Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 04:33PM I've been playing with my wide angle lens attachment that I got in the 'states. This is the thing that I can put on the front of the camera which halves the focal length of the lens, making it into a wide angle so that it can see more. I was wondering what would happen if I got ten or so and put them all on together.
Would I be able to see behind me?
Life Saturday, March 17, 2007 at 05:15PM I hate it when I overhear the end of a conversation without hearing the start. Today, in Wilkinson's, I heard someone saying (loudly in case you think I was eavesdropping) "...of course, if you turn it upside down so that it drains out all the water and then let it dry out it should work fine.." I'm just baffled as to what they were taking about.
Life Friday, March 16, 2007 at 08:58PM Today is Comic Relief day. This is a bi-annual charity event where people do silly things, like sitting in a bath tub full of beans, for money. I'm not convinced that beans would be good for my complexion, and so I usually give a lecture in rhyme instead. These are great fun, earn a bit of cash, and take ages to write. An therein lies the rub this year. I've simply not had time to put on my poets hat and crank out the verse. So, for the first time for a while, there is no lecture this year. Very sorry people, maybe next time.
Life Thursday, March 15, 2007 at 10:31AM What is it with Hull and winning? Only a few days after we got four teams into the UK finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Challenge (something not achieved by any other university, ever - and something we did last year as well) I find that a team of ours has aced the British Computer Society (BCS) Computer Challenge, which took place yesterday in Leeds.
This was a fast paced quiz affair, all "fingers on the buzzers" and "your starter for ten" kind of stuff.
And we won. Congratulations to the team, Mat Steeples, Jamie Ashton, Sam Denison and Jon Stirling. This is the tenth time that we've won the competition in the 21 years that it has been running.
Go Hull.
Life Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 09:16PM While I'm talking about gadgets, I really should give an honourable mention to my favourite computer of the moment, the Motion LS800. This is the tiny powerhouse that I took to the 'states, and it really is lovely.
I was a bit ho-hum about it when I first got it, it was the height of summer and the lack of an internal fan was a bit of an issue. However, two things have happened since then. I've doubled the memory and put Windows Vista on it. Doubling the memory makes it a lot faster and also seems to make it run cooler (this sounds silly, but I'm sure it is true - less hard disk activity generates less heat). And Vista, with its powerful handwriting recognition, makes the LS800 very useable as a pure tablet.
The teeny tiny nature of the machine means that you don't notice it in your bag. The screen is only 8.4 inches in size, with 800x600 resolution, but this is not a problem. If there were more dots, with eyes like mine I would not be able to see them anyway. And in a week of use, including some sessions with Visual Studio, I was never hamstrung because of the small size of the display. Battery life is good at around 3 hours with a bit of care, and all in all it is now my traveling companion of choice.
Gadgets 