Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the release of Lotus 1-2-3. What was Lotus 1-2-3 you ask? Well, it was the 1st spreadsheet program. it started the “I can use a PC for business” revolution.
Image from luigi rosa via flickr
Getting Ready for Prague — Day 22 of 101
FatSecret for 23 Jan 2013
Weight: 110 kg (-1kg)
Waist: 47.5 in (+.5)
Neck: 16.75 in (0)
Body Fat as reported by DietAndFitnessToday: 34.64
Total Weight Loss: 8 kg (from high of 118 kg)
Note, there will be no posts for 24 Jan – 28 Jan (Days 23 – 27)
Also note, I haven’t posted an actual picture of me yet because I don’t want to make guys like on the left feel bad. That’s also the same reason I turned down A&E when they offered me a job standing in swimming trunks and no shirt in front of their store.
Image from Kuwait-Ra’ed Qutena via flickr
Amazon Cloud Pictures
Cyndi and I use flickr to host our pictures. I think it is a great deal: $25 for a whole year and unlimited pictures. But there is no automatic way to get pictures from our Android phones onto flickr. Google has built this functionality into their google + app. Western Digital has an app that will upload pictures to certain types of their hard drives. The flickr app doesn’t support it. Google used to provide unlimited space for full size pictures if you had a plus account; however, they changed that and now only provide 5GB space free for full-size images (unlimited for 2048×2048 size images).
Yesterday, Amazon sent an email about their new Cloud Photos app. They’ll give you 5GB free; however, it links in with their Amazon Cloud Storage. About a year ago, we started paying Amazon $20/year to let us upload our MP3 collection to their Cloud Music Player app. Think flickr but for music. And, along with that, we also get 20GB cloud storage. They’ve changed the program slightly since then…Current prices should be here. We weren’t using but 10MB of the space for a small truecrypt volume holding our passwords and had loads of space.
So, from using it for 12 hours, the app will auto upload pictures to your Amazon Cloud Drive (both on and off wifi). You can also choose pictures to upload. When you look at your cloud drive, you get some organization; however, I’ve yet to try it with multiple devices.
At this point in time, I would certainly recommend the Cloud Music service. If you have a subscription to that service that includes space you aren’t using, why not?
Getting Ready for Prague — Day 21 of 101
Note, free day 19 Jan 2013. No exercise or tracking 20 Jan 2013 (Sunday). Yesterday was a snow day for Lydia…I slept in.
FatSecret for 22 Jan 2013
Weight: 111 kg (3kg+)
Waist: 47.5 in (+.5)
Neck: 17 in (+.25)
Body Fat as reported by DietAndFitnessToday: 34.33
Total Weight Loss: 7 kg (from high of 118 kg)
I know, I’m going the wrong way. Saturday was my free day. I didn’t work out yesterday. I didn’t eat all that bad; however, I didn’t drink enough water. Two days of that, and I should be back on track.
Image from aktivioslo via flickr
1 year ago
One year ago, I was in the states for the funeral of my Grandpa Maxson. Well, technically, I left the UK on 19 January 2012 and the funeral was on the 23rd.
Here’s all of us at the entrance to the Gros Ventre Wilderness area in Wyoming on our Elk Hunting trip in 2003:
Here’s a picture from my plane ride to the US and the funeral itself.
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You–your code–on the Space Station
Do you watch the Big Bang Theory? Ever wanted to be like Howard Wolowitz and get your “stuff” in space? Hopefully it doesn’t go haywire like his toilet did…but…..
Seriously, NASA has announced a competition to see who can come up with an algorithm to best position the solar panels on the ISS. Here’s the promo video:
Jan 21 2013 Geohash
Today is a snow day for Lydia and we are going to attempt today’s geohash (link to the geohash wiki for it). What is a geohash? See this page to find out more. I’m sure we’ll take pictures on our way and while we are there. I’ll update this post when we get back.
I’ve already made a flickr set here.
Ok, so we left Redhill around 3pm. We made it to the geohash a bit before 4. Everyone else in the car fell asleep so there aren’t any pictures from the actual journey. Nor is there any proof. Although, I took pictures that should me marked with the date/time as well as the lat/long markers. Here they are:
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What is Geohashing?
Geohashing is something invented by Alan Munroe of xkcd fame. He published the comic below–although I don’t know when–with an algorithm on locating a place in a certain section of latitude/longitude. You take some input (in this case, the date and dow jones opening) and mash it together to get a decimal set of coordinates. If you don’t want to do the work, here is a map online that will do it for you.
Finished/Attempted geohashes
UKSnowpocalypse2013 — More Pictures
Well, it didn’t snow yesterday; however, we did go sledding/sledging. Eventually, Cyndi will post the pictures…when she does, we’ll put in a link.
Today, it started snowing in the morning about the time we left for Church and kept it up all day. We got about another 2 inches on the ground and it is still snowing. Perhaps we’ll get a foot over night ;^)
Here’s a few pictures from a walk Lydia and I did this evening. The rest are on flickr in our UKSnowpocalypse2013 set.
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[Update 2013-01-20 18:45:43] Here’s links to other posts about the UKSnowpocalypse2013:
UKSnowpocalypse2013 has just begun
UKSnowpocalypse2013 — Pictures
Problems at Heathrow (LHR)
Young Earth Creationism
I’ve been to AIG’s Creation Museum. I have a few posts about Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design. But, I’ve never really done a post about why I’m a YEC–Young Earth Creationist. So, that is what this is.
First, I reject Darwinian monkey-to-man evolution because it is incompatible with the Bible. Plain and simple, the Bible says that God created. The Bible then goes on to say that God created kinds of animals that would reproduce within their own kind. I also reject the idea of the big-bang or theistic evolution. So, it should be fairly simply why I believe in the Creationism part of Young Earth Creationism.
Second, I reject old earth creationism because young earth is the simplest reading of the Bible text. First, most forms of OEC (old-earth creationism) require some form of the day-age form of creation. Just in case you don’t know, day-age ideas say that each day in Genesis was actually a long period of time instead of a literal as we know it 24 hour day. I believe that the days mentioned in Genesis were actual days. Why? Well, read it for yourself. That is the simplest reading of the text. Add to that, the Bible itself–in Genesis 5–tells us when people were born, how long they lived before their son was born, and then when they died. Simple math there (and with other places in the Bible) will get you a figure of 6,000 to 10,000 for the age of the earth.
Third, small changes seen today (darwin’s finches, the spotted moth, and others) are not a problem and are not evolution in the Darwinian monkey-to-man model. As a YEC, I don’t not believe that changes within kinds can happen. They even explain the diversity seen today. For example, from a medium-haired dog “kind” you can end up with short hair dogs, long-hair dogs, and poodles. We see horses and donkeys produce mules. Within “kinds” this can and does happen.
Fourth, I think that dating methods–carbon dating and the like–are based on assumptions that may or may not be the case (or may not have always been the case). So, in carbon dating the amount of c14 is measured. Based on the steady rate of change, scientists can determine an age (many other dating methods work the same). This would be like you entering a room with a bathtub being filled at a steady rate and being asked to determine how long it had been being filled. Sure, you could measure the rate of the water-flow, size of the container, and amount of water. However, you couldn’t determine what had happened before you entered the room. What if the container started out 1/3 full? What if the container had a small leak that was plugged in the past? What if the flow was faster or slower in the past? What if the temperature in the room were different (so the evaporation rate was different)? See where I’m going here?
Finally, a strong stand on YEC gives a “high” view of scripture. This high view and little compromise makes it more likely that I’ll keep a firm foundation on which to build other positions. Meaning, I think this position doesn’t compromise any Biblical position while others (theistic evolution, day age theory, etc…) cause compromise.
If you want more reading, check out this page on the Answers in Genesis website.
Image from NASA Goddard Photo and Video via flickr