October 15, 2009
links for 2009-10-15
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Fantastic set of projects to encourage good behaviour by making doing the right thing more fun. Sounds all very worthy and dry but just go and watch the video of the World's Deepest Bin.
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Step-by-step instructions for dismantling CD drives and which parts can be reused. Handy accompaniment to the vibrobots project as you can find most of the bits to build a vibrobot in a CD drive
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Step-by-step instructions for building vibrobots (aka brushbots).
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Finally an affordable WiFi shield for the Arduino. Haven't bought one yet, but I'm sure I'll get one eventually
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Good to see the official Arduino board manufacturers are thinking about the environmental impact of the boards. Also good to see that they're not claiming that offsetting is a full solution, but it's heading in the right direction.
October 09, 2009
links for 2009-10-09
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I didn't make it over for TEDx Leeds as sadly it was on the same day as the Art of Digital Learning Lab in Ulverston. This is a good write-up of the event, complete with links to each of the talks on YouTube. Think I'll be watching them when I get a spare twenty minutes.
October 08, 2009
links for 2009-10-08
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Interesting story of one of the ways that ARUP tries (and seemingly succeeds) to maintain a good culture within the company. One bad apple really can spoil the whole bunch and it takes courage to oust them early, particularly if they seem to be talented.
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Lots of interesting possibilities for further reuse of bits from printers. Obviously someone needs to work out what to do with the non-stepper-motor bits of a printer :-)
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Internet-Connected Sonic Anemometer. You can measure wind speed and direction with some ultrasonic sensors. No moving parts. I've been wondering whether to see if the guys at the bombed out church would like one of these to let them show on their website whether St. Lukes will be open or not
October 05, 2009
links for 2009-10-05
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A good summary of how putting on a uniform (or some sort) can help you overcome both your own shyness and others reticence to engage with you. I think "magic vest" is a great term for it.
October 03, 2009
The Active Learning Lab
For a while now I've kept catching glimpses of a strangely coloured building lit up near the university when travelling to or from home when it's dark. It's not really on any of my usual routes around the city, so I'd never quite worked out where it was or what the building was. Tonight I went for a wander to track it down and capture some pictures of it to share.
It turns out it's the Active Learning Laboratory, part of the Engineering Department at the University of Liverpool. It's on Brownlow Hill, just behind the Metropolitan Cathedral and next-door to the very different but similarly splendid Victoria Building.
It wasn't the best night to try filming things, it's very windy - particularly up on the top of the crypt at the cathedral - and bit chilly. Of course, once I'd found a decent vantage point, it had finished the more impressive part of the colour cycling sequence, which is why this video is so long. Skip to about eight minutes in to get to some of the prettier colour changes.
It's hard to convey with the video, especially as it's just recorded on my N95, but the colours are really vibrant in the flesh and it must be three or four storeys of lighting - almost floating a couple of storeys off the ground. You can get a better idea of the scale from this video, taken from a little way down the hill. The cathedral is just off camera to the right, and the clock tower illuminated in the background is on Victoria Building.
This video also captures the most interesting colour changes that I saw, with the colours in vertical bands flowing round the building and merging into each other.
There's surprisingly little information about it on the university's own website, but I did find this article about the opening from the Liverpool Daily Post and here's another article with technical details about the LED lighting and a video showing off its capabilities.