As mentioned a couple of posts before, my canvas which I had been going on for a while about, has finally arrived (well, last week). All I need to do now is to find someplace on my wall to put it, if not at home, then up in Dundee.
mrdouglaswood
the idiosyncratic musings of a designer
Tagged with Dundee …
#178 Electronics Practice Begins…
And so it has begun, the commencing of trying to refresh my memory as to how to work PicAXE microcontrollers in preparation for going back to Uni in September. The long and short of it is that it didn’t go well. I can’t find anything which simply says how to wire the 28×1 Pic up just so I can even plug it into the computer. I even rummaged about in my book from second year where I had written down bits of code, circuit diagrams and whatnot but to no avail.
The picture below doesn’t quite show the extent of my efforts as I did get as far as putting wires onto the breadboard and managed to put in a transistor and a ceramic resonator but trying to hook that up to the USB serial breadboard adapter and consequently, my iMac didn’t produce any results whatsoever. I ended up calling it a day with a semi built breadboard due to the temperature in my room getting a bit too hot for my liking.
I am hoping that I can get it all set up soon and being doing some of the things that I managed to achieve in the Bluebird’s Duet, but a bit more advanced considering this is all going to be part of our final years project…
#175 Just showing it off…
There is no other reason for this post apart to show off this photo. Yes I took it in February whilst out on a wander, and only got around to doing something with it (apart from one other thing which I uploaded a while ago), but I just find this S60 to be a gorgeous looking thing. And the number plate tells the truth about the car… it’s hot, though the weather was freezing cold.
#174 Dissertation Progress
A few months into the summer and I have good news. The first draft of the dissertation is almost complete. The main body of text is pretty much there and the introduction and conclusion are in progress. I still have a bit more research to do in regards to some of the chapters and try and speak to a few more people about it, but it is taking shape quite nicely.
Without spoiling too much, some people I have spoken to/waiting for a reply from include designers at Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Coventry University’s Automotive design course. If I can keep this momentum up, it will hopefully turn out quite well.
If you cannot remember what the subject is from when I last mentioned it, it is looking at the future of human interactions in the car. The screenshot below proves that I have started it and how many words there are, though take 1000 off the total to get the number of words I have written, the extra 1000 are from sources I have been putting at the end of each chapter so I know where I got all information from when it comes to reference everything. I didn’t to that in the writing process as it would give a false indication of word count and it would take too long if I was in a writing groove.
#159 DJCAD Degree Show
#158 Bobino
A few weeks back whilst in St. Andrews, I bought one of these: a Bobino. It’s soul purpose in life is to stop cables getting tangled up, and from what I have found out in the past couple of weeks from using it, it does the job perfectly. Available in three different sizes for different sized cables, I got the smallest size which is for headphones.
It is one of those simple ideas that works very effectively and you wish you had thought of it yourself.
#154 iPhone Tracker
I know I am a little late to the party with this, but when this first came into the public eye, my MacBook was unable to run this application.
What I am talking about is the iPhone Tracking (dare I say it, scandal?) where some researchers had been rummaging around in the iPhone backups located on the computer it is synced with and found a file which has locations from where the phone had been used. They had then created an application which visualised on a map where the user had been.
I tried to run this application on my MacBook 3 weeks ago, just when it emerged, but it was unable to run. I do not know why this is, and I am just going to guess that it was that it was on Leopard and it needed Snow Leopard to run. Now, 3 weeks later, and back home and reunited with my iMac, which is running Snow Leopard, I have been able to run this application. This is what the results were:
It clearly shows the main areas where I have used my phone. The centre of Scotland is where it has been used most and is where the points are most accurate. Towards to top left of the map, things start to go a little bit wrong. This is where, from what I gather from the people who created this application, the locations are out because of something to do with the phone mast (I might be wrong with this though), I haven’t been to where all the little dots are but I have been to some of them. The cluster of blobs around Inverness seem to be about right though, and there is a small cluster about Oban which again is true.
It isn’t the most interesting of applications but it appeals majorly to the geeky side of me.
#151 BootVIS
The project that has taken up the whole semester in the Product Design module is finally finished. The BootVIS, the high visibility vehicle attachment, incorporating high visibility and reflective materials and bright LED’s to make cars more visible when broken down at the roadside.
#147 Keeping the Bamboo Cosy
In the midst of finishing off some university work and whilst I still had the sewing machine out, I decided to make a case for my Wacom Bamboo. I had been wanting one for a while and only just got around to making it as I found I had some spare denim left over from the project last semester. It just so happened I made one at the same time as someone else made one (here)… but luckily their one was different, so good job.
I might upload a pattern so you can easily make one if I get around to doing that and perfecting the one I made, but that might be a while off yet.
#140 HT30007 Bibliography
The following bibliography was collated from all the sources we found to help research our business. The ones marked in bold and indented are the ones I found and used personally in the project.
Andrews, S. (2001) The Allotment Handbook – a guide to promoting and protecting your site. Eco-logic Books. London.
- B&Q, 2011. B&Q Garden. [online] Available at: <http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?fh_reffacet=categories&fh_location=%2F%2Fcatalog01%2Fen_GB%2Fcategories%3C%7B9372012%7D&fh_refview=home&fh_refpath=facet_159016185&fh_eds=%C3%9F&zone=garden&linktype=topnav_garden> [Accessed 3 March 2011]
Bailey, A.,(2003). The which? Guide to starting you own business. London: Which? Books.
Barclay, L (2007). Starting and Running a Business All-in-One For Dummies. London: John Wiley & Sons. pg13-14.
Beazley, M (2010). RHS Allotment Journal: The Expert Guide to a Productive Plot . London: Royal Horticultural Society.pg23-27.
Bristow, A. (2010) How To Run An Allotment. Beautiful Books. New York: Random.
- Capture Planning, 2010. How to Write a Business Proposal [online] Available at: <http://www.captureplanning.com/!hc_how_to_write_a_proposal.cfm?> [Accessed 11 March 2011]
Carter, D., (2003) The Big Book of Logos. London: Collins.
- Clayden, P. and Garner, J.F.,1984. The Law of Allotments. London: Shaw
- Dundee City Council, 2008. Allotment Consultation Document. [online] Available at: <http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/dundeecity/uploaded_publications/publication_1369.pdf> [Accessed 24 February]
- idigallotments, 2009. How To Start An Allotment. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo-a2c0NN60> [Accessed 11 February 2011]
Klanten, N., (2009). Dos Logo, Gestalten. Verlag; Bilingual Edition.
Leendertz, L (2006). The Half-hour Allotment (Royal Horticultural Society). London: Frances Lincoln. pg56-56.
Lloyd, S., (2007). Charities – The New Law 2006. London. Jordans.
Lury,C. (2004). The logos of the Global Economy. Routledge, Abingbon, Oxon.
Merton’s Allotment Strategy 2007 – 2010
Available at: http://www.merton.gov.uk/allotments_strategy.pdf
M Revenue & Customs, (2011). ‘Tax guidance for charities’. [Online] Available at: <http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/tax/index.htm> [Accessed 5 March 2011].
Penclergrast, M. (2000). For God, Country and Coca-Cola. Orion Business, London.
Starkey, R and Welford,R. (2001). Business& Sustainable Development. Earthscan Publications Ltd, London and Sterling, VA.
Stickland, S.(2001) ‘Back garden seed saving – keeping our vegetable heritage alive’ Eco-logic Books. London.
The New Allotment Company
Available at: http://www.thenewallotmentcompany.com/allotments.html
- Williams, S., 2011. The Financial Times Guide to Business Start Up 2011: The Most Comprehensive Annually Updated Guide for Entrepreneurs. London: The Financial Times
Young, J and Simon, W. (2005). iCon. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, New Jersey.
