• Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton (ISBN 978-0393061321, W. W. Norton & Company)

    This 500+ pages book contains all the stories from Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman and What do you care what other people think. If you have already read these 2 books and maybe own them then there is not much new. Unless you are a true fan. There is a foreword by Freeman Dyson and an afterword by actor Alan Alda. From these I learned a few new things like that there has been a play about Feynman by Alan Alda called QED. The stories also have been reordered a bit compared to how they appeared in the 2 separate…

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    Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character, Richard Feynman, Ralph Leighton (ISBN 978-0393061321, W. W. Norton & Company)
  • Star Trek 8. First Contact

    This is the first completely TNG movie without any TOS characters involved anymore. In it 2 stories are cleverly intertwined. The first one is the one about how humankind developed the warp drive and made contact with the Vulcans, the First Contact with extra terrestrials. The second one is about the Borg attack on Earth to assimilate humanity. Before being destroyed by the Enterprise the Borg launch a sphere that travels back in time in order to prevent the first warp flight and ET contact resulting from it and by doing so avoid the Federation ever being formed. The opening…

    Star Trek 8. First Contact
  • What do you care what other people think, Richard Feynman (ISBN 978-0393355642, W. W. Norton & Company)

    This is the follow up of the bestselling Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman. It is quite a bit thinner, only 230 pages or so and of a different nature. Where Surely You’re Joking had a lot of relatively short funny stories with Feynman playing the ‘comedian’ this book is a lot more serious in tone. This has a lot to do with the stories that are bundled in this book. The first part is mainly focusing on his younger years, how he met Arline; how they got married and discovered she had tuberculosis on until her death. The second half…

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    What do you care what other people think, Richard Feynman (ISBN 978-0393355642, W. W. Norton & Company)
  • Star Trek 7. Generations

    As the title suggests this is the first Star Trek movie with the TNG crew starring. It is actually a transition from TOS to TNG in the sense that a couple of the old crew still appear at the beginning of the movie when Kirk, Scottie and Chekov join the maiden voyage of Enterprise B as guests. The promotion tour including press on board turns into a rescue mission for a couple of El Aurian space ships trapped in a energy ribbon. The Enterprise also gets caught in the energy ribbon during the rescue and Kirk is pulled into space…

    Star Trek 7. Generations
  • Philips Natlab. Kraamkamer van ASML, NXP en de CD, Paul van Gerven (ISBN 978-082707410, Techwatch Books)

    Ik kwam dit boek toevallig tegen in een artikel en heb het gelijk gekocht vanwege de link van Natlab met ASML. Het is een kleine 400 pagina’s dik maar ik heb het deze week voor de tweede keer gelezen en het was in 4 dagen uit. Voor wie interesse heeft in technologie uit de lage landen is dit eigenlijk verplichte kost. Het is bovendien vlot geschreven want anders had ik het niet in 4 dagen uitgelezen. Omdat de productontwikkeling vaak een race tegen de klok was lezen vele hoofdstukken bijna als een thriller. Het Natlab ontstond in 1914 en groeide…

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    Philips Natlab. Kraamkamer van ASML, NXP en de CD, Paul van Gerven (ISBN 978-082707410, Techwatch Books)
  • Star Trek 6. The Undiscovered Country

    Star Trek 6 begins like many of the previous Star Trek movies with titling against a starry sky. But the accompanying music score is uncharacteristically ominous. This creates certain expectations and the movie doesn’t disappoint. This is the last Star Trek movie with the TOS crew and it ends with a thriller in whodunnit in Agatha Christie style with Spock taking the role of Hercule Poirot. A few months before retirement Kirk and his crew have to go on a diplomatic mission to escort the Klingon high chancellor to a meeting with the federation to discuss a peace treaty. The…

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    Star Trek 6. The Undiscovered Country
  • Oefening 3

    Bepaal de nulwaarden van de volgende veeltermen in de onbepaalde x: a) A(x) = 3x – 2 A(x) = 0 ⇔3x – 2 = 0 ⇔3x = 2 ⇔x = ⅔ b) B(x) = 2×2 – 5 B(x) = 0 ⇔ 2×2 – 5 = 0 ⇔ 2×2 = 5 ⇔ x2 = 5⁄2 ⇔ x = ∓√(5⁄2) c) C(x) = -x2 – 4 C(x) = 0 ⇔ -x2 – 4 = 0 ⇔ -x2 = 4 ⇔ x2 = – 4 no real solutions d) D(x) = 3⁄4 x4 D(x) = 0 ⇔ 3⁄4 x4 = 0 ⇔ x…

  • Writing Fractions In HTML

    I have been thinking about digitising my notes of mathematics and physics exercises done over the years and one option would be to add them to my blog. As I don’t have a business subscription I cannot use a math editor. One option available to me is to use LATEX but for some of the easiest cases this is not even necessary. If the only thing you want to do is write numeric fractions then this can be accomplished with a little bit of html code. I read a book about html 20 years ago and not all that long…

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  • Star Trek 5. The Final Frontier

    After the 3 movie story arc spanning over Star Trek 2, 3 and 4 we have an independent story again in Star Trek 5. This movie is Spock versus anti-Spock aka Sybok in search of God. Sybok is a Vulcan half brother of Spock and a heretic that adheres to ways from before the Vulcans became rational. Sybok believes in ancient Vulcan ways based on the power of emotion. He believes he has found the location of the legendary planet Sha Ka Ree where God resides. The story has the classical themes of Star Trek : emotion versus ratio, good…

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    Star Trek 5. The Final Frontier
  • Star Trek 4. The Voyage Home

    This is the last movie of the story that began in Star Trek 2. After having found the reborn Spock on planet Genesis and giving him his Katra back on Vulcan we start off where Star Trek 3 ended and Kirk and crew including Spock go back to Earth to face trial. But in the meantime a mysterious probe has reached Earth that is ionising the atmosphere and disabling all electronic equipment. En route to Earth Spock realises that the probe is speaking whale language but because the whales are extinct in the 23rd century the probe isn’t getting an…

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    Star Trek 4. The Voyage Home