British Summer Time

the clocks have just come forward.

BST or british summer time is upon us.
so we lose an hour in bed (or playing with flashlights).
this is good because we will soon have to use less energy.
how much power will be saved over the next few months in the UK?

a lot.

it also has its downside. less darkness means that flashlight use will decrease considerably.
at least bulbboy might get more sleep over the next few months.

Good Light

bulbboy is often queried by customers:

"does this give out a good light?"

which got me thinking, what is a good light?
a light that doesn't misbehave?
does exactly what it says on the tin?

most of those people that ask really mean:

"is this bright?"

now if i was to respond in the affirmative and say yes, it gives out 1300 lumens of light, they would probably
look at me as though i had two heads.
the equivalent in auto terms would be to ask if a car
could go fast, then be given the answer that it could reach
96 miles per hour, and not understand the answer.

instead of brightness levels, it might be more appropriate to
think in terms of how useful a light is.
what is its purpose: ambient lighting, or for working under?
spot lights, or flood lights?

it might surprise you to find out that bulbboy doesn't always
think that brighter is better. sometimes a softer light is needed.
why use more energy than you need?

so what is a good light? or even a perfect light?
i don't believe there is such a thing (yet), but coming
pretty close is the Surefire U2.



what's so good about it? well first up its
light output has 6 variable levels from 2 lumens to 80 lumens.
you adjust the brightness by using the ring selector changed by
a flick of your thumb.

its pretty rugged and shock proof, drop it and it will keep on working. obviously at the higher setting the batteries will be drained faster, so it's great to have the option of using only as much light as you need, rather than blinding yourself while working up close. at the lower setting
the battery runtime can be as much as 40+ hours.

i would say that's pretty good.

The future is HERE!

reminiscent of Minority Report or The Matrix?

Enlightenment

there is a boy called Bamjan who was meditating.
he is a teenager from nepal who had been sitting under a
peepal tree (that's peepal not paypal).

his full name is Ram Bahadur Banjan and he had been
meditating for months apparently without food, water,
sleep or toilet breaks. The story was even on the bbc
site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4479240.stm

he was to carry on meditating for another six years, until he
reached enlightenment, where he would transcend desire
and suffering and attain Nirvana.

the plot thickens...

he has disappeared! where did he go?
from the breitbart.com site:

"It was still unclear when he went missing, but initial reports said he was last seen on Friday.

Subedi said police were investigating if the boy just wandered into the jungle or he was
abducted by robbers."

did he trancsend earlier than expected?
maybe he disappeared in a flash of blinding light, or smuggled away under cover of darkness?
with the great influx of visitors to the site in Nepal, one would have thought that at least one of these people would have had a torch to cut through the night, and find the source of any rustling after dark.