Northern Lights at York Minster

I had a good but long weekend. Saturday was, of course, filled with watching England’s hard-fought victory against New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup. Beer was drunk (to excess!) and a good time was has by all.

Sunday was a little more highbrow; I popped up to York and spent a very enjoyable 30 minutes watching two showings of Northern Lights at York Minster – a fantastic laser, lights, and audio installation in York Minster’s Nave. I thoroughly recommend it and would suggest that you either see one of the few remaining shows of this season or jump in early when it (hopefully!) returns next year.

Here’s a short documentary I found about it:

The Power of Telemetry

The online backup company Backblaze – of which I am a reasonably satisfied long-term customer – makes statistics about the hard drives they use public. A chap called Ryan Smith took this telemetry and, with a little data wrangling and some educated guesses, worked out large parts of their business model – including important elements of their asset replacement cycle.

Telemetry is creepy. Turn it off.

More of the Glass Works, Barnsley

Some more shots from the Glass Works redevelopment in the centre of Barnsley. There seems to have been quite a lot of progress since I last posted about this project at the end of August.

A shot of the steelworks on Cheapside taken from further up the hill. Since the last set of images they have finished constructed what will be the second floor celling. Behind you can see the structural work for what will be the cinema.

A closeup of the Cheapside steelworks.

Groundworks for bowling ally and restaurants on the north side Kendray Street. The small grey building in the centre is a new electricity substation.

The same area taken from Midland Street.

A shot of the main part of the project. This was taken on the corner of Kendray Street and May Day Green. The steelworks to the right will become the shops that back onto the existing market. The steelworks in the centre comprise of elements of the new cinema and the shops and restaurants on the east side of the project. The near centre – where the dumper truck is parked – will become a public square.

Equipment and supplies compound with cinema structure behind. Beyond you can see the steelworks for the shops that back onto the existing market structure.

Panorama of the entire site taken from the temporary pedestrian bridge over the railway line.

From left to right:

Cinema and restaurants structure
(Back) Shops structure
(Fore) Location of new public square
Completed library
Kendray Street
Bowling alley and additional restaurants
Existing transport hub

The Sunrise over the Minster

A pleasant little video of the sun rising over York railway station. Towards the rear left you can see the permanently-lit York Minster towering over the rest of the city. The large yellow crane in the centre of the image is part of the building site on the former Hudson House plot and sits just in side the city walls. And, of course, prior to that this plot of land had been the original York station.