Regularly (or not) updated items:
contains multiple
entries of utter piffle.
A gallery of digital pictures.
I've added some pictures from my recent (hah!) trip to Cornwall. 
allows users to log-in and leave messages and have discussions etc. 
is slightly easier to navigate and maintain meaningful categories. I'm currently using it to chronicle any Sunday walks.Cousin Ed bought me a digital
microscope device called a Dino - Lite. I've used it to take a number
of pictures which can be found in it's own section of my
on-line gallery. You can also view a wmv film of a small grub or
some algae
swimming about in pond water. The software that comes with it is great
fun and has a time lapse facility which I've used to make a few little
sequences (time
lapse films) stuck together into one file.
Thinking of buying Windows Vista? Think
again. Take a look at Defective
by Design. Merely thinking about Vista drove me into the arms
of Linux. I'm currently running Fedora
9
for everyday browsing, writing assignments and things. It's a very nice
experience. When I was setting it up I found that I was always coming
back to
this fantastic web site for advice on how to set things up. The Fedora Forums are a good place for general comments and workarounds if you are having problems.
While the above is still true, M$ have lured me back (back to dual booting anyway) to the fold with free stuff.
By being an OU student (and
after registering for a student card) you can be part of the
Dream*thingy* offer. They let you download and use MS 2003 server (standard edition), MS SQL
2005 Developer, MS Studio 2005 or 2008 pro and a few other odds and sods. It's kinda groovy for a 'freebie'; although you have to include in the price the cost of a course and the approx £10 for the student ID card. Courses with the OU, in general, offer excellent value for money. You can access the online library to read all sorts of journals and magazines. For geeky courses like maths or computing you get to use all sorts of exciting kit like older versions of SPSS or
MathCAD and until recently it was even better value as you received a copy of Kaspersky Anti Virus as well.
If you want to have a less restrictive set of mathematical or statistical utilities then I recommend that you install a species of Linux and use or install SAGE (also available as a vmware image for windows) and programs such as R (also available under windows) or PSPP.
<rant>
We should be grown up enough to share freely. The
restrictions essential to the creation of an artificial 'knowledge economy' feel
profoundly maladaptive to me. This is a regressive step for our society from
which we may not recover. Hopefully others won't be so feeble minded and short
sighted. I wonder where we would be now if creative people where not restricted
by other peoples 'ownership' of an idea. Society is a collaborative effort and
those who restrict and impede collaboration for personal gain while using fear
to intimidate other 'competitors' are not doing the world any favours.
intellectual property is an oxymoron. take a good long look in the mirror;
once you've done that try the daily telegraph (;-) only kidding don't read
either!
</rant>
Check out the free software foundation, creative commons, GNU, Project Gutenberg and ibiblio
A while ago I undertook the study of and MSc from Bangor Uni in Health & Social Care Leadership. Unfortunately Year 2 was all about management (whatever that is) so I thought that 1 year was enough. One bit I did find interesting was the health economics section. That really lit my fire.
The following table contains a few relatively good sites to search for abstracts, articles, odds
& ends and economic reviews.
There are many journals available for free. The Directory Of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) web site provides a list of many of them, another valuable source of free online information is the JISC web site. I graduated from Bangor Uni many years ago, I was mates with a lad called Dave Lambert. I haven't heard from him for a while but I occasionally Google to see if he's about.
Job web sites; C&DT trust, www.jobs.co.uk, Conwy Council, Denbighshire Council, Fish4Jobs and Jobcentre Plus.
Oh the joys of gyroscoping about. You can buy high precision gyroscopes and other sciency stuff at gyroscope.com including LASERs capable of popping black balloons.
While browsing about idly one Sunday
morning I found this fantastic
site for optical illusions!!! One thing I just can't help but be interested in is the fallibility of the human mind and it's organs and modalities. The illusions which surround us all and of which we are constructed. Our false memories, errors of the senses and general oddities of perception that form the foundation and building material of human
existence. A recent (22 Sep 07) edition of New Scientist had a section on just this sort of thing. With some web links to examples of the curios in sense or perception.
Here are some links to sound exotica:
Sentences sliced and diced
Sine Wave Speech also at this one
The Mc Gurk effect is an illusion that uses knowledge and vision.
Attendance/attention illusions:
Rutgers
Flicker images
and others and still more (warning FLASH required). There is a famous (at least I've seen reference to it a few times) film where you have to count how many times a basket ball is passed between people...Don't forget to count the passes It's VERY IMPORTANT
Perhaps we can include the knowledge of these fallibilities into our everyday thinking and so be closer to the truth of our perceptions. (?)
I've been spending a little too much time watching BBC TV online recently so here is a quick link to the BBC Three web site, or the new iPlayer thing that's fantastic for watching TV on your computer.
Only follow the link to "The best page in the Universe" if you've never been offended in your life and your looking to rectify that sorry state.
My niece has made and animated film using her mobile phone. I have popped it onto a page and you can stream it (yes video streaming now available) here you may have to wait a few minutes until the download is complete. Before you can play it. So the word streaming I used earlier was a bit misleading.
Heavens above is a web site for tracking all sorts of things in the nights sky. You can find the iridium satellite flares and visibility of the ISS for any point on the earth's surface.
These other sections of the site contain relatively static sections and cover various topics. These pages will expand slowly as I have time available or as I become inspired by my muse.
Sources of information relating to Physics etc. including links to
online video lectures and sites like arXiv.org that publish papers
online. I remember a visit to Jodrell Bank many years ago and I hope to
re-visit it soon. However the planetarium and science exhibits are
currently being renovated so I'm keeping a link to the
web site here to remind me to keep checking back.
Technical speaking I should be very interested in this subject (as it's
the sort of thing I do at work) but I am a reluctant statistician. I
prefer absolute certainty to the Gaussian curve. Here are a few items
relating to Statistics together with some basic concepts and
distributions. These pages are very much a work in progress and tend to
stop in odd places or have words missing.
Possibly the best thing in the whole world. Maths is something everyone
should learn. Thankfully all that tedious maths stuff has been worked
out and has all been written down. You can learn about it here.
Happy
numbers were mentioned recently in an episode of Doctor Who
nice to see TV not dumbing down too much
A mish-mash of assorted links that I have come across or had
recommended to me.
While compiling this web site I found THIS
web site very useful. It's to do with CSS
I love computers. They check my spellink for me. They do my sums and
they helped me to make this wonderful web site. Unfortunately they can
also be used for evil.
If you are curious about what sort of Virus is currently infecting your machine then why not visit Viruslist.com it does what it says on the tin.
Whatever you buy in this one life DON'T BUY IT FROM SONY. Home of the expiring products (ebooks), the secret viral root kit DRM tech' and the inability to back up 'your' CD or DVD. Whenever you buy something from SONY you never really own it. Don't let these freaks win. Vote with your wallet. For more general rants have a look at this page: www.weasel.com
If I am testing a CGI script it will be near this section of the front page:
I have been studying with the Open University for a couple of years or
so. They have a wonderful online library that allows you to access a
number of technical journals that are available online. I have set up
some links on this page to magazines that interest me. To be able to
view most of these journals you would need to be studying with the Open
University and have your login details to hand.
My interest in geology is a relatively new thing and it keeps me
entertained. I hope to put pictures on this site and any observations I
make.
This is linked to my interest in geology. I thought a separate page
would be appropriate as there are lots of images involved.
I used to work for Social Services
and cycled to work from Colwyn Bay to Prestatyn, or took the train if
the weather was bad. That's why these next couple of links are here.
They are still of use if you want a live departure board, or to know
the weather in Prestatyn.
Colwyn Bay train Station Live Departure Board
Journey Planner for planning your journey on the British public train transport system (please note that: trains may not arrive when indicated, may be cancelled without notice [or replacement service] and tickets may be more expensive than you thought).
Prestatyn weather forecast.
The Met office has a slightly more grown-up version of the weather forecast on their web site.
Tidal Predictions. The link goes through to one of numerous web sites that you can use for high and low water heights and times etc. They are particularly handy if you want to smuggle some rum from continental europe but need to land on a cove somewhere to avoid the tax man.
Here are some dull images from my archives. Misc.
Images including pictures of people I know, or have known in the past. I
knocked this page together before monkeymike.co.uk came into existence.
Otherwise they'd have ended up on the photo gallery.
Here are the first few digits of pi and e
3.14159265358979323846264338327950...
2.71828182845904523536028747135266...
Last updated on
24 August 2008 C.E
