Thursday, 22 December 2016
Friday, 29 July 2016
Friday, 24 June 2016
A Dark Day
A toss of a coin....
It begins.
It begins.
 |
Master Snickup's Cloak by Alexander Theroux illustrated by Brian Froud
Sunday, 7 February 2016
My Chinese New Year Playlist
To herald The Year of the Monkey, here’s a bunch of monkey songs. Not just any old monkey songs from a random trawl of The Welkin Reticulum.
>>> Just songs from my collection that I like.<<<
Enjoy!
>>> Just songs from my collection that I like.<<<
Enjoy!
Saturday, 6 February 2016
Following The Connections
The Italian Chapel
I had a hankering to listen to Inge Thomson the other day so I played her album Shipwrecks and Static on the iChoons. Wondering if she had anything new I had a look on her website. Sure enough there was a new album Da Fishing Hands which I promptly bought.Shipwrecks and Static is a collection of idiosyncratic songs with a home studio feel, whereas Da Fishing Hands sounds much more produced and commercial. Both albums are full of what I want from music, made by people who care deeply about music, words, feelings and the world we share. There seemed to be a cohesive message contained in Da Fishing Hands so, I cast my query into The Welkin Reticulum [1] and found this short film by Andy Crabb which explains all and more.
Da Fishing Hands from Andy Crabb on Vimeo.
I noticed that he’s also made a video of Karine Polwart singing Hamish Henderson’s song Freedom Come All Ye, which has become the unofficial Scottish national anthem - although Hamish Henderson said he would rather it be an international anthem.
I don’t know that I have any Scottish blood in me but this song always stirs me up and Karine Polwart [2] singing it makes it doubly potent.
Click the following link
"Freedom Come All Ye" performed by Karine Polwart in The Italian Chapel, Orkney August 2013. from Andy Crabb on Vimeo.
Read the explanation below the video viewer (click Read more… on the left) for an incredible story of Italian prisoners of war who built a thing of unbelievable beauty, on a tiny island near Orkney, during a time of hardship and conflict and brought two communities together for several generations.
All because I wanted to listen to Inge Thompson and followed a few connections, I learned so much and discovered something wonderful.
-
My daft term for the internet (literally SkyNet but we’re not there yet - thankfully).>
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Karine Polwart is an inspiration. I love her music, her voice and what she does in the World. Where you find Karine Polwart performing you’ll often find Inge Thomson too.
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Arduino - Temperature and Time
Yesterday I soldered up the Real Time Clock for the Arduino project .
A Real Time Clock is just a digital clock without a display.
What's the point of that Awa Rich?
There's one in every computer, that's how it knows what time it is even when you switch it off. There's a battery that keeps the clock ticking.
I thot the innernet did that Awa Rich.
Nope, most computers set their internal clocks by getting a reference time from the internet, but they still need to know what time it is even when there's no internet connection. When you save a document it gets a time and date stamp from the computer's Real Time Clock.
The clock came as a bag-o-bits. Assembly was not a complex task as the circuit board was the size of a postage stamp (remember them?) and there were only 7 components. It was rather a fiddly job as the circuit board was so small and it kept moving around.
I plugged it into a spare breadboard, loaded up the example code and fired it up. It worked! So, the next step was to add it to the digital thermometer I built previously and modify the code so It would display the time on the Liquid Crystal Display rather than the computer screen.
There were a few problems getting the time to display in the correct format but I got there in the end. That's what programming is all about. Working out how to get the result you want, not quite getting there and figuring out what you have to change. Iterative improvements, slowly creeping up on your prey, solving problems and trying different strategies based on the information you got from the results.
Better than doing SuDoKu Awa Rich!
A project like this requires a lot of juggling as you need to know about the physical components, not only how to connect them together but also how to communicate with them. They all have their own peculiar requirements and idiosyncrasies.
Just like Peeps Awa Rich!
You need data sheets many and lots of tabs open in your browser.
I've heard Peeps say that about you Awa Rich - "That lad's got too many tabs open in his browser!"
I think you made that one up HurdyGurdy Dude!
Aynho, I got the thing working but it was a bit of a mess with wires everywhere and two breadboard connected together. So I ripped it all apart and rebuilt it on the one breadboard.
Where's the bread Awa Rich?
A breadboard is a thing for building temporary prototype circuits on, without having to solder bits together - you just plug and unplug components, move and replace them as you need to.
Once upon a time someone banged nails into a wooden breadboard, strung wires between them and soldered on components to test a circuit. The name stuck. That's how I built my first electronic circuits.
Here's the Arduino with Real Time Clock, temperature sensor and liquid crystal display.
Now that I have all the controller circuitry up and running I need to write some code that lets you set the cooking temperature and cooking time.
Marie said that some people might think it's a bomb.
Some Peeps watch too much TellyBox and read too many Noozepaypers Awa Rich! Aynho, Everyone know that barms have curly wyrs. That has streyt wyrs so it can't be a barm. Wunt take it through airport security tho Awa Rich!
Stay tuned...
A Real Time Clock is just a digital clock without a display.
What's the point of that Awa Rich?
There's one in every computer, that's how it knows what time it is even when you switch it off. There's a battery that keeps the clock ticking.
I thot the innernet did that Awa Rich.
Nope, most computers set their internal clocks by getting a reference time from the internet, but they still need to know what time it is even when there's no internet connection. When you save a document it gets a time and date stamp from the computer's Real Time Clock.
The clock came as a bag-o-bits. Assembly was not a complex task as the circuit board was the size of a postage stamp (remember them?) and there were only 7 components. It was rather a fiddly job as the circuit board was so small and it kept moving around.
Image from Oomlout who supplied the parts
I plugged it into a spare breadboard, loaded up the example code and fired it up. It worked! So, the next step was to add it to the digital thermometer I built previously and modify the code so It would display the time on the Liquid Crystal Display rather than the computer screen.
There were a few problems getting the time to display in the correct format but I got there in the end. That's what programming is all about. Working out how to get the result you want, not quite getting there and figuring out what you have to change. Iterative improvements, slowly creeping up on your prey, solving problems and trying different strategies based on the information you got from the results.
Better than doing SuDoKu Awa Rich!
A project like this requires a lot of juggling as you need to know about the physical components, not only how to connect them together but also how to communicate with them. They all have their own peculiar requirements and idiosyncrasies.
Just like Peeps Awa Rich!
You need data sheets many and lots of tabs open in your browser.
I've heard Peeps say that about you Awa Rich - "That lad's got too many tabs open in his browser!"
I think you made that one up HurdyGurdy Dude!
Aynho, I got the thing working but it was a bit of a mess with wires everywhere and two breadboard connected together. So I ripped it all apart and rebuilt it on the one breadboard.
Where's the bread Awa Rich?
A breadboard is a thing for building temporary prototype circuits on, without having to solder bits together - you just plug and unplug components, move and replace them as you need to.
Once upon a time someone banged nails into a wooden breadboard, strung wires between them and soldered on components to test a circuit. The name stuck. That's how I built my first electronic circuits.
Here's the Arduino with Real Time Clock, temperature sensor and liquid crystal display.
Marie said that some people might think it's a bomb.
Some Peeps watch too much TellyBox and read too many Noozepaypers Awa Rich! Aynho, Everyone know that barms have curly wyrs. That has streyt wyrs so it can't be a barm. Wunt take it through airport security tho Awa Rich!
Stay tuned...
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