Richard's blog

Tag: history

  • Historic Photos and Facebook

    Historic Photos and Facebook

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of the reasons for which I keep using Facebook has to do with peoples’ sharing of old photos, paintings, sketches and more. I love to see photos of Nyon, Morges, Neuchatel Lausanne and other places through time. Recently I saw a photo of La Dole with a group of children skiing…

  • Hiking to Valangin From Neuchâtel

    Hiking to Valangin From Neuchâtel

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 3 minutesYesterday I went for a hike from Neuchâtel to Valangin. This is a 14 kilometre loop that begins with a relatively steep climb out of the city before heading into the woods. You hear the sounds of the road every so often as you crisscross paths with it. The castle was used…

  • Why Would They Build This in the Middle of Nowhere

    Why Would They Build This in the Middle of Nowhere

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 3 minutesRecently someone said “I wonder why they would build the Abbey d’Oujon in the middle of nowhere and someone asked the same about Romainmôtier and the idea is an interesting one. It’s interesting because until motorways and before an extra four to six billion peoples wewre born and survived infancy the world,…

  • Facebook and Photo Archives

    Facebook and Photo Archives

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 2 minutesRecently I have spent more time on Facebook and I have joined a few photo groups. One of them is for the Canton De Vaud, where people are sharing photos they have taken of the region. These photographs are well framed, well lit, and pleasant to look at. It feels like a…

  • The Age Old Hatred of Pedestrians

    The Age Old Hatred of Pedestrians

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 2 minutesLast night I was reading from a book, rather than from a kindle or audible book. As a result I had to keep the bedside light on. I also had to ensure that the light light the pages of the book. I was reading from the book "Beneath My Feet, Writers on…

  • Nanook Of The North

    Nanook Of The North

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 3 minutesTwo days ago I watched Nanook of the North, a documentary about an Inuit man and his family. This isn’t a documentary in the conventional sense. This documentary dates back to 1922 when the Documentary film was a brand new genre. This is one of the first documentaries, if not the first.…

  • Transmitting Photos by Phone

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    Reading Time: < 1 minuteRecently I watched a 1930s film about how photographs were transmitted by phone. What makes this feature so interesting is that it is explained in a simple to understand manner, using, string that has an image, of all things. This is a clear explanation of how image sending works, but also…

  • Reading to Understand The Past

    Reading to Understand The Past

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen I read books i read to be transported back to a different time and a different way of thinking. That’s why i read James Bond books, among others. The books are old-fashioned but it is that obsolescence that makes them interesting. They take us to a time before travel as we…

  • Twitter and SMS

    Twitter and SMS

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    richard
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    Reading Time: 2 minutesBack in the good old days of Twitter the length of a tweet was limited to the length of an SMS. The aim was to make it possible for people to tweet and have conversations using GSM phones. With short messages we could leave the keyboard behind and read messages on our…

  • Version Control, Engineering and Rocket Engines

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    richard
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    Reading Time: < 1 minuteEvery Rocketdyne engine was fine tuned and perfected by hand, from plans, that were modified but not updated. This means that each engine was unique. It would take trial and error to build them again. With GIT and other forms of version control the entire process could theoretically have been logged…