Gaberlunzie

Gaberlunzie

Gaberlunzie was delighted to discover that a cartoon for programmers exists in the US, and in his ignorance wonders why this has never developed in the UK. This was an article in the New York Times, slightly shortened. For a certain subset of Internet users, “Sudo make me a sandwich” may as well be “Take my wife ... please.” Perhaps some explanation is in order. Before giving up the goods, however, we should heed the warning of Randall Munroe, the 23-year-old creator of xkcd, a hugely popular online comic strip (at least among computer programmers) where the sandwich line appeared. Mr. Munroe believes that analysing a joke is like dissecting a frog — it can be done, but the frog dies.

Geberlunzie, struggling with 4-pin bank security numbers (at least two that keep getting used for the wrong card) phone banking security numbers (another couple) to say nothing of email passwords (alpha-numeric) about three, was rather less than thrilled to fall into the comfort of the local Edinburgh library and discover the bar code plastic library card is now scanned and needs another memorable pin!

Gaberlunzie, whose job it is to cover conferences, was browsing Alaska's Anchorage Daily News, and delighted to note that the Scottish Highland Games was quite a revenue contributor at ,614. That said however, there's nothing like networks, computer vision and pattern recognition or dependable systems and networks to bring in the real money of ,777,445. Perhaps Scotland's tourist board should plan it so that having brought the delegates in to high technology,, they could well be persuaded to hang on a day or two to visit a relaxing, and colourful event too.

There it was, sitting in Gaberlunzie's GoogleMail inbox, which is a bit like Pandora's box, too many things fly out of it! The one line simply read Electrical Engineer Job - www.glasgowareag51.com
World class Electrical Engineer job at Thales Optronics Glasgow. Perhaps the link should also be on their Scottish Technology Prize website.

Trying to extract the Scottish livewires from the great and the good is hard work. Gaberlunzie tried finding Scotland and Scottish, then realised that the whole needed inhalation to extract places like Orkney and Cupar, Fife. In the hopes that no-one got missed out, congratulations to all. But especially from Compute Scotland congratulation to Professor Richard Donovan Kenway, FRSE. Vice- Principal, High Performance Computing and e-Science, Tait Professor of Mathematical Physics, University of Edinburgh. For services to Science. (Edinburgh) and Duncan Mitchell. Senior VP Cisco Systems UK and Ireland. For services to Business, which one must suppose includes Scotland for keeping computing, hardware and software worthy of public praise. As Gaberlunzie has a soft spot for poets his picture is included too.

Edinburgh Technopole (not exactly in the Centre of Edinburgh) would like to encourage its occupiers to become a member of Tripshare Midlothian. As a member, you will be able to quickly and easily find someone who shares your specific journeys. Read on as the service is backed by an organisation offering lots more ways of sharing travel

Gaberlunzie admits a fascination with the natural world lowtech spinoffs for hightech uses, from beetles providing the template for photonic crystals to slime secreted by algae embedded in special bioreactors bind metal contaminated water to photosynthetic bacteria capable of f converting or organic acids and alcohols into methane with low levels of light energy input. Now a common backyard fungi gets the accolade for being able to handle depleted uranium.

VirtuALBA - Scotland in real life has beautiful green rolling hills and valleys. Guests can now visit a representation of Scotland in Second Life created by students from the University of the West of Scotland Students registered in the Collaborative Virtual Environments class, under the direction of Professor Buddy Sprocket, investigated online collaborative tools. This course is one in the Computer Games Technology degree programme.

Gaberlunzie fell over this tale courtesy of news from Scotland reports by Joe murphy.
Received an email from a lad called Michael who wrote: Hello Joe, I'll bet you know something about the better longer distance pigeons in Scotland. I have one very nice Kirkpatrick cock. This letter comes to you from Washington, USA. Not many Long Distance fliers here. I've read about Krauths as being good across the water in the northern islands. That is the sort I'm interested in. Here's a link if your interested Yours Michael

Gaberlunzie is fascinated by the financial manoeuvering disclosed by Rob Edwards in the Sunday Herald where internal financial projections for six PFI schemes show investors are expecting to recoup 12 times more than they invested. In some cases shareholders are predicted to make truly astronomical gains.

Or put another way from chips to atoms the diversity of multi-product, global organisation can be quite breathtaking and very haiku tempting. Gaberlunzie sees that Toshiba Corp expects its operating profit to more than double over the next three years as it cuts costs, ramps up capacity for its semiconductors and seeks nuclear plant orders.

n 2006 BASF was reporting further work is necessary before hydrophobins can be used in commercial products. This year, esearchers from Unilever have reported breakthrough results that proteins from fungus could produce food foams with stability that exceeds anything currently available. Using hydrophobin HFBII at a concentration of only 0.1% to produce a foam with exceptional stability, that could lead to improvements in the physical and sensory properties of a range of products, including low fat whipping cream, ice cream and sorbets, state authors in the journal Food Hydrocolloids. And a team at the University of Birminghamâ��s Centre for Formulation Engineering is developing a microstructure â�� an air filled emulsion coated in protein - that resembles the physical properties of a fat globule. The protein is hydrophobin which comes from mushrooms. This new structure could replace fat in foods such as salad dressings, mayonnaise, sauces and even spreads and margarines.

Intrigued by a so-called Virtual Wall designed for busy city streets devised by South-Korean product designer Hanyoung Lee, Gaberlunzie went web trawling. And indeed, instead of showing a red light when it is time for pedestrians to cross the street, the Wall projects a curtain-like, two-dimensional image of giant people crossing the street. The real pedestrians walk shielded from traffic by their giant virtual counterparts.

When humanity gets a handle on a strong thing it gets given a name. Watch out for the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) which will now join the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) alongside all the others including Arctic and Antarctic. Gaberlunzie, wondering at the oscillating world and starting to get quite sea-sick, wonders if they are actually stitched together anywhere graphically?

In a wonderful blog, spotted by Out-law.com, Symantec researcher Liam OMurchu spells out a classic tale of a software biter being bit. The problem: You develop a software package that you want to sell in the underground community. However, your buyers are not the most reputable/trustworthy people. How do you prevent your product from being purchased once and then distributed freely afterwards? How do you enforce your Ã¢ï¿½ï¿½copyrightÃ¢ï¿½ï¿½?
The solution: Ask the antivirus companies to help you out.

Gaberlunzie having learnt more from listening to David Manner's questions than he often did from the answers was intrigued by the mention of Hadrian's Wall in his blog pages, having lived near Antonine's wall, (mostly scavenged for building solid small castles, and sturdy farms) Having read the piece, Gberlunzie is reproducing the blog on multi-core processing ,with answers from 3L of Edinburgh and Sundance. It's so absolutely sane!

Gaberlunzie received an email that to a story teller looked initial intriguing, but the sting lies in the ageist qualification. From 6 to 35 acceptable, from 36 and on forget it. Actually as the prize is merely a free subscription and a digital photoframe, becareful of those, some carry viruses, perhaps we disenfranchised 'oldies' don't need to worry.

Gaberlunzie wonders what odds the bookies would give Musselburgh Racecourse in the short listed in the prestigious Marketing Excellence Awards Scotland organised by the Marketing Society as the East Lothian course has been nominated in the Event Excellence category for its promotional work on the annual Ladies Day event.

You will probably know that Leibniz and Newton, working independently, came up with that torment for schoolchildren and an invaluable aid for engineers, the infinitesimal Calculus. However, did you realise that the formulation of the Calculus, at least that due to Leibniz, had a mystical, rather than a mathematical foundation? Also, were you aware that Newton, during the same period of time, was studying the Bible for an underlying secret code?

Gaberlunzie being a strong believer in hybrids and analogue, sees with pleasure that Husqvarna, the world's largest producer of lawn mowers, has been the first to launch a hybrid robotic lawnmower. IThe Automower Solar Hybrid is powered by a combination of solar power and electricity (which might have been wind generated!)

Gaberlunzie first met golf simulation in a drinking club in London in the late 60's where the players put down their glasses to line up to drive the golf ball at a screen view of a golf course. The computer calculated the results, and changed the screen picture. But it appears in the US since its launch in 2005, the Dancin' Dogg Shot Making Simulator has gained widespread consumer acceptance and golf industry approval, according to Russell Edens, company president and CEO of Dancin' Dogg Golf. With a price tag of only 9, the simulator is in the budget of many golfers.

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