Living Computer Museum Grand Opening

/

I'm impressed that people could actually use these lights to understand what the machine was doing 

Another favourite place of mine. The Living Computer Museum in Seattle has a fantastic collection of computers, both large and small, going back to the days of valves. And, as the name implies, many of them are working machines, including some mainframes. 

I first went there a year ago, and I really wanted to go back again. So we did. They were having a grand opening of some new exhibits, and it was awesome. They now have robots, cubelets, embedded stuff, they have a full size computer controlled car and of course all the computers that I know and love. If you are in Seattle you really, really should visit. I'd go every week. 

This is what I learned to program on. No. Really.

Boeing Factory Tour

/

Apparently Disneyland would fit in here

A major holiday highlight today. We went to see airplanes  being made on the Boeing Factory Tour.  Most impressive. All the numbers are big. From the size of the plant to the price of the product (at least 200 million dollars). On the factory floor we saw five planes in different stages of construction. That's a billion dollars, right there. And they are making up to forty of these in a month in one plant. 

Within the constraints of the business (they've got a lot of planes to make) the tour was excellent. We weren't allowed to take cameras into the factory (shame) but we did get a feel for just what they do there. Highly recommended. 

Flying Icelandic

/

They have the Northern Lights built into their planes

I've not used Icelandic Air before. But I will again. First up, their flights to Seattle are a bit shorter, since they fly further over the poles. And they found me legroom seats, which was very nice, But the most important thing to be aware of if you fly Icelandic is that there are no free meals and only free soft drinks. I don't actually have a problem with this. It does mean that I get the food that I want and that my brain is not strained deciding between "Chicken or Pasta".

 

An Idiot on eBay

/

Can you work out what's in these two packages? Neither can I. 

I've been raising funds for the purchase of a Playstation VR (of which more later). Part of this involved selling some computers that I deemed surplus to requirements. So I took lots of pictures and, being a clever person, I boxed the computers before advertising them. Good plan.

Then I sent the wrong box to one of my customers. Less good plan.

It just goes to show that my capacity for stupidity is expanding all the time. As I taped them up I reflected on whether or not I should label each box so that I would know what is in it. I thought there'd be no way I could make a mistake, which of course is the reason why I did. 

Fortunately my customers are being understanding and it should all be sorted soon.

Broken Wire Bonding

/

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

/

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

/

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

/

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

/

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

/

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

/

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.