Photoblog - Day 5
Got to play with my new camera today. First ‘proper’ shot taken:
You can see critiques of the work at http://pittuck.gfxartist.com/artworks/160962
While I was out I popped into Tesco for some milk, and while browsing the appliances section I found a bargain; an espresso machine marked down from £80 to £30. It was reduced to clear, so I don’t think its a proper ‘offer’. But still, great coffee
Posted in: Photoblog 
January 2008 
No Comments 
Martyn
Photoblog - Day 4
Woot, new camera! Olympus E-500 DSLR. Very cool camera, and some great shots already! Although only just started playing, bad lighting and not much to photo. But still here are a couple of snaps (no lightbox view - these are the full 8MP JPEG’s).
I get to play proper tomorrow
Posted in: Photoblog January 2008 No Comments Martyn
Photoblog - Day 3
Better photos tomorrow, I promise, its just been a slow week… (well not much happening, quite fast really as not much got done!).
Oh and xmas morning:
Posted in: Photoblog January 2008 No Comments Martyn
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare w/ Computers from 1983!
Today I completed COD4 (on normal difficulty), great game. I would even go as far as saying the single player is better than Halo 3, probably because I never played the other Halo’s so the story meant less to me then a bag of something quite meaningless. Anyhow, great game, its got a fairly long storyline, plenty of people get killed and you can snipe bad people till the cows come home!
Now for an uber geek moment, check these out:
The former is from the 1983 classic Wargames and the later is from Call of Duty 4. Nice to know the Russians take the same care and due diligence with their nuclear missile programs. Now, anyone for a game of tic-tac-toe…
Posted in: News January 2008 No Comments Martyn
Photoblog - Day 2
I had some help with the washing up:
Awww.
Posted in: Photoblog January 2008 No Comments Martyn
Photoblog - Day 1
Well I’m not sure if this is going to work, but I am going to try and keep a daily photoblog of the comming year. I have a feeling it might be quite boring…
Unfortunatley its the second day of the year, but I will make up for it tomorrow with a picture of the Christmass decorations (promise).
This is my computer setup at my parents house over the Christmas break. Moved most meal times and it gets quite cold in this conservatory!
Posted in: Photoblog January 2008 No Comments Martyn
Emoticon Engine!
I needed an emoticon engine, so I made one (tired of writing a ‘new’ one everytime a client needs one). How to use it:
- Include the class file
- Edit it as required (suggest a url for the path to the files)
- Then do something like:
$dpe = new DPEmoticonEngine();
$content = $dpe->parseText($content);
- And its done!
If you have a lot of icons, or lots of different sets of icons then you may want to pre-load the emoticon variable.
- Set the class file as required
- Then so something like:
$dpe = new DPEmoticonEngine();
$evar = $dpe->getEmoticons();
- Save $evar in a database, create as many different setups as you like, just edit the class file each time.
- To use the saved setup:
$evar = …
$dpe = new DPEmoticonEngine($evar);
- And everything else as normal
Have fun. (and Happy New Year)
Download DisputedIP Emoticon Engine (PHP) by clicking here
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
Posted in: PHP January 2008 No Comments Martyn
(Dairy Free) Fudge for a fiver
Stumped for xmas presents? then why not make some fudge, is quick, inexpensive and more personal than a tie.
You will need:
- 900g of Icing Sugar
- 125g Cocoa Powder
- 225g Margarine
- 120ml Milk
Optionally:
- 2 tbsp Vanilla Essence, Nuts, Raisins
Non-Optinally:
- Microwave
- Bread Tin (Or similar) – Greased
- Microwaveable Bowl
- Wooden Spoon
- Sieve
First sieve out the Icing Sugar, yes there is a lot. Also don’t worry if it looks like it won’t all fit, it does shrink. Next add in the Cocoa Powder and Margarine. Finally add ½ the milk. NO NOT MIX!
Now put it in the microwave, on 800 for about 4mins, keep watching it and stop as soon as the Margarine has melted.
Next take it out and mix it all together, put in the optional stuff, I suggest walnuts and vanilla. The mix should be just about mixable. Put in very small amounts of milk until it is, or put in more sugar if it is not! If its taking too long put it back in the microwave for 10 seconds and continue.
Now put it in the Bread Tin and shove it in the freezer for 2 or 3 hours. Then it should be done! See the pictures…
Also it can be made Dairy Free! Use Soya milk and Sunflower / Soya Margarine
The mess I made:
After freezing (just out of the freezer so you can see reflections in the ice)
Recipe based largly on the one from http://www.transbay.net/~zahl/fudge.htm, but mine has pictures - and tastes better :p
Posted in: Food December 2007 No Comments Martyn
btw, erm – Sparkfun!
Thought I might give a quick shout out to the good people at Sparkfun! (As they do seem to leech a fair amount of my student loan…).
Anyhow, if you are looking for development boards, PIC Programmers, even GPS or GPRS modules this is the place to go. Even when taking into account the cost of UK delivery they beat the pants off what little competition they have.
They also have a great PCB pool service called BatchPCB, it may be slow but the quality makes up for this. That and some active forums and you have what should be a great recipe!
Keep it up Nathan.
Posted in: Randomness December 2007 No Comments Martyn
PICs FTW
Woo, new PIC’s. Microchip have released a new 32bit PIC. It seems to have a similar processing ability as the high end dsPIC’s, but should have increased data throughput. Although taking into account that there is only one chip in this series at the moment we can be sure that new and better systems will be released in the near future which will kick the pants off the older PIC’s.
To get into PIC32 microchip are selling an uber cheap development board for £25, its not currently in stock in Europe, but December
3rd6th10th more should be avaliable.
- 72 MHz, 1.53 DMIPS/MHz CPU core
- Up to 512KB Flash Memory
- Up to 32KB RAM
- + All the usuals (I2C, USART, SPI etc.)
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=2591
Posted in: Microcontrollers November 2007 No Comments Martyn