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. 

David Parker is blogging

I've just discovered that David Parker, one of my chums from Hull University Department of Computer Science, is blogging. He's written a lovely post about why you should blog, and then followed his own advice to create this. 

He's also reminded me of Compsciblogs, a great way to keep track of Computer Science blogs. If you start blogging (and you should) you can add your blog there too.

Rob at Pint of Science on Monday 14th May

I'm doing a "Science in our Society" session next week as part of the "Pint of Science Festival". I'm talking about scary robots. Ooooh. 

The talk is on Monday 14th of May in  Furley and Co 18-20 Princes Dock Street,
Hull HU1 2LP

Doors open at 19:00 You can find out more here. 

Whiskey Galore at Hull Truck

Whisky Galore is a tale of scheming Scots folk and shipwrecked whisky. Set on the twin isles of Great Toddy and Little Toddy during the Second World War, the action starts with the inhabitants enduring a whiskey famine. No small affair when "a wee dram" is so much a part of life.

Things brighten up considerably  when a boat runs aground nearby and releases thousands of bottles of whiskey into the sea. Then it becomes a race to spirit away as much as possible under the noses of salvage teams, the army and the dreaded revenue officers. And of course there is the little matter of a few romances to be guided to their happy endings.

It's all great fun, made all the more so by the fact that the play is being performed by the Pallas Players, an all-female touring theatre company from 1955. The staging and the way the scenery and props are used to build an atmosphere (and get some laughs) is very impressive.

At times you think that you're watching a very well engineered piece of machinery ticking on the stage in front of you. But it's done with such verve and obvious enjoyment that you don't sit there thinking of Swiss watches at all. 

If you can get tickets you should go. It's not that much more expensive than a movie, and it's much more interesting to see real people present stuff in front of you than any number of movie special effects. Find out more here.

Rob at the Insider Dev Tour

Click on the image to register

This is big news. Oh. Ahem.

THIS IS BIG NEWS.

Microsoft are rolling out an Insider Dev Tour next month. There are around 30 events all over the world, with 2 in the UK. One in London and one in Manchester.

I'm very pleased to be able to report that I'll be presenting at the Manchester event next month, on the 20th of June. I'm doing a session on Machine Learning, really looking forward to it. You can find out more about the Insider Dev Tour here. You can sign up for the Manchester event here. 

Robot Rumbles at Dot Net North

Turns out that Dot Net North is a great place to go and talk about robots. It's in Manchester and they run regular events about technology. Pete had offered me a chance to take along some Hull Pixelbots and explain that they are all about. Great fun. You can find the explanation here. 

We had Pizza, and at the end a Robot Carrying Cheese Race. 

A tense moment with the cheese.

The audience was splendid, most things worked (although one of the cheese carrying robots could probably have used some new batteries). 

You can find out about more Dot Net North events here. 

Beasts of Balance

Bank Holiday Monday finds us out shopping in Leeds. But I was there for a reason. I wanted to buy a copy of "Beasts of Balance" from the Apple Store. I'd nearly bought a copy on a recent trip but I was talked out of it. But the person who talked me out of the purchase isn't on this trip....

We had a go this evening. I thought it was a game where you try to balance objects on a plinth. It is, but there's a lot more to it than that. The idea of "balance" goes a lot further than than stopping things from falling over. Some of the objects that you balance are beautiful, stylised models of creatures from land, sea or air. And you have to keep their worlds in balance by adding other things too.

We kept adding the octopus (mainly because he has a flat head, and is eminently stackable) but that meant we had to balance his watery needs with  creatures from different realms and he turned out to be quite needy...

So the game turns into a ecological balancing act as well as a physical one. And it gets even more interesting when you add in the "modifier" pieces. There are two types of these. One of them lets you "cross" one creature with another, to make a new species. The other lets you "migrate" a species into another realm. Perhaps we could have used one to get that pesky octopus out of the water. There are a couple of "miracle" pieces too, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do. 

Each piece you add to the plinth contains an RFID tag that is used to identify it. You tap the tag on the plinth before you put it on the structure you're building. The plinth can detect when you've added the piece successfully, and also when everything falls down....

The game is played in conjunction with an app that runs on your Android or Apple device which keeps score and shows the effect your actions are having on the ecosystem you are creating as you play. 

Lots of players can cooperate, but there's not really a competitive mode (although it is kind of fun to put your piece on the plinth in a way that makes it horribly difficult for the next person to do anything). 

Everyone who started playing (including me) began by regarding the game as "Computer Jenga with an ipad scoreboard". It's not. There's a ton of depth to the gameplay. It's not about getting everything on the plinth, it's about getting the right combination of objects on there, and adding bits to find out what they do. 

It's a bit pricey, but not that much more than a video game. And I've seen board games with far fewer, and less engaging, pieces, on sale for a lot more money. The game has a lot of polish, from the beautifully made models to the well drawn user interface of the game. Strongly recommended. 

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). 

Hull Raspberry Pi Jam with robots

Well, that was great fun. Spent the morning at the Hull Raspberry Pi Jam. It was something of a "RobotFest". I had my Hull Pixelbots and Coretec Robotics were there with their balloon Raspberry Pi powered balloon busting robots. I was trialling a new idea I've had, called the "Robot Rumble". The idea is that players code up their robot warriors to get as far into their opponents area as possible. You can find the draft rules here. 

As it turned out we didn't get that many rumbles going, but folks had great fun making their robots do things, including some things I'd never have thought of, which was rather nice. And from the sounds of bursting balloons and cries of victory coming from the other side of the library, fun was being had there too. 

The second part of this post was going to have the title "Three Thing Game Judging Fun". But instead I'd have to use the title "I probably shouldn't have eaten that chicken from the fridge". Number one wife did ask me to check the sell by date but I was confident it was fine. And besides, I'd thrown the package away.

By 2:30 it was turning out that the chicken might not have been that fine after all. And an attempt to "kill or cure" by drinking a can full of "Old English Ginger Beer" didn't have the desired effect. Which meant I had to beat a hasty retreat from the event and head home for a lie down amongst other things. 

Fortunately the effects don't seem to have been too long lasting, which is a good thing as I'm supposed to be driving to Birmingham tomorrow. 

Hardware Meetup - now with biscuits

I had to tear myself away from a really good conversation to take this picture

We had another really good Hardware Meetup at c4di yesterday. Three new folks turned up and we’re going to start working with Arduino devices at the next session. We’re assembling some kits and some content to get folks playing with hardware. The idea is that you spend a princely five pounds on a starter kit containing an Arduino and some lights and switches. And then over the next sessions we’ll introduce other components to play with. If you fancy coming along, you’d be more than welcome.

The next meeting is on the 17th Mary at c4di as usual. Only now we have coffee, tea and biscuits. And hardware. It would be great to see you. 

Avengers Infinity Wars

We went to see the new Avengers movie this week. All I can really say is “Star Wars 2” and “Star Treck 2” have got nothing on this one.

Apple Homepod Review

One of the nice things about being a writer is that every now and then you get a note saying that a bunch of people have bought copies of your book and, as a result, you've got some money to spend. It doesn't happen to me as much as I would like, but it did happen last week. 

And so, of course, I used some of it to buy myself an Apple HomePod. What with there being one for sale second hand in a local shop, and me having come into a bit of cash, it seemed like fate was actually willing me to get one. 

I'm glad I did. I've got a couple of Amazon Echo devices and I thought that their sound quality was OK. But the HomePod blows them, and just about anything else I've got, away in terms of sound quality. It's far, far, better than the speaker and sub-woofer setup I have in my working room and has therefore completely replaced it. There is a lot more bass present than there has any right to be. It's actually quite startling.

Some reviewers have talked about the impressively wide sound stage that the speaker manages to create using its assortment of drivers and cunning calibration. I've not noticed this much to be honest. The output sounds like it is coming out of a speaker. But what output....

The setup was a breeze. I just held my phone close to the HomePod the first time I powered it on, tapped Yes to confirm access and away we went. It did such a good job of finding the best tracks in my music collection that I let it do that for around eight hours before I actually asked it to play anything specific. 

Voice control is not as great as it could be. It doesn't understand the artist name "Boz Scaggs" at all. I had to ask for the album by name from my library in the end. And saying "Hey Siri" is not how I like to start any kind of conversation. And when I do every single Apple device in the room pricks up its ears. The computer generated voice of the device is not a refined as Alexa from Amazon. I've gone for the Australian female voice as this sounds the least strange to me. Or perhaps I can't actually tell whether its strange or not. 

I've not used the HomePod for much more than playing music. I will tell me the weather and If I get some remotely controlled kit it should be able to control it. I've got an Apple Music subscription, which makes it a proper free-standing device. Otherwise I'd have to use my phone to get the audio source and play it over Airplay. I've not tried the HomePod as a speakerphone yet. It works in this role, but not in a way that you'll find particularly useful. 

From a software point of view it is a bit limited at the moment. There is a serious shortage of third party skill and, unlike the Amazon Echo, I can't use it to listen to the radio, which is a shame. 

However, it is what I thought it would be when I bought it. It is a super, super, speaker with some indifferent network features and a whole ton of room for improvement. I just hope enough people engage with the product to make Apple fulfil its true potential. Until then I'll be very happy listening to the amazing sounds it makes. 

Hull Pixelbots at Dot Net North in Manchester next Tuesday

Another Hull Pixelbot event coming up. On Tuesday next week I'm going across the Pennines to Dot Net North in Manchester. You can sign up here.  I'm going to try and crowd source some robot control. And apparently the pizza is really good. 

If you want me to bring my Hull Pixelbots to your neck of the woods (do woods have necks?) then let me know. 

Hull Pixelbot Robot Rumble at the Raspberry Pi Jam on Saturday

Don't forget the Hull Raspberry Pi Jam this coming Saturday at Central Library.  There are going to be lots of robots, including a bunch of my Hull Pixelbots.

I'm going to be testing a new "Hull Pixelbot Robot Rumble" in which two teams of robots face off against each other in a test of programming skills and strategy. Should be fun. You can sign up here. 

esp8266 wacky wifi

one way to get a screenshot....

This is rather weird. It all started when I got my old Nexus 7 tablet out of retirement. I'm doing some upgrades for the web server for the Raspberry Pi event coming up, and I wanted to use the Nexus to see if the web site would work on an Android powered browser. 

One of the applications on the Nexus is a WiFi analyser that I've used to pick and choose my WiFi channels. When I fired it up I noticed a few strange transmitters which were taking over the spectrum (as you can see above). 

I finally tracked this down to the esp8266 devices that I use in Hull Pixelbots. For some reason, when they wake up, they start doing things on WiFi channels. I've no idea of the precise meaning of this transmission, but I don't particularly like it. It turns out that if you turn off the WiFi before you do anything else (even turn it back on to connect to an access point) then you don't see this. 

I'd love comments from anyone else who've seen this, or has more knowledge of what is going on. In the meantime all my programs now start with:

WiFi.mode(WIFI_OFF);

..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.

BMW i3 Factory Tour

Click through the image for the full 360 degree experience

Monday, tour day, we were up bright and early and, after a quick trip to a local Aldi for cereals, we headed over to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the tour group and go on our way to the factory via tram and bus. Everyone was very excited.

I'm a member of the BMW i3 UK Facebook group. I've even posted on there once or twice. I joined the group when I got my BMW i3 and it is a fantastic resource for owners and anyone thinking of getting an electric car. The folks there are all lovely too. And they'd organised a trip to see the car being made.

When left the university I was determined not to do anything silly like buy a large expensive car. So, I bought a small expensive car instead. It's the nicest car I've ever owned. It's powered by a battery, and a tiny petrol generator that kicks in when the battery runs down. You can use it to go a lot further than your average electric vehicle. It has a carbon fibre passenger compartment and a metal chassis. Like a supercar.

There is only one company in the world who is mass-producing cars like this. And there is only one factory in the world where they're doing it. And at 11:30 today they are going to show us around it. Very excited. After a tram and bus ride (they do trams really well in Leipzig) we arrived at around 11:00 and pottered around the vast visitor's foyer waiting for our tour to start.

And then we were off. They showed us pretty much everything. From robots making the carbon fibre safety cell to the moment where they screwed the wheels on and drove the car off the production line. I can't show you any pictures, but BMW rather helpfully made a video that you can watch if you like.

The tour lasted around three hours, but I didn't actually notice this. I was too busy being impressed. Having seen how they make it, I now like my car even more. Very, very impressive. Some fun facts that I think I remembered correctly.

• Each stage of the production of the i3 lasts around 7 minutes. The cars are on little robot vehicles that move along the production line. They also build the i8 (the proper supercar) here too. Production stages for this car are 30 minutes long. The folks who make the i8 must be very, very skilled. It takes a few hours to make each car.
• The pace of production is set by the time it takes the glue to dry when they are assembling the structural elements. They do use bolts to hold things together, but these are used for alignment, not strength.  
• Each car is built to a particular configuration for a specific customer. This extends to the wiring looms which are fitted to the car. Basically, if it isn't on the spec, there won't be a wire for it. 
• They save a lot of paint because they only have to paint the outsides of the panels on the i3 because there is no need to protect the chassis or the body panels against rust.
• All the carbon fibre that they cut away during manufacture is recycled to make other components in the car. 
• The carbon fibre body shell is around a third of the weight of a metal one. 
• They can't paint carbon fibre. Paint wont stick to it. The roof of the i3 is a carbon fibre panel and if you look closely you can see that it is covered with a form of varnish, you can see the fibres in the surface.
• The point where they connect the car body to the metal chassis is called "the marriage". They have around five minutes to get the two elements aligned before the glue sets. Normally robots do this, but if the robots hit a snag they have a few minutes for humans to rush in and sort it out. 
• They have some robots (they are coloured white) which can work alongside workers on the line, with no safety cage required. 

After the tour we got our bus and tram back to Leipzig, had a quick break at the flat and then headed out for a celebration dinner at Ratskeller, a place in the basement of Leipzig City Hall. 

It was great. Good food, great company, talk about cars and lots of other things. Thanks to the group for organising everything. We've got a few more days in Leipzig. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the city has to offer. 

Breakfast at the Zoo

Breakfast view

Sunday dawned, and with it the realization that we needed to go and get some food for breakfast. Unlike virtually everyone else on the trip, we'd gone for an Airbnb flat for our accommodation. Not for us the overpriced continental breakfasts they serve up in hotels, no need for us to stand in the queue for cereals wondering where on earth you get the spoons from. No sir. We were going to live like locals, eating what they eat, shopping where they shop. Except that all the locals had bought their food yesterday when the shops were open, and all the food shops were now shut. Sunday opening is not a thing in Germany.

We messaged our Airbnb hosts for help on where to get a bite to eat. The reply came back. 'Go to the zoo'. It was a lovely day, so we did. Leipzig Zoo has apparently been judged "The second-best zoo in Europe". Having been there, I'd now quite like to got to the best one, although I'm not sure how it can better Leipzig. The zoo is vast, and a stone's throw from the city centre. It is peppered with great places to eat, our hosts had suggested three, and we selected the one that lets you eat your breakfast and watch the giraffes go past.

After some discussion at the till about the sensibleness of selecting an "all you an eat" buffet ten minutes before it closes (we didn't in the end) we settled down with our croissant and coffee and did indeed watch the giraffes go past. Today was flagged as the hottest day of the trip and it didn't disappoint. We actually went into the tropical rainforest area to cool off a bit.  If you go to Leipzig, go to the zoo. If you're not going to Leipzig, go to Leipzig and then go to the zoo. You'll thank me. Oh, and eat lunch at the Hacienda. Have the chilli. Then you can thank me again.

We staggered back from the zoo to the flat through the city, noting all the closed food shops as we went past them. We finally found a tiny place that was open which sold about a hundred different kinds of beer. It also sold milk and chocolate biscuits. So, we bought some milk, some biscuits and, of course, some beer, staggered back to the flat and settled down for the night.

Pro-tip that we realised later: shops close on Sunday in Germany. But filling stations do not. Pretty much every petrol station has a mini-supermarket attached and sometimes even a tiny café. We could have nipped to the nearest BP station – our hosts had even noted its location on the map – and stocked up there.

Arriving in Leipzig

The girl at the information desk looked at her colleague, then at us, and finally shrugged her shoulders, holding her palms outwards in the international gesture signifying "Sure. Why not?". We'd just asked her in halting English if it was possible for us to catch the 22:24 train out of Leipzig airport to the city centre. Except that we didn't know where the train was or where to buy tickets. And it was 22:14. Well, if she sort-of thought we could do it, we could sort-of do it. So off we went.

It turns out that ten minutes is just enough time to buy tickets, find the wrong platform, and then stand on it watching the 22:24 train leave from the right platform. The only positive was that the next train arriving at the wrong platform was running late. And going to Leipzig. Worrying that we'd used up all our good luck for the entire trip, we hurried aboard and begin to ponder the next hoop we had to jump through; getting the keys for the apartment.

Because of our late arrival; our hosts would be leaving the apartment keys in a locker in Leipzig station. We'd been sent the locker number and code, along with a picture of the locker itself. I was sure I'd played this video game before and, since Leipzig station is one of the biggest in Europe, I was now playing it on level 10.

After a number of false starts and discovering that I didn't know the German word for "locker", and everyone we met didn’t know the English word for "locker", we finally got the key and made it to the taxi rank, clutching the piece of paper with the address and map that I'd prepared earlier.

The taxi driver took one look at the map, nodded, ushered us into her vehicle and then sped off in what I considered to be completely the wrong direction. Which shows how much I know about Leipzig. We arrived at the door to the flat in record time, stood for a while in the doorway while I played with the key in the lock, and finally we were inside what would be our home for the next five days.

We'd come to Leipzig to watch a car being made. It turns out that there are also lots of other good reasons to visit the city, including parks, restaurants and an amazing zoo, but for now the BMW factory tour on Monday was the thing we were most looking forward to. Or at least, I was looking forward to. The flat was comfy, everything was in place for a nice few days.