Going on Holiday

here at the Dickenson Cottage, Allonby on the Cumbria coast. Looking forward to that. Will have to take along my laptop, microcontroller and a good book in case it rains.

Twitter/Ditter/Shitter
Created a account so I can try and reach somebody, dunno why I bothered because twitter is very buggy and useless anyway. I am not sure yet, whether 99% of all internet content is for consumption of the over-commercialised, or just lame? Can we start a brand new internet task-force and hire some reliable Italians to "mark" and off the internet profit-wasters?

Either make money or don't, this in-between place where everything is just noise and spam is getting to me.

PS:
I'm still waiting for a twitter reply from Scottofthedead1. Update: I got a NAK from scott, and worked out how to "send" in twitter by prefixing with an @, there are many more incantations in the twitter religion. Perhaps I will learn a few next week.

Starting a box of old bits

This is the box I am starting for TGIMBOEJ clicky on the flickr link to get some detail.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40917542@N03/3768395819/#comment72157621758426659

Waste of time applications on the web

I am making a list of antisocial web applications:
[rant]
1. facebook - it's a huge time-gobbler, but it is at least interactive and you can do almost anything, it's also integrated into more systems than other web apps.
2. twitter - frustrating, since it's like you are a radio station. You have sweet fanny way of knowing what your audience (I do not need one) thinks.
Can someone list more than 2 profitable things twitter can do for an introvert in only 10 minutes per week , and I will become a user.


Yahoo answers - who benefits? Anyone who knows how to add links to products they purvey. Answers is very much something you do as a challenge, and to better the human race. But minimal personal profit.
[/rant]

Latest experiment - it just says "Hello World!"

The Great Internet Migratory Box Of electronic Junk

http://www.tgimboej.org

I've found a place to get rid of some parts I've been collecting and will probably never use. I mean everyone has that box of 1000 LEDs that they will never use even half of. Well I don't, but I have got plenty of similar finds. Let's see if I can start a box, or at least add to one this summer holiday.

Instructable fun

I built one of these yesterday quickly - http://www.instructables.com/id/Pocket-Drunken-Robot/

I have a few motors, anyone who wants one can mail me, and I can look at P&P to cover things, so you can build your own one.

A hint from me is to cut your template with quite long arms for the battery holder, you want just over 1 inch square to start. Have fun.

I have also recycled/rinced some tiny LED displays that go by the part SLX 2016, where X is RGY(Red Green etc.) You will need to use 10 output pins on your micro to control this beast, but it's very bright (too bright for my webcam).


I am going to hunt for a few more of these in the dumpster, they are text-only, and tiny, but they have some cool possibilities.

Latest toy.

Oscilloscope for doing diagnostics. And playing of course / this one can trace up to 60Mhz at -3dB. It's interesting once you really get into it, spec sheets for 'scopes are not that easy to read. So if you are buying one, have all the stats in a list, because comparing is not trivial. This one grafts fine for about 18Mhz clock, all I need now is some decent probes of various types. Will prolly get a pair off Ebay next week (which is where I snatched this pic:-] ).

He's pulling through doctor!

No, it was not that bad, and I refer not to 'that' use of pulling either, operation looks successful no? At least I can walk without limping, and can move the knee through most of the normal angle to be able to get up and down stairs. the doctor say I should be able to dance again int 2 weeks; Just like the sanitary pad advert that boasts you will be able to do anything, for example abseiling dancing or riding a bike afterwards, It prompted little Johnny to go to the chemist and get some so he could get onto his new bike - yes I can run - but then again I never could dance before anyway.

My latest Microcontroller project is a tiny game of battleships. I wrote all the code from scratch and tested it in a Win32 application console-app, which I will port to the AVR micro. It's probably the tiniest Battleships game ever - 5x8. I got the idea from a PIC project, since I could not use any of the code, I have shamelessly used the requirements-spec to create my own implementation in the 'C' language. Next week I will post the code to avrfreaks.net, so there you have it.

back trace - www.zaphodikusrealm.blogspot.com

NHS (My first run-in)

It all is a bit of apprehension to start with, the system is slow (under-resourced), but the staff at Addenbrooks and Ely were really great, comfortable/reassuring. The once thing that worked for me after having a general anesthetic, was not having a really bad tummy feeling like I want to bring-up afterwards. It's never nice having someone open you up, but in reality you can probably do lots of research on orthroscopy type jobs beforehand using this great 'internet' tool.

I think that the NHS funding is being wasted on procedures that are elective more than necesary, people with drugs/smoking and fertility should pay their own way- this sounds harsh, but the system is opened to more abuse as a result. A hospital stay for instance is a much less stuffy affair than it may have been in the past, and 'hypo' people probably like to use the system to get a pick-me-up. I am glad that the system is going more digital - something like to pitching up for a appointment for instance is another abuse which rightly should show that either the reminder never whent out, or you are a forgetful soul or worse still an abuser.
If I have one suggestion for the day-clinic it would be to give people an extra half-hour to get re-aquainted with reality post-op. - otherwise it was a perfect process for me.
I wrote this 2 hours after waking, so please excuse the grammar.