Space travel, and all that Jazz

October 9th, 2008

I’ve always been absolutely fascinated by space, and I found this (albeit slightly dated) article very inspiring. As it eloquently points out, manned space exploration has all but dropped off the radar, in spite of being perfectly possible scientifically. Have a read!

Better Dreams

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The end is nigh

October 7th, 2008

… Of my time at University, at least. In just over a month I will have sat my final exam, and finished with my Bachelor of Engineering degree, which is very exciting! Between then and now, there are 3 remaining assignments, and 3 exams. Graduation is in March next year. Bring it on, world!

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Holidays, or lack thereof

September 14th, 2008

Today is the last day of the 2-week mid-semester holidays. Of which I have spent the ENTIRE time working on my final year project. Some holiday. I’m tired, wired, sick, and I have two solid weeks still to go before I have even a little respite. Namely:

Report due Monday.
Exhibition Friday.
Graphics assignment following Monday.
Graphics test following Wednesday.
Formal methods test following Thursday.

Screw you, uni! I think I’ll be getting a beer tomorrow night after handing in the report.

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Google Chrome

September 3rd, 2008

I’m writing this post from the Beta version of Google’s stab at a web browser - Google Chrome. So far it seems pretty nice. Key points for/against:

Chrome uses a unique model for its tabs. Each tab runs in an entirely new process (where in other browsers they may run in a new thread). This has many interesting ramifications, such as:
- Less memory leaks - when you close a tab, any dead memory is wiped with it.
- Greater stability - if one tab “crashes”, just close it - the rest of the browser soldiers on without problems, similar to closing a process within Windows.
- Greater security - the individual tab processes can be run at a tighter security level than the overall browser process, to help keep malware at bay.
Chrome has introduced a new JavaScript engine called V8 - developed from scratch to be more conducive to large-scale JS applications. This thing is fast. Seriously. I ran Chrome and Firefox 2 through the Sunspider benchmark, and Chrome came out on top, almost 10 times faster. Full details here: chrome-js
On the downside, a new browser is always going to be distinctly lacking in extensions. I’m already missing the AdBlock Plus I’ve grown accustomed to on Firefox. However the browser is open-source so we’re likely to see these sorts of things appear in no time.

Get it here! Definitely worth a look, seems to have a lot of potential.

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