Carlos Von Bellinghausen

Links

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:19:09 GMT

Insect evolution in underground railway systems - An interesting, if overtly snarky look at the arising of new insect species in underground railway systems.

An analysis on patterns found in Choose your own adventure novels - A look into the patterns of the paths found in choose your own adventure style novels. The author makes good use of graphics to show the different structures of the books examined, and pretty graphics always wins points in my book. Personally I'd be interested to see the methods applied to the Fighting Fantasy series; the CyoA series tended to branch out into many potential areas, but the FF series tended to loop back onto set paths.

Watch repair in micro gravity. - Apparently if you're going up into space the one thing you don't want to run out of is tape.

Links

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:45:42 GMT

My browser has become rather filled with tabs of sites I've been meaning to distribute to you fine people, so it's probably time I got on with it...

3D Mandelbrot set - An attempt to create a 3D visualisation of the mandelbrot set. Also includes an intro to the set if you're interested.
Hyperrealistic sculptures - Modern techniques used to create near photorealistic sculptures. Jamie Salmon's set does some cool stuff with torn sculptures.
NZ Book council animation - Cool little animation.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:53:51 GMT

My month so far in rapid summary; visited Italy, went to the MCM (massive anime, comics and computer game expo here in London, played L4D2, Bayonetta and Borderlands), saw F*ck Buttons live and just got back from the stackoverflow convention Devdays.

Will post actual summaries and thoughts and many awesome links to random things soon.

Cane toad solution found: Breed flesh-eating ants

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:54:57 GMT

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122294661/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

While most Australian wild life finds the introduced Cane Toad highly toxic, the Meat Ant has no such issues with devouring the pesky Bufo marinus. Now we just need a method of introducing the little guys to the all can eat....

Success!

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:20:44 GMT

Installation went perfectly... until I forgot the wireless password.

I may be offline a while...

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:44:28 GMT

I'm about to install Windows 7 onto my laptop; if you don't see me online for a while, that's probably the reason.

Now, so long as I don't forget to copy my key down onto paper, everything should go fine...

Thanks Google bookmarks!

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:27:25 GMT

How ever did you know that I was in the market for a "Vietnamese Beauty"? </sarcasm>

There was a gig on Friday?

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:42:50 GMT

I just found out that UNKLE were playing in London on Friday.

I suppose I should be content with seeing them twice so far this year already.

Please don't fall over yourselves in the rush to offer me sympathy :-p

Er, whoops?

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:14:26 GMT

It's now a month since my last entry on lj. I'm trying to think of what's new and spectacular in the life of carlos, and I'm not coming up with much, so I'm just going to post to say hi to everybody. Still alive, still in England, still working, still taking the train everyday, still trying to figure out new things to see in England.

Watchmen trailer

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:47:35 GMT

Oh. Fuck. Yes.

http://www.empireonline.com/video/watchmen/

For sefieslj

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:06:40 GMT

http://www.lesmisgame.com/arm_joe.html

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:30:56 GMT

At the ripe old age of 12, Bonnie Webb passed away a few hours ago. We knew it was coming; she'd been given a month or two at the most not long ago. It got to the stage though where she couldn't walk (didn't stop her telling my parents that she wanted to go outside for a walk though, bless her), and the Vet said that it was good thing we got her in early enough.

I'd meant to make a goodbye video for her to watch, but just hadn't found the time.

One couldn't ask for a dog more enthusiastic about stealing toilet paper, watching television or barking at reflected light.

Steven Erikson book signing and QA

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:52:51 GMT

I'm going to try and take half a day off next Wednesday... to head up to Birmingham and get my copy of Toll the Hounds signed by the author himself, Mr. Erikson.

So, just a quick question; working on the presumption that I make it, does anybody have any questions they'd like me to ask him?

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:59:33 GMT

I wish the UK would take a leaf from Oz's book and eliminate the one and two pence pieces.

And yes... I know that 2 pence is vaguely equivalent to 5 Oz cents. Doesn't mean I don't have far too many of them.

A quick status update

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:00:05 GMT

It's been quite a while since I've updated this journal; I chat away with enough of my friends on gmail that I feel as though everybody knows my current status.

That and I'm lazy.

So, for a quick summary:
I've been working at a company called Lake Image Systems for what's fast approaching three months. We do cameras, in particular cameras for the mailing verification industry.

Said company sent me to DRUPA last weekend, which is the printing industry trade show. It's huge. For those in Victoria, imagine twelve buildings slightly smaller than Jeff's shed, all being used for the trade show. I saw some of the companies that use our cameras and equipment, which was really the intention of sending me there. I also scored a cool holographic poster.

I've been moved into my new place for a little over a month now. It's something of a bedsit with shared bedroom and kitchen arrangement, and I have housemates, who I seem to be getting along well with. (all issues so far have been minor and dealt with maturally and without incident)

I'm trying to save money, just so that I can say I have savings again. Also so that I know I'm not living beyond my means.

I still haven't picked up a laptop bag. I'm being a little too fussy about them to be honest (for instance, one I quite liked probably wouldn't go too well with one of my coats, so I've continued my search).

And I wish I was doing more exercise and programming for myself in my spare time. Getting my self-improvement routine down is being annoyingly ellusive.

Snow

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:59:07 GMT

Because it's approaching the middle of spring, it's now the obvious time for snow.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures; my camera is currently being repaired, so these were taken with phone's camera.

Transport woes

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:39:56 GMT

So at the moment I'm spending about 4 hours each day on transport; it's not an acceptable long term position, but for the moment I'm getting by. It does mean though that I don't get much time for myself during the evenings.

So I've got a bullet list of things that need doing tonight, including tidying, programming and cooking dinner. I aim to get through all of them, if only to test my organisational abilities. We'll see how I go.

In search of a laptop bag

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:32:30 GMT

It looks like my fossil satchel bag is just this size of too small to carry my laptop, so I'm in need of a bag that can take a 15.3" laptop. Anybody know any good sites for laptop bags?

Current weather in London

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:33:12 GMT

The current weather today can best be described as; rain, wind, sun, then snow, then sun, with bits of rain (still sunny though), then some more snow...

Being a Melbournite though I find the inability of the weather to make up its mind somewhat refreshing (it's what weather should be like!)

Nostalgia (with a small shot of homesickness)

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:34:47 GMT

Over the last week my music tastes have taken a sudden and, to be honest, unexpected swing. I've found myself hunting down the songs I used to hear on TripleJ, both in the mid to late 90's and during the 00's. As most people who know me can attest, I tend to listen to a fair amount of electronic dance music (with some metal in the past), but at the moment all I really want to hear is indie oz rock (and perhaps a bit of folk as well. Really it's all about the music I used to hear on the radio). I've been going through my friends music collection, queing up Rebecca's Empire, Whitlams and The Waifs, and grooving away to music that although I listened to all the time I never reall used to take to. And of course there's youtube, which is fantastic for tracking down songs.

I'm not sure where the sudden interest is coming from; nostalgia perhaps, or maybe a small amount of homesickness. Or maybe I'm just getting old; I'll buy a walking cane so I can mutter about how music used to be better in my day and age.

I think I'll ask my family to send over a few hottest 100 collections when my birthday swings around.

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:08:35 GMT

Well, somehow it's turned into a month since I last updated.

I'll post more details about my stay in London and trip to Europe later (there will pictures too, I promise!). But for now, a few quick notes on my last few days.

Yesterday I had my first job interview; a company called Lakeside Imaging that does work with image recognition and high speed cameras. The companies based in Tring, a small town north west of London. I gave myself an hour from arriving at the station to get to the company, but still managed to be late. I'd alerted them beforehand to my potential lateness though, so it wasn't so bad. Tring is a lovely little town, though I'd rather not move there; I love being in London, with the hustle and bustle of crowds and the nightlife (that night goratrixx and I visited End of the World in Camden and played "Spot the person who looks like someone we know" game).

My laptop arrives Monday. It's a Dell XPS M1530, and though the stupidity of Dell UK means I had to get a bluray drive to have a decent screen resolution, I'm still happy with my decision. Plus I'll now be able to play high def movies when I get a place of my own.

Tonight I'm off to see UNKLE perform; I didn't have enough time to buy a ticket online, so I hope I'll be able to buy a ticket there. That's just about all for the last few days; I have a few more companies I wish to submit my resume to, including Introversion Software.

What is this sleep thing you talk of?

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:24:33 GMT

It's currently 7am London time, and my body has decided that it's had quite enough sleep, thank you very much. I think I must have woken up sometime between 4 and 5 this morning, and that was the end of that. On the other hand, I went to bed at a reasonable hour, so I suppose I should be thankful for that. Hopefully my sleep cycles won't take too long to acclimatize.

As I mentioned before, nothing really interesting happened on the plane trip. Singapore airport is pretty awesome however; if you have the time be sure to check out terminal 3 (there are small trains the constantly link the three terminals). During the first hour I was there one of the larger areas had guards with berets and some form of mp5-like submachine guns; they were all just in the one area, and were gone when I returned later. The number of "Don' t leave your luggage" warnings were a bit higher than normal as well, so I think there might have been a mini scare.

Whoever decided to have a facility at the airport that lets passengers have a lovely long shower between flights should be granted the pacific island of his or her choice. Though it took me a few minutes to figure out how to work the thing (it involves turning on the water, then pulling or pressing the right knobs to get the water through the right nozzle)

I somehow managed to sleep during the last part of my second plane trip, though I'm not entirely sure how.

Heathrow was fairly boring and uninspiring, but that may have just been the terminal I was at, and the ease with which I left.

Today I'm going to visit the Natural History and Science museums, and then if I still have the energy I'm going to see Hyde park.

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:37:43 GMT

Just a quick hello from merry 'old England.I expected it to be colder honestly.

The plane trips were fairly boring; nothing really exciting in terms of flying transportation.

I'll try and pop online again ocne I reach my friends place. Now, to see what taking the tube is like.

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:50:36 GMT

My flight's status is currently "Relax". This I have no trouble with.

The little internet kiosk I'm using has a fairly crappy connection, which is making accessing gmail (and chat) annoying.

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:55:48 GMT

7 hours to go 'til my plane lifts off. My packing is mostly done; I'm just leaving it now 'til I've gone through a few more things, thought a little bit etc., in case anything else pops up. But I'm mostly ready now. Dad helped me check in via the internet, which should make the queuing far less of a hassle.

I'm hitting that nervous stage, which may just be from not having anything really to do at the moment.