Is he the guilty one? Have fun finding out.
We did our Murder Mystery thing tonight. It was great fun. The script was suitably silly, there was plenty of scope for wild over the top acting (the only kind I can do) and there was tons of intrigue.
We also raised a few quid for a really good cause. If you want to have a ton of socially isolated fun I can strongly recommend it. You can sign up here.
Made this little chap today out of Magic Clay. Very proud of myself.
When I was much younger, and vinyl records were a thing, I used to have a problem with earth loops between the turntable and the amplifier. The problem was that both the turntable and the amplifier were connected to the electrical earth for health reasons (my health not theirs). Then, when you connect a cable to send the signal from the turntable to the amplifier you add a second ground connection which causes induced noise. You had to fiddle around with the earth signals to get rid of it.
Fast forward to today and I’m connecting my OP-Z to my computer using the audio and usb inputs at the same time. Which makes another ground loop and more noise. There is a way that you can try to address this by turning off the USB charging on the OP-Z (Press [Screen] + Keyboard (E) - Spark) but this limits how long you can play with it and doesn’t always work. Instead I’ve got hold of a ground loop isolator which contains a tiny transformer that electrically isolates the input from the output. It reduces the level a bit, but it also makes all the nasty noise go away, which is what I want.
Clever Person:
Switches to bulbs that should last for ever.
Clever Idiot:
Switches to bulbs that should last for ever. And buys a spare set.
There are some great videos about the Teenage Engineering OP-Z synthesizer. I can strongly recommend ones from Cuckoo. However, I rather like having a proper book to look at. And that’s where SynthDawg come in. They’ve written some lovely books, including an OP-Z one. Their prices are very reasonable, the books are supplied as pdf documents that you can read on any device or print out if you fancy real old school bookery.
Derek put me onto this. It’s a GameGo. Underneath the rubberised case is a little device that can run JavaScript games written using the Microsoft MakeCode framework. There’s a rather nice particle demo that you can see running above. The device is a great way to entice people into game coding as it is a properly portable toy that you can fill up with your own creations. I’m looking forwards to having time to play with it.
Ages ago I used to enjoy murder mystery parties. Of course you can’t do this kind of thing any more because someone might end up properly dead. But MacMillan Cancer Support have had a neat idea. They’ve packaged up a murder mystery and invited people to hold a sponsored virtual event. We’re holding ours next week. Looks like fun.
The Teenage Engineering OP-Z is an amazing little device. In around the same space as a remote control (see above) it packs in a bunch of synthesizers, a sequencer, a sampler, a DMX lighting controller and and a 3D video controller that talks to Unity. You can use it as a midi host or client, plug it into your PC and add samples and pull back recordings of pieces you have stored or just listen through the tiny speaker. It’s battery powered, so you can write tunes on the bus if you wish. In my case that might even help with social distancing….
There is no display. You can use a phone or tablet to see what it is doing, but the coloured leds in the buttons means that once you get your head around the fundamentals it isn’t too hard to see what is going on, especially if you have a programming bent. I’m not sure if its cleverness can compensate for a lack of musical talent, but I’m having a lot of fun trying to bash out silly tunes with it.
A few years ago I bought a licence for Visual Micro. Today I’ve bought another. If you are serious about Arduino development you should take a look at it. It is the best way to make code for the Arduino and has a really good terminal, all accessible inside Visual Studio.
I was getting complaints about the huge pile of disorganised magazines that seems to have appeared beside the bed. Apparently they are a mess. So I’ve taken action. Behold. The magazines are now organised by title and in chronological order. Win.
We actually managed to go out today and visit family members. Very strange. Everything is still there, but most of it is shut. It was rather like driving round the latest version of Forza Horizons which includes some places I’ve actually been to. In the game you can see shops, offices and buildings that you can’t go into. Just like today.
Anyhoo, we had a socially distanced gathering which was so much fun that I forgot to sell my turnips in Animal Crossing. They go rotten tomorrow. Oh well. Totally worth it.
Today I had some banking duties to perform. I had to change the contact details for an account. I was a bit worried about doing it. These kinds of escapades usually involve a trip to the bank, standing in a queue and then waving around lots of bits of paper. This was an especially unattractive proposition in the current situation, particularly as the local branch is presently shut.
Anyhoo, after a bit of fun and games with a little keypad thingy that I’d been sent a while back I managed to get it all sorted via my phone. I love it when things just work.
Not sure if I should feel brave about actually going out and posting a parcel. But I do.
Here’s a scary thought. I’ve spent more than a quarter of my life as a Microsoft MVP. Amazing. I found out today that I’ve been re-awarded again which is wonderful. Thanks very much, greatly appreciated.
In the olden days I used to get up specially early, drive up town and review the papers with Radio Humberside. Nowadays I get up at the usual time, stagger over to my computer, put on my headphones and connect to them. I’ve just done that. The station has upgraded their on-line act so that we can now converse over Skype rather than the phone and it sounds rather like I’m in the studio.
Anyhoo, it was great fun and thanks for inviting me.
As part of chapter 6 (loops) of Begin to Code with JavaScript I’ve made a times table tester. The left hand button makes a mostly correct times table. The right button checks it for you. You can pay with it live here.
I’ve kind of had a week off writing; what with having guests and building gazebos, so today is all about writing some more of chapter 6. We’re improving our “Theme Park Ride Selector” program with the use of loops and colours.
This is another device from the M5Stack people. This has an 1860C rechargeable battery which can run an M5Stickc for a couple of days (depending on what it is is doing). With careful use of sleep mode it could be even longer. And it makes the device look a bit like a wand, which is nice.
The M5 Atom is a neat little ESP32 based device. They now do a version with 25 multi-coloured leds on it which is rather nice. You can also get a battery pack with the wonderful name of the “Tailbat” to plug into it and keep it going. You can program the device in Arduino C++, use MicroPython or even the UiFlow block based environment, all over the air from a browser.
Great fun and loads of potential.
Yesterday we drove to Leeds and built a gazebo. As you do.
Rob Miles is technology author and educator who spent many years as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Hull. He is also a Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP. He is into technology, teaching and photography. He is the author of the World Famous C# Yellow Book and almost as handsome as he thinks he is.
Begin to Code with JavaScript is now available for purchase and download. You can find it here
