University of Ulster 'Blogging for Non-Bloggers' Lecture

Okay...anyone who has subscribed to this over the years, don't get too excited - I'm only using this for a course...but I might just continue, you never know.

Anywho, for lack of a better subject matter, I decided to finally get my act together and open a flickr account. You can find me here:

theChipmunk's flickr account

Just to give you a sneak preview, here's a couple of the photos I've uploaded so far...

Enjoy at any rate...

A Foray into Londinium

Wendover Railway Station

Hmm, railways...

The fountain at Trafalgar Square

Nelson's Column, in all it's black and white glory!

Nelson's Column in all it's sepia toned glory!

We decided to attempt London today, via Wendover railway station. The train journey only took less than an hour and then we were straight into Marylebone! From there, we went down into the tube station and got off at Charing Cross. From there, it was about 30 metres to the National Gallery, our destination.

Who said travelling in a city wasn't easy?

The painting in the national gallery were simply stunning. My favourite piece, just because of the scale and sheer realism, has to be 'Whistlejacket' by George Stubbs. It sat there on the wall and basically glowed. The horse depicted looked more realistic than a real horse! I would have taken some nice pictures to show you, but the National Gallery is picky. They want you to buy their photographs. I didn't sneak any pictures because I didn't want my phone and it's precious photos taken and b*gg*red about with.

Didn't get to Tottenham court road, though... :-(

David

A Very Old Computer...and Some Slightly Newer Ones...

Yes, those are Macs and, yes, I'm going to have to wash my blog out with soap...

The Colossus machine. Big, isn't it?

The fountain at Bletchley Park

A Harrier jump-jet

I had serious fun playing with the BASIC compilers on these old machines!

Bletchley was the order of the day for our outing today. The famous estate that was the site of much code-breaking antics during WW2 is set in some beautiful countryside - with the lake at the heart of the complex and rolling green fields around, it's a pretty stunning place. Add to that, the history of the war-effort and it's a very interesting place!

Of course, the high-point was the Colossus, although the two hour lecture on cryptography and the display of old (1980s) home computers were excellent too. The machine really does live up to it's name, although, for being so old, it's surprisingly powerful - it's touted as being as powerful as a Pentium 2, but I'm not sure how they tested that...

The whole visit was extremely informative, especially the part were I fooled around with the ZX80's BASIC compiler!

David

I would like to say a special thanks to Tony Sale for his excellent tour and generosity.

Science Museum

A nice building

My version of the Killers album cover!

Erm...it's a picture of a shed...I thought it looked nice!

The building opposite the Science Museum

A spitfire hanging in the Science Museum

It looks like a Sopwith Camel, but I'm no expert, so please correct me...

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, on display in the computing section

An engine off a Boeing 747. Big, eh?

Pegasus

I had a great day today! We were driven to the Science Museum by the aforementioned chauffeur. It was great quietly cruising through London, cutting through all the hustle and bustle and arriving right at the door of the Museum! Talk about class!

Anyway, the Science Museum was wonderful - the exhibits were so varied and interesting! I especially enjoyed the aircraft displays.

We bought a lot of stuff at the shop. I got, among other stuff, a drag racer. It will, naturally be hacked at the earliest possible opportunity!

David

Soaked

Where we were staying

Swing! Yay!

We ate here today. It was rather good, actually...

It was absolutely p*ssing down today!

We visited the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum after lunch.

This monstrosity was in the 'most venomous animals exhibit'

Skeleton of an ape

Tiger. Nuff said

Lion. Nuff said

Your favourite Blogger outside the musuem

Today we decided to strike out into Tring. We got dropped off near the town centre and as soon as the car started moving off, the heaven's opened and we were totally soaked. And I mean totally.

After drying off in the toilets of the Rothschild museum, we felt a bit peckish, so we found an Italian. We actually found it just in time, as the heaven's decided that they didn't like us being dry and tried again, missing by mere seconds! At first we weren't sure about the place, but the deluge outside persuaded us to stay.

It turned out to be very nice and the dish that I had was delicious. We headed back up the road to the Rothschild Museum and had a walk round the slightly...worrying exhibits. Standing in front of a massive eight foot polar bear is a bit weird. Especially when you consider that it hasn't blinked for over a hundred years. Oh yeah, and the tiger, dinosaur, crocodile, lynx and ape were all pretty unnerving as well!

David

Off on hols

Packed and ready to go!

A 737-400...I think...

We set off on our holiday's today! Early start so Uncle Richard could drive us to Belfast International Airport. Then a quick hop over the seas to Luton, where we were met by an air-conditioned Mercedes with a chauffeur! Cool!

It's pretty tiring. Spectacular views at that height, though - the sensation of floating on the clouds never fails to get me in all these years of flying. Beautiful.

David

Now you don't use up your monthly limit when you log on...

I have made a small modification so that there aren't as many posts on the front page of my blog to kill dial-up users. You know who you are.

;-)

David