Not using AI is fun too

this picture was also not made with AI

Today I wanted to finish off the menu system for my tiny navigating program for the PICO. I could have spent some time writing a prompt for Claude AI to use to create the code. But today I thought I’d spend around the same amount of time actually writing the code. It was awesome.

I didn’t have to spend any time figuring out what the code did since I already kind of knew. And bug fixes stuck because nothing else in the code changed when a fix was applied.

And I really felt that I owned what I had built, which was nice too. AI is great and can do amazing things, but I’m trying hard not to forget how to do it myself.

PICO Nav

I’ve made a tiny route finder which runs on the Raspberry Pi PICO and uses Dijkstra’s algorithm to find routes. SatNav it isn’t but it does work. I’m using the lovely PICO GFX display from Pimoroni and a really nice 3D printable case from TheFlyingKipper.

Newton Power at the Hardware Meetup

We had a splendid hardware meetup this evening. I found out three more things that my robot software doesn’t do but should, and a great time was had by all. I really must take more (or at least some) pictures of these events.

Walter brought along an Apple Newton 2000 which is one of the last (and most powerful) handheld versions. I’d not seen one before and it took me a while to actually open the front of the device. But once it was open we popped out the battery and rather than finding a proprietary and no doubt broken rechargeable unit we instead saw a holder for AA batteries. So, thank to the generosity of the folks at Hull Makerspace we got hold of a set and fired it up. It worked fine. Even the backlight.

I don’t know what components they were using 30 years ago when the Newton was made, but they must have been pretty good ones. I’m going to bring along some of my Newton devices to the next meetup, which will be on the 24th of June. If you’ve got a “blast from the past” device that you want to bring along and show us we’d love to see it.

Chats and Games at Hull Tech Sessions

Hull Tech Sessions are wonderful. They come round four times a year or so, and tonight (thanks to Ross reminding me) I went along. Anthony Main started things off by talking about “Chat - the New Product Channel”. They say that “In the future we we won’t need roads”. Anthony explained why in the future we might not need apps either. Apps are hard to write, expensive to keep going and users don’t like having to install them. If you need to communicate with users, why not just chat to them? Anthony showed off some neat technology that lets you build interactive systems, you can find out more about what his company does here.

Then it was the turn of Simon Grey to talk about “Reflections on 30 Years of Games and Technology”. This was a potted history of game development, a peek at where it might be going and a whole bunch of game titles that had input from graduates of Hull University. We even had “game title bingo”. Simon finished with some thoughts on why you should even think about going into the game development industry at a time when artificial intelligence is supposed to taking over.

Simon made the point that while things are pretty tough in the industry at the moment there are lots of opportunities for building expertise which you can make available as a service to game makers. Lots of small firms earn a good living making niche game elements. Look closely at the credits for any triple A game and you will find a whole bunch of components for things like combat mechanics which are bought in from specialist suppliers. You can be part of a game without having to become a game publisher. AI will find a place in the business, but it will always need people who know what they are doing as well.

It was a great evening. I was so busy taking notes and chatting (actually mainly chatting) that I didn’t get around to taking any pictures. I should take the photos first, and then start talking. Keep an eye on Tech Sessions. They are well worth the trip and they have free food.

Tennis Elbow

I’ve got tennis elbow. I put it down to over-activity on the rowing machine. Not tennis, of course.

Hello Dijkstra's Algorithm

WeLl, where else would you want to go?

I’m playing around with Dijkstra’s Algorithm for an article. It’s a wonderful piece of proper computer science which you can learn a lot from looking at. I’ve got it all working in Python and I’ve built some map information and rendered it in Pygame.

Donkey Kong Bananza

I’m spending a lot of time at the moment playing Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s awesome. I’m only a fraction of my way through it and I’m really enjoying smashing up the place. If you have a Switch 2 you should get a copy of this game.

Broken AI

My Inky AI image display program is now running full time in my office. I like it because even though it is terribly impressive, every now and then it produces something that is just hilarious.

Polaroid Purple Film

If you’ve got an old (or new) Polaroid camera that can accept 600 film you might like to try the new “reclaimed” Polaroid Purple film.

The story is that Polaroid play around with reclaimed materials from their factory and if they find something nice they sell it for a while.

They’ve done other colours in the past and now it is the turn of purple. I quite like the results.

Red Flowers

We had some lovely weather last week. That’s when I took this picture.

Retro Minatures

One of the great things about having a nine year old to stay is that you find yourself in a toy shop buying “Retro Miniatures”. They aren’t to scale (more’s the pity) but I really like them.

Old Cameras in Raspberry Pi Magazine

The latest issue of Raspberry Pi Magazine is now available. I’ve got a couple of articles in this one, both featuring one of my old cameras. The first article is about 3D printing film holders for old cameras. The second article is about using Python in FreeCAD to produce mosaics including one of an old camera.

There’s lots of other good stuff too (he said implying that his stuff was good) including some great ideas for making music with your Pi.

Day of success

Today has been a good day.

Can you tell which is the broken one?

A while back I broke one of my Apple Newton eMate devices just by opening it and closing it. A hinge fitting broke in a way that caused it to pierce the ribbon cable that links the display to the main board. I’d give you more details, but I don’t want to talk about it at the moment.

Anyhoo, I ordered a replacement cable and last week it arrived in a huge box. At first I was sure the box was empty, but eventually I found the cable nestling in the middle of a big wad of padding. After spending a chunk of yesterday totally failing to fit the darned thing I thought I’d have another go this morning. It’s a bit fiddly. You have to wrap the cable around one of the hinges in exactly the right way, otherwise I’d have been ordering another replacement. Once I’d got the cable in place the rest of the device went together without incident and I now have 3 fully working Newton eMate devices. The next thing to do is complete upgrading the rechargeable batteries with ones that, er, recharge,

And then, just to build on my success I finally got Forza Horizon 6 working on my PC. I’m not sure what I did. Actually I am sure what I did. What I’m not sure of is why it worked. I plugged the PC into a different monitor. Forza sprang into life on the alternative screen and looked super. So I plugged the original monitor back in and it kept working. And off I went.

The game is fantastic. It follows the previous game pattern pretty closely, but you can now crash through scenery in a much more impressive way. I can’t find a Nissan Cube but they do have this really cute little van.

Alpaca'd Lunch

Jimmy

We didn’t have lunch there really. But I never let the truth get in the way of a good headline. Last week we walked with some alpacas. The weather was perfect. The alpacas were great fun and very characterful. If you live in Hull and want to have a go, you can find out more here.

Freezer Cowed

Last night we discovered a big chunk of ice in our fridge freezer. You might think that this is the right place for it to be, but it was not. It had formed around the drain tray and along the bottom and was stopping condensed water from making its usual way out of the back of the fridge. Instead the water was pooling in front of the fridge. No fun.

After a bit of chipping and scraping we got rid of the ice and discovered that a little drain hole was blocked. Attempts to clear it with warm water and 3D printer filament failed so I ordered a kit of freezer drain hole unblocking tools (it’s a thing apparently).

Then later in the evening I discovered that the hole had unblocked itself. I’d obviously scared it into submission. So I consider the kit as six pounds fifty pence well spent.

So much for Sumo

Sumo going well

We had a special Hardware Meetup last night. We had some special guests and the idea was to have them writing programs that would allow two robots to sumo wrestle.

It didn’t quite work out that way though. My software was a bit more buggy than I thought. Mind you, most first versions of software don’t survive their collision with real life. I left with a lot of things to fix and a determination to not let out any wobbly software ever again. I wonder how long that will last?

A rat on a spit

I love Hull Makerspace. I particularly like the way that it lets people take an idea and a big chunk of determination and then make something amazing. One of the folks that looks after the place fancied building a “rat on a spit”. So they did. This was the cue for laser cutting, circuit building, mechanical construction, 3D design of a rat, painting, finishing and finally a working artifact. If you’ve got any ideas that you fancy making real, you should take them down there.

Olympus Pen-FT

The Olympus Pen-FT is lovely little camera that makes a super everyday carry. It takes 72 pictures on a 36 exposure roll of 35mm film. It does this by the cunning trick of taking pictures half the usual size. One side effect of this trick is that pictures have the “portrait” aspect ratio rather than the more common “landscape”. Another side effect is that when you get them processed you find that they are handled as a single print holding two different pictures. This can make for some nice juxtapositions. I can’t claim to have planned any of the ones came out, but I did form a habit of taking three pictures that might fit together on the principle that one of the pair will come out together.

This is a “single lens reflex” camera which means that your view when taking the picture is through the same lens that exposes the film. You can check focus before you take a shot. You can also remove the lens and pop a different one on, if you fancy a change of viewpoint. Although alternative lenses are a bit expensive and hard to get hold of.

A nice thing about the FT is that it has a built in exposure meter that displays a needle in the viewfinder. The needle indicates a number which you then use to set the lens. It’s not completely automatic but I really like that because it forces you to think about what shutter speed and aperture you are using. I exposed a reel of film and was delighted to discover that the exposure seems to be pretty much accurate too, which is nice.

If you are looking for a cool little “daily carry” analogue camera this would fit the bill very nicely. You can get it for a reasonable price if you are prepared to lurk around sale sites for a while. Make sure you get one with a working meter though, as this adds a lot of value.

Charlie the Wonderdog Movie

We went to see Charlie the Wonderdog today. The title pretty much says it all. It is a competent computer graphics presentation which passes the time just fine. For me the most telling point was the way that the President of the United States was depicted as a money grabbing simpleton. The assumption that people in power are corrupt and only in it for their own ends is now very mainstream indeed.

BBQ and Croquet

Actual film pictures of the game. I lost.

What a lovely day for a barbeque and some “micro-croquet” in the garden.

mDrawBot Upgrade

If you happen to find one they are a wonderful kit

A while back I bought an MDrawBot kit. It is like high-quality Meccano but with stepper motors and an Arduino controller. You can use it to make four different drawing robots. The Arduino robot controller is connected to a Python program running on your PC which decodes SVG files and lets you draw them in a variety of ways. You can make a mobile robot with a pen in it, a drawing robot arm, a robot that draws on eggs and my favourite, one that hangs on the wall and can draw really big pictures.

All the robot code is in a GitHub repository but unfortunately it is now a few versions behind the current Python revisions. I’ve made an updated version of the library here and added some implementation notes.