Vehicle Tracking

I just had a phone call from a friend of mine. He has vehicle tracking which I designed in his car. He was driving to Melbourne and needed help. So I brought up some software I had written to work with the tracker that I had designed and I was able to tell him where to drive.

The mapping software was written by someone else by the rest of the system was written by me. This is something that I love doing… The last time someone came to visit me they needed tracking… This particular friend of mine missed the turn off to Ingleburn, and ended up in Bowral. I know many people consider Ingleburn a long way away (and with the M7 I think it will only take about 20-25 minutes for me to visit my friend Richard in Castle Hill) but it is not THAT far away!!!

Phantom of the Opera

A friend of mine got me a pre-release copy of the DVD of the Phantom of the Opera CD. I have seen very little of it at the moment, but I am VERY impressed by it. I saw the movie at the end of december. At the movies was great, but a I missed a lot of the detail, partially because I had never seen the stage show, and partially I was so much further back watching it.

Hand in hand I am reading the Susan Kay book, and there are bits of that back story that are coming out in the staging of the moving. Stonework and the like. Minor things really.

Satellites

I have been doing more work today playing with satellites. Well, not playing. Working with this time. From an engineering perspective a satellite is just a radio with a solar powered battery a long way away. There are some issues building a satellite, but basically it is easy. The hardest part is getting a launch, and that is not too hard provided you don’t mind paperwork. I have enough hardware here in the house to build a satellite. If I wanted it to last I would need to buy some more parts from Dick Smith. And if I actually wanted to get it launched I would need to pay a couple of thousand dollars getting a case made but that would not be too hard.

Getting the hardware through ‘Shake and Bake’ where they test the hardware before launch is the hardest part, but that just requires some re-engineering of some of the parts. I believe that PVC cables are not good in the vacuum of space because they give off vapours. And there are some other components that are not good to have up there either. Any dust or metal fragments can do real damage.

Doctorate

I mentioned that my mother was close to finishing her doctorate a few days back. What I forgot to mention was what she was doing it in. She is looking at the use of non-biblical parables in learning and literacy. It will not be too long before she finished. Then I will be the least qualified in the family. My brother has a matsters in pure maths. My father has a PhD. I only have a degree. Hmm.

Grandmother

I have just heard that my grandmother is doing well after the operation. She is bright and chirpy. Not sure if it has fixed the problem. We will see.

Music:

I just picked up a copy of Maroon 5’s “Songs about Jane”. I have not heard it yet, but I am about to move it to my Jukebox and then play it. The couple of songs I do know from it I love. The songs I know I know are “This Love” and “She will be loved”