Thursday, October 23, 2014

Random Cool Geeky Stuff

 October has proven to be a big month for random "cool geeky stuff" for me and I thought I would share some of my encounters.  First off is a life sized sculpture of a Spinosaurus in front of the headquarters of National Geographic.  I drive past the site when heading to my office in Georgetown.  During the baseball playoffs the dino was sporting a Nationals ball cap!

 Next up are some large scale plane models on display in the San Francisco airport (I was there this week on business).  I really liked the two Spitfires.  The models looked to have 15 foot wingspans.  You'd have to have a pretty big gaming table to play with these models!

 Just to be clear, I wasn't the only adult making plane "zooming" sounds while gazing at these beauties.

EDIT: It's been pointed out that I would have been a very poor plane spotter - the display is of one Spitfire and one Hurricane (not the 2 Spitfires mentioned above).  I suspect the authorities will be coming around to confiscate my "Geek-Card".   Oh the shame....

 While a bit paltry, here's the last harvest from the garden (outside of beets which we've got a few more months to go - I'll be sick of beets very soon).  It's a bit of an eclectic mix.  The carrot never made it into the house because I was hungry.

 One of my "garden guards" was sunning herself on the day I picked the items from above.  We get a few mantis egg sacks via mail order (along with lady bug eggs) and they really do cut down on the pests.  Plus preying mantis's are just cool.  This one measured about 5 inches.

Finally an update from my son - here's a picture of his custom made 3D printer.  He took the shell from cheap commercial one and replaced all the electronics and printing parts so it will "work better".  What's it printing now? - parts to make an even bigger 3D printer because every tech crazy kid wants a 3D printer made from 3D printed parts.

The Design department at CMU has some 3d renderings of tanks so Sean plans on trying to make me a few gaming pieces to try out.  Maybe there is something to this whole tech thingy.


6 comments:

Diplomatist said...

Pretty cool stuff!

Ben Gilmour said...

Excellent! I like the idea of 3D printing a 3D printer (though it could lead to human redundancy, Skynet-style!)

A bit of a rivet-counter moment, I know, sorry, but the planes are a Spitfire and Hurricane ,ot two Spitfires.

jmilesr said...

Aiyyy Carumba! You're right - it is a Spitfire and a Hurricane. I may have to turn in my geek card

Honestly, thank you very much for pointing out my error - I shall correct it shortly

The Kiwi said...

Nice and geeky.
great post.
cheers

Ubique Matt said...

Anyone who can combine model WWII fighters, dinosaurs, a praying mantis and root vegetables and self replicating 3D printers into one entertaining post deserves to hang on to their geek card.

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Msr Eosbif has it... wouldn't they look so much better with the wheels up.. nice view though....!!