I have been working in Brighouse this week, upgrading a client’s network, reconfiguring Outlook to work from a remote site to an Exchange server, installing NAS storage and setting up terminal services for the reception staff. It has been a rushed job to address some of the limitations the company met when trying to run the factory production via terminal services – I came up with the solution at the end of one week and was there for 6.45am on the Monday to make the changes. Some problems with availability of software and hardware deliveries meant that it was an early finish on Monday, with a stay overnight in Brighouse to complete the job on Tuesday.

I stayed at the Waterfront Lodge in the centre of Brighouse, which is located next to the canal. As the weather was fine I had a good walk up and down the canal which included a visit to “Brighouse Marina”, (I could not find the Geocache hidden at the Marina, too many muggles). I managed to fit the walk in during the sunny break between showers. The canal walk is a real gem, giving a green corridor through the town.

It was my Dad who first introduced me to Science Fiction, lending me books he had got from the library – in particular he introduced me to the likes of Robert Heinlein, Edgar Rice Boroughs and EE “Doc” Smith and I developed a taste for the big space opera and pulp fiction sci-fi story.

Today with the internet I consume vast amounts of material, listening to StarShipSofa and Escape Pod and reading stories from a large number of sites including Project Gutenberg where much of the 1930s and 1940s pulp fiction is ending up.

I was looking for a few cover images to add to my Calibre Library when I came across this site – http://www.philsp.com/ – all you ever wanted to know about Pulp Fiction Magazines including a vast collection of covers. Now when I was looking for a book I would always be attracted to book with the exciting laser beam weilding space suited hero and heroine rather then the series all yellow covered book – I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – but that saying was only thought up by boring do gooders, give me crashing spaceships and dinosaurs any day.

Have a look on the site above there are some real classic covers.

We installed the wifi access at Caffé 19 on Friday – and then tested it by carrying out a support job in Brighouse via the internet and remote control of the PC with the problem.

Last night I watched a programme about the Drake Equation – a mathematical way to “estimate” the number of planets in the universe which may have life, capable of transmitting a radio signal we could receive here on Earth.

N=R*•fp•ne•fl•fi•fc•L             (source SETI Institute)

For more details look here or look on Wikipedia.

After the programme had finished, whilst looking on the internet for further reading on the Drake Equation I came across this page,

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Wow was what I thought – that day it was a panoramic composite shot, from the Phoenix Lander on Mars – go and look and see what is there today.

I added it to my browser bookmark bar and added it to the browser on my iPhone so I would remember to go and look at the next spectacular image.