Stabilising Video To The Milky Way Shows The Rotation

My perspective on the Milky Way is changed.

www.youtube.com/watch

Twitter Thoughts 20171121

In technology, 70% chance of being right when someone in their 20’s tell you you’re wrong. 50 years ago it was 100%.

Hello ? Suicide Hotline ? My boss is interested in Microsoft Surface tablets……

Explaining the difference between a medical incision & slitting someone’s throat to the sales grunt. Not sure why I’m warning her.

“What do you think of the network proposal ?” Me: “It’s in my top eight.”

Bring a tambourine to the next vendor review meeting. Sing inspirational songs before they hand you the quote/proposal.

Looks like we will be getting whitebox.  Yeah, the Reseller said they will have to run a credit check

This Sales grunt’s seduction technique is to submit the wrong quote and then play hard to get.

Sony WFX1000 Earphones Review - Not Good Enough

Summary: I bought a pair of Sony WFX 1000 Earphones after 2 weeks of use there are just too many problems for me to keep them.

At the £200 pound purchase price, they need to actually work reliably, and predictably. They do not work properly on my MacBook or iMac and regularly dropout when using them on my iPhone.

I am returning them for a refund. 

What I wanted:

  1. Wireless Earphones (because iPhone doesn't have a headphone jack)
  2. Noise cancelling to use in a busy office when remote working or travelling on a plane.
  3. Sound quality to be average.
  4. Battery life for long haul flights is desirable.

Good

They fit in my ears ok, didn’t fall out when walking (didn’t try gym/hard exercise due to injury)

Sound is typical Sony. I like Sony earphones, they tend towards bass and generally sound nice to me.

Bad

They work sometimes. Can reliably sync to iPhone 7 but the right earpiece will consistently dropout even while sitting at my desk, with phone in front of me. Happens more often when walking with phone in back pocket.

Highly unreliable and ultimately unusable with a MacBook Pro. The audio keeps shifting from right to left earpiece for no reason when sitting directly in front of computer.

Earbud battery life is short, maybe 60-90mins when using noise cancellation which is the point of this product. And then 90 minutes to charge earbuds (way too long!) means these aren’t suitable for heavy use.

No battery indicator on the battery box. Annoying when you don’t know if you should charge it, why should I bother to keep track. 3 hours to charge battery box!

The user interface is clumsy. The IOS App is badly put together, the features are there but its not clear what the feature do or why I would use the app.

Charge case is a bit too large to be comfortable in my pocket.

Charge case is fussy to use when charging earphones, you have to do it exactly right.

Video: Girls bomb beautiful, crazy-big winding hills in Norway on longboards

I’m jealous, I admit.

The impressive film, also featuring an atmospheric score by Swedish rock band Tussilago, is just further proof that the female-fronted longboard revolution is going from strength to strength.

Favourite quote:

We are so used to hearing that you have to work hard, that you can't just dream all the time. You know, that old way of thinking. 

And its not true anyone because we just keep proving it wrong by succeeding it what we believe in. 

Oh, that hurts. That really hurts.

Girls bomb beautiful, crazy-big winding hills in Norway on longboards : http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/ishtar/

 

 

Blade Runner 2049 Short Film Reveals What Happened in 2036

Blade Runner 2049 prequel short film “in-world” piece that explains what happened in the world of Blade Runner between the first movie, set in 2019, and this sequel, set in 2049.

www.youtube.com/watch

Nokia Healthmate (aka Withings) is crap

Dear Nokia Healthmate

This is a very negative review of Nokia Healthmate.

Having attempted to use the post-withings version of the Health Mate app I’m close to giving up. My main complaint is that user interface is unspeakably bad. I can’t see my charts, the screen keeps resizing them. The entire user interface is a disaster, I can’t comprehend the logic behind your decision and keep flicking between screens looking for my information. It feels like ads keep popping up on my screen instead of useful information.

I’d like to meet the idiot that decided to use whitespace as a “design fetish” instead of treasuring one-glance information. The touch id integration is wrong somehow, I can’t reliably get into the app.

My scales still haven’t managed 5 PWV readings since I’ve owned it (nearly a year now).

I gave up on the Go wearable I purchased as a test since it never worked from purchase. It wouldn’t sync reliably and tech support maintained I was doing something wrong. Because of this I did not purchase a Steel and went for an Apple watch instead. I cannot trust Healthmate to get it right.

Can It Be Fixed ?

I want to see the original Withings app return with simple, direct and obvious workflow. Since this is highly unlikely and I doubt that you will listen I guess its just a matter of time until I sell my hardware second hand on eBay and move on to something else.

It’s not just me either, a quick check of the the reviews on the IOS App Store confirm that isn’t just me. Hundreds of one star reviews.

You messed this up so bad.

Electric Vehicle Outlook 2017

Change happens slower than I might think. Even at 50% of new sales in a year, this means that probably just 30% of cards will be electric by the time I am retired in 20 years.

Sadness.

Electric vehicles take majority share of new car sales

We estimate that EVs will account for 54% of new car sales by 2040, not 35% as previously forecast.

Electric Vehicle Outlook 2017 | Bloomberg New Energy Finance | Bloomberg Finance LP : https://about.bnef.com/electric-vehicle-outlook/?src=social

Sperm counts among western men have halved in last 40 years

This article on The Guardian is like science fiction:

Sperm counts among men have more than halved in the last 40 years, research suggests, although the drivers behind the decline remain unclear.

The latest findings reveal that between 1973 and 2011, the concentration of sperm in the ejaculate of men in western countries has fallen by an average of 1.4% a year, leading to an overall drop of just over 52%

 

One other thing:

“If you are a guy with a low sperm count and you try for a baby when you are 21, you are probably not going to notice you’ve got a problem,” Pacey said. “But if you are trying with your partner when she is 35 then that’s when the heartache comes, because by then you have got low sperm count, you’ve got an older partner and you haven’t got a lot of time to try and fix it medically.”

Men should be considering that their body clock is ticking too ?

Sperm counts among western men have halved in last 40 years – study | Life and style | The Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/25/sperm-counts-among-western-men-have-halved-in-last-40-years-study

Smoke Bubble Tree

www.youtube.com/watch

Video:Magnatron 2.0

Promotional video for the synthwave collection “Magnatron 2.0” by New Retro Wave

For a moment there I was nostalgic for the 80s disco. Don’t panic, it was just a moment.

 

vimeo.com/221313907

Selling is making poeple feel bad

DC7CA4B3-F0EA-4CAA-80DD-352AF8D2886F.jpg

The Rise of the Machines – Why Automation is Different this Time

 

www.youtube.com/watch

What is a hero ?

“Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone who gets other people killed. "

The Golden Road to Samarkand

I heard about this poem play today by James Elroy Flecker and was delighted to read this. It strikes a chord with me.


SCENE II At the Gate of the Moon, Bagdad. Blazing moonlight. MERCHANTS, CAMEL-DRIVERS and their beasts, PILGRIMS, JEWS, WOMEN, all manner of people. By the barred gate stands the WATCHMAN with a great key. Among the pilgrims, HASSAN and ISHAK in the robes of pilgrims.

THE MERCHANTS (Together) Away, for we are ready to a man! Our camels sniff the evening and are glad. Lead on, O Master of the Caravan, Lead on the Merchant-Princes of Bagdad.

THE CHIEF DRAPER Have me not Indian carpets dark as wine, Turbans and sashes, gowns and bows and veils, And broideries of intricate design, And printed hangings in enormous bales?

THE CHIEF GROCER We have rose-candy, we have spikenard, Mastic and terebinth and oil and spice, And such sweet jams meticulously jarred As God’s Own Prophet eats in Paradise.

THE PRINCIPAL JEWS: And we have manuscripts in peacock styles By Ali of Damascus: we have swords Engraved with storks and apes and crocodiles, And heavy beaten necklaces for lords.

THE MASTER OF THE CARAVAN But you are nothing but a lot of Jews

PRINCIPAL JEW Sir, even dogs have daylight, and we pay.

MASTER OF THE CARAVAN But who are ye in rags and rotten shoes, You dirty-bearded, blocking up the way?

ISHAK We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go Always a little further; it may be Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow Across that angry or that glimmering sea,

White on a throne or guarded in a cave There lies a prophet who can understand Why men were born: but surely we are brave, Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

THE CHIEF MERCHANTS We gnaw the nail of hurry. Master, away!

ONE OF THE WOMEN O turn your eyes to where your children stand. Is not Bagdad the beautiful? O, stay!

MERCHANTS (In chorus) We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

AN OLD MAN Have you not girls and garlands in your homes? Eunuchs and Syrian boys at your command? Seek not excess: God hateth him who roams!

MERCHANTS (In chorus) We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

HASSAN Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells When shadows pass gigantic on the sand, And softly through the silence beat the bells Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.

ISHAK We travel not for trafficking alone; By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned: For lust of knowing what should not be known, We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

MASTER OF THE CARAVAN Open the gate, O watchman of the night!

THE WATCHMAN Ho, travellers, I open. For what land Leave you the dim-moon city of delight?

MERCHANTS (With a shout) We take the Golden Road to Samarkand!

(The CARAVAN passes through the gate.)

WATCHMAN (Consoling the women) What would ye, ladies? It was ever thus. Men are unwise and curiously planned.

A WOMAN They have their dreams, and do not think of us.

(The WATCHMAN closes the gate.)

VOICES OF THE CARAVAN (In the distance singing) We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. CURTAIN


 

Video: Cichosza - Legendy Polskie

Cichosza - Cover. Marcin Macuk & Krzysztof Zalewski. Legendy Polskie

 

A sequel to previous video, well worth a few minutes.

 

www.youtube.com/watch

Video: Digital Mechanical Metamaterials - YouTube

Keypad Door lock made entirely from 3d-printed materials and mechanical operation. This feels like the future to me.

[embed]www.youtube.com/watch

Video: BLADE RUNNER 2049 - Official Trailer - YouTube

So excited about this. As you might expect.

[embed]www.youtube.com/watch

Video: THE DARK TOWER - Official Trailer (HD) - YouTube

Trailer looks exciting. Maybe I should read the books, I did start once but it didn’t ’take’ and I abandoned after 100 pages or so.

[embed]www.youtube.com/watch

the three hot trends in Silicon Valley horseshit – Freddie deBoer – Medium

Enjoyed this immensely, clapping along with the narrative and nodding so hard I got a headache.

Beautiful writing too. Dead jealous, as they say

2002, Friendster: At last, a way to connect with friends on the internet! 2003, Photobucket: At last, a way to post pictures on the internet! 2003, Myspace: At last, a way to connect with friends on the internet! 2004, Flickr: At last, a way to post pictures on the internet! 2004, Facebook: At last, a way to connect with friends on the internet! 2005, YouTube: At last, a way to post video on the internet! 2006, Twitter: At last, a way to post text on the internet! 2010, Instagram: At last, a way to post pictures on the internet! 2013, Vine: At last, a way to post video on the internet! 2013, YikYak: At last, a way to post text on the internet! You get the idea. An industry that never stops lauding itself for its creativity and innovation has built its own success mythology by endlessly repackaging the same banal functions that have existed for about as long as the Web.

the three hot trends in Silicon Valley horseshit – Freddie deBoer – Medium : https://medium.com/@freddiedeboer/the-three-hot-trends-in-silicon-valley-horseshit-95cc5a85e8a4

Outgoing Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer will likely get $186m payout | Technology | The Guardian

I find it difficult to believe that a single person’s contribution, out of tens of thousands people in a single team, is worth $386MM for only 5 years effort.

Yahoo’s CEO holds stock, stock options and restricted stock units worth a total of $186m, according to documents sent to shareholders about the Verizon deal. The payoff comes on top of roughly $200m that Mayer has already received in salary and bonuses over her five year tenure.

Personal enrichment at this scale is a serious problem for society as a whole because its a rollback to Victorian-era business & politics where the upper class had all the money and power.

Outgoing Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer will likely get $186m payout | Technology | The Guardian : https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/yahoo-marissa-mayer-payout-186-million

Many names of Sugar

All of these are names for refined sugar: high fructose corn syrup, dried cane syrup, invert sugar, molasses, sucrose (and any word ending in “ose”), brown rice syrup, honey, maple syrup, cane juice, beet sugar, brown sugar, and corn syrup.

  1. I don't think that this list is comprehensive.
  2. Did people name these products to deliberately avoid the term sugar ?
  3. Luckily I'm not a big eater of sweets and desserts. Yes, I like to occasional indulgence. I'm more likely to have savoury, fatty food as my poison.

www.youtube.com/watch

Video: VFX breakdown of Attraction

Visual Effects breakdown on Russian SciFi movie “Attraction”. This blows my mind.

www.youtube.com/watch

I want to see this movie now. Looks so great.

I Am Not Well But Am Coping

I’m a cancer survivor. I had a ‘good kind’ of cancer and I survived with relatively little collateral damage given that oncology medicine in the 1980’s was rudimentary and somewhat brutal. Hey, I’m not dead.

Today, I’m left with regular episodes of being “in a bad way”. I’m not sick but I’m not well. Several parts of my body have some swelling or inflammation, my lymph glands are swollen suggesting a viral problem and I have minor headaches regularly. My muscles ache and are weak. I sleep ok but I’m tired from the moment I wake up. I mean, the exhausted of tired that I used to get at the end of a 16 hour day but at 8am in the morning after sleeping for ten hours. When you get tired you make bad decisions and I find it hard to maintain a healthy diet,

In a few weeks, I’ll be back to my ’normal’ self. Its ok. Its happened dozens of time before for the last 30 or so years and I just need to be patient.

Yes, I’ve been to doctor, several times. Blood tests show nothing and the symptoms are generic. Quite often, by the time I get to the doctor I’m getting better and the episode is over. Doctors surgeries are full of sick people and I’m concerned to catch something while I am in weakened state so I am always a bit slow to book a slot.

What This Means

Sometimes the exhaustion means I’m a bit testy and short tempered. I’m aware of it and conscious about keeping that out of my podcasts.

I’m struggling to find the focus to write more often. I’m able to keep up with podcasts with the support of the Packet Pushers team, and get articles written for the newsletter. I’m focusing on delivering the work that I must do including the Interop Future of Networking track in mid-May which I’m really looking forward to.

My long form writing has taken a hit because I’m struggling to find the necessary concentration. I’m up to date with stories for Human Infrastructure Magazine (subcribe)

I’m mostly keeping up with microblogging on EtherealMind and chatting on Packet Pushers slack, and other forums.

Steps

I’m taking steps to focus on eating better and making sure I get exercise which gets difficult when you are exhausted.

I will be back in a few days or weeks, just watch me.

Video: R2-D2 Meets Bon Jovi

How do people notice these things.

Note: need to listen.

 

www.youtube.com/watch

Video: Valerian and City of a Thousand Planets

www.youtube.com/watch