Simon Scullion

I hadn’t heard of Rotterdam’s equivalent of the Thames Barrier, but after reading some news on the latest flood threats, found this on Flickr.

Maeslant Barrier II

Maeslant Barrier closed in the rain

Maeslant Barrier closed in the sun

All originally uploaded by dut97

Where some interesting details are included in the description:

During water levels of 3 metres above Amsterdam ordnance zero, the arms of the barrier are activated. The waterway, with a width of 360 metres, can then be closed completely. At first sight, it is almost unbelievable that such a barrier is capable of such an achievement. The Maeslant barrier is almost as long as the Eiffel tower and weighs about four times as much. It is the only storm surge barrier in the world with such large moveable parts. The storm surging doors have a length of 240 metres each. Under normal circumstances, these doors are fully opened, so that the ships have access to the port of Rotterdam. The doors are stored in docks with a length of 210 metres, which lie along both shores.

During storm tide the docks are flooded and the hollow doors begin to float. They are driven into the water by means of a small train. This lasts for about half an hour. When the doors are situated in the middle of the river, valves are opened and as a result the doors are flooded. Consequently, the doors sink to the bottom because of their weight. On the bottom, there is a concrete threshold. A lot of silt gathers on this threshold. To close the New Waterway properly, arms need to be positioned exactly on the threshold. The doors do not sit directly on the threshold yet, but are hung a little above them. The current under the doors becomes so strong that the silt is washed away. After about an hour, the doors can sit flat on a silt-free threshold. The water level on the seaside is then higher than the water on the riverside. The force against the surging wall during a storm is about 350 Mega Newton: this is equal to the weight of 350,000 strong men, carrying 100 kilograms each. The pressure difference is so large that a ship of equal measurements would capsize instantly. The unique shape of the barrier prevents this from happening.

Via Charles Robinson

Tags: presentation skills, presenting

I’ve been wanting to write a post on a few of the tools I’ve been using recently for a little while now, so here goes! Hopefully one of my two readers will find it useful interesting!

Windows Live Writer

Back up and running with WLW, though with an older beta copy. The current version uses one of those awful web install routines, and apart from trying to install a load of other stuff rather than what I wanted, it failed. Every time. Why do they have to make it so difficult?

Luckily I had a previous version which was just the standard exe, so back up and running.

Still, like Glen, I need to find a decent Linux blogging client though.

Link: Windows Live Writer download

Facebook

I’ve been signed up to Facebook for a little while now, and finally uploaded a profile pic! I’m happy to have some friends, and I’ve added a few applications. So far so good!

I do have a few issues with the layout though. For me, it doesn’t make good use of the screen estate with its centered fixed width, but other than that I’m finding it easy enough to use.

I Also added the Facebook extension for Firefox, which lets me login and follow status updates from a toolbar.

Overall Facebook seems like a bit of fun, but I’m not sure how useful it really will be for me over time. I certainly don’t see myself getting “addicted” like it seems others have!

One thing I will say though, I can see this being great within the enterprise, I honestly think I’d get more out of a tool like this at work than I envisage for me personally right now. Thoughts for the Lotus Connections developers maybe!?

Interesting, I’ll keep playing.

Links: Facebook, my profile

Twitter

I had also signed up to Twitter a while back, but a little like with Facebook, I honestly didn’t really “get” it. I understand what it does, its just didn’t see myself getting anything out of it. Again, like with Facebook, I’m making a bit more of an effort, I added my phone and IM details, and we’ll see how we get on. Though I am already finding the SMS messages to my phone when I’m not online a little intrusive! How would I cope with a Blackberry!?

I do actually quite like the Twitter app for Facebook that shows my “tweets” over there, its easier than updating my Facebook status. And I can see it being more fun if some of my family were also twitterers. You listening bro’s!?

Links: Twitter, my tweets

coComment

I have resisted up until now to talk about these guys. I signed up just before they released a fairly major “upgrade”, which got a lot of coverage on the blogosphere, but I didn’t want to wade in as a newbie user.

I was able to use their former interface right of the bat, it was easy, and seemed to do “what it said on the tin”. Not so with the new incarnation! They had some serious issues when they rolled out the changes, and to be perfectly honest, the new interface is harder to get around. Worst of all though, and thouroughly frustrating, is that it doesn’t seem to be picking up most of my comments!

These problems are mostly why I have put off implementing it natively here on the blog. Oh, and lack of time!

Lets hope they keep working at it, and things get better.

Link: coComment

Jing

I checked this out after seeing a tweet from Luis Suarez, and thought I’d give it a go. It looks promising, I can see it helping get hold of screenshots easier for some blog posts.

Just a shame there is no Linux version

Link: Jing

Disclaimer: This is all my own opinion, and my thoughts are not to be considered recommendations!

Phew, I feel better now!

Technorati tags: WindowsLiveWriter, WLW, Facebook, Twitter, coComment, Jing

Kevin made some very valid comments regarding my ideas for a logo for his SuperNTF application, so I finally got round to trying to incorporate them into a new design.

What do you think?

I still fancy having a go at creating a banner image, but actually quite like the concept Nathan hit on. Will need to give it some thought.

Comments welcome!

I’ve heard a bit about the $100 laptop, but nothing in any detail, so I found this an interesting read.

Put simply, the XO is one of the most revolutionary computer systems that I’ve seen in some time. The entire time I was looking at the XO, I was thinking, why can’t my new expensive laptop do this?

Some of the hardware sounds very interesting, particularly a black & white screen that is visible in strong sunlight, and the extraordinarily low power consumption.

The Sugar interface includes some extremely interesting capabilities for managing files, tasks and applications. Also, when combined with the wireless networking of the XO, the Mesh view in Sugar is one of the best and most innovative collaboration environments that I’ve ever seen.

I hope the big software vendors are keeping up. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for some of this innovation to make it through to mainstream applications.

Web 2.0, old news!?

Emerging Technology - Desktops and Notebooks - Meet the XO

Via Bob Sutor (again!)

I saw this from Kevin Pettitt, and just couldn’t resist! Kudos from Josep Alemany for kicking this off!

So here are a few ideas from me!

Idea #1 Taking a flat “classic” logo and incorporating it. Not sure I like the mix, too many colours.

Idea #2 Similar idea, but taking the more modern superman emblem. A little heavy, again, I don’t think this is a particularly good blend.

Idea #3 Here I looked to better incorporate the Superman logo, adjusting the colours a little. A lot better I think, I quite like this one, though it is a little complex, not quite in tune with the modern Notes 8 “web 2.0″ style logo.

Idea #4 I had to include one like this following Nathan’s efforts! Fun, but the Notes association is too weak.

Idea #5 - my favourite! I actually really like this one, if I do say so myself! I think the colours and style blend the two logos well, in tune with the new Notes 8 logo!

Kevin, if you’d like to use one of these, let me know, I’d be honoured!

This was just for a bit of fun, but feel free to comment! Let me know if you love/hate them, have any other ideas for variations, or need others on a similar theme!

Luis Suarez’s latest post talks about internal blogging, and asks us to help with some research by filling in a survey.

“We are currently conducting research into the topic of internal blogging within companies.
As part of this study we are inviting company bloggers to complete a short questionnaire in the form of an online survey available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lyaeUenyBMkZDwXKRMRd7w_3d_3d

The questions deal with some general questions about your blog, about your motivation to blog and the impact of your blog.
All data collected will be anonymous, and in the written report of the research it will not be possible to identify the individuals who contributed to the study, nor their affiliations.

Should you be interested in the findings of the research once it is complete, there is a place on the survey to leave your email address to which a report will be sent.
If you have any questions about the work, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for participating.“

So if you have an interest or any experience with internal blogging, go give them your thoughts.

As if not knowing our multiple tables wasn’t enough, now it turns out we can’t read either!

More than 10% of the 1,000 parents asked had struggled to understand some words in the stories they had read to their five to 10-year-old children.

Parents said that they made up words they could not read or missed out difficult passages, the survey said.

How difficult is it!?

I really enjoy reading to my nearly-two-year-old daughter. While I realise books of any complexity suitable for ten-year-olds will likely be more challenging than baby stories, in some ways I think they are harder to read! You have to work harder to make them interesting, with tones of voice and changes in volume.

An interesting article on the makeup of the open source stack.

One line that caught my eye (emphasis mine):

But Alfresco’s customers significantly skew toward the Global 2000 plus leading government and nonprofit organizations: ….. European Commission, …. etc.

It’s possible that these organizations represent the lunatic fringe of the software-using world but, in fact, many of these would generally be considered late adopters or mainstream adopters.

Interesting, particularly following the rumours of the EC’s use of Office 2007. Looks like they don’t necessarily fall into the late, or mainstream adopters category.

Open source applications…magnets for open source infrastructure | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Just catching up on a couple of things, a few posts on the beeb have caught my attention lately.

Broadband prices

An interesting article on the price of broadband worldwide. Not sure how valid the comparisons are, but I know that here in Spain we continue to be shafted, I’m currently paying just under 40€ for 1Mb (soon to go up to 3Mb)!

Sony BMG Vs Amergence Group

Ironic. And who benefits? Not the customer then. Enough said.

BBC iPlayer

More positive news, the BBC appears it’ll start to listen to opinion on the need to make this more open. I must admit, I was surprised at some of the choices made for the initial release.

How good is your maths!?

Do you fall into the 1 in 14 who can’t solve the following!?

What is one eighth of 32?

• a) 6
• b) 4
• c) 2
• d) 8
• e) None of these
• f) Don’t know

Shocking!