Posts tagged with stuff

So I started this blog just about 3 years ago now, and despite my intent to use it to encourage me to do something with electronics, and to show case my progress, I have done nothing much since I bought a Raspberry Pi and got it running. Indeed it is still sat in a box waiting for me to motivate myself to get back at it. I have used this blog to rant about politics far more than I have done any electronics. It doesn't help that I have hardly been out on my bike once since I started this blog, so the project I intended to build I have had no need for. So based upon my initial intentions I must count this blog as an abject failure. However, as I pointed out at the time I started this blog I have attempted to do so before, and those prior attempts always ended empty, and pathetic, killed off due to a lack of content. I have at least managed to create content sporadically for this blog. The difference this time around? I am no longer trying to post stuff that I think other people will find interesting, so I am no longer holding back when I just want a rant, or to post about an "oh shit" moment. Granted I don't have the broadest readership in the world, but that doesn't really matter, I have an outlet, and if people read it, and find it interesting, great, if not then at least I still said what I wanted to. So this time around I'm not going to delete this blog, just yet, I'll give it another few years, and see how it goes. Who knows, maybe I'll start cycling regularly again and actually do something about that cycle computer (probably not though).

So I commute by public transport, this involves using the bus train, and Sheffield's SuperTram. The problem I am about to rant about is far worse on the tram and train than on the bus, but does occur on the bus occasionally, it's also a rush hour problem more than at other times of the day, presumably because rush hour is when their are fewer seats and more people have to stand. The problem is that people get on and stop, which at first glance doesn't really sound that bad does it, but consider this, lots of people do this, and by get on and stop, I don't mean get on, find some space, and settle in for the journey ahead, I mean step through the door and just stop right there. At busy times this means you have to fight your way past the crowds of people just to get through the door. Every time this happens to me (almost entirely without fail, and the exceptions don't really bother me much) there is amble room for everyone stood in the doorway to stand apart, and have some space, if these people just spread out into the middle of the tram/train carriage. I have had to fight my way through people crammed into the vestibule of the train, and when I had to ask one woman to move out of the way of the door into the carriage she asked me why I wanted to get past as there were no seats. What appeared to escape her however was the fact that the aisle was empty, not just less crowded, empty. Why stand like sardines for a thirty minute journey (my morning commute by train) when I can stand in plenty of free space? The tram is basically the same problem, but without the excuse that there is a door to separate the doorway area from the rest of the tram. The disabled area on the tram is also next to the doors (a sensible location all things considered) but due to this location it gets clogged up with these ignorant twats milling about the doorway. I am ashamed to say that recently (about a month ago now) when I got on the tram to see a woman with a disabled child in a wheel chair blocking the steps into the middle of the tram I didn't yell out to all the people blocking the disabled bay that they were utter failures as human beings, or try and move them on. More recently I had to fight passed the same group of people to get onto the tram, to allow people to get off (as I couldn't get far enough onto the tram not to block people from getting off initially due to these crowds), to get back on again, and then once more to get off a couple of stops further on!

Seriously, what does it take to get these people to think "hey, maybe I'm in the way, perhaps I should move, possibly that will make everyone's life easier, my own included"? The fucking morons!

So following on from my previous entry, where I decided I was going to build a cycle computer as an electronics project, to learn something new, I have purchased a RaspberryPi and some sensors to play with. (I purchased the stuff I thought I'd need from Pimoroni, a sheffield based company who give a proportion of their profits to the RaspberryPi foundation)

 So, I have started to have a look at what I can do.

 First things first, the RaspberryPi was bought with an SD card with Noobs pre-installed. I used this to install Rasbian (a port of my favourite Linux distribution optimised for the RaspberryPi). This was embarrassingly easy, or at least would have been if the small USB keyboard I was using wasn't faulty¹. Easy solution I'll get a new one this weekend (probably).

Next the sensors, these came with little header pins that needed soldering to the boards (if not soldering wires directly to them, which I am not doing as I am using a breadboard to try things out before fixing things in stone) and I have learnt, I either need a hotter soldering iron and a considerable amount of practise, or a seriously massive amount more practise at soldering.

So in conclusion I need to spend more time on thinking about this stuff, and I need to spend more money.

¹ This was not bought from pimoroni, but an old keyboard I had lying around.

So, I have a new Blog. I suspect I shall come to regret this decision, my colleagues will probably mock me horribly for this, but you cant have everything.

I've nearly set up a new blog several times in recent months, but have always held back. This is primarily because this would be my third, or possibly fourth, attempt at a blog. All of the others failed in the same basic way. I created the blog, I made an opening post introducing myself, and promising how I would keep it interesting, and then after a while (and no more posts) I killed it because an empty blogs are just crap.

I can't promise that this blog will be any different, I certainly don't promise that it will be of an interest to anyone but me.

Entries will largely be either rants, or stuff I want to share (I have a few projects in mind, but all in good time).

So once again, welcome to my blog.