Haaga-Helia sees it fit to send teachers to trade fairs to sniff out the latest trends in IT. This year it was my turn to join the team and fly out to Hamburg, then take the train to Hannover where the gigantic expo is held every year. Together with two colleagues I signed in at the fair around noon today and will spend four days walking around. This is what I found today.
Quadcopter with ordinary iPhone or Android phone as control
The first thing that got my eye was this very light quad. It has a HD 1080 camera, a 9 volt battery driving the four tiny motors, and an endurance of 10 minutes. Continue reading CeBIT Trade Fair 2015, Day 1→
Yesterday, Feb 11th, was the day of the 2nd Annual Happy Hacking Day at HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences.
The word ‘hacking’ has a notorious sound to it. That is due to the early days, when so-called black hat hackers broke into computer systems with malice and forethought, and caused widespread havoc (today we also have white hat hackers, who are good guys, and grey hat hackers of whom we are not so sure).
But you need to remember, that Wikipedia states this:
A hacker is someone who loves to program or who enjoys playful cleverness, or a combination of the two. The act of engaging in activities (such as programming or other media) in a spirit of playfulness and exploration is termed hacking. However the defining characteristic of a hacker is not the activities performed themselves (e.g. programming), but the manner in which it is done: Hacking entails some form of excellence, for example exploring the limits of what is possible, thereby doing something exciting and meaningful. Activities of playful cleverness can be said to have “hack value” and are termed hacks (examples include pranks at MIT intended to demonstrate technical aptitude and cleverness). Continue reading Happy Hacking Day 2014 a success→
I had a specific need. I needed a bomb sight correction calculator.
When I have some spare time, I fly the IL-2 Sturmovik, which is a wonderful, action-packed WW2 air combat simulator. On servers there may be up to 50 pilots in the air, flying a wide array of aircraft, and serving a number of roles. Some are fighter pilots, some fly ground attack planes, and some, like myself, fly bombers. My favorites are the Japanese Mitsubishi G4M Betty and the German Ju 88 and Heinkel 111.
The game is so well made that it even includes a bomb sight for accurate bombing. This device relies on the altitude and airspeed to decide when is the perfect time to release the bombs. It takes quite a lot of practice to master the device, but when you know what you are doing, you can plant a bomb in the target with relative ease and precision.
