Idle State

Last week a friend asked me to help him buy a computer. Instantly, I suggested that he buy a MacBook. I always do this. Call me selfish, but I prefer going to the beach than spending countless hours diagnosing, recovering or teaching my friends the vagaries of a clumsy-at-best operating system.

Alas, my friend didn't have enough cash to buy the MacBook so we purchased an HP dv2-something or other. A reasonable machine. It was bundled with Vista

(cut, interior, friend's house, several frustrating hours later)

Ok - I now have this sinking feeling. What takes 10 minutes to do on the Mac (start and register the machine) has now taken about 2 hours on the Vista box. I was amused when the while-you-wait slideshow mentioned something like: "Vista gives you more time for the things you enjoy". At the bottom of the screen, we were advised to: "Please wait."

Then there's that annoying security checking all-the-freaking-time.

Already - I confess - I've learned. It's the last time I'm going to be an accomplice to a friend buying a PC. (Unless of course, they're going to return the OEM OS and install Linux).

Back to the beach.

Useful Links:

• When Is It Time To Buy A New Computer
  

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Bits, Peeves

I was doing some random net reading (the articles are a few years old now) and found that aeroplanes use fibre optic gyroscopes - no moving parts - instead a few lasers and a bunch of optic fibre in a loop / coil. This was news to me. I was thinking that they still used a bunch of motors turning flywheels holding some accelerometers still in a sort of - don't bump that, we may end up landing in Uzbekistan* - way.

http://www.pprune.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-9344.html

Fibre optic gyroscopes compare the time taken for light to travel around the loop in one direction vs the time for the light to travel in the other direction. If the loop is rotating in one direction, the light travels a shorter distance one way than it travels in the other direction. (Even though it is in a 5km loop of optic fibre - the light travels more than 5km in one direction and less than 5km in the other direction). Weird.

Not to be outdone, in the bid to adopt quantum technology, some guys are thinking that they could put quantum gyroscopes in aeroplanes.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2526

First Officer: Sir, we may or may not be in the South Pacific.
Captain: Well, did the cat drink the vial of poison or not?

Back to the beach.

* There's nothing wrong with landing in Uzbekistan - it's just that my boarding pass said Dubai.

Technorati Tags:
Flying, Idleness, Amusement, Random

Online SCRABBLE® is the greatest thing since the internet, dishwashers, Sudoku, automatic garage doors and Pianolas*. (These are all fantastic ways to be idle or ways to save time so that you have more time to be idle).

Benefits of idly playing SCRABBLE® are:

• Increase your word power
  
• Increase your friend's word power
  
• Thrash the pants of someone with a poor vocabulary
  
• Learn the meaning of the word Qi
  

If you play SCRABBLE®, you should aim to get more than 300 in any game - especially if you play me. Less than that, let's face it, is downright embarrassing. (English not your first language, then?)

Speaking of which, you can now play SCRABBLE® في العربية (in Arabic) which has 104 undecipherable tiles. It seems it would be quite hard to play, since none of the letters would actually join up to the other letters. And I don't read or write Arabic. ("For the last time, Mīm - Bā- Bā - Wāw - Alif does not mean anything!?!")

The benefit of playing online is that you can, of course, be in different countries and different timezones. [You don't have to be in different countries: for instance, you may wish to play online with someone who lives in the same house if they were ugly and you don't want to look at them]. What's more, it keeps you up to date with your friend's comings and goings. It's a dead giveaway that your friend has been out all night drinking because at 5 am their time they take their turn and try to spell "TROLLEYED" with one L, no Y and a P.

I regularly play several games online at http://thepixiepit.co.uk/scrabble/ and it's a perfect way to idly use up a hour or so each day. At US $10 per year it's an absolute bargain and the administrator is always really helpful if you run into problems. (Unfortunately, not problems like "what can I do with VVWIIIO?") You can also send little notes to the other players when you make a play (eg "Did you turn the gas off?", "Hi Mum, I'm still alive. Can you pay my parking fines for me?" or "I hate you and every thing you stand for and for taking that triple word score.")

Unfortunately, kwyjibo** isn't in any of the official SCRABBLE® dictionaries yet - but apparently is allowed if you play The Simpsons' version of the game. Can't wait for the online version of that!

Back to the beach.

* Pianola (aka Player Piano). For those born after 1980, you can find out more here. The pianola was superceded by the iPod.

** See "Bart The Genius". See The Simpsons Episode 7G02