Engineering
Radioactivity And The Geiger Counter – Part 2
At some point in the 1980s a certain Bob Boyd needed to use a lavatory. I suppose that we all do, from time-to-time. And, at some point in the 1800s, someone decided it a very [more…]
Technology
Engineering
Radioactivity And The Geiger Counter – Part 1
I would not say that I am afraid of science and technology but I do make an exception in certain areas: nuclear physics being one example. Firstly, it’s very dangerous to play with (duh!). Secondly, [more…]
20th Century
The Early Days of Computing, Part Two
I worked for Sweda Litton designing a POS (Point Of Sale) system for Boots The Chemists. The relevance for my future computing work is that I invented a table driven methodology for controlling POS terminals. [more…]
Arts
The Ovinet
Since the World Wide Web has become a conduit for the streaming of the received ‘wisdom’ of so many sheep, there’s a case for renaming it the Ovinet. The appropriateness (good LibFascist word that) of [more…]
20th Century
The Early Days of Computing, Part One
I started working with computers when computers started. Not quite but my first line of code was written in 1969 and loaded onto an Elliott 905 computer at Elliott Automation, Borehamwood. My last line of [more…]
Science
A day in the life of: SAP Test Manager
I am wary of writing this, as it may be boring, and unusually for me, contains no filth, but thought it may become something like the “Postcards From” articles we all write from time to [more…]
Engineering
The Fastest Airliner You’ve Never Heard Of
Well here we are for the second part of this series of interesting aeroplanes you’ve probably never heard of. There’s quite a few good candidates for these articles and a few which stand out particularly [more…]
America
Space Travel
For the first time in decades there is no rocket certified for human spaceflight available anywhere on planet Earth. To make things a little more interesting the astronauts on the ISS have only a Soyuz [more…]
Arts
3D Printing – a layman’s guide
The latest thing to grab the keen tinkerer’s attention is 3D printing. This has taken off in a huge way in the USA, and is gaining fans in the UK too. The concept is surprisingly [more…]