More writing

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I’ve been promising to write a bit more on here for several days now and now I am actually going to do it. The lab work is finished, the office may be closed for the summer break, but my feet have hardly touched the floor and my bum is wholly unaware of what a seat looks like. If this is what holiday time is like, bring me more TB! Not had a moment. I swear.
Everything seems to have been in my way. Even between the last sentence and this, I had to change the batteries on the wireless keyboard. I mean, how often does anyone ever need to do that?
(Handy hint: it’s whn it strt typng lk his)

It’s a sign that someone upstairs doesn’t want me to write. (The wife, I mean, not God or anything.) Probably because I should be getting on with jobs, like sorting out the boy’s new bike, walking the beagle or trying unsuccessfully to fix the pool pump.

There have been moments of relaxation, of course. I took in my first (and probably last) film of 2015 – the Peanuts movie, this morning. We used the rather posh Prestige cinema at the local shopping mall for the ridiculously early 0845 screening. Unnecessarily electric reclining chairs, waitress service to your seat, a posh menu and a distinct lack of plebs – all for an extra R35 a time? Count me in for the one film I go and see next year as well.
The Peanuts movie was nice, if a little disjointed (but hey, look at this blog post). The kids enjoyed it. The storyline was a bit thin, but it had its moments. Still, as a guide, don’t go and see it unless you used to be a bit of a Snoopy fan when you were younger (I was), you have kids (I do) or you like hiding in the dark and wearing daft glasses early on a Saturday morning (I’m not saying).

Other news: I downloaded the BBC Radio 6 Music Classic Concert episode which featured Depeche Mode’s 1983 Hammersmith Odeon performance. Oh, it’s ever so good. If you’re quick, you too can listen and/or download until 10th January 2016, by clicking here.

I also owe Flickr loads of photos. But if you think blogging takes time that I don’t have, then you’ll perhaps understand why I haven’t manged to get that done either.
Soon. But after the footy. So actually not that soon.

Oh, and finally, I got some comments about my attendance at the annual Carols by Candlelight Glowstick concert at Kirstenbosch. You know, the “I thought you were an atheist” kind of comments. Well, yes, I am, but I didn’t see any terms or conditions about not being allowed to go along when the tickets were booked. I read my kids Roald Dahl and Harry Potter books. It doesn’t mean I have to believe in massive stoned fruit, large amiable tautologists or Platform 9¾. The thing is a charity event, the sense of community (something we’re sadly lacking in SA) is near tangible, and hey, it’s Kirstenbosch – there is no better place to go and drink wine, picnic and know that you are doing some good.

That’s one of the places I need to update my photos from. But right now, Guus Hiddinkidonk’s Chelsea are about to take on Sunderland. Live and in HD.
And I have reserved a place on the couch.

Please excuse me.

keDecember continues apace

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Although there’s still a bit of laboratory work to be done, things have slowed down considerably. As an example, one of my more taxing engagements today involved watching the kids play in the pool.

Another was walking the beagle on the local school field, thus:

image

It’s actually quite difficult to find this sort of thing in any way stressful.

Later this evening, a “Carols By Candlelight” event, which is actually a “Carols By Glowstick” event, thanks to the Nanny State overreacting to those people that never got hurt in that fire that never happened during Hark The Herald Angels Singe (pun intended), a couple of years back.

On Lily

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(Thankfully) before the Rand went really bad, I ordered a Lily. Not the flower of death, but the super cool drone which follows you around like a beagle expecting a snack. The waiting time before shipping was 9 months, presumably because they needed orders to make money to make drones. But they promised that they would keep in touch during the process and, I have to say, they have. I get an update about every two or three weeks on average. Sometimes they introduce new members of staff, sometimes they tell me about some robotics conference they have been to, and sometimes the updates are rather more technical.

Here’s a sample from the one that arrived last night, all about a pre-production take off, landing and camera test.

As you can see in this footage, there are three image quality issues: fisheye distortion, wobble, and stabilization. The team is on it, addressing each issue as follows:

  • The current dampening and wiring cause internal vibrations, resulting in wobble. We are adjusting the durometer of the vibration dampening system and re-assembling the wires to ensure this wobble is removed.

  • The unbalanced fisheye distortion is caused by a mistuning of the external polycarbonate lens. We have already re-tuned the external lens and this issue will not appear on the production version.

  • Our electronic stabilization software (EIS) was not used in this video. We will be porting this piece to the unit in the coming days and expect much better performance. More on that soon. That’s all for now!

So glad that they are adjusting the durometer of the vibration dampening system. Heaven only knows why the durometer of the vibration dampening system was unadjusted in the first place. Rookie error, guys. Even I know to adjust the durometer of the vibration dampening system before I do pre-production tests. (I would also probably have mistuned the external polycarbonate lens though. That’s always a tough one to remember.)

The Lily people say that they are still on schedule to ship in February, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a couple of delays. We’ll see. The thing is, the communication process has been so open and transparent, that I think I would be rather understanding if things were to run a bit late. And there’s a lesson for a lot of companies in there.