I went out yesterday to the London IMAX to watch Sucker Punch. Overall I generally liked it but at the same time it lacked in certain areas and was also quite disturbing for its portrayel of sexual violence.
(warning: plot spoilers)
The inital part of the movie that introduced us to Baby Doll, the main character, and the reason she ended up in the asylum was, in my opinion, rushed and not explained well enough. Some of the CGI sections were not particularly convincing and reminded me of a video game. I also felt when watching some of the action sequences that i’ve seen all this before’. Indeed, there were some fight scenes that were almost identical to some in The Matrix.
I found the ending of the movie quite disturbing. The technique used for the labotomy was quite brutal and led me to Googling the technique to see if it was used for real (it was). I was also dissapointed that the main character did not escape the asylum or her fantasies, although I felt the way the ending was done left possibilities for a sequel.
Overall I liked the movie but didn’t really connect with any of the characters, was not wowed by the action sequences of CGI and thought the storyline was rushed. It is unlikely I would want to watch it again and it’s certainly not a movie I would go out and buy on DVD/BluRay.
On Friday I was in the West End of London and sent a tweet out asking if anyone was in the area and wanted to meet for a coffee. I got a reply from Ken Boake who was over at the Pachube Hackathon a short walk away who invited me over. So, I took the short walk and popped in.
I’d heard about the Hackathon but not paid a great deal of attention. After I had ended up at the event and saw what was going on I regretted that right away as it looked great. The event was being ran simultaneously in several cities around the world with thaw idea being that teams or individuals have 24 hours to hack something together to send data out tot the Internet to be displayed on the Pachube website.
What untreated me more though was the Nanode that device that Ken had designed. The Nanode is a through hole kit for making an Arduino compatible board with Ethernet built into the PCB. This gives a cheap alternative to a separate Arduino and Ethernet shield on a single board with other advantages such as serial communication between the units.
This was only a brief overview of the device as I had to rush off. I plan on sitting down with Ken some time and getting more detailed information about the device and it’s capabilities in the not too distant future. I will report back once I have done that.
Went down to London Hackspace last night to work on my GPS project. Had to give up in the end as LHS is basically a Faraday Cage with its construction of heavy concrete and glass with wire mesh inside. Will have to work on it from home.
I am simply trying to get the NMEA strings from the GPS module (uBlox 5) so I can parse them ready to create a text string for transmission via radio, as part of my High Altitude Balloon project. The last time I tried to work on this project, despite valid NMEA strings being sent via serial from the GPS unit, the TinyGPS library was not able to parse the strings correctly. I do not know if this is a bug with the library or what. Maybe I should look out for another GPS library to see if that solves the problem.
I will have to pull my finger out and get this project finished as the nice weather is starting to arrive and it will be time to launch soon. Watch this space.
Have spent the last 4 days at the Kelling Heath Star party in Norfolk. One of my hobbies is astrophotography so I went there with a gang of friends to do some imaging and test out some kit I bought recently. The weather wasn’t great for imaging though. Although we had clear skies every night, the wind was so high on the Thursday and Friday that only observing was possible as it was too gusty to take pictures.
Saturday night was nice and calm though and the sky cleared after about 10pm. Overall it was a great weekend.
An Arduino Workshop will be held over the weekend of 14th/15th May 2011 at London Hackspace. Spaces are limited to just 10 so if you are interested get in quick.
I will be the instructor and an Arduino Uno starter kit will also be included in the price.
For full details visit the London Hackspace page: Arduino Workshop
London Hackspace, if you don’t know already, is a non-profit, community-run hacker space in central London. They provide a space where people who make things can come to share tools and knowledge. It’s basically a social club for geeks. If you just want some office space to sit down and get on with your coding or spreadsheets, or perhaps work on your electronics project, or make something on a lathe, laser cut your laptop, make chess pieces on a makerbot or do just about anything you like, then a Hackspace is what you need.
For a very reasonable monthly subscription you have access to the space and all of its tools and equipment any time of the day or night (literally, loads of guys often work all through the night on coding projects). it’s a great social place for coders, creative types, artists, etc. Check out the webcams to get a feel for what the space looks like – http://london.hackspace.org.uk/webcams
They have a 2610 square foot space in Shoreditch, just a stone’s throw from Hoxton station. It’s open to their members 24 hours a day, and they hold regular free events which are open to the public. Since their founding in February 2009 they’ve grown from a small group of enthusiasts to become the UK’s largest hacker space. The space has a well-equipped workshop for metal and woodworking, a 3D printer, a laser cutter, electronics equipment and components, desk space, sewing machines, and much more.
If you are interested in Arduino’s then they have been holding recently a series of Aarduino Workshops, hosted by myself. Check out their website for further details.
Recently London Hackspace has doubled in size as they have taken rent on the unit next door. This has allowed them to move all of their workshop machinery into the new space and turn the old space into a ‘quiet room’, i.e. more desktop space, but seperate from the main space and generally more peaceful to allow you to crack on with your work.
To celebrate the occasion, they will be holding a ‘Space Warming Party’ on Sunday 6th February.
This is a great chance for interested non-members to have a look at the space, but also for everybody to get to know like-minded hackers with similar or completely different interests, discuss projects and techniques, and generally just hang out and have a beer.
When: Sunday 6th February, 13:00 onwards.
Where: Unit 24, Cremer Business Centre, 37 Cremer Street, London, E2 8HD.
Further information: http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Space_Extension_Party
London Hackspace: http://london.hackspace.org.uk/
Venue details:http://wiki.hackspace.org.uk/wiki/Laboratory_24
Sorry it’s been a while since my last post. Very busy as usual.
Beginning Arduino is now available on Amazon.com, .co.uk, .ca, .fr, .de, .jp, also in Barnes and Noble and loads of other online bookshops. It’s also available in real bookshops in the high street. I know this as my brother saw it in his local bookshop (in Reno) and I saw it in Foyles in London. It’s really nice to have seen my own work in a real bookshop.
Sales are going well and the reviews on Amazon.com are all positive. Get yourself a copy quick before they run out !
Beginning Arduino is now available to purchase on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, Apress and other good book stores. I can’t wait to get my hands on a printed copy, it will be great to see the real thing in my hand after all this hard work.
Beginning Arduino
So far, sales have been really good, especially in the US where it is flying off the shelves. Obviously this is exactly the kind of book that the Arduino beginner really needs to get them up to speed in an easy and fun style and who can blame them. I wish I had a book with nice colour diagrams and 50 projects from basic to advanced when i was starting off. It would certainly save all of that searching around websites for tutorials and would have also given me something to read on the train in and out of work.
Now I need to start thinking about what book to write next 
At last the book Beginning Arduino is 100% complete. 6 months of hard slog are over. I got the cover art from the publisher yesterday and it looks great. It has been available for pre-order on Amazon.con and .co.uk for quite some time now. It is also available in other online bookshops. Apress have also told me that the book will also be made available in Kindle and non-DRM PDF format from Amazon, Springerlink, Safari and other online bookshops too. Will make a great Christmas present.
When I get permission to do so I will post up a picture of the cover image.
Last night, at London Hackspace, I finally finished the book. The final chapter was completed and submitted to the author. I am so relieved. All that is left now are author reviews of previous chapters after they are back from the editor and tech reviewer, then a bio and a few other sections, and the book is 100% complete. I am still waiting to see the cover art work. I just hope Apress do a good job and make it catch peoples attention.
I guess about another two weeks work and i’ll be 100% done. I am so looking forward to having my life back. It’s been a hard slog. The book looks great though and I think it’s been worth all of the hard work. I just hope it sells well. It’s already available for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other large book retailers.