Commented 7 years ago2017-11-10 15:32:49 UTC
in journal: #8889Comment #54670
Puppy is going to get chipped today. We've been arguing about what to call him but his name has to be on the chip so I guess I'll know what he's called when he's back from the vet.
Commented 8 years ago2016-10-03 09:46:17 UTC
in journal: #8752Comment #49720
For some reason I find if I'm a bit late in doing something I tend to delay even longer until it's too late, a habit which I really need to get out of. So until I'm back at my proper computer, have this here placeholder:
Commented 8 years ago2016-09-21 01:40:06 UTC
in journal: #8748Comment #62901
The year my sister entered secondary school, her school had decided that instead of textbooks the students would each have a tablet with ebooks, for a number of reasons including the effect the weight of daily carrying a bag full of books has on growth. I certainly see the point of that; in my school all first year students had to take every available subject. I was a very small until about 15 or 16 so I would say the bag I had to carry would have been an appreciable fraction of my weight. I think it's a good idea in theory, but the way they implemented it wasn't. One of the factors in the decision was that over the time spent in school it would be cheaper for the parents than buying new textbooks every year, however they chose iPads as the tablet of choice, which only one company sells, at quite a high price. Of course since the student owned the tablet there was the question of what level of control the school could have over them. From what I have heard a lot of the students spend most of their time in class using the tablet to browse Facebook. And there is also the fact that at this point most of her classes have gone back to using textbooks anyway, which defeats the purpose of the idea. I can see many reasons why a scheme like that, if implemented well could be beneficial. As well as that, since technology is becoming more and more important as time goes on I can see reasons for introducing children to technology relatively early. However that also depends on implementation. Using it as a substitute for parenting is no good. I would at least argue that a tablet is a better parenting substitute than a television, as there is at least some level of interactivity there.
Commented 8 years ago2016-05-12 17:40:49 UTC
in journal: #2016Comment #50180
2016 was an interesting year, full of twists and turns and unpredictable goings on. Probably the most shocking development was that TJB beat Jessie to being first commenter on one of these year journals.
Commented 8 years ago2016-05-11 21:12:01 UTC
in journal: #128Comment #35570
Don't hate the player, hate the game. Unless the plater is 2muchvideogames, I hear that guy punches babies for fun, although don't tell him I told you that.
Commented 8 years ago2016-05-10 09:10:35 UTC
in journal: #8702Comment #68016
I remember being in your situation. For the first two and a half years of my TWHL existence, my copy of Half-Life was a pirated disk that my friend had copied for me. I had the money and would have been willing to buy it, but I just didn't have any way of buying things through the internet. Up until December 2011, I had gotten my games on Steam either by buying them in a physical store, or by giving my friend money so he would buy them for me.
(With the exception of Half-Life 1, which was gifted to me by Urby and Archie as a competition prize).
Eventually I managed to get a hold of a prepaid card, which is like a debit card that's not tied to a bank account. You go into the place where you got it, and give them money to top up your account. If rufee's right, you might want to try getting one of those. Although I can't remember if there's an age limit for them.
There were two other teams, the red team and blue team. Red team's plane performed fairly well. Apparently their wings weren't as rigid as they could have been but they didn't have any hiccups and all of their flights were successful. Blue team's was interesting. Their first flight attempt (without a payload) ended badly. The plane didn't take off very well, and it lost control and entered a flat spin shortly after taking off, damaging the landing gear and the tailplane when it hit the ground. It had a number of flight attempts, most of which resulted in the plane flipping before takeoff due to the damaged landing gear. They had one successful 'proper' flight (minus payload), which ended with the landing gear being completely bent to the point of uselessness when it landed. It wasn't able to fly with a payload. At the end of the objective flights each team had a flight where the planes were just taken for a spin and made to do tricks, just for fun. The blue team's plane managed to take part in this flight, although it had to have all excess weight removed, and it didn't have any functioning landing gear at this point; it had to be launched by spinning the propellor up then throwing it into the air. During this flight, the pilot attempted to fly a loop and ended up flying straight into the ground. The impact was so severe that some of the heavier components were ejected through the front face of the plane. One of the lecturers saw the plane as they were taking it back inside and he said it's the worst crash damage he'd ever seen. The wing spar and tail boom were fairly thick carbon fibre tubes and they were broken in several places.
Commented 8 years ago2016-02-10 23:58:36 UTC
in vault item: Tokyo ComplexComment #4317
I didn't manage to give it a go over the weekend as I didn't have CS:GO installed, but I did notice that the download link seems to link to the wrong map.
Commented 8 years ago2016-01-22 19:06:56 UTC
in journal: #8656Comment #54652
I haven't gotten around to making any more keyrings, but I have got more progress. Today we had a session where we had to have the parts we have so far laid out for some local model aircraft enthusiasts to look at and provide constructive criticism.
There you can see the fuselage (not yet fully fitted) and one of the wings. The aileron and leading edge were both 3D printed at the insistence of one of the technicians, but we're very likely going to scrap the aileron and make one out of balsa, as it weighs more than either the rest of the wing or the fuselage. It's a shame, as it cost about €200 to print.
Here's the fuselage. Only partially complete, with missing parts and no glue or fasteners still, it was able to support a container about half-full of water, so about 500g. The guest 'judges' seemed impressed by it.
However there's a problem we hadn't really anticipated; Since this year we're using LiPo batteries instead of NiCad (if I remember correctly), we have to carry an extra weight to compensate for the lower weight of the batteries. We had intended to carry the battery and the dead weight at opposite sides of the central boom, but we learned today that they have to be attached to each other. This means that they won't fit into our design without modifying it, unless we want the weight massively off-centre. We're debating whether to mount the battery outside, or to remove some of the internal structure to make room for it in the centre. I'm leaning towards modification to mount it internally.
Commented 8 years ago2016-01-14 23:55:02 UTC
in journal: #8656Comment #54651
With the magic of laser engraving. This is how I'm thinking of making the design:
I plan on doing something similar for the one with my avatar on it. I could also cut them out and then glue them onto a backing material. I'm thinking of making two copies of the Black Mesa logo and then sandwiching a sheet of aluminium between them. That should help prevent it breaking as that one would be fairly fragile.
Also he seems to be surprisingly smart, he learned how to sit after less than a minute of prompting.
Anyway, (very) belated happy birthday!
So until I'm back at my proper computer, have this here placeholder:
I think it's a good idea in theory, but the way they implemented it wasn't. One of the factors in the decision was that over the time spent in school it would be cheaper for the parents than buying new textbooks every year, however they chose iPads as the tablet of choice, which only one company sells, at quite a high price. Of course since the student owned the tablet there was the question of what level of control the school could have over them. From what I have heard a lot of the students spend most of their time in class using the tablet to browse Facebook. And there is also the fact that at this point most of her classes have gone back to using textbooks anyway, which defeats the purpose of the idea.
I can see many reasons why a scheme like that, if implemented well could be beneficial. As well as that, since technology is becoming more and more important as time goes on I can see reasons for introducing children to technology relatively early. However that also depends on implementation. Using it as a substitute for parenting is no good. I would at least argue that a tablet is a better parenting substitute than a television, as there is at least some level of interactivity there.
That's Bone, and the lettering is something called 'Silian Rail'
a
(late) Happy Birthday!
Probably the most shocking development was that TJB beat Jessie to being first commenter on one of these year journals.
Unless the plater is 2muchvideogames, I hear that guy punches babies for fun, although don't tell him I told you that.
Eventually I managed to get a hold of a prepaid card, which is like a debit card that's not tied to a bank account. You go into the place where you got it, and give them money to top up your account. If rufee's right, you might want to try getting one of those. Although I can't remember if there's an age limit for them.
I've uploaded an album here: http://imgur.com/a/f0TYp
Our team's plane is the white one.
There were two other teams, the red team and blue team.
Red team's plane performed fairly well. Apparently their wings weren't as rigid as they could have been but they didn't have any hiccups and all of their flights were successful.
Blue team's was interesting. Their first flight attempt (without a payload) ended badly. The plane didn't take off very well, and it lost control and entered a flat spin shortly after taking off, damaging the landing gear and the tailplane when it hit the ground. It had a number of flight attempts, most of which resulted in the plane flipping before takeoff due to the damaged landing gear. They had one successful 'proper' flight (minus payload), which ended with the landing gear being completely bent to the point of uselessness when it landed. It wasn't able to fly with a payload.
At the end of the objective flights each team had a flight where the planes were just taken for a spin and made to do tricks, just for fun. The blue team's plane managed to take part in this flight, although it had to have all excess weight removed, and it didn't have any functioning landing gear at this point; it had to be launched by spinning the propellor up then throwing it into the air. During this flight, the pilot attempted to fly a loop and ended up flying straight into the ground. The impact was so severe that some of the heavier components were ejected through the front face of the plane.
One of the lecturers saw the plane as they were taking it back inside and he said it's the worst crash damage he'd ever seen. The wing spar and tail boom were fairly thick carbon fibre tubes and they were broken in several places.
Overall it was a pretty fun day.
Happy Birthday!
However there's a problem we hadn't really anticipated; Since this year we're using LiPo batteries instead of NiCad (if I remember correctly), we have to carry an extra weight to compensate for the lower weight of the batteries. We had intended to carry the battery and the dead weight at opposite sides of the central boom, but we learned today that they have to be attached to each other.
This means that they won't fit into our design without modifying it, unless we want the weight massively off-centre. We're debating whether to mount the battery outside, or to remove some of the internal structure to make room for it in the centre. I'm leaning towards modification to mount it internally.
I could also cut them out and then glue them onto a backing material. I'm thinking of making two copies of the Black Mesa logo and then sandwiching a sheet of aluminium between them. That should help prevent it breaking as that one would be fairly fragile.
!!
!!
!!
!!
!!
!!
!!
!!
!!
!!
I bet it's those damn gernumblies who are to blame for this.
Time flies.