Dell release pedestrian safety device

Dell Inspiron 6000
Dell have released a new high tech pedestrian safety device. They are calling it the “Dell Inspiron 6000”. It features a hard outer casing and a protective LCD screen to take the brunt of any impacts pedestrians may face due to vehicular collisions.

I tested out this new device this morning. I placed it in my backpack and headed off to work, then whilst crossing the road a crazy women crashed into me from behind, sending me tumbling across her bonnet. I landed splat on my back on the road. My trusty Dell took the brunt of the impact and I was able to stand up unscathed 🙂 The only injury I have is a sprained ankle which wasn’t protected by my computer. And guess what! The computer is still working and I’m posting this message on it right now 🙂

Apparently the little green man was indeed flashing when I crossed and the lady who hit me is in a whole lot of trouble. She will probably be charged with careless driving or careless driving causing injury. My computer will live for another day – and thankfully so will I!

EDIT: Thanks to my cousin Alison Petrie for the following photos (she saw it happen).

There were two ambulances, a fire truck and two police cars. Kinda overkill for an itty bitty test of a new safety device, but anyhows …
Emergency Services

Emergency Services

The woman on the right is the one who drove into me.
Emergency Services

EDIT: It also turned out that I was badly bruised behind my knee. The woman who hit me lost her drivers license for six months and was fined for $250 for her failed efforts to remove me from the gene pool.

EDIT 2: It happened again! Lightning strikes twice.

PixoPoint

My blog was being over run by various softwares, themes etc. I’d written. Plus the blog format of this site didn’t lend itself too well to replying to support questions, so I’ve moved all of my web development posts over to a new site called PixoPoint Web Development. It features a forum instead of blog comments to allow for better organisation of questions, suggestions and advice.

PixoPoint Web Development screenshot

I’ll eventually remove all of the old posts here (which now redirect to the new site), but I’ve left them here for the mean time in case someone comes looking for them.

NMR Quench

Our 500 MHz NMR machine quenched itself today 🙁 Here is an awful quality photo I took of the aftermath.

NMR Quench

NMR Quench

To make things worse, our other machine (300 MHz one) has been out of action since late last year, so we now have no NMR access whatsoever … for any non-chemists out there, this is bad, VERY bad!

MRI Quenching

I did some YouTubing and found this video of an MRI machine quenching itself (MRI and NMR are very similar instruments).

[youtube width=”350″ height=”292″]http://youtube.com/watch?v=1R7KsfosV-o[/youtube]

Liquid Helium

The NMR machine was full of liquid helium. The quenching involved the liquid helium evaporating very rapidly. Here’s a video about the properties of liquid helium and a video of a liquid helium fountain.


Soccer

I’m out of action from playing sports at the moment due to my silly shoulder popping it’s self out of the socket again 🙁 But the chemistry department soccer team said they were usually short of female players so I dragged along Becky Brassett to help them out. The games are played 9 a side on a field hockey turf. Here are some photos I took at the game.

Aggression

Here are some demonstrations of why NOT to play soccer on a sand turf!

First up, Graeme trying to get the ball by running through his opposition.

Graeme getting rough

Next up, a girl from the opposing team wipes out quite spectacularly trying to change directions.

Soccer Wipeout

This aint track and field …

Soccer Wipeout #2

Graeme … WTF?

Graeme levitating

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Pink Fury

The field hockey team I usually play for (The Soft Sticks) had no opposition at our last game. So they played a game amongst themselves while I took some piccies from the shade on the sideline – I’m still recovering from a dislocated shoulder. The temperatures were searing (26 deg. C I think) so there were some very hot looking pink hockey players by the end of their game.

Mallory Handcock and Natasha Munro

Mallory Handcock (left) and Natasha Munro (right) Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>

Pink Warriors

I was/am supposed to be playing for the Soft Sticks field hockey team. Except I decided to dislocate my shoulder last week instead 😛 The opposition for the day were ‘Out 2 Score’. Unfortunately my batteries were running on empty so I couldn’t load up the LCD screen to change the ISO settings/exposures so the pictures are all messed up and then it ran totally flat after only taking a few shots 🙁 Hopefully I’ll get some better shots next time.

Nastaha Munro

Our mighty team manager leading the charge to the front

Kara Ross in action

Kara stomping her way down the boards, er, pipe … whatever that black tube thingy is called Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span>