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I'm a novelist and have an interest in space science and physics. I've been a programmer for more than 40 years and I like reviewing new and up-and-coming authors. I have become a committed member of the OpenSimulator community.
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Coffee Blog: 2022-05-15
In 2021 I decided to take my love for coffee a stage further. For quite a few years I'd been making my own blends from pre-roasted beans, and that had met with varying amounts of success (as you can probably imagine). That is until I started getting serious with it and making charts with the various flavours and notes I perceived and what the strengths were of these and whether they were desirable or not. For example, I might taste a berry flavour, and depending upon how strong that flavour was I'd give it a numerical value. If it was undesirable, it was a negative value.
Using these charts I could blend different beans (they might be roasted lighter or darker, or be from different regions) and in the right ratios, the negative flavours could be minimised and the desirable flavours enhanced. With a bit of skill and experience, the right flavours could be balanced - you do have the numbers after all. It's a simple but very effective system.
It stands to reason then, that one day I'd want to start roasting my own beans.
Adding a Chromebook
I have a network with wiki-farm server to support my writing, a NAS and a home-made laptop. All of these things are based on Raspberry Pi's. Besides using the wiki-farm (which is used to write novels), I also use Zim-Wiki for making copious notes, character creation, world-building and plot development. Zim-Wiki is available on both Linux and Windows, and there is an ARM build that runs happily on the Raspberry Pi. And then I added a Chromebook, and that went from good idea to nightmare and back again.
The Climax
Whether you work out what happens at the end of your story before you start writing, or discover what happens when you write the climactic scene, understanding why the scene is so important to the protagonist's story is critical to getting it right.
Astronomer's Nightmare
Satellites offer such huge benefits, including communications, taking the internet where it wouldn't otherwise be feasible, monitoring our weather and sea-level changes, GPS etc. etc. We shouldn't forget spying (um, military intelligence) either, because despite its sordid nature, it is important. At least, some people think so.
Every nation able to build and launch a satellite is doing that, and they usually are building one or more constellations of satellites for permanent white coverage (no blackout windows when cover is not available). Even if they can't build or launch, they can usually pay someone else who can do these things for them. A constellation may have more than thirty member satellites.
While this is great for general consumers of the services they provide, it's not so great for ground-based astronomy. The image to the right shows trails across a composite image of the Orion Nebula, and highlights just what a problem this is becoming.