Monday, October 31, 2005
Female sci-fi viewers outnumber males
Adventures of Buffy and Lara see female sci-fi viewers outnumber males I've no idea why it's those shows that are making scifi so popular but none the less it's interesting!
Friday, October 28, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Stanford iTunes
Stanford University is offering audio versions of leactures and talks online for free. They cover quite a range of topics so most people should find something interesting there. Unfortunately they're offering it through iTunes fortunately seeing they're free you don't need an account to access them. Any way have a look here if your interested Stanford iTunes.
The lectures Range from Nature Sustainability, Global warming, to religion and political science, there is also some classical music and other related materials there.
Have a look and download a few if they look interesting.
The lectures Range from Nature Sustainability, Global warming, to religion and political science, there is also some classical music and other related materials there.
Have a look and download a few if they look interesting.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Friday, October 21, 2005
Flock web browser
Currently experimenting with Flock a Mozilla firefox based browser that has built in support for a number of web services such as Flickr del.icio.us Blogger wordpress, Technorati and RSS looks interesting so far. Seeing I make some use of most of those services it will hopefully be rather convenient.
New Scientist Breaking News - Weird and Wacky
A couple of interesting Patents, Eyeball electronics and a Dancing Cell phone!
New Scientist Breaking News - Invention: Eyeball electronics
New Scientist Breaking News - Invention: Eyeball electronics
Relief
It's a relief to find out that I've passed all my papers for this year. It's also a relief that the grades I got were good enough to allow me to continue on to Masters Part II, the research project.
I stuffed up one paper with a rather low grade but thankfully 2 very good grades and a reasonable one balanced that out nicely.
So it's now waiting to here back from my supervisor I can start my project!
Also on another VERY nice note the Biology department is offering all it's MSc Part II students a summer scholarship! Enroll to do a research project over summer and they pay for the course fees ($1000) and $4000 on top of that! The summer research project is meant to be your thesis project as well. So effectively they're giving you $4000 to start your research a bit early!
I think I like my department!
I stuffed up one paper with a rather low grade but thankfully 2 very good grades and a reasonable one balanced that out nicely.
So it's now waiting to here back from my supervisor I can start my project!
Also on another VERY nice note the Biology department is offering all it's MSc Part II students a summer scholarship! Enroll to do a research project over summer and they pay for the course fees ($1000) and $4000 on top of that! The summer research project is meant to be your thesis project as well. So effectively they're giving you $4000 to start your research a bit early!
I think I like my department!
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Earth Observatory Newsroom: Blue Marble Next Generation
Looking for some different wallpapers for your computer? Nasa's has released some new high-res satellite images of the earth with one for each month showing how the seasons change the appearance of the earth. So if you've some free bandwidth I'd suggest you have a look!
Earth Observatory Newsroom: Blue Marble Next Generation
Earth Observatory Newsroom: Blue Marble Next Generation
A couple of Firefox extensions worth having.
These two firefox extensions are rather useful.
Mouse gestures - Allows you to navigate around the browser by holding down a mouse button and moving the mouse in a certain direction. No more moving the mouse to the top of the page to use the buttons there or create a new tab.
Blogthis- A nice little extension that adds a new option to the right click menu in Firefox. Right click on a page and choose blogthis and it pops up a box containing the URL so you can post it to your blog. Do it while you've selected some text and it pops up a box containing the text and a link so you can post it directly to your blog.
Mouse gestures - Allows you to navigate around the browser by holding down a mouse button and moving the mouse in a certain direction. No more moving the mouse to the top of the page to use the buttons there or create a new tab.
Blogthis- A nice little extension that adds a new option to the right click menu in Firefox. Right click on a page and choose blogthis and it pops up a box containing the URL so you can post it to your blog. Do it while you've selected some text and it pops up a box containing the text and a link so you can post it directly to your blog.
Dyslexia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Always interesting reading this sort of stuff Dyslexia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Humans are such a varied species in so many ways. No doubt that's also true in other species it just alot harder to observe when it's not our selves.
Wikipedia's an interesting and useful source but like all things on the internet care must be taken when using such a source. It's well worth finding a couple of papers or reviews from a respectable journal, which is one thing that wikipedia has going for it the use of references and a bibilography for the more scientific articles.
Wikipedia's an interesting and useful source but like all things on the internet care must be taken when using such a source. It's well worth finding a couple of papers or reviews from a respectable journal, which is one thing that wikipedia has going for it the use of references and a bibilography for the more scientific articles.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Archimedes Laser
Now this is rather cool.
Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire.
A TV program called MythBuster apparently tried to do this and decided that it was impossible and therefore a myth.
How ever a group of engineers decided to have a go any way and the results are definitely rather cool!
2.009 Product Engineering Processes: Archimedes
Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire.
A TV program called MythBuster apparently tried to do this and decided that it was impossible and therefore a myth.
How ever a group of engineers decided to have a go any way and the results are definitely rather cool!
2.009 Product Engineering Processes: Archimedes
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Knife of Dreams
Right well I just picked up the book from the UBS. Please excuse me if you can't contact me in the next 5 hours :)
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Holidays - Reading
Well with my exams having finished in September I've spent the last few weeks reading, gaming and watching abit of Anime.
Read some pretty decent stuff during that time nothing absolutely brilliant. None the less if you like Science Fiction and Fantasy then many of these are worth a look at:
Science Fiction
Williams, Walter Jon - Dread Empire's Fall:
The Praxis
The Sundering
Conventions of War
- This series focuses on two major Characters Officers in the Fleet of the Galatic Empire as if falls apart after the death of the last members of the Master Race. Focus is Military, especially space fleets.
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - CoDominium
The Mote in God's Eye
The Gripping Hand
- Two books about the first Contact with an Alien race. Some of the Best Science fiction I've read for quite some time.
Robinson, Kim Stanley - Mars
Red Mars
Green Mars
Blue Mars
- A political and science focused series that follows the teraforming of Mars over a couple of generations.
Anderson, Kevin J - Saga of the Seven Suns
Hidden Empire
A Forest of Stars
Horizon Storms
- This series hasn't been finished yet but is a nice big Space Opera. Following the lives of a number of Characters both human and Alien after humans accidental start a war with an ancient and powerful species, when they Convert an Gas Giant Inhabited by the race into a new Star using ancient Technology they discovered.
Bova, Ben - Voyagers
Voyagers
The Alien Within
Star Brothers
- Very Light Science fiction, about the discovery of an Alien Ship that drifts into the solar system set about the late 1970s
Eric Flint - Assiti Shards
1632
1633
1634
- Starts with a Very brief Scifi mechanism then quickly converts to a semi Historical/Alternate History Series. The Premise is a small American Village is transport back into the 17th Century and ends up in Germany in the middle of the "30 Year War" most of the historical detail appears to be fairly accurate so an interesting read.
CJ Cherryh - Morganine
Gate of Ivrel
Well of Shiuan
Fires of Azeroth
Exile's Gate
- Interesting Scifi/Fantasy series, An Alien Race created a series of gates that allow transport through time and between worlds, someone made the mistake of trying to go back and time and caused a massive cataclysm that wiped out the Alien civilization. Many years later Humans discover the Gates and send a team through with a job to disable every gate at any cost to prevent any one trying to go back in time ever again.
Fantasy
Canavan, Trudi - Black Magician
The Magicians Guild
The Novice
High Lord
- Nice resonable light Fantasy. Fairly typical series about a young Girl from the Slums who is found to be able to use Magic and is forced to join the Mage Guild as a result. Well worth a read though nice and clean.
CJ Cherryh - The Fortress Series
Fortress in the Eye of Time
Fortress of Eagles
Fortress of Owls
Fortress of Dragons
- Fairly typical High Fantasy though with out the usual elves, dwarves, orcs and Goblins. Well worth reading though again very clean.
Juliet E. McKenna - Einarinn
The Thief's Gamble
The Swordsman's Oath
The Gambler's Fortune
The Warrior's Bond
The Assassin's Edge
- Interesting series focus on a 2 characters a thief/Gambler and a Swordsman. Again clean and a good read.
Paolini, Christopher - Inheritance
Eragon
Eldest
- A classic boy and his dragon out to save the world series. It's very well written and apparently managed to knock "Harry Potter" off the top spot in the sales charts when the second book was released soon after the latest HP book.
Things I'm Intending to read soon or reread.
Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan - Book 11 of The Wheel of Time, need I say more?
Gap into Madness series (5 books) by Stephen R. Donaldson - A Good but VERY Dark Science fiction Series this really pushes the limits of what I'm prepared to read (or least it did last time I read it in 1997 (hmm I was 13)). Definitely Adult only from memory , but still interesting and well written. I personally think it's better than Donaldsons fantasy "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" which is somewhat cleaner. Though I think my favorite work of his would be "Mordant's Need" A much cleaner Fantasy series.
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny - Should be interesting not read any thing of his before.
I Should also note that during this time I've also been watching some Anime mainly:
Witch Hunter Robin - A very nice series about a group who hunt down witches in modern Tokoyo.
Naruto - Funny action series set in a world were nija are used instead of Armies, following the adventures of a young nija and his friends from one of the major countries.
Read some pretty decent stuff during that time nothing absolutely brilliant. None the less if you like Science Fiction and Fantasy then many of these are worth a look at:
Science Fiction
Williams, Walter Jon - Dread Empire's Fall:
The Praxis
The Sundering
Conventions of War
- This series focuses on two major Characters Officers in the Fleet of the Galatic Empire as if falls apart after the death of the last members of the Master Race. Focus is Military, especially space fleets.
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle - CoDominium
The Mote in God's Eye
The Gripping Hand
- Two books about the first Contact with an Alien race. Some of the Best Science fiction I've read for quite some time.
Robinson, Kim Stanley - Mars
Red Mars
Green Mars
Blue Mars
- A political and science focused series that follows the teraforming of Mars over a couple of generations.
Anderson, Kevin J - Saga of the Seven Suns
Hidden Empire
A Forest of Stars
Horizon Storms
- This series hasn't been finished yet but is a nice big Space Opera. Following the lives of a number of Characters both human and Alien after humans accidental start a war with an ancient and powerful species, when they Convert an Gas Giant Inhabited by the race into a new Star using ancient Technology they discovered.
Bova, Ben - Voyagers
Voyagers
The Alien Within
Star Brothers
- Very Light Science fiction, about the discovery of an Alien Ship that drifts into the solar system set about the late 1970s
Eric Flint - Assiti Shards
1632
1633
1634
- Starts with a Very brief Scifi mechanism then quickly converts to a semi Historical/Alternate History Series. The Premise is a small American Village is transport back into the 17th Century and ends up in Germany in the middle of the "30 Year War" most of the historical detail appears to be fairly accurate so an interesting read.
CJ Cherryh - Morganine
Gate of Ivrel
Well of Shiuan
Fires of Azeroth
Exile's Gate
- Interesting Scifi/Fantasy series, An Alien Race created a series of gates that allow transport through time and between worlds, someone made the mistake of trying to go back and time and caused a massive cataclysm that wiped out the Alien civilization. Many years later Humans discover the Gates and send a team through with a job to disable every gate at any cost to prevent any one trying to go back in time ever again.
Fantasy
Canavan, Trudi - Black Magician
The Magicians Guild
The Novice
High Lord
- Nice resonable light Fantasy. Fairly typical series about a young Girl from the Slums who is found to be able to use Magic and is forced to join the Mage Guild as a result. Well worth a read though nice and clean.
CJ Cherryh - The Fortress Series
Fortress in the Eye of Time
Fortress of Eagles
Fortress of Owls
Fortress of Dragons
- Fairly typical High Fantasy though with out the usual elves, dwarves, orcs and Goblins. Well worth reading though again very clean.
Juliet E. McKenna - Einarinn
The Thief's Gamble
The Swordsman's Oath
The Gambler's Fortune
The Warrior's Bond
The Assassin's Edge
- Interesting series focus on a 2 characters a thief/Gambler and a Swordsman. Again clean and a good read.
Paolini, Christopher - Inheritance
Eragon
Eldest
- A classic boy and his dragon out to save the world series. It's very well written and apparently managed to knock "Harry Potter" off the top spot in the sales charts when the second book was released soon after the latest HP book.
Things I'm Intending to read soon or reread.
Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan - Book 11 of The Wheel of Time, need I say more?
Gap into Madness series (5 books) by Stephen R. Donaldson - A Good but VERY Dark Science fiction Series this really pushes the limits of what I'm prepared to read (or least it did last time I read it in 1997 (hmm I was 13)). Definitely Adult only from memory , but still interesting and well written. I personally think it's better than Donaldsons fantasy "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" which is somewhat cleaner. Though I think my favorite work of his would be "Mordant's Need" A much cleaner Fantasy series.
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny - Should be interesting not read any thing of his before.
I Should also note that during this time I've also been watching some Anime mainly:
Witch Hunter Robin - A very nice series about a group who hunt down witches in modern Tokoyo.
Naruto - Funny action series set in a world were nija are used instead of Armies, following the adventures of a young nija and his friends from one of the major countries.
BBC NEWS | Health | Scans show how HIV attacks brain
BBC NEWS | Health | Scans show how HIV attacks brain
Right as if the other effects of the disease weren't bad enough as it was!
Right as if the other effects of the disease weren't bad enough as it was!
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