Blast off....

I remember running home from school back in 1981 to catch what I could of the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS 1). That started a love affair with space that has lasted all my life. Over the years, I have been lucky enough to visit Kennedy Space Centre on two occasions.

My first visit was in 2003 and was after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the Shuttle was grounded. My second visit was in 2009, just days before the launch of STS 129. You can see the Shuttle on its launch pad the week before take off in the picture below.

Yesterday, the first fully commercial space craft to dock with the International Space Station was launched. COTS Demo Flight 2 launched from Cape Canaveral and with it, a new era of commercial space travel was launched. You can check out the launch below.

Who knows, maybe soon we will all be heading in to space on commercial space craft. Anyone out there got a spare $200,000 to book a flight with Virgin Galactic?

The Skelligs Project: An Irish Collaboration

Eoghan Kavanagh is an Irish Landscape photographer.  Evan Payne is an Irish American filmmaker.  Together, they aim to explore and document all the corners of the Emerald Isle, starting with The Skelligs.

Their goal is to travel to the larger island, Skellig Michael, and document both their experience and the character of the island, producing a number of high quality photographs and films in the process.  Their explicit aim is to produce a high quality coffee table book to showcase their shared vision of the Skelligs. 

If you would like to support Eoghan and Evan and help them finance the project, check out their Kickstart page here. Whilst your at it, check out Eoghans gallery also.

Blackberry Humour….

It’s been a while since I posted, amazing how quick time flies! Anyway, to get back on track, here’s some IT related comedy!

CAD Clues App

CAD Clues is a great site for CAD Tips and Tricks interspersed with some CAD related news. They have had a free Android and iOS app available for some time and I have it installed on my Samsung Galaxy S2. I was tinkering around last night and wondered if I could convert it to run on my Blackberry Playbook. As you may know, the Playbook has the ability to run Android apps that have been run through the Playbook convertor.

I downloaded the app, converted it to a BAR file and then signed the BAR file so it could be loaded on to my Playbook. I used DDPB to load the app on to my Playbook and once installed, I ran it. Everything looked good, the main page worked fine. I then switched over to the Twitter feed page. On first run, the Twitter feed was a bit of a mess, legible, but a mess. I closed out of the app and restarted it again and the Twitter feed looked fine.

I believe that CAD Clues are going to add the app to the Blackberry App World, but if you want to download the app and know how to use DDPB, then you can get the BAR file from their website. Check it out over here. If you have no idea how to sideload apps on to the Blackberry Playbook using DDPB, check this brief tutorial.

Caine’s Arcade

I came across this short film late last night on Twitter. It’s the story of 9 year old boy called Caine, from East LA and the cardboard arcade he made.

Rather than me trying to explain just why this short film is so good, why not sit back, relax and take 11 minutes out of your day and watch it yourself.

For more information on Caine and this short film, why not check out the website.

Mmmmmmm….

Some friends have set up two separate blogs dedicated to food. The first, Strictly Baking, deals with cakes, buns and all things sweet. Not only do these goodies look amazing, but the taste like a little bit of heaven in your mouth… Check out the site here.

The second site, The Dinner Ladies”, is described by the authors as Two Mammies, bonded by a love of food, whose mission is to help you answer the dreaded 'whats for dinner?' Why not check it out here.

They say that everyone should have one dish that they can do and do well. My culinary skills start and stop with an Irish classic. No, not Irish Stew or Bacon and Cabbage, but the humble Tayto Sandwich. Check out my how to guide here. I’m sure you will agree that it’s a stunning dish!

Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe…

I don’t have an iPad, I don’t particularly like them. I won one earlier in the year, a nice 64GB iPad2, but gave it away to a family member.

Had I not given it away, then I would certainly be installing Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe app. It’s a companion to his amazing BBC TV show, Wonders of the Universe. 

Currently it is only available for iPad 2 and all new all singing and dancing iPad (3rd Generation) at a special promotional launch price of £4.99, but according to a tweet from the good Doctor, an Android version will be available in the next 2 months or so.

Check out the YouTube Clip below.

Wonders Of The Universe iPad App Demo.