Category: Personal

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Analytics

Since creating the www.whatuseismaths.com website I have been trying to increase my understanding of who might be visiting this website. You can see a widget on the right giving page views and from where they are being accessed but I am currently trying to get a better picture.

Step forward, Google Analytics. Hopefully with this I will be able to satisfy my curiosity as to who reads this stuff. I know some friends in the USA do and a few people in the UK but the others come as rather a surprise.

I have added a little plugin to this site to help me track via Google Analytics what is going on. I’m just curious. Also, my site seems to be happy to cope with the plugins. There was a period of about a month last year when the site seemed to be running very slowly but over the last six months I haven’t had any issues with it.

So, a more analyitical approach to my ego awaits!

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Vindication

The BBC News website carried a story yesterday about a high speed yacht that broke the world record. I was instantly interested as my final year project at university was the conceptual design of a high speed yacht.

The major design innovations of my yacht were:

  • outrigger
  • hydrofoils
  • aerofoil shaped sail

Here’s a picture of my concept: 

High Speed Yacht Concept - Drawn By Richard Oussedik
High Speed Yacht Concept – Drawn By Richard Oussedik

Here’s a technical drawing of the main body of the yacht:

Conceptual Yacht - Drawing

And so, to compare, here’s some pictures taken from the Vestas Sailrocket website.

High Speed 1

High Speed 2

So, the sail is in a different place and at an angle but I think my original choices for my final year project have been vindicated. I feel quite pleased that I managed to conceptualise a design that, in general, has worked.

Well done to the Vestas Sail Rocket Team.

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Cleared For Landing

In the field at the back of our house there rests a large number of geese. They come at this time of year and chill out over night before going on their way somewhere. The can be hundreds possibly thousands. Tonight I caught some on final approach but you might have to squint to see them.

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Also, here’s the moon. It looks bigger in real life but then that’s just an optical illusion.

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Two Rules

My personal rules for the bands in which I have played are:

  • No Girls
  • No Keyboards

    • Pretty much anything else goes. I don’t think I have to justify these either, the rules stand by themselves!

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    First Gig

    It was the first live performance of the band Disaster Area today. We played the MGS Battle of the Bands as guests.
    So for prosperity it’s the 16 November 2012 and the venue was the MGS Great Arena.
    Here’s the video:

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    Pod Bay Doors

    The T-shirt I am wearing today has a 2001 film quotation on it. This is so I can quickly see the video.

     

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    Executive

    Thanks to Hilton at Canary Wharf we just got upgraded to an Executive Suite. It’s nice! Top floor overlooking London’s Docklands.

    Here’s our room:

    20121111-140624.jpg

    The bathroom:

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    Here’s the breakfast table:

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    Dodgy Websites

    Thank goodness for the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). If we didn’t have them then the country would be full of misleading claims about products and services. However, there is an issue, adverts and websites can only be adjudicated once the ASA have received a complaint. This means that the misleading claims (lies) have to be made public before there is any action. Therefore most of the population aren’t aware of the fact that an advert might have been withdrawn. The damage will have been done. Perhaps adjuducations should be carried in a short segment at the end of the main TV news shows on ITV, BBC and Sky. This would cut some of the issues of publish and then retract, maybe making advertising even better than it is now.

    If you are unsure of what sort of adverts have had adjudications then click here. This should take you to a page with the most recent rulings. Look carefully as this is a list of adverts and claims that have been ruled upon and not just those that are lies. Check the complaint to see what the issue was with the original advert.

    The ASA also has a page of non-compliant online advertisers. The list is here. It will probably come as no surprise that a lot of these websites are for products or services that must be considered “woo“. If you can’t substantiate your claims then the chances are you are peddling bogus products or SCAMs.

    I am proud to let you know that a complaint I sent to the ASA was acted on for print versions but the website of this company still (as of 7 Nov 2012) promotes amber necklaces for toddlers as a way of soothing teething pains. There is no good evidence that this works. The ASA page on this non-compliance is here. Avoid their products!

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    Alien

    Here’s #2 son with a bike helmet on. Most amusing I think you’ll agree!

    20121103-134615.jpg

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    Reaper

    This is not a communication about the TV show Reaper, although I thought that was good fun. It is also not about Mr Grimm as what could I say about death? It is definitely not about the rock classic “(Don’t fear) The Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult. This communication is about the rare ambiguity that occurs in iTunes.
    I rather like the music genre of Aggrotech or as it is also known – Hellectro. There is a band called Reaper who have released some music and recently it appeared that is was quite cheap on iTunes so I downloaded all of it.
    The problem is that when I played back the EP “Monsters in my head” it was quite clearly a different genre of music. It was more electro than hellectro. Perhaps this was an early Reaper piece but I had my doubts. A little bit of Internet research and I discovered that there were two Reapers of similar music but different enough for me to spot. Bugger. “Monsters in my head” is a little too clean for me.
    So I checked the other Reaper downloads and it turns out that the Reaper album “Gardens of Seth” is by a metal band and definitely not anything whatsoever to do with Aggrotech. The ban might be Italian, definitely not from an English speaking country. As it stands “Gardens of Seth” is rather outdated and has a rather late eighties sound. It is quite good at what it is but not quite what I want. Perhaps I will listen to it more when I’m having an Iron Maiden revival.
    The moral of this communication is that you should check discographies on the Internet before downloading songs by an artist whose tunes so far you have rather enjoyed.

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