Just How Big Is The Universe?

I have quite a fair knowledge of the universe and our standing in it.  I have grasped the idea of its expanse, but I know that I cannot fully comprehend just how large that is.

It is very rare I have to go into detail about anything because usually there isn’t anyone around me that shares my interest in this subject, but on February the 21^st a little miracle happened.  Whilst we were driving back home my partner turned to me.  She wanted to know what the big bright star was that was to the bottom right of the moon.  She suggested that it was the North Star but I had told her that I was sure it was a planet.  As it got darker another star appeared to the top right of the bright star.  This was a reddish colour and it had begun to perk her interests.

Later on I looked into it for us and it turned out to be Venus and Mars.  My partner was astonished that she could not only see them but that she didn’t realise they were so close.  I began to explain to her that they were not close at all and in fact for us to travel there would take quite a while.

She then asked another question, she wanted to know how close the nearest star was to us.  I looked it up and it was roughly around 4.25 light years away.  Her obvious reaction was to try and work that out into something more fathomable based on our terms.  It equated to over 160 trillion miles – she was blown away.

I then tried to put something together for her hypothetically for her to try and understand how vast the universe is.

This is what I explained to her:

The universe does not work on our theory of time, it just exists and we try to interpret it into something understandable and useful.  Imagine if we had the technology right now to travel billions of light years from earth and then look back.  Imagine that we had a super powerful telescope so we could zoom right in on the planet. What would we see?  If we timed it right, we would be able to see the dinosaurs walking around!  We would be able to look back in time and see the planet in a much earlier state.  This is because of the distance we are away from the earth.  If we were 1 billion light years from earth and the planet were to explode, we would not see it for 1 billion years.

It really is hard to comprehend when you’re working with an expanse as vast as the universe.

Realising I Will Never Touch The Stars

I often find myself saying one simple line to answer certain questions – Never say never.  I am a firm believer in the thought that anything is possible.  How can you say now to what you do not know about tomorrow?  However, I am starting to realise that I will never touch the stars.  The thoughts I had growing up of being able to travel around in space to other worlds always excited me.  Seeing programmes on the TV like Star Trek and Stargate always kept me thinking that one day this could all be possible.  What I could not comprehend back then though was the time it would take to develop a new type of technology like this.  Something completely unknown being invented to propel man further and faster into space than previously achieved before. 

Whilst I have always realised that I would never really be traveling in space myself, it was more mankind as a collective breaking the boundaries and pressing on with discovery that tantalised my mind.  I would love to hear that a new type of spacecraft has been designed that will take a team to a distant earth like planet. I would then be waiting eagerly on the edge of my seat waiting for the results.

However, knowledge has grounded my thoughts of ambition.  Although I can still say that you can never say never, the fact of the matter is that technologically we are nowhere near even creating a prototype, ideas have floated around but at the moment the thought of traveling to a distant planet in a human’s lifetime is impossible.

I have to come to terms with the fact that I will probably live out my life never knowing if there were other possibilities out there.  But does this say more about me than I would care to believe?  I have only just asked myself this question as I have wrote to this point.  It has never previously crossed my mind, but should I be satisfied with what I have?  After all, we are incredibly lucky to have not only evolved but to also be at the top of the food chain.  I have a life that is of better quality than anything before and here I am writing a post about still wanting to reach for more.

Having paused for almost 5 minutes whilst pondering what I have just wrote, I am going to chalk this one down to human nature.  It is not within us to just be content.  Set your mind wondering and it will trigger a world of possibilities in your imagination.  I am the happiest I have ever been in my life but I will still continue to look at the stars and wonder.  This is not because I am unsatisfied in life, but because I am a curious little being who lives on a rock that has helped my species evolve to understand, and more importantly, to dream!

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration

One of the most common things that I hear from friends, family and colleagues is that their computer/laptop is running really slow and they ask if I can speed it up. The answer is usually yes - with ease.  You see, in the majority of cases it is software related and their are many programs out there to help clean and declutter your machine.  This is an easy method and is ideal even if you are a novice or have very little computer experience.

The first thing I do is always check what programs and services start when you boot up your machine.  The guide will be written using windows 7 but the process is the same for other operating systems.

Hit the start button and type in "msconfig" without the quotes and press enter.

Now from the tabs at the top of the system configuration box click 'startup'.

This will bring up a list with tick box's at the side.  These are things that are set to start when you boot up your laptop or PC.  What I normally do is just untick everything but the things I want.  As you can see from the image below, I have left on the Microsoft Security Client as you should leave on any security that you are running for example, AVG, Norton, Kaspersky etc.

Once you have unticked all that you need, click apply and then select the 'services' tab.

It is important in this section that you tick the box towards the bottom 'Hide all Microsoft services'.

A similar process to the above can now be applied and untick everything that you do not want to run.  I have everything turned off here but if you are running any antivirus software, some of those services may be located here.  If you cant gauge from the manufacturer column what program the service belongs to, a simple Google of the service will give you any information that you require.

Once you are happy, click ok and then either restart your machine now or just shut it down when you have finished.  One thing to note, after changing the System Configuration you will be presented with a notification when you next start up to tell you something has been changed.  You can simply tick it to not show you again and press OK.

Any changes that you have made in this section are easily reversed.  It is just a matter of bringing of the System Configuration and ticking the box's that you want to activate.

The next steps will involve downloading two programs to help make your PC/Laptop run smoother and speed everything up.

Click the links below to move on to the next section:

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 2 - CCleaner 

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 3 - Auslogics Disk Defrag

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 2 - CCleaner

Following on from Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration, we can now move on to the next step.  This will involve downloading a program that will help remove clutter from Windows and will also remove anything bad or broken from the registry so that Windows can run much smoother.

The first thing to do is download the latest CCleaner.  Clicking that link will open up a new tab that will start to download the latest free version of CCleaner.  Save the file, install it and then open up the program.

Unless you're more advanced with Windows it will be best to leave the settings as they are.

Click 'Analyze' for it to scan your system and then press 'Run Cleaner'.  If  a box pops up regarding deleting files from your computer just press OK, unless of course you wish to double check what its going to delete in which just press cancel and then evaluate what areas have been scanned.

This process may take a little while depending on how cluttered the system is.  

Once it has been completed click the 'Registry' tab on the left and then 'Scan for Issues'.

If the scan has found any issues then click 'Fix selected issues'.

You will then be asked if you wish to back up your registry, this is best.  I just navigate the save to my documents and press save.  Then continue with the fixing and fix all issues.

I tend to do this process every couple of days just to make sure nothing is building up.

After completing this, it is time to move on to the final step. Or alternatively, if you haven't already completed step 1 then you can also do that.

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 3 -Auslogics Disk Defrag

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 3 -Auslogics Disk Defrag

The final step in speeding up your PC/Laptop is to have all of the data on your hard drive organised in a way that Windows can access it much faster.  Imagine trying to find a book that you want to read in a library that has been organised by a 5 year old.  Running a disk defrag is the equivalent or sorting the books into alphabetical order.

What you first need to do is click, save and install Auslogics Disk Defrag. Take care when installing to make sure that you are not agreeing to install any third party software.  Sometimes there are options to install other programs and if you just blindly click through you are installing optional extras.

I should point out that there is a disk defrag built in to Windows, but I feel that this one is faster and much better.

Once the program is installed then open it up.

Press the 'Defrag' button and it will analyse and defrag your hard drive.  If you have more than one HDD then you can select multiple ones.

Once this has been done, if you have followed the previous 2 steps then reboot the computer and you will notice the difference in speed.

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 2 - CCleaner

DNA Gene Code

I had been walking to work in the morning and I have to pass through the town market, the traders were busy setting up all of their stalls and one had got a radio on.  Normally I have my earphones in drowning out the world, but today I decided not to bring them with me so on this particular occasion I clearly heard the radio DJ talking. I am usually in a complete world of my own whilst journeying to work and often appear at the entrance with no knowledge of how I got there.  I think this is why the talk on the radio stuck in my head because it is not very often I properly register anything that is going on around me.

I heard the DJ talking about DNA, talking about the letters that make up a DNA code. He went on to say it is because everything is mapped with letters that it could be read easier.  He said a code is just that, a code, and codes are there to be broken and unlocked.  What he was saying obviously makes perfect sense, after all we have made some major discoveries from cracking the Gene Code.

So the code has been mapped and we have everything in front of us, but it still needs to be properly unlocked.  That is when I had a thought, I know this might sound completely ridiculous to some, but if the DNA is just a code then surely the best way is to just hack it. I am not talking about a typical hack like someone gaining access to a server, but may be a hackers mind would be able to see the code from a different perspective.  What if computer hackers could look at the code and see rhythms or patterns that scientists have missed?

In my opinion it would be more than beneficial to have someone who lives and breathes coding to try and help unlock the secrets that are contained within our Genes.  It does not sound so farfetched when you think of it this way, and I am well aware that the knowledge that is needed to study DNA is far greater than I can imagine, but a code to a hacker is just an encryption waiting to be broken.  At the very least we would have a pair of fresh eyes looking at the problem from a different angle.  It might help shed some new light onto it or it may help scientists look at it from another perspective. Sometimes just thinking out of the box can solve the problem, the thought of a hacker looking in to it is surely an idea fetched directly from outside of the box.