Joe Stead talks .NET Blub

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c4di is having some great evening events at the moment. On Monday we had CodePen, and today we had Joe Stead talking about future platforms for .NET development. Well presented and thought provoking.

Some interesting musings on how programmers are defined by the languages and tools that they use and how important it is to be looking at what's out there and developing professionally. Plus a look at some shiny new stuff.

I've come away with a list of things to investigate, and I'm pretty sure that most of the people there (and it was a good sized audience) were the same. 

Design Iteration

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One of the nice things about having a 3D printer is that it makes it really easy to iterate designs. I'm working on a new design for the configurable game controller. This version will have a socket for an input device and a bar-graph above each socket. I think I've found a design that sort of works, now to make up a panel. 

Oh, and one 3D printing top tip from Rob. Don't use oil on the sliding components. I thought this was a good plan, adding some "3 in 1" until the print head was moving really freely. What I'd forgotten though is that oil is sticky, and attracts dust. So when I fired up Una to print these prototypes she became very upset and pretty much locked up as all the sticky dust gummed everything up. Fortunately, after a good clean-up she's now working just fine. 

Great Gardening Gloves

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These are the exclusive "Goldfinger" edition

I never thought I'd be blogging on matters relating to gardening. Perhaps I'm growing up.

Shudder.

However, if you are in the market for some proper tough gardening gloves, ones that actually protect your fingers from all kinds of pointy nasties that you find when taking out a holly bush, then I strongly recommend these, which I got from the local PoundLand. And they cost only a pound.

They're made of leather off-cuts, with the pleasing result that no two are exactly the same. 

Pixelbots at CodePen

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Thanks to CodePen Hull for the picture of me holding up a phone to prove something worked.

Codepen is a great idea. Get together a bunch of people interested in code and have them tell each other what they are up to. There were six talks over the evening, ranging from a lovely looking Scrum development management tool, a splendid hosting framework, video game development, first steps in programming and the new application development pattern from Facebook.

I should have taken proper notes, but I was too busy thinking about my talk, which was right at the end. I think it went OK, even though at one point I was reduced to holding my phone up with a web page on it shouting "Look. It worked." As if anyone could tell.

I met up with some folks I've not seen for a while and it was lovely to have a catch up. We had pizzas and drinks and it was a great evening. It was great to see it so busy, but there's always room for a few more if you want to come along to the next one.

Anyhoo, I said I'd put the slide deck up and here it is. Including the answer to the competition question (which I'll probably have to change for next time).

I'm really looking forward to the next event. 

Zelda Guide

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I suppose it's an admission of defeat to buy a game guide. But actually I like them for the pictures as much as anything. And sometimes they are useful because they let you know that something is possible, rather than telling you how to do it. 

My official guide for the Zelda: Breath of the Wild arrived today and I really like it. Lots of detail and lavishly illustrated. If you've got the game I reckon you'll get a lot out of this guide, whether you need it or not.

Solar Cell Silver Lining

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I think another reason I was grumpy yesterday was that, while mowing the lawns, I managed to take out some of our solar powered lights. I'm not always a huge fan of lights in the garden to be honest. Last year we got some blue lights that must have previously been used on an aircraft carrier to guide planes down to land. To say they lit up the neighbourhood was something of an understatement.

But the ones we got this year are much nicer, giving out a very pleasant glow. At least they did until I wrapped their cable around the strimmer and tore it out of the power box. Oh well. Only ten quid to replace. And I now have a battery box and solar cell to play with. And enough space in there for an esp8266 and a power inverter. And fifty leds in a chain to make a "pimped up" Pixelbot.

Appalling UI Design

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Can you use your skill and judgement to tell which of these options is selected on the "upgraded" YouView user interface? I can't.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of stupid design: Why enable spell checking on the body text of the blog post editor but not on the title? This means that the interface detects and highlights errors that might not be spotted, while failing to notice mistakes that everyone will see.

I think I'm in a grumpy mode today. 

External Examining Fun

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We had the exam board this morning and then I wandered off for a walk around the city before I went to get my train home. I really like Dundee. I'm going to have to make some time for a proper visit. 

I also like the fact that I wrote a chunk of chapter six of "Begin to Code with Python" sitting at platform 1 waiting for my train. I'll be able to read my description of the while construction and how to use it properly and think "I wrote that in Dundee".

Hull Pixelbot (and me) at c4di CodePen Meetup next Monday evening

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I love things like CodePen. Anything that gets developers talking about what they are doing is absolutely brilliant in my book. These kind of events are great for students too. They learn that developers are just like them, just a few years further down the tracks. 

c4di are hosting another CodePen event next Monday evening, 5th of June. There are three speakers, and I'm one of them. I'm going to introduce folks to the Internet of Things by way of the Hull Pixelbot. I'm looking forward to seeing what the other speakers are up to as well. 

The event is free to attend and anyone can come along, it all starts at 6:00 in the evening at c4di. You can sign up here. 

Minecraft for the Nintendo Switch

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I've bought Minecraft on lots of different platforms but never really played it enough to do it justice. Perhaps the version on the Nintendo Switch will be the one that changes this. It's not particularly expensive and from my fairly limited perspective, does a very good job of implementing the game. The controls are a bit fiddly. I keep throwing things when I mean to select them. But then again I've found the controls fiddly on other platforms. 

There are two things that I do really like about this version though. The first is that you can carry it anywhere and play it easily. The second is that wireless play is really well implemented. Within just a few minutes I was inside a world made by Number One Son and exploring it. 

If you have a Switch, I'd strongly suggest you get a copy. If you've got a friend who also owns a Switch, you should persuade them to get a copy too. 

Evil Croquet

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The Incredible Hulk used to say "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." For me it's "You wouldn't like me when I'm playing croquet". We got the croquet set out today for the first time in many years and had a go. I seem to have lost a bit of my accuracy. But none of my nastiness. 

Sorry folks. 

You would think that by now I'd have learned the dangers inherent in giving other people large, heavy, mallets and then doing things that would seriously annoy them. But no....

Actually, croquet is a really great game. We used to have a lot of fun with the students when we had things like staff-student cricket matches. After they'd given us a serious drubbing on the cricket pitch we could always say "Well done. Now, how about a nice relaxing game of croquet?". The students, thinking that their superior motor skills and reflexes would serve them well in just another ball game would readily sign up. And we would win every time. 

Croquet is intensely strategic. A bit of skill helps, but at the end of the day it is all about striking a balance between your urge to complete the course and win the game, and your urge to send your opponent's balls into the flower beds. I think it's a good game for programmers, because it is all about sequence and planning. And I rather enjoy it. Frequently a lot more than the people I'm playing against......

Long File Paths and Begin to Code with C#

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I've had a few people hitting problems with the Begin To Code with C# example programs. 

The sample code is supplied as a Visual Studio Solution which you can download and then open. 

You get problems if you put the sample code folders inside other folders with long names, for example:

c:\users\rob\documents\2017\programming\csharp\learningtoprogram\book\BeginToCode\

When Visual Studio builds a program it creates quite a large number of subfolders which makes the paths to files in the application even longer. Some Windows filesystems restrict the maximum length of a filepath which means that the build process will fail.

If you get problems, particularly ones where the error complains that "Snaps.dll can't be found", you could try moving the sample code folder up the directory hierarchy, or putting it directly on your desktop. That might help.

Of course, if that doesn't work you can get in touch with me and I'll give you some help to get things going. 

Hull Pixelbots at the Radio 1 Academy

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Radio 1 invited us to take part in the Radio 1 Academy this week, which was nice of them. There are four days of events encouraging folks to engage with the "creative" arts. I was especially pleased to be asked to go along because I do computer stuff, and I see this as incredibly creative.

I had a very happy day showing people the robots, letting them control then with their phone and then telling them that the "magic ingredient" (i.e. the bit that links everything together) costs two pounds fifty. Which is less than the price of a burger and chips.

With a bit of luck, a few people who had never thought of getting into programming will turn up at one of our c4di hardware meetups and get involved in making stuff. I took a bunch of pictures during the event, you can find them here. 

Dell XPS 18 and Windows 10 Creators Edition

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Just pull out a few wires and all will be well......

Last night I broke my Dell XPS 18 tablet. Rather sad. I've had the machine for a while, and I really like it. I'd never be able to get another one, I don't think anyone will be daft enough to try and make this kind of machine again. It's an 18 inch Tablet PC and up until around 8:35 pm it was running Windows 10 a treat. 

Then suddenly it wasn't. 

What it was doing, was flashing the power light red for half a second and then white for seven flashes, which were repeated until I got bored and held the power switch down. Just before I went to bed I searched for some BIOS error codes and found that seven might mean that the graphics hardware is toast. 

Just the thing you want to do before trying to have a restful night.

This morning I had better luck. A proper search revealed that there is an issue with the power supply management on Windows 10 which means that my trusty tablet had put itself into "zombie sleep" mode during the installation of some updates. The way to fix the problem is to remove the back, unplug the battery and CMOS battery for a few minutes and then restart the machine. Full story here. 

Now you're talking.

The fix worked fine, and I've now got Windows 10 Creators Edition running handily on my "Big Ole Tablet". There is still something dodgy about things though. Entering Sleep mode makes the computer really hard to wake up (in fact it usually results in a crash). I've no idea why this is, or how to fix it, or if it can be fixed, so I've solved the problem by doing the following, which I call my "None Shall Sleep" plan:

  1. Open the power settings and tell the computer never to Sleep.
  2. Change the Power Button action from "Sleep" to "Nothing". This is a good thing to do on the Dell anyway because the power button is stupidly hard to catch by mistake and very irritating when it takes the machine away from you. 
  3. Remove the Sleep option from the power menu. 
  4. Turn off the "Fast Resume from Sleep". I'm not sure what this does, but I've got an SSD in the Dell now, and it boots pretty darned fast without any fancy shenanigans. 

If you've got an elderly Dell machine that has been broken by a Windows 10 upgrade you might want to look into this issue. The effect of the failure really does leave you thinking the hardware is dead, and I was very pleased when mine sprang back into life again. 

Rob wins "Elevator Pitch" at c4di

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Won a prize today for speaking in an elevator. Not done that before. Only at c4di. 

As I walked into the building yesterday I was asked if I'd like to take part in an "elevator pitch" competition. The idea behind an elevator pitch is that perhaps one day you'll find yourself in a lift with someone like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. So you've got the time it takes to get to the tenth floor to convince them to give you a hunk of money to let you follow your dream. 

I was told I had sixty seconds in the c4di elevator (up to the top and back down) to convince someone I'm worth backing. I wasn't really prepared for it, but I said I'd have a go, and off we went.

I'd got a Hull Pixelbot with me (Crystal Masie as it turned out) and so I decided to wax lyrical about the joys of building tiny connected robots. When I'd finished I asked how much time I had left to speak.

Forty more seconds. 

So I went on a bit more about getting people making and coding, and my dream of building an arena containing 100 Hull Pixelbots wandering around, just to see what they'd do.  Finally the time was up and I went back to my room to do battle with the Microsoft Bot Service. As you do. 

Today I found that I'd won the competition, which is awesome. I got a fantastic trophy and a lunch at Nibble. 

I love that c4di are doing things like this. You can watch the community of developers building up thanks to the efforts of Dee and Jess.  And getting practice telling people what you are doing and why it's a good idea is vitally important for professionals today. So everybody who took part has got something out of it. 

Great fun.