Thursday 28 May 2015

Douglas Dakota Airfix Model

Hey Guys,

Today, I went to Lincoln (part of my holiday) and there was an ace model shop there (Find them here). I am quite into building models, so spent quite a lot of time in there. I eventually decided on buying a 1:72 scale model of a Douglas Dakota. I chose this model because I saw it yesterday (If you haven't seen my post about this find it here) and really like the look of it. Here are some pics of the model:



I should be posting when I get round to building it - I can't at the moment, as I am on holiday without any tools or paints. 

Make sure to keep checking here to see the latest geek news!

Holiday seeing Planes

Hey Guys,

So I'm on holiday in Lincolnshire, and there are a lot of RAF bases due to the flatness of the land around here. I went for a tour around RAF Coningsby and saw the Battle of Britain memorial flight aircraft: 2 Spitfires and a Lancaster. The Lancaster, unfortunately, had an engine fire recently, and it is out of action until it can be fixed. There was also a Douglas Dakota plane, a transport aircraft still being used today. Sadly, I am not able to put pictures of inside Coningsby.

Yesterday, we went to Tattershall Castle, but did not pay the actual castle much attention due to the brilliant view of the planes. There were multiple typhoons, a spitfire and the Dakota all flying round, obviously practising for a memorial flight, possibly the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The best bit was a Typhoon and a Spitfire flying in line, then they both banked and flew off in different directions. Here is a picture of it:


I am fairly sure that they were using the castle that we were on top of as a point of reference, constantly flying around and around it. 

There are also various viewing points to see different aircraft, and we went to see the Vulcan XM607 (The one that did the bombing of Port Stanley)


and the English Electric Lightning:


Here are the rest of the photos from Tattershall castle:

Douglas Dakota

The Spitfire

The Dakota above Tattershall Castle

The newly painted Typhoon in Battle of Britain colours

The Battle of Britain Typhoon (under the wind sock) the Dakota (on the right behind the trees) and all the other Typhoons (below and to the left of the Battle of Britain Typhoon) There is also a Typhoon with it's cockpit open (above the Dakota)

Make sure to keep checking here to see the latest geek news!

Saturday 23 May 2015

LanLan 2x2 Review

Hey Guys,

When I ordered my DaYan ZhanChi 3x3 cube (See my post about it here), I saw a recommendation for the LanLan 2x2 on Amazon here. It was only £2.50 (~$3.80) so I thought, what the heck, and bought it too. It was being delivered from China, and so took ~3 weeks to arrive, but it came a week ago, and I have been using it since.

First of all, I must say that it is definitely not the best 2x2 out there, but that would be expected as it was so cheap. When I got it the turning was clunky, and it was very tight. I have since loosened it and it is now better, but still cannot corner-cut and is barely finger-trickable. I put some silicone lubricant in it, but it is very strange and seized up the cube, making it difficult to move. This was what happened when I lubed my Rubik's 3x3 so I expected it, and after a few days of using it, it became faster than it originally was. I learnt to solve it by learning the 2-alg beginner’s method, and am now learning the Ortega method.


All in all, I would only recommend this if you are not a speedcuber, and are looking for a generic 2x2 for a low price. This was not what I expected, but I guess you get what you pay for. 



Make sure to keep checking here to see the latest tech news!

Wednesday 13 May 2015

DaYan ZhanChi Cube Review

Hey Guys,

So lately, I've been into cubing, and my branded Rubik's cube is very slow and clunky. I wanted to get a new cube, and so after a bit of research, I decided the DaYan ZhanChi was the correct one. I bought it off amazon here. It was £8.50 (~$13) which I think is a decent deal.

So. The performance. The corner cutting is good, about 45 degrees max ( this is how out of alignment the cube can be for it to turn in another direction see this video ) The turning speed is very fast, with almost no resistance, this way I can easily turn the faces with one finger to speed up algorithms.

I'm still learning to solve with CFOP (speedcubing method) as there are many algorithms to be able to do this. Check out the sheet I am using to learn this here. Overall, I would greatly recommend this cube, as it is very reliable, smooth and cheap.

Make sure to keep checking here to see the latest tech news!

Saturday 9 May 2015

The Geek Circle Forum

Hey Guys,

Lately, I've got into forums quite a bit, and was looking at how to create one myself. So I did! I have created 'The Geek Circle Tech Forum' This is a forum for people wanting to discuss tech. The link will be in the sidebar of all posts - just click on the logo that says 'forum' or you can find it here

Thanks to ProBoards for providing the forum creation tool

Make sure to keep checking here to see the latest tech news!

Wednesday 6 May 2015

YouTube Channel + Lego MindStorm MindCuber

Hey Guys,

This is just a quick post to let everyone know about my YouTube channel and also the Lego MindStorm I built to solve a Rukik's cube. So, I have created a YouTube channel here for this blog, so if I want to do a video, I can upload it there. I have also uploaded my first video, a demo of the MindCuber robot I built - can be found here.

Make sure to like and subscribe to my channel!

Make sure to keep checking here to see the latest tech news!

Friday 1 May 2015

Rubik's Cube

Hey Guys,

Lately, iv'e got into Rubik's cubes, as i was assigned a project at my local CoderDojo to write a solving program. I was also given a booklet explaining how to solve it ( can be downloaded here ) I had a go at solving it with this guide, and it worked surprisingly well! I could already solve the top face - it's pretty easy, but had never done a complete cube. i'm currently trying to master the second row, as it one is a bit more challenging, but still not too hard.

I also checked out some of the world records - this is a 3x3x3 cube in 5.66s!

Make sure to keep checking here to see the latest tech news!