Broken Wire Bonding

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Thanks to number one son for the picture

Nothing like a bit of father/son bonding over a soldering iron (in my case not  a very good iron). 

Number one son drove up to see us this weekend and on the journey discovered that the remote lock for his car tailgate didn't work any more. A quick search of the interwebs suggested that the cause might be a broken wire. Indeed. And it turns out that the rear wiper on our car had broken for what was probably the same reason. 

So, what with it being a nice day and all, we went outside and peeled back a couple of rubber boots. As it were. Turns out we were both right. In my case doubly so as two wires had snapped. So we passed the soldering iron back and forth rather like a pipe of peace as we made good the damage. 

I find it really surprising that the wire can fail like this, and that car manufacturers are happy for it to happen. After all, we haven't actually spent days on end opening and closing the tailgates of our cars, these have broken after fairly light use. Oh well, as long as they last through the warranty, I guess that is what counts here....

Old Tapes and Tidy Code

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Did some tidying up today. The experience with my office has taught me a valuable lesson. 

"If you don't know you've got something, you might as well not have it"

I've been looking for things I didn't know I had, and then chucking them out. It's going quite well, what with two trips to the tip so far. 

This is one thing that I definitely know I have, and so I'll be keeping forever. It's my prized Sony TC-270 tape recorder. It might not look much, but thanks to its snap on speakers and ability to play music for several hours non stop (and quite loudly) it made me, if not a god amongst men, at least someone who could get the party started in my younger days. 

Apparently it was made at a time when all silicon transistors was something to brag about. It contains about twenty or so. 

Update: Done some digging. Just 18 transistors and 4 diodes. Your phone probably has several million. And they're silicon too.  

Hull Scooterists

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There were some scooters down at the Hull Marina today. The Hull Scooterists were heading off on a charity run and they'd gathered in the sunshine before setting off. Some of the scooters were awesome. I took some pictures and of course the shot I really wanted to get came out blurred.

Note to self. Just because it looks sharp on the camera screen doesn't mean that it is actually sharp. 

But these lights came out OK. 

In one era and out the other

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Well, that's it. My office is eerily empty. I've filled around thirty bags with rubbish and I've handed my keys in. Technically I'm still on the payroll of the university until the end of the month, but I'm not really working here any more. It's been very strange to watch the people around me planning for a whole bunch of things that I'm not going to be part of. 

I'm going to miss so many things about the university, particularly the staff in Computer Science and our amazing students, but I've got one or two silly plans (some of them involving cheese) and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when I start with them.

Of course I'll still be blogging. And maybe even the odd podcast and other things. The new C# Yellow Book will be out next week (apologies for the delay, it's been a busy week) and I've got some other ideas in the pipeline. It's going to be rather liberating to be able to spend time on stuff that I find interesting, and you can be sure that I'll be writing all about it. 

Leaving Do

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Click through for the full 360 degree experience....

We had my "leaving do" today. Organised by Helen with her customary efficiency and good humour. There was tea. And cake. And great people. I been working at the University of Hull. But the folks I've been working with are what has made it worth sticking around for 38 years. 

They are all awesome. I made this point as I said thanks to everyone for my lovely leaving gifts (posh pens, a silver photo frame and a lump of credit to spend on gadgets at Amazon. They know me well...

Some things in life I worry about. But as long as we have such a wonderful bunch of folks who care about what they are doing, the future of Computer Science in Hull is in great hands. 

Reboot in The Conversation

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I really like The Conversation. It's driven by content produced by academics from around the world and it provides a good read on a huge variety of subjects. Occasionally they ask me to write bits and bobs for them. I've just written something about what happens when you reboot your computer, and why you have to do it. You can find the text here. 

If you want to hear me talking about reboots, and telling one of my favourite jokes in all the world, you can find me on the Conversation Anthill podcast here. 

And, just to prove that I'm a complete media mogul, you can find a printed version of the article in the i newspaper today too. 

Of Smoke Alarms and Amazon Reviews

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Smoke alarm with free advice to would-be artists

During recent household decorating shenanigans we lost our Smoke Alarm. So I bought a replacement, what with not wanting to wake up dead one night. The new smoke alarm is probably very good at detecting fire. It's definitely very good at detecting steam. It went nuts after I'd had my shower, much to my annoyance. It's in exactly the same spot as its predecessor, which was no problem at all. 

A quick search of the Amazon reviews found that yes, this model is known for steam powered false alarms. Incidentally, the reviews for smoke alarms were an interesting read.  There were lots of reviews mentioning how small and neat the alarms were, how quickly they were delivered, but hardly any along the lines of "If it hadn't gone off that night when the bread maker started to smoulder we'd all have died in our beds...."

However, the good news is that a proper search of the area turned up the original (and a lot newer looking than I remember) alarm which has been fitted with batteries and is now working a treat. At least I think it is. 

Cosmic Catch and Coup at Simon's

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If I'd kept it in the package it might be worth a fortune. But then I wouldn't have had a chance to play with it.....

Simon was kind enough to invite us round to a BBQ at his house today. We played Cosmic Catch and Coup. I bought a Cosmic Catch ball quite a while back. It's a bit hard to get hold of now. The ball comes with six coloured tags that players wear on their hands. Then you can play games which involve the ball telling you which way to throw it next. Great fun. After a few go's at that, and some great BBQ food for me the action switched to indoors and some very intense games of Coup.

Coup is awesome. The great thing about Coup is that it doesn't matter what cards you have. The only thing that really matters is what you say they are. Although actually for me it did matter a few times, so I ended up beaten in every game. But number one wife, who started the game with the happy advantage that nobody thought she would claim to have cards she didn't, manage to win twice. 

Many thanks to Simon and his family for organising such a lovely event. 

Beamish is Wonderful

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We'd never been to Beamish before. People had told us that it's great. Turns out they were wrong. 

It's awesome. 

It's history meets Disney in a wonderful way. Think of something on the scale of a theme park, but with a strong historical strand running all the way through. It has themed areas, rapid transit all around and helpful and enthusiastic staff everywhere. Plus you learn stuff. 

We didn't quite see it at its best, what with the weather and all, but we saw enough to make us want to go back there. 

Thanks for the Trombone Tom

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I've no idea who Tom is. But he has been reading my blog from 12 years ago. He noticed my lament that I'd failed to find any hits for the search "trombone playing dog" and responded with a link.  Thanks for that. Made my day. 

In fact, things have really moved on. I've just done my own search for "trombone playing dog" and found loads of hits. Such is progress. All we need now is world peace and a cure for cancer.

Birthday Moth Hunt

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Saturday, and it's my birthday. And I'm up town with an unfamiliar lens. It happens. 

Anhyoo, the weather is rather nice and I decide to seek out a few moths. The "Moth for Amy" art initiative celebrates Hull lass Amy Johnson who flew a Gypsy Moth plane all the way to Australia, the first female to do this.

There are lots of moths scattered around the Hull area, including a "Stealth Moth" almost directly underneath my office window at the university campus. I've no idea which moth this is to be honest, but it looks lovely. And it was a nice test for my lens. 

Here's another one.  What with the photography, the cake and the presents I had a rather awesome day. Which was very nice. 

Light Musings

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So, I'm having lunch in the library cafe at the university (a most excellent place) and I happen to glance at the ceiling. And it confuses me. I looked at the arrangement of the lights and it seems that the person laying the black trunking to the light fittings has done things in a sub-optimal way. It seems to me that if the "cross piece" was one section further to the right, the wiring could have been a bit shorter and there would have been no need for the connections running across to the near and the far lights. 

If you see what I mean. 

Anyhoo, I pondered this for a while and came up with two possible explanations:

  • the fittings were originally put in the wrong place and then fixed.
  • Somebody decided that it was artistically more valid if there was a "fork" of cables. 

Personally, I really hope its the "artistically valid" explanation.