/home/nand

Going to Japan is my dream. I think a strong interest in japanese culture and anime has something to do with it. And since I’m in Singapore for the semester, it is probably my last opportunity before long to explore this country. So yesteday I bought a flight to Japan and 7 nights in a Tokyo hostel with a friend.

And there it occured to us : whoah, we just booked a flight and a hostel thousands kilometers from here in a few clicks, and it just seemed normal. You know, sometimes you realize how easy everything becomes, and we hardly notice it. Participation at the Boston Ubuntu Developper Summit at earth opposite, free VoIP call to France,… It is frightening. Will we be ever satisfied with what we got? Probably never, it’s human nature.

And discussing about the most impressive experience we had, I remembered the SpaceX rocket test launch. It was monstruous. Imagine a *live* video feed of the rocket on the launchpad, with a countdown and staff comments. “T-15mn”, “tech one is triggered”, “telemetry green”,… And you live the countdown like the staff, I mean you feel the exictment, the stress like them (knowing the first attempt was a failure). Especially when the countdown is aborted a few times a fews moments before the launch! And then finally, here you are, you see the rocket take off… And surprise! You now have a *live* feed from inside the rocket! We see the island first, the sea, the clouds, getting further and further… “velocity 128 meter/s”… “telemetry locked nominal”… “first stage engine performance nominal”… “velocity 450 meter/s, altitude 13.9km”… At a point, you hear some cries, “Second stage separated” “Second stage engine ignition confirmed”. And then you see Earth…

And then you remember this is live. Whoah.

Here is the video. Too bad it only starts at t-37s…