Red Nose Day Lecture in Rhyme - yet again

Enough said. It’s going to be live, online and if the money is right I’m going to be singing. You have been warned.

Mirror Selfie

Apparently mirror selfies, where you take a picture of yourself in a mirror, have been all the rage on the internet for what, the last twenty years or so. I thought I’d have a go with one of my old cameras.

Scanner fetching

Today it was up bright and early and off to Leeds to pick up the thing I bought on Tuesday which will make it much easier to get pictures into my computer. I got it home, opened the box and a whole bunch of furry creatures with wings flew out of the box and disappeared. I rang up the seller and told him what had happened. “That’s fine.” he said “You did buy the bat-fled scanner didn’t you?”

Apologies. But I couldn’t resist it. Anyhoo, the scanner is now back home and I’ve been scanning some of the shots I took with the new camera I got last week. It turns out that I can use it to take pictures of leaves.

One takeaway from this is that black and white is not the same as colour. Duh. Two things with different colours might be rendered as similar shades of grey. Another takeaway is that with film photography dust is definitely a thing. You get spots and stray hairs all over your negatives and keeping them at bay is a constant struggle. But it is all great fun. Next step is home processing.

Double Chapter Power

I’ve been editing the chapters of the new book. Today I sent Chapter 9 through with my edits in place. Folks were pleased, but confused. I hadn’t sent them Chapter 8. Turns out that there is a difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it. I thought I’d sent it through but it seems I only thought about sending it.

Anyhoo, the chapter has now been sent and I’ve only got three more to edit before the book is completely complete.

Bluetooth Location Tracking at the Hardware Meetup

We’re still having regular Hardware Meetups at the MakerSpace in Hull Central Library. First Wednesday of the month. Start around 6:00pm. Bring hardware to show off or problems you want to talk about.

Today Martin brought along some nifty Bluetooth location tracking hardware to show us. The device on the end of the stick (in the picture) is being tracked by four carefully positioned devices on the table. We could wave it around and the laptop showed the realtime position. It was awesome. To think this is being done using radio is amazing. One day we might use it to find our way around airports and public buildings.

I took along my big camera (took 1 picture) and a robot dog. Great fun was had.

Got scanner

Very excited. Managed to bag myself a flat bed scanner that can handle large images. This is a big thing. It turns out that you don’t get optimal photographic goodness by photographing negatives lying on your iPad screen. The new (to me but actually around 15 years old) device is huge and I’m going to have to drive over to Leeds and pick it up because I’m scared of what might happen if it is posted. But still, yay!

Hello Octopus

Today I received a letter from British Gas saying that they had been unable to fit a Smart Meter because they couldn’t get access to my meter.

No.

As the person who spent two hours clearing a path through the garage I know this is not the case. Also, the engineer told me that the reason I couldn’t have a Smart Meter was that my electricity meter was a SMET 1 smart meter. He was supposed to be sorting out an upgrade of my electricity meter but it turns out that E.ON don’t do upgrades. So I’m stuck.

I’ve come to the decision that neither of these companies deserve my business any more. So I’ve switched to Octopus for gas and leccy. The switch was suspiciously easy. Just one email and a web form to set up the bank details. I know that my readers live for my posts about gas meters, so I’ll be sure to bring you updates as to how it all turns out.

Photo Fun

Today I have taken a bunch of photographs. It’s been great. I’ll post them off tomorrow. By the end of the week I’ll should have something back. A lot of them will not be very good. But they will be my kind of “not very good” which works for me.

Bought another Camera

Hmmm. I wasn’t expecting that. Or perhaps I was. Anyhoo, I’ve bought another camera. I seem to be converting my gadgets from musical instruments into cameras. Expect some frantic synthesizer selling soon.

Anyhoo, I only went into the shop to talk about this and that. Then I might have asked them to show me a Mamiya 645 that I’d seen on their website. And they produced this. It looked awesome. Like new. Only around fifty years old. And that was that. It takes 15 pictures on 120 roll film. Each picture is around 2.5 times the size of a 35 mm negative. The body is solid metal with leather stuck on and it is beautifully made. It also takes photographs. There’s a hugely satisfying “clunk” when you press the shutter release. I’ve popped a film in and I’m going to run through it as fast as possible so that I can get the pictures processed and make sure all is well.

Making lots of Happenings

When I said it might be a fun idea to record video walkthroughs for all the “Make Something Happen” exercises in the new book I really should have considered what this involves. I’m now up to 40 videos and counting. They’ve been fun to make though. You can find them here.

Smart Meter - Final word

Today, having queried E.ON about their policy of not upgrading Smart Meters I get this final badly worded response from the company.

..we would only upgrade your meter when your current meter started to fail, ie stops providing electric.

Oh well.

Smart Meter - Dumb company

Just got a reply to my request for a Smart Meter upgrade (so that I can have a smart gas meter).

Unfortunately, we are currently not upgrading SMET 1 smart meters. It is something that is in the works, but this would be in the future.

I think this means that E.ON are not in possession of a time machine. Otherwise they could upgrade my meter in the past.

You know you are old when....

…you get mistaken for a 92 year old. To be fair, it was at a distance and I did have a hat on.

Smart Meter - Dumb System

Today was going to be the day they installed our new smart meter so that we can watch our money go up in smoke in real time from the comfort of the kitchen. So I was up first thing in the garage throwing stuff into the car to clear a path to the meter ready for the swap.

The installer turns up, takes one look at the electricity meter and says he can’t fit a smart gas meter. Apparently my electricity meter is smart, but not smart enough. It is a SMET 1 when it needs to be a SMET 2. He leaves having done nothing and I headed off glumly to the tip .

I have really no idea why the installation of a smart gas meter is dependent on the electricity meter. I’m also annoyed because I deliberately waited until I knew that SMET 2 meters were being installed before getting our electricity meter done. Then they installed a SMET 1 meter anyway. I guess they had a warehouse full of the things.

Anyhoo, I’ve emailed the electricity company to ask for a meter upgrade. Let’s see how that turns out.

Red Nose Day is coming

I’ve decided to do another Red Nose Day Lecture in Rhyme. This time it’s all about Software Engineering and objects. It might be useful if you are learning to program, or if you just want a few laughs. This one will have a song at the end. So you’ll know when I’ve finished because I’ll start singing. More details later.

Lego Photography

Been walking round the house with a camera taking pictures of Lego. This is part of my camera testing program. The nice thing about taking pictures of Lego figures is that generally speaking they are already smiling.

The Fifty Year Old camera is actually right

Took some pictures today with a really old Polaroid camera. I thought I knew best, and twiddled the dial to increase the exposure and brighten things up a bit. Then the pictures turned out over-exposed. Oh well.

Pokemon TV

Spending quite a bit of time watching Pokemon TV shows at the moment. This might be something to do with having a 6 year old visitor to stay.

Photo processing fun from Harlow Carr

Went to Harlow Carr today. I seem to be rediscovering the joy of taking a picture (or three) merging them together and then image processing them within an inch of their lives. Great fun.

Beverley Camera Centre is awesome

You know those shops that you thought had all disappeared? The ones with lots of stock and sales staff who know what they are talking about. And interesting second-hand bits and bobs that you didn’t know you needed until you found one?

Well, Beverley Camera Centre is like that. They have loads of photography stuff including cameras new and old, accessories, bags, tripods, lots of film - including instant - and even chemicals for home developing. I was in there today for a quick visit and I’m looking forward to going back and having a proper look round. The most important thing to know about the place is that it is closed Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, so if you turn up then all you’ll be able to do is stare through the window at the fun stuff within. If you are into photography or want to get started (using film is currently a trendy thing to do apparently) then go down and have a look at what they’ve got.