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How not to do goods delivery 2006 April 24 14:17

Posted by diamond in : Skynet , add a comment

A case study:

http://diamond.nonado.net/misc/pics/skynet%20racked/

So, we’re awaiting the replacement of the ~€1k of rack that was somewhat ‘adjusted’ in transit.

*sigh*

Car resurrected 2006 April 12 12:46

Posted by diamond in : Random , 1 comment so far

My father arrived down at 09:00 today, and woke me up by knocking on the window beside my bed. I woke up screaming, much to the amusement of the rest of the household. I suspect my semi-unconscious and drugged mind thought that this time the neighbour was going to tell me my car was gone. Ah well.

By the time i was out of bed and dressed he had removed the old steering column from the car. We then went for breakfast on the way to the scrapyard. I had been warned repeatedly before going there to make sure i haggled aggresively to avoid getting ripped off. I was rather apprehensive. I was also somewhat doubtful that they would in fact have the correct part. The model i have was phased out in ‘92, 14 years ago, so there really can’t be much demand for the parts. The last scrapyard i had dealt with, 2 years ago when my key snapped off in the ignition, had had only one carina II left, and have since gotten rid of it.

As it turns out, all the worry was in vain. After about 10 minutes of waiting the correct part appeared, and the price which i had been fearing being upwards of €200 turned out to be €60. Pittance for getting my car back. It took another hour or two to fit the new steering column as we had to remove the ignition from the old one first (hint: ignitions are designed to be impossible to remove. they use boltheads which snap off when tightened giving you nothing to grip for removal). In the end all was re-fitted and tidied up, he even screwed the car kit holder back onto the dash. All that’s wrong now is the lack of radio, which i’ll live with for the moment. My father rocks -)

Knock Knock 2006 April 11 8:21

Posted by diamond in : Random , 5 comments

At 08:45 today:

*knock knock*

Me: *opens door*… hi?
Neighbour: *points to end of road* is that your car?
M: No…. *looks to where car had been parked* Oh bugger. Yes
N: Looks like the steering wheel has been snapped off, and the radio is gone
M: Oh
N: If you’re talking to the gardai, we heard some people talking outside at about 12:30.
M: Ok, thanks

Didn’t need this.

*Update*
The Garda crime scene crew have been and gone, dusted the car for fingerprints. Waiting on another garda to give a statement to now.

A few thousand words 2006 April 9 19:18

Posted by diamond in : Cycling, Random , add a comment

From the ‘incident’:

evidence

Oh okay, there were going to be more, but i’ve realised that (a) i really need to come up with a better way of sorting my photos, and (b) it would be overload to post all the pictures i was going to. So, instead, here are some links to photos of more limited interest:

It’s been a fairly quiet weekend. Bought Guild Wars on friday, turns out to be a lot better than i had anticipated. Also went for a cycle today, 20.5km @ 26.01kmph.

I could have sworn 2006 April 7 23:55

Posted by diamond in : Cycling, Work , 1 comment so far

that i mentioned my thesis title here. But searching the archives has turned up nothing. Hurm. So, in place of actual content, here is my proposes thesis title and abstract (those with an aversion to academic language should move on now ,-):

Unified Modular Architecture for the Design of Ubiquitous Computing
This thesis deals with the area of ubiquitous computing and user interface design. This field focuses on expanding the boundaries of human-computer interaction using novel interaction technologies. The work involves the expansion of a toolkit (gallagher, 2004) that is intended to support the creation of new human-computer interfaces. The emphasis is on areas such as tangible user interfaces (TUI), perceptual user interfaces (PUI) and augmented reality (AR) interfaces. Particular attention will be spent on the design of input/output modules that can be plugged into the design framework to allow a designer to easily achieve the desired interaction. When complete, the toolkit will support all forms of sensor input with simple parameterised controls that the designer can tweak without having to get involved in the low-level detail required to understand and work with these devices. These modules will then plug into higher level design tools such as Macromedia Director, Macromedia Flash, and Pure data. By providing support for these, the modules can be easily integrated into a designer’s existing work environment and allow the designer to set their requirements and achieve their goals whilst having access to the input and output devices provided by the toolkit.

I went for a cycle on my own yesterday evening. 20.4km @ 27.24kmph, which is probably a record for me.