Bad Telly

/

Scene 1: A meeting room, a bunch of TV transmitter engineers are sitting round a table. With an accountant.

Engineer 1: 'If we use this form of broadcast antenna we'll have good strong signals all year round.'
Engineer 2: 'Which is what we want. Right?'
Accountant: 'Hmmm. Looks a bit pricey to me. How about this design, which is cheaper.'
Engineer 1: 'Yes, but with that one the signal will drop in the summer.'
Accountant: 'People should be outside rather than watching telly in the summer. Use the cheaper one'

Scene 2: Another meeting room, another bunch of engineers, this time they are the designers of TV input circuits. And of course there is an accountant there too.

Engineer 1: 'If we use this circuit the TV will work, even with low level signals.'
Engineer 2: 'Which is what we want. Right?'
Accountant: 'Yes, but if we take out that amplifier the TV will work for most people, save us some cash in components and we can also make a fortune selling aerial amplifiers.'

And this folks is why every summer televisions in our area stop working....

Waiting for the Ice Cream Machine to Warm Up

/

We went down to the waterfront today. Wonderful weather, cool breeze from the water. A scene that could be made completely perfect by the addition of an ice cream.

We went into the local ice cream parlour. They were just getting going, what with us being there quite early. Anyhoo, the machine wasn't ready for use, and I had this lovely idea that we were waiting for the ice cream machine to warm up. 

All In

/

Well, that's it. I've finished writing all the text for the C# book. I think they call this "all in". It's certainly how I feel just at the moment. It seems to me that writing (and programming) always takes longer that I think it will. Even (or perhaps especially) if I allow for this. 

Anyhoo, the good news is that now I'll have more time for Hull Pixelbot, Lora and, of course, the blog. 

Thwaite Gardens

/

Thwaite Gardens was open today for the afternoon. They had a choir, beautiful gardens, tea, and cakes. It's amazing that a place like this is right in the middle of the Cottingham area. 

The gardens are attached to Thwaite Hall, which until recently was a hall of residence for students from Hull University. It's closed now, and looks very forlorn with all its windows boarded up. 

I really hope that they come up with a way of making proper use of the hall, and that the gardens stay the wonderful place that they are now. 

Bristol 10K

/


When someone says "10K" to me I think of this.

Turns out this is wrong. At least this time. We were in Bristol for the 10K run, which number one son was taking part in. We were there to provide ground support, hold his coat, etc etc.

It was great. I've never been to one before and the atmosphere was amazing. There were quite a few runners who looked around the same age as me, maybe even older. And an eighty year old chap who went round the course too. Perhaps I should have a go at this running thing. 

Concorde in Bristol

/

Today we went to the Aerospace Museum in Bristol. Home of Concorde, and lots of other interesting stuff. We remember when Concorde was out exposed to the elements; now it's in a custom built hanger and beautifully presented. 

Quite right too.

They've got a lovely mock up of the cockpit that you can sit in and pretend you're flying at Mach 2.

There are lots of other displays too. We had a great time there. The tickets that we got are good for re-entry for the next year. We'll be back. 

Makers Central

/

Today, feeling much better, it was into the car and off to Makers Central in Birmingham. It was a very enjoyable trip. There wasn't as much 3d printing and embedded technology as I might have liked, although Pimoroni and RoboSavvy were there, and it's always nice to see what they are up to.

There was some lovely work being done with wood and resin, and some of the woodworking tools looked a lot less expensive than I was expecting. Had a good look round and then rumbled back up the motorway (which for some reason wasn't closed or anything). 

..and we're back

/

I've discovered that trying to produce a blog post every day is getting in the way of proper blogging. I'd have a great idea for a blog post and then remember that I'm a few days behind and I'd have to "catch up" before I could post the new one. 

I know, stupid really.

So, from now on the Rob Miles blog will be much more free form. I'll post when I find something interesting and not worry about keeping a continuous flow of posts. That way, you might even hear more from me than with my previous policy.

Snow

/

Snow looks great on christmas cards and on pictures from other people However, when you have it outside your house for long periods of time it is a bit less fun.

Hopefully it will be gone before our marathon journey to the airport on Friday. We're flying out to the MVP summit on Saturday so, being a cunning chap, I've booked a hotel around a mile from the airport, just in case the roads are bad on Saturday.