Finally an Update

pardon my lapse. i keep meaning to give you an update, but events conspire, the planets align, butterflies flap their wings and i never seem able to get it done. this will either be two mid-size posts or one really long one...we'll see how much writing i get done before i need to go to the store.

where to begin?

since my last post of any substance, i've visited the radio observatory/research center in dwingeloo, had my assessment, settled on two (or three) projects to work on, seen a houseboat sink, said goodbye to some old friends, and moved to a new, bigger, studio. when i write it down like that it doesn't seem like much, but somehow it has completely filled the last three weeks.

the visit to the radio observatory (lofar/astron) was very cool. astronomy is one of my pet hobbies, but sadly, one that i've seriously neglected in the past 10 years or so. lofar (low frequency array) is essentially a number of small, inexpensive, networked, omni-directional radio sensors that are digitized and combined to emulate a much larger, more expensive conventional antennae. my colleagues and i were taken on a tour of the facility/control center and shown the real-time feed from the small lofar network (6 stations so far, i think). another excellent aspect of lofar is that it is not used just for radio astronomy. because the network is spread all through-out europe they've been developing applications to use lofar as a more generic Wide Area Sensor Network. this project really underlines the implicit power of networks.

my assessment came and went. there's not much i want to say here on the matter. those that know me and have talked to me about know how i feel. i will say this: i have a much clearer idea of what i want out of myself while i'm here.

and with that i think i'll end for today... tune in next time for the exciting conclusion!