Sleepypete's Pillow

Thought I’d sum up the holiday so far in the style of game achievements … Achievements are a relatively recent innovation in gaming which aim to extend the life of the game by giving you interesting challenges to make you play the game a different way. 

Smile time – turn a friend’s mood around by being good company. Think I managed this with the quick run out to see Mirror Mirror, although I suspect the film had more to do with Smile Time than the company. 

Lazy Days – do as little as you can get away with. I had intended to get a couple of outstanding jobs done this holiday, which I’ve avoided. The key thing I needed to do though was Chill Out. The Xmas to Easter period tends to be tough as I’ll run myself into the ground. I’d done that again this year and badly needed the R+R to get me back into a position where I can apply brain without having to lean on hyperactivity all the time.

Yes, I feel a bit bad for not starting to clear out the back garden or getting the car serviced. 

Chill out – be more relaxed. Definitely feeling a lot more relaxed now than 9 days ago (last day at work). 

Cut the fat – be lighter, despite the Easter effect. I’m lighter now than I’ve been for years, possibly lighter than when I started working. (Can’t remember when I broke through 13stone). I’ve not seen the scales go below 13 stone yet (I’m not exactly burning the calories at the moment) but I’m stable at 13st0-13st2, which is a massive improvement. 

Decipher a Riddle – confirm a theory. I had a theory that my last pair of jeans were part of the cause of last year’s leg problem. The leg would improve over the week when I was wearing work stuff and then go way backwards on a Friday when I’d be in jeans again. I’d not worn them since maybe October but had to go back to them due to a zipper malfunction … (The tag you pull came off). And lo and behold the leg started flaring up again after half a day in those jeans. I get my jeans from a different place now. 

Avoid insanity – minimize exposure to daytime TV. I watch way too much TV. And that TV seems to be changing to being more interest in Fact TV than Fiction TV. I dunno, fiction TV like dramatisations seems to be running out of ideas or they’re falling into the “Survive Through Ratings Gained By Sensationalism” trap. Fact TV like Ice Road Truckers or the others from the Deadliest Catch production group are far more interesting. It’s unscripted and you really don’t know what’s going to happen unlike most Fiction TV which is telegraphed and obvious. 

Where was I – get sidetracked. There I go again ! Yep. Managed to avoid exposure to daytime TV, although there are still the infestations of lawyer ads, other ambulance chasing ads and insurance ads. It’s where the money is these days and makes you glad you have a fast forward button. 

Itchyitchyitchy – try the beard again. This is really training so my beard doesn’t grow too quick. Last time I shaved was almost a fortnight ago so men can imagine what kind of itchiness I’m feeling at the moment. Aaaand … I still have a slight bald patch under my chin from the incident that see my first broken bone. 

Toast and Butter – get at least some control back over the kitchen. First time I’ve had the toaster out for a couple of years. I have at least achieved a little bit of clearing up 🙂 I also have more control over my sofa from clearing up, if not my chairs. 

See the sun – avoid turning my clock around. I’d normally fall victim to a bad habit, where I end up staying up way too late and totally wrecking my day/night cycle. Managed to avoid that somehow, although it might be a symptom of me gaming less these days. 

Miss people – have your thoughts dominated by things like “Is … ok ?”. That’s a definite. I’m rubbish at doing things for Me but live for helping out others. And it’s difficult to help out other people if you’re not around them.

There’s still a couple of days to go until I launch myself back into the whirlwind of work but I think when they’re up, I’ll be raring to go again. If only to get a chance to grin at a very special little lady.

Last night I was hoping I’d be unveiling the “I’m lighter than I’ve been in years” Pocket Dragon (it’s a “Feed Me”) but alas, the needle of the scales is still above that certain point …

🙂 I’m still lighter than I’ve been in years but haven’t dipped below that 13 stone point yet …

Lies, damned lies and statistics …

I love stats. It’s a form of information given through numbers that should depend on hard fact boiled down into recorded info. It’s the core of what I do at work, in terms of output at least. (My actual function is wider than just stats, I apply my engineering knowledge to let me select the right info and to validate it). But stats can be cheated to reflect what the provider wants you to see.

There’s two ways I can get stats out of this blog :
The Sitemeter hit counter where readers can see the number but not the info
The Google stats screen which only a blog owner can see

They both read different info too. The sitemeter counter only works off the main template and doesn’t work on the mobile template. I could probably fix that but I’m happy with the default mobile template the way it is. It’s clean, quick to load and doesn’t soak up any more of precious mobile data than it should. It also misses other hits, I suspect due to No-Script additions to browsers. (No-Script mods are intended to prevent adverts loading as well as stopping nasties)

The Google one just flat out lies … lol. It doesn’t admit to the hits that it doesn’t think you should know about. Sitemeter is showing 5 hits this morning of which Google shows none. 2 of those are people hitting “Next Blog” (hi and welcome!), 3 are from the Googlebot. Google is showing 3, 2 of which are from that mobile template which Sitemeter can’t see.

The sitemeter one also provides more detailed info going back the last 100 hits, the Google one doesn’t give anything significant outside of browser, platform and which page got looked at.

The lesson ?

When you get presented with stats, don’t necessarily trust what they’re telling you. Ask questions about the source of the data and what the presenter is trying to tell you. If you see stats on the news, Don’t Trust Them ! Our news agencies believe they can run our lives and one of their weapons is twisted statistics.

(aside – if you get bored easily by stats, skip to the end now !)

And here I go presenting statistics … I can’t get ’em out of Sitemeter but Google gives some interesting info over the “lifetime” (actually May 2009 to now) it’s been grabbing info :

38% of my visitors are from the UK, which makes perfect sense as that’s where I live
29% come from the USA, home of blogging
And the next highest is Russia with 7% with the rest being fairly split

Browser choice shows a trend to do with how I work but also something encouraging for the general enlightenment of the internet :

40% over the lifetime use Internet Explorer (we’re forced to use this at work)
33% are more enlightened and are using Firefox
Next highest is Chrome with 11% and curious to see is 298 (2%) hits from Android and 304 from Mobile Safari. That just happens to be what my phone uses and I suspect at least 290 of those hits are mine – lol.

When you go more recent and just look at the last month, Firefox wins with 29%, IE is second with 22% and newcomers Safari and Chrome in there with 18% and 17%. Browsers are getting more diverse these days, which can never be a bad thing.

Same with the platforms used to browse the web :

78% over the lifetime use Windows, with 7% using Macs. And there I am with my 298ish Android hits too 🙂
Going more recent and you see that Windows share drop to 60% (all those desktops) and the iPhone share rise from 4% to 16% and my Android share going from 2% to 10%. Macs stay where they are at 6% and Linux is somewhat forgotten at 5%.

I think that shows the rise of the smartphone, with iPhones being a seriously cool (and popular) device.

Ok, that’s enough of boring number stats for now and where they come from. What’s the presenter trying to tell you ?

I love seeing the hits come in. It means people are for some reason coming back for even more of those Wall Of Texts (and I’ve gone above my length limit here …). It hopefully shows that people are interested in what I ramble on about. It shows they care.

And that last bit is pretty darn awesome 🙂

PS Ask questions, send comments, gis a subject to ramble on about 🙂

Ok, so I broke the cabin fever by having a wander around the centre of Bristol for a while today.

It really was too much of a good day to spend it cooped up inside again. At least it was too sunshiney out there … I must have timed it perfectly as another in a series of short but intense storms was just starting up as I was getting back (to find my parking spot had been borrowed yet again).

I don’t tend to buy much these days when I have a wander and there’s a few reasons for that :

I have what I want already. That sounds like I buy lots of stuff doesn’t it … But it’s more down to me hoovering up all the stuff I’m interested in quite quickly and being quite restrained on the other stuff. Like I already have pretty much everything Alisha’s Attic, The Cardigans and a few others like Snow Patrol have come out with. My dvd/bluray collection is wanting me to buy it more shelves.

I’m also reasonably disciplined on resisting “want” in favour of keeping it to “need”. Like resisting buying a new bat because while I “want” one, I don’t actually know what I “need” plus my last but one bat was still going strong. And while I “wanted” cookies, they stayed on the Millies counter.

Stuff I want isn’t available. I’m missing an Edie Brickell album but can’t get it because it’s simply not available over here. I couldn’t even buy it on mp3 from Amazon US. I have seen it in the shops but £15 is an offensive price to ask for a cd, import or no. Pink Hats and other pink gear falls into that as well. It’s simply not available, even online.

Prices are too high. I’m in a sound financial position (more money is always good but the only debts I have are house and car) but I flat refuse to pay more than I think something is worth.

So £15 (or more) for a bluray movie is not going to happen. Book prices are also excessive these days. Although the value or worth of something radically changes if I was buying an item I know someone else would enjoy too. Smiles are priceless.

Clothes and outfit shopping is something I really should be doing. However, I suspect I may have to recruit someone to drag me round clothes shops in order for me to actually buy new stuff. (There’d be coffee, lunch or dinner in it !)

But that doesn’t stop me having a leisurely wander around.

Good day for it today too. Bright sunshine, not too hot, air as clean and fresh as it gets in a city centre. And legs that are (mostly) happy for me to be doing that walking round.

(The mostly comes from the old hip injury that interferes slightly with my walking but it isn’t one of the muscle groups that’s needed for running so it shouldn’t interfere with the cricket)

I did manage to buy a couple of things too. I’ve needed a new sleeveless jumper for cricket for a while now. Picked one of those up. I could do with getting another sleevey jumper too for really cold nights. I don’t tend to wear jumpers while fielding because I’m hot stuff on a cricket field. (Enthusiasm more than skill but it does make me very warm and I overheat easily).

Also acquired new spikes. With legs like mine, you need spiked shoes to let you put all the power through to the ground. Because I play evening cricket, the dew starts to come through mid game making the ground greasy. With flat rubber shoes, your feet slip around like crazy which quickly leads to pulled muscles. Spikes give the grip needed to put in power sprints.

I left the bats where they were though. I need to have a practice session to remember what I need in a bat (after the disaster bat buy a couple of years ago). But that sleeveless top is a good sign.

“Medium” size = tent.
“Youth” size = just about right.

Youth being 32 to 34inch chest and Medium being 38 to 40. Yep. Still officially a youth according to chest size. Happy with that, especially as it seems I’ve gone down a size with the diet judging on how my shirt collars fit better these days :-). My whites are still a tight fit though but that’s because I have chunky legs.

I seem to remember there's a Simpsons song about that too 🙂

'It's an awesome feeling knowing that you've made someone smile.'

I love making people smile 🙂

PS One of those signature hits seems to typically appear about 5 seconds after I've hit the "post" button !

I think the cabin fever and restlessness is starting to strike …

I have been outside the house – and for more than just putting the bin out (that’ll be tonight’s job). Truth is that the outside the house was to pick up more margarine today, which was my flimsy excuse for raiding the local shop for cut price Easter eggs.

I now have enough Mini Eggs to quite possibly last me until next year.

Actually, I think I may keep them in reserve for cricket in the summer. Cricket’s a game of two halves :

(one I prepared earlier, I have it hanging on my wall)

Depending on what order we do stuff in, I usually have a chance to lounge around for a bit between innings. That’s either after I’ve batted or before I go in. But it’s not just lounging, it’s topping up like what tennis players will do between games. I usually take a bottle or two of water with me, plus something high energy to munch on.

Bananas would be awesome for that, I hear that they are amazing for being quickly digestable to get that energy into the system. So they’d be ideal for putting in the cricket bag for a crafty gobble between innings. Just one slight problem – bananas. Can’t stand ’em. Oh well. And that goes beyond the usual “healthy stuff detected” aversions.

Mini Eggs may actually fit the bill quite well, as the colourings in the shells activate my hyperactivity. Worth a shot at least.

I’m also getting my mind right in that gap. It’s nigh on impossible to concentrate on anything for (theory says) more than 45 minutes at a time. That’s why school lessons are timed for about that long. Kids lose concentration, mayhem ensues. Cricketers develop a skill where they can switch on or off in a heartbeat. I do it when I’m batting, with the concentration reserved for when the bowler’s about to fling the ball down at me.

But hey – that’s enough about the cricket.

Yep. The cabin fever’s kicking in somewhat. I just like being around people. Definitely missing a few people. A great picture memory is no substitute for actually seeing someone smile. And one reason for that is that if someone smiles at you, it’s usually in response to something. It’s an awesome feeling knowing that you’ve made someone smile.

Facebook has that with the “like” button, where you can’t really add something in the form of words in a comment but want to show you really appreciated a post. Blogger doesn’t really have that (although that G+ button might be it) and it’s another one where you’d struggle to think of an appropriate /grin comment with more characters than just “lol”.

But we do have hit counters … There’s actually two on this blog and I’ll natter about those sometime in the future (it’ll be called “Lies, Damned Lies and Stats” because each counter reports differently). Every time I see a familiar signature come in from one of those hits, it’s saying someone’s come back to check up to see how I’m doing. Be that if it’s a signature from work, certain ISPs or other patterns. Recognising the hits is as good as seeing a “+1” or a “/like” on Facebook.

And it makes my day to see certain signatures appear 🙂

Muahaha

Yum.

Still happy with the diet actually (it has a minimal amount of bunny). I’ve been going between 13st dead and 13st 2 over the past few days. So despite (or perhaps being able to) doing a bit of the snacking again, I’ve maintained or lost a little. That 13st is actually one of my target weights but for a different shape than I am now :

Target 11 st – for my current upper body strength
Target 13 st – for a stronger upper body
Actually, 11st would probably be a little too light with my legs, they’re already losing a bit of their mass. Still, those power legs are still conditioned for me being a stone heavier than I now am which means happy days as I’m more nimble than I’ve been for ages. And they’re behaving themselves too, with much less tendency to cramp than I had a couple of months ago so my minerals are more in balance.

Yep – happy with how that diet’s going at the moment. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a washboard stomach* but this diet is all about keeping the discipline together on trying to settle into a new pattern of munching centred around “only eat while hungry”. With Easter Eggs, I used to just demolish them immediately. Now I’m gobbling up a third or a quarter and then putting it back in the fridge for later. Progress !

*Washboard stomach – last time I had one of these was at uni. I’d been living off campus, biking in every day. By the time nets started up for cricket, I actually had stomach muscles. I’d never had them before ! So there I go into bowling practice, first ball goes down and those stomach muscles start firing … At random. Like totally uncontrollable and the ball was going Everywhere :-).

I figured it out after a few sessions but didn’t get the chance to try it in a match that year as that was the year when I killed my shoulder. The injury I got seemed minor at the time but 3 weeks later I found out I’d actually dislocated it (I don’t feel pain right, so the signals I had only came when I tried picking things up with my right arm) and after half a season of cricket I found I had a torn rotator cuff. I shrugged, thought that doesn’t mean much but then saw some baseball commentary where a pitcher with the same injury was scrubbed for 18 months, if he could come back at all.

Scary.

And it was the end of me playing cricket at uni (except for a staff vs students game where I kept wicket and dislocated both thumbs temporarily). After that, cricket opportunities were hard to come by as I was bouncing around the country on different placements for a couple of years. But I did get the chance to earn another trophy (actually a picture) with a team in Farnborough who I pushed from perennial 3rd/4th to winning their cup.

And I’ve Wall Of Texted again on something completely unrelated to the original theme.

Supply shopping soon – spookily around the time when the Easter eggs are reduced to clear. I’ll have to go in to pick up more Flora and bear absolutely no responsibility for any Easter eggs that may escape the shop in my bags …

As part of my daily hunt around various news sites, spotted this one again from Tomshardware :

DIY Sentry Gun Blasts Intruders with Paintballs.

Putting aside the question of how much you’d get sued if you had something like this … What would a Mad Scientist software/computer/electronic engineer do for putting one of these together ? Let’s call the Sleepypete system Hoplite (no trademark infringement intended, no way am I likely to sell this !) after the Phalanx gun that’s used on ships.

You’ve got a few things to include :

Turret and gun
Control mechanics
Targeting system

For something like this, it’s always best to follow a thread through logically. Like : Target -> Aim -> FIRE. So let’s start with that targeting system. They use a webcam on that site but that’s got a few shortcomings (like no night vision). So what does Hoplite need :

Webcam – aye. It’s simple, cheap and interfaces well. Hook it up to image processing software to detect differences between reference pic and “what’s there now” pic (trees don’t move, so that’s your reference). You’d want a fixed camera to designate targets (what to shoot at) and I’d look for a camera that moves with the gun to allow for aiming.

But I’d also want to have a thermal imager going for night time. A thermal imager is actually easier to get targeting info from too, just aim for the centre of the Warm Blob. But … you have to do that motion detect thing again so you don’t have false positives from the sun warming stuff or people tricking the system with flares.

There should also be a lockout so that if the turret is pointing at something in the reference, it shouldn’t paint your tree.

Hoplite Control mechanics – this is the fun part.

The key reason why I went into Electronic & Electrical Engineering is because I was predicting that the influence on electronics on what we use was increasing daily. Silicon chips are everywhere. Every button you press is likely to have software triggering off behind it. My first car had barely any transistors in it, my latest car is wholly software driven even down to drive-by-wire pedals. And the thing that links software to the bits that move is the electronic engineering.

They use a laptop for control in that link, which is fair enough. You could also use the laptop as a display for CCTV, plus software on it provides the brain. What’s the brain need to do ?

Lead the target – this is aiming in the right place to tag ’em when they run
Let you control and monitor stuff
Set the rules for how ruthless it is

The control is the most interesting bit and it’s where the geeky people can really come out to play. The trick is to start simple and then add the clever bits. That’s called Integration Engineering. Start with something that forms a foundation and make sure that works. If you start at a more ambitious level, then if you have a problem you have to go back to that simple foundation anyway to figure out what the problem is. Engineering is all about taking a concept and taking away everything that doesn’t matter until you have something clean, efficient and elegant.

And there’s all sorts of really complicated control theory behind that foundation. Let’s just say it’s dead simple to make something point roughly where you intend it to but it’s much tougher to tune a negative feedback control system to make it point precisely where you want while still following things that move.

They do a pretty decent job on the one in the video, the ballistics look good and most of the time it’s pointing in the right direction. It does jump off beam occasionally though (a control system issue that should have it stop firing when it jumps) and there seems to be a little stickiness.

Hoplite turret system :

This is where I might need a little help as I’m very rusty on the mechanical side of things. You’d want :
Weatherproofing,
Access to reload the system
Mounting sturdy enough to manage the rifle and recoil, plus cameras
Reliable motors to steer the turret (2 axis rotate + tilt would cover it)

It’s one thing to do the geeky thing and cobble something together that does a job. It’s another thing entirely to engineer something solid that you can put outside and forget about until you hear that “Rat-Tat-Tat- OUCH” of a gotcha.

PS Just need a suitable location to put a Hoplite, this place is too small.

Yey 🙂 First class postage pays off for a change 🙂