Open Source Mechanic blog

First, the bad news you know I’m watching NHK where I just learned that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s #3 storage pool contained MOX (plutonium mix) fuel and that its floor may have cracked from the earthquake or explosion.  Snow is now falling on northern Japan, 28,000 people have evacuated, over 8000 people are in [...]

Emily Chen and I coauthored a chapter in an O’Reilly book entitled “Beautiful Testing” which was edited by Adam Goucher and Tim Riley. Successful software depends as much on scrupulous testing as it does on solid architecture or elegant code. Beautiful Testing offers 23 essays from 27 leading testers and developers that illustrate the qualities [...]

Here is a clearer before and after photo. Both were taken from exactly the same spot (with in a couple of feet), with exactly the same kid’s telescope/lens adapter.

A railway viaduct very near my home collapsed into the broadmeadows estuary. We’re very fortunate that the train which crossed only seconds before the collapse made it across safely. The underlying piers the viaduct is built upon dates back to the mid 19th century. Yesterdays tides were approximately 15 feet high, which is stronger than [...]