Newcastle « Pete Hindle

Recent Developments in Fun

This weekend, over at Newcastle’s Maker Faire, I heard that the guys from the Arduino Project were planning something new. Well, according to a post over at Lady Ada‘s site, this is it:

Wow. That’s one big card. I don’t have a use for something like this, but the picture turned up on a robotics forum, so it might have some use in that field. However, it might also find it’s way into the burgeoning CNC field.

The picture above shows the first reasonable homebrew CNC milling device, capable of producing products from ABS plastic. The website is not too clear as yet as to what it can do; however, they do mention a sugar nosel for extruding shapes in sugar.

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February 9, 2009

Basic Techniques of Digital Media, Week One

I’d like to say I’m looking forward to it, but it’s an unashamed truism in my family that we look gift horses in the mouth. In fact, we’d look any form of gift animal in the mouth, because animal dentistry is expensive. They just don’t see the positive sides.

Back when I had a tv, I saw a program where Cheetah – the monkey from the 1940′s Tarzan – was in his ape retirement home. He wears pants and smokes cigars, which means it’s a significantly better retirement home than most of the one I’ve been to. Like cats and dentistry, there is no way that you can convince Cheetah to stop smoking those stoogies.

Hey, smoking’s a right.

You can, however, communicate with Koko, the gorilla fluent in sign-language. She’s even demanded that she sees the dentist before; she’s also demanded that people show her their nipples.

I’m not expecting any nipples in my Basic Techniques module, but I do expect the same sort of cross-species confusion. How are those with artistic backgrounds going to get on with the logical thinking processes expected of programmers? Badly, I suspect, from knowing some of my cohort.

Personally, I would like to completely avoid any timewasting with patcher languages. I’m going to nod wisely at your arguments and then point to the smoking chimp wearing a diaper, because there is no way on earth you’ll ever get me to use a patcher language out of choice.

Continuing on, I’d also like to say that I feel this module is going to eat my time right when I don’t have any. I think this should have been the first module in the course, and Theoretical Foundations of Digital Media should have been either special sessions or otherwise shifted. Why?

When I finish this course, people aren’t going to ask me about my views on cyberfeminism. They are going to expect me to work some kind of art-magic, which is what this module is heading towards.

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January 28, 2009

Project Proposal, Feasibility Study, and Nifty Diagram

This blog entry might not look like a lot, but there is a fair amount of words to chew through in the linked files.

These files relate to the ongoing work of Unnamed Laboratory, and to my coursework within the Digital Media unit. As such, they are here as much for reference as for reading. If you decide to use them in your own work, or reference them in some manner, they are licensed under the Creative Commons Share-alike Non-commercial Attribution License, and you should check that you are using it within those terms.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

January 27, 2009

Unboxing Bitsbox

I came across the website http://www.bitsbox.co.uk/ the other day, and I was just so tempted by the piles of electrical componants they had that I floundered into capitalism. Just doing my bit to support the economy.

One of the problems of making (in the Make Magazine sense of the word) within Newcastle is that it’s really hard to get a reliable line on componants. Although we do have a Maplins in town, the delivery from bitsbox really puts them to shame. I ordered the lowest pack of mixed electrical parts they do, and I got such a great selection of stuff that I thought I’d do a traditional unboxing.

(Click through to see any of the pictures on Flickr)

This is what the pack looks like. As opposed to Maplins, everything is put in nice little bags, and not swimming around in an ocean of packaging. If you’ve ever ordered from the online version of Maplins, you’ll note that they give you about an elephant’s body weight in packaging, but still manage to mess up your order.

Look at that! The tiny little things are labelled correctly! In this pack, you get three different bundles of resistor, all of which are clearly labelled. Talk to the hand, Maplins, because the ordering chequebook ain’t listening.

I don’t know what these things are, but they look nifty. My flatmate suggested that they are miniature Cylons.

The pack came with a fair number of componants, including five 555 chips. The last time I tried to buy some 555 chips from Maplins, they had two in. Or they had one 555 chip and a 556 chip. I gave up on the project I was working on and went back to faffing around for a while, because you learn from being a Maplins customer that not having them in means that they never have them in. Can you feel the bitterness in my writing? Sorry.

Not only do you get a breadboard, but you also get a 9v battery! Maplin’s charge such a silly rate for breadboards that it’s untrue. What makes it really weird is that they don’t sell a lot of parts that actually fit on the breadboard, seeming to prefer to not give you anything to use on your fantastically expensive breadboard. Maybe they like to keep theirs neat? It’s a mystery.

I’m really impressed with Bitsbox – it’s a small operation, and they are providing a better service than the big high-street shops. I’ve no doubt that I’ll be picking up some bits from them in the future.

December 22, 2008

Maker Faire UK comes to Newcastle!

As part of Newcastle’s Science Festival next year, Make Magazine is having it’s first UK based MakerFaire.

This is great news, because it’s IN NEWCASTLE. Where we at the Unnamed Laboratory are based! So what is a Maker faire? Well, according to their website it’s a family-friendly event that celebrates the
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. Over the past few years, Make magazine has been documenting the rise of this DIY mindset, and this festival will be a great thing to have on the doorstep.

If there is any one person who I’ve met from Newcastle that really embodies that DIY mindset, it’s got to be Derek, aka Bo the Clown. Currently, Derek is working towards presenting a massive multi-user bike installation as part of the Glow Festival, but he’s also an educator, philosopher, and storyteller. Hopefully, he’ll have the chance – and the time – to get involved with what the Maker Faire gets up to.

Pete Hindle

Category: Newcastle

March 18, 2009