L Break Into Program

In Norfolk seeing fam and doing some tech support. So far I’ve sorted out some of mum’s old tech for recycling, helped transfer photos off sister’s Android phone, and attempted to pair mum’s friend’s Velux windows with the remote control. Tip run booked in for Tuesday.

This looks interesting. I've got an old DNS-320L with two 2TB hard drives installed. Might flash it with this firmware to see if it is any better than the default which is now no longer supported by DLINK. github.com/coolshou/Alt-F

Oh, and just one more thing about the digital advertising company. We owned a rack of servers hosted by C2 Internet (now part of the Atlas Business Group), another company that was a delight to work with. We had the option of locating them in Manchester or the Secret Nuclear Bunker at Hack Green.

Manchester had its pros and cons, the main con was parking. We were sold on Hack Green because it's a nice drive into the Cheshire countryside, equidistant from Manchester, free parking, and this sign.

Going through some old posts on my blog and discovered this from nearly 15 years ago. I worked as the software development director for a digital advertising company, a glorified title as I was the only developer. Needless to say he was convinced and he let me expense one.

Anyway, going back to the Pi, our original kiosk with two touchscreens, two 55" plasma screens & two industrial PCs cost around £25,000. Near the end we got that down to a single 65" portrait LCD display (like you see everywhere these days) run off a Pi with 4G router for about £1,000.

Going through some old posts on my blog and discovered this from nearly 15 years ago. I worked as the software development director for a digital advertising company, a glorified title as I was the only developer. Needless to say he was convinced and he let me expense one.

Anyhow, after years of running adverts on screens in some high profile international sites it ended up with just three of us posting local "Pearl & Dean" style adverts on about 200 screens in newsagents and post offices in the UK.

Going through some old posts on my blog and discovered this from nearly 15 years ago. I worked as the software development director for a digital advertising company, a glorified title as I was the only developer. Needless to say he was convinced and he let me expense one.

The company was always cash strapped and near the end there was a pattern of being "made redundant" just before Christmas and then mysteriously being "rehired" in the New Year. Quite stressful really. We collaborated with Clear Channel for a while, which was great. Lovely bunch of folk to work with.

Going through some old posts on my blog and discovered this from nearly 15 years ago. I worked as the software development director for a digital advertising company, a glorified title as I was the only developer. Needless to say he was convinced and he let me expense one.

The code includes: - MS SQL Server database files - A Linux file server backend - A Windows web server frontend - Video playout software The playout software also includes a touchscreen wayfinder framework for shopping centres (got the code for all of them) and touchscreen/label printer drivers.

Going through some old posts on my blog and discovered this from nearly 15 years ago. I worked as the software development director for a digital advertising company, a glorified title as I was the only developer. Needless to say he was convinced and he let me expense one.

Toilet fixed this evening. It was the siphon. On its way out. Good old Dudley Duoflush. New siphon fitted. Thankfully the installing inside the unit looks pretty tidy. And there’s an inline isolation valve on the cold water inlet.

CuriousMarc Klaxon

I’ve written software to drive thermal printers for retail applications and have often marvelled at how tiny the mechanisms are. So looking forward to this one.

In light of this, I'll be taking my websites down until my provider has patched PHP. Hold please caller.

Nothing like a plumbing emergency in the morning to sharpen ones wits. Toilet cistern constantly filling. Ended up turning off at stop-cock until I can get someone out. Sigh.

It's one of those where the cistern is hidden behind a panel in a cupboard. I didn't install the bathroom, and didn't have time to figure it out this morning. It's a standard unit so hoping access is behind the slim panel with the flush button on it.

Well that's two hours of my life I won't get back. Thought I'd try to get my Nest Display to act as a Bluetooth speaker for my Dell XPS-420. It's already on my desk and would save me hooking up a set of PC speakers. Could I get them to pair? Nope. Think the BT card in my Dell is too old.

Anyway, remembered the Dell has a new video card which has HDMI. The old card didn't. Swapped the VGA cable I'd left in for an HDMI cable and sound now comes out of the monitor. Bit tinny, but good enough for now. Job's a good-un.

I think I’m finally starting to get Rust. Managed to get my standard get-to-know-a-language app running in it. A threaded prime number calculator. It’s taken me the best part of a few days though. The app covers all the basics: functions, classes, passing by reference, lists and threading.

Tempted to get an HP-30 of some description for daily use. I used to have one in the mid to late 80s whilst studying maths at college. You quickly get used to RPN. and that skill paid dividends when I started coding FORTH at Barcrest. Plus, as a bonus, folk only ask to borrow your calculator once.

Decided to rejig my workbench. It was a bit of a compromise before as I was also working from here. Moved the camera over the monitor. Added a microphone amp I was given a few months ago. Can now free up the space to the right of this for test equipment and whatnot.

Might get back to doing some YouTubes. It was a bit of a faff before.