Boys+Railway+Mud=Fun

Before:

After:

Proof:

Wheel blockage:

Yep, it's blocked with mud we think:

Aaah, the happy biker:

Disappointed that I missed out on all the fun this time - good stuff!

Do not Click

I'm warning you, do not click here . But if you do (you should) you only have to click once, on the entire site it's the internet, but without carpel-tunnel syndrome Yay!

Software Engineering

I once was given a theoretical challenge, write a software engine, that can write software to interface with other system on it's own through learning. A kind of AI but not AI, instead at the end it must write it's own new program. Yes, it is possible if you had enough time for a process to connect up to another process, and try through brute force to start sharing data; finally saving the result as a new program. It's conceivable only because computers are good at repetitive tasks, so long as a human starts both ends off with a fighting chance and there are some rules in place, it should work?

Well the problem was a bit more complicated than that, but I nonetheless went off to consider this problem. Firstly with fear because if it could be done, software developers would start putting themselves out of work, but eventually once convinced it could not be done, I relaxed a little. Well this was a long time ago, perhaps a few decades hence I could re-formulate the same original question properly and on paper (I won't now because that would loose IP), and ask it again.

Engineering is full of questions and solutions that just do not quite work at the time. How many new technologies enabling their completion do there need to be?

Rest in Peace

Life is fragile, we get reminded of this all the time. Every few years, someone I knew passes on to the next life, it's not a light moment at all. Paul Geng was always energetic, the communicator, and the do'er. He will be missed by more than a few. At least he did not leave things over till tomorrow, that much I know. Go, in peace.

article: http://www.flyafrica.info/forums/showthread.php?p=181949

Cateye Cycling gear trouble

The following was sent email to Cateye global service:

I am writing to complain about the H34 bracket. http://www.cateye.com/store/parts.php?cid=2_74 I bought a really brilliant light, and then battled to install the bracket. I latter ordered another smaller light for my wife's bike, this time the bracket went on a bit better. BUT, you can never get it tight enough to stop the light slipping about without using a bit of persuasion - and then you can not get it off again without a lot of effort. The tightening nut turns, but it's really tight now and I cannot move it to over to the other handlebar to make space for my cycle computer. The light is great, but the bracket is below par, I'm ordering a replacement bracket for now - can the engineers please improve this part.

Let us see if they can fix it before next winter....
(update : I got a response from the local and end distributor - I've attached the one here)

"

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the H-34 Flex Tight Bracket.

Please be assured that we will pass your comments onto the R & D department at Cateye for their consideration in future product development.

Kind regards

Sarah Zarrouk

Customer Services Manager

"

Product failure is particularly interesting to me as an engineer. I know things go wrong because some aspect of the environment is un-expected, it's not easy to predict how what you build will be used. But I think this means we are going to at least see some consideration of the problem, anyone else have similar jibes?

Windows Live and Hotmail

I have sent a comment to the Windows live team, because I have been missing mails.

I am loosing emails because they are getting filtered out as spam, what can I do?
I am also forwarding mails from websites to my hotmail as a convenience, but if I never get any of them, I cannot know people are trying to reach me. My junk folder is 'empty' too, is hotmail just deleting my spam automatically?

Anyway, this is not the only bit of hotmail that annoys me, can I get some feedback, and get my lost mails back. Please.

Is anyone else out there having similar junk/spam questions? I mean my GMail account hold around 50 junk mails for 30 days, so even 2 mails per day is reasonable. But Hotmail is totally spam-free, also contact-free. I had a similar issue with Yahoo 3 years ago, and they lost their advertising revenue space because of being blocked regularly, a similar, but not similar problem to my current one.

Come on Microsoft, if Tiger can do it, you can too!

Is your password strong enough?

Data from the recent hotmail phishing attack dumps show that some people still use passwords like '12345678' and 'password'. So where does that put netizens with more than a dozen different logins? All that one can do is write them all down on a piece of paper in a script too small for the cleaning lady to read (she did miss that spot under your chair non?), and incinerate it every month when you make up a new list.

Just because your data is not worth much no longer means someone will not take it away without a second thought in a bot-net attack using mall ware installed on our PC last night when you downloaded that handy little video converter or viewer.

Programmer for Hire

• Cambridge, UK - experienced software engineer
• Available immediately
• For details, see my online CV

Hats and tipping

Today is a thing about hats, hats are a passion for some, but for me, a hat is a literary device.
My first hat device is almost 4 years old now, it's called "throwing your hat across". The bestway to cross a river with no bridge is to throw your hat across first. It guarantees you have a solid motive for crossing, and although appearing foolish it is a kind of contract too.

We could get all technical about the hat, but motive is the means, and motive is something we can trust in (our legal system appears to do so at times). Oh Tipping,... yes I got another tip today - I think I will spend it all on registering an internet domain, part of my next venture into the wild world of open-source.
If you think suddenly he's insane, please visit www.plcsimulator.org , and click on the donate button - either that or send me a new hat, mine is getting soggy.

Webs links and more spiders

or is that crawlies - Web-crawlers are crawling your website right now. Are you able to control what they see? Probably not, but I'm going to give those crawlers a few extra places to go



I've been promised an Editors Pick on Brothersoft, they are a pretty neat and tidy downloads site, with a good navigation system. So please click on the button above.
Do not click on this link, its here just for the crawlers.

Tomatoes on Toasties

My Recipe
1 slice of toast - butter/grease is optional
around half a tomato per slice of toast

- Grab a warm slice of toast
- Butter it lightly
- Thinly slice the tomato over the toast
- Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon sugar
Make a cuppa and consume, it's so yummy, you will be making two.

I've tried it on brown/wholemeal bread, if you do, you might consider a tiny sprinkle of ground pepper instead.

Milk Tart and Koeksisters

Aaah, the plaited jobs with lots of syrup.
Thanks to Christa Pretorius for this recipe

Duifie se melktert
Kors:
2 k meel
1 eier
1/2 k suiker
1/2 k margarien
2 t bakpoeier
knippie sout
Room margarien, suiker en eier. Sif meel, bakpoeeier en sout saam. Knie deur en rol uit. Sit in tertpanne. Bak ligbruin en bere tot nodig.
Vulsel:
4 k melk
3 eiers
2 1/2 e meel
sout na smaak
2 1/2 e maizena
3 e margarien
3/4 k suiker
Kook en berei voor. Eierwitte word laaste ingegooi. Gooi in voorafgebakte kors. Moenie weer bak nie. Strooi pypkaneel oor.


Koeksisters
4 K meel
2 eiergele
2 t margarien
2 t bakpoeier
1 glas melk
knippie sout
Meng al die droe bestandele. Voeg eiers en melk by. Knie vir 20min. Rol uit, sny repies en vleg. Bak in diep olie en druk in stroop.
Stroop:
8 K suiker
knippie kremetart 4 k water
bietjie gemmer of suurlemoensap
Kook vir 10min saam.

Color your world

Here's a brave new product for a brave new world. I think we are always being told be brave, be bold and to "stand up for yourself". I wonder where that puts the meek?

All things in this world exist in balance, everyone has their own balance, now children can learn theirs too.



Go on, relive your childhood today.

black thief in my yard

the thief breaking in...
Yep, he's carrying something I think.
Definitely a nut!
And the black squirrel is gone

Spam phone call

A female voice says "...you have won a trip to the Caribbean.
If you would like to hear more about your holiday, please press 1"

If you do, it just rings with no answer.

The number source is 0019515455076 - and we seem to get one every now and again (every few weeks) barring un-disclosed ID callers (I set this up recently) has definitely dropped the number of idiot calls we get. BTW, registering with the TPS is a waste of time.

[edit] The number to call is 1471, in order to hear who it was that called you up last [/edit]
Another junk call this (4-Dec) morning 02031891150, caller just hangs up immediately.

Call now!

TODAY

24th November 2009

CALL

0871 6268804

Calls cost 10p on a BT Landline (other networks may vary)

From 9am until Midnight

Vote up to 10 times on both

fixed line and mobile phones

Passengers worse than dogs

Motor passengers were today treated worse than dogs, it's unclear why sanitation, and security was withheld for 4 hours when trapped on the M10 on Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, I think you get the idea, caught in a tailback that took an our to get out of, and 3 hours totally stationary with no information, no loos, and hence missing the plane at Heathrow by about 40 minutes.
I started out at 12:30, leaving 2 hours, with an hour and a bit to spare, to get there at around 4pm. M25 expeditions (it really is an expedition using this bit of gravel-way) have proved they can have 2 hour delays, and since I use it about 10 times a year, I get caught in a delay at least twice a year. I vipped myself (no that's not an english word) this time though, the customer experience was totally crap, I was treated worse than a bloddy dog. I am unsure of why people put up with this crap, probably because many other civil services are just as dismal.

Anyway I have started out to write to the Highways agency to find out why incident scenes are so dangerous. I'm not suggesting portable toilets get dropped off, just that people with problems get some kind of help. Hey I feel sorry for anyone ho got killed on the motorway, don't get me wrong. I also know that the boy-racers who cause the problems also get out of these accidents unscathed most of the time.

I know many people who turn even a 1 hour stint on the M25 into a "great trek", because it is concievable to get stuck for 5 hours. This has to stop.

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home

What do you call a cluster of ladybugs?

This little group of 8 (two of them are rather dark) were found above the front door, where it's pretty cold. I don't know what they are surviving on, or are they simply resting here for a few days out of the way? The question about the 2 darker ones is probably the most interresting, any clues? They are alive, I gently dislodged one and it waddled off begrudgingly.

This is my test-victim, as you can see he is not dead at all, and giving me the 1000-yard stare after being rudely woken up. I feel bad about shifting these diligent predators outdoors, but it's probably better that way.

Update:
- A Ladybird fact sheet .
- Ladybirds do hibernate .
- How to make a bug motel - this is something I think we have seen again and again to death, but this time it's a tiny hotel that the kids can help make at home.

Sanity for sale

Maclaren are recalling childrens strollers in the US after more than a dozen children had their findertips removed. A mum over here in the UK is rightly angry, and I sympathize fully. But then again I can only wonder how many children have had function loss after getting a whole knuckle trapped in a door jamb - child-friendly and many public places now have hinge covers fitted for this reason.

The world is a dangerous place, but right now the greatest risk to my mental health stems from being jobless because of some ass-covering bankers and accountants.

Redundancy/Jobseeker SPAM

We do have a job offer available for you in response to your initial inquiry in reference 
to the job search directory in USA, CANADA and AUSTRALIA, which we have not been 
able to process completely since we do not have a Book Keeper/Payment personnel in these region. 
 
We have decided to recruit payment employee online, hence we will be needing a representative 
to process our payments in your region. if interested please do supply the following order of requirement 
as it appear below:
 
FULL NAME 
CONTACT ADDRESS (not p.o box)
STATE
CITY
ZIP CODE
PHONE NUMBER
COUNTRY.
 
ALLEN GIOVANNI
 
ALL CORRESPONDENCE SHOULD BE KINDLY DIRECTED TO lg-uk@i12.com

Whatever will they think of next? I see people slipping into believing tricksters harvesting info all of the time. Businesses need to cough up on data protection all around the globe or else this kind of crap is going to get lots of people hurt.

... Conrad thinks Blair needs to learn how to use a 32-bit computer.

Job Wanted

Posted my VC online Web 2.0 style this evening.

It's amazing what you can do when you suddenly have time on your hands.

Website update due

This is a test, if you can click on the image to the left, then you are in the right place.

Resistance is really futile

That is if you name is David Nutt .
But, if you are made of ABS plastic, then it looks like it could be hours and hours of fun, 'you shall be assimilated'.

So long and thanks for all the fish

Today was my last day gainfully employed... for an unknown interval it would appear. I thought this subject-line would be an friendly goodbye, but it appears it was a bit too accurate. I've gone from Angry to disappointed, and just grumpy and nervous. Don't ask how to get grumpy and nervous all at once, I just am. Now I'm disappointed all over again.


Synopsis : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_for_All_the_Fish
Buy the book : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thanks-Hitch-Hikers-Guide-Galaxy/dp/0330287001

It's gonna be a chilly weekend in the UK, so we are going to huddle together and watch more telly.

Cycle ride update

Pics here

First Donation

I have recieved my first donation (hence the picture in the post before this one) from Melvin Philips on an Open-Source project I published ages ago.
So it's not that I'm turning to drink, I am just celebrating 3 years of open-source contribs.

Programming STDERR

It's frustrating when you want to get something to work, and nobody's solution fits. I had already gotten quite far on a problem and had it almost done when I found this neat solution to the problem of piping error messages sent to STDERR to a file on MSDN.

I needed to either write a huge perl-script(and without a debugger that's a cramp) or reidirect the stderr and stdout from a static code analysis tool called splint so that I can gather statistics on any dodgy lines of 'C' code.
Why a beer? Well that's a celebration of a slight change in the wind. Where it will go is probably nowhere, but it's a change nonetheless.

/edit
Returning to the redirecting of standard error and pipes, the downside it the default pipe-buffer size, in fact although you can easily increase the pipe buffer size, we all know a huge buffer is in-efficient. You see, unlesss you can empty a smaller buffer in the background while the child-process is filling it, the child will get blocked if it tries to overflow the buffer. A very bad thing, normally solved by spawning a thread to process and empty things while you wait for the child to terminate. I hate and love threads, so forgoing a complex solution, I solved this by simply waiting 100ms for the child to terminate, and then emptying the stream buffer in between by polling using WaitForProcess(). It appears to solve the problem, but exactly how?.... because someone has to close the stream in order to detect the end and not get blocked yourself in the parent waiting for a read on a dead stream?
As it so happens, the parent can happily close it's copy of the redirected stream handle and then keep reading from the duplicate knowing all will unblock when the child terminates (because the handle closes in the child when it does so). Problem solved.

It often looks too far away to even work

It was said Goliath could throw his spear half the length of a football field, so that's probably how far David was from him. Furthermore, Goliath had body armour protecting him from head to toe, except for a small opening between his eyes and his forehead. That's what David aimed for.

black thief in my yard

Black squirrel entering the back-yard over the fence....


Yep, he's carrying something there.
They are easy to photograph up close (contrary to some reports) and I soon got within 3 meters of this one because black squirrels are more aggressive than their gray cousins. The black colour is actually caused by melanin, coming from a dominant gene.

Zoom in and you can see, it's a nut!

It is possible to fall off

Solid proof that it is possible to fall off. To be sure that's not all I have fallen off recently.

In other unrelated news, I have fallen off the social ladder by staring at unemployment. This is the first time ever for me that things are not my own choice; so how do we take it? I suppose we could talk about hope, we could talk about prayer, we could talk about humility.
Maybe all it means is time to clear out the closets, air the loft and start anew. Bad thing happen to bad people, bad thing happen to good people, even to great people. God lets sh%t happen all the time, I mean He let stuff like life and intelligence and self-awareness happen. He let random subatomic particles happen too, I don't do that stuff at all tho.
Time to get the shovel out and find work because I expect I have only got a few more weeks of real motivating work still to do. I hope it's not so, but due to the lack of respect held by some people in suits, I now shall have a chance to get to the loft.

Hey if that was glum!
My mum is coming to stay with me next month. maybe I will let her hold the camera, which I so closely guard every time we go out so as not to monopolize every photographic composition. (grin)

999 and Facebook Apps

The sticker that means my house could blow up due to a gas leak on 10/10/10 and it would be my fault.

FaceBook Flood
Do you have millions of friends on facebook? I find I am staying in contact with a lot of people I would never have, and in so far it creates a way of publicly meeting with folk I know - but Facebook Apps (the advertising/Commercial side of FB) are invading my time, every day I have to brown-down at least one person by ignoring a request to install a virtual vaccum-cleaner or aquarium. Every home needs a vacuum cleaner, but it's like ice cream, fun - but not achieving anything more than a environment to chat a little longer.
So if I dont' respond to your Pokes, Bloody Marys or Bacarat, it's because I'm busy cleaning up a desert island oil-slick, not offense meant nor taken.

Just wondering

Hey, I was just wondering about what happened to all the kids who are turning 40 around now who came from a small southern african coastal town, and how many have been blown to the four winds of adventure or circumstance.
I mean, how many have stayed behind. Those who have not, why have we moved, and is our generation especially mobile today or not really.

Fuji Finepix F60

DSCF1083
Originally uploaded by zaphodikus

This video is pretty much the old one, but with my new tiny camera (like this one: http://bit.ly/ckbhn)

Holiday Banana

tgimboej Cambridge update

Links to follow, but John got and has forwarded "the box" to another (evil mad scientist), proving we can take over the world one box of junk at a time.

Netizenry notes

Getting a bit swamped by the net?
Some of the networking tools you may or may not have a use for...
www.bit.ly/ is an unusual tool used to shorten URLs and most useful for mobile applications and tweeter integrated. So here's mine , and although clicking on your own link generates a hit I have 10 clicks (2 of them mine) in just 5 minutes, go ahead click this one too, it should bring you back here or at least closeby.

Mailing List, Electronics Junk, Holiday Reading

North Cumbria - Wow, that was a beeeuutifulll bit of England. If this pic of the back yard is interresting, visit Dickinson Cottages site.

I read another book from my fave Clive Cussler -'Plague Ship', and am still drudging my way through David Gibbins' 'the Last Covenant'.
But now we are back, with a vengeance.

TGIMBOEJ
I have picked out some basic character-LCD units off E-Bay and should drop one spare into the 'box'. I am slowly adding bits because it looks to me as if it is no simple matter finding someone who wants more curiosities clogging up the workbench.
So far I've crossed off the royal-mail list:

• Scott (busy moving)
• Tristan (no response)
• Trying - John Lindley (found, and arranging)
• double-booked : Martin (sorry) I'll start a second box.

After getting a few non-responses and a non use-able email address or two, I started to double-up my attempts to move my box of junk, and got 2 responses almost at once. I'll be sending it off to John in Bristol - and starting a second box to send to Martin.

• Update: box sent to John in Bristol - 11 August.

Updates to this TGIMBOEJ post to come once the first box moves.

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.