andrewlighten.com

Thirty years ago today — 3rd August, 1977 — was the day that the TRS-80 model 1 was released.

This was an iconic computer and one that I’ll always think of very fondly. It was the first computer I owned, and I can’t imagine how many thousand hours I spent using it.

Good memories.

Neat picture.

On Saturday night (amid 787 hoopla), Boeing had all of the 787 airline representatives at the Museum of Flight. At 7:07 PM, an Omega Air Refueling Services 707 landed in front of the crowd. At 7:17, an AirTran 717 landed. This continued until 8:17 when an Air France 777-300ER landed. In the end, the 707, 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 were lined up nose-to-tail on the taxiway.

There’s an article on BBC Sport at the moment about how Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate (some spanish guy) thinks Lewis is getting better treatment at McLaren.

The real gem in this article is a link to a video from the BBC archives. It’s a 12 year old Lewis Hamilton appearing on Blue Peter talking about karting and his F1 aspirations.

Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix yesterday. He now leads the championship by 8 points.

Murray Walker:

It’s more than feasible that he could win the championship this year, which would be incredible.

There aren’t enough superlatives for what Lewis is doing race after race.

It is unprecedented in the history of Formula One. I’ve been watching Formula One since it began and I have never seen anything like this in my life, it is quite incredible.

We went to Buda in Castlemaine yesterday. It’s a historic home that dates from the 1850’s and 1860’s.

The Kid didn’t really think much of the interior of the home, but adored the garden. It’s on 1.2 hectares, and she loved running around all the paths and finding all the hidden little nooks and crannies. The garden is apparently pretty much the same as it was 150 years ago; kind of neat to think that she was running around and laughing the way kids would have done during the goldrush. I put a gallery up on SmugMug.

I’ve had a bit of a read through The Gentleman’s Magazine that I found earlier, and it’s interesting stuff.

Take a look at this snippet:

That’s for May/June 1860 in the Districts of London. A huge number of deaths for people under the age of 20.

Love this passage from an obituary for a gentleman named C. Scarisbrick. A bounder and a cad, no doubt.

I’m a huge fan of Google Maps, and for doing stuff like this map of route 66, it’s just fantastic. Love it.

I did some more digging for other appearances of my name on the web. Google books found an interesting entry (albeit spelled slightly differently).

According to the 1860 edition of The Gentleman’s Magazine, a Mr Andrew Lighton, esq. married Eliza Amelia at Brighton.

Earlier than month, Robert Leighton, esq. married Eliza Harriet — she’s the youngest daughter of the late Rev. John Wilkinson, formerly the Vicar of Budwith and of Gate Helmsley in Yorkshire.

Haven’t checked whether either of these esq. appear in the family tree.

Update: There’s actually a few mentions in Google Books.

Update: Checked the family tree details Mum gave me a week or two back. I figure for these guys to get married in the 1860’s they’d have to be born in the 1830-1840 timeframe, and there’s no sign of either a Robert or Andrew back then — certainly not in the details I’ve got.

Last night’s Spanish Grand Prix wasn’t a particularly exciting race.

But check this out:

Picture says it all.

Four podiums in his first four races (never done before). Now the youngest driver ever to lead the world championship, a record previous held by Bruce McLaren, founder of the team he’s driving for.