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.

Grace

God is good, God is great,
and we thank Him for our daily food.
we're gonna thank Him morning, noon, and night,
we're gonna thank Him for His power and might.
Amen, (clap clap) Amen (clap clap)
Amen; Amen; Amen-Amen

Why the UK is a great place to live

There is a list someplace, probably something the home office do not know about, so I decided to create my own list, I have been here 3 years, and my Visa is up for renewal in 2011. So here is a list, in no specific order, but perhaps the order I discovered them.

• Royal mail, I can put a CD in the post to a friend on the other end of the island in the morning for early collection, and it will be there the next day.
• Online shopping, for almost anything you desire. If it's in stock, you get near instant gratification without leaving your home. Decent internet access is easier to get too.
  
• Walking in the dark. It may seem a simple thing, but general security is miles better except if you live in the big-city. But then anything goes in big cities, and village life is a gas.
• Friendly people. You get these everywhere, but because there are so many cultures, you get accepted as a foreigner (still a foreigner, but you can come over for tea).
• Great for Kids. Childcare is expensive due to this silly organisation called OFSTED. But for kids themselves it is magic, tonnes to do and learn in safety.
  

There are a whole list of things that come to mind after more than a few minutes, great transport - offset by overcrowding. Great holiday spots, child-play equipment. child safety....

IBM or ISM?

What happened to ISM? Well todays rant is about an IBM product, called Clearcase.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IC50214

The problem is when the client is used disconnected. That's fine you say, but the client insists on doing pop-ups from a Visual Studio plug-in. It's a over simplified diagnostic, and in-ellegant to say the least.

---------------------------
ClearCase
---------------------------
Error determining type of current view.


---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

...I am just annoyed that there is so little help to be found to help users work around this problem, because it is possible if someone just put a tiny bit of effort into the plug-in to add a checkbox into the code, it's about 10 lines of code, but unless more folk stick out their tongues....

Or do we?

It's better than Africa, but for most of the wrong reasons.
1. You are not going to get jumped walking home from the pub.
2. Literacy is high, but indigence is still indifferent
3. The grass is green

I think I get grumpy sometimes because I miss having these kind of things in plain sight when they are and are not as they seem in Southern Africa. Life was simpler in some ways, but in other ways it was an environment of hope and of dispair. Mixed? Yes, but not the mix I get here, so while the mix in the UK is good, it starts to feel comfortable, and eventually like home. At the end of the day, the people here are great - and that is what counts. I hope they will count on me someday too.

We love this country

I am talking about England, well really the United Kingdom, and its called that because it is more like a gathering of kingdoms, its not like United States, but more Like USSR than UK in some ways because it has so many tribes.
That said once you stop offending the natives, who are very friendly btw, there is a lot on offer. Like park&ride, which is a clever way to get cheap parking far from the city centre, and then ride the bus into town without really paying for a bus-ticket. It seems to work in most towns, Cambridge is one of them, and I now regularly use the city to just avoid the stress of driving in a built-up area. Yes, we love the countryside! It's green and safe! At least there are no dangerous wild animals (like in Africa LOL.) running about.
Well there are some dangerous things - dangerous if you are dumb or live in a city. The sidewalks everywhere are narrow and crowded, but with all this danger about, women are more likely to get beaten up by their partners than fall under a bus or suffer other vehicular incident.

Signing off, from the flattest bit of England.

April fun

For anyone who has already discovered the joy of buying cartridges online, go no further, if not....
click here.

OK, only kidding, there is no such printer - but Cartridge Monkey really are the boz.