UK, are you f-ing kidding me?

Dr O’Hara, have you looked up and down your street lately? How many CCTV cameras can you count?

You’re worried about what kind of privacy people voluntary give up through sites like Facebook when you’ve got all those eyes watching you that you have no control over?

Your boat has left the dock. A long time ago. If you want to fight against privacy loss, fight against those cameras.


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Indian Garden

Dinner tonight was taken at the Indian Garden in Burgess Hill.

Things started off with a couple of very crispy pappadom and sauces I couldn’t begin to name. One was obviously yogurt based and the other a kind of chutney but other than being very good I couldn’t tell you what they were called.

To go with the pappadom I had a Kingfisher beer. Outside the restaurant was a relatively quiet street and bright blue sky. Inside it was "typical" indian furnishings and employees with impenetrable indian accents.

Next up was some really good keema nan filled with thinly sliced red lamb inside. It was a little odd just because I’d never had nan filled with a continuous layer of "meat" inside and I wonder how they did that. It was good though, especially with the yogurt sauce.

Halfway through the nan the chicken tikka vindaloo arrived with some pulau rice that smelled and tasted wonderful. I was warned that the vindaloo was hot but it really wasn’t that spicy although the spiciness it did have built pleasantly as I made my way through the dish.

Yum.


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Kings Head and Oak Barn

Stopped in the Kings Head pub for a pint and bite to eat but they only serve food for lunch.

The bartender recommended going to the Oak Barn and was very helpful so I’m having a pint here before heading off to dinner. Decided to try John Smith’s but probably won’t try it again. It’s billed as "Extra Smooth" but is really just flat.

Next it was off to the Oak Barn and a pint of Fosters to start with.

I was warned that football was on tonight and it would be very quiet. It was indeed quiet with the waitresses, one waiter and the too-serious manager bustling about the dining room and only a handful of tables filled.

The food was very good and the environment very pretty with the sun coming into the wood filled room "just so" and a wood floor that just begs to be danced on. In fact, I might just have to do that on the way out.

Dinner was composed of a veggie ravioli (a very large single) followed by salmon on a bed of olives and onion with the house merlot and trailed by cheesecake and Irish whisky. Ok, two Irish whiskys.


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Burgess Hill in the evening

6:40 and at The Friars Oak drinking a Guinness and waiting for some lamb curry.

I landed about 7:30am, picked up the car and headed to Burgess Hill. Unfortunately I got a little turned around on the way to the B&B but got to see plenty of pretty scenery and it was a pretty day.

I was trying to get to my B&B but ran across the client site I’ll be working in this week so I decided to stop even though I hadn’t showered and changed. That worked out fine since my contact was in T-shirt and jeans.

Tomorrow it’s all work and probably little play but I’m going to try to get out in the evening as it’s looking like it’s going to be gorgeous this week.


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You’ve done it to yourselves, you know.

For some time Susan and I have wanted to move to the UK or Ireland. Mostly because of the dancing and also because we really like the people and country over there.

Over the last several years I’ve lost some of my desire to move to the UK as the number of ways the citizens are monitored have grown since 9/11.

CCTVs everywhere. Cars tagged and tracked on the major roads around London. More and more people behaving paranoid whenever someone pulls out a camera.

Hell, even science geeks are getting paranoid. He’s lucky he didn’t get shot by some overly paranoid and zealous rent-a-cop.

The terrorists are winning. They can stop their planning now because our governments and news agencies will take care of bottling us up for our own “safety.”

Laser pulses turn water into ice – optics.org

On the face of it this doesn’t sound like much but the researchers hope to be able to use the results for optimize crystal growth.

Firing laser pulses into supercooled water creates ice crystals at specific locations in the liquid.

Using laser pulses to crystallise supercooled water into ice may seem counter-intuitive, but that’s exactly what researchers in Germany and the UK have achieved. Because the pulses can be focused to a specific point in the liquid, the researchers believe that their technique will be valuable for future material and crystal growth studies. (Physical Review Letters 99 045701)

Laser pulses turn water into ice – optics.org

UK military targets civilians

Oops.

IT was not quite a Star Wars death ray, but air force Top Guns accidentally focused high-powered lasers on to a civilian car in May this year – potentially endangering the eyesight of peaceful earthlings.
RAAF F/A-18 fighters from the Williamtown base north of Newcastle were conducting exercises near the NSW mid-north coast town of Forster when the incident happened.

The pilots thought their laser targeting system was turned off for the training flight.

Unfortunately it wasn’t and the powerful light beams, known as class four lasers, were shone twice on to a road intersection for a total of 43 seconds.

Guys, remember to put your equipment into O.F.F mode first.

Lasers that know when they’re going to die

According to Photonics.org :

A new range of 635 nm laser modules featuring a "near end-of-life detection" facility to warn operators of their impending failure will make their debut at LASER 2007. Photonic Products, a UK-based optoelectronics device manufacturer and laser diode specialist, says that it developed the PM-NEOLD laser-diode modules after a request by a client, and is now making them generally available.

"As a laser diode approaches the end of its operational life, its imminent failure is signalled by an increase in the current drawn by its drive circuitry," David McGinness technical sales manager told optics.org. "Typically, when the current draw reaches a value of 120% of its original operating value, the laser diode is considered to have reached its ‘near end-of-life’ condition."

Continue reading Lasers that know when they’re going to die

Sony ebook reader

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4586800.stm

From the linked article:

"E-books have not made much of an impact as the experience of reading on-screen has failed to live up to expectations. As a result although sales of e-books are growing they still account for only a tiny fraction of the overall book market.

The electronics giant aims to address this with the electronic paper used for the display in the Sony Reader. It says the six-inch black and white screen will be as easy to read as the printed page.

The technology used means the screen is not backlit, avoiding screen flicker, which can put a strain on the eyes.

The device’s display uses technology developed byUS-based firm E-Ink which works by electronically arranging thousands of tiny black and white capsules to form characters."

Continue reading Sony ebook reader