http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog a collection of words in blogular format Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:53:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've been toying with an idea for a while; a personal challenge of sorts. I didn't want to mention it here until I was completely certain I would do it, but after an eye-opening event yesterday I'm ready to announce it with full confidence (I realise that I'm being just ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2008/06/18/jog-blog/ I feel a bit like this at the moment: ...because I've started a summer research project in UCD entitled Odysseus/ODCSSS (whichever you prefer). The broad research area for this year is "Technologies for Social Connectedness", which includes some projects focused on social networking. Mine falls into this category; I'm probably not ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2008/06/07/researchers-are-go/ I have something quite important to talk about (namely this) but it's going to take me a while to collect my thoughts and explain it properly. In the meantime here's a cautionary tale about the perils of not backing up your data. A few months ago my ageing external hard drive ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2008/06/01/catastrophic-failure/ Disclaimer: non-Computer Scientists may want to avoid reading this; it contains opinions of a geek-oriented nature, and pedantic discussion of data structures. You have been warned. This Tuesday I return to college from a 2 week break. Things had been pretty much non-stop since I got back in January (hence the ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2008/03/24/com-pugh-ter-science/ Cycling to college today, I noticed a dog circling a car on the road, barking furiously. Before my mind could get carried away with flashbacks from Cujo, I got close enough to see that it was actually barking at another dog in the back seat of the car. The woman ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2008/02/16/the-dog-whisperer/ When titling the previous post, I wasn't sure how many 'm's to include. I wanted a feeling of trailing off, but didn't want to overdo it - "what's a usual sort of number to use in this scenario?" I thought to myself. Being a nerd geek cyberdude, I consulted Google, ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2008/01/27/graphs-and-statistics/ Lately my computer has been making an odd humming noise. It starts and stops in a regular pattern, coming and going sporadically throughout the day. I spend a good chunk of my time sitting at this computer - and as I don't find the idea of slowly being driven mad ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2008/01/22/hmmmmmmm/ I couldn't allow a whole month to go by without a blog post - not that 29 days isn't also shocking, but because I happen to know that one month is the precise amount of time it takes for a blog to die of malnutrition; and I'll be damned if ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2007/12/29/i-can-has-lols/ I know what you're all thinking: man creates blog; posts a few times, gets bored; blog fades into obscurity. Yes, many a valiant internet wordsmith and his digital narrative have suffered this wicked fate - but not I! Or my blog, for that matter. The skinny is thus: I'm ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2007/11/30/intermission/ I'm writing this entry on a bus on the way to UCD - if I can manage to find an unsecured network and post it while the bus is at traffic lights I'll be rather pleased with myself :D I meant to write about this sooner, but anyway: this weekend I'm ... http://www.lightspeedtyrannosaurus.com/blog/2007/11/15/better-late-than-never/