Krioma.net

I love to use LaTeX (a typesetting program based on TeX), it makes my work look and feel so professional. I normal just do this via a text editor in windows or, more often, in linux. Recently though I have started to fiddle around with using some graphical interfaces. For windows there are a few good programs out there. I really like to use TeXaide as it allows me to easily visualize equations. I would highly recommend this piece of software. An excellent website, full of useful stuff, is: http://symphony.arch.rpi.edu/~hendep2/publications/latex/ Well worth a read.

Happy 10th birthday Yahoo!! What an odd thing to say. Happy birthday to a website. Well it did revolutionize the internet. I personally don't use it anymore. I did have my first email address on their though. Haven't used it in years now. I have my own mail server so don't need to. I used to use it as a search engine, google now deals with that. I wonder what use it has for me now? Probably not much but it was there when I needed it, back in the day. I am sure many people still use it and it is still an excellent resource, just one I don't need anymore. Oh if you have a yahoo id you can get free ice cream to celebrate their 10th birthday, see: http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo_birthday/ but only for the next 35 minutes or so..

Today's open lecture at Uni, which I organised, was by Prof. Inglesfield of the Cardiff University Department of Physics and Astronomy. The subject material was rainbows, halos and glories. It was an absolutely wonderful talk full of excellent descriptions and some lovely pictures that very clearly illustrated the concepts. It made me want to go hunting for rainbows like I would have as a child. His website: http://www.astro.cf.ac.uk/pub/John.Inglesfield/ has some wonderful pictures on it off these optical phenomenon. Well worth a look at.

This makes some disturbing reading and reminds me of how lucky we are to live in the UK. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4317019.stm

Now this is going to make anyone feel a little inferior, well maybe not.
http://museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished/
At the age of 22 (same as me):
Charles Darwin set off as ship's naturalist on a voyage to South America and the Galapagos Islands.
James Joyce left his family, his church and his country for the European continent, in order to become a writer.
By 22, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget received his Ph.D., published 20 articles, and wrote a philosophical novel that outlined many of the issues he would explore during his career.
Caresse Crosby became the first person to patent a brassiere, which was made of two handkerchiefs and ribbon sewn together.
The Greek orator Demosthenes, orphaned at age 7, took his guardians to court when he was 22 for misusing his inheritance. He won the case.
Olympic runner Herbert James Elliott, ranked by many as the greatest mile runner ever, retired undefeated at 22.
U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz won a record 7 Olympic gold medals.
Inventor Samuel Colt patented the Colt six-shooter revolver.
Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the McCormick reaper, which allowed one man to do the work of five.

After Prof. Inglesfield's talk on Wednesday I was very eager to look into the optical effects he described in detail. He sent me a link to: http://www.philiplaven.com/. This is a good site. Full of lovely pictures and also lots of physical / mathematical descriptions. Most of this is not for the non-scientific. His descriptions are quite good though, just ignore some of the diagrams! It is worth a look just to see some of the stunning photographs.

I decided to get hold of a copy of Playboy - The Mansion, a concept that seemed interesting. After playing it I am a bit disappointed. It is just too 'samey' and very similar to the Sims. I expected this but it is almost identical. It has lots to uncover and it, for some unknown reason, is quite addictive. I think I will probably end up playing it for a while and it will grow on me. It isn't a bad game, but it is nothing outstanding and not worth the price on the label. The main problem is the issue of their never being a deadline on time, you can just go on and on - little pointless. End of the day it is still cool to be playing Hef.
More:
Official Game site: http://www.playhef.com/
Gamespot.com Review:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/playboymansion/review.html

Today I got an email off a guy telling me that he had used my website to find out what the IAU (International Astronomical Union) had named the recently 'discovered' moons around Saturn (http://www.krioma.net/blog/archives/2005_01_30.php#000543). During his email he happened to mention that he was doing this research for his website "The Moons of the Solar System" (URI: http://ksiezyce.republika.pl/index_en.html for English version). It is a good site. Though I think the general layout and design is a bit mind bending the content is excellent. He has some excellent info on the moons and then some interesting animations of the objects that he has put together. Take a look - might be good background for a talk on a moon... now I am getting ideas!!

This has to be my favourite album of 2005, so far! Lots to come yet though. It has given me the same feeling I had about the Ordinary Boys' album last year. Employment is a cracking album. Full of a pop rock tracks. Just what you need to "shake that thing to"! :-) It also has the glorious Oh My God I Can't Believe It On. This has probably the best and longest chorus I have heard in a long time...."Oh My God I Can't Believe It!". It is fun and has a point, well not all the time I don't think a song titled "Na Na Na Na Naa" can have any deep meaning! If I was a music journo I would have to give it 10/10 - a must buy! Some of the tracks can take a while to get into but that should not put anyone off. If you don't like this then well... ummm... you should - not that I want to impose my opinion or anything!

Tracklist:
1. Everyday I Love You Less and Less
2. I Predict A Riot
3. Modern Way
4. Na Na Na Na Naa
5. You Can Have It All
6. Oh My God
7. Born To Be A Dancer
8. Saturday Night
9. What Did I Ever Give You?
10. Time Honoured Tradition
11. Caroline, Yes
12. Team Mate

I have recently started using FORTAN 77, a programming language that was invented 5 years before I was born (in 1978 - don't ask why 77 then!)! It is fast and powerful, though a bit out of date. In general I am enjoying using it though I have a mind set towards C++ at times, when I remember my C++ coding that is! FORTRAN 77 itself was created by a team at IBM lead by John Backus. Fortran stands for FORmula TRANslation and is mainly used by scientists - it would be no good for developing tools for mobile phones for example but is damn powerful when it comes to data manipulation. It has been updated regularly but most people still use good old FORTRAN 77. If anyone wants to learn some FORTRAN 77 take a look at http://www.star.le.ac.uk/%7Ecgp/prof77.html, this is an excellent manual that I stumbled across today. Oh what fun that would be ;-)

WHEN I HEARD THE LEARN'D ASTRONOMER
by Walt Whitman, 1865

When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon unaccountable I became tired, and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

I like this. I am definitely not one to read poetry often but I do like this. Guess it makes me think about some of the stuff I do. I also found a site full of some interesting astronomical poetry, http://www.baltastro.org/AstroPoetry.html

Earlier I was looking around to see what astronomical events were coming up soon and I came across, http://www.delscope.demon.co.uk/news/skywatch3DIARY.htm. This has an excellent listing of events over the coming year or so.

This (http://frontsteps.com/creations/1001/139/index.php?t=1110541937) is not an official release to hit the charts yet but I feel it would do quite well! ;-) Oh btw it is a flash animation so for any of you without this capability then sorry - if you go to the site you will get the lyrics which will give you a good idea.
Oh and for those of you out there who are huge MJ supporters then sorry but he has left himself wide open for this sort of thing.

Now that sounded strange when I said that last night at the cinema. Have you guessed what we went to see? Yep it was Bruce Willis' latest adventure as a cop - Hostage. It was very entertaining and good to watch. It had a very Max Payne kinda feel to it from the start (for those of you who don't know Max Payne is a computer game). It was well worth the £3.

I must thank a friend of mine, Clive, for drawing my attention to this quite funny song - http://www.geoffellis.com/ebay.html. It is a good (well interesting) commentary on Ebay - the world wide garage sale. Well maybe it isnt that funny but at least a litte odd.

Umm here is some fun from our American friends: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4334377.stm

Jupiter is a great object to observer and take pictures of since it is constantly changing. Not just that it has some great objects to see and even the most inexperience observer will no about the great red spot and endeavor to observer it. It is a fantastic sight and a lovely object to study. I recently came across a collection of wonderful webcam pictures of Jupiter taken by Christopher Go. They are all good, for the equipment used, and can be found at: http://jupiter.cstoneind.com/

I meant to post this before but I have been so busy over the last few days and will be over the next few I am sure. Friday night was the 2005 Poynting Physical Society Ball. I love going to the ball as it is always so much fun. This year we were in one of the rooms at Aston Villa football club. It was actually rather nice. Much better than some of the places we have had in the past. I have swiped a few pictures off some people, thanks go out to Ran and Tom (and I think Olly!). I am bound to swipe more for the PPS website soon. Ok on to the photos, for some reason there is a general trend of me holding a beer! I didn't drink that much, honest. See: http://www.krioma.net/spgm/index.php?spgmGal=PPS_Ball_2005 for some of the photos.

Well I thought I'd give my mobile phone camera a go with the moon. I actually got a picture. I was quite surprised as I didn't think I would get any thing. They are actually quite noisy and not the best resolution but you can definitely tell it is the moon. Now I am getting ideas of ripping out a mobile phone camera and adapting it...



More can be found here

For the third year in a row I will be heading towards Reading just before the August bank holiday to endure 4 days of camping and three wonderful days of beautiful music. Lets hope it isn't as wet as last year http://www.krioma.net/blog/archives/2004_09_06.php#000385). I can't wait to see the Pixies, Foo Fighters and the Killers..nevermind the rest. It's gonna be fun. Maybe I should write a count down clock since the official Reading site (http://www.readingfestival.com/) doesn't have one. I'm damn excited now.

I just got hold of the Bravery's debut album. I am very impressed. At first they reminded me a bit of the Killers less so now. They do use a combination of indie and more dancey beats. It seems to work well and I am well impressed with this album. Probably my favourite track off this album has to be the opening track "Honest Mistake". It is very good. At times their tracks can be a bit samey but this is not necessarily a bad thing - it just means we have lots of a good thing! If you like any of the recent popier indie bands then you will love the Bravery. It seems they are on a worldwide tour at the moment I hope this goes well for them and I do wonder if they will play Reading...
For more see: http://www.thebravery.com/

Ever wanted to have the Moon leap out of the screen? If so take a look at:http://sweiller.free.fr/Moon3D-SWGG.html by Gerardo Addiego and Sylvain Weiller. I personally have not got out the 3D glasses since I can't find a pair but from what others have said this is meant to be quite impressive. Well done to the authors for such a good attempt.

According to The Sect of Homokaasu my website is 55% good and 45% evil. Excellent.



Oh and don't ask me how they calculated this I wasn't paying attention on the page that described how they find out. Oh one thing.. it depends on the info on the page so my rating will change. [Addition: when I viewed the link after the post on this page I was 79% good! ]