Writing Python using ChatGPT:
time taken to design and create an event service bus and create publish, subscribe and service discovery methods: 20 minutes
time taken to fix the indentation problems in the Python source caused by the use of spaces and tabs in the source code: 20 minutes
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).
The time display can be slightly ambiguous…
Hmm. What kind of person designs a word search clock and leaves out the words “hour”, “minute”, “quarter” and “half”? That would be me…
After yesterday’s test print we have the finished result. All I have to do now is write the software….
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.
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?
The self-solving wordsearch project is coming along nicely. I’ve been experimenting with printed letters and they seem to work quite well. Tomorrow will be all about software….
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.
I’ve reached a point in a project where nothing works, but I know how it all should work. I think this would be a good time to sleep on it, and finish the whole thing off tomorrow.
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….
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…
this was the starting image
Ask ChatGPT for a cartoon of a happy axolotl and then feed it into the Bambu Flexi-Toy maker and you get something like the above. Although I don’t think I made a very good job of placing the hinges. However, it did manage to impress the recipient, which was kind of the point.
Took a fish eye lens in to Beverley Minster and got this. Quite pleased with it.
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.
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.
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.
Image from Rick Soloway
I now have a new camera to obsess about. It’s the Concava Tessina It was released in the year I was born. It takes pictures on 35mm film loaded into custom cassettes. It is a twin lens reflex which uses a mirror to reflect the image from the lens down onto the film surface. It is tiny, fits in a cigarette packet (whatever that is), and you can wear it on your wrist like a watch. And it is pretty much impossible to find one anywhere.
Perfect.
Everything on the menu is awesome. We speak from experience.
National Geographic magazine likes Hull. They like it so much that it is in their “25 best places in the world to travel to in 2026” list. It’s the only place in England, rubbing shoulders with places like the Dolomites in Italy and Route 66. Which are probably quite nice to visit too. Once you‘ve been to Hull of course. We were in Hull today and had lunch at Thieving Harry’s, one of the places singled out for praise by National Geographic. And I’d taken the big camera, because today the light in Hull was completely amazing.
There are a few more pictures on Flickr.
Behold, the super secret encoder. Each spy has their 3D printed encoder strip. Individually they are meaningless, but stack them together and the secret word is revealed. Other words can be entered if required.
You can create your own encoders using a little Python program that runs inside FreeCAD. The code is here: https://github.com/CrazyRobMiles/Python-in-FreeCAD
Might be fun for Christmas messages. It’s never too early to start.
My scheme to bring back punched cards is gathering pace…
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.
