actually, it forced me to think about things in ways that I am simply not accustomed, which required some time away from the audio book to process. Those of you who are smarter than me, and I'm sure there are many, may not have the same problem.

I'm very excited about this title, and I will share my discoveries with those that care to read in future bloggings.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Something made my day today. A co-worker approached me and thanked me for my service to my country. That has never happened before, and I just wanted to tell everyone how that simple gesture has completely made my day. If you happen to know any veterans, give them a "thanks" and you too can feel great about having made someone's day! (No, don't thank me, I already feel great, thank someone else!)

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Happy Birthday Marine Corps! And God speed to those of you in harms way, Marine or otherwise.

Thursday, November 04, 2004

I ran across this really interesting graphic of how counties are broken down in the presidential election. I was actually surprised to see so much red. Granted, there's less people in a majority of these parts. I did find it interesting how the entire State of California votes Democrat mainly because of the San Francisco Bay Area, while most of the state (location wise) votes Republican.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

I've finally figured out how to incorporate a moblog into my blog. I've had a camera phone for about 1 1/2 years; it's about time I figured this out.

Anyway, the photos section located on the right of this page should be updated much more frequently now. I have it set so that I can take pictures throughout the day with my camera phone, and they will appear almost instantly on the blog.

Q: Why would I be interested in photographs that you take throughout the day?

A: You wouldn't. The geek inside me required to figure out how to this. Go ask an artist type person to give you some real content.