colloquium

Just one question I have which no one seems to answer. If Tracker, or Netstar can install thousands of vehicle tracking devices, and if John Doe can sit at his PC watching the whereabouts of his car on the internet, why do entire planes ‘get lost?’

If Etienne can do a cycle race and we can follow him on Google Earth or if I can give my location within 3m accuracy using a cellphone, why on earth can a plane not have an independent system tracking the plane and submitting its GPS coordinates every second?

This plane sent out it’s own distress signal. Why not send the GPS coordinates with that distress signal?

Let’s say they tie a Nokia cellphone to the plane which battery can last 10 hours. Every second it reports on the GPS coordinates, sends it to a satellite phone which sends it to a dot matrix printer at Charles de Gaulle airport. Let’s assume the plane is flying at 900km/h, the Nokia hasn’t refreshed for a second and the last signal was sent a second ago. Let’s also assume that the phone stops working on impact. That means that we can pinpoint the point of impact with a maximum radius of 500m certainty. Knowing in which direction the plane was flying at the moment of impact (by extending a straight line from the previous two GPS coordinates) and assuming the plane has a total width of let’s say 75m, the area in contention is 37,500 m² (0.04 km²), the area of roughly 3 soccer fields.

What am I missing here?

Soccer City would have been a more fitting venue for this phenomenal young artist to take the first steps of his career, but maybe performing in the Nelson Mandela Civic Theatre was a sign of things to come.

He said sharing the stage with Arno Carstens for a song was an honour and privilege. In retrospect the honour was Arno’s (to just being allowed on the same stage).

I think it’s just human nature to think that Jesse is becoming famous because of his father, but let me tell you. If he continues doing what he did tonight, he will eclipse his father and dwarf him in comparison.

He spoke a little bit about himself and some of the songs. These three nights are the first time ever he’s performing his debut album live and he wasn’t kidding when he said he was very nervous. That showed. If anything, I think he visibly grew in confidence after Arno left the stage and I think he and his songs are very mature for his age (21).

Well, Jesse, all I can say is that it was an honour and privilege for me to have witnessed the birth of a new South African star.

Tonight I’m going to watch Jesse Clegg at the Civic Theatre.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about him (2009-05-14 14:30 GMT + 2).

Jesse was born in Johannesburg in 1988. By the time he was six months old he was on tour with his daughter, Johnny Clegg, and between 1938 and 1994 he spent at least 5 months a year on the road. He was a classic drug addict kid and grew up backstage and on tour buses.

I thought Wikipedia reads the stuff at least once before publishing it…? Someone please help them.

I’m in two minds about it.

A very devious plot. As the Romulan ship is thrown back in time a new alternate reality starts that has no bearing on the Original Star Trek, so any discrepancies like Vulcan being destroyed, Spock’s mother that dies and Romulans that don’t look like Romulans can be explained away quite easily.

I don’t like the way they quite casually break the laws of Physics like entering event horizons of black holes and stuff. Although Star Trek didn’t always adhere to exact science, this is just way too careless

I also didn’t like the way they speak early 21st century slang and the final crew of the Enterprise has a High School in Space feel to it. Captain Kirk goes from a brash cadet to an inexperienced captain of the Enterprise in what… a day?

And why they would task an ambassador to single-handedly save the galaxy from a supernova is beyond me. Wouldn’t they under normal circumstances ask at least an entire spaceship to embark on such a mission? And why doesn’t the Romulans do it themselves? It is their planet under immediate threat of destruction, not so?

In the original Star Trek back in the 60’s, starring a black woman as an officer on the bridge was one of the most bold and daring moves in television history. In the movie it seems that Uhura and Spock has some kind of a relationship over and above their professional relationship.

I can understand that the movie business is about making money, but I feel that in this case they should have rather adhered to the Star Trek legacy and tradition than to make it a movie that is out to satisfy the uneducated popcorn and Coke devouring audiences’ need for a movie that does not intrude too much on their constant fiddling with their cellphones.

All hats off to Zachary Quinto for his uncanny portrayal of Spock – surely the only redeeming feature of the entire movie.

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003)

Modern Library 100 Best Novels (Board’s List and Reader’s List)

Modern Library 100 Best Non-Fiction Books (Board’s List and Reader’s List)

American Film Institute 100 Best American Movies (Wikipedia)

United States National Film Preservation Board Registry of Films (Wikipedia)

Best TV Characters of All Time (UGO)

I’ve upgraded my desktop PC to Windows 7 and reinstalled my notebook with Windows 7 from scratch.

1. I cannot fault it on installing. No problem installing whatsoever. Both went very smoothly, although upgrading my existing Vista took a good two hours or so.
2. Stability so far is a non-issue. No problems so far.
3. I could have sworn my RAID 0 Array worked after installing, but all of a sudden Windows couldn’t access it anymore, although it displayed as active and healthy. I’m not sure whether I should blame Windows 7 for that. Weirder things have happened in the past. I eventually deleted my array.
4. Windows 7 does a compatibility check before installing. Complained about McAfee and Corel WinDVD 9. But both still work after installing Windows 7. Installing McAfee from scratch on my Notebook didn’t work. It doesn’t want to install – says it doesn’t run on the operating system. McAfee did however release a 2009 Beta especially for Windows 7. That works.
5. Windows 7 experience rating now has a maximim of 7.9 instead of 5.9. Upgrading to Windows 7 my NVIDIA GTX260 scored 6.3. After installing the NVIDIA drivers for Windows 7 released on the 6th of May, it only scores 6.0.
6. I had a song downloaded from iTunes. After upgrading to Windows 7 iTunes complained that this song has not been authorised on my PC (which it has). Even after authorising it iTunes complains about it every time I want to sync my iPod. However, the song is on my iPod and playing.
7. I have a Duplicate Email Remover in Outlook by MapiLab. After installing Windows 7 it complains that my trial period was over and that I have to register. Only uninstalling and reinstalling fixed that issue.
8. I’m still struggling to get the Homegroups working (new way of sharing between PCs on the same network)

Apart from this I’ve had no issues so far and the above ones didn’t upset me too much. Overall I’m impressed.

Windows 7 RC will be working till at least end of February 2010 (for free).

With the success of the movie and all, I don’t understand why this hasn’t made much impact on the music charts.

It is a really refreshing and I think excellently recorded CD.

I think it is rather obvious why O Saya was nominated for an Oscar and why Jai Ho won, even with the controversy surrounding it.

9/10

I’m in Pietersburg this weekend (Polokwane) for a family function.

The new Peter Mokaba stadium for the Soccer World Cup 2010 looks impressive.

I went to see a movie at Savannah yesterday. The only one really worth seeing was X-Men. I’m not really an X-Men fan, but since the movie was directed by South African Oscar Award winner director Gavin Hood, I didn’t mind.

If only it was next week when the new Star Trek movie is being released.

Anyway, quite impressive. Cool special effects but too much obvious CG. I know they can’t help it but it irritates me when I spot blue/green screen scenes. The helicopter scene was breathtaking though.

8/10

The first book I read in ages. I buy audiobooks these days.

The novel was chosen by Time among the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 and by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

A very unusual book in the way the main character is presented. Of course the language is also a bit odd as it was written in the 50s. But overall a very fascinating look at the life and times of the main character, Holden.

So I got to watch Slumdog Millionaire this weekend at the Garden Route Mall in George.

A very good movie. Not brilliant. I don’t know whether it will spike above the white noise of all movies I have ever seen.

My criticism is that it takes awfully long before it becomes the feel-good movie of the decade it’s supposed to be.

8/10

Etienne and I went to see the 3D version at Montecasino last night.

Very good with cool references to other alien movies.

Go 3D dude!

At the rate people die in Smallville Season 1, I’m surprised there are people left in Smallville.

Like Murer She Wrote. At the rate people died around her…

I’m still alive though.

So today my car is in for a service and I decided to take the day off, the first day in more than 3 weeks that I’m not working.

So I’ve settled in the Spur in Eastgate (my car is at Citroën in Bedfordview) and are currently enjoying my Ceylon tea.

Movies only starts at 11:00 and the ones showing then are almost 3 hours (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Watchers).

Have a nice day!

but awesome takes practice!