Fitted to German Polizie cars…

Posted on June 23, 2008 
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img src=”http://oempl.us/images/B6-B7_Funk_Switch.jpg” alt=”FUNK” /

No idea what this does, but I need it fitted to my car. Schnell.

(image removed until I can resize it)

Still alive!

Posted on June 20, 2008 
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‘cos I’m still alive :D

Engineer Jokes IV

Posted on April 8, 2008 
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With regards to a colleague who works in software:
Geoff: “So, he knows something about the hardware too, it seems.”
Me: “Yes, I’d say he’s got a good grounding in it.”

Gosh, these are just getting worse and worse…

Lost in the Irish Sea

Posted on April 4, 2008 
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I heard a story today, relayed by Wogan of Radio 2, that whilst filming the 1956 version of Moby Dick, for the final scene Gregory peck was lashed to a life-size rubber model of a whale. Which was put to sea. And got lost, in fog. He floated there, lost for an hour in the Irish Sea before the film crew were able to find him, fortunately unharmed. I think this is both bizarre and wonderful.
From some random websearch:

“I nearly got killed in the Irish Sea, riding that rubber whale,” [Peck] said. “I was lost at sea. We were probably eight miles out from the coast of Wales, and the water was freezing.”

Source (it’s near the middle)

Imagine how his obituary could’ve turned out..

Engineer Jokes III

Posted on March 7, 2008 
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From an email sent a littler earlier today:

Also, looking at the datasheet for the [unit], I don’t see any reference to calibration.

Got to admit, I was quite pleased with that one.

On Monstrous Commie Plots

Posted on February 25, 2008 
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I read this and was astonished that not once in the article is Dr Strangelove referenced.

Stuff and nonsense

Posted on February 22, 2008 
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Various things have been happening, mostly bad, but shigata ga nai I suppose. Things are becoming rapidly less unfortunate, though, which is promising.
A few things I’ve been wanting to post about:
First, Tor is giving away a free ebook of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. This is free as in actually for nada free. You do give them your email, but they use that to email you links to free ebooks. Next week they’re giving away Robert Charles Wilson’s Hugo-winning Spin, which I’m looking forward to. Must find an appropriate ebook reader though, since I don’t use a PDA much any more. Sign up here. You can enter in any gibberish as a ZIP code - I just used my post code.

Next up, NASA’s published a list of potential shuttle launches for the remainder of the year - I’m excited, it’s a packed schedule. I saw some of the recent STS-122 mission on NASA TV, which I’ve not looked at before, and was quite impressed. I liked listening in to the comm chatter between Alpha, Atlantis, and Earthside ops - somewhat strange and comforting to hear (yes, I’m weird). Anyway, the forthcoming schedule of launches is packed, which is very cool:

Preliminary launch dates for shuttles in the rest of 2008:

* 11 March, Endeavour: to deliver the first part of the Japanese science complex known as Kibo and the Canadian Dextre robot to the ISS
* 24 April, Discovery: to loft the second and main component of the Japanese Kibo lab together with its exterior robot arm
* 28 August, Atlantis: a flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope
* 16 October, Endeavour: a cargo flight to the ISS using the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module in Endeavour’s payload bay
* 4 December, Discovery: taking up the fourth starboard “backbone” segment for the ISS; and the fourth set of solar arrays and batteries

Alpha’s seeing a lot of traffic recently - STS-122 just landed, ESA’s Jules Verne orbiter launching beginning of March for an expected on-station date sometime in late March, Endeavour’s already on the pad for STS-123 only three or four days after the Jules Verne launches… great stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a schedule so packed before. However, the sad part is that Atlantis’ next flight to service the Hubble ’scope may well be her last - schedules for next year have not been drawn up, but NASA is going to wind down the orbiter program so Atlantis may only have a few launches left.
As an aside, look at the flight schedule for STS-123 - it’s packed! The orbiters are really doing some fantastic stuff in their twilight years… after years of general malaise it seems that NASA is finally getting the birds to do what they were designed to.

Finally, regarding the news that Leonardo diCaprio and some other dude are going to be doing a live-action Akira movie and Leo himself will be playing Kaneda: this is not a good idea. This is a horrendously bad idea. Michael Heillemann says it well:

Let’s forget the fact that it cannot be adapted properly in full, even for two ‘epic’ movies and that even the animated movie, while interesting, doesn’t make a dent in the manga.

Let’s forget the fact that it breathes post-WWII-Japan, and that replacing ‘Tokyo’ with ‘Manhattan’ for ‘Neo-Manhattan’ is so retarded, not to mention ironic, that I can’t even begin to describe it; and that the film, if it were to be made, could only be made in Japan and still make sense.

(And let’s forget that it will undoubtedly become a post-911 discussion seed… Yeah, like we need more of those).

Let’s forget that Leonardo Dicaprio is 33-years-old playing Kandea, 16-year-old leader of a bike-gang, when he’s not being reprimanded by his gym-teacher…

Let’s forget that it’s a first-time director.

Let’s just forget the whole damn thing.

— keep looking »