Goodbye Vista & Hello Windows 7

After weeks of fretting and days of backing up files (to say nothing of months of hating Vista every day), last Saturday I made the change to Windows 7. So far I love it. I find it works well and it's fun to use.

The transition was made easier with the help of the book pictured to the left. It's filled with excellent suggestions and warnings.

For the first time ever I installed a new operating system and used it immediately. Usually I have to uninstall and reinstall the new OS at least a couple times before I can get it to work right. This time it worked right out of the box.

The First Computer Art Exhibition

Cybernetic Serendipity, 1968, ICA, London
Curated by Jasia Reichardt


Click on the image to enlarge it.

A show about computer art in 1968. The poster is still fresh and fabulous. Click here for a link to photos and the original press release for the show. Read all about the exhibition at the Cybernetic Serendipity Wikipedia page.

Ken's Maine Trip -- The Greenest Supermarket

August, 2009

In Augusta, Maine on the site that was Cony High School (yes, my high school is gone), there's a new Hannaford Supermarket. The name, Cony High School, still exists but it's on a new campus a few miles out of town.

Actually the wreckers left the 1930s part of Cony High standing (pictured here), something about it being included on the National Register of Historic Places. It doesn't appear to be in use right now, but it is still there.

To make room for the supermarket they leveled a structure built in 1965. It replaced the 1880s classroom building in use when I attended Cony in the 1950's. The new Hannaford market is right behind the historic building that's still there. By the way, the school itself was founded in 1815 as an academy for orphan girls.

On the bright side the new supermarket is LEED-rated Platinum, the highest level of greeness according to the U.S. Green Building Council. It's all about LEED -- the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design's green building rating system, click here and learn all about it.

Now, you should take this interactive tour of Hannaford's Platinum LEED Certified Store in Augusta, Maine.

Keeping an eye on CERN...

Black Hole Machine? [Click here to find out.]

From CERN's press release a few days ago: "CERN reiterates safety of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on eve of first beam."

Geneva, 5 September 2008. A report published today in the peer reviewed Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics1 provides comprehensive evidence that safety fears about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are unfounded. The LHC is CERN’s2 new flagship research facility. As the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, it is poised to provide new insights into the mysteries of our universe.

“The LHC will enable us to study in detail what nature is doing all around us,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar. “The LHC is safe, and any suggestion that it might present a risk is pure fiction.” [read more]

However, not everyone agrees. Here's what Citizens Against the Large Hadron Collider has to say about the dangers.

You can check out CERN and how it came to be by clicking on the links below.
CERN Welcome Page
CERN Scientific Information Service
CERN Wiki

Tropical Storm Fay Update

Tropical Storm Fay is heading toward Pensacola. This map from Weather.com shows the storm's path at 10:30 a.m. this morning.

As you can see from the previous post none of the computer projections was even close. Lucky for us it never made it to hurricane level.

Where is Tropical Storm Fay going?

North Atlantic TS Fay landed in Florida again. This morning it came ashore just south of Fort Myers. Yesterday it passed through Key West. From the computer models below you'll see that there are several very different outcomes possible. These seem to be more varied than usual especially for computer models after landfall.

Looks like it is not heading toward Pensacola.

The map is from Weather Underground's Tropical Weather pages.

I'll keep you posted.

Astronomy Pictures from NASA

Click here to view NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. There's also an archive of the photos from previous days.