Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Marky147]

Charming fellow

Whose blog is that little excerpt from?

Guy called NorcalJew on 2+2... actually quite a funny read when you cut thru' the "why oh why" stuff. Mostly post on the LVL sub board there

Thanks, I know who you mean now and have read some of his stuff before. Mostly degeneracy stories and nights out etc.

[edgascoigne]

  Love this diary.

Ha!

You are a man of fine, but weird, tastes, Ian.

How did that lad of yours turn out so bad?

PS - thank you.

Now now! Mr Gascoigne Jr went to the fourth highest ranked college in the finest academic institution in the world (well, behind Sheffield obv - gotta play to the masses, see?):

Tompkins Table 2013 - top 10 colleges

The table ranks colleges on a points system with five points for a first, three for a 2:1, two for a 2:2 and one for a third. (2012 position) % score [% Firsts].

1 (1) Trinity, 73.66% [41.7%]
2 (4) Pembroke, 70.85% [33.7%]
3 (8) Trinity Hall, 68.94% [28.1%]
4 (2) Emmanuel, 68.72% [30.5%]
5 (5) Churchill, 68.17% [28.3%]
6 (7) Jesus, 67.47% [27.1%]
7 (12) Queens', 66.89% [26.3%]
8 (9) Christ's, 66.76% [24.7%]
9 (10) St Catharine's, 66.51% [26.9%]
10 (18) Peterhouse, 66.41% [27.8%]

I seem to remember the placings were a little different in 'our day', Tal...?

EDIT: In spite, rather than because, of my presence I must hasten to add.

[Tal]

When I matriculated, I was told Pembroke came top the year before.

I soon saw to that.

[Tal]

Ha!

[edgascoigne]

Ha!

Mediocre minds think similarly, it would seem.

[theprawnidentity]

When I matriculated, I was told Pembroke came top the year before.

Such a sick brag on soooo many levels!!!!!  Big fan of this.

[Machka]

Massive:

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/07/google-internet-traffic/

Simply unbelievable.

By spooky coincidence, given that I just mentioned Chris Evans, I first heard of google on his original Radio 1 Breakfast Show, before he entetred his loopy phase from which he has now thankfully emerged.

He said that the reaction time was near instantaneous. In those days, we were all on dial up, & it took several minutes for a page to load. They never advertised then, but word of mouth did the trick, & we were soon all hooked.

I suppose the EEC or whoever will file Anti-Trust lawsuits against them soon, for being too successful, as they did with Microsoft.

It is a weird world when successful businesses are maligned for being successful.

Next door, on Company Lappies, the default Search Engine is "Bing", which is Microsoft. It really is very poor compared to google.

Anti-competitive practices? Maybe. But I'm a grown up now, & I'll deal with it myself thank you.

If I tried to figure out what stuff has changed my life for the better and worse more than anything, I'm sure the internet would be near the top of the list. Everything good & bad is there. I mean, here.

I remembered this video from 3 years ago when Google were trying to show that Google Chrome^* was quick, really quick.

^* Google Chrome is Google's browser, like Internet Explorer which you no doubt use in the office.

[tikay]

Wish I even knew the meaning of "matriculated".

Is it something to do with chewing food?

[Tal]

Repeat after me:

I promise to observe the Statutes and Ordinances of the University as far as they concern me, and to pay due respect and obedience to the Chancellor and other officers of the University.

You'd love all the old rituals from the various colleges. Ed and I could, I am sure, fill a thousand pages with it, but you'd struggle to get to 2million views.

Matriculation is the formal signing in at the start of your time at Cambridge, the other place and a few others (Durham and St Andrew's, I think...). It is when you officially join the university.

In Cam, each college has its own quirk on the theme, I imagine, but it fundamentally is standing in a queue in a borrowed or recently purchased gown, agreeing to behave yourself and signing a book with a proper ink pen.

[Machka]

Here's a novel use of concrete and trains you may have never heard of before.

One of the problems in the power generation industry (where I'm working at the moment) is storing excess electricity that is generated.

Not a problem I've really thought about before but gas can be stored quite easily in those huge storage tanks.



Electricity however can't just be stored somewhere, the electricity that comes out of your socket has been generated somewhere in the county a moment before.

But the power stations can't raise or lower their production quick enough to react to more or less use so a few clever solutions have been invented.

First concrete, a million tonnes of it, used in creating Dinorwig Power Station.

Click to see full-size image.

It takes any excess electricity generated and uses it to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher one.

Then when there is a demand for power it can release water from the upper reservoir through the turbines and go from 0 Watts of electricity production to 1,800,000,000 Watts production in 16 seconds and keep producing electricity for 6 hours from a full reservoir.

http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station

Second trains, or ARES - Advanced Rail Energy Storage.

This new technology involves heavy railway carriages being pushed to the top of a gradient using excess power.  Then, when electricity demand rises, the carriages are released back down the hill generating electricity through regenerative braking, like a Formula One car KERS system.

The system is supposed to be able to respond to demand in a matter of seconds and can deliver constant power for periods of up to eight hours.  A proof of concept has been demonstrated and ARES are currently in the middle of the permit process to construct a full-scale commercial 500 MW system in Nevada. This system will have five miles of track and each of the thirty two carriages will weigh 300 tons, and be able to absorb or provide around 1.5 MW of power.



http://www.aresnorthamerica.com/grid-scale-energy-storage

[iangascoigne]

   Seem to remember the boy in a gown having to
kneel and pull the Principals finger or something. He's been doing that ever since.

[Tal]

   Seem to remember the boy in a gown having to
kneel and pull the Principals finger or something. He's been doing that ever since.

Sounds like the other end, as it were: graduation.

[tikay]

Here's a novel use of concrete and trains you may have never heard of before.

One of the problems in the power generation industry (where I'm working at the moment) is storing excess electricity that is generated.

Not a problem I've really thought about before but gas can be stored quite easily in those huge storage tanks.



Electricity however can't just be stored somewhere, the electricity that comes out of your socket has been generated somewhere in the county a moment before.

But the power stations can't raise or lower their production quick enough to react to more or less use so a few clever solutions have been invented.

First concrete, a million tonnes of it, used in creating Dinorwig Power Station.

Click to see full-size image.

It takes any excess electricity generated and uses it to pump water from a lower reservoir to a higher one.

Then when there is a demand for power it can release water from the upper reservoir through the turbines and go from 0 Watts of electricity production to 1,800,000,000 Watts production in 16 seconds and keep producing electricity for 6 hours from a full reservoir.

http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_Power_Station

Second trains, or ARES - Advanced Rail Energy Storage.

This new technology involves heavy railway carriages being pushed to the top of a gradient using excess power.  Then, when electricity demand rises, the carriages are released back down the hill generating electricity through regenerative braking, like a Formula One car KERS system.

The system is supposed to be able to respond to demand in a matter of seconds and can deliver constant power for periods of up to eight hours.  A proof of concept has been demonstrated and ARES are currently in the middle of the permit process to construct a full-scale commercial 500 MW system in Nevada. This system will have five miles of track and each of the thirty two carriages will weigh 300 tons, and be able to absorb or provide around 1.5 MW of power.



http://www.aresnorthamerica.com/grid-scale-energy-storage

Dewi-Cool, he of the "great thread, Dewi" fame, used to work at Dinorwig Power Station. It is an ingenious solution, known as " stored energy", though that is a tad disingenuous imo. The energy is not stored as such, but the energy to create it, instantly, is stored, via all that water at the top.

How clever is that?

Not heard about rail system in Nevada before, which must have dubious claims to cost effectiveness. It is ironic how Las Vegas uses obscene amounts of power and water, most wastefully, and yet the WSOP has a "One Drop" charity.......

[tikay]

   Seem to remember the boy in a gown having to
kneel and pull the Principals finger or something. He's been doing that ever since.

Back in the day, my then girlfriend graduated at Nottingham University ( a pretend Uni I think) and so I decided to buy her that gown and funny hat (pessle?) for her Graduation Ceremony as a "well done" pressie.

Cost the absolute earth!

Went on some website, and every Uni has slightly different colours, but I got it right eventually. I have a photo of it somewhere, let me see if I can find it.

I paid for the course, it was a "Distance Learning" jobbie, she was a Legal Executive (mortgage and conveyancing work for Solicitors), and the course qualified her to be a full- blown Solicitor.

I was as proud as punch of her, chuffed to bits, she worked so hard for it.

It cost me around £13,000 in total for the Course, £3,250 per year or whatever.

Two weeks after she Graduated, she gave me the heave-ho......

Sort of puts losing a flip with A-K into perspective.

I was pretty cut up to be truthful. In fact, while she was telling me the "Dear John", Dave Colclough rung me, asking if I would help start blonde. "Bit awkward right now Dave, will ring you back". And so began another chapter, and another bloody big hole into which I could shovel money.

About 5 years later, we were offered around £800,000 for blonde. Tighty rounded up all the signatures and stock transfer forms, and I had something like £175,000 coming my way, less about £30,000 I intended to gift the staff. Very nice.

Dinner was organised for all the staff the next evening, to tell them the news. At midnight on the evening before, just as was off to bed, I got a text. "The buyers have pulled out".

No problem mate, no problem.......

Bad beats and suckouts eh? Dread to think how much money I have pissed away down the years. Was all fun though. Mostly. Anyway, it all worked out for the best in the end. I'm as happy as I have ever been.

[Tal]

I visited the Dinorwig Power Station on a school trip to Prestatyn when I was 13. That double reservoir thing now makes sense. If only they'd given us a pack of information and told us to open the envelope sixteen years later.

That trip, we stayed in Pontin's. It was during Wimbledon, I recall. Whilst the players had no trouble in London, in North West Wales, it rained non-stop. And none of this fine rain. It absolutely llissed it down.

To entertain ourselves, our group of four in a chalet straight out of Hi-Di-Hi played cards. Yes, it was on that trip that I learned how to play poker. We played five card triple draw for millions of imaginary pounds.

#PlayMoneyPlayaaaaa