Joel's Mundane Life

Meandering through the days since I decided to start building an organ, I've been having some thoughts and purchased some materials.

First off is the pipework. While I can comfortably expect old church organ pipes to come up on eBay (and in one case an entire pipe organ - yes she'd kill me) I reluctantly came to the conclusion that I'd need to construct my own pipework. There are a few tomes out there which detail construction, of which Eric Cockayne's reference "The Fair Organ - How It Works" is the most expansive and covers a multitude of registers. Our local reference library had the self-same copy I took out in 1986 (it even had a small pencil mark of the date in my handwriting where I'd renewed it over the phone!) so that's been quite a lot of use although not brilliant.

I've been contemplating the controller. The pallet magnets to allow wind entry/exit are a lot easier than constructing the more traditional pneumatic puff-motors and are readily available on eBay, when combining these with a MIDI unit I can control up to 64 of them. I won't need that many keys of course but we'll see how it goes - I've not quite decided on the departmental configuration yet.

I've also not been quite sure about the pressure involved in the windchest (that's the bit that all the pipes sit on, and is usually pressurised with air from the blower). There's quite a bit of advice around though which states that 8WG blows your socks off, whereas many organs seem to run around the 6WG level. Experimentation is called for especially since I've not decided on how the windchest is configured either. I've found a blower in Batley (about 5 miles from us) which I think will do the job and run from a car battery.

We wandered over to a vehicle rally in Thornes Park yesterday, where I picked up a cheap glue-gun and a bench-mounted circular saw for £buggerall. That solves my wonky cutting technique on the pipework ;)

So in short, lots of ideas and no real cohesion. At this point enter the John Smith Universal Organ - or what turns out to be a set of plans and a DVD on constructing this little instrument which runs from paper roll music and is hand-cranked. I'm not really interested in the hand-cranked or paper roll aspect, although it does have a lot of measurements/construction/voicing/tuning guides for the pipework alongside all that pesky stuff about keeping pressure and building a reservoir using stuff like household chamois leathers! Result! That arrived earlier this week and I've been perusing the measurements and working out what I need to do about timber. First pipe by the end of next week hopefully, maybe mitering the bass the week after, and with any luck a set of old reed pipes will turn up on eBay before long.

I'm planning that the eventual unit will be approximately 4ft long by 3ft wide with a small undershelf for a MIDI filer and car battery (possibly next to the blower/reservoir), and mountable on a set of axles (probably old pram ones will do!). I can stick to this storage size if I make the endpieces into percussion departments (bass drum/cymbals on one size, snare on the other) which will fold in for storage/travel. The aim is that it can fit in the back of the Picasso with the seats down although I'm not overly optimistic of that.

I'm now missing: leather for the pneumatic work, tubing to carry the main wind supply, and a windchest design. The latter two need to be there before I can test and voice any pipework. I'll have to have a think about that while wandering to Wales for a 'do', probably.

• Leave comment

The next chapter in 'End Of An Era' seems upon us - Wood's Music Shop which has been in Wakefield for 60 years are at the end of their lease on the Cross Street/Wood Street premises. They haven't identified any new premises yet so it's looking like they will close for good at the end of July. It's the last Wood's shop in existence - once upon a time there were branches everywhere.

So, they're having a 30%-off-everything sale at the moment. Although the instruments tend to be more school-level than anything really pro (and quite overpriced in comparison to Trad Music and such) you can find some bargains. I've picked up a couple of lighting controllers and PAR64/PAR56 stuff, and Nicky has already bought some sheet music. It would not surprise me if there were better bargains to be had as time trots on either.

• Leave comment

We have a couple of old Sony DSC-U20 and DSC-U30 cameras kicking around. These 2-megapixel units are tiny enough to keep with you all the time and - in my opinion - are better than most of the phone cameras out there nowadays. I bought my brother one (which he dropped down a toilet I think) and I carried one of these around for a year or so, really missing it when it went to the great camera manufacturer in the sky (or at least the old camera box in the garage). However, recently I came across a service manual for the DSC-U30 (the U20's sufficiently similar) and deciding I needed something to take my mind off events I set to the pair of them with a screwdriver.

First off - and I cannot stress this enough - read the bit about discharging the flash capacitor then ignore the method: a 1k resistor across the contacts does not discharge it gracefully. The first time I got a shock it was interesting but by the fifth go it was getting tedious. Eventually I was so irritated I just took to sparking the capacitor with a screwdriver.

Now onto the symptoms:

• DSC-U20: CCD not supplying an image. Back screen's fine and shows controllers and informational display.
• DSC-U30: Constant "out of battery" message followed by shutdown.

Given its higher spec I wanted to end up with a working U30 in preference, so that was first. I wondered if this may be one of two things - the flash unit or the main controller (which is always a suspect in my experience). I pulled it apart carefully and thought I might be able to use the U20's flash unit to see if my suspicions were correct, and at that point I got my first zap from the charged capacitor (mmmm, a couple of kilovolts at low current still bloody hurts).

The flash unit actually caused the problems from the U20 to happen on the U30. Very strange, but this made me wonder what was causing the imaging problems in the first place - not the board, not the CCD, could it be a connection issue? If I held the camera to my bright desk lamp I got a flicker of an image on the screen so perhaps something to do with the light sensor? In a moment of "I really don't know why I'm doing this" I pointed the U30 close-up to the lamp (it's a cheap halogen desk lamp from Ikea) and the screen came to life. Goodness me. Maybe that's the common fault on all of these. So, I replaced back the original U30 flash unit and for some insane reason it started working! Hurrah! The U30 is fixed!

Now the U20. I reasoned if the fault was the same thing as had fixed the U30 screen (I've still not got a reason for the battery issue other than maybe a loose connector) then why not point the U20 at the bright light as well? After a couple of zaps it started working as well. Hooray!

So, let's test with some images:

• I'd noticed a bit of saturation on the little screen of the U30 and it appears that this makes it unusable as can be seen in these photos. However, the service manual details a service mode you can use to calibrate the CCD so I'm now on the lookout for that.
• The U20 does appear to be vaguely behaving (test shots) although it did return to its slightly more bizarre imaging for one shot indicating maybe it's still not completely sorted.

So, in conclusion, if your DSC-U20 or DSC-U30 is showing weird imaging signs, try sticking it under a bright light first. This may of course knacker it even more so any advice you take from me you take at your own risk and I will not be held responsible for anything you do to yourself or your camera. Also, if you're after your own copy of the service manual please don't ask me - it's still copyright although there are plenty of places on the Internet you can download one from at a fee if you Google for it.

Update: Both are still showing the CCD problem, but the U20 is the more reliable and can usually be fixed with the bright-light method. Ellie took some more test shots.

• 1 comment

I have decided on the next project: building a fairground organ.

I've been interested in mechanical music for a long time - I used to build model fairground organs (an early model is shown here) and have always enjoyed pottering around steam rallies viewing the different mechanisms. I'm a Friend of the Mechanical Music Museum at Brentford, and indeed can probably bore you to tears on the main differences between an 88-key Limonaire keyframe and its Gavioli equivalent. It's another facet in my nerd make-up really.

So, it began where all bad project ideas begin - after a few drinks. Browsing eBay I came across this chap who sells parts for building organs. One click led to another and I rediscovered the Fairground Organ Preservation Society - hurrah! Not only that, but also j-Omega Electronics who sell a rather interesting board which converts a MIDI signal into 64 individual note outputs. A trip to the library yielded a copy of Eric Cockayne's reference book (I was pleasantly surprised to find this had been revised, even after Cockayne's death - must source a copy of that).

I am now on the lookout for some pipes - 8' stopped flute, 4' piccolo, 8' bourdon would all be useful but if you know of any please do yell. Although this project will probably go slower than the disco dancefloor since I need to buy quite a few items second-hand I am planning to build the windchest and air reservoir from scratch, so I want to plan and draft the design properly prior to construction. And of course I need to finish the DDF.

Expect more posts about this as time goes on and I come up with plans and ideas. Cheggers has to be the first tune out of it.

• Leave comment

Ben pointed me at a Reg article about Faceparty.

This is bang on. Many many times I thought this while running Fotopic.

• Leave comment

My Palm TX started causing me issues on the digitiser a month or two back: namely it doesn't work, or it only senses at the bottom of the digitiser thinking it's the top of the screen.

Despite some rather useful links, cleaning around it, installing 'fix software', etc. it's refusing to work although I haven't had the back off yet (need a torx 5 and the smallest I have is an 8).

Does anyone have a Palm TX which the digitiser works on please, and which they wouldn't mind parting with? The annoying thing is that the Palm runs my TomTom install, and has the extra maps on which I can't transfer... thus if it's properly broken, it will be an expensive outing to sort out!

Edit: I took the back off, and it appears to be something pressing on the back of the digitiser. Whether that means it's a loose connection or just the digitiser being too compressed I don't know, but at least it's a temporary fix.

• Leave comment

It's only two weeks late and probably over-budget, but Wakefield's new market hall opened for business this morning.

Good to see that among the stalls which are there are Cryer & Stott (the cheesemongers, who frequently take vast amounts of money from me for cheesey goodness), Mark the Greengrocer who used to be outside on the north entrance to the old market hall, and a fishmonger who doesn't open on Mondays although I'll probably pay a trip tomorrow. It was good to be recognised by some of the traders - I'm a big proponent of supporting your local market and doing at least some of your weekly shopping there.

So what of the building? It's a lot more airy than the old market, although I'm not sure of the wisdom of the higgledy-piggledy way that the stalls have been arranged to make it look more busy than it actually is; also the food market is woefully small - I counted 5 stalls, with another 4 pitches left empty. Wakefield Council stated in a press release that all the inside stalls had been let but it does seem a bit sparse. The cynic in me would suggest that maybe it's like that to prevent it looking smaller than the old market hall, which it most certainly is.

There's bugger all recent coverage over at Wakefield Express save for a "coming soon" type article, but the council's own web announcement is here, which also has opening times and details of "specialist days". There'll be an official opening in a few weeks presumably when everyone's moved in and the place is actually finished.

[ On that note, chatting to the traders it seems that they've only been allowed in this morning. The café owner told me that there was quite an issue regarding getting access for builders and electricians recently, and several outdoor traders were on temporary pitches as their permanent ones were inaccessible. Mark mentioned that the place was still gated with the protective builders' barriers when he arrived this morning! ].

However, it shows promise. It's an airy place to do your shopping and definitely needs to be supported by the community. Might have just been the curiosity of the first day, the place being smaller and more warren-like, or just the time of day, but it did seem a lot busier this morning.

Previous photos of the move from the old market and construction of the new market here.

• Leave comment

George Carlin has died.

Odd timing that should have happened today - just last night we introduced the kids to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

• Leave comment

I've gone quiet again, principally because I've had way too much work on. The Marlow contract has hit the "deploy to production" stage, there's a lot of final tweaks, usability changes and such. I think my work log has half a day in the past few weeks where I didn't stare at a screen and cut code.

However, I have managed to snatch an hour here and there:

• Balne Lane Library in Wakefield had a booksale last Friday. We nipped across with a meagre budget and came home with a box-full of DVDs, CDs, books and a 1955 OS map of Hull which I thought might be of use to Jon and his OpenStreetmap stuff given I think it's out of copyright. Most amusing purchase: Dennis Van Tassel's "Computer Security Management" (1971, ISBN 0-13-165464-0) which might as well say "beware of recruiting Communists!"; Most interesting purchase: "Now-A-Days Fairy Book" (Christmas 1929) which has a bookplate inscribed "Rothwell & District Girls High School, prize awarded to Alma Taylor for speling, given by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous". Wonder what happened to Alma Taylor...
• I've taken some more photos of Wakefield Market Hall, which closed its doors for the final time yesterday. The officials weren't allowing anyone inside (principally because stallholders were moving out and I suspect the potential for theft would have been too risky) but I blagged my way in to take a few pics. On Monday the new Market Hall opens and I'll be there, although the workmen are still building the damn thing and the only stall I saw that was even stocking up was a Polish deli.

Actually, it's just occurred to me in writing this that I've done sod all except work for a while - I think I need to get out this week, go drink some beer and have some fun.

An apology though: As a consequence of the work I'm ridiculously behind in responding to emails from friends and for the first time in years my "must reply when I have time" folder has gone over 1000 emails. This is not because I've got lots of friends who write to me, but just because I really want to reply at length and haven't got round to it yet (of course, it could be that I'm purposely ignoring you ;)).

• Leave comment

I have today dealt with three separate telecommunication companies. Large companies, who you'd have thought could get it right.

Without exception all three have been sluggish, faceless and monolithic, and have finished either making less out of the deal by the end of the conversation, or ended up without the business altogether. Especially silly when you consider I've been ready to sign contracts and things, and finished the discussion wishing I'd never bothered to make the call to sales or support in the first place. In one case, I ended up going round in circles for 2 hours (presumably in Bangalore) before finding an operative who actually knew what they were on about - and even then had to phone 5 separate departments to get information before I could do anything else.

My experience over the past 15 years of dealing with telcos is that there aren't any out there who are competent or refrain from pigeonholing customers - maybe one day though. However, I'm not holding my breath.

• Leave comment

Not often I blog other folks' photography efforts (given they usually just make front-page on Fotopic.net) but Alex Holden has a lovely shot of the sunset over Pendle. Well worth a look.

• Leave comment

From Infoworld by way of my good friend Gordon at the EC:

Andreas Pirotti, executive director of ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) "suggested that EU legislation be expanded 'to cover the taking of photos of people and posting them on the internet,' he said, adding that currently there is no need to get a person's consent in order to post a photo of them."

That'd be interesting - site operators would just move hosting out of the EU :(

• Leave comment

From Berrys' Future of Wine:

Recent developments in biotechnology have shown honeybees have a finely developed sense of smell. This sense of smell can be harnessed and honeybees trained to recognise particular odours, such as corked wine, and associate that smell with food.

When they detect a corked bottle, a trained honeybee will extend its proboscis. This reaction can be easily detected by software (and incorporated into a small personal device carried by a sommelier) - ensuring the corked bottle never reaches the customer.

By 2058, every sommelier could have their own personal bee.

• Leave comment

Some stuff has gone on recently which (among other things) has taken me away from being able to finish a blog entry (there's 4 drafts currently there which I'm wanting to put thought into and haven't had chance yet), but here's a brief update on $random_foo:

I'm contract-hunting again, trying to find something that'll last me a couple of months to stretch over the fallow period of Summer. However, these past few weeks have largely been taken up with trying to bring the Marlow contract project to a close: an elusive goal, since it's one of those things where you think you're on the home stretch then another random external factor causes a delay or a breakage and you end up prodding. Doesn't help that a full start-to-finish test of the system can take several hours so it's a cycle of *prod* *wait* *sigh* *fix* *prod* *wait*...

In the course of hunting for a contract I had my first interview for a permanent job since 1998! The job was quite promising at first but in the end I turned it down - it got to final round interview where I was getting the project overview and the manager decided to tell me they'd be using Microsoft SQL Server. Now I know about MS SQL Server but haven't used it in anger since, ooh, 2001 I think (possibly the Twinkey project?); I was offered the job but turned the role down on this basis. Sad because I'd really got high hopes to be getting back into a steady role (especially with the arse falling out of the economy) but I feel I made the right decision.

I spent a goodly amount of time in KCOM's facility in Leeds recently. Although Fotopic.net isn't our baby any more (there will be more about this at some point soon) I've been helping out; after the entire 35-server cluster of machines dropped off the end of the planet I hurtled to Angel Court to find the generators running full-pelt and the car park full. Turns out two phases of power had dropped out, the generator was monitoring only one phase so didn't kick in, and the UPS ran out of juice around 6am. Whoops. Cue lots of very pissed off Kingston Comms/Affiniti/Torch customers running around and no information on what was going on: I think we learned more sitting in the canteen with the engineers than we did from anyone "official". The aircon's still knackered in the datacentre too - it's actually cooler in my garage even with the umpteen Ooluk.com machines that are in there. An apt quote I heard while on-site: "This is why we moved out of Docklands..."

In this week's Apple news, my Macbook Pro battery got bigger. I guess it's exploded, but that sounds very dramatic and brings to mind all sorts of gory images - it simply looks like it's got an airbag that's gone off. This is what it looked like the last time it fit in the case. I phoned Clockwork who told me to phone Apple themselves, and they were really helpful - it qualifies for the battery recall and a new battery should be arriving today at no charge despite it being out of warranty. The inconvenience right now is the magsafe power adaptor: if I accidentally tug too hard the damn thing falls out and my Macbook drops dead 'cos it's got no battery in!

In between all this I've updated the Fotopic Backup Tool with all the bugfixes I've been receiving so if you were having issues then grab this version (incidentally there's a pending blog article on REALbasic and its foibles, detailing my adventures in developing this as a cross-platform app). It's now restricted to Premium and Plus users, so if you're a free Fotopic.net user it won't work for you - I think it'll probably become an 'officially supported' thing sometime, but that's not up to me.

We have a family party on Saturday to celebrate my Grandmother's birthday. There are many Rowbottoms coming who I've not seen in years nor who have been to our house so I'm taking Friday off to tidy up! It must be serious, I've even been tending to the garden, doing house maintenance I've not done since we moved in 6+ years ago, and pressure-washing the back patio. Of course as a result of this I need the 30D, which means it knows I want to use it and thus has grit on the CCD (this is after the kittens/children [delete as applicable] broke my f1.8 50mm portrait lens, the one I'm most likely to use at the party). I probably won't get a trip to Calumet to get the CCD cleaned due to time constraints and - thanks to three accounts depts now 'losing' my invoices combined with the Picasso's MOT and service - financial constraints.

Ah, financial thrift! I've discovered a new form of window shopping - "Filling Your Amazon Cart". It's very therapeutic and so far (after about 3 months) my cart is sitting at around £550. It's good, since I'm an impulse buyer and it gives me a chance to take things out with the usual mantra that "I don't really need or want that, I put it in because I'm a sucker for a hard-sell". The disadvantage is that you can't 'park' a cart and order something else so if I want something little I have to ditch the one I've built up before ordering. Mind, I'll buy the whole ruddy lot at some point since I've accumulated a pile of gift certificates and stuff.

So, today's more hammering away at the Marlow contract, amid another CV update and a lunchtime of cleaning the back patio. And probably a G&T at 5pm!

• Leave comment

Oh my goodness, the original WOPR model from the 1983 Matthew Broderick film WarGames is on eBay. That, right, is utterly fantastic, especially if you could pop a speech synth inside it :P

In looking around for something to link to, I did find this:

In November 2006, pre-production began on a sequel, titled WarGames: The Dead Code. It is directed by Stuart Gillard, and stars Matt Lanter as a hacker named Will Farmer facing off with a government supercomputer called Ripley. MGM will be releasing the sequel directly to DVD on June 10, 2008.

That's got "SUCK" written all over it.

(Sigh. How the hell I'd get it from LA I don't know, and Nicky would kill me anyway... she's not forgiven me for the dancefloor yet.)

• 1 comment