Just working

2009-06-24T20:52:00.002+01:00

Well I've been busy working. I went on holiday to Brussels then have been doing a lot of events since then.

Brussels was OK but tiring, pushing around my Mom, and trying to keep track of my grandparents as well, made it tough! I got to relax a little bit though, but it was just a bit short of a trip for so much travel time.

So, then in an effort to stave off starvation, eviction, and debt I took a job as a taxi marshal; and besides, it keeps me busy on the weekend nights that I'm so used to work on. At least it keeps me from feeling uselessness that I've been getting on Friday and Saturday nights. So with that I inherited the job of Event Steward as well with that. It's not a bad job, on the surface of it's quite easy, but events lead into Site security as well, and that's where things get tiring! 3 ever so part time jobs all working through the same point making it easy to collate where I'm at for shifts (even then, there's the occasional double booking still). So now it's 14 hour shifts on site security, events and the occasional Taxi Marshalling as well. So that's a few events down for the season and many more to go!

So now I get an email from the boss telling me I'll be supervising the next one! I didn't see this job going anywhere really, but I'll be glad to take the promotion. Besides, it feeds nicely into my CV (resume) being able to say that I ran huge security teams for council events (well, maybe we'll see how my first event goes, and maybe not). With luck it should go just fine, and the boss will be shadowing me just in case; not that anything CAN go wrong! At least I'm being given an easy first event. Then hopefully I'll move on to bigger and better events soon.

Star Trek

2009-05-18T17:13:00.001+01:00

You know, if I could turn off my brain and the inner Trekkie in me..... and the inner soldier in me..... and just me in general..... I would probably have liked it a lot more.

WARNING: A LOT OF SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!!!!!

So I'll begin my gripes. Speaking based on my my military knowledge (granted, this is based on my knowledge of current military, and not 23rd century Starfleet). “You're the Captain now.” Twice a ships Captain uses this exact phrase when they are leaving their ship. Not because they are transferring commands to their First Officer, but because they are mearly leaving their ship for a short term. Ok, quick lesson on how to become a Captain in the military.

1.

Promotion to rank – In other words, Captain is a rank in the military. It is entirely possible to be a captain and not be in charge of anything or anyone. It should be noted that Starfleet holds closer to Naval rankings than army, thus the rank of Captain is right before the flag ranks begin.
2.

Transfer of command – You get orders that state that you are in charge of a ship. Pomp and circumstance, ceremony, hand overs, etc. This is the most common way of becoming a ships captain. This is simply a title, not a rank. Therefore a ships Captain may not necessarily be of the rank of Captain, but is entitled to be to the title. Thus, an Ensign who is in command of a ship as its top officer is entitled to be referred to as Captain, even thought he has many years left in his career before actually archiving the rank of Captain. It should also be noted that the ships Captain is in charge of everyone on their ship for the execution of their duties. Even superior ranking officers. If a Admiral is just hitching a ride on a ship that he is not Captain of (again; title vs. rank. An Admiral can be a Captain as well), he would be considered to be under the command of the ships Captain. Although a ships Captain telling a superior ranking officer “Shut up, I'll do it my way!” would most likely be political suicide, although not illegal.
3.

Succession of command – You are the First officer on the ship. The Captain dies (I'm not sure about incapacitation or capture). You then assume command of the ship, thus the title of Captain. Note, this is effectively the same as a transfer of command but without official orders, thus, a title and not a rank.

Lesson over, I'll point out my problem. “You're the Captain now.” No, he damn well isn't! The First officer doesn't become the Captain every time the Captain leaves the ship! Even if he is heading for inevitable doom or capture. Yes, he is in command, but he is not THE Captain!

Next point along those lines, Kirk was brought on board the Enterprise under false pretences WHILE suspended from the Starfleet Academy.

1.

The false presences – McCoy stated that he was Kirks physician and something along the lines of 'You tell the Captain that you refused to let the ships senior physician on board with his patient.' While we the viewer do not know if there is or is not truth in that Kirk was a patient of McCoys; it is later learned that McCoy is not in fact the senior physician, as at a point later in the story he assumes the role because the REAL senior physician dies.
2.

Kirk is a suspended student – Ok, lets break this down into parts:
1.

Kirk is a student – While at Officer Candidate School (OCS) students are not commissioned officers, thus still technically enlisted. In other words, for him to assume the role of First officer, there would have to be a massive attrition of every single more senior member of crew, thus all officers and every enlisted person of a higher rank than him. But no. This was by no means the case.
2.

Kirk is suspended – while suspended he would have no roll on the ship other than that of a passenger. So even with complete attrition of the ships crew, he would still be a passenger and in no position to be considered for any roll on the crew.

So we are lift with another impossible promotion from passenger to First officer to 'Captain' Spock.

Ok, next point of contention. Physics! I will break this down into two parts, real world current physics, and Star Trek physics.

I'll start with the current physics.

Time travel! Ok. They've done it before (well in the future Star Trek storyline, meaning previous movies that happen in the future). So we will assume that it is possible. Moving past that. Since we know that Vulcan is around in the future time line as established by previous movies, we know that The Novikov self-consistency principle (The future time line is immutable, thus your traveling back in time and all of your actions are actually part of the original history) does not apply. This also effectively debunks a major player in the whole rest of the Star Trek future storyline. So we know that the future is malleable but this give rise to the grandfather paradox (Your grandfather is born. Your father is born. You are born. You travel back through time and kill your grandfather before your father is born, thus you are never born, thus you can not travel back in time to kill your grandfather, and as a consequence, your father is born as are you). As it applies in this circumstance, Romulus is destroyed. Bad guy wants revenge so goes back and destroys Vulcan, thus effectively making Vulcans an endangered species (as stated in the movie) and taking them out of the game for making the starship to save Romulus. Therefore in the new time line Romulus is still destroyed, and our bad guy wants to either kill someone else, or just goes in a huff about having his home planet destroyed (depending on the circumstances of that time line) thus, he will not travel back in time to destroy Vulcan, leaving them capable of building the ship that doesn't make it in time. And were back to square one with the bad guy blaming Vulcans again..... So, that leaves us assuming that the Star Trek universe subscribes to the parallel universe theory, meaning that another universe is created and events are played out again from the point the time travelers arrive. But we know that this is not likely as the whole of the established Star Trek universe is based on the story lines established in the movies and all the different shows. So that boils down to, good premise, bad execution!

Black holes! I really don't even know if I can start on this subject! This movie has got to have Einstein turning in his grave! As you approach a black holes event horizon time slows down. From an outside observer it would appear that your starship would be stretched infinitely and light shift near the event horizon. While to you, assuming you can overcome the crushing gravity, nothing would appear any different. Time would still seem to be moving forward at a constant rate. The scene where the bad guys ship is on both sides of the black hole is completely preposterous! Yes, the black hole was created in the middle of the ship, but you see the ship collapsing in on itself at a constant, if not increasing rate. In reality the ship would be moving at such a slow rate from our, the observers, point of view that we would have to watch it collapse over a few millennia, with things getting more and more red shifted as it went. But no. We watch it collapse at a relativity linear rate.

Ok, now that I'm done punching holes in the real world, lets do the same for the Star Trek universe!

In the final scene of the climactic battle the Enterprise is getting sucked into the black hole. We know that the ship is capable of at least warp 4. Well, their flying away from it at maximum warp and loosing ground to the gravity. Well since warp 1 is the speed of light and they can travel at warp 4 at least, we know they travel faster than the speed of light. The first definition of warp speed is basically, velocity = warp factor cubed times the speed of light (v = w³c). Thus warp 1 = the speed of light, warp 2 = 8 times the speed of light, warp 3 = 27 times the speed of light, and warp 4 = 64 times the speed of light. So in order for them to be loosing ground at 64 times the speed of light to the black hole they would have to be BEYOND the event horizon.

Next point along similar lines. So Scottys idea to give them that little extra nudge they need to escape the gravity, is to eject something or other (I honestly don't remember what cause it was just THAT ridiculous) and make them explode using the shock wave to propel them forward. Ok half a decent idea..... until you realise that a shock wave travels at the speed of sound, not the speed of light, much less 64 times it! Thus they would have not even gotten even the slightest little nudge from it, and that leaves them falling into the black hole again!

So, since we now know that they were inside the event horizon of the black hole, we have to take a look back at real world physics again. Time slows down as you approach the event horizon of a black hole. Well, they were past it! Not only were they past it, but they were apparently way past it! So again, to the outside observer they slow down, but to them time continues as normal. But by the time they are out of the black hole (I'm not even going to mention the fact that you can't see past the event horizon of a black hole because gravity is too strong for light to overcome) so much time would have past that their actions would be beyond irrelevant. We're not even talking millennia here were talking much longer! Take the example of another of Gene Roddenberrys works, “Andromeda”. In the first episode the Andromeda Ascendant flies NEAR the event horizon before finally getting pulled out 302 years later. To the crew (well, only one person is left on board as the ship was evacuated prior to that manoeuvre) it is stated that it only seemed like five seconds. So imagine the consequences of passing the event horizon. You have to be talking about hundreds of thousands of years into the future at the very least!

Right, well that's now beyond 2 pages long so I'll stop now.

Final verdict:

The movie watcher in me gives it a 9/10, it was quite a good story line.

The scientist in me, sits quietly in the theater crying to myself.

The Trekkie in me, silently vows to create, and build a phaser before hunting down J. J. Abrams, and killing him with it, and transporting his body into a supernova.

And me. Well I guess I would have to give it 6/10, just because it was a good storyline, but I couldn't fully detach my brain. So much for “the suspension of disbelief”! Psssssh!

Google Spreads

2009-05-13T01:58:00.003+01:00

Well, Google is officially everywhere and taking up everything! I've even started using it to keep track of all the social networking things I do.

I've filled in even MORE data into my Google Profile so I use it as a start-up page now.

It started as just using programs to link all the social network programs together (that didn't get too far really) and now instead of using them to do it all at once, I've decided that I'll use my Google profile to not only keep other people knowing what and where I do things, but to keep ME straight as well! LOL! My memory is legendary! I am the person that forgets why he is getting dressed, after all!

With the movement of Google into every niche and cranny of the internet now a days (it looks like they are trying to compete with Wikipedia now: Knol) it makes it so easy to use only one login. Now I realise its quite monopolising in respect to what they do, and getting into everything now a days, but Google is a very open and progressive company. From what I have seen and experienced first hand I am happy with them handling most all of my information; its not like I try and hide my identity online. I mean I have a listed phone number, my address is a matter of public record; not that everyone has access to those things easily or via my profile, (if you do see something you think shouldn't be there then email me) but you hear about breaches of security from places with more personal information than that every day. all you need to do is google "NHS loses data" and you come up with 'about 157,000' results. I'll tell you, I'd much rather Google loose my 'personal data' that it holds (as I said, much of it is public record anyway) than the NHS!

All totaled, I'd say that Google being a monopoly is thus far, in my not so humble opinion, a very productive and good thing! I'm not saying it always will be, but for now, I know what basket my eggs will stay in.

who dosnt have a blog

2009-05-12T23:45:00.001+01:00

Well fuck it, I give in.

On the heels of playing around with friendfeed and other profile linking technology, I figure I'll put up a blog too. Not that there's gonna be anything of use or interest in it, but hey, its out there like 99% of the internet is totally made up or useless bullshit! I promise this will fall well into that group!

You must be bored to have read THIS far so I'll let you go on to more productive things. Like other peoples useless blogs!

BLoggOff

Just working

Star Trek

Google Spreads

who dosnt have a blog