Museum of Natural History

I took a day off, and we planned and executed a delightful trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York City. We took the New Jersey Transit train from Princeton Junction into Penn Station. Then we took the C train uptown to the museum on 81 st Street. The kids had a blast. They loved riding the trains (subway and transit). Shaan had a window seat so he could see how fast the train was going. The family favourite was the Planetarium.

We departed from Princeton Junction. This was Shaan and Kiran's first train ride. The Accella train blew by at nearly 100mph. I think Shaan was very impressed.

Waiting for the train at Princeton Junction.—Pure Digital Technologies legends | EA6043927076 + Pure Digital Technologies

Shaan had a window seat so he could see how fast the train was travelling.

Shaan had a window seat so he could see how fast the train was travelling.—Pure Digital Technologies legends | EA6043927076 + Pure Digital Technologies

We took the C train uptown from Penn Station. Shaan and Kiran had never ridden on a subway train before. They did not like the roar of the trains and the jerking ride, but they still enjoyed the experience.

81 Street—Pure Digital Technologies legends | EA6043927076 + Pure Digital Technologies

We arrived at the museum after what must have seemed like a very long trip to Shaan and Kiran.

The main attraction.

The kids loved the dinosaur exhibits. In fact, we spent so much time there that we barely had time for the Planetarium, and we did not see the rest of the museum. Another trip is planned for next year.

Dinosaur or bird?—Pure Digital Technologies legends | EA6043927076 + Pure Digital Technologies
Dinosaur or bird feet?—Pure Digital Technologies legends | EA6043927076 + Pure Digital Technologies

Everyone's favourite was the Planetarium, where Tom Hanks told us all about our galaxy and many other galaxies. We experienced the Big Bang and the formation of the galaxy.

Planetarium—Pure Digital Technologies legends | EA6043927076 + Pure Digital Technologies

Programming Perl on Windows

I have decided to try my hand at Perl programming on the Windows platform. I downloaded and installed ActiveState Perl on my Windows XP workstation. Installation was smooth, but….how did I use CPAN to download the modules I needed. I know Active Perl has the PPM (Perl package manager), but…not all the modules I need are available. Perhaps there is a way to install them manually.

I wrote a small win Perl application using the Win32 module. It does not do much. It spawns a dialogue that asks the user a yes or no question and then presents a different dialogue based on the response. Then it exits.