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Tuesday November 08, 2005

Full steam ahead!

This weekend, I shall be driving one of these...

These are 1/3 scale model express trains on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent. My wife, for christmas, has bought me a 'Steam Driving experience day'. It's going to be incredibly hard work, dirty, smelly and probably cold and wet, but it's one of those 'ambitions' I've always had...

...To drive a Great British Express Train.

Yes, I know the Americans had the biggest steam engines, but they were great ugly brutes. The british had the best steam trains, and we still have the 126 mph steam speed record. Our steam engines were the last word in speed, quality and sophistication. Third class travel in the 1930s was better than first class travel today. Steam trains ran faster, further and more frequently with longer trains that the dull electro multiple units we have now.

If you have any kind of engineering bent you will appreciate that one of these 4-6-2 trains are probably the most beautiful pieces of engineering man has ever made. I missed my generation here, as the last timetabled steam trains ran back in the late 1960s.

This is the next best thing. These little expresses are the real thing, just 1/3 the size. They run at 25mph, a scale speed of 75. It's going to be great, full report next week.

( Nov 08 2005, 02:21:09 PM GMT / Nov 08 2005, 02:19:38 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [2]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/full_steam_ahead

Intelligent Design eh?

Robin already commented about this in his blogs, but since it was on the radio this morning and is one of my favourite areas of discussion I couldn't resist.

Ordinarily I don't give much credence to the creationism crowd, as I've found in the past that they play 'fast and loose' with science, taking what few documents support their point of view and disregarding copious amounts that contradict them.... not unlike the global warming brigade, and the politicians, and the prevaling scientific opinion...(cough, cough)... and thereby I've defined the problem, everyone has a blunt axe hanging around.

I guess the 'theory' of evolution (if it's true) implies there is no God and this gives the creatonists a problem. Interestingly though, I've spoken to a few creationists who also deny the theories of quantum mechanics, though oddly enough they are quite happy to enjoy using CD players and computers to churn out their material, funny that.

If you believe in God, then great, but you have to realise there is no way you can prove it. Faith is 'the continuing hope that a belief is true'. If you prove something you don't need faith anymore, unless your proof is wrong. If God exists it matters little whether he created the world in six days with the wave of an ephemeral hand or 4.6 billion years by instituting the laws of physics as we've discovered them. Religious types should look to their issues of bigotry, racism and sexism before they worry about such esoteric issues.

( Nov 08 2005, 02:11:28 PM GMT / Nov 08 2005, 02:11:28 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [3]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/intelligent_design_eh

Welcome Sara to the blogosphere

Shouldering the responsibility for our IDM product line should produce some cool entries. Watch out for Sara's Blog.

http://blogs.sun.com/saragates

Welcome Sara!

( Nov 11 2005, 09:48:41 AM GMT / Nov 08 2005, 01:40:10 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/welcome_sara_to_the_blogosphere

Last bit on Digital Certificates and PKI for the time being...

Yes, I've been on this one for a while I know, I get to talk about something much more interesting in my next entry...

...apologies for the outage, I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks, so just getting back into the swing.

It occurs to me that perhaps the government won't include a digital certificate on the card when it's issued, but they might allow it to store digital certs for the benefit of citizens if they want them. You might be able to buy a cert, making your ID card much more useful for CNP (Card not present) transactions and online stuff. Might make sense, though I think it might not help the 'digital divide'.

On the other hand, if the government does bite off the whole PKI thing, with that kind of access to public keys floating around the network, how long will a digital certificate last? With current compute power accessible (and stuff like seti@home) showing that PCs can be linked to work on distributed computational problems, I suspect a digital certificate might start getting a bit flaky at around 3-5 years.

Meaning re-issuance and more cost.

( Nov 08 2005, 01:37:06 PM GMT / Nov 08 2005, 01:37:06 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Trackback: http://blogs.sun.com/Drew/entry/last_bit_on_digital_certificates

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