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Walking Commentary

Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

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moore's law

Sand Surprise

March 18, 2021 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

‘When British mathematician Clive Humby said ‘Data is the new oil‘ back in 2006, he meant that data, like oil, must be refined and transformed to make it into useful products and services.’

Tim O’Reilly quoted this to open his recent article Data Is the New Sand for The Information. He concluded that data isn’t oil, it’s more like sand.

And that got me thinking, as I suspect O’Reilly wanted: his very first line was that ‘The metaphors we use are like a map. They can guide us or lead us astray.’

Sand Martins surprised me many years ago.
[Read more…] about Sand Surprise

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir Tagged With: alfred korzybski, birds, clive humby, moore's law, photos, tim o'reilly

Screensavers and Proteins Part 1

February 19, 2021 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

I can type because there are proteins that help me do it. The proteins in question enable my muscles to contract and slide over one another among other mundane tasks. They do the same for you and all of our proteins deserve enormous respect. And despite enormous research efforts, we don’t yet know enough about proteins.

Dun Laoghaire Winter 20091228 © Simon Robinson
Canon 450D | Canon 55-250 F4-5.6 IS | 194 mm | 1/15s | f/5.6 | ISO 400 | handheld
[Read more…] about Screensavers and Proteins Part 1

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: CERN, computing, Covid-19, moore's law, photos, vijay pande

On Birds, Ghosts, Velocity and Serendipity (1)

July 13, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

We were sitting eating our lunch earlier today when there was a percussive thud from the the French door at the end of the table. A recently fledged Robin hadn’t seen the glass. No immediate or obvious harm, the little bird turned and flew back into the undergrowth. Sheepishly, it seemed to me. Perhaps such a stunning might temporarily cause an avian to adopt mammalian ungulate behaviour.

Texas was almost my first thought because of the memory of a Painted Bunting that crashed into the window of my office long ago in Sugar Land. Almost the same sound today resurrected a long parked memory.

Twitchers in Galveston 1988
[Read more…] about On Birds, Ghosts, Velocity and Serendipity (1)

Filed Under: Fake Memoir Tagged With: birds, geophysics, moore's law, texas, travel, twitchers

Build your own?

June 22, 2020 by Simon Robinson Leave a Comment

Intro: I stumbled onto the notes for this post on a back-up disk. I’ve re-worked and expanded them today. The 15 year old grandson is now 19. He just built himself a new rig for gaming. A lesson in delayed gratification, it took months for all of the parts to be delivered in this era of pandemic.

Back in the 1980’s, I was involved in a group charged to implement three-dimensional seismic imaging technology for a service company. My qualification for membership in the team was the prior two years working in another seismic 3D start-up company, where innovation and determination became failure and frustration which manifested as constant corporate re-organisations.

Rotten Tomatoes and Seismic Recording 1982
[Read more…] about Build your own?

Filed Under: Anchoritism, Fake Memoir Tagged With: chapter 11, computing, geophysics, moore's law, pandemic, photos, seismic

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