Planet TermiSoc

Trip to Derriford :)

2010-03-09T13:58:22+00:00

Okay, so yesterday was bloody awful….

Go to hand in coursework. Simple enough task yes?

No. Asthma attack… So Nick bundles me into the back of a taxi and takes me to the Med Centre.

Nebuliser 1, and 2 and then Ambulance.

Nebuliser 3, 4 and 5, Hospital.

CXR -Clear

ECG - Good enough

Time for Discharge. Stress of waiting in a room full of people as a claustrophobic without a clue what’s going on? =

Asthma attack.

Nebuliser.

Attmitted to ward.

5 hours later… Discharged time.

I do not appreciate being kept in hospital for 10 hours when all I want is some steroids, painkillers, and my bloody bed.

Job!

2010-03-08T14:09:31+00:00

On the 25th of February I was up in London for a job interview. Apparently I didn’t do as badly as I thought, because a few days later they emailed me to offer me the job. So, starting on the 14th of June I’ll be working for Mendeley as a PHP/MySQL developer.

Next obstacle: finding somewhere to live within a reasonable distance of Farringdon tube station. After that, I get the fun of trying to move all my stuff (including two bookcases full of books) 250 miles. Any volunteers?

AGM 2010 Details

2010-03-08T13:02:03+00:00

The TermiSoc AGM is now approaching, and we are beginning to finalise details. It will take place on the 18th of March at 6:30pm in Babbage 002. If you are a member of TermiSoc and want a say in how we are run you must attend.

The AGM will have reports from the exec, followed by the motions brought forward by members, and finally the elections of the new exec, whom take over at the end of the Academic year. A Full agenda will be published a few days before the AGM.

Below is more information on how you can bring forward motions and apply to join the exec. Nominations and Motions will close on the 11th of March at 6pm.

FAQ’s

How do I bring forward a Motion at the AGM?

If you would like something to be discussed and voted for at the AGM, please fill in the form with your name and email, a subject and the body of what you want to propose. It would help if you give the details so members who support your motion.

Please Click Here to Access the Motions Form

What exec positions are there?

There are four primary positions available. These are mandated in the constitution and are required by UPSU. These positions have mandatory training, paperwork and responsibilities.

The primary positions are:

President
Secretary
Treasurer
Safety Officer

There are other positions available outside the Primary group, these have responsibilities only to TermiSoc.

These are:

Social Secretary
Head Technical Officer
Assistant Technical Officer

Additional Exec positions can be created at the AGM with a motion.

How do I nominate myself to become an exec member?

Again, you can fill in the form below. To stand, you need to already be a member of TermiSoc, and you will need to be continuing your studies in the autumn at the University.

Please Click Here to Access the Nomination Form

Please remember that you will be called on to speak to justify why you want to be elected of that position, as members can abstain from a vote or elect to reopen nominations for the position.

While you can stand for more than one position, each person can only hold one of the primary exec positions. One person can hold one or more non-primary positions as well as being able to hold one of the primary positions however having more people on the committee can be useful for sharing out responsibilities, etc.

Tutorial: Will it Blend? With Gemma Peter

2010-03-04T15:17:49+00:00

Title: Tutorial: Will it Blend? With Gemma Peter
Location: Babbage 105
Description: Will it Blend? With Gemma Peter.

Gem gives us a basic introduction to working with Blender, a 3D animation and graphics engine, and not BlendTech brand blenders.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2010-03-15
End Time: 20:00

Tutorial: Ben Talks Security

2010-03-04T15:12:59+00:00

Title: Ben talks Security
Location: Babbage 105
Description: Ben A’Lee, our resident ninja, talks about security systems, and why – if you’re not careful, the ninjas will get you.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2010-03-08
End Time: 20:00

Tutorial: Georgie Talks Usability

2010-02-26T13:04:57+00:00

Title: Tutorial: Georgie Talks Usability
Location: Babbage 105
Description: New Member Georgie will be heading a discussion about computer usability with a focus on the elderly, getting your ideas and thoughts together as research for her project.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2010-03-01
End Time: 20:00

Charity Hack

2010-02-26T12:57:44+00:00

Title: Charity Hack
Location: Plymouth
Description: ok, so after some brainstorming at mondays tutorial, we’re building a fundraising app currently called motivate.me

inspired by a combination of http://xkcd.com/576/ and seth wanting motivation to do courseowrk assignments, motivate.me is a

you give it your paypal details, your amazon wishlist, a charity of your choice and a list of goals to achieve with deadlines.

For every goal you achieve by the deadline, it automagicly buys you something off your amazon wishlist. For every goal you fail, it automagicly donates £5 to charity.

…or something along those lines. if you’ve got suggestions on how to implement it or different variations we can do (or a new name, www.motivate.me is taken), shout it out.

We’re going to building it python using the django framework, because it’s awesome and python is easy to learn if you already know anything else.

to brush up on your django knowledge, check out www.djangoproject.com and www.djangobook.com but there’s at least a few of us know the framework well enough to teach you on the day.

if you’ve got any questions and suggestions, now is the time to shout them out or to go check out useful APIs, existing sites etc.

for more information, please email Edward on madscientist@termisoc.org

Start Date: 2010-02-27
End Date: 2010-02-28

Fixing Missing Gem Problems on OS X

2010-02-26T08:00:00+00:00

Fixing Missing Gem Problems on OS X

Disclaimer: This could potentially bugger up Ruby and Ruby Gems on your machine, proceed carefully.

Recently I've been doing quite a few REST API building stuffs with Ruby, Sinatra and trying to pick up ActiveRecord to use with Rails. I was however getting quite a lot of problems with Gems loading, but not loading completely.

If when running gem check --alien, you get something similar to below:

 rails-1.2.6 has 2 problems
        /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/specifications/rails-1.2.6.gemspec:
        Spec file doesn't exist for installed gem

        /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/cache/rails-1.2.6.gem:
        missing gem file /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/cache/rails-1.2.6.gem

Clear out all of the gems located in the following directories. You will need to similarly remove anything in the bin/, cache/, doc/, gems/ and specifications/ directories.

 /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8
    /Users/<username>/.gem/ruby/1.8
    /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8

(These directories can be found by entering gem environment).

You will then need to reinstall all of your gems. You may wish to issue a gem check on each of them to ensure it's all good.

Mondays tutorial: Using your geek powers for good and a charity hack planning discussion

2010-02-22T10:05:08+00:00

Title: Mondays tutorial: Using your geek powers for good and a charity hack planning discussion
Location: Babbage 105
Description: For this monday’s tutorial, Ed’s going to give a quick talk on how you can make the world a better place using your techie skills.

And if you’re coming to the charity hack at the weekend we’re going to put together a vague plan on what we’re going to build and what languages etc. we’re going to use so people have time to brush up and ponder things, so bring a pen and paper
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2010-02-22
End Time: 20:00

Freedom of Speech and Proscribed Organisations

2010-02-20T17:56:46+00:00

There's been a lot of discussion recently about the banning of the fundamentalist group “Islam4UK”. Opinions are strongly divided; many people on both the left and the right think it was perfectly acceptable, while others (at least on the left; I'm afraid I don't know of any sensible right-wingers, or even if such a thing exists) believe that “free speech should be absolute”, or at least that Islam4UK had not abused freedom of speech (nobody had shouted “fire” in a crowded theatre, for example).

I'm in the second camp; I'll explain my reasoning shortly, but first I want to talk about the Governmental tactic of proscribing organisations that are seen to be a threat.

What exactly does this achieve? Fundamentally, all any organisation, of any kind, is, is a group of people and a name. Proscribing an organisation does not forbid its members from associating with any other members (and indeed cannot, as freedom to associate is a fundamental human right). Therefore all it does is prevent people from using a particular name, which is completely impractical in preventing any sort of crime (al-Qaeda would be unlikely to operate under that name in the UK even if it were permitted, so why should they care what name they use?). In fact, Islam4UK is just the latest of a series of names used by what is effectively the same organisation: proscribing it is clearly achieving nothing.

If the members of Islam4UK have committed a crime, prosecute them for it. If they have not, then do not. It's not a complicated matter. “Proscribing” an organisation is about as effective as demanding that they stop misbehaving without actually doing anything about it.

As for the wider freedom of speech issue: as David Mitchell argued in the Guardian, protecting the right of free speech even for people with whom you disagree is essential for a free society. I don't agree with what Islam4UK have to say – but then, I don't agree with what the other side have to say either. I doubt that living in a Muslim nation with enforced Muslim religious law would be any worse than living in a Christian nation with enforced Christian religious law (or “values”, as they're generally called). I put up with Islamic nutters like Anjem Choudary for the same reason that I put up Christian nutters like Rowan Williams – because, loony or not, they have the right to an opinion and to express it. (Incidentally, Dr Williams: yes, I do think you're an oddball, along with any other grown man or woman with an imaginary friend, but you're not doing any harm so feel free to carry on.)

Nobody seriously considers preventing the BNP and similar organisations from having their say – as much as I wish they'd shut up and go away on their own, and as much as I support acting against them wherever possible, even I don't believe that banning them outright would help in the slightest. Why, then, should they be permitted to have their say and not other, similarly extremist groups?

I'm not arguing that free speech is, or should be, absolute – as mentioned, the crowded theatre is the canonical example of when free speech should be limited. If their speech caused harm, or was likely to cause harm, then by all means restrict it; if they want to incite a mob to rampage across a city, burning and looting as they go, then lock them up. If they want to express their disagreement with the UK's involvement in the Middle East (which, by the way, I would entirely sympathise with), then stop whinging, let them go ahead, then organise your own march to express your support for the war. Don't stop people having their say, just have your own say back. More speech, not less, is the way forward.

This was written for week 3 of project52, see others .

TermiSoc AGM 2010

2010-02-15T19:17:56+00:00

Title: TermiSoc AGM 2010
Location: Babbage 002
Description: Our AGM will take place on the 18th of March. More information is to be confirmed soon.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2010-03-18
End Time: 20:00

FOSDEM 2010

2010-02-14T19:07:03+00:00

Finally got around to booking travel and accomodation for FOSDEM 2010; I've left it late again, possibly even later that last year, so it's a little more expensive than I'd like (also, I didn't particularly want to share a room in a hostel with stangers again, so my accomodation isn't as cheap as it could be). On the other hand, I've money saved from my placement, so what the hell.

One thing that did puzzle me, incidentally, was the booking form for the hotel, which offered a choice of rooms: “Standard Room +£0.00” (no additional cost, as the default selection) and “Standard Room (breakfast included) +£41.46”. That's per night.

I cannot quite grasp just how wonderful a breakfast would have to be to justify spending that much on it. To put it in perspective, that's approximately what the room costs per night (I think; it's bundled with the Eurostar cost, so hard to tell). It's also not much less than a return ticket to London. I could quite easily get breakfast in a hundred other places on my way from the hotel to the conference for less than a tenth of that. What the hell are they thinking?

Empty Tory Promises

2010-02-14T19:06:52+00:00

Yesterday I received Tory propaganda in the post, along with a questionnaire. They are still repeating their claims that not only will they not cut NHS funding, but they will improve the service. On the face of things this seems like a reasonable proposition, but from the Tories it seems to demonstrate a disturbing lack of arithmetic ability.

The problem is, the Tories insist that they will not increase the deficit. They also claim that they will cut taxes (on rich people at least). How exactly do they propose to reduce government income and increase or maintain government spending without increasing the deficit?

The only solution is for them to cut some other services, but they attempt to gloss over this in the vain hope that people won't ask how they intend to pay for anything. They make vague and misleading promises and hope that they won't be caught out.

The simple fact of the matter is that the NHS, and the welfare state, are socialist ideas, and yet no matter how much some Conservatives might want to, they have no hope of ever getting rid of them. The Tories have no choice but to maintain and even improve these embodiments of left-wing principles, because like it or not, people want them. If they were to promise to abolish the NHS and replace it with a US-style system of private healthcare, I suspect that they'd not only be soundly beaten by Labour, but the Liberal Democrats would give them a tough time too; thus, they're reduced to basing their campaign on not Conservative principles, but Labour ones.

Co-operating on Transport

2010-02-14T19:06:36+00:00

For quite some time, I've believed very firmly that public services should be public – not private, run for the benefit of their shareholders to maximise their profits, but public, run for the public good, to maximise the service provided to the people who use the public service. There's a simple reason for this – while a privately-provided service might operate in the best interests of its users if that provides the maximum profit, if there's another way to make a larger profit (like, say, screwing over the customers any way they can) then they will do so. Further, many public services are natural monopolies (it's difficult, for example, to run multiple competing train services along the same route, without causing accidents), so it's hard to ensure competition (which, hopefully, would keep prices down).

However, more recently, I've become less convinced that having all services centralised under Government control is necessarily a good thing – rather, it's just another sort of monopoly, and even with the most benevolent government in history that's less than ideal. It also limits regional autonomy, which is often desired in public services – Devon and Cornwall are very different to Greater London and should be run in different ways.

However, there's a third wa–no, wait. We've had a third way and it was just like the first one. How about a fourth way? Public services, public ownership (“”common ownership of the means of production”:clause4”, even) does not require ownership by the government – why not ownership by the public?

There are probably a dozen different ways in which a co-operatively-run transport system could work, but the model which occurs to me is one of many small, regional co-operatives running local bus services (and metro, and so on). Think Transport for London, but run by the citizens (London is possibly too big an area for a single co-operative – perhaps one per borough would work better, but I don't want to get too bogged down in specifics – the only way to know is to try and see what works). The boundaries of these co-operatives might coincide with council boundaries, but that's not a requirement – in some cases, it might be more practical for an area to belong to a different co-operative, or to more than one (Torpoint and Saltash spring to mind, on the Cornish side of the river but with regular bus services to Plymouth as well as Liskeard).

These co-operatives would be responsible for all the public transport infrastructure in a small area – managing the local railway station and lines, maintaining bus stops as well as planning and organising services and maintaining the vehicle fleet (of course, there'd be nothing stopping someone starting a private bus company, but why use a private bus when you can use one in which you have a say in the running of?). How, though, would transport on a larger scale work – say national rail services, or (assuming London was split into several co-operatives) services across the capital?

Co-operatives with a stake in the service (both those with stops or stations as well as those responsible for the track used, even if a long-distance service passes through the area without stopping) would work together to negotiate the services needed to best benefit the users. This would work on both a small scale (Plymouth to Torbay bus services, with Ivybridge, Totnes and Newton Abbot consulted as to how many services should stop in each and how many should pass them by, as well as arranging matters so that the buses are sensibly spaced out) and a larger one – the Edinburgh to Penzance service (which would obviously involve many separate groups, all of whom should have a say in how the service is run).

More specifics are difficult to give – it's difficult to say what will work and what won't without trying it, and correcting problems as they arise. Probably someone with more knowledge of co-operatives could say more about the practical details that I could; this is just a general suggestion from me.

This was written for week 2 of project52, see others .

101 things in 1001 days

2010-02-14T19:06:03+00:00

Since Skippy, Loupie, and Natnie have all published their lists (among others) I thought I'd give it a go myself.

So. If I start counting from tomorrow (2010-01-10), I need to finish by 2012-10-07.

Improve my German and keep in practice.
Visit Germany.
Visit somewhere outside Europe.
Get a driving licence.
Write a program for a mobile phone.
Give up milk (and milk products) for a month.
Play guitar in front of people.
Learn to play two songs on keyboard.
Plan a week's worth of meals in advance, buy everything needed up front, and stick to the plan.
Make a budget and stick to it.
Get up at 6am every weekday for a month.
Start learning another language.
Complete Couch to 5K.
Complete the 100 pushups challenge.
Complete the 200 pressups challenge.

That's all for now. More will be added when I think of some.

(Incidentally, after Nick tweeted about Project52, I've decided to try and take part, with at least one meaningful update — not just “what I've being doing recently” — every week. My Twilight Review was Week One's submission.)

Atheism, Liberalism, and Freedom of Religion

2010-02-09T19:54:06+00:00

The French report calling for a ban on women wearing Islamic face veils worries me, for a number of reasons. Don't get me wrong, I think the world would be a better place in general if religion ceased to exist, but I don't think banning it, or specific religious practices, is the way forward.

I'd base my reasoning, in part, on John Stuart Mill: “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others”. The wearing of a veil, when done willingly and without coercion or manipulation, harms nobody; therefore, it should be permitted.

The supporters of the report claim that “it is the symbol of the repression of women”; while ending the oppression of women is a goal I'd wholeheartedly support, I'm not entirely convinced that fining women for being oppressed is a particularly helpful solution. Punish men who force women to wear the burka; don't punish women who are forced to wear it (and, for that matter, don't punish women who wear it by choice).

The report also recommends that anyone showing signs of “radical religious practice” be refused citizenship or residence. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, assuming for the moment that “radical religious practice” is harmful to others; however, I suspect that the burka is a much more obvious symbol of “radical religious practice” than anything that might be worn by men, leading to disproportionate punishment of women.

In discussion with members of TermiSoc, I took my position further: though in many cases, religion is harmful to liberty, banning or restricting religion and most religious practices would be in contradiction with the Harm Principle quoted above.

It does not hurt others, for example, for someone to believe that the world was created by an omnipotent being. It does not hurt others, even, for someone to believe that the world was created in six days 6014 years ago, any more than it hurts others for someone to believe that the sky is green or that there is a china teapot orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. They are almost certainly incorrect, but they have the right to be.

The point at which it becomes legitimate to oppose religion is the point at which it begins to affect others. When people demand that children are taught about the orbitting teapot as if it were fact, or at least likely, oppose it: being taught something as if it is fact when it is not is harmful. When people demand that women wear robes that covers their entire body aside from their eyes, oppose that, and oppose violence against women who don't wear it (in fact, oppose violence against all women) – but don't, as explained above, punish the victims for being victims. Conversely, when people try to demand that someone not wear a symbol of their faith, oppose that – a crucifix or turban harms nobody, and thus there are no grounds on which to forbid it.

When people try to pass laws based solely on their religion, oppose them, because while people may opt into a set of religious laws if they like, such laws shouldn't be enforced upon others. In fact, any laws that are not simply an application of the Harm Principle should be opposed: government has no right to exercise power over individuals for any other purpose, and neither do other individuals.

This was written for week 4 of project52, see others .

WP Android

2010-02-03T16:32:12+00:00

So… I thought I would try blogging from my phone. Have to say very easy thouse WordPress guys have done a grand job.
If you have WordPress and android. Try android.WordPress.co.uk

Hmph.

2010-02-01T21:59:49+00:00

Okay. So the wonderful nick has bullied me into having another blog. One that I put my name to… Then he spent the best part of an hour deciding on the domain. Though, he did buy it, so more fool him. Oh well. Now he’s being demanding, surprise surprise. Bye for now. G.

Screening: Virtual Revolution

2010-01-31T21:44:43+00:00

Title: Screening: Virtual Revolution
Location: Babbage 105
Link out: Click here
Description: We shall be screening the first episode of the BBC’s Virtual Revolution documentary slot in Monday’s tutorial. Will be followed by a discussion and the usual Monday night pub social.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2010-02-01
End Time: 20:00

Empty Tory Promises

2010-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

The only solution is for them to cut some other services, but they attempt to gloss over this in the vain hope that people won’t ask how they intend to pay for anything. They make vague and misleading promises and hope that they won’t be caught out.

The simple fact of the matter is that the NHS, and the welfare state, are socialist ideas, and yet no matter how much some Conservatives might want to, they have no hope of ever getting rid of them. The Tories have no choice but to maintain and even improve these embodiments of left-wing principles, because like it or not, people want them. If they were to promise to abolish the NHS and replace it with a US-style system of private healthcare, I suspect that they’d not only be soundly beaten by Labour, but the Liberal Democrats would give them a tough time too; thus, they’re reduced to basing their campaign on not Conservative principles, but Labour ones.

January Lan Party

2010-01-28T22:06:56+00:00

Title: January Lan Party
Location: Sherwell Church Hall
Link out: Click here
Description: Gaming from 11am to 9:30pm, £5 on the door

The First LAN Party of this academic year, for more info visit http://termisoc.org/lan/
Start Time: 11:00
Date: 2010-01-30
End Time: 21:30

Thoughts on the iPad

2010-01-27T08:00:00+00:00

Thoughts on the iPad

Tablets and small computers have always interested me. My iPhone is a great little mobile computer - the internet in the palm of your hand, and the rest of that..

The thing is, I've never seen the actual point of tablets. They are generally not convenient enough to make them worthwhile, the wrong size, too limited and have an awful input mechanism.

There was an interesting discussion on Hacker News earlier today about tablets in medicine. The article itself suggested that tablets would be a great way for doctors to enter information about patients - forgetting of course that paper has worked wonderfully since pre-Nightingale and such an adaption would be an uphill struggle. Anyway, I digress.

From my rather biased perspective, I think Apple has done something interesting with the "iPad".

The interesting bit here, at least, I think, is their showing off of iWork on the device. The biggest issue with such a device is text input. Being just a large screen, there's not the ability to easily enter text. The iPhone isn't a bad, if a little small, but still a pretty good mobile keypad, the iPad is similar, although on a larger scale.

What I can't see though is the gap between the iPhone and the MacBook models. Therefore, I don't think it's revolutionary, at all.

I find reading to be quite possible on both my iPhone and MacBook Pro, leading me to not need something to fit in that gap. At least, not with just a LCD screen. e-Ink would be something different entirely, reading of an LCD screen is tiring on the eyes.

I can't see why you would use such a device for writing a document when a laptop is far nicer and why you would use such a device for watching TV, recorded or otherwise.

What I do think is clever though is the price point. It's not cheap enough that I would buy one - not least at the 3G end of the scale, but priced cleverly enough to provide another option for people looking for a new machine.

Maybe the revolutionary aspect is producing a excellent, portable device?

I intend to see it pan out, I can't see me buying one, but it's interesting, none-the-less.

Atheism, Liberalism, and Freedom of Religion

2010-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

The French report calling for a ban on women wearing Islamic face veils worries me, for a number of reasons. Don’t get me wrong, I think the world would be a better place in general if religion ceased to exist, but I don’t think banning it, or specific religious practices, is the way forward.

I’d base my reasoning, in part, on John Stuart Mill: “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others”. The wearing of a veil, when done willingly and without coercion or manipulation, harms nobody; therefore, it should be permitted.

The supporters of the report claim that “it is the symbol of the repression of women”; while ending the oppression of women is a goal I’d wholeheartedly support, I’m not entirely convinced that fining women for being oppressed is a particularly helpful solution. Punish men who force women to wear the burka; don’t punish women who are forced to wear it (and, for that matter, don’t punish women who wear it by choice).

The point at which it becomes legitimate to oppose religion is the point at which it begins to affect others. When people demand that children are taught about the orbitting teapot as if it were fact, or at least likely, oppose it: being taught something as if it is fact when it is not is harmful. When people demand that women wear robes that covers their entire body aside from their eyes, oppose that, and oppose violence against women who don’t wear it (in fact, oppose violence against all women)—but don’t, as explained above, punish the victims for being victims. Conversely, when people try to demand that someone not wear a symbol of their faith, oppose that—a crucifix or turban harms nobody, and thus there are no grounds on which to forbid it.

When people try to pass laws based solely on their religion, oppose them, because while people may opt into a set of religious laws if they like, such laws shouldn’t be enforced upon others. In fact, any laws that are not simply an application of the Harm Principle should be opposed: government has no right to exercise power over individuals for any other purpose, and neither do other individuals.

This was written for week 4 of project52, see others .

Tutorial: Chris Hunt’s very brief guide to technology based philosophies, methodologies, and stuff in between.

2010-01-17T01:21:42+00:00

Title: Tutorial: Chris Hunt’s very brief guide to technology based philosophies, methodologies, and stuff in between.
Location: Babbage 105
Description: Chris takes us through A few interesting things thoughts and ideas in the technology world, from theoretical to practical and outskirts to mainstream.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2010-01-18
End Time: 20:00

Initial Plans for 2010

2010-01-16T23:49:28+00:00

Now everyone’s back and settled in for the New Year, TermiSoc kicks off again on Monday with the first Tutorial, Chris Hunt’s very brief guide to technology based philosophies, methodologies, and stuff in between. Same time and place as usual, 6:30pm in Babbage 105.

We’re currently working on the full tutorial schedule for this term: If you’d like to host or request one, do let us know on termisoc@termisoc.org.

This term’s LAN Party takes place on the 30th of January (that’s two weeks away). Times are TBC, but it’s the same rules as last time, £5 on the door, all welcome!

Coming up at some point this term will also be this years AGM. Want to shape the future of TermiSoc? Run for an exec postion or table a motion, but most importantly, be there. We’re looking at holding it in April or May, and there will be plenty of notice, so no excuses!

Don’t forget: It’s never too late to join TermiSoc. It’s only £3, which will get you access to our servers, an @termisoc.org email address, and the many wonderful honorary member’s brains (which are confirmed to be juicy and succulent) . Just pop along to one of our events and say hello, well be more than friendly.

Freedom of Speech and Proscribed Organisations

2010-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the banning of the fundamentalist group “Islam4UK”. Opinions are strongly divided; many people on both the left and the right think it was perfectly acceptable, while others (at least on the left; I’m afraid I don’t know of any sensible right-wingers, or even if such a thing exists) believe that “free speech should be absolute”, or at least that Islam4UK had not abused freedom of speech (nobody had shouted “fire” in a crowded theatre, for example).

I’m in the second camp; I’ll explain my reasoning shortly, but first I want to talk about the Governmental tactic of proscribing organisations that are seen to be a threat.

If the members of Islam4UK have committed a crime, prosecute them for it. If they have not, then do not. It’s not a complicated matter. “Proscribing” an organisation is about as effective as demanding that they stop misbehaving without actually doing anything about it.

As for the wider freedom of speech issue: as David Mitchell argued in the Guardian, protecting the right of free speech even for people with whom you disagree is essential for a free society. I don’t agree with what Islam4UK have to say—but then, I don’t agree with what the other side have to say either. I doubt that living in a Muslim nation with enforced Muslim religious law would be any worse than living in a Christian nation with enforced Christian religious law (or “values”, as they’re generally called). I put up with Islamic nutters like Anjem Choudary for the same reason that I put up Christian nutters like Rowan Williams—because, loony or not, they have the right to an opinion and to express it. (Incidentally, Dr Williams: yes, I do think you’re an oddball, along with any other grown man or woman with an imaginary friend, but you’re not doing any harm so feel free to carry on.)

Nobody seriously considers preventing the BNP and similar organisations from having their say—as much as I wish they’d shut up and go away on their own, and as much as I support acting against them wherever possible, even I don’t believe that banning them outright would help in the slightest. Why, then, should they be permitted to have their say and not other, similarly extremist groups?

I’m not arguing that free speech is, or should be, absolute—as mentioned, the crowded theatre is the canonical example of when free speech should be limited. If their speech caused harm, or was likely to cause harm, then by all means restrict it; if they want to incite a mob to rampage across a city, burning and looting as they go, then lock them up. If they want to express their disagreement with the UK’s involvement in the Middle East (which, by the way, I would entirely sympathise with), then stop whinging, let them go ahead, then organise your own march to express your support for the war. Don’t stop people having their say, just have your own say back. More speech, not less, is the way forward.

This was written for week 3 of project52, see others .

Thoughts from the plane ride home

2010-01-14T13:37:55+00:00

On the afternoon of Monday 11th January 2010 (local time in Calgary) I was deemed inadmissible to Canada and sent back to London, this is what I scrawled on the back of 6 pages of paper which was originally my receipt and itinerary from Air Canada. If it sounds like a suicide note, that’s because it

I hereby voluntarily withdraw my application to enter Canada and agree to leave Canada without delay.

is or it was, I don’t know what the correct term should be. Some names have been blocked out to protect people. You’re probably going to ask that question everyone asks in times like these, do you still feel the same? The answer is yes, I do.

So this is the third time I’ve been denied entry or as they euphemistically call it “withdrawing your application for entry”. I doubt, given the information which Interpol clearly holds on me (although I am unable to see) that I have no chance of entering any countries which I don’t have an automatic right to travel to – i.e. countries within the EEA.

I really hoped that I could pull this off – for a start it seemed that the Canadian Government wanted a lot less information from me on entry and none before leaving (See new US rules requiring incoming passengers to notify CBP/TSA of details before leaving their home airport). However I really think that the biggest problem is that I am the worst liar, clearly I would be no good at poker, for that is what it is like when you are travelling to foreign countries.

My plan was to get to Vancouver and then after checking out the city, to make my way south towards the border. Then either find a secluded enough place to walk across the border or maybe try my luck at the truck stops, see if the drivers could be bribed to get me across.

I would then make my way to Seattle and then travel to Denver by either train, bus or air. Whilst air travel would be the quickest method, must trust in the TSA not to run my details through some database is not high and it seems too risky. Airports are like prisons, difficult to escape from. The train would have been a nice, albeit expensive trip, changing in Sacramento and then via Salt Lake City to Denver, I have never been on Amtrak or seen the Pacific ocean.

I really thought I could help XXXXX, if I could get to Denver. I was concerned that despite her detox, she had started drinking again. I don’t like to preach to people (especially when I’ve never been an alcoholic) but if you are a recovering alcoholic then its no booze for life. I was prepared to help XXXXX by going to AA/NA meetings, therapy/education to get her driving license back and generally being there as someone who understands what it is to be different. I also hoped that perhaps in way of return for staying I could help in her Dad’s franchise businesses.

So what next, well apart from a flight back from Calgary to London? I don’t know what to do. I had basically given up on my life in England. Locked myself out of my apartment, sent bills etc. to my folks and only taken what I really needed with me. I had even emailed a friend asking him to change my passwords on social networking and email sites so that I could not slip back into my old life and potentially be tracked by the US Government.

Before I went to University in Plymouth in 2005 I had spent quite some time thinking that this would be the ultimate next step. That if I could get through 4 years of education and get that magical piece of paper at the end, then all my problems would be solved – job, social and financial. In my mind, my college experience may as well been written by Walt Disney. When I actually got there I found that I was good at some things but really bad at the things that mattered – maths and generally getting stuff done. At heart I guess I am a quitter with a strong sense of ’self preservation’.

After I dropped out of Plymouth in 2006 I tried to change, but so far I can’t seem to change the flaws in my character that make sustaining things difficult. Jobs, ideas, education, they never seem to last long. Sometimes I make great strategies that I will do whatever it takes to get through and get back on track, but these days the plans rarely last 24hrs before I wake up tired and disillusioned, thinking – ‘can I really be bothered to do this?’, roll over and go back to sleep. Sometimes I wish I was 18 again, amongst all the beautiful people I see today; but I doubt it would make it any better, I still wouldn’t have anything in common with them.

It has never really been my intention to be useless, I really wanted to be of some use to some one; hence wanting to go to Denver, by fair means or foul.

So I really want people to know how sorry I am that it came to this; my body has too many issues that I can’t really fix. My brain – well I have tried taking pills, many different doctors and mental health professionals, but I can’t seem to fix the issues that lurk up there, and that is before we mix in Asperger’s, ADHD, etc.

XXXXX told me not long ago that I was the person keeping her from killing herself. I wanted so much to help, but there is not much I can do from 4,000 miles away for a person who lives in a country I may as well be banned from. I guess its the old mantra “do what I say, don’t do what I do”.

So, it always seems a shame to me when I get to this stage. 2hrs ago I was resigned to my fate, that I would drift gently into a coma somewhere around 20,000ft on re-entry into UK airspace. Now I feel like shit, it isn’t working and I don’t know what to do now.

Sometimes I am inclined to believe in L. Ron Hubbard’s immortal words – that psychiatry doesn’t work. Most of it is an affront by Lilly et al to make money from SSRI’s – which isn’t working so well for them any more since the patents have run out. Even if I “turned myself in” – went to casualty at a hospital on landing, they wouldn’t be inclined to help much since I don’t live in London.

Other ideas:
Fall from heights – Out of the question since I am too scared to actually jump.
In front of a train/car – again too scared and have too much respect for train drivers.
Suicide by cop – Heathrow’s armed Police, maybe an option – but how much do you need to piss them off before they would shoot you?

I don’t want to go home, since then I would have to face people just to get back into my flat. In my mind failure was not an option. Damn you Asperger’s Syndrome and the Canadian Government.

I always know what people think when I do this, that I am too pragmatic about it. I talk about death the way old folks talk about taking a cruise of the Mediterranean. Resigned to the fate but not angry, verbal or aggravated. Maybe this is why I have never really been taken seriously or sectioned; Doctors simply don’t believe I will do it.

I could inject more insulin, but would it work or would the physical effects of low blood sugar be too much to bare – my kingdom for a cookie and a soda!

I am reminded at this time by the Meat Loaf song “Life is a Lemon (and I want my money back)” except its not my money, very little of it ever was – now of course Student Loans will catch up with the fact that I have effectively dropped out of Bolton and send the boys round for the grant part of the money. Why not just add to the bill – it’s never going to get paid back, the chances of me keeping a job with a salary of over £15,000 a year before I am 55 are very very slim.

Well Ben A’Lee has the magical list of passwords so no doubt you can contact him to get the word out about my demise, since its unlikely to make news in the UK, US or anywhere else I might know someone on Facebook, et al.

I was trying to be productive and watch a movie just now; the selection is pretty bad compared to Continental and Virgin whom I have flown with before – probably to save room for Canadian content in the hope of placating those Frenchmen in Montreal.

Memento – seen it before and to be honest its kinda boring. For those of you who don’t know the protagonist who is searching for his wife’s murderer is his wife’s murderer.

The Horse Boy – ‘tragic’ autism story – get a grip, so maybe your kid can’t speak, but its not as if you had any control in the matter and horses ain’t gonna cure him.

Post Grad – Annoying, mainly for the reasons that other people having that magical piece of paper are difficult to deal with for me.

Finally saw “District 9” (not great), Bandslam (Good), Some initial episodes of “Bored Stupid” (HBO) – Quite good. Also saw some episodes of Showtime’s Californication with David Duchovny, however its overtly sexual content always annoys me because it just reminds me of the fact that it seems everyone is having sex but me.

I suppose that my boredom and ranting may have reached new levels, the captive audience at 37,000 feet eh?

Other people’s words – Chris Slater-Walker once said that he “didn’t know how he could be any good to society”, this is pretty much how I feel. Folks often say “what a waste” when people kill themselves. But is it, really? I am probably more of a drain on society than anything else – perhaps I should offer myself as sacrifice to those militant tax payers who think of me as “Dole Scum”. Not only am I a drain on the public purse, but that of my parents as well – ideas that I would one day repay them for all the debts I have racked up are long gone now. They are the ones who ulitmately have to pay and I don’t think they should. Genetics and mental health is not really anyone’s “fault”.

There has to be some way I can make this suicide work today. I can’t run away, mainly because I am no good at that anyway – both physically and on-line. I guess I long for home comforts too much and space to do what I want, even when my flat seems to become a prison cell.<Photo 1>

Co-operating on Transport

2010-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

For quite some time, I’ve believed very firmly that public services should be public—not private, run for the benefit of their shareholders to maximise their profits, but public, run for the public good, to maximise the service provided to the people who use the public service. There’s a simple reason for this—while a privately-provided service might operate in the best interests of its users if that provides the maximum profit, if there’s another way to make a larger profit (like, say, screwing over the customers any way they can) then they will do so. Further, many public services are natural monopolies (it’s difficult, for example, to run multiple competing train services along the same route, without causing accidents), so it’s hard to ensure competition (which, hopefully, would keep prices down).

However, more recently, I’ve become less convinced that having all services centralised under Government control is necessarily a good thing—rather, it’s just another sort of monopoly, and even with the most benevolent government in history that’s less than ideal. It also limits regional autonomy, which is often desired in public services—Devon and Cornwall are very different to Greater London and should be run in different ways.

However, there’s a third wa—no, wait. We’ve had a third way and it was just like the first one. How about a fourth way? Public services, public ownership (“common ownership of the means of production”, even) does not require ownership by the government—why not ownership by the public?

There are probably a dozen different ways in which a co-operatively-run transport system could work, but the model which occurs to me is one of many small, regional co-operatives running local bus services (and metro, and so on). Think Transport for London, but run by the citizens (London is possibly too big an area for a single co-operative—perhaps one per borough would work better, but I don’t want to get too bogged down in specifics—the only way to know is to try and see what works). The boundaries of these co-operatives might coincide with council boundaries, but that’s not a requirement—in some cases, it might be more practical for an area to belong to a different co-operative, or to more than one (Torpoint and Saltash spring to mind, on the Cornish side of the river but with regular bus services to Plymouth as well as Liskeard).

These co-operatives would be responsible for all the public transport infrastructure in a small area—managing the local railway station and lines, maintaining bus stops as well as planning and organising services and maintaining the vehicle fleet (of course, there’d be nothing stopping someone starting a private bus company, but why use a private bus when you can use one in which you have a say in the running of?). How, though, would transport on a larger scale work—say national rail services, or (assuming London was split into several co-operatives) services across the capital?

Co-operatives with a stake in the service (both those with stops or stations as well as those responsible for the track used, even if a long-distance service passes through the area without stopping) would work together to negotiate the services needed to best benefit the users. This would work on both a small scale (Plymouth to Torbay bus services, with Ivybridge, Totnes and Newton Abbot consulted as to how many services should stop in each and how many should pass them by, as well as arranging matters so that the buses are sensibly spaced out) and a larger one—the Edinburgh to Penzance service (which would obviously involve many separate groups, all of whom should have a say in how the service is run).

More specifics are difficult to give—it’s difficult to say what will work and what won’t without trying it, and correcting problems as they arise. Probably someone with more knowledge of co-operatives could say more about the practical details that I could; this is just a general suggestion from me.

This was written for week 2 of project52, see others .

101 things in 1001 days

2010-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

Since Skippy, Loupie, and Natnie have all published their lists (among others) I thought I’d give it a go myself.

So. If I start counting from tomorrow (2010-01-10), I need to finish by 2012-10-07.

Improve my German and keep in practice.
Visit Germany.
Visit somewhere outside Europe.
Get a driving licence.
Write a program for a mobile phone.
Give up milk (and milk products) for a month.
Play guitar in front of people.
Learn to play two songs on keyboard.
Plan a week’s worth of meals in advance, buy everything needed up front, and stick to the plan.
Make a budget and stick to it.
Get up at 6am every weekday for a month.
Start learning another language.
Complete Couch to 5K.
Complete the 100 pushups challenge.
Complete the 200 pressups challenge.

That’s all for now. More will be added when I think of some.

(Incidentally, after Nick tweeted about Project52, I’ve decided to try and take part, with at least one meaningful update — not just “what I’ve being doing recently” — every week. My Twilight Review was Week One’s submission.)

FOSDEM 2010

2010-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Finally got around to booking travel and accomodation for FOSDEM 2010; I’ve left it late again, possibly even later that last year, so it’s a little more expensive than I’d like (also, I didn’t particularly want to share a room in a hostel with stangers again, so my accomodation isn’t as cheap as it could be). On the other hand, I’ve money saved from my placement, so what the hell.

I cannot quite grasp just how wonderful a breakfast would have to be to justify spending that much on it. To put it in perspective, that’s approximately what the room costs per night (I think; it’s bundled with the Eurostar cost, so hard to tell). It’s also not much less than a return ticket to London. I could quite easily get breakfast in a hundred other places on my way from the hotel to the conference for less than a tenth of that. What the hell are they thinking?

Twilight — Review

2010-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

A couple of days ago I watched Twilight, for two reasons—one, I thought it only fair that I watch it before ranting about how terrible it is, and two, I was really bored.

It wasn’t the worst film I’ve ever seen; I wasn’t forced to turn it off in disgust after ten minutes. However, I think that’s probably because I have a lower threshold for boredom than for things pissing me off.

It’s not the plot that I have an issue with, per se, as the characters. I think the same general plot could be reasonably good, given better lead characters.

Firstly, Edward. Let’s start with the age thing. He’s supposedly the same age as Bella—seventeen. However, in his own words, he’s been seventeen for “a while”. Ninety years, as it happens. Why, exactly, is a centenarian picking up teenage girls? In what universe is that appropriate? Age differences are all well and good, but he’s old enough to be her great-grandfather.

It might be okay, of course, if he was slightly less, um, obsessive and creepy. Let’s see—he regularly breaks into her house and watches her sleep without her consent or even knowledge. He stalks her “for her own good”. He repeatedly talks about how he wants to kill her—how, in fact, it’s a constant struggle for him not to do so. How, exactly, is that romantic? If that’s not an abusive relationship, it’s on the way there; apparently he gets even worse in the later books, abandoning her “for her own good”, then returning, only to make her leave her family and friends to be with him (or is it “for her own good” again?).

I wasn’t going to comment on the “sparkly vampire” thing, but as I’ve been writing this it’s been bugging me more and more. There are thousands of vampire legends. They share many features in common, and have many more unique points. If you’re going to write vampire fiction, you could take elements from any of these to come up with something new and unique—a dozen times over, probably. Or you could make up your own, fitting in with the general vampire theme. I quite like how Interview With The Vampire explains which of the vampire legends are true and which aren’t, tying it in nicely with the real world and the millennia of folklore. Or, you could make up something that sounds more appropriate to a My Little Pony than a vampire, explain it away as something that “evolved” as a way of catching prey (vampires “evolved”? how? and how does evolution fit in with Stephanie Meyer’s much-vaunted Mormon faith?).

The problem with Bella is the complete lack of a character. She’s a face, a name, and a bit of backstory. There’s nothing to distinguish her, no reason for her even to exist other than as someone for Edward to fall in love with (supposedly). At first, she demonstrates that she’s relatively intelligent (she recognises the square root of pi being recited, completely out of context, and manages to figure out the truth about Edward through research). However, even that seems to disappear once they become a couple, and once she’s put in a dangerous situation.

That’s the big problem I have: she’s in danger, so she must sit around and be rescued by her boyfriend and his family. Earlier in the film, she was perfectly willing to try to defend herself (though, again, rescued by Edward, who’d conveniently been stalking her for her own protection). Now, though, she just gives up, completely incapable of acting on her own behalf. She doesn’t even seem to play a role in planning her own escape and the trap for the vampire who’s threatening her. In fact, the only part she does play is to put herself in even more danger, so that Edward looks even better when he shows up to rescue her.

Is this really something that should be encouraged? Girls, don’t think for yourselves, don’t live your own lives; just sit around and wait for a controlling, obsessive, abusive — sorry, I mean “romantic” — guy, then live your life exactly how he wants you to, get married and have his kids (even if it means risking your own life to do so—because abortions are under no circumstances acceptable), and so on, and so forth. Just conform to the strictest, most out-of-date gender roles you can—welcome back to the 1950s!

A few links to finish: Buffy v. Edward, an amusing mashup video (Flash, sorry, but links to other formats), and the writeup that goes with it, plus another article: Twilight’s Bella Swan is a Feminist’s Nightmare—I particularly liked a comment that pointed out that if Edward wasn’t good-looking, his behaviour would be obviously unacceptable, but because he is it’s considered “romantic”. I also like all the other comments from fans jumping to Twilight’s defence at the slightest hint of criticism…

(And just one minor point to finish off with: I don’t know what sort of vegetarians Stephanie Meyer has met, but if you eat animals you are by definition not one. Calling yourself a vegetarian because you don’t eat humans is like calling yourself a vegetarian because you don’t eat red meat. Just saying.)

This was written for week 1 of project52, see others .

New year, new post.

2010-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

Well here we go, first post of 2010.

Keeping it nice and simple for this one. Just a picture of a christmas present I recieved:

Updates to last post

2009-12-03T18:32:56+00:00

In my last post I talked about how I was struggling with assignments and had difficulty accessing the JANET UK Univesrsity Roaming Service. I am glad to say that I have now finished the assignment I was struggling with and that I have resolved the issues I was having with Roaming.

I think the main issue with the Assignment – which was to write a report about a Engineer/Technologist who had made a significant impact on society, was that I had tried to go too deep. No word limit was specified and although pointers were specified about the sort of information required I didn’t really know how much detail to write about each bit.

Anyway, its all over now and I just have to get an assignment done for a module called “Product Realisation” which is about how the electronics industry actually works. I have 2 circuit diagrams and I have to copy them into a SPICE simulation package called Multisim, then do the PCB layout in Ultiboard (which is part of the same package as Multisim).

This is a fairly easy task, but unfortunately Multisim/Ultiboard are not available off campus due to licensing restrictions and the licenses are a bit difficult to bypass. But I have until 17th December to do that, so I expect it will be OK in the end. Incidentally Multisim is a very bad package and my tutor says he was once given a spec for a military project which specifically said “DO NOT USE MULTISIM!”

The issue with the Roaming Service was that I had my wireless driver set to verify the certificate provided, clearly something dodgy is going on at Bolton, because there instructions specifically say to turn off certificate verification! Again this is another example of how bad a University it is and how it has become too big for its boots! Never enough computers available for use, very small library and a general penny pinching attitude – we’ll try and get as many students on a course as we can, never mind if its booked for a room where there aren’t enough computers or we don’t have enough licenses for the software they are using!

I will try to decide in a few months time what to do next, weather to stick around or take my credits and go somewhere else…

Long live vinyl!

2009-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

Lasers + Absinthe = Win

2009-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

TermiShop Now Open!

2009-11-25T22:51:55+00:00

Just a quick one, you can now buy authorised merchandise from our new Cafepress store! There are only a few items just now of the “Import awesomeness” design, with more in the pipeline.

So go visit http://cafepress.co.uk/termishop And spend some of that Student Loan already!

So much to do, so little time!

2009-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Well, this has been an interesting few weeks.

Wondering why I haven't posted? Well, I've been building this:

Yep, there she is! MakerBot 277 "Elivra".

From when it arrived it took me three days to build, then the rest of the week (I got picked up from the depot on a Monday) to get working. Here is possibly the geekiest thing I've printed so far:

Next up, RepRap!

Trying to get Assignments done!

2009-11-23T23:46:14+00:00

So, I guess we all (Students) have this problem, assignment x is due on date y, Time is now y-4 and it isn’t done! Like I said back in “Hello from Newcastle“, these things are difficult for me.

I think that the latest batch of undergradates are probably members of the ADD generation – not that they have ADD, but more that life has too many distractions. Facebook, Myspace, IM, email, texts… we can now access these services anywhere at any time. Nearly everyone has a laptop or some kind of computer of their own and the temptation to go off and chat/social network is probably greatest when we are bored, but know whe have stuff to do: Procrastination. Workplaces have to block these sites because people would get no work done otherwise (not to mention the possibility of litigation).

Now I know I cannot blame anyone for this, no-one held a gun to my head and said “join Facebook” but sometimes it seems that way! I guess in these modern times our lives are bankrupt to the point where we just have to know what everyone else is doing to be happy!

Tonight I had a plan, thanks to agreements between North West Universities I am able to go to any University and use their library to study. I am also able (theoretically) to use Internet facilities of any University in the UK that participates in the Eduroam Service. I made this choice because home is too distracting and Bolton has a very poor library with little space to study and never enough computers.

So I went to Lancaster University, because I know that there is no requirement there to show ID to get in, so no arguments with jobsworth security guards. I did do some work, approxmately 300 words about Alan Turing for an assignment due Friday, but sadly Eduroam failed. I could not logon to the system and I don’t know if this is the fault of Bolton or Lancaster, but according to JAnet their systems are supposedly up to scratch. I have emailed Bolton to ask what’s up.

Possibly this wasn’t the best of ideas, an hour’s travelling time or so each way to do 300 words, but I did do something and I suppose I should think about that rather than thinking “I can’t do this, there is no point in me remaining at University”.

November LAN Party

2009-11-19T23:55:13+00:00

Title: November LAN Party
Location: Sherwell Church Hall
Link out: Click here
Description: Set up from 5pm, £5 on the door (TBC)

The First LAN Party of this academic year, for more info visit http://termisoc.org/lan/
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2009-11-28
End Time: 23:00

Tutorial: A History of Console Modding

2009-11-19T23:51:23+00:00

Title: Tutorial: A History of Console Modding
Location: Babbage 105
Description: Drew (aka Leovinus) has a chat about the History of modifying Home Consoles to run homebrew code.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2009-11-23
End Time: 20:00

Tutorial: Stewart’s Makerbot

2009-11-16T11:17:50+00:00

Title: Tutorial: Stewart’s Makerbot
Location: Babbage 105
Description: Stewart Starbuck (Spcs on irc) shows off his Makerbot – an open source 3D printer. This will be something to behold. Stewart will attempt to bulid something in front of your eyes, and will even play a song!
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2009-11-16
End Time: 20:00

Tutorial: Version Control with Git

2009-11-09T10:24:05+00:00

Title: Tutorial: Version Control with Git
Location: Babbage 105
Description: What version control is, why it’s useful when working alone, why it’s even more useful when working in a group, and examples of how to use Git for version control. Hosted by bma.

Followed up by an evening of Pool in Riley’s
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2009-11-09
End Time: 20:00

Ideas and University

2009-11-03T08:00:00+00:00

Ideas and University

It's been a while since I've written down a set of thoughts. Most of which occurred before I started University. What I do want to ponder here I will come to in a moment, but now I've been at University for nearly 4 months - I'm trailing on to the end of the first term.

It has certainly been a experience, but something I thought would be overly more strenuous and complex. Especially after the first few weeks. Unfortunately, it has not been like what I had hoped. I certainly don't find the amount of work I'm given hard enough - or even to the level of other's at different Universities and the topics covered never seem to go into the depth I'd like. All in all, it either feels like I'm not learning anything or that I am rather having to teach myself.

Arguably this is a failing of the University itself and speaking with others the first year doesn't appear to change, and some have stated that the second year is not much better.

What I do want to talk about though are ideas. Ideas are those amazing things you dream up doing and in most people's cases, don't get the chance to execute them. I used to have a constant flow of such things. Possible projects flying out of my ears just waiting to be executed.

Since getting to Plymouth though, that all seems to have changed. I have ended up having passing possibles, rather than something that sticks for any reasonable amount of time.

Quite possibly this down to not specifically having any problems to solve, or indeed too many options to solve it, neither of them which are worth spending time on.

As an example, I have been meaning to launch something of substance on Heroku for a while. Could do with patching up my Ruby knowledge by writing some client-side apps, rather than simple ideas executed with Sinatra and then abandoned. Similarly, I haven't used C for a while, would like to learn some Objective-C for Mac development (and Cocoa, obviously) but have no reasons to push ahead with it. No project idea generally means that I merely read and plan about either a project, or something new (like a framework) and not end up with something at the end.

As part of my course, I am supposed to be learning C#, half of my problem here is that I don't use Windows and therefore I don't have a need to build anything there. Although, fortunately I seem to be able to pick it up quite easily.

So, instead of spending my time working on something specific I am slowly reading through a mountain of books. To run off a list off the top of my head:

Learning Ruby
Learning C# 2005
Beginning Linux Programming
RESTful Web Services
Learn C on the Mac
and finally: Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X

I do also have a couple of UK-centric business books which I'm slowly attacking, although there is not much point (bar the background reading) to learn about that when I have nothing to execute!

You can of course put an idea on a postcard.

Of course this "lack of ideas" could instead be covering another problem. Instead I may have lost the passion I used to have for simple things that felt worthwhile building. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I'm not sure. Possibly better in the sense that I end up not starting and then stopping projects, but not so great in the sense that in four months I have produced nothing.

Retrospect is a wonderful thing and the last few weeks can be looked back upon with the odd test, only three assignments, and a pretty dodgy sleep pattern for me to look back upon. Don't get me wrong, University is worth it's while, however when you feel you are getting nowhere (because it's too simple), it's easy to wonder if being somewhere is worth it's time.

So now, my general week consists of 5/6 lecture slots, sinking my way through some quite heavy books, eventually learning the Guitar and spending just a little too much money. That's quite a far cry from the last two years. Maybe I shouldn't complain?

Where were you, dude?

2009-11-03T02:42:45+00:00

it may be gray outside in Massachusetts — at least there are still rainbows in my soap bubbles – Star Simpson

I got back from a wet evening in Manchester and this quote made me smile. Its been been difficult lately…

For those of you who are new to the world of Seth, I have Diabetes and a messed up Pancreas, these health issues go back about 10 years now, before that I was skinny and had no problems. This is of course on top of my Asperger Syndrome and “additional mental health issues”…

The Pancreas issues started when I was 20, I suddenly got terrible pain in my abdomen and had to call an ambulance; this kinda thing went on for about 2 years, every few months or so. Removing my gall bladder didn’t help! The damage done to my pancreas by all these bouts of pancreatitis – basically the pancreas tries to digest itself – left me with a problem digesting fats… sometimes its better than others, sometimes I eat something with a minimal amount of fat in and minutes later (I kid you not) I am running for the bathroom.

When I was 24 I found out that not only had the enzyme producing part of my Pancreas messed up, but the Insulin producing part had as well and I now had diabetes. At first it was easy, I would ensure, no-matter what that I had my insulin pen and my glucometer with me and would always test and inject before meals. Then I got depressed, pissed off and I have never really gotten it right again for very long since about 2007.

Recently its been really getting me down, over the summer I had a blood test which seemed to suggest that I am making my own insulin and that my diabetes might be more like Type 2 than Type 1 – Type 2 diabetics produce insulin but can’t use it, Type 1 diabetics have no or very little insulin production. So I started taking tablets instead of insulin during the day and then I realised they weren’t working, so try a different tablet – last week I figure out this isn’t working either. Yesterday I realised I couldn’t bring my blood sugar down even by injecting an amount that would have been normal for me a few months ago.

So it seems for the past few weeks, my blood sugar has been sky high, I have spent the best part of my waking life on the toilet, but I am still alive I guess and not going blind, etc, yet…

The weirdest part is that you can have these problems with blood sugar, but not really feel any different. Granted I want to sleep a lot – which has kinda messed things up: On Thursday night I was supposed to take my Intermediate Amateur (HAM) Radio License exam. I got home from University and all I wanted to do was sleep, I could not contemplate getting on 2 buses, taking the exam and getting home… I turned my phone off and went to sleep. Now I have voicemails and emails to deal with – “where were you?!”. Today I wasn’t at my lectures – the most boring ‘crossover’ module on “The Engineering Environment” is shared with mechanical engineers and mostly seems to be about writing about your favourite dead engineer – I have chosen Alan Turing, although I haven’t started writing the essay yet.

So tomorrow I will go in, I will go to bed in a minute and I will try my hardest to get up at 7am, shower, do the things normal people do and sit for 3hrs soldering my function generator project together and hopefully have something I can test at the end of the lab session.

So I hope that explains “where I have been” these last few days…

Elvira

2009-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

So, I've got the MakerBot page all setup, over here under 3D Printing.

It's not long now!

Status: Arrived Abroad

Your item arrived in GREAT BRITAIN at 3:22 PM on November 3, 2009.

Open Debate Evening

2009-11-02T10:08:42+00:00

Title: Open Debate Evening
Location: Babbage 105
Description: In a change to the schedule, we shall be hosting an open debate evening covering a set of topics. This is a bit of an experiment so do come along and be prepared with an opinion on the following:

Google Wave
Adovcating FLOSS in Education
Can Plymouth be a Silicon Valley?

While some members might be ranting please feel free to poke our tech guys to help you get set up with our servers.

Followed by pool night at Riley’s – see the following event.
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2009-11-02
End Time: 20:00

What is a prime, self number, and called Elvira?

2009-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

The answer to this question was found here:

http://http://wiki.makerbot.com/lineage

MakerBot Lineage
000277 - Stewart Starbuck

Elvira the MakerBot. Sounds alright to me.

For number information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/277_(number)

How much?!

2009-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

This came a few days ago, but only just scanned it in now:

Isn't that nice. £11.03 customs charge on two shirts.

What made me laugh / cry even more was when the actual packet arrived this morning:

Yep. Only £3.03 was the actual charge itself. ~Sigh~.

What's his name again?

2009-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

Just seen this over at http://planet.termisoc.org

9th- Stuart's Makerbot, Hosted by spcs
Stu shows off his magical open source 3D printer. Did we mention it's magical?

Who is this Stuart? Stu? Never heard of him. Now Stewart, that's a name!

Tutorial: How to Program in Cool Languages

2009-10-26T10:17:08+00:00

Title: Tutorial: How to Program in Cool Languages
Location: Babbage 105
Description: So, you’ve started learning Java? Or C#? They are fine languages, really they are. But are they cool? Are they fun? When you walk into a venue a proclaim your profession, ‘Java Architect’ you proudly exclaim, what happens? Do people swoon? Do they buy you drinks?

Thought not.

So come along to Dan and friends giving you the low-down on more subversive, entertaining languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk. Languages changing the tech world!

Followed by the Voodoo Lounge pub quiz, where we will once again fail miserably. But fun will be had!
Start Time: 18:30:00
Date: 2009-10-26
End Time: 20:00:00

Tasty.

2009-10-23T23:00:00+00:00

Day old pizza for lunch. Tasty.

There is something different about this post.

2009-10-18T23:00:00+00:00

MakerBots and sad emails.

2009-10-12T23:00:00+00:00

Sometimes you wake up to find nice emails. Other days, not so nice ones.

Hey Batch 8 MakerBot Operators,

We just got word from our electronics suppliers that they are going to be running late with their delivery. We had planned on shipping on or around October 18th, but we have had to move shipping day to Tuesday October 27th.

We're sorry for the inconvenience. We really want to get this batch out to you ASAP and we know it's frustrating to have to wait. We've taken measures to make sure this doesn't happen again.

In the meantime, feel free to download the software at Replicat.org and if you haven't checked out Thingiverse lately, it's overflowing with great things to make on your future MakerBot.

We also have a Google group and now would be a great time to join at http://groups.google.com/group/makerbot.

Thanks for your patience.

Bre, Adam, and Zach

http://makerbot.com

Games, Games, Games

2009-10-12T10:36:26+00:00

Title: Games, Games, Games
Location: Babbage 105
Description: As alluded to last week, this Monday’s meeting will be another relaxed and friendly affair – 18:30 in Babbage 105 again. We’re going to be hooking up a 360 to the projector and playing a variety of games – Rock Band will be happening (with plenty of DLC), Street Fighter IV may get broken out, I will take on all comers at Bomberman. I might also encourage you all to bring decent multiplayer 360 games if you got ‘em, but please remember that Halo and it’s ilk aren’t really suitable for big groups.

I’ll be bringing along a full set of Rock Band/Guitar Hero instruments, but they are not hugely up-to-date (for those with an interest in such matters, it’ll be an X-plorer, RB1 Strat and drums, and the standard single mic). These will be fine, but if anyone has and wants to bring along some of the newer instruments, please feel free, though we can’t arrange transport for bigger stuff, and you’ll have to take them home before we hit the pub later.

I also encourage you to bring along DSes and PSPs – there may be Mario Kart fun to be had among other things.

Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2009-10-12
End Time: 21:00

TermiSoc, week 2

2009-10-11T23:00:00+00:00

So much fun. I mean, it's Rock Band, it has to be good, right? ¬_¬

Yeah, lots of people milling around, not really getting much done. RB is on the projector. And I'm here (Yes, I'm posting this from the meeting), in my steampunk gear, not doing much either.

Still, next week things get started for real, and we have Plan 9 (the film) on it's way this week, so that's all good.

£3 well spent? We shall see.

Is that a planet I see over there?

2009-10-09T23:00:00+00:00

Looks like the folks over at TermiSoc Have added this blog to their planet. (Well, I did ask them nicely.)

That means I might have some people like, reading this blog now. Huzzah!

Zazzle, Win7 and Bunnies.

2009-10-09T23:00:00+00:00

Plan 9 user + Win7 launch party = Trip to Zazzle

It's been a while.

2009-10-08T23:00:00+00:00

Oh dear, not a great start. Only had this site up a week or so and I've given up posting to it.

So where are we now? Well, week 2 of uni has now finished, and we have already been given some crazy courswork. And yes, it's for media.

Part of the coursework (which is group based) requires a blog. As I just so happen to have this here server, I'm hosting it. You can find it over here: idat207.hatcaneandtypewriter.co.uk

My absinthe arrived last week, and here is what I got:

Pernod - Aux Extraits de Plantes d' Absinthe (68% vol.)
Sebor Absinth (55% vol.)

I also picked up the Sebor Absinth Sipping Pipe. I'll post pictures shortly.

Update:

Here is a picture!

See Toy Story in 3D

2009-10-06T09:15:02+00:00

Title: See Toy Story in 3D
Location: Meeting at Portland Square at 19:00, heading to Vue for 20:00 showing.
Description: Our first film night of the year – Toy Story in 3D. We’ll meet at Portland Square at 19:00, then wander down to the Vue for the 20:00 showing.
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2009-10-08
End Time: 23:59

Jekyll and GitHub

2009-10-05T07:00:00+00:00

Jekyll and GitHub

After quite a bit of work, I have finally moved over to using GitHub pages, Jekyll and Markdown to power nickcharlton.net.

From now on, this is a Git repository made up of Markdown files and a sprinkling of HTML. This comes with quite a few benefits, those of which I hope to explain below.

Versioning & Backup

As it is powered primarily by Git, each post has version tracking without any extra effort. This was recently added to Wordpress, instead of a clean solution, this just turned to make the database even more of a mess than it already was.

Secondly, due to the distributed nature of Git, I always have two copies. One is served up at GitHub, and the other is my working copy stored locally on my main machine. On top of this, other people can fork it, adding more backups.

Security & Access

Without the intention of using this primarily as a vehicle for moaning about Wordpress, this is another of it's issues. Certainly the two most important issues are security and access to the content.

As is typical with any large dynamic project, it's going to have security issues. This means that new versions of Wordpress are routinely rolled out, this means that you need to keep up-to-date with the latest build to keep your writings safe.

Next, is access of the posts themselves. They're stored in a MySQL database. This both means that accessing the individual posts requires accessing the database, rather than just opening a file. Opening a flat HTML file will always scale better than a solution which involves reloading the same information from a database on each connection (presuming no caching is used).

The Source

You can find the source on GitHub. Please feel free to reuse any parts which are not posts without attribution. The posts themselves are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike license. You can read more about that in the README.