Arcoarena

I got one of those plug-in power meters from B&Q (they were doing a 10% off if you spend over £50, I had £45 worth of stuff in my basket and this thing cost £5)

I’ve been slowly going round the living room trying to work out where I should worry about power draw from stuff and where I shouldn’t. Here’s the results of a slightly unscientific experiment. Where I’ve quoted a range of figures it’s to show the variation

Amongst this data there are a few surprises. Why does the TV draw 9.6W in standby, what’s it doing? I’m pleasantly surprised that the PVR draws less than 10W given that it still has to decode TV signals in standby. Interestingly the combined power of the PVR and the aerial amplifier was less than the power of just the PVR. I’m assuming that the PVR’s internal amplifier is less efficient that the separate one.

Finally, I haven’t put this in the table but…. I was surprised how much the router was taking, I would have expected it to be less than 10W, in doing some of the testing I turned the router off, the power meter read 14W. Pulling the power cable out of the back of the router didn’t decrease this value. So just the PSU for the router (a standard 12V power brick) draws 14W even when it’s supplying no current. I find that quite shocking given that I’ve been involved with designs to run Linux on a PowerPC with DDR, memory etc. in less than 5W

I’ve been rumbled

The government have announced a plan to allow people to comment online about their public services. This seems like a sensible idea, an easy way to feedback constructive comments in order to improve public services. Well done the government. Except….

The flaw in this plan could very well be the general public as David Mitchell points out in his Observer column.  The related point to this post is that I’ve found out I’m not the only one who’s been forced to stop reading BBC News’ “Have Your Say” boards, and Mr Mitchell links to the excellent ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com, a collection of some of the most ignorant, racist nonsense that sadly seems to fill the HYS boards, with introductions that are probably just as offensive.

So, the correct way to complain. Well, I’m sure the Open Rights Group have a few ideas. I’ve signed up to their news feed and get depressed on a regular basis. The most recent post was about the introduction of e-borders, the scheme to collect passenger information for everyone entering and leaving the UK. The information required will be Name, DoB, Passport number. The UK Boarder Agency also says “We will also collect other passenger information, for example details of reservations and payment.”.

So to re-cap; Name, address, credit card number and the government’s previous record of data protection……nope can’t see any problem here

With Easter (rapidly?) approaching I thought now would be a good time to post some code.

So here’s how you calculate the date of Easter (in python as it happens)

"To Calculate the Date of Easter"
year = input("Which year do you wish to calculate the date of Easter for: ")
a= year % 19
b = year//100
c = year % 100
d = b // 4
e = b % 4
f = (b+8)//25
g = (b-f+1)//3
h = (19*a + b -d -g + 15) % 30
i = c//4
k = c % 4
l = (32+2*e+2*i-h-k) % 7
m = (a + 11*h+22*l)//451
n = (h+l-7*m+114)//31
p = (h+l-7*m+114) % 31
print "Easter is on", (p+1),"/",n,"/",year

The method is from “Practical Astronomy With Your Cacluator” by Peter Duffett-Smith (which I recommend for anyone with an interest in Astronomy). It is based on the fact that Easter Sunday is first Sunday after the 14th day of the lunar month (the nominal full moon) that falls on or after 21 March (nominally the day of the vernal equinox).

I was going to post my code to simulate an Enigma Machine, but I seem to have lost it, if  I do ever find it I’ll put it up.

From an ad on Facebook

“Which words below would you most associate with M&S?
Qaulity
Convenience
Value
Underwear
Clothes”

Highlighting, obviously, my own

It’s occured to be recently that whilst I like messing around with technology I’m not a particularly hardcore geek. Sure I run linux, but that’s it, I run it and sometimes install it (which recently isn’t exactly challenging). I don’t really play around under the bonnet, I just want a desktop that works.

The infuriating side of this is that there are quite a few cool little projects that I’ve thought of doing but never got round to. This means that I’ll never stumble upon the next internet fad and make a million purely by chance.

So, in case anyone wants to be more motivated than me here’s a list of things I’ve considered doing over the past couple of years and never got round to

• Designing a house (may still do this but it will be waaaay in to the future when I have the money, I’m currently wondering whether TurboCad is worth having a mess around with, anyone know?)
• Building a remote controlled model Ekranoplan
• Designing / Building a cheap amphibious car (admittedly mainly spurred on by that Top Gear episode)
• Setting up an OpenStreetmap project (more on this later as I’ll hopefully get round to this one)
• Designing my own lighting desk (a hardware implementation mainly with a software interface

Of course one of the obvious reasons why I haven’t done any of these is because they are ridicously big projects of which I have no real need, unlike fitting a kitchen, fixing the car, and relaxing.

Some day I’ll get round to some/all of these…..maybe

Having been kicked into action I thought I’d bring up something I’ve recently started supporting.

“The Open Rights Group is a grassroots technology organisation which exists to protect civil liberties wherever they are threatened by the poor implementation and regulation of digital technology. We call these rights our “digital rights”.”

So, I was intending to post progress with the Spitfire and various tweaks.

I haven’t because I haven’t done any. I did bugger about with the choke and the carbs because it was having some problems from cold but I decided the problem was the knob inbetween the chock knob and the seat.

My other car, the ‘reliable’ daily runner however has had a worse few months. The morning it was due to go into the garage to have the engine management codes read (the engine warning light was on) it wouldn’t start. So with some sense of irony I jump started it using the Spitfire.

So, I hear you cry, what is the problem with workshop manuals. Well, they assume that you have good access to the car and a decent place to work. I have the road outside my house, this makes finding some of the drain plugs a bit of a pain, the sump plug should be easy but I couldn’t find the coolant drain plug when it came to drain the engine (I actually did get round to replacing the rubber hoses).

The manual rather helpfully has a picture of a drain plug but that’s it, it’s a plug in a block of metal, where you find said plug is left as an exercise for the reader.

Interestingly Typealyzer thinks I’m a:

“ESFP – The Performers

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves. “

Interesting (possibly stretching the word) because previous Myers Brigg profiling told me I was a ….well can’t actually remember but it told me I was something else. Another online test told me I was a ISTJ.

The methods of assesment differ, maybe the difference between ‘what I think I am/how I think I behave’ and ‘how I actually think/behave’ would tell more about me than either result.

……and buy a Triumph Spitfire

A few more photos

I can’t quite pin down when classic cars started appealing to me but it was sometime near the end of University. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a classic for a few years but always got scared for various reasons; not having a garage, not having any experience of fixing engines etc.

So to cut a long drawn out story….I decided just to buy one or I never would. What’s the worst that could happen? (don’t answer that!). So with a bit of research and a few viewings I bought a 1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500 (with overdrive).

So far so good, we went camping last weekend (hence the tents in the photos) and it made the 80 odd mile journey with very few hitches. I’m still getting used to having a manual choke and there was a bit of a rumbling on the near side front corner which turned out to be some loose wheel nuts (which was both scary and a relief at the same time).

As for why a Spitfire. Good question, I guess if you’re going to have second car it might as well be a soft top, being British was obviously nice too. I quite like MG B (GT)s but there are quite a few of those around. Spitfires are slightly rarer and arguably more stylish.

I’ve now got an ever growing list of things to fix on it. The first is very probably going to be fixing the heaters, they’re currently stuck on hot!