Hyper Japan Manchester

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We like Hyper Japan in London. So we thought we’d try Hyper Japan Manchester. The journey was different, in a car rather than on a “more exciting than we needed train”. But no less exciting as it turned out, thanks to the antics of Apple Maps navigation which insisted on taking us off the motorway so that we could enjoy some A-road action and a trip through Oldham that we didn’t expect. Then, when we needed it most in the middle of Manchester, the navigation had a complete meltdown spouting random instructions to head off down unknown streets and make sudden U-turns. I’ve no idea what caused it, but fortunately I kept my nerve and found the car park next to the venue.

You could say that the event was “more intimate” than the one in London. You could also say it was smaller. But it was no less interesting and enjoyable. Although we didn’t find anyone selling bubble tea. We got great stands, amazing musicianship and good food. Plus fantastic costumes. I’ve dropped some pictures down below. You can find all my Hyper Japan pictures here.

Python Shorts 16: Getting an exception description in Micro Python

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This is useful if you want to find out how your otherwise perfect code has just fallen to pieces. One of the nice things about Python is that when a program fails you get a description of what happened and where:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "main.py", line 21, in <module>
NameError: name 'zanzibar' isn't defined

However, if you catch the exception you need a way of displaying this useful information in the handler. This is how you do it:

try:
    mgr.setup(mgr.settings)
except Exception as e:
    print(f"[CLB] Manager {name} crashed during setup:")
    sys.print_exception(e)

The call of sys.print_exception takes in the exception object that was thrown and prints the terribly useful message. If you want to put the message into a string (perhaps so you can log it or send it somewhere) you can do this:

import io
import sys
try:
    x=zanzibar
except Exception as e:
    buf = io.StringIO()
    sys.print_exception(e, buf)
    trace = buf.getvalue()
    print("bang")
    print(trace)

The code above will throw an exception (unless your program contains a variable called zanzibar). The exception is copied into the variable called trace which you can then do what you like with.

Out of date spam

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Does anyone know how I can delete all the emails from a particular sender on Gmail using the web client? You would think that this would be easy. There would be some way of specifying the sender and then a convenient button that you could press to delete everything.

If there is such a button, I’ve not been able to find it. All I can do is work my way through pages of mails, deleting everything in each page. It’s almost as if Google want to make it hard for you to get rid of dross so that your email fills up and you have to pay them for extra storage….

Happy snaps at the Hardware Meetup

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There is a lot of detail in the gloom, Thanks to Ben for arranging the elements in this shot

We had great fun taking pictures and developing film at the Hardware Meetup tonight. Ian’s film, taken on a 100 year old camera, looks really good. My shots suffered from serious underexposure/developing, but I’ll have some scans tomorrow.

Update: By using a magical power called “Posting From the Future” I’ve added a picture. It seems that I seriously overestimated the power of the flash I was using. I think it looks good and properly atmospheric.

Im quite pleased with how this picture looks as well.

Analogue Photography at the Wednesday Hardware Meetup this week

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I’m getting bits and bobs together for the Film Processing Hardware Meetup on Wednesday this week (12th of November). We’ll have 120 and 35mm film plus some cameras to play with, along with some cameras to play with. We’ll take some pictures and then develop them. If you fancy having a go at analogue photography (or just want to see how it works) then come along to the MakerSpace at the top floor of Hull Central Library on Wednesday evening from 5:00pm. We’ll develop a few films and you’ll be able to take your negatives home with you (although they might be a bit wet).

Creating Multi-Colour prints from FreeCAD

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I need to work on the letter sequencing…

I’ve been working on the self-solving wordsearch for a while now. Today I’ve been creating two different models for the case, one is the white outer case and the other is the black letter grid. I managed to print out a small test piece and I’m quite happy with how things turned out. The idea is that I put lights behind the letters and you can watch the answers appear.

This is the back of the text. There are some bad bits, but they don’t really show

The design is built using Python in FreeCAD which made it very easy to create and align the two models. Next step is to make the full size (16x16) wordsearch and then print it out, which might take a while. Great fun.

Rob at The Tech Sessions in Hull on December 2nd

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If you are in Hull you should go to Tech Sessions. If you aren’t in Hull you should come to Hull. And then go to Tech Sessions. I’m doing half of a session at the University of Hull starting at 6:30 pm on December 2nd in the Brynmor Jones library. I’m talking about making stuff. The other half of the session is from Rory Reid who is talking about writing meaningful, valuable, and maintainable tests.

And there will be free food and drinks too. And it’s free to attend. You can sign up here. Why would you not?

AI is nice. Only humans can be kind.

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A nice person can be expected to give you what you want. A kind person can be expected to give you what you need (which might not be what you want). AI is in the business of being nice. Once it has figured out what you want it considers that the job is done. It is really hard for a human to work out how best to be kind, and it is a human thing to want to try.

I’m far from convinced that we can ever encode kindness into an AI. I think it adds a layer of introspection which would be an order of magnitude bigger than what we are doing at the moment. This doesn’t mean that we can’t use AI. It just means that when we do we need to remember that is only ever nice.

Snap Fit Fun

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I’m trying something different with 3D printed components. Snap fitting. Rather than using screws and whatnot I’m cutting grooves in one element and putting a lip on the other so that they snap together. It’s all done by the software that makes the panels, and I’ll be able to tweak the size and configuration of the snapping bits. All I have to do now is print the parts and see if they snap together….

Light Leaks?

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This one looks OK

I think I have a light leak. Either that, or something weird is happening with the film developing process.

At first I thought this was cloud, but it isn’t

This one has weirdness down the right hand side.

It’s here too

I don’t think it is problems developing because that would lead to dark marks, and these are light. I think some light is sneaking down the side of the dark slide and getting onto the film. It might be time to invest in some new felt here and there…

Photo Processing Hardware Meetup 12th November

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Another fun meetup. With working, wandering robots. But at the next meetup the focus will be on photography (see what I did there?). I’ve been playing with “one-shot” developer, which makes developing black and white photographs as easy as it can be. At the next meetup I’m hoping we can take some pictures on film and then develop them during the evening. Should be fun. That will be on the 12th of November.

Pentax Auto 110 - A splendid little camera

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Would you believe that you can get a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera that fits in your pocket along with a few lenses, takes super sharp pictures and costs less than a video game? Well, you can. It’s the Pentax Auto 110. It’s tiny because it uses narrow 110 film which is loaded in a little cassette. When you’ve taken your 24 pictures you send the cassette away for processing. The film negatives are very small and this does compromise quality a bit. However, it also brings to the fore the filmic nature of the shots that you take. I doubled down on this by using Lomography “Turquoise” film which has a deliberately wacky colour balance.

The Deep as you have never seen it before

I’ve got a conventional colour film in the 110 at the moment and I fully expect the results to look completely normal.

The camera is lovely to use. It is mostly automatic, but you do have to focus. This is easy to do. The centre of the viewfinder has a lovely “split image” rangefinder. Just adjust the lens until the halves of the split image line up and you are good to go. The camera sorts out exposure. It will show a yellow light in the display if it thinks you need to use a tripod to hold the camera steady.

I think the scratches were caused by the cassette

If it gets too dark you can add a dinky little custom flash gun which screws onto the top of the camera and makes the outfit look even better. There are several lenses to choose from. The standard one works very well and is super sharp. If you are felling lazy you can even get a little motor drive which fits on the bottom and winds the film on for you. Talking of film, only one place makes it nowadays, but Lomography do have a nice range and the prices are reasonable. You can get 110 film processed at most decent labs.

I love the way that Pentax took a look at what was a point and shoot film format and said “You know what? We could make a single lens reflex that used this”. And then went ahead and did just that. The camera is super solid, made of metal and pretty reliable. Make sure that the twin LR44 batteries that power it are present and correct and you should be in business. You can test it by pointing it outside and it will go “click”. Then point it inside and take another picture and it should go “ker-lick”. Winding on without a cassette in does work for testing, but you have to wind on quite a bit to get the shutter to reset. Pro tip: cover the film window in the back if the camera with black tape to stop light sneaking in and fogging your shots from the back.

Hull City Centre looking good

If you want something to take memorable pictures with a surprising amount of detail and you only want to carry something tiny, I would strongly recommend this camera. They made loads of them and you can find them on auction sites easily enough. If you are feeling flush you might fancy buying one of the “kits” they used to sell which comprise the camera, flash, winder and a couple of extra lenses.

Robot Rampage at our Hardware Meetup on Wednesday this week.

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These folks are all coming…

We're going to have a mass robot rampage (well, at least 6) at the next Hardware Meetup in Hull Makerspace on the top floor of Hull Central Library on Wednesday 29th October. If you've always fancied controlling your own robot army this might be a chance to start.

I'm bringing 9 robots along to improve the odds of having 6 working. I'm also going to bring a bucket of bits for anyone who fancies building their own. But I’d like to keep the bucket if that’s OK.