Underwater Magic

The University of Hull is one of the partners in the Venus Project. The aim of the work is to preserve underwater archeological  sites by making a completely accurate record of them, and provide a realistic visualisation of what they are actually like to visit. Paul Chapman from the department is giving a presentation of the system later this week, and as a taster he set it up in our visualisation suite and let us have a go on it.

Darren navigates the submersible to the site while Paul watches.

The system provides an eerily accurate version of the view that you would get from a submersible craft if you explored the sites yourself. You can move around just as you would in the submarine, and all artifacts are there just as when they were discovered.

Fantastic stuff.

Rob in the News

Earlier this year I was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) status for another year. I was really pleased about this and the university seems quite pleased too. They even wrote a little story about it and the our Imagine Cup success over the years, with a specially taken scary photo of me in my "pyjama shirt". You can find out more, and marvel at the picture, here.

All By Myself?

Just watched the end of "Last Choir Standing", a BBC music contest thing where the title pretty much sums it up, although they had to sing against each other rather than a potentially more interesting mass brawl.

Anyway, I just can't get my head around the concept of a load of blokes stood together singing "All By Myself". Just doesn't seem right somehow.

And the best choir came third, which is even worse in my book.

Dice Problem

Can you spot the problem?

I bought these dice ages ago, with the intention of taking 'Vegas by storm. One of them is loaded and one of them is not. Sneaky. Only difficultly is that the package doesn't tell me which is the loaded one.

Any ideas for tests I can perform to be absolutely sure which is the loaded die?

Go to Jacob's Cameras in Hull

 Had a really good customer experience today. I wasn't expecting it, but I am very impressed. I had a problem with my little Fuji FinePix camera and I took it into Hull to see what the place I had bought it from would do for me. Turned out that they did quite a lot. Suffice it to say that they fixed me up completely, and they didn't really have to.

If you are thinking of getting a camera I can strongly recommend this shop, in the Prospect Centre in Hull. Their prices are very keen and their service is excellent.

A Three Act Play Involving Water

Act One: "That Looks Shiny"

In which our hero visits the garage to fetch his gardening gloves and wonders why all the wood leaning against the garage wall appears to be strangely shiny. Almost as if it was covered in water. Which it was.

Act Two: "Search for the Source"

In which our hero learns the joys of bath dismantling and the use of a "Really Nice Hammer" (borrowed from next door) to take up floorboards. Finally resolved when the cold water pipe feeding the bath taps is found to be leaking.

Act Thee: (yet to be completed)

In which, with a bit of luck, a plumber can be made to appear and replace the leaky bit of pipe (how can copper just, like, get a hole in it?) and order, and the side of the bath, be re-established.

Lessons learnt from this narrative:

1. The leak is never where you think it is.
2. There is always more water than you think.
3. When catching drips  in a cup, put a little bit of water in first so you can hear the water splash to indicate it is in the right place. Oh, and make sure that when the cup is full you can actually lift it out, otherwise you have changed the nature of the problem, but not actually solved anything.
4. No weekend for Rob would seem to be complete without a spot of light plumbing.

Carry on Cleo

Watched a carry on film this afternoon. The Carry On team took on the Anthony and Cleopatra tale. It has one of the best lines of all time:

Caesar: (being pursued by an angry mob) "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me.."

Wonderful.

The Distrustfulness of Old Age

This morning number one wife mentioned that she thought the dishwasher was leaking. The basis of her argument was that the carpet underneath it was wet. This premise was to me far too flimsy. There were lots of other reasons why the carpet might be wet, and so I took upon myself to investigate all of them first.

So, having dismantled the plumbing outside the house and run several tests on the washing machine I was able to conclude, to my satisfaction, that the dishwasher was indeed leaking.

I'm left wondering if as you get older you just assume that things people tell you are wrong, or whether this is something that I've been arrogantly doing all through my life.

The only good news was that the repair, cleaning the door seal, was actually very easy.

The Life of the Solitary Writer

For the last few days I've been working at home on some XNA stuff. The idea was that I'd get a lot done by shutting myself away with no distractions. Apparently J.K. Rowling managed to finish writing the last Harry Potter novel by locking herself in a hotel room with a word processor and not coming out until it was finished. I can't afford a hotel, so I'm all alone at home trying to do something similar.

It did not go too well to be honest. It is unbelievable the number of different things that you suddenly find to do when you have to do some writing. Particularly at home, where there is always something to tidy up, put into alphabetical order, move to a different position, or eat.

I actually enjoy the creative process once I get started. I don't think that it is writer's block that I suffer from, more like a torrent of different ideas, each of which has to be kicked in our out of the project and then shuffled into its proper place. And I can tell when I'm near finishing, as I have a strong urge to take the whole thing to bits and start again. I also start to question the very tenets on which the whole thing is based.

I think on that basis I'm just about done....

Purple Palace

We've just had an "away weekend'. Part of this involved being away. At the weekend.

We stayed at the Purple Hotel in Tewksbury. I'm new to Purple hotels. They are springing up around the country (there is even one in Doncaster). They are actually quite nice. Very good prices and a little more too them that places like Travelodges. Breakfast on Sunday was particularly nice. And everyone on the staff seemed keen to make sure that our stay was as pleasant as possible. Recommended.

Moving On

Number one son has left home. He's done it before, during his university career, but each time it was with the expectation that he would come back.

Not so this time.

He has gainful employment, a new place to live and lots of good times to come.

Good luck son, it will not be the same at home without you.

Cool Dad

This morning on the radio they were saying that the best way to see the new Batman film is on the super large IMAX cinema screen.

Like we are doing this evening.

I mentioned to number one son how lucky he is to be able to hang around with me, what with me being a person who does so many cool things.

"Yeah." he replied. "Like opening the fridge door...."

I'm really going to miss him.

Love that Long Tail

When I was younger I used buy single records on 7" plastic. I've got a whole load in a box up in the loft, alongside the turntable that I used to play them on. Occasionally I get one out, look at the tiny wavy groove on it and shake my head in amazement that we actually used to store music that way.

Last week I really fancied hearing one of my old singles again ("Living by Numbers" by New Musik). So I searched out the YouTube video and had a very retro TV experience, even down to the blurred picture and muffled sound we used to get on our telly back in 1982. And then I wondered if I could still buy it. And it turns out I can. Amazon have links with vendors that sell all kinds of old stuff and so earlier this week the CD with the entire album ("From A to B") turned up in the post.  (great album. Starts with a very convincing doorbell sound which actually had us checking the front door......)

This is called "long tail" marketing. There are probably not that many fans of New Musik out there, but there are enough worldwide to make it worth someone keeping a bunch of copies of the disk and sending one out every now and then.

Now I'm looking for some albums by Synergy.....

Whether Forecasts

I've been watching the weather forecasts again. I watch them for one reason really, to find out if it is going to rain on me or not.  This is kind of annoying, in that most of a weather forecast these days is taken up with telling me what weather has already happened in places where I'm not. Usually focusing on conditions in London. However, I have become quite good at decoding what their sayings mean in respect of the question "Will it rain on me?":

"scattered showers": we don't know

"outbreaks of rain in some areas": we don't know

"changeable": we really don't know

"unsettled": we really don't know, and don't rule out hurricanes

I think, actually, that perhaps the best job to have is weather forecaster. You get paid whether you are right or not. And apparently if you just say "The weather today will be the same as yesterday" you are correct more often than not.

Update on 2008-08-07 08:43 by Rob

Number one son has asked me to point out that I really did mean to use the word "Whether" in the title of this post. He is somewhat concerned that readers might think that I'd mis-spelt "Weather", rather than attempting a (in my opinion) rather clever pun.

Last Choir Standing. Fight!

There is something rather surreal about listening to number one son playing Soul Calibur IV over a background of number one wife watching "Last Choir Standing" on TV.

Bogey Wonderland

I've seem to have caught this kind of cold thing which is not very pleasant. I've not got a runny nose as such, but for some reason bogey production seems to have gone into overdrive. That, or I've been subjected to some ancient gypsy curse and the bogey man is coming every night with a hod (or whatever he carries them in) full of bogeys and emptying them into my head.

It's funny because I don't remember offending any ancient gypsies recently. It has done wonders for tissue sales in our area though.

I want to be a Dragon

I've decided what to be should I ever be allowed my time again on this earth. I want to be a dragon on "Dragon's Den".

Until recently I wanted to be a banker, in that no matter how stupid, greedy or idiotic I was my business was "too big to fail" and therefore my job (and large bonuses) would be secure for ever. But it didn't really give the opportunities for creative nastiness and acclaim that being a dragon on Dragon's Den seems to offer.

If you've not seen the program the format is that hapless entrepreneurs are given a chance to pitch their ideas in front of a bunch of rich people (the dragons) who can either enjoy themselves by mercilessly insulting everything in sight or enjoy themselves by backing the idea with some of their (to them) small change and walking away with a substantial profit if things work out.

I used to quite like the program, in that it seemed to me that it did provide a way that genuinely innovative people could get backing for ideas that otherwise might not see the light of day. But that was before it became big television. One of the laws of physics is that you can't measure something without affecting it in some way. TV shows are like that. Once they become popular they become an end in themselves and their original starting point becomes lost in the mist of ratings.

Nowadays the dragons have figured out that anything on the program has the benefit of a five minute prime time advertisement and is therefore worth backing on that basis. Furthermore, the pitchers have also figured out that appearing on the program (regardless of whether or not you actually make anything worthy) gives you a change to get on TV. Last week the only two ideas that got backing were a fairly indifferent rock band and a company which will provide you with a person dressed as a tree for a large fee. And these days only one of the dragons actually seems to be involved in making anything. The others are involved in things like "retail", "services" and "investment".

This week a fashion designer took full advantage of the platform to promote her (to me) sub-Primark dresses and of course one of the dragons jumped in to back her because even if only a few percent of viewers go for the outfits they are on to a winner. And the "as seen on TV Dragon's Den" label will go a long way. And of course they all  had a bit of fun raining on the parades of other's hopes and dreams and competing with themselves for the most offensive bon-mots that they could heap on the hapless punters.

I quite like the idea of being rich, appearing on TV as some kind of demi-god and being given the chance to be as offensive as I like in front of the cameras. So sign me up.

Power Mad

Well, I've gone from no power to two power, thanks to the combined magic of Applecare support and ebay. When my notebook PSU failed on Monday it occurred to me that I didn't want to be in this position again (number one son might not be around to save my bacon next time) and so after I rang in the fault I went onto the ebay and chased down a spare. And it arrived today. Along with the one from Apple.

Of course the next thing to break will be the Macbook itself.....

Update on 2008-07-18 14:18 by Rob

Ha. One of my power supplies has failed already. Good thing I got two....

I hate it when everything works

When everything seems to just work it usually means that the universe is just toying with you, and lining you up for some kind of unpleasantness. My iPhone 3G is still lovely, but a bit less lovely now that I have discovered that I can't get my university Exchange account to work over the O2 3G network.  I'm kind of impressed that that the system can actually manage to tell the difference between the two different network connections, but this is not a good kind of impressed since it means my main reason for having the thing is now not there. As I write this the phone is in the middle of a complete reset (when they say "It may take a couple of hours" they seem to be right on the money) as a prelude to seeing if I can make it work by re-activating it. This is bound to be the thing they would tell me to do if I rang up, so I'm getting my retaliation in early.

And the power supply for the Macbook has just gone "pop" and eaten a couple of fuses, which means half an hour on the phone to the Apple support guy (who was actually very helpful) and the prospect of a replacement one in the post at some time in the future. In the meantime I hope I get this typed and sent before the battery gives out. And of course I need the laptop to re-enable the phone.....

I've gone from everything apparently working at 09:00 am this morning to lots of things broken at 3:00 pm. Wah.

Update on 2008-07-14 15:01 by Rob

Thanks to number one son (who is a "two power supply" kind of guy) I am now back on the air with the Mac. But the iPhone is still resetting....

Mending Headphones with McDonald's Straws

I got some Ultimate Ears headphones a while back. They sound wonderful. However, they have a little problem which has been causing me grief recently. They use an "in ear" design, with a tight fitting plug which goes inside your ear so that all the sound comes your way. Nothing wrong with that, until the plug bit starts to come off and stay in your ear when you try to remove the phones. I think this is caused by the rubber stretching slightly and becoming slack on the fitting. Whatever causes it, I don't like it as it then leaves me picking bits out of my ear canal, which doesn't look very cool.

Anyhoo, I've fixed the problem by the use of some drinking straws from McDonalds. I've put them around the outside of the rubber sleeve that goes over the headphone bit. This stops the sleeve from stretching quite so far, and makes it fit really tightly. I don't think it is the kind of thing you can get the Nobel prize for, but it works for me.

Earpiece with straw power

Oh, and while we are in a McDonalds mood, don't the drink lids look a lot like faces?

Scary face or coffee cup cover? You decide.