Posts

Showing posts from 2004

Any news from the Martians lately?

Image
They must be fun... Look at what they do with their craters... Even though, or maybe even just because, they know we're watching them... Smile! You're on candid camera...

Finally! I've found my Sancho Panza!

Image
Never would have guessed, but apparently there are people that agree on (some) of the things I say. Not that they know that I say (some of) the things they agree on, but still, it's a start. Here's a little snippet from an article on Wired , written by... James Cameron, yes I know, he's the guy that did the Titanic flick... but that's not important right now. Let's focus on the deeper thoughts of the guy... The last time humans crossed space to a destination was the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. In the 32 years since, no man has seen, with his own eyes, Earth as that beautiful, solitary blue sphere, and - reality check - no woman has ever seen it at all. We've been only to low Earth orbit since 1972, and from that altitude of 220 miles, looking at the 7,900-mile-diameter Earth is like peering at a basketball with your cheek pressed against it. Yes, you'll see curvature, but you're not seeing the whole thing. We've spent 32 years "exploring space&qu

It's a beautiful day...

Image
The sun was shining today, so I figured I'd take a picture of where I live. Forgot to zoom in though. Ah well... Yeah, I know, I'm lying... it's an old picture... from Nasa Just wanted to share the geeky coolness of satellite images. Seriously, when can we finally buy a ticket for the Space Shuttle? Shameless plug for Zenno

Wifi and the future

Image
You know what... I have faith in progress again. Here I am sitting in the middle of Dublin Airport... Wifi! In Ireland! It's an amazing world after all. Furthermore I've found a revolutionizing concept being developed in, of all places, the Netherlands... The PALV is on its way!!! The thing can reach speeds of up to 200km/h, both in the air and on land. You need a 50m take off 'strip' to take off and you can land almost vertically. It takes regular 95/98 unleaded petrol and has an action radius of between 550 (air) and 600 (land) kilometres. Anyway, who cares about the figures. It can take me to work and more importantly back home again in under 5 minutes! Beautiful stuff... I want one. Want to read more? Visit Sparkdesign . And if you still haven't visited Zenno , then it's about time you did...  

Zenno

Image
Sometimes Blogging is not about giving information. Sometimes it's not even about ranting or raving. In highly exceptional circumstances it's not even about venting frustrations. And guess what, it may not even be about simply typing for the typing. Sometimes it's just about sharing a feeling. Holding your breath for a moment and adoring a new life... So here he is, my nephew Zenno . You know, miniature things do not have to resemble iPods to be really impressive.

The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind...

Holiday time! Have looked forward to this for many a month. Away from dull, rainy Ireland for three weeks. Where to? The Sunshine State! Florida! Combined with 5 days of New Orleans the perfect way to forget about stress, houses, rain and other dreary topics... So here I am, blogging from a hotel room in St. Augustine Beach, Florida. Why am I not on the beach, you ask? A hurricane is visiting Florida too. So without exageration (and I've seen my share of rain in Ireland and The Netherlands) I can tell you that I've never ever seen so much rain in such a short amount of time. Literally, sheets of rain, or rather buckets full sweep by our hotel window. It's horizontal rain too, due to the wind. So how bad is it? Well, we're stuck. We're not in the center of the thing, so we don't see any rooftops flying by (yet) but we are seeing pieces of the hotel flying by occasionally. The hotel clerk advised us that it was only a tropical storm, so there was nothing to worry

Has progress stopped?

Anyone remember all those stories we were told when we were kids about how progress would go faster and faster and how the industrial revolution started a process that would continue to amaze people? Well, I don't buy it. I have a different theory. Progress has stopped. Think about it. Give me good examples of inventions of let's say the last 10 years. Heck, I'll give you 20 years or even 30. New inventions. Not improvements of an existing concept. Of course I can see the difference between a Ford T and a Ford Focus or Taurus or whatever. That's not the point. What is really new? Think useful as well, don't give me the entire 'what the invention of particle splitters can do for you' nonsense... I'm thinking household, or office tools. Think ovens. Think hoovers, think fridges. Fridges, good one. My view... the only real improvement of the past 30 years would be that kids can't lock themselves in a fridge anymore without being able to give the door a