2011 Silliness

Silliness in 2011

It's been a year since my last post, and I've spent the year being very silly.

For instance I received this deodorant for Christmas in 2010, and have been using it ever since. Ever so gradually my amazement grew at how long it was lasting! Almost a year now!

I realised 3 days ago there was a plastic cover you have to take off first. Sorry for being smelly everyone.

It was also silly of me to watch 'Q&A' on the loo by propping up my iPad on a pile of dirty washing. And silly that when I later checked the clothes wash to make sure there were no whites in there, I neglected to make sure there were no Apple devices.

There's a fine line between silly and neglectful when you invest in a toaster specialising in crumpets and then fail to invest in the corresponding consumable.

It is non-ambiguously silly, after 35 years of experience, to optimistically attempt...

Silliness is a good description of trying to take a toy gun on a plane. THAT was a fiasco.

Still, 2011 so far has not been pure silliness. The architects of this handy office urn got it JUST RIGHT when they emerged from a 4 hour brainstorm session, trying to find the perfect title for the product that captured, on the one hand, the machine's abilities, without in any way undermining a parallel message concerning the low running costs involved:

Overall the highlight of these silly months has been one morning when I didn't just feel like I was one with the bed, but became one with the bed. Lovely, sweet, sleep.

Technic Lego Programmable Vehicle Prototype #1

Proof of concept prototype for a programmable vehicle, controlled via a card which you'll be able to change/customize to change the timing of the vehicle functions.



For this prototype I just wanted to make sure I could get the card going backwards and forwards indefinitely in a loop, and still remove/place the card easily. The card hits the motor switch which puts the motor into reverse.

The two switches are connected so hitting the one resets the other. One of the switches is under tension with a hair elastic, so the motor just has to push it past its tipping point (this is a real issue because to reverse the switch you have to go via the 'off' position - my fear was the card would nudge the switch to the 'off' position and no further, thus stalling it. The hair elastic pushes the switch further, meaning there is no off position possible.

Next phase is to make it look nicer (not my strong point) add steering, forward/backwards movement, and some kind of crane device on the top. These will all be driven via the card, by other ratchet thingies (as you can see in this video along one edge of the card. The hope is I'll be able to change the movement sequences really easy by taking out the card and rearranging the ratchet thingies.

Stay tuned if this is your kind of thing! Subscribe to my youtube channel www.youtube.com/lestep! (I also post education videos to this channel, BTW). Also come say hello to me on Twitter - @steve_collis - www.twitter.com/steve_collis