This morning it feels like I'm really back, after two weeks traveling, even though I physically returned last Thursday night.  Friday was a hectic catch-up day with meetings and phone calls and lots (and lots!) of email, Saturday was my first day "off", and yesterday was ... Easter!  (yay, complete with my [adult] kids engaged in an egg hunt)  And this morning is Monday, and I'm back.  So of course I'm blogging :)

This is a picture of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine II, which he started but never finished, and which was completed with materials and techniques of his day 150 years later.  Amazingly cool.

This is the week to prepare for the Apple Watch, which can be preordered at midnight on Friday night.  Have you already picked out your model?  (I think I have, and no, it's not a $10K Edition :)  In case it is of any assistance to your choice, Apple have helpfully provided some video "guided tours". 

Richard Feynman: Fire is stored sunshine.  I am just now reading Quantum Man, an interesting book about Feynman.  Among other things it explains the whole QED theory better than I have read anywhere else; I still think it's too complicated to be "right" (W=UH!), but at least I'm starting to get it. 

And so: the Large Hadron Collider is back and stronger than ever.  Now able to reach 13 teraelectronvolts (twice as much energy as before), it can help us find more massive weird particles.  Quantum Man stressed the importance of experimental results in guiding theoretical physics, so these data can hopefully help simplify the prevailing truth. 

Interesting: BMW can't build it's $135K plug-in hybrid fast enough.  It's a beautiful car, I saw am i8 on the street in London*.  And apparently quite a nice driving car too, although strictly a two-seater... 

* I must tell you, there are more high-end cars on the street in London than anywhere, despite the crappy weather and daunting traffic.

The Economist on Microsoft under Satya Nadella: "Cloud First, Mobile First".  Hmmm...  that sounds familiar :)  Good luck to them! 

Apropos and surprising: Visual Studio 2015 can target Linux.  At eyesFinder we develop our visual search engine on Windows, and run in production under Linux.  Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people do this.  Excellent. 

This is rather cool: A time-lapse of artist Guillaume Cornet drawing a large scale illustration of Paris.  The illustration is amazing too. 

Onward into the day / week / month!  I have code to write, emails to send, phone calls to make, and maybe even more stuff to blog about :)