Mike Little’s Journalized

Some interesting stories from the last few days:
PlayStation turns supercomputer

“Scientists at the US National Center for Supercomputing Applications, (NCSA) have linked together 70 PlayStation 2s to find out how good they are at crunching numbers.”

Broadband balloons take off

“It has long been assumed that affordable, high-speed broadband to every area of the UK was only possible via road-disrupting cable laying or expensive satellite connections.
But a company called SkyLinc has found a happy medium in base stations, floating 1.5km above the surface of the Earth on balloons, or tethered aerostats as they are more technically known.
The technology behind the idea has been around for years, with the US Government operating several such aerostats as communication systems on its borders and the US military employing similar technology for about 50 years.”

Bubbles Oust Viruses in Therapy

” Dutch researchers say they’ve demonstrated a way to use sound waves to manipulate microscopic bubbles so that they can deliver DNA and other molecules, such as drugs, into cells.
The goal is to reduce geneticists’ reliance on viruses to deliver genes into cells, a method that has led to cancers in some patients, said University of Twente physicist Claus-Dieter Ohl.”

The first (non-beta) version of WordPress has been released! The official announcement is on the WordPress Development blog.

* Texturize - So good it’ll make your quotes curl.
* WordPress Links - A link manager with everything you’d expect, from Weblogs.com support to a handy bookmarklet. Manage as many blogrolls as you like, and have complete control over their display.
* XHTML 1.1 - WordPress is compliant with XHTML standards up to 1.1, though by default it sends a 1.0 document type to avoid compatibility issues.
* Highly Intelligent Line Breaks - Occasionally called “nl2br on steroids,” this brand new function adds line breaks except where there is already a block level tag or another line break.
* New Administration Interface - We’ve made it as simple as possible, and no more. Everything has been restructured from the ground up in a fully compliant XHTML/CSS interface.
* Manual Excerpts - This allows you to hand craft summaries of your posts to appear in your RSS feed and other places.
* New Default Templates - Again we’ve streamlined theses with the latest in simple, easy-to-understand standard XHTML and CSS. And not a CSS hack in sight.
* Plus numerous behind the scenes code clean-ups, making this release faster and more stable than ever.

Check the WordPress Download Page to get it.

I’ve been meaning to get myself back into shape for a while now. I’ve finally started to do something about it.
Swimming
I’ve started to go swimming with Jamie on a Sunday morning. We are trying to make it a regular thing with Steve and Megan.
Cycling
I also started cycling again last week. It’s been about two years since I regularly cycled. So last week I got back on my bike. I’m starting slowly; cycling from home to the train station and back again in the evening, but will eventually build up to cycling all the way to work. It’s actually not far: 7.5 miles each way. But if I can build up to doing that everyday, I’ll be cycling 75 miles a week. That will be great for my fitness levels.
Smoking
Although I’ve not mentioned it here, some who know me IRL, will know that I have given up smoking. Yesterday was my 29th day without a cigarette and my first whole day without a nicotine patch. I think I have done really well and got to the lowest level patches quickly. I don’t have a patch on today either, and I am going to try to make it 3 full days without. I believe that it takes those 72 hours to get the nicotine completely out of your system. I have come to realise that from now on I am going to have to be ‘vigilant’: like an ex-alcoholic, I’m going to be forever one cig away from becoming a smoker again. Actually, I did give up alcohol a few years ago (though I wasn’t an alcoholic) and I’ve had no trouble doing without. I guess because I’d practically stopped drinking anyway, when I made the decision to never drink again, it wasn’t a real problem. Smoking, however, has been much harder. I am taking it one day at a time, but wouldn’t be surprised to lapse once in a while. I know that doesn’t sound very positive, but I honestly believe it. A least I know I can stop now, so I shan’t beat myself up too much, if I do succumb.

WordPress beta has been released. Check it out and give us feedback on the support forum.