Today was Linux User Group day again, so I set off for central Bristol. The actual meeting was well-attended as usual. I really shouldn't have, but I accepted the offer of a BBC Micro, Model B from one of the other LUG members. It's in rather good condition for a 25 year old machine:


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Today, I thought I'd have a go at some macro photography using a technique that was the subject of an article in the latest Make magazine. The idea is to take a shadowless photo of something small, by placing on on a sheet of (clean) glass, which is supported above the (plain white) background. I needed some photos to illustrate an Instructable ( Read more... )

I've been working on the little rotary encoder gadget that I took along to last month's Dorkbot Bristol. It's a CD-ROM hub/motor, stripped out of a broken drive and repurposed. I've wired up the three hall-effect sensors to give a signal that represents the rotation of the hub, and connected it all to an Atmel AVR ATmega8 microcontroller. I've ( Read more... )