DISQUS

hey rheynz you see that?


wouldn't quibble with any of Reyna Elena's choices, jan. She must be an astute woman."



cute eh!



naku Jan, kahit 5 lang pumasok sa inyo sagot ko na lechon diont worry di naman daw nakukuha ang swine flu sa pagkain lol



woman na woman ang dating lol.



Recent blog post: Pinoy New Bloggers, ang aming mga manok...

Jan, first time i saw your post from Rheynz and this is the first blog i open then runaway, scared,nervous, when i saw all inglisers people in comments section then the post and the sucks comments, hahahaha thanx for the tips the next time im going to comment to any posts i will never never use those words anymore particular the word "great post".
anyway this is a great post lol lol :-D



Recent blog post: Pinoy New Bloggers, ang aming mga manok...

hahaha naku jan naalala ko tuloy nung nasa south asia ako, instead of posting "for rent" dun sa mga appartments they put "TOLET" which usually they use even in England i heard(dunno never been there yrt)im so supet tanga to think, what was that? what was the meaning of tolet?means toilet???hahaha what a stupid me. :-[


Recent blog post: Pinoy New Bloggers, ang aming mga manok...

Thanks MW! I tried that, and I still couldn't find anything. I went to current students, etc. Let me know!

Where do I find these released questions from the AICPA? I looked on their website, but no luck.

I love your poem to these nuisance calls.

shorts,collared shirt conferable shoes and a visor

Hey Andrew,

(isn't it interesting that comments are usually not prefaced with some form of salutation? but I digress...)

I feel that maybe this post should've been called "Twitter saves the Big 3" or something to that effect :-P While I always enjoy your thoughts, I think I am (almost) completely over the social media hype. We've had discussion forums forever and all the major "new" technologies are at the core not very different, if at all - people post messages. You can call it blogs, tweets, comments, whatever, it's essentially all the same: people type in text that is associated with an online persona and widely viewable. Woopdeedoo. What seems to me implied in your whole fanatasy rescue plan here is that people by and large don't have a problem with and actually want to leave electronic messages. And that's where I think you are indeed living in a fantasy land. Forget about time - which is a great point - but people over a certain age, I would argue, just aren't down with "socializing" by sitting in front of a computer screen and hacking away at the keyboard. The new generation of people I think will be a lot more comfortable with this, but until they grow up en masse and enter the workforce any e2.0 (god what a stupid name) platform will just fail - which brings actually brings us back to the time issue: maybe in 10, 20 years this could be a lot more successful, but now, I'd bet against it. So if you actually got to be head of IT and proposed to save the automakers by a social networking platform... not even sure what to say because that already sounds so ridiculous.

Social networking may be successful with geeks who _like_ spending all their time ruining their eyes staring at a big lightbulb, but I think the average joe walking down the street - or working at an auto company - would rather minimize their time sitting at the comp and would consider the idea of "socializing" online utterly nonsensical.

The real million dollar question I think is how could computer systems capture human knowledge without the knowledge possessor having to interface _directly_ with that system? Also, how can we reduce the time spend staring at a screen?

And finally, how social is it to sit silently in front of a screen typing in words??? Does that not increase our sense of separateness and otherness from everyone else, thereby strengthening the egoic illusion? But again, I digress.

Let me apologize in advance if I came across as insulting or offensive, this is surely not my intent... I'm just really can't hear about these "social" utilities saving the day any longer.

- Jaded knowledge worker

Hi JC


You are probably wrong :-)



I think I understand - I will try not to swear too much here anyway. I can swear over at my own blog if I have to



Lee

Surely God did it? :-)


When I first heard of this hexagon, I went WOW... Cool, I wonder how?



It's mystery that drives science forward - love it



Lee

Hi JC


It can be pretty dark in Australia as you might guess – but you have to go for a little drive to get to these skies – away from houses and stuff.



My problem with that is I will not be able to get all the stuff into my car which is a sedan with two child seats.



My next car will be a wagon or the such like – no child seats :-)



As for the telescope, that's great that you're able to go for one! I envy you. We're tight on money right now, making it impractical.



Money is tight here as well – I am particular worried about my job in these ‘troubled’ times (i.e. stupid market people don’t know what they are doing so the rest of the world pays)



However, as I mentioned – our Prime Minister has a plan to keep Australia out of recession, give all the poor people money to spend (Hooray!!!) The idea being that we spend it at Christmas and not save it for a rainy day. So while I will be wasting money I really need to pay off my mortgage - I am being patriotic :-)



It’s the kind of madness I like.



If money is tight but you still want the pleasure – maybe an 8 inch Dobsonian (about AUS $400) could be what you are looking for – you might be able to get a second hand one from a local astronomy club.



When I start shopping, as I said before I'll be consulting you. :)



I joined an amateur Australian astronomy forum last week – by ’eck these guys can take some amazing pictures.



I know where my dreams will be taking me…



Also, I do hope you'll get a camera with it and take some astrophotos. It'd be really cool to see what you're seeing down under.



Alas no camera – this is the main drawback with the Dobsonian telescope, you cannot track the sky (no tracking – no long exposure). You save money on the stand – and that is the price.



My plan is too learn the sky with this telescope and inspire my son in a few years.



After all, telling a child that he has to wait 3 hours while you take long exposures with various coloured lens on the telescope, plus a few more hours after you down load to your PC to ‘touch up’ the picture - and then he could be ‘amazed’ at the picture he sees on the LCD monitor… no, the inspiration and awe is looking at objects with your own eyes.



Besides – what I really what to buy is a 16 inches Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a CCD camera – this will be nearer $3000 to $4000 I fear - to get everything I really, really want (stand, lens, carry cases etc etc).



Better to prove it is a hobby I will take seriously first the wife tells me – she knows me



Lee

Ah... the swan, tear in the eye.


I cannot see if from where I live, the Earth gets in the way :-)



Sounds like you live in a great place - nice and dark.



Off topic a little - I started looking for telescopes yesterday – had a little to a shop in the city. Just 200m from where I work is a telescope shop and I never knew it until yesterday. Amazing



The wife has told me I can spend a ‘Christmas bonus’ our Prime Minster is giving to all families with children (to help with the credit crunch and recession the PM is giving parents with a child $1000 – nice)



Anyway, the problem I am trying to juggle is cost, size and portability.



I think I am going to give up on the portability and just go for a Dobsonian for very ease of use.



It means, unless I change my car for a stationwagon – I will be just stuck in the garden (which isn’t great since I am surrounded by houses).



It will at least give me chance to learn the nightsky – which I am rubbish with down here – and maybe in a few years time I will be able to buy a new car and telescope get mobile. My son can then have the old telescope.



Well, that is the plan.



Lee

I feel McCain won this debate. He was strong and direct. I am sick and tired of the news people always saying Obama won the debate. I they watching the same show!

I just read "Light-travel time: a problem for the big bang"...


oh dear.



I want to say a rude word, but you do not want foul language on your blog.



I will just therefore say 'Belgium'... absolute and total 'Belgium'



The man is a right ‘Belgium’ and no mistake.



Hope you do not mind me saying that...



Lee

Good post...


I wonder too how hard it was for him to set aside what he learned from observation, given that he must have had to calculate the size, movement, and vast distances from Earth of astronomical objects. Those distances alone must’ve resulted in some rather agonized prayer sessions in which he surely asked God why the universe appeared to be so old. What a relief it must have been for him to go straight from earning his doctorate to working for AiG, where he could do a proper brain-dump and be himself



I really do not know how, when presented with the evidence of cosmic scales, someone can maintain the belief of a 6,000 year old universe. It does not make sense to me... worst still when the person is able to do the maths up to PhD level.



‘Obviously’ it was just a mathematical problem for him and he ignored the implications of the model and all the physical evidence for it.



It’s the only ‘answer’ I can give... why I do not know.



Lee

PS

I just had to open one of his articles... do you think I will enjoy the read?

I really know very little, but what little I know I am happy to share.


First thing I would think about is where do you want to use your telescope and for what purpose



You can get some pretty good telescopes for a 'budget' - but they are rather large so you would only want to use them in your own garden (unless you have a large car) and they are not great for photography I hear.



I am thinking of dobsonian telescope here.

(I think this will be my first scope I will be looking at since it is BIG and perfect for children, in that they want to look through a scope and not look at a picture taken by a CCD with 3 different filters...)



I've just looked and can get a 12 inch for $900(AUS)... need to have a word with the wife



Lee

That's not dancing - that's just jogging on the spot waving your arms around...


...but everyone seems happy, so I suppose it doesn't matter.



Lee

If you are going to be using a CCD (Charge Couple Device – what you get in digital cameras) then you will probably be doing at least 3 I think -with red, blue and green filters for best results - but I know rather little about this at the moment, this is purely a technical ‘guess’ with limited reading.


I have seen some amazing pictures using this method on a 16 inche telescope (of course, it does not match the HST but why would it)



However, this wasn’t what I was meaning.



With ‘normal’ photography you will be taking a long exposure – as the atmosphere moves around you will get a blurring of the photo.



Now, you could fire a laser up to the sky and bend your mirror to focus on the beam (adaptive optics) OR you could take a load of short exposure pictures and get a computer to chose the shots that were ‘unaffected’ by the atmosphere – and combine them.



As I said, this is new technology – I’m just messing around so don’t expect it for home use just yet(that said, I see no reason why not it all about PC power really)



Hope you don’t think I know what I am talking about, because I don’t.



I’ve not used a telescope since Uni days.



Lee

There is something I've heard about that could work at home.


Take a million shots of the same object, and get your computer to chose only the best ones.



In theory this will work... many short-shots they are then built up on the PC.



I know this has been done by the 'professionals' so may be coming soon to a telescope near you?



Still, I need to by a telescope first - that would help.



Lee

I want a MAD instrument, they sound cool.


Lee

It's good that your girlfriend likes the subject as well - very lucky.


As for 'equipment' - I want to get myself a telescope as well, but before I spend a few thousand on it, I will try joining a local club and learn from their mistakes.



I tried to go to one last month, but it was rained off - next open day... darn, tonight. I forgot. The first Friday of the month, oh well... it is raining anyway.



I will have to wait until next month now.



Have to go... my times up, and the wife tell me off.



Lee

Hi JC


My blog can be found here



There are also some weekly/monthly podcasts I listen to as well (links at my blog) that are on the astronomy topic that could be worth a listen.



Lee

Though it is true you will not go far in astrophysics without strong maths and physics - you can still do and enjoy astronomy with just a basic understanding of the two(which is lucky for me since I have forgotten so much)


If nothing else, this makes me feel better



Lee

PS

Can I link you from my blog so I can rememember where you are and see when you have new posts?

By the way, anyone is invited to tag along.


Hooray...



First, do your best to stay on topic



Oh... erm...



Keep your posts clean and free of abusive language



Can I say 'darn'?



Lee

Oh, and on the subject of astronomy courses - I assume you know you can download lectures free on itunes and the internet?


There are a few I can recommend...



http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/

~pogge/Ast161/Audio/



http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/

~pogge/Ast162/Audio/





http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

course_details.php?

seriesid=1906978465





http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

course_details.php?

seriesid=1906978460



That should keep you going for about a month :-)



Lee