Back in the 1600s figuring out what your longitude was of HUGE importance world wide. It meant the difference between whether your shipment made it to its destination (forget "on time", if it got there at all it was a minor miracle). That in turn effected the global economy.

If you were a sailor it could mean the difference between life and death. Literally thousands of ships were lost at sea due to inacurrate navigation through dead-reckoning. If you’re on a ship that doesn’t know it’s longitude you might starve to death when the food runs out. Worse still you might get scurvy from lack of vitamin-C. Scurvy causes your cells to lose their integrity and the cell wall eventually breaks down, spilling the contents of the nucleus. You start out with bruising all over your body. Your gums begin to bleed. Your teeth fall out. Wounds don’t heal. Eventually your entire body bleeds to death.

Latitude (the parallels lines) were easy to figure out using the stars which maintain their positions despite the earth’s rotation. Longitude was a big problem though and because of this a number of different governments setup cash prize to the first person who defined a reliable mechanism to figure it out.

"In July of 1714, during the reign of Queen Anne,  the Longitude Act was passed in response to the Merchants and Seamen petition presented to Westminster Palace in May of 1714.  A prize of £20,000 was offered for a method of determining longitude to an accuracy of half a degree of a great circle."

John Harrison, a brilliant mind with no formal training in watch or clock making figured it out by building a clock that would keep accurate time at sea despite the pitching and rolling of the boat (Pendulums don’t work on boats).

Harrison built 4 models, the final model (the H4) set sail for the Indies on 18 November 1761. They arrived in Jamaica on 19 January 1762 where the clock was found to be about 5 seconds slow!!!
That’s impressive even by today’s standards. My Omega Seamaster GMT [LINK] which is a COSC certified chronometer is reliable to +/- 4 seconds a day. ( Not really a fair comparision as performance with a chronometer typically balances out over time. That is to say the Omega will worsed case lose 4 seconds a day but likely gain those back the next. )

So far I’m finding this an easy read and a fascinating look into some of the real-world problems faced in the "old days".

I bought this copy for retail of $13.95 but Amazon has it for $11.16. Of course I knew this by checking the price on my BlackBerry using Baebo’s Amazon search interface [LINK]. (which you can learn how to build in my upcoming book [LINK].

It’s such an easy read. I went through the first 100 pages like butter. Feynman and I would share the same line of thinking in many areas and I found myself saying "yes, I’ve thought of that" on more than one occasion. It’s not that Feynman and I have anything in common (he was one of the greatest minds of the century and I’m a Dubliner from Donnycarney) but that he’s such a relatable character with so few aires or graces.

This book is a collection of thoughts, each in its own chapter and each with its own lesson to impart. Topics include Feynmans role in the investigation of the NASA shuttle disaster, along with how to count a minute accurately whilst running up stairs!!!

The most poignant chapter tells of how he met his wife, married her in spite of her being terminally ill and subsequently buried her whilst working on the Manhattan project for the US government.

Highly recommended (as are all things R.P.F. on this site).

Folks laud over The Guitar Grimoire series and they are an excellent and complete resource but for my purposes they’re just too much.

The latest DVDs I’ve watched are The Godfather II which in my opinion is better than the first one. It also features Joe Spinell as Willy Cicci. You’d never believe how few degrees of separation I wound up from him.

Near Dark- an excellent 80s vampire flick with Lance Henrikson and a few other folks from Aliens like Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein. This movie is like the anti-”Lost Boys” of it’s day.

Finally, I was reading CPU Magazine and on the back cover they have a full page ad for the new Zalman 9500 CPU Cooler. This thing is awesome looking. There’s something about heatsinks that warms the blood (mixing metaphors?). When will the first heatsink museum be launched? I’ll be looking forward to seeing the price of this thing.

The actual presentation of the award took a total of 30secs during which none of the band actually made it on stage. It was a real joke to think more time was devoted to such train-wrecks as Gwen Stefani (who in a fit of un-creativity has resorted to sampling the great Jewish musical “Fiddler on the Roof”) and The Black Eyed Peas (dreaded vegetable). Dear me.

In recent times I’ve been reading “Dazed and Confused” which provides some insight into Led’s history. Despite humble beginnings, the band soared to eclipse such super-bands as Cream and the Yardbirds and even the Jimi Hendrix experience.

Jimmy Page’s father was a doctor. Page got his first guitar at age 12 and was mostly self-taught. He worked as a session musician from an early age. After various stints in the Yardbirds and other bands of the time he set about forming his own group. Jones was also a session player and phoned Page when he heard about the project. Page discovered Plant in a small town in rural England. Plant knew Bonham from an earlier gig and hence the band was formed.

“Led Zeppelin I” was recorded in 9 days!

When “Since I’ve Been Loving You” was recorded, Bonham’s drum peddle was in need of oil and hence to this day a squeak can be heard on this track. Fascinating stuff.

Oh and YES there are new pics of SYDNEY up!

The book is small, relatively short and not that bad a read. Some of the language is a little “dated” but that’s ok. Overall it’s a good read, covering mostly power of positive thinking type topics and outlining different ways to conduct introspection and self discovery. This book is also one of the most recommended by business schools across the nation. If you’ve done an MBA and haven’t read this then I suggest you hop the next train to Borders and get a copy.

There are two gripes I have with this book
1) As with all books of this type, the content is obvious. The idea that you could grow rich by NOT thinking is startling to me. How else are you going to do it? Indeed the idea that you could do ANYTHING by NOT thinking is equally startling. In order to achieve any goal, you must fix a point in the horizon and direct your mind toward it. Amongst countless Americans struggling with things like credit card debt, unemployment, weight loss, etc. this seems like a revolutionary concept but I hate to say it, it’s not.
b) The cover. The lettering on the cover makes a bold statement but it also makes folks look at you like you’re an idiot when you’re standing in the elevator reading this book.

I wonder if Frank Herbert (author of Dune) ever read this book. Is this where “it is by will alone I set my mind in motion” came from?

Otherwise, great anecdotes in this one, ‘specially around Mr Ford, no silver bullets but has affirmed what I already knew. $7.19 well spent.

In lecture one, Feynman lays the foundation for knowing, or rather not knowing. He describes how science is misconstrued as a collection of facts and rules when in truth science is built on uncertainty. He highlights the value of doubt.

So what is the meaning of it all? As Feynman will tell you: “I don’t know” and this is perhaps more exciting than knowing.

One of the better chess books I’ve read which explains the psychological intent behind the moves rather than the more mechanical positional threat. It’s a quick read and definitely opened my eyes a few times. I now know how utterly useless I am at chess.

Robertie is a pretty well recognized figure in the chess world from what I can see and claims “chess has allowed me to travel the world”.

Should be any day now.

Listening to
Hail to the Thief by Radiohead
The Soul Cages by Sting
Harvest by Neil Young