18 June 2016
Space. Mankind still hasn’t conquered it. That’s fine. There’s still an element of danger inherent in the process, but it’s a risk acceptable to everyone who participates in each and every mission.
Mankind has been visiting space for decades now, the protocols, the terminology, all of it well-understood: the countdown, lift-off, orbits, de-orbit burn, re-entry, touchdown - all should be commonplace in the viewer and broadcaster vocabulary.
The human aspect of space is also pretty obvious; people go up, experience zero-gravity, and come back to earth with decreased muscle mass. And then there’s hope; that, one day, the schoolboy and schoolgirl watching wide-eyed could, perhaps, maybe, go up there too.
So why is space and man’s achievements there viewed so negatively or at least by adopting a blasé approach?
Commonplace. Meh. Pretty pictures of our planet.
BBC One switched from a news broadcast, a good proportion of which concentrated on Tim’s mission, to a cooking programme.
What‽
Not 15 minutes before the Soyuz capsule carrying Tim Peake was due to land, the BBC turns it off. An historic event worthy of a very real national pride, and the BBC can’t be arsed.
Yeah, sure I could have watched elsewhere, even to Auntie Beeb’s News channel. I’d naively expected the news programme to carry on for a bit and reschedule later stuff accordingly. So I switched channels.
The BBC does not get Baz’s seal of approval.
Ah well.
It got me thinking.
Where, these days, is the sense of wonder, of hope, of looking forward rather than back, of aspiration, of…
Where are we going?
17 June 2016
I work for a company with a larger-than-average number of gentlemen named Ian* concentrated into a small area. It’s small-enough that three of the four could reach out and touch the others if they so desired…
Er…
Pretty-much every working day at 10am and 3pm (excluding Fridays) I’ve been telling Steve* that it’s time for his drink: “Steve, brew time!”
Since 2002 that is, with breaks for good (and bad) behaviour. Steve gets a bit grumpy if brew time is delayed.
I’m kept on my toes by the rest of the office; if I forget the alert I’m reminded (or bypassed entirely!) It’s a good thing, a dry engineer isn’t a happy engineer!
And then we got a new guy and another new guy: 2 of our 4 Ians.*
They wanted in. Obviously, we engineers take brew times seriously. I modified the alert, which caught on in high circles, often invoked with third-party modifications; performance tuning!
A popular variant: “Brew Time Nuclear Ian, brew time no-nukes Ian!”*
Awesome.
We got a new starter 2 weeks ago, Dave.* Now Dave has been away this week - the 6-day SolidWorks course. A course to be completed in 5 days. Illogical maybe but hey, ‘tis one of the most intense things I’ve ever done…
Anyway, I practised a tiny update to the brew time alert today, a tweak designed to establish a new office order:
“Brew time Steve, brew time Dave (a pause, and dismissive wave) brew time the Ians.”
I think it’ll work well. Quite what Dave will think of it I can’t really guess at this stage. Based on what I’ve seen so far though, I think she’ll fit in nicely.
*The names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. Yes. As have their engineering specialities. We have other Ians throughout the building too; not quite an embarrassment of Ians though.
13 June 2016
Do you, like I, recall a time a decade or two ago; a time when Mr Clinton was accused of being a bit of a thicky, driven to succeed by the efforts of his much cleverer wife - Mrs Clinton - who most commentators of the day positioned as the brains of the outfit?
Isn’t it strange how men and women are now disowning her, with the simple accusation that she would NEVER have reached ‘here’ by herself.
How odd.
I shouldn’t dabble in political commentary, I can’t seem to understand the basics.
09 June 2016
One of my colleagues bought a drink from the drinks machine earlier today. Unremarkable. Another guy’s chance remark got me thinking about money. Literally.
(Odd units follow - 100 pence per Great British Pound throughout.)
He’d put a 50 pence coin into the coin slot. A 2011 coin with boxing gloves on the reverse. Not related to some outlandish English masturbatory competition, no; ‘twas a reference to the 2012 London Olympics. London England.
Another colleague wondered if the thing might be worth ‘something’ - something more than face value.
It was. Probably still is.
I took a moment to look at eBay for current starting prices and bids.
Used examples of similar coins start at 99 pence - nearly twice face value - and head northwards, topping out at around 8 times face value. Add 100 to 250 pence postage and packing and we’re at 4 to 13 times face value. OK there’ll be eBay fees and the actual cost of postage to deduct, but sellers are still ahead.
Hmmm…
Digging a bit deeper, there’s some with bids over 400 pence; and for mint, collectors items, there are some over 2000 pence, with equally outlandish postage charges.
Wow.
My youngest daughter has a money tin/can. It’s cylindrical, has a slot in the top and a pretty design running around it and, and… a rather unfortunate design flaw. I can’t check what’s inside without a tin/can opener.
Destructive.
The thing I took away from this is simple: the guy had ANOTHER 50p in his pocket. It’s a different world in our lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous bendy wire department!
08 June 2016
Yesterday, and prior to midnight, was the deadline to register to vote in the upcoming UK Referendum. Unprecedented numbers of people (according to the government) attempted to register to vote on the day - over half a million.
And then, at 10:15pm, it all went titsup as the servers broke under the demand of, I think, 25 (or was it 50) thousand simultaneous users.
And that’s how the day ended, tens of thousands of disappointed would-be voters.
The government has advised that anyone not registered should keep trying today; votes are important, see?
Er…
No.
No.
No.
If you’re one of those unlucky enough to fail to complete registration less than 2 hours before the deadline, it’s tough luck. Its been all over the news, social media - and almost inescapable too!
Unlucky?
No.
Inept?
Heck yes!
Servers break all the time; Black Friday, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, when Justin Bieber walks out with a dummy/pacifier partially obscuring his vacuous visage…
It’s the way the modern world works; things we literally* need to keep us alive and sane break all the time.
Don’t let the fact you didn’t plan well-enough in advance, and that the Prime Minister thinks it’s OK to extend the deadline thus arbitrarily imposing a bigger workload on the election apparatus get in the way of personal responsibility.
Git.
…
(breathes)
…
Ahhh… a rant’s better out than in.
Or, in my case, I’m voting to remain; people need protecting from themselves.
*Figuratively.