The Inventory Gal

Wherein I explore the world of Makers, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, DIY Science and Open Source everything.

[theinventorygal]

Numbers that Matter Hackathon

Today I am not in fact at the shop but instead taking part in the Numbers that Matter Hackathon at the Manchester Science Park (you know it's a Science park because all the buildings have names like Synergy and Rutherford. Because).

It's really only just started so I have nothing much to say except, here are some neat projects other people are working on/have worked on:

Qcue - a queue app that lets you know where you are in the queue for a bacon butty,

Meteor Hat - using a meteor framework, you can control this baseball hat. From the guys at foxdog studios.

[theinventorygal]

3D Tutorials

Apron Tutorials

Getting started with OpenGL

This is really exciting as I'll be going into a whole new area of C++ development (most of what I've done so far is designing simulations). However, to begin with, I think I'll start with some 3D CSS work, to give me a feel for working in 3D. I found this inspiring bit of design from adobe.

[theinventorygal]

A quiet day

It's so quiet, but that's okay because I have Mr Monstah to keep me company

It's a quiet day at the shop today which is a bit of a shame because the weather is so nice, I would have thought there'd be more people about. I suppose it's an opportunity to catch up with my Coursera lectures (I've got two Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience lectures to watch and a whole load of functional analysis/game theory ones to even start). If I'm feeling plucky, I might try and finish some of the homework. Then I shall spend tonight watching anime.

No word on any projects yet. Tomorrow is coding day where I sit down, finish my PHP and Python courses and basically have as much fun as I can with the killer of my soul that is UNIX. 

Enough chitter chatter and back to work!

[theinventorygal]

UNIX

As part of the training I'm on, every week introduces us to new programming languages and techniques. So far we've done SQL which was alright, basic web development (lots of HTML and CSS and a bit of jquery) and this week we're hitting UNIX.

I've always been intrigued by learning UNIX as I happen to have a Mac and rather liked the idea of being able to look under the hood as it were, and maybe even develop some of my own freeware applications, but so far this week all that I've learned is that UNIX and I do not get on. Now to be fair, it's only been a week and we've been introduced to a lot of new concepts and techniques - I think I've got the hang of basic commands and scripting, but the more advanced stuff like creating multiple options for scripts/functions just makes my head hurt - so perhaps that's why a lot of what we've been taught so far seems more like magic than logic.

However, I am determined not to be defeated. My complete lack of ability with UNIX reminds me a lot of how I felt when I was starting C++. Fast forward to now and I'm really fond of the ol' mother tongue, so maybe it's just a matter of time and practise. I think part of the problem might be the pressure of getting everything ordered in my head within a week, when my learning style tends to mean I learn from making lots and lots and lots of mistakes. I'm a bit of a numpty like that - it's one of the things that make me a little nervous about the prospect of working as consultant developer.

So without further ado, here are some books and online course materials I've been advised to check out.

Advanced Bash Scripting Guide

Unix for the Impatient

Bash Reference Manual

Recommended UNIX Books from the University of Surrey

Anyway, I think I've taken enough of a break from revision! Here's to the project of woe, and my UNIX exam first thing tomorrow morning :( 

[theinventorygal]

Project Ideas

Today I went to the Arduino Manchester meetup where we discussed some project ideas for Pararchive, a collaborative research project with the University of Leeds and other local Maker groups. The MO is all about encouraging new ways of engaging with archive material and we basically had a bit of a brainstorm session about what kind of things we could work on.

As my own strengths currently lie in web design, I started envisioning working on some interactive 3d websites, which will definitely force me to take the game design/programming a bit more seriously. Will be sharing snippets and designs as I go. What I'm really interested in is creating virtual spaces, almost like dimensional portals that can transport people to the space as it was.

It will be nice to work on something a bit creative whilst I get on with my graduate training. We're currently learning Unix at the moment which is lots of fun, and not as hard as I thought it would be and will have some applications with creating software for Arduino which uses FreeBSD.

Still researching...

The Water Snail Project

As I'll be studying the locomotion of Malaysian Trumpet Snails, I'm brainstorming the kind of tech I'd have to make. In my head I'm envisioning stuff along the lines of underwater sensors and microscopes from digital cameras but to be honest, I suspect the first hurdle I'd need to jump is just keeping the little sweethearts alive.

Interesting links:

Game Programming

Udacity Course list - once I finish my coursera courses!

[theinventorygal]

Maker alert!

James Medd, a fellow Manchester based Maker. Albeit more successful. In fact, make that successful period.

Hayden Kibble, creator of the internet enabled fishtank

[theinventorygal]

A review

Today was a good day at the Inventory shop. I sold some three Raspberry Pis and an Arduino Yun. I also managed to sneak in a few more episodes of Btooom!, though at the expense of the lectures I was meant to be catching up on. Oops.

Kept bumping into people I know, from an old colleague from Whitworth Art Gallery to friends from MadLab. Also met a really cool Electronics Engineer who's done work for the ATLAS project and even knows one of my friends who's currently doing a PhD at the University of Manchester. We got talking about projects we're planning/working on. A very nice guy.

It was a good day. Severely lacking in heat but at least this time I knew where all the light switches were, the card reader was fully operational and I managed to justify my wages.

Now I have to go back to my Coursera lectures and read some chapters about Unix. Au revoir until next week!

Note to Self:

Still have yet to locate an unwanted fishtank. 

[personalfactory]

29th of March: A celebration of 10 years of Arduino and its worldwide community

[theinventorygal]

Spread the word!

[tomemrich]

Cadbury Has Some Wearable Tech Fun with Joy Jacket

Happy Friday Future Geeks! Here’s some end of week fun combining two of my favorite things: chocolate and wearable tech.

Cadbury joined forces with agency Hirsch&Mann to create a wearable experience which would mimic the joy we all feel when we tear into a new bar of chocolate and sink our teeth into a piece. The call it the “Cadbury Joy Jacket” and it makes great use of Arduino, Raspberry Pi and LEDs.

Read More

[theinventorygal]

The Future of Analytics

Join us at our next event about The Future of Analytics. Over the course of an hour, we'll be looking at performance analysis in sport, forms & conversion rates and using language as a data source. Football, forms and law enforcement; this session covers it all, with presentations from Prozone, Formisimo and Relative.Ai. Tom New, a founder of new start-up Formisimo will present "How forms and checkouts suck the life out of your conversion rate; how to measure, react and improve your forms using advanced analytical techniques". Ben Hookway, Chief Operating Officer at Relative.ai will look at "Language as a Data Source - What law enforcement language analysis tells you about brands and customers". Finally, Will Jones, ‎Head of Performance Analysis at Prozone Sports Ltd will present a case study and demonstrate Prozone's performance analysis software. Manchester Digital events offer prime opportunities for learning, knowledge sharing and networking. To learn more about new trends in analytics and data tracking, join us on Wednesday 26th February.   With thanks to Cube3 for hosting.      

I wish I could go to this event as it's right up my alley, possibly to the left. Alas, I will be at rehearsals that evening. 

[theinventorygal]

Greetings!

 Every now and then I help out the Inventory Shop in Manchester. It's a little place on the edge of Oak Street where you can find arduinos, Rapsberry Pis, brilliant science fiction short stories and lots of other things for the local Maker and DIYer.

  As I'm someone with an interest in the world of hackery, I thought I'd start a little blog about the things I make, projects I'm interested in what I've learned whilst working here, as much to keep tabs on my own progress as to get new ideas and feedback from other Makers.

So, let us begin.

Where I'm at now...

At the moment I am a complete newbie to the world of microelectronics. I do programming (I'm currently training in Java development, though my background is in C++ and Web development) and more theoretical-ly stuff so I'll be honest and say that I'm a teensy bit apprehensive about all these wires and flashing things wot I have to make work.

Maker wise I tend to do costumes and hats and things like that:

Made this Octopus headpiece in, like, 6 hours. 

Dinosaur fascinator complete! Now onto the mini top hat... #millinery #craft pic.twitter.com/a8oFN4Aa58

— Florence Okoye (@FINOkoye)

January 25, 2014

A T-Rex fascinator I made for a friend. This took about a day and a half in total. Three days in actuality. I'm working on some top hats at the moment.

I also do a bit of steampunk and cosplay design even though as of yet none of those projects are finished. As you can see, my makery is mostly in costumes, so of course I have an interest in e-textiles but my interest in Computing and Biophysics also leads me to wanting to learn about micro electronics.

I foresee a steep learning curve but hey, that's the fun of it, right?