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

Dremel!

We went into Coleraine with my Uncle Richard today, just to visit the hospital for a quick check-up appointment. Afterwards, we had a look around various places to kill a bit of time, including B&Q.

I did, of course, buy the dremel I've been wanting for a while.... :-D

David

Heart attacks in a coffee shop...not just because of the caffeine

We went to Ballymena today and, as you can see, I visited the newly opened Starbucks there.

My thoughts:

• Waste of money - £3 for a latte - I don't think so.
• Didn't taste very good - It was alright, but for the money, I was expecting something that would electrify my taste buds.
• The cake was quite nice - So called 'skinny' carrot cake. Rather nice, as I say...although expensive.
• Quite nice decor.

It was good, but since the total bill for three small coffees and a piece of cake came within spitting distance of £10, it just doesn't appeal to me. Remember I don't have a job because I'm fourteen, so I don't exactly have money to throw around!

[/rant]

Anyway, in other news, we went to the York tonight and throughly enjoyed it! The fruit pavlova was excellent and the coffees where nicer and less wallet worrying!

:-D

David

Boom, Crash, Bang, Wallop

There was a lot of thunder this morning - the window shaking type. Couldn't sleep between the hours of 4-5am, mainly because it sounded like George Bush was having a practise session with his arsenal outside.

Oh well, at least it brought the temperature down!

:-D

David

Heatwave

Arrrghh!

It's far too hot. I think I'm going to melt.

I really don't like the heat and in this fur coat, it's just awful! ;-)

David

Bands

Here are the pictures I took of the bands marching past:

David

Another packed day

I woke up this morning to find a slurry tanker parked outside...fortunately the driver was only having his lunch and moved on soon enough.

Look at what's parked outside our house!!!

Dad noticed this error in the Radio Times:

I think it's supposed to be BrainTeaser... ;-)

In the afternoon, we went to Benvardin gardens. Benvardin is a privately owned estate and is known locally for it wonderful gardens. The River Seneril (later the River Bush) flows through it and under a bridge that was built during Victorian times.

The hut near the tennis courts.

Sorry about the chromatic abberation in this shot...

Which one would you like, CMOT?

Taken from the Causeway Hotel car park

Taken from the bridge at Benvardin

Wouldn't want to service that boiler!

Benvardin House

A secluded spot

After that, we moved on to the Causeway Hotel for a meal. I had half a roast duck and it was very nice, although it was somewhat ruined by the parsnips that had been put over it. Having attacked that, we drove round the North Coast, heading for Ballycastle, where we had ice-creams. On the way, we stopped a lot for me to take photos.

Rathlin Island

Mmmm...sunsets...

Erm...can't remember where this was taken!

Dunseverick Castle in all it's glory.

When we arrived back at our house, there was a band parade and the road was closed. I'll cover that in a seperate post to make things easier for me!

David