Big Car Rob

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I took my little car into the dealers for its MOT test yesterday. This is an annual British ritual where you find out just how dangerous that thing is you’ve been driving around in all year. My car passed (which is nice) although it did need two new tyres. They gave me a loaner car to play with which was huge (and according to the form I signed worth about 60,000 pounds). This was deeply scary but also great fun. I’m almost looking forward to the test next year…

Typewriters for kids

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Now, where is P?

Bought a typewriter yesterday for number one granddaughter. It was in a charity shop calling for me. After I’d walked past it twice I decided that it was actually for me. Kind of nostalgic. Just like the one I used when I was a student nearly fifty years ago. And of course it still works. Number one granddaughter was fascinated. The idea that you can directly make marks on paper with something mechanical was quite new to her. Within a few minutes she was happily bashing out letters and learning that there is no delete key……..

Great fun.

Dead Mouse

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I don’t think it was my mending that broke it

My mouse has broken. I’ve had it ages. It’s a Microsoft Sculpt Comfort mouse and I really like it. Everything works but the scroll wheel. This has happened before so I took it apart and cleaned it. And it is still broken. This is a big thing. I’ve had it for ages. It came with a keyboard/mouse pack from which the keyboard has long gone. I’m now making do with a flat mouse and looking at horribly expensive “new-old” stock.

Pro tip. If you find a keyboard or a mouse that you really like you should buy a couple of them and pop one away for the future….

Speaker Wisdom at DDD North

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This picture has nothing to do with the subject of this post. I just like how it came out.

One of the best bits of DDD yesterday was getting together with some students to talk about plans for the future. Boss had organised a bunch of speakers to have a word with a bunch of students. For me it was great to hear folks echoing what I used to tell students all those years ago. All of the speakers had great stories and I chipped in occasionally too. But I think all the advice can really be summed up very simply:

Do stuff and tell people about it.

People who might fancy hiring you will expect you to have completed your studies successfully. But if the only “war stories” that you have to tell are about your assessments you will find yourself at a disadvantage. You need to have other things you have made, done or failed at to talk about. And they don’t necessarily have to be in software. You should form a policy of finding things to do and ways in which you can use them to your advantage. If you take care of that you might find that your future will take care of itself.

Recommended Toothbrush

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It comes with a snazzy case as well

It has to be said that I don’t usually put toothbrush recommendations in this blog. But yesterday m dental hygienist insisted that I get a new toothbrush and even wrote down the make and model. It arrived this morning and I must admit it is rather good. It lights up when I press too hard and even tells me how much time to spend on each quadrant of my mouth (before today I didn’t even know that my mouth had quadrants).

Anyone got a spare P8?

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The kit was beautiflly presented in every other respect…

Spent some of today trying to build a “birthday present robot” for an important guest. Fell massively at the first fence when it turned out that our kit was lacking the P8 axle you can see above. We had two P6’s, but that doesn’t really help. The good news is that there are lots of these kinds of kits and they are quite cheap. The replacement should arrive tomorrow.

Rubber Hammer

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It doesn’t look a bit like a murder weapon…

I bought a rubber hammer today. I used to have one, but it must have bounced away somewhere. I’ve got some shelves coming today that you just put together with a rubber hammer and so I thought I’d get one. Perhaps the best 3.50 I’ve spent in a while.

When the shelves arrive I plan to answer the door with the hammer in my hand and say “Aha! At last you’re here. Now I can begin…”

Then again, perhaps not.

Teenage Engineering OP-1 for sale

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You know you want it

I bought my Teenage Engineering OP-1 few years back when I thought I might be a musician. This has turned out not to be the case (through no fault of the device itself). I now think I might be a photographer (so stay tuned for a few years hence when I think I might be something else and start selling all my cameras).

Anyhoo, in a bid to fund my photographic excess I’ve popped my OP-1 on eBay. I’ve hardly used it much (it is like new) and I think the price is reasonable. If I decide I want to get back into music I can always sell a couple of cameras and buy another one. You can find it here.