It's Been a While

I haven't written much in a good while, so something of an update is in order. I've been a bit snowed under with the amount of paperwork we're doing at the college this year, which has irritated me somewhat. How it all relates to the learning process I've yet to figure out.

We are doing Java, though, if slowly. We were at a bit of a slack point the other day, so I asked the other students if they fancied a code puzzle. I mostly got blank looks, but Ricardo, Dipendra and Richard were game. Basically, the code has to output a pattern of "#"'s, like this:

#####
####
###
##
#

but the limitations are that you can only use two print statements, one for the "#" and one for the CRLF. You can use any other code you like. Richard got it within about ten minutes or so, while the others eventually gave up. To up the ante, I asked Richard to produce this:

###
####
#####
####
###

He went very quiet for a long while!

I have done quite a few shifts at the shop, notably today, where I listened to the Morcheeba album Big Calm:

Saturday - The Energy of Nations: Carbon Bubbles and Shale Games

This was a presentation by Jeremy Leggett, hosted by the London Futurists, concerning his new book.

The presentation covered the current state of energy sources, especially shale gas, peak oil and the carbon asset bubble that some claim could cause the next economic collapse.

Jeremy also talked at length of his experience with the media and their negative view of alternative energy, mostly due to the hydrocarbon companies' use of P.R.

It was an entertaining hour-or-so, which didn't feel like it, despite Jeremy's laid-back style. However, he isn't a technologist (and said so, to his credit), which meant that he couldn't discuss some of the more speculative aspects of his presentation and did become somewhat defensive when asked those kinds of questions. I would also have liked to see him address the issue of energy storage, a part of the alternative energy equation which enables it to replace hydrocarbons and nuclear. His view on shale gas was also revealing.