Ok, so I got my birthday present, gave mine, finished exam session, started contributing to Wikipedia (I already have 6 articles under my belt), so it's time to write something here as well.

Don't think I'm getting paid to promote them, but I want to add third and last entry about Bad Astronomy / Universe Today, and this time it's their forum that I want to talk about in several sentences.

What makes it different from other forums? First of all, moderators are very friendly and seem to know their job. Secondly, folks there are happy to answer all your questions, even the most stupid ones. Thirdly, there is a vast amount of topics to talk about, not necessarily connected with astronomy. And, last but not least, people there are really interested in astronomy, and what would be a better way to learn all you can than from people who love the subject?

Participation in BAUT forum is free of charge. Being nice recommended.

OK, so busy week has ended at last - two exams and a birthday is quite enough to make you not interested in updating your blog. It's over now, so I can return to being a regular blogger at last.

First of all, I can congratulate myself for ending the first term succesfully, though I still don't have two marks in my achievement card, but these are just a matter of time. I'm pretty much sure that I will not have to pay for studies next term, and that is quite all that I wanted to achieve this term.

Secondly I can prouldy say that fitted my computer with a proper sound system MYSELF. Now I can listen to music louder, better and enjoy it on a new level. It looks a bit funny (as I said, I made it myself, and that means "not too scrupulously"), but it works, and that's what matters.

Thirdly, I got a webcam as a birthday present and bought myself a set of 200 board games (I didn't count them yet, that is just claimed on a box). I don't know, how useful both of them will be, 'cause I'm not too much into showing my damn face to the world (especially when I look so tired and yawn all the time lately) and I don't have anyone to play with me (sad, ain't it), but they say it is better to have something than not to have... Well, OK, they don't say that and I made it up myself, but whatever...

And last but not least, I still didn't get GreenHeaven's (if you don't have the pleasure to know her, that is my most bestest (and using three superlatives here is not an overkill) friend) present, and I have a present for her as well, and I anticipate very much that moment when we will give them to each other. That will definitely be the greatest moment in the following week, I'm sure about it.

I found this photo in the internet and is not my creation. Therefore I must assume it's copyrighted... But maybe it doesn't matter this time, hey?

Today I would like to introduce a partner site of previously mentioned "Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy", a great collection of news, retrospectives, astronomy facts - plainly everything that is interesting in the field of astronomy.

The size of this site is overwhelming, the articles are multiple and extensive, filled with interesting facts and actually very easy to read even if you don't have a degree in astrophysics or astronomy. All topics are covered, starting with the Moon, the Sun, the Solar System, our own Galaxy and even beyond. I started to read there just a couple of days ago, however I'm quite sure, that I will have a plenty of great time reading through them, especially when it is updated so often (several articles a day). Many wonders of the Universe await you there, so I recommend to go there right away.

The name of the site is Universe Today - quite a fitting name for such a great, up-to-date, fun and extensive place in the internet. And if you are an amateur astronomer or plainly have a mania of looking at the night sky for all those stars, nebulae, galaxies and other superb features (like me), there's a treat for you - a free downloadable PDF guide to the sky, called "What's up 2006". Plenty of facts about the development of astronomy, most noticable figures in its history, a load of objects to look at in the night with detailed descriptions - it is really a mistake not to spend several minutes downloading this incredible PDF.

You will need Adobe Reader to access the contents of "What's up 2006" PDF. The Rocket Logo is an intelectual property of "Universe Today".

The title "zero-player game" kills the fun outright, doesn't it? Well, not this time. This game is one of the oldest in the history of computer games, and it is still very popular throughout the world because of it's endless possibilities and surprisingly simple rules, which are easy to implement even on the lowest-end hardware. Actually, this game is one of the most interesting branches of cellural-automata theory. However, don't get frightened by the sounding of that.

The idea of the game is very simple - there is some pattern of cells, called "live" and "dead", which evolves according to four rules of life to another pattern, and so on for eternity. Of course, most of us can't wait that long, therefore game usually ends when the pattern stabilises, meaning that it doesn't evolve anymore (it is called "still life", and there are quite a few of them discovered), starts to repeat itself (these are called "oscilators" if they don't move and "spaceships" if they are moving).

The only thing the player can do is to make the first pattern. And it's a great fun, actually, when you launch the game and see your creation mutate and evolve into something entirely new and unexpected, even though you don't control the process at all. After pressing the "Play" button, computer starts these simple calculations to create another pattern:

• if the cell is alive and surrounded by one or no other alive cells, it dies because of loneliness;
• if the cell is alive and surrounded by four or more alive cells, it dies because it runs out of breathing space;
• otherwise, the cell remains alive;
• if the cell is dead and has exactly three alive neighbours, it becomes alive (a new cell is born);
• otherwise, the cell remains dead.

All the calculations are carried out simultaniously, and one cycle of calculations is called "tick" or, more conveniently, "generation". As I have already said, albeit these rules are very easy to implement into computer, they give so fun, unexpected and complex results out of initial patterns that you simply can't resist trying some more patterns.

If you want to try it out, you can use one of the Java applets found on the Internet or download an application. Personally, I used a program called (exceptionally originally) "Life!", however, Life32 seems to be a bit better. You can download it from here, it seems to be freeware. And, of course, what is the game without patterns. Throughout game's history many exceptionally interesting patterns were found, and you can download some files from Life pattern catalog (the best part of it is that you can actually check them out with a built in applet and don't need to download anything at all - great, if you just want to have a look at the game), or just redraw some of the patterns from Conway's life glossary (mind it, it is huge and requires a lot of time to load).

The image was taken from free open online encyclopedia Wikipedia. By the way, it features a good article about the game, it's worth to read if I managed to get you interested.