Press Reviews and Colds

I don't mind having a cold. It's the getting of it I don't like. For me there is a stage where your body knows that something is wrong and is trying to work out what is going on. Then the throat and the nose kick in to make it clear what is happening. But for me this is a good thing, it means that I can begin the process of getting better. 

Yesterday I was in stage one. Today I'm in stage 2. Of course, life being that it is, today was also when I had to go into town first thing to do a paper review thingy with Radio Humberside. It was great fun, and this time the picture that I took with the fat lens actually came out. 

Birthday Fun, Gadgets and Furniture

Had a great birthday. Got some gadgets, had nice food. Even found time to buy a bunch of furniture. So busy having a good time that I didn't get around to taking any photographs. 

Which has got to be a good thing. 

Thanks to everyone who sent me their best wishes. Much appreciated. 

Hymers School Summer Students Visit

We had some visitors today all the way from China. They are summer school students who are visiting Hymers College in Hull.  I did a talk about developing for the Arduino which was great fun (at least I enjoyed it) even though I managed to break one of my props half way through the session.

Thanks for coming folks, and I hope you enjoyed your visit to the university.

Back from our Holidays

Well, that's it for our US trip. We are now back in the UK and wondering what happened to the last three weeks. 

Because this blog has as much regard for the proper order of things as a typical episode of Dr.  Who I'll be posting items from the past as I work my way through the pictures that I've taken, while updating on a day to day basis as well.

Open Day

We had a great open day today. The weather was wonderful and both audiences were great.

I took a bunch of pictures and I'm quite pleased with the way that they turned out.

International Driving Permit - Most Unimpressive

We're heading off on our holidays over the weekend, and in a change of style, I've hired a car. This is because one of the stops is Los Angeles, and apparently you can't get anywhere without wheels in that part of the world.

The travel guides reckon that an International Driving Permit is a useful thing to have in this situation, and since my driving licence is made of paper, very old and falling apart (in other words it has two things in common with me) I sent off for one to bolster my credentials behind the wheel. 

It arrived earlier this week. It is a paper document with a colour picture of me stuck inside. I reckon you could produce a reasonable facsimile of it with a colour printer and maybe ten minutes of effort.

I just hope the relevant authorities are more impressed with it than I am.  

Wardrobe Humour

When I was in the cub scouts, many years ago, we went camping. One of the challenges we had to complete was to "make a fire out of doors".

I've just taken a bunch of wardrobes to bits (with a lot of help from Ian) and I reckon I could do this really easily now.

Campus Sign Humour

We're having some work done on campus. I found this sign on one of the sites. I'm not sure if they are being funny or just wrong....

Old Typing Technology

This is my typewriter. I found it while preparing for some renovations chez Miles. I bought it when I was a student. I got it one summer and then taught myself to type using a book I borrowed from the local library. One of the best moves I ever made when I was younger.

It still works and I'm keeping it for when computers go out of fashion.....

An Unbelievable Gas Bill

I'm not sure what a naughty hacker could do with my gas meter number, but I'm taking no chances....

I got this thing through from the Gas Company asking me to read my meter. They keep sending meter readers round during working hours and finding that I'm not at home.

Who'd have thought?  It's almost as if I had a job that kept me out of the house during the week.

---

Anyhoo, I went into the garage and took a snap of the device.  I then copied the numbers into the web page and was promptly told that my numbers were unbelievable. There are two possible ways to interpret this:

• Our gas use has been so high that I've "wrapped round" the meter.
• Our gas use has been lower than expected because last year I bought a Nest heating controller. 

I really hope it is the latter.

eBay refunds in actually works shock horror

Campus looking good today

Some time back I bought something on eBay. It never arrived. I heard nothing. Very sad. I wore black for a few days.  As you do.

It wasn't a hugely expensive item, but it was irritating nonetheless. So I took up the matter using the eBay resolution centre. And the great news is that after pressing a bunch of buttons the eBay judgement computer (or whatever they use) has decided to give me my money back. Which is nice.

Just say No to Dragon City

Just a note to all those people on Facebook who think I might like to have a go at Dragon City.

No thanks. It doesn't sound very nice to be honest, and I'm pretty sure that it will be almost impossible to get fire insurance there. 

I am not always me

You know those scary moments that you have every now and then, when the world seems to wobble slightly on its axis and you fret that horrible things are happening that you are only just becoming aware of? 

Well, just had one of those. On Tuesday, just as I was limbering up to do my talk at the Institute of Physics, I got an email from booking.com congratulating me for making a booking I hadn't made. Oh dear.

I'm not that happy with Booking.com to be honest. Last year I used them to book a few days in a Swansea guest house. It was very nice and all, but the company is now convinced that Swansea is the only place I want to go in the world, and keep sending me what they think are enticing offers to stay in the area again. And they keep telling me that "I've unlocked another discount". I haven't. I've just not used the company for a while. And it is likely to stay that way.

Unlike someone with a similar name to mine, who has just made a booking using my email address. I got the "click here to confirm it is you" message (which conspicuously lacks anywhere you can click to confirm it isn't you). I sent an email off to customer support and got nothing back. Except more emails about few places that my namesake might like to visit. Near Swansea as it turns out.

I've just got an email from booking.com addressed to my namesake, asking me to rate my recent interaction with a customer support person. Oh well. That has to count as progress I suppose.

Eye Test

Coming soon to a face near me...

So, I went for an eye test yesterday. Cue all the eye test jokes.

"Tell me sir, have your eyes ever been checked?"
"No, they've always been blue."

"Can you see that eye-test on the wall?"
"What wall?"

etc etc

Anyhoo, I was pleased to find out that my eyes haven't changed that much since last time. I've had my present specs for quite a few years. A year and a half ago a bit fell off and I made a "temporary" repair using heat shrink tubing that has been a bit less temporary than I intended.

This time I've just gone for a single pair of glasses. No messing around with "two for one" deals. Experiments have shown that I can't wear two pairs of glasses at the same time, and that I'll probably lose the second pair anyway. They should arrive in a couple of weeks. Rather excited.

No more SatNav

We drove down to Bristol today. We've now got a policy of not using the SatNav on journeys like this. 

Experience has shown that all it does is make you unhappy by warning you of traffic disruptions that you can't do anything about. I'd much rather sail along in blissful ignorance of the enormous tailback waiting just around the corner. And the alternative route is quite often a lot less pleasant than sitting in a stationary car for a while.

Humber Bridge Cross

We did our Humber Bridge cross for Christian Aid today. We've been doing these for ages. The very first one we did was so long ago it involved a push-chair...

The weather forecast was not great, so we were fully decked out in waterproof everything, but in the end it was just a bit windy, but with some lovely clouds. I took the camera with the fat lens, which made for some interesting pictures..

Recognition Failure at Skidby Mill

Went out for lunch today at Skidby Mill. Very nice. Thought I recognised someone I knew, but lacked the confidence in my identification to go over and say hello. Oh well, sorry Emily. I think it is time I got some new glasses. 

Springing a Leak

I hate water. I'd rather wire up a hundred mains plugs than do anything involving plumbing. Well, perhaps not a hundred. But certainly lots. Today I thought I'd to something simple involving pipework. And of course it all went wrong. After all, it does involve water. Hate the stuff. Have I mentioned this?

We have this fancy water filter thing under the sink and I figured it might be a good idea to replace the filter cartridge. Well, it has been a few years. So I carefully researched the item, bought a couple (in case I break one fitting it) and then successfully made the swap. In five minutes.

I was very impressed with me, as was number one wife. That was, until a puddle appeared under the sink. Turns out that the filter replacing shenanigans  had caused a completely different part of the plumbing to start leaking. I can only think that I must have dislodged something hair-triggered under there. I've tightened things and bent them into a position where I think the leakage has stopped, but I'm now researching replacement bits and bobs to fix the problem properly.

Some time ago I bought a flood alarm from Maplin. This is a little circuit that you can put under your sink and it will sound the alarm if it detects water that shouldn't be there. I got it because we had a rather unpleasant homecoming a while back involving a flooded kitchen. I never got around to fitting it though. I worked out that the only real difference it would make would be to change "coming home to a flooded kitchen" into "coming home to a flooded kitchen and an unpleasant buzzing noise".

I'm now researching Raspberry Pi powered solutions which would mean that in the event of a leak I could receive an email which says "You are going to come home to a flooded kitchen...", which might be an improvement I suppose.

You know you're making progress when you start a scrap folder

I'm doing some writing at the moment. V. exciting. I've spent some time playing with ideas and I've got something that I'm almost happy with. And one consequence of this is that I've opened a "scrap" folder for the project.  Turns out I never feel I'm making progress until I've started throwing things away. 

It might just be me, but my first attempt at something complicated is not usually much good. It's only when I've tried a few things and thrown them away that I feel I'm getting anywhere.

My scrap folder is a big part of this because one of my golden rules about working is that I never really throw anything away. Instead I create a scrap folder and throw it in there. Two reasons for this. The first is that these days I don't think anyone is ever really short of disk space, so deleting things is not necessary. The second reason is that it might be that my "better" idea is actually a worse one, and I need a way back to where I was.

I could use source code control for this I suppose, but since the work is really a collection of documents and bits and bobs it feels a bit like overkill. So I just make a folder called scrap and drop things in there when I don't think I need them any more.

On the vexed question of ironing board heights....

Went up town today and bought an ironing board that can be adjusted to a height that makes it quite comfortable for me to use. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing to be honest...