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July 7th, 2009
11:11 pm - A happy 45mins in a dark garage
...just add one joss stick and one laser.
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June 1st, 2009
04:47 pm
Tomorrow I'm off to Ireland for the first time. By Wednesday afternoon the demo occupying all my time (12+ hrs a day) since before ConFuzzled will be over. By the evening I'll be enjoying Guinness, and Thursday will see me back home. Quite looking forward to it really.
Friday and the weekend will be the Code Red office move, and I hope, really hope, that on Monday I can begin to wind down from one of the busiest months I've had. I can also start sorting through the piles of stuff that have built up in the garage, on the floor, and in my inbox.
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May 26th, 2009
11:05 am - A long hot soak...
I ache. I'm physically and mentally drained - but in a good way. Last after emptying the car I just needed a long bath, then off to bed. ConFuzzled is over until next year (or until next month if you're staff).
It's great to read all the good stuff on LJ about how much it has been enjoyed, but at the same time it's difficult to forget the various things that didn't go so well - particularly the things that were my own fault. I guess that is a symptom of being exhausted.
Much, much, praise to the Pawpet crew for bring off a excellent show. I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time; and that's despite having read the script and knowing full well what was about to happen.
Many thanks too to Yagfox for giving his blood, sweat, and equipment to the stage and for the laser show.
And my thanks once again to all our staff, many of whom hardly got to socialise or attend any events they weren't actually running. That's something we will be fixing for next year for sure!
For everyone who attended the conference, your energy and enthusiasm for all things furry is inspiring! Thank you.
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May 18th, 2009
05:55 pm - And then three come at once
So, Thursday morning I load the car and head North for ConFuzzled, stopping off at Leamington to help disassemble one creation, and maybe pick up some bits. I've known for over a year it would be a mad time.
But life is never simple. Work has been mad - I'm part way through building a demo on a new product I've had just four days training on. That's taken up most of my weekend and will do after ConFuzzled too.
And if that wasn't enough, Code Red is moving offices at the same time. So I've a new network to install, and a IP telephony system to learn. At least the new building has structured cabling, so there won't be the need to create a room sized cable harness!
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April 5th, 2009
08:38 pm - I love the smell of plasticiser in the morning
Much ConFuzzled build work done this weekend, with plenty of drilling and sawing of pipework. Now I ache. Tomorrow off down to the Frimley area for a week of training, and more ConFuzzled work in the evenings. Busy copying files onto the laptop. Later, some essential ironing...
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March 26th, 2009
10:26 pm - 35µs!
That's how long it takes my integer arithmetic based program to calculate the next point along a cubic spline on the Arduino. I am excited, aren't you?
What this means is I can can build animations with ease in and ease out to drive 16 RC servos independently (with a separate LED driver doing the PWM), and still have around 70% of the CPU cycles to play with. Or, put another way, this little chip could manage over 25k points a second driving a set of laser galvos without having to solve all the splines beforehand like ILDA files do.
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March 24th, 2009
06:09 pm - Liquid nitrogen, Arduino, Blinkm, RBBB
So, the surgery thing didn't happen. Doc decided the lump was just scar tissue, and a better option was repeated freezing with liquid nitrogen and local steroid injections repeated monthly. Right now it's not too painful, though having been "burnt" by solid CO2 before I'm anticipating that it will take a few days for the area to recover enough to report the pain.
A couple of toys arrived today, an Arduino Duemilanove, and a Blinkm RGB LED module. These should keep me happily tinkering. I'm hoping the Atmel processor will have a bit more grunt than I'm used to from PICs and vaguely sensible amounts of RAM so I'll be able to do what I want with servo control.
I'm wondering about ordering a RBBB kit for breadboarding, and their USB/Serial module, though it would be cheaper to buy a few. Anyone here interested? I suppose I could ebay the ones I don't use...
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March 20th, 2009
05:48 pm - Copy claws
Kibble's been losing claws over the years, so I've been looking to replace them for a while. The cost of shipping makes buying replacements from the US unattractive. A month or so back I was in London for a meeting, and dropped in at Tiranti's on the way back for some RTV silicon rubber and resin.
While in the shop I saw they had powdered brass that could be added to the resin. Well, I had to try that (what with out Victorian theme) and here's the first try. Needs more brass filler though. I also need to fix the polishing wheel onto the bench grinder to finish it off, this first just polished with Autosol.
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February 28th, 2009
01:11 pm - Disinfected
Seems I'd picked up a new version of a virus Symantec identifies as "W32.Pykspa.D" which it can't currently (Virus defn 27/04/2009 rev 4) remove (though it claims to). Here's how I got rid of it (it hasn't come back yet):
1. Boot into Safe Mode (f8 during boot)
2. From c:\Windows\System32 delete:
cleanlb.exe
inetsrc.exe
tcontrl.exe
updtic.exe
~.exe
All of those have an MD5 sum of e429a890e45eee1f03e0514b3ce97e6f
3. Start the registry editor (run regedit.exe)
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run remove the key/value
Tc Object Control = tcontrl.exe
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce remove the key/value
Install Cleanup = cleanlb.exe
4. Reboot
Symantec and elsewhere suggests this spreads by Skype, but I'm not convinced. However, if you are on my Skype contact list, please check you are not infected.
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February 27th, 2009
11:39 pm - Infected
Seem to have picked up a worm that supposedly spreads by skype. So, if you receive any asinine IMs from me over the next couple of days, please ignore and definitely don't click on any links. Disinfection is taking place, but it seems to be a persistent new variant ...
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February 16th, 2009
03:15 pm - VirtualBox
There's something rather odd about watching the Windows XP installer running in a window on the OpenSolaris box I've just built. I'm used to seeing VMWare versions of Windows on a Windows host, and seeing X11, ssh, and zones do their thing between different Unix hosts, but this is slightly alien.
Of course it would be nice if Apple could get their heads out of the sand and make OS X virtualisable before someone else does it for them.
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February 13th, 2009
February 1st, 2009
10:43 pm - Google, No!
That's the first time I've ever had to add "-ponygirls" to a web search for glue, or any web search for that matter. Admittedly it's a fairly specialised adhesive and perhaps I can understand, now perhaps, why Loctite only refer to it by it's number 4105, rather than the old name of "Black Tak" (or as I first entered "Tack" - it being some 20+ years since I've last used any and couldn't remember who made it let alone the precise spelling).
So what does happen to old ponygirls when they go off their feed? Does the knackerman get called? Are they carted off to the glue factory to be rendered down? Maybe that's where this rubber-loaded cyanoacrylate comes from? "Withstands impact shocks, cleavage loads and ..."
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January 29th, 2009
08:09 am - San Mateo or ... Newcastle?
One of the things I'd really like to do is go to the Maker Faire in the Bay Area. It's something I'm sure I'd enjoy, and the Bay is the cultural home of such things. The web site has been updated, and tickets are on sale. However, these are uncertain times, and the poor exchange rate has really put a damper on any state side shopping spree.
But wait, what is this? Maker Faire, Newcastle, UK
14-15 March 2009 - nearer, cheaper, sooner. The first in .uk. I must go...
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January 27th, 2009
06:56 pm - Inevitable really
The Red Ring Of Death has visited my 360. The support website for submitting repairs fails with an error page. At least the call centre staff were helpful.
It's days like this when I'm thankful for thinks that work properly:
dave: uptime
6:56pm up 631 day(s), 1:23, 2 users, load average: 0.34, 0.36, 0.36
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04:36 pm - Kinda obvious really
Don't put used drill bits in your trouser pockets - the ends may still be warm. Corned beef isn't really a good pizza topping.
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January 6th, 2009
05:55 pm - Some days we fix clocks, some days we move offices
So, since Christmas I've been kind of busy. One of the two "real" clocks we keep running in the house stopped running because the chime mechanism had got into a funny state and was preventing the hour hand from advancing. Adjusted the position of the rack tail (angle between pair of levers top right), lubricated things, and all is well.
Most of the rest of the time has been spent moving Ailsa's business from one room to a smaller one in the managed offices. This involved what amounted to making a room sized wiring harness out of cat5, mains cable, and string (having run out of proper lacing cord) as the place isn't really set up for structured wiring. Yet another "old time" skill put to good use. Much crawling about under desks followed.
And I had to buy another reel of cat5.
And as soon as the job was finished I found the last new reel I'd bought. You were right 'dog.
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December 30th, 2008
12:57 pm - Christmas digest
I've hardly touched a keyboard in the last couple of weeks, which is probably a good thing. So, I hope you've all had a good holiday break, and here's a digest of the last few weeks:
Had a cyst removed from my chest. Put decs up. Saw Derek Jacobi on Twelfth Night, and will never be able to hear "and some have greatness thrust upon them" in the same way (you're furries, you do the math). Bought way too much food for the Christmas siege. Had a quiet Christmas day, but cooked the full on meal (no sprouts, but with Yorkshire puds). Ailsa full of cold. Large horde of chocolate. Dinner party for six on the 27th. Stitches out (today).
Will be at home for new year's (no Brumcon for me), so Happy New Year to you all.
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December 16th, 2008
10:01 am - 20 years on, but a little late
Back at the end of '87 and the start of '88 I spent several months in Minneapolis at VTC's design lab working on this thing with a Mancunian guy called Paul Dixon, and a number of VTC staff. It included some asynchronous logic which (predictably) would prove problematic, as would the custom IO cells which had to still sink 48mA when the ambient temperature reached 125 celcius (which meant they could handle several hundred milliamps at room temp, and silly currents at -55).
Over these and subsequent visits, I'd get to experience the twin cities two seasons: winter (snow!), and roadworks (not so good). See the natives walk around in t-shirts when the temperature rose above freezing, try roller blading (and end up in the back of a pickup), giggle at the church of St. Olaf, get a 19" 9U rack stuck in the airport's luggage handling system, and see the Timberwolves' mascot Crunch in their inaugural season (in the strange stadium with the inflatable roof).
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December 11th, 2008
09:58 am - One for the wolves, one for the transgendered
Yesterday's Midweek:
Mark Rowlands is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami. In his book The Philosopher and the Wolf he charts the relationship between himself and Brenin, his wolf, who went everywhere with him, even to his lectures, where he lay in the corner of the hall and dozed. The Philosopher and the Wolf is published by Granta.
More on this book from the Telegraph web site.
Kate Craig-Wood set up the company Memset which is now one of the UK’s leading web and IT hosting providers. She is the winner of the NatWest everywoman Award in the Demeter category (sponsored by IBM), for the most inspiring entrepreneur aged between 26 and 35. She has overcome personal hurdles having undergone a gender reassignment in 2005, which involved numerous operations, whilst still successfully running the business.
Listen again.
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dingotush's journal
