The future

 Everything's good.

I'm walking down the street in my neighbourhood, but there's a problem.

Who do I report it to?

Well the city councel is a good place to start.

But what if nothing happens then?

How do I escalate the problem?

Local politicians?

What if they can't help either?

Well, then you're stuffed.

The chain of accountability is only so long.

In fact, this chain was only so long to begin with.

As a result, we end up with a system that dodges responsibility, without accountability.

This is the definition of a broken system.

Let's look at right to repair.

Manufacturers know that if they don't sell the new shiny thing, they will go out of business.

This is counter to the wishes of their consumers, who just want the thing to work.

So the seller puts their loyal consumers on a fashion treadmill.

What, you're still using that "so last year" product?

Embrace the change or forever be the jettison of "progress".

The truth is, we're all participants in a dog and pony show.

A folly.

We play along so as not to seem out of place, but seeming out of place is not our decision to make.

The system can be harsh, if not by accident but perhaps by design. Or lack of design.

See how powerful dodging responsibility is?

"See what happened to them" is a pretty convincing stick compared to the carrot of conformity.

Even if confromity means being the stick for the system.

Otherwise, how will you ever afford that niche city centre apartment?

I learned this from my encounters with the dental profession.

They aren't interested in cures, you're a revenue stream, in case that wasn't obvious.

I wonder if I had used baking soda to brush my teeth, would I still have all of them?

If/when universal social income becomes a thing, we'd realize that we're all in this together.

We'd know that it's not about milking your customers for all they're worth.

We'd know that it's not about selling the new shiny thing so they will toss their old thing into landfill.

We and the manufacturers would consider reuse as a top priority.

Which is a subset of making the most efficient use of the resources we have to hand.

Where we're going, we won't have the resources we currently squander on dog and pony shows.

That will shine a light on how far out of whack our system currently is.

Let's try to get out in front of this so we don't end up looking like complete idiots.

Ripleys ass

 It was a normal situation.

There were people snacking, getting dressed, telling stories, yanking each others tails, you know the drill.

Next thing, Ripley walks in.

Wearing her tank top and knickers.

She looks at me. We know each other.

She walks up to a mirror on the wall and starts checking out her hair.

She's facing the mirror and from my location she's three quarters the way there to having her back to me.

I of course check out her ass and instantly realise that she can see me through the mirror.

I look through the mirror at her face and for a split second I thought she was looking back at me.

Maybe I imagined it but she spent the remaining time adusting her hair with a half-wry maybe-a-smile on her face.

It's nice to have dreams like this.

Magic

 While watching the Witcher on Netflix, the phrase "it's magic, it isn't real" troubled me.

Then I realised that it was the literal truth of magic.

When Yennifer created quills from nothing, they were visible to all. They would be added to arrows, the archers would weild them. All that mattered was the target, the arrow and the archers belief that the quill would guide the arrow to the target. If you believe that things will work out as you expect them to, you have a confidence that guides your aim.

When the guys slung the bottles of explosive toward the enemy for the female archers to hit, you might not believe that an arrow could hit a bottle from so great a distance. They did.

So much of our interaction with reality and each other is based on magic. Our expectations of each other is the basis of commerce, self worth and relationships. They aren't real and weigh nothing, but our lives revolve about them.

Gravity mirror

 I haven't heard much about what it's like at the boundary of the universe.

Could it be like a mirror, but a mirror that reflects the gravity of its contents back onto them?

That way, as far as the contents are concerned, there is no boundary and gravity is pulling in all directions.

Because of lensing the imaginary "outside" is bigger than the inside, hence expansion.

Argos

If you find the following hard to believe, try to imagine yourself in my position.

I was shopping for a pair of noise cancelling headphones, maybe something I could use for gaming, I thought.

I've got neighbours who like to karaoke themselves to their neighbours, no actual singing, just repeating what they hear, kinda annoying.

I thought noise cancellation would work for that too.

Well it says noise cancelling in the description, so I proceeded with the purchase.

I left it a few days before trying them out.

Some noise cancelling headsets have it enabled by default, some have a button to turn it on and off, some require you download an app.

I thought it curious that it didn't state "noise cancelling" on the box, but then there are probably lots of things the headset does that aren't described on the box.

Like that you need to download an app, available in Windows and Apple versions, to configure the headset.

And a link to the documentation where the headset is described as having "passive noise cancellation".

In case you haven't heard that term before (I didn't), it means that the headset operates like a pair of ear-muffs, or a pillow, or a wall. They make ambient noise less loud by being a barrier to outside sounds.

I wanted something that actually cancelled the noise, not just make it weaker, you know, like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise-cancelling_headphones

So I phone up Argos customer support where I talk to a Stephen Miller.

He asked me for the Reservation number: 200760.

We talk and while doing so I get an email from Argos, listing the noise cancelling headsets they have available, the Logitech ones I bought were not in the list.

If you go to argos.ie and search for "SHOP NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES" you will see for yourself.

I asked Stephen to send me an email, which he did.

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 14:46:36 +0000

 Hi there,

So just as mentioned on the phone if you take your headset back to a store with you receipt we can exchange for you for a different make or model due to the issue with them, you are also more than welcome to reserve one just in case there is one that you are happy with that we could give you on the same day.

Whatever it is you would like to get or do we should be able to meet your demands within that particular visit.

Take care 

Stephen Miller

Customer Service Advisor

Email: stephen.miller@argos.co.uk

I asked him if there was a reference number for our conversation which I had been told may be recorded for training purposes, he said they didn't have one.

I asked how they referred to recorded conversations internally, he didn't seem to know.

I half-joked that I didn't want to end up leaving the shop with two sets of headphones, which he assured me wouldn't happen.

It happened.

I got there and provided the receipt. Told the Argos sales representative about my phone conversation and the email.

"Do you have a reference number for the conversation?" she asked.

I was dumb-founded. Stepthen Miller specifically stated that they don't provide reference numbers for phone conversations.

Thinking like any reasonable person, I saw a diagram in my head of any reasonable issue-tracking database.

reservation-number -> customer-id

reservation-number -> list-of-phone-call-ids

reservation-number -> list-of-email-ids

I asked if she could get the phone reference number, she said she could not.

I mentioned the email Stephen Miller sent me, she asked to see it.

I said I don't send emails from my phone.

I asked if she could look up the email from their end, she said she could not.

I stated that these were not noise cancelling headphones as stated in their product description, and backed up by the email I got from argos.ie listing noise cancelling headsets and that the Logitech ones I had purchased weren't on the list.

She said she couldn't look that up.

She retreated to consult with two other representatives when I noticed one of them take the headphones out of the box to try them on!

With glee and an actual kind of half-jig she triumphantly announced that they were indeed noise cancelling.

Talk about being on the wrong side of a victory dance. I searched around a bit, found and picked up my jaw and tried to explain what noise cancelling meant.

My efforts fell on deaf ears.

I asked if getting customer support on my phone would help.

I was told that it could.

It took a while but I got to talk to another customer service representative.

I asked about Stephen Miller, the person I was talking to (Becky? - not sure, I'm sure there's a log somewhere, right, RIGHT?) said she didn't recognize the name! WTF!?!

I got the manager in the store to talk to the customer representative and they ended up disagreeing.

The manager, sure that these were noise cancelling, and that I had put them on my head, meant that they couldn't be re-sold, meaning that I was not entitled to a refund or exchange, something Becky (I'm so sorry if I got your name wrong) disagreed with.

I took this encounter as round one and left.

I came back 10 seconds later to buy the headphones I wanted as I had already reserved them.

JBL E65BTNC On-Ear Wireless Headphones - Black

As I write this they are no longer listed on argos.ie but are on amazon.co.uk, with a downloadable manual to boot.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/JBL-Bluetooth-Headphones-Cancelling-Microphone-Black-Matte/dp/B0765Z1NWV

They have a noise cancelling button, and a light to let you know when it's on!

I wrote to Stephen Miller <Stephen.Miller@argos.co.uk> but as of the time of writing this I haven't received a response.

Either the customer service representative (Becky?) I talked to was new, Argos have more than one customer service department, or Stephen Miller is a one-time-use name Argos uses to send customers down the rabbit hole so they hang up thinking they've made progress on getting a refund/exchange.

Update 2020-07-27

About those JBL headphones, I may have discovered why they were taken off the argos.ie website.

I didn't want wireless headphones because no matter how good the battery, it won't last.

At least, I thought, if I keep them plugged into a charger I won't drain the battery.

It says in the manual that to turn on noise cancelling while plugged into the charger, hold down the anc (Active Noise Cancelling button) down for two seconds.

I tried it. Nothing happened.

The one reason I bought them is at fault.

Update 2020-07-30

I intend to take Argos to the small claims court and to that end I handed a letter giving them 10 business days notice, giving them a chance to change their mind. So Firday 14th of August, see you in court.

So before the court date, I got an email letting me know Argos weren't going to show up, so claim paid in full.

Reality

When I did the math on approaching black holes I had an epiphany - the very big and the very small are somehow related.

Electrons absorb photons and jump to some higher energy orbit.
Sometimes they shed energy as a photon and fall to some lower energy level.

In ruby, ultra-violet light is absorbed and red light is emitted - this is how ruby lasers work.

Quantum theory doesn't explain how the electron absorbs or emit photons.

Quantum theory doesn't explain how this energy conversion is lossless.

We don't experience 100% efficient energy conversion on our scale other than witnessing what the quantum scale does.

For us, one thing going in and two things coming out doesn't happen.

Oh, wait, isn't that the reproductive process?

But life forms consume energy in order to live, so they can't be the same.

That is unless electrons are consuming energy in the conversion, just from somewhere we can't observe.

In my condensing universe blog I explained that the universe doesn't have to expand in order for us to observe it expanding - it could be condensing and we would have no way to tell the difference.

But a condensing universe would have a surplus of energy stored in the fabric of space itself - maybe that's where electrons get that extra energy.

It gets me that two point-like objects can collide at all - Heisenbergs uncertainty principle would mandate infinite uncertainty as to their momentum.

The only conclusion I can think of is non-locality of influence - if they get close enough then that will do.

But at our scale non-locality doesn't happen, right?

Have you ever had some food cooking while you were on the phone and drinking coffee?

I've got news for you - you're non-local too.

We are entangled with this universe and with each other and our influence extends through time and space.

Life is an emergent property of the physics of this universe.

Speaking of time and space, at the very smallest of scales time loses its meaning, and I've got a feeling that at the very largest of scales, space loses its meaning, and our reality is some where in between.

I watched 3blue1brown's video on quaternions and wondered if the very big and the very small were the result of four dimensional spheres passing through our three-dimensional universe.

If so, electrons, photons, etc could be the same size as our universe but trapped on the surface of some higher-dimensional plane.

I think string theorists call this a brane.

Once you concede this, it follows that the Casimir effect could be other universes glancing off ours like electrons on a sheet of graphene.

Given that electrons are negative and protons are positive, why don't they collide and cancel their charge out?

I'm guessing that electrical charge and electricity itself is/are emergent properties as well, and something else is going on.

The vibe

Vibe

We vibe off everything, may it be positive, neutral or negative.

That which we vibe off can be animate or inanimate.

When we have an idea, it's the idea we vibe off.

We usually describe this as "like", "dislike", "ignore", "useless", "love",
"hate", "interesting", "curious", "uninteresting", "bizarre", "attractive",
"uninteresting", "unattractive" or other adjectives.

These are all reflections of our human condition - not everyone feels the same,
so, to an extent, how we feel about things is a reflection of us.

When you vibe off something or someone, you know it, balls to bones.
If it's a person and they feel the same, you've found a soul mate.

You don't finish each others sentences, it's like surfing the net but you're
surfing their personality and they are doing the same thing, at the same time!

Notice that I've said nothing about gender.
Gender is a genetic coin flip, and sometimes that coin lands on its edge, so
it's not about that.

I've also not mentioned sex.
How important are having mind blowing orgasims to your life?

It's great when they happen, but it's usually not like calling an elevator,
which is actually part of their charm.

The best adrenaline rush is in the vibe, not the schedule.

What I mean by this is the vibe exists outside of time, but the schedule, when
and where you're going to do something, has a future, present, and a past.

You can sprinkle a relationship with events but the vibe was always there and
the events came from that.

That's why relationships never truly end - t had no beginning.
You were always gonna vibe off them.

And if you think that's not strange enough, cast your mind back to the last time you were lost in the rhythm!

Event horizons of approaching black holes

I think that the event horizons of approaching black holes should repel as they approach.

I was intrigued when I posted a comment on PBS space times' YouTube video and the response was "do the math".

It took me a while but now at least I have something to point at, and I think it was worth the effort given my lack of background in (astro)physics.

The source code is available in SourceForge for you to try out yourself.
I'm on Debian so you'll need make and g++/clang++, I tried to keep it as simple as possible.
The program generates an ".off" file which describes a point cloud.

The image above is what you get when you load the file into MeshLab and take a snapshot.
This was generated by:

./event-horizon  --d=1.6 --res=1e-4

 You can try other values by varying the parameters, the code isn't that complicated to understand.

Enjoy!

Update 2017-10-03

I wrote a CGAL variant that generates full surfaces but as it turns out one sometimes gets its normals inverted - it looks kinda cool though!

Update 2017-10-03 part 2

After several hours mulling it over, I figured out how to write a libigl version with the NanoGUI.

With this version one can look around the model and directly modify viewing attributes as well as the distance (d) parameter.

These screenshots were taken from running

./event-horizon-igl -d 1.382012173 

The thing to note is the blob hiding in the middle of the combined event horizons - it's outside the event horizon but isolated from the rest of space-time.

It's also shrinking as the singularities approach one another.

I'm guessing its entropy is decreasing too, so time is going backwards.

It may or may not be being bombarded with leaking firewall from the two black holes.

Finally, it's becoming so small and so close to the event horizons that millions or billions of years will pass for it while for us it would be just a moment.

Sounds like a pocket universe to me, a time-reversed big bang!

Update 2017-10-13

It looks like the singularities meet inside that pocket of regular space-time!

I used the radii corrosponding to the 29 and 36 solar mass black holes whose gravity waves were detected.

If you run

./event-horizon --r1=.855484 --r2=1.06198 -d 5e-13 --res=1e-11

 here's a very zoomed-in view of what you get (the dot in the middle is the origin)

I wasn't expecting that!

Update 2019-04-18

For the record, I don't believe singularities exist.

When the universe was formed the energy density was way more than matter can sustain which explains why matter didn't form until the universe had time to cool down.

If ultra ultra high energy gamma rays can combine to form matter then that process should be reversible, and everything that falls into a black hole gets hot enough to force that conversion.

Update 2019-05-01

Temperature has no meaning without matter, which means that when the big bang happened things weren't hot, they were dense.

Only after the universe had a chance to spread out did photons combine to produce matter, at which time things were very hot indeed.

Update 2019-07-14

For singularities to exist without breaking the laws of physics, at least the laws of physics of our universe, could they be outside of our universe and our only interaction with them was their gravitational field?

If our universe had at least four spacial dimensions, then inside and outside are the same, they just look different to us - once again here's a link to 3blue1brown's video on quaternions.

Quantum Gravity

The double slit experiment

Just read the Wikipedia article which explains four possible explanations for this phenomena.

Here's my take on it.

The exact location of quantum particles such as electrons, photons atoms... is a probability distribution explained by Heisenbergs uncertainty principle - a bell curve.

Quantum tunneling is the phenomena where particles can appear on the other side of a barrier without having sufficient energy to do so.

It also demonstrates that the uncertainty principal isn't just an idea, it explains phenomena observable in nature.

By the conservation of mass-energy particles such as electrons and atoms aren't cancelling themselves out due to interference as this would release a lot of energy.

If electrons aren't canceling themselves out and their hitting the detector in bright and dark bands then their probability distribution function is being affected by the slits.

They either hit the slit mask where they are absorbed or reflected or travel through it.

Quantum tunneling even allows them to reach the other side of the slits by traveling some non-zero distance inside the slit mask that classical physics would prohibit.

Somewhere in this journey from one side of the slit mask to the other the probability distribution of the particles is affected making their final trajectory different to that of a particle traveling in a straight line without the double slit barrier.

If these particles have mass then it's at the quantum level.
If some thing's changing the direction of such a particle and it's not one of the other atomic forces then were left with one conclusion - quantum gravity.

Hyper Revo 26 Inch Dual Suspension Mountain Bike - Men's - White

I bought this bike from Argos's ebay Ireland web store - here it is.
Curiously, the Argos Ireland web site didn't offer home delivery at the time - maybe it's changed since then.

Anyway here it is out of the box.

45 minutes later and I had it assembled as the first picture shows.
Incidentally don't lie it down that way up - turn it over so the pedals are on top, it makes it a bit easier to assemble that way.

It actually ended up being taller than my old touring bike once I'd adjusted the seat so my legs would stretch to their full extent, so I need to kick my leg up a bit higher or just make use of the lack of a cross bar and mount it that way.

I found the seat would move around when I did my first ride - use a proper torque wrench to keep it from doing this.

The snap lock on the seat works well but you have to remember how it was mounted when you put it back on otherwise you'll be adjusting it back to the way it was after cycling 20 meters, which is a bit annoying.

As far as gears go, since I'm used to touring bikes I just keep it at the highest pedal gear (operated by the left hand gear adjustment) and just use the wheel gear, numbered 1-6, with the right hand.

Sometimes going up or down a gear doesn't have an effect - then you need to go one past and back up, but there's not a big difference between one gear and the next, so that's no big deal.

You'll need a proper two-hand floor pump to fill the tires.

The wishbone suspension was a bit too spongy the way it was set so I tightened it about another 20% to stiffen it up.

I bought some mud guards and a bag holder for it but when the bag holder is weighed down it hits the mud guard which hits the tyre - a problem with dual suspension bikes.

You'll need ones that specifically mention "for dual suspension bikes" otherwise you'll be disappointed.

I got mine from Lidl, and ended up putting on the bag carrier using the supplied tools in the shop, so I could leave with my shopping inside the box the bag carrier came in, on the bag carrier.

It took about 20 minutes to attach.

I guess you dirt bike enthusiasts will be yelling at the screen - "you don't have mudguards or a bag holder when you're dirt bike racing", and yeah, you're right.

I was just looking for a bike that would do what I want and would last, and this certainly looks like it'll do that - and a bargain.

The bag holder was probably a waste of money - I'll use a back pack for heavy shopping in future.

I haven't ridden in the rain or through mud so I don't know how good the mudguards are, so I'll update this post when I do.

It certainly is a smooth ride, and those bumps and holes in the road are a lot less jarring to cycle over than they were before.

It has a steel frame so it weighs some, but it cruises like a Mercedes Benz, or at least how I imagine one would.

Happy trails!

Walking is a kind of dancing

People worry about robots stealing jobs.

Let me explain why this is hilarious.

We are expressions of our genes, which are an expression of our environment.

The genes of the beings around us affect our environment too, but because they are also expressions of the environment, it's all about the environment.

Robots interact with their environment through programs - software running on hardware.

In a very real sense we are programs running on our genes - particular permutations of all possible expressions.

We are to genes as a dance is to us.

Epiphany is to revelation as we are to the idea of us.

1:35:30

I gave up trying to think of  a title for the segment of the "Pineapple Express" movie on Netflix that most illuminated what corruption really means.

Drug Dealer: what do you do?
Process server: I work for a company that serves legal documents. Sometimes I go in disguise to get them to admit to who they really are so I can serve them the documents.

I haven't seen the rest of the video yet, I hope it's fun.

OK so you're wondering "the dude takes drugs, what's the diff?
He shows up and puts on a disguise and hands some papers over.
Clowns do most of that."

The issue: what if the company the server works for has a connection to the drug dealer?

"Hey, hang around, I've got a new thing" - that could be useful.

Like I said, I'm watching it now on Netflix, so if this turns out to be a key point to a plot twist, then oops!

pandoras promise

I thought I'd take a break from watching "Pandoras promise" - a documentary about how nuclear power is maturing to become the safe affordable source of energy the world needs - I know I (was) a cynic too.

I thought I'd google it for more information - I found the site.

It turns out there are several ways to watch it - long story short, it's a commercial production and fees are involved if you want to see it.

Maybe it's just me, but if the nuclear power industry wanted to improve their reputation, they'd fund an independent body to make a "living video" - one that was continually updated - even once a month, to present an independent understanding of the costs and benefits of nuclear power.

I for one was shocked to discover that the background radiation levels in Brazil are more than 30 times those in Chernobyl.

Then there's "coal kills more people by about 10000:1 or greater than radiation", if I read the statistics right.

Come to think of it, there's another industry that feeds on fear and uncertainty - the distribution of wealth, that drugs regulation kills children
so I think that big commercial interests actively encourage this sort of thing.

The Treatment (SuperValue Raheny)

I put this in a seperate post to the previous one so that it could be referenced and commented upon by itself.

It struck me just last night (28 March 2014) that I get "the treatment" at my local SuperValue in Raheny and only notice it by its absence.

The treatment

Let me walk you through the steps

the introduction

A female member of staff walks up behind me, puts an empty cardboard box on the counter (the queue for the off-license section is along the counter) and starts tearing it up, getting my attention with the noise. She looked like Maggie Grace.

the rescue

The guy behind the counter - the one serving me, stops what he's doing, turns to her and asks her if she's "OK".

the reinforcement

A member of security walks straight at me, stops three feet away and continues "protecting the public and staff" until I complete my purchase and leave.

In summary

If I weren't such a regular patron of my local SuperValue I'd ask for the manager and let the chips fall where they may, but that might be construed as causing a fuss, and who among us likes a fuss?

I wonder if it's because I have a pony tail, but of course one of the key aspects of any unwritten policy is to not admit it.

A key aspect of any "treatment" is that each part, on it's own, looks reasonable, it's usually only the recipient of the treatment that knows they're being singled out.

It's easy for on-lookers to assume that the recipient somehow deserves it or that they missed something.

Maybe they're using me for practice.

Maybe I've got one of those faces.

Discrimination, or someone "fitting my description" caused a fuss before, what's the difference?

Between the lines

This incident took place on Tuesday night the 15 January 2013 (technically Wednesday morning).

I went back several times to see if this mess had been cleaned up to everyones satisfaction, but it would appear that my custom is no longer required.

As of 15 March 2014 I am still barred from Diceys because of "what happened last time".

Here's the text of the email I sent, to which I have yet to receive a response.

Hi there.

I was in Diceys last night and at about 3:15 pm I wanted change for the cigarette machine.

I handed over 20 Euros and got back one 10 Euro note along with five 2 Euro coins.

I asked the barman if he could change one of the two Euro coins for four 50 cent coins, which he seemed happy to do.

I waited at the bar (the end nearest the front door to Diceys main entrance) and watched as he served another customer - I assumed he was multi-tasking.

The next time I looked over he had gone.

I immediately looked around for a member of the floor staff to notify about this issue and ended up going out the front door to talk to a member of the door staff.

He recommended asking another member of the bar staff about it and get back to him in the event of a problem.

The bar man I talked to looks Indian and when I asked him if he knew where the bar man who gave me the change went, to which he responded "I didn't give you change". There was another barman with him who looked like the one who took my change, but this one looked a bit Indian with his hair sticking up with a bit of a slant.

Either wires were crossed or it was a wind up but I decided to go back to the door man - I had to finish my pint before he would talk to me, I couldn't take it outside.

I mentioned that the barman who took my change looked (for want of a better description) like Shrek - big head, short black hair sticking out the top.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle outside Krystals so he said to go to the hotel entrance in ten minutes to talk to the manager.

So that's what I did - by the time I bought another pint I had figured ten minutes had passed so I walked to the part of the bar nearest the entrance of Krystals and asked the bar girl if I could leave my pint somewhere safe.

I went out of Krystals entrance and up the steps of the Russel Court Hotel entrance where I talked to the manager.

The manager asked that I send an email to this address - here it is.

I had a cigarette outside the entrance to Krystals and when I wanted to go in to get my pint I was told by the same doorman I talked to earlier that the manager had decided not to let me back in.

I hope camera recordings can confirm that I handed over a two Euro coin and didn't get change back, and I don't know why I wasn't let back in but to my mind the cost of the pint - another 2 Euros, is also owed to me.

In summary: money owed to me - 4 Euros.

I can collect it next time I drop by, but in the mean time I'd appreciate it if you could keep me in the loop about the progress of your enquiries.

I'm also interested in what I might do (or not do, or do differently) to avoid being unexpectedly refused re-admission, as it doesn't sit well with me.

Regards,
Philip Ashmore

Rejuvenation meetup photos

Tinkerbell, a wake-up spell

A Britney Spears wallpaper I downloaded from somewhere, 'cause it's pretty and a bit scary

If you are easily scared, then please, skip to another post or web site.

Go for a walk, have some tea, arrange a lunch with friends.

This is a genuine nightmare that I've just finished writing down after waking up, before I forgot it, so if you really like having the hairs on the back of your neck raised then read on.

I don't know when it started but it seemed like every day, at around the same time, tea-time, 6 o'clock, I'd catch a glimpse of Tinkerbell.

Initially these were fleeting out-of-the-corner-of-one-eye affairs, but by the time things changed I was able to walk along, and Tinkerbell would fly three feet in front of me, one foot to the left, so that our relative positions didn't change, like Tinkerbell and I were the only things real and the rest was just background.

Just before she would leave she made that most Tinkerbell-ious of poses, shoulders shrugged, left knee bent so her heel was in the air behind her, hands clasped, with a beautifully innocent and playful smile, then, just as the smile reached its full bloom, blink - she was gone.

I mentioned this to my mother and she told me to stop messing.

Then, one day, finally, I noticed that my mother was outside, knitting.

It was 6:01 pm and Tinkerbell was still with me.

I said "hey, mother, here's Tinkerbell!" - she didn't even lift her gaze from the knitting.

Then out of anger, bewilderment, dismay, I positioned myself so that Tinkerbell, who always maintained her fixed relative position to me, was between my mother and her knitting.

Mother initially swiped at Tinkerbells position, thinking her to be a jimmy-joe - I guess if I could see Tinkerbell from that angle she might look like a jimmy-joe.

Mothers hand passed straight through Tinkerbell, but Tinkerbell moved anyway, which, because she had never done that before, was most disconcerting to me - she was just flying around in the air.

I lost track of her for a split second, but when I spotted her again she had in her hand a string or lace, and on the other end of the lace there appeared to be a parcel of some kind with the lace tied around it on all four sides, with a bow in the middle.

As she flew up in the air, I noticed that the parcel was now the size of a shoe-box, but it wasn't a shoe box, but was darkest black and what was that on its door? A tumbler.

I didn't have to tell my mother what was falling towards her.

The growing shadow at our feet was all the warning she needed - I've never seen mother move so fast - she was like a cat!

Still, she had just cleared her garden chair when the 10 foot tall
one-and-a-half-ton safe made a home for itself in the ground with its top 3 feet forward and one foot to the left of its base, a very odd angle.

Tinkerbell still had her playful smile in full bloom when she pulled out her snub-nosed 45 revolver and started shooting at me, but by then other people had been alerted that something odd was going on (a falling 1.5 ton safe will do that) and Tinkerbell had all sorts of things flying at her to upset her aim.

As the days and weeks went by it became clear that Tinkerbell wasn't a creature of imagination as well as not being a creature of the imagination.

Nope.

The town was flattened and the only things standing proud were 1.5 ton safes at really odd angles and most surfaces had at least one bullet hole or ricochet on them.

The closest any one had gotten to nailing her was a booby trap that involved an under-street coal bunker and one of Tinkerbells own fallen safes.

I don't know the details of the plan, I was too busy dodging bullets.

For the briefest of moments Tinkerbell had her right foot caught between a safe (now mostly buried in the street) and the street itself and that's when someone emptied a sack of corn starch into the air and lit a hair-spray container spray with a lighter.

Initially nothing happened, the air white with corn starch and a faint glow, but the corn starch caught with Tinkerbell in it.

I guess that was about the time Tinkerbell stopped smiling.

Even though I was over 50 feet away she let off a volley of three shots, which by now I had become used to, you really can see those bullets coming towards you if you're expecting them.

Still, her rate of fire was such that one of them still managed to snag my shirt, picking off a button near my navel although I myself was still uninjured, a source of bewilderment to both Tinkerbell and myself, obviously for different reasons.

It has to be said that Tinkerbell was one hell of a good shot, which, considering the fact that she never once hit me, is a genuine paradox.

That was the last of the remaining towns folk, the fire ball set something off.

I'd say that it was another booby trap which met the corn starch fire ball in an untimely manner but I'd be guessing.

Then I was in my bedroom, it was dark, quiet, and just as I was waking up I thought I could glimpse Tinkerbell, 3 feet above my bed, one foot to the left.

And before I woke up, before I remembered the dream, I could hear Tinkerbell say

"Take care, Philip, someone bad's coming"

WTF?

3D scanning with photographs

3D scanning really small things with photographs

While working on one of my many diversions (projects) I needed a 3D model of a very small component - Sharp's GP2S60 photointerruptor.

A quick look at the above PDF link will tell you that this is a very small device - 3.2 x 1.7 x 1.1 mm!

I followed Happy Robot's guide to create a 3D model for Analog Devices ADMP441 mems microphone (now sold to Invisense) for KiCad but the prospect of modeling Sharp's device was daunting.

Then I happened across www.my3dscanner.com and my spirits improved.

Just take some photos, upload them and voilà!

Just take some photos

Sounds easy, and after about 10 hours setting things up, well, it was pretty easy.

Equipment

A PC, a Raspberry Pi, a Raspberry Pi camera, and (optional) a wireless router in bridge mode

I'd previously modified the Raspberry Pi camera to take close-up pictures so I thought I'd try that.

Viewing the video output can be troublesome over WiFi as it has a more limited bandwidth, but it depends on your wifi cards/dongles and your wifi router.

One solution I tried was to use a TP-Links WR740N router in bridge mode and connect the Raspberry Pi and my PC to it, allowing wired ethernet speeds between them, with WiFi speed internet access for both.

Of course I had to reset the router to factory defaults first because I hadn't used it since UPC provided their WiFi modem, and I eventually discovered I needed to update the firmware for bridging to work, and I needed to use the Raspberry Pi to do all this because I couldn't get my laptop to talk Wifi and wired networking at the same time as both routers were set up for 192.168.0.1.

Every time I have to mess around with networking I wish I hadn't, but I was determined, and it paid off.

The wired speeds were 3 times that of WiFi and the video quality was flawless.

Update: 2014-03-28 with the new video scripts wifi video streaming is perfectly acceptable. Maybe it was the router.

The rig

I need a workshop, I know

That's a garden floodlight, all glorious 500W were needed to mostly eliminate image noise as things are zoomed up. Plus I couldn't think of anywhere else to set things up where the floodlight could hang.

I took the Quick Set-Up for Accurate Industrial Quality Scanning as a starting point - my rig needed to be a lot smaller.

I didn't have a picture of an Apple, like the "Quality Scanning" guide had, and I knew that my turntable needed a small, matt, non-repeating image as a back-drop for the item to be scanned.

So I looked around and she caught my eye.

On the front page of the Evening Herald was a picture of Laura Whitmore which looked nice. I figured I'd be looking at the background to the components I was scanning a lot so I chose something I wouldn't tire of soon, or ever (blush).

I cut it into a circle and marked it at approximately every 15 degrees as per the guide.

I used some Pritt Stick to stick it to some card board, and sticky tape to stick a thumb tack to the back, pointy bit outward.

I had taken down a foam+paper 3D puzzle from the attic as my resolution to always-take-down-more-than-you-put-up required, so it was handy for sticking the thumb tack pointy-bit into and I had a turntable.

Laura Whitmore framing the part (I hope that's OK with you, Laura!)

I had set up an NFS share on my PC and mounted it with the 'Pi, so it could then save files right to my PCs hard disk.

To get the video preview I put the following into raspivid-server:

#!/bin/sh
while true; do
  raspivid -w 1280 -h 1024 -t 999999999 -fps 30 -b 5000000 -o - | nc -l -p 5001
done

...and ran it on the 'pi.

You can make the script executable with

chmod +x raspivid-server

so you can invoke it with

./raspivid-server

or forget making it executable and run

sh raspivid-server

The following goes into raspivid-client

#!/bin/sh
if test "$1" = ""; then
    h="192.168.0.15"
else
    h="$1"
fi
nc $h 5001 | mplayer -fps 40 -demuxer h264es -

and ran on the PC.

You can make the script executable with

chmod +x raspivid-client

so you can invoke it with

./raspivid-client 192.168.0.123

or forget making it executable and run

sh raspivid-client 192.168.0.123

The client needs to know the IP address of the server (the 'pi) - I configured the router to reserve one IP address for the wifi dongle on the 'pi, and put that as the default for the script.

For trying wired access or another 'pi, you can supply the 'pi's IP address on the command line.

Thanks to this post for how to do low latency streaming.

It seems to require moving your hand in front of the camera to flush some frames through and reduce the latency, which starts out awful: > 3 seconds delay.
After that the delay for me was less than 0.5 seconds!

After getting the 'Pi camera able to focus on really nearby things (the lens nearly fell out I had it unscrewed so much!) using the above scripts, I took a series of pictures with the "raspistill" program in time-lapse mode, of which this is the first:

I poked the turn-table with a piece of wire so that each shot was approximately a 15 degree rotation more/less than the one before, and was so chuffed I started disassembling the rig and putting things away.

It was then I remembered the guides warning about no shadows - d'oh!
I forgot to photograph the back - d'oh number two!

Things were a lot quicker the second time around but I had to use a milk carton to diffuse the light:

The results:

I converted the image sequences to video for your delectation:

 I got those pesky ffmpeg flags from here.

ffmpeg -r 10 -g 300 -i image-fr-%04d.jpg -vcodec mjpeg -qscale:v 1 image-fr.avi

ffmpeg -r 10 -g 300 -i image-bk-%04d.jpg -vcodec mjpeg -qscale:v 1 image-bk.avi

just remember to renumber the frames so they start at 0001 and increase by 1.

Results

I uploaded them to my3dscanner.com and a few days later I got a notification that the results were available for download - the delay was probably due to holidays.

Here are some pictures I took of them with Meshlab:

Now to figure out how to process them!

TP WR702N factory install web pages with translations

Factory install web pages

Expanded table of contents (left frame)

* 运行状态
* 设置向导
* 工作模式
* 网络参数
    * LAN口设置
* 无线设置
    * 基本设置
    * 无线安全设置
    * 无线MAC地址过滤
    * 无线高级设置
    * 主机状态
* DHCP服务器
    * DHCP服务
    * 客户端列表
    * 静态地址分配
* 系统工具
    * 诊断工具
    * 软件升级
    * 恢复出厂设置
    * 备份和载入配置
    * 重启路由器
    * 修改登录口令
    * 系统日志

更多TP-LINK产品，
请点击查看 >>

Expanded table of contents (left frame)

* Running state
* Setup Wizard
* Operating mode
* Network parameters
    * LAN port settings
* Wireless settings
    * Basic Settings
    * Wireless security settings
    * Wireless MAC address filtering
    * Wireless Advanced Settings
    * Host state
* DHCP server
    * DHCP service
    * Client list
    * Static address assignment
* System Tools
    * Diagnostic tool
    * Software upgrades
    * Restore the factory settings
    * Backup and load configuration
    * Restart router
    * Change Password
    * System log

TP-LINK products
Please click View >>

Running state

    版本信息

当前软件版本：   
4.18.85 Build 120530 Rel.56096n
当前硬件版本：   
WR702N 1.0 00000000


    LAN口状态

MAC 地址：   
14-E6-E4-EF-09-AC
IP地址：   
192.168.1.253
子网掩码：   
255.255.255.0


    无线状态

无线模式：    AP 模式
无线功能：    启用
SSID号：    TP-LINK_PocketAP_EF09AC
信 道：    自动（当前信道 6）
模 式：    11bgn mixed
频段带宽：    自动
MAC 地址：    14-E6-E4-EF-09-AC
WDS状态：    未开启


运行时间：   
0 天 01:10:56

Running state

Version information

Current software version:
4.18.85 Build 120530 Rel.56096n
Current hardware versions:
WR702N 1.0 00000000


LAN port status

MAC address:
14-E6-E4-EF-09-AC
IP address:
192.168.1.253
Subnet Mask:
255.255.255.0


Wireless Status

Wireless Mode: AP Mode
Wireless function: Enable
SSID No.: TP-LINK_PocketAP_EF09AC
Channel: Auto (channel 6)
Mode: 11bgn mixed
Band bandwidth: Automatic
MAC address: 14-E6-E4-EF-09-AC
WDS Status: Not open

Setup Wizard

    设置向导

本向导可设置上网所需的基本网络参数，请单击“下一步”继续。若要详细设置某项功能或参数，请点击左侧相关栏目。

Setup Wizard

The wizard to set the Internet basic network parameters, click "Next" to continue. To set up a function or parameters in detail, please click on the relevant part of the left side.

Wireless mode settings

    无线工作模式设置

AP:    接入点模式
Router:    无线路由模式
Repeater:    中继模式
Bridge:    桥接模式
Client:    客户端模式

Wireless mode settings

AP: Access Point Mode
Router: wireless routing mode
Repeater: relay mode
Bridge: Bridge Mode
Client: Client Mode

LAN port settings

    LAN口设置

本页设置LAN口的基本网络参数。
MAC地址：
IP地址：
子网掩码：

LAN port settings

This page to set basic network parameters of the LAN port.
MAC address:
IP address:
Subnet Mask:

Basic wireless network settings

    无线网络基本设置

AP 模式
SSID号：   
信道：   
模式：   
频段带宽：   
　    开启无线功能
　    开启SSID广播
开启WDS

Basic wireless network settings

AP mode
The SSID:
Channel:
Mode:
Band bandwidth:
Turn on the wireless function
Open the SSID broadcast
Open WDS

Wireless network security settings

无线网络安全设置

本页面设置路由器无线网络的安全认证选项。
安全提示：为保障网络安全，强烈推荐开启安全设置，并使用WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK AES加密方法。

* 不开启无线安全

* WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK
认证类型：
加密算法：
PSK密码：
（8-63个ASCII码字符或8-64个十六进制字符）
组密钥更新周期：
（单位为秒，最小值为30，不更新则为0）
WPA/WPA2
认证类型：
加密算法：
Radius服务器IP：
Radius端口： （1－65535，0表示默认端口：1812）
Radius密码：
组密钥更新周期：
（单位为秒，最小值为30，不更新则为0）
* WEP
认证类型：
WEP密钥格式：
密钥选择 WEP密钥 密钥类型
密钥 1：
密钥 2：
密钥 3：
密钥 4：

Wireless network security settings

This page is set up the wireless router network security authentication option.
Safety Tips: In order to ensure network security, it is strongly recommended to open the security settings and use WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK AES encryption method.

* Do not turn on wireless security

* WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK
Authentication Type:
Encryption algorithm:
PSK password:
 (8-63 ASCII characters or 8-64 hexadecimal characters)
Group key updates Cycle:
 (In units of seconds, and the minimum value is 30, not updated or 0)
* WPA/WPA2
Authentication Type:
Encryption algorithm:
Radius server IP:
Radius Port: (1-65535,0 of default port: 1812)
Radius Password:
Group key updates Cycle:
 (In units of seconds, and the minimum value is 30, not updated or 0)
* WEP
Authentication Type:
WEP key format:
Keys to select the WEP key key type
Key 1:
Key 2:
Key 3:
Key 4:

Wireless network MAC address filtering settings

无线网络MAC地址过滤设置

本页设置 MAC 地址过滤来控制计算机对本无线网络的访问。
MAC 地址过滤功能：已关闭
过滤规则
禁止 列表中生效的MAC地址访问本无线网络
允许 列表中生效的MAC地址访问本无线网络
ID MAC 地址 状态 描 述 编 辑

Wireless network MAC address filtering settings

This page set MAC address filtering to control access to the computer on the wireless network.
MAC address filtering: Closed
Filtering rules
* The MAC address of the entry into force of the ban list to access the wireless network
* Allow the MAC address of the entry into force of the list to access the wireless network
ID MAC address state description Edit

Wireless Advanced Settings

无线高级设置

传输功率：
Beacon时槽： (40-1000)
RTS时槽： (1-2346)
分片阈值： (256-2346)
DTIM阈值： (1-255)
开启 WMM
开启 Short GI
开启 AP隔离

Wireless Advanced Settings

Transmission power:
Beacon slots: (40-1000)
RTS time slot: (1-2346)
Fragmentation Threshold: (256-2346)
The DTIM threshold value: (1-255)
 Open WMM
 Open Short GI
 Open AP Isolation

Wireless Network host status

无线网络主机状态

本页显示连接到本无线网络的所有主机的基本信息
当前所连接的主机数：0
ID MAC地址 当前状态 接收数据包数 发送数据包数

Wireless Network host status

This page shows basic information to connect to the wireless network host.
Currently connected to the host:
ID MAC address the current state number of receive data packets the number of send packets

DHCP service

DHCP服务

本路由器内建的DHCP服务器能自动配置局域网中各计算机的TCP/IP协议。
DHCP服务器： 不启用 启用
地址池开始地址：
地址池结束地址：
地址租期： 分钟 （1～2880分钟，缺省为120分钟）
网关： （可选）
缺省域名： （可选）
主DNS服务器： （可选）
备用DNS服务器： （可选）

DHCP service

The router's built-in DHCP server to automatically configure each computer in the LAN TCP / IP protocol.
DHCP server: not enabled enabled
Address pool start address:
The end of the address pool address:
Address lease: minutes (1 ~ 2880 minutes, default is 120 minutes)
Gateway: (optional)
The default domain name: (optional)
Primary DNS server: (optional)
Alternate DNS server: (optional)

Client list

客户端列表

当前客户端列表为空

Client list

Current client list is empty

Static address assignment

静态地址分配

本页设置DHCP服务器的静态地址分配功能。

注意：添加、删除条目或对已有条目做任何更改，需重启本设备后才能生效。
ID MAC地址 IP地址 状 态 编 辑

Static address assignment

This page set static address assignment of DHCP server functionality.

Note: Add, delete an entry or make any changes to existing entries, you need to restart the device to take effect.
ID MAC address IP address edit state

Diagnostic tool

诊断工具

在本页面可以使用ping或者tracert，诊断路由器的连接状态。
参数设置
选择操作： Ping Tracert
IP 地址/域名：
Ping 包数目： （1-50）
Ping 包大小： （4-1472字节）
Ping 超时： （100-2000 毫秒）
Tracert 跳数： （1-30）
诊断结果

Diagnostic tool

In this page you can use the ping or tracert to diagnose the connection status of the router.
Parameter settings
Select operation: Ping Tracert
IP address / domain name:
Ping packet number: (1-50)
Ping Packet Size: (4-1472 bytes)
Ping timeout: (100-2000 ms)
Tracert Hops: (1-30)
Diagnostic results

Software upgrades

软件升级

通过升级本路由器的软件，您将获得新的功能。
文 件 名：
TFTP 服务器 IP：

当前软件版本：
4.18.85 Build 120530 Rel.56096n
当前硬件版本：
WR702N 1.0 00000000

注意：请使用有线LAN口连接进行软件升级。升级时请选择与当前硬件版本一致的软件。升级过程不能关闭路由器电源，否则将导致路由器损坏而无法使用。升级过程约40秒，当升级结束后，路由器将会自动重新启动。

Software upgrades

By upgrading the software of the router, you will get the new features.
File name:
TFTP server IP:

Current software version:
4.18.85 Build 120530 Rel.56096n
Current hardware versions:
WR702N 1.0 00000000

Note: Please use the wired LAN port for software upgrades. Please select consistent with the current hardware version upgrade software. The upgrade process can not turn off the power to the router, otherwise the router would be damaged and can not be used. The upgrade process is about 40 seconds after the end of the upgrade, the router will automatically restart.

Restore the factory settings

恢复出厂设置

单击此按钮将使路由器的所有设置恢复到出厂时的默认状态。

Restore the factory settings

Click this button will restore all settings of the router to the factory default state.

Backup and load the configuration file

备份和载入配置文件

您可以在这保存您的设置。我们建议您在修改配置及升级软件前备份您的配置文件。

您可以通过载入配置文件来恢复您的设置。
路 径：
注意： 1、导入配置文件后，设备中原有的用户配置将会丢失。如果您载入的配置文件有误，可能会导致设备无法被管理。
2、载入配置文件的过程不能关闭路由器电源，否则将导致路由器损坏而无法使用。载入过程约20秒，当载入结束后，路由器将会自动重新启动。

Backup and load the configuration file

You can save your settings. We recommend that you modify the configuration and upgrade software to back up your configuration files.

You can load the configuration file to restore your settings.
Path:
Note: 1, after importing the configuration file, the the equipment original user configuration will be lost. If you load the configuration file, may result in the devices can not be managed.
2, the process of loading the configuration file can not power off the router, otherwise the router would be damaged and can not be used. Loaded in about 20 seconds, when loaded after the router will automatically restart.

Restart router

重启路由器

单击此按钮将使路由器重新启动。

Restart router

Click this button will cause the router to restart.

Change Password

修改登录口令

本页修改系统管理员的用户名及口令，用户名及口令长度不能超过14个字节。
原用户名：
原口令：
新用户名：
新口令：
确认新口令：

Change Password

This page to modify the system administrator's user name and password, user name, and password length can not be more than 14 bytes.
Original user name:
Original password:
The new user name:
New password:
Confirm new password:

System log

系统日志

索引 类型 日 志 内 容
1 INFO 0000:系统启动成功.

Time = 2006-01-01 8:31:05 1865s
H-Ver = WR702N 1.0 00000000 : S-Ver = 4.18.85 Build 120530 Rel.56096n
L = 192.168.1.253 : M = 255.255.255.0
W1 = DHCP : W = 0.0.0.0 : M = 0.0.0.0 : G = 0.0.0.0
Free=5029, Busy=1, Bind=0, Inv=0/0, Bc=0/0, Dns=0, cl=384, fc=0/0, sq=0/0

System log

Log the contents of the index type
1 INFO  0000: The system startup success.

 Time = 2006-01-01 8:31:05 1865s
 H-Ver = WR702N 1.0 00000000: S-Ver = 4.18.85 Build 120530 Rel.56096n
 L = 192.168.1.253: M = 255.255.255.0
 W1 = DHCP: W = 0.0.0.0: M = 0.0.0.0: G = 0.0.0.0
 Free = 5029, Busy = 1, Bind = 0, Inv = 0/0, Bc = 0/0, Dns = 0, cl = 384, fc = 0/0, sq = 0/0

Song of the Mariachi (Brunette of my heart) by Los Lobos

Performed by Antonio Banderas with lyrics!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXM8LjS-AOg

Mariachi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariachi
A performer or street musician, also denoting the style of music.

Cancion del Mariachi (Morena de Mi Corazon) by Los Lobos
Soy un hombre muy honrado,
Que me gusta lo mejor
A mujeres no me faltan,
Ni al dinero, ni el amor

jineteando en mi caballo
Por la sierra yo me voy
Las estrellas y la luna
Ellas me dicen donde voy

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay mi morena,
De mi corazon

Me gusta tocar la guitarra
Me gusta cantar el sol
Mariachi me acompana
Quando canto mi cancion

Me gusta tomar mis copas
Aguardiente es lo mejor
Tambien el tequilla blanco
Con su sal le da sabor

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay mi morena,
De mi corazon

Me gusta tocar la guitarra
Me gusta cantar el sol
Mariachi me acompana
Quando canto mi cancion

Me gusta tomar mis copas
Aguardiente es lo mejor
Tambien el tequilla blanco
Con su sal le da sabor

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay mi morena,
De mi corazon

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Ay, ay mi amor
Ay mi morena,
De mi corazon


Song of the Mariachi (Brunette of my heart) by Los Lobos
I am a very honest man,
What I like best
No woman left me,
Neither money, nor love

hustling on my horse
For the mountains I go
The stars and the moon
They tell me where I go

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Oh, oh my love
Oh my brunette
From my heart

I like to play guitar
I like to sing the sun
Mariachis are my companions
When I sing my song

I like to take my glasses
Brandy is the best
Also the white tequilla
To which salt adds flavor

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Oh, oh my love
Oh my brunette
From my heart

I like to play guitar
I like to sing the sun
Mariachis are my companions
When I sing my song

I like to take my glasses
Brandy is the best
Also the white tequilla
To which salt adds flavor

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Oh, oh my love
Oh my brunette
From my heart

Ay, ay, ay, ay
Oh, oh my love
Oh my brunette
From my heart