Primed Ghia
Posted on February 5, 2010
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Ghia after chemical stripping and priming at Surface Processing. She’s in quite good condition under all the paint and filler, the damage to the right rear quarter isn’t nearly so bad and there’s a couple small holes here and there but overall in good condition.
Our European Friends
Posted on January 26, 2010
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Spirit
Posted on January 6, 2010
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Spirit has been on Mars for 6 years and three days now. For a little rover designed for a 90-day (or 90 sol) mission, that’s nothing short of remarkable given the harsh operation environment.
Unfortunately, Spirit has been stuck in a sandtrap for a few months now (Free Spirit at JPL). If Spirit is not able to get out, its solar panels may become occluded with Martian dust thus preventing the rover from recharging and continuing operations beyond May or so.
Spirit’s twin, Opportunity will celebrate 6 years on the 25th!
10 years
Posted on December 30, 2009
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It occurs to me, following my post of yesterday, that I’ve had this domain for ten years now:
Domain name:
cmdr-fire.co.uk
Registrar:
No registrar listed. This domain is registered directly with Nominet.
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 19-Nov-1999
Not bad going, by any margin.
Oops
Posted on December 29, 2009
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That was embarrassing – I forgot to renew my domain (bit of a special case here as I’m a private registrant with Nominet) and then couldn’t renew it without speaking to someone as, foolishly, the contact email for the domain is on this domain.
Had to wait ’til Christmas was over before it could be sorted. Oops, again.
Enterprise awaits
Posted on December 9, 2009
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Oh, my word, she is lovely indeed.
(Virgin Galactic on Flickr)
I’m glad to know that Burt Rutan echoes some concerns that are similar to my own though.
Branson must know that you have to give your customers something to look forward to – hence yesterday’s roll-out. If Rutan had had his way, however, no one would have seen SpaceShipTwo until it was ready to take passengers into space. “It’s just an unhelpful distraction and unwanted pressure,” he says.
So when will the spacecraft be ready? “This is a research project, so we don’t have timetables. I can’t tell you how far off we are, but it’s not complete yet,” he says.
This is something I often struggle with – the engineering demands and requirements, and the completely separate (and often – but not always – incompatible) demands of marketing and business.
I often refer to myself as a “conservative engineer” – I always want more data, more time to test, more time to develop. Unfortunately such niceties are often left behind with real-world timetables and commercial imperatives.
Even in an academic environment – the research I’m conducting at Imperial, as an example – the constraint is there to deliver to some arbitrary or artificial schedule. Not that I’m complaining – such is the way the world works, and the deliverables and deadlines imposed ensure that work is accomplished in a timely (and useful!) manner.
But mind you, Rutan’s last line resonates with me – an open ended timetable with secure backing behind does seem rather nice. Even if you occasionally have to stage lightshows in the Mojave.
Lazarus Long, where are you now?
Posted on November 17, 2009
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I can’t be the only person who read this and thought of Time Enough for Love…
Inside
Posted on November 14, 2009
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A shot of my current rig. The power supply I put in the case failed and is impossible to remove without complete disassembly, including mobo out; I’m lazy, therefore the replacement PSU is perched on the outside of the open case.
I built this current setup in an old Akasa case I own, I believe it’s called the “Blackbird”. It’s a bit larger than a normal ATX case, which is nice as it gives me plenty of room to work in.
The rig as it stands consists of an Intel Core i7 2.6GHz CPU, an Asus P6T Deluxe, 3GB of Corsair DDR3 (which I will upgrade to 6GB when possible), and a trio of hdd (an ageing WD 74GB 10,000RPM “Raptor”, back from when they were new, and a couple of Seagate Barracuda drives with a combine storage of just under 800GB).
The PSU was a nice silent modular Tagan 700W job, but that failed after about four years of service, so the PSU sitting outside the case is an old Hiper Type R 560W device.
The GPU is an NVidia 880GTS 512MB, and is suitable for most activities.
On my bike
Posted on November 11, 2009
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Well, not my bike, not really. A borrowed bike, a Suzuki 500GS something or other (I’m not so interested in most bikes, still).
Anyway, to do my Direct Access bike license (which enables me to drive a bike of capacity greater than 500CC… so Sasha) I’m with a training school which has provided me said Suzuki.
The testing procedure for bikes these days in the UK is arduous – a Theory Test, a Hazard Perception test (those those two are bundled together, and if you fail one you automatically fail the other); a 7-hour Compulsary Bike Training which needs to be passed, on a 125cc, half of it off the road (think big car park with cones) and the other half on the road (terrifying). Then a Module 1 test (off the road, big car park, lots of cones, swerve at 50km/h which is not fun) and then a 33-minute on-the-road Module 2 test.
Well, I sat my Mod 1 today (for the second time, having knocked over a cone on my previous attempt) and passed it. A big step forward to getting Sasha on the road…
HTC Hero Hacking
Posted on November 9, 2009
Filed Under Blog, Linkage, Technology | 5 Comments
I recently got an unlocked HTC Hero intended for the South East Asian (SEA) market. The device was running on firmware 2.73.728.5. This firmware is crippled; it lacks the Market app which means the device cannot access the Android Marketplace. As this is a rather integral part of the Android “experience”, it renders the additional functionality of the phone rather limited.
A Market app cannot simply be installed, addtionally; the Market app functionality is included within the kernel itself.
Help from HTC was not an option; the European 2.73.405.5 WWE release cannot be downloaded from the HTC website (as HTC incorporates a serial-number checking regime for some reason) and even if it is acquired it won’t install on the device as the “Customer ID” (CID) is not valid.
After much scouring of das intartrons, I found a method by which I could install an older firmware on my device (used by people to gain root access).
This method involves using the SDCard to create what’s known as a “Goldcard” to allow the CID to be ignored/overruled and thereby to install a new ROM.
Information on creating a Goldcard can be found here:
http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/18/how-to-downgrade-your-htc-hero-so-it-can-be-rooted/
and here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=572683
Once I was able to set up the Goldcard (following either set of instructions) I tried installing the older ROM recommended by theunlockr.com (version 1.76.405.5_WWE), but encountered an Error[140] using the ROM Update Utility (RUU).
I tried again using the 2.73.405.5 WWE (latest European version) RUU and was able to successfully reflash the device. On reboot, I was asked to choose a language from English (UK), German, French, Spanish… etc. Once I’d re-entered my settings (this reflash will wipe all your data) I was able to see that I do indeed have a Market app with access to the Marketplace.
In the future this modification means I will be able to “Root” the phone (gain root access) and upload custom firmwares, etc., all of which is not possible with the SEA 2.73.728.x firmware.
I hope this comes of use to some other user with a SEA phone wishing to restore the crippled functionality of the SEA firmware.
How to Goldcard (XDA-developers)
How to Goldcard (theunlockr)
How to Root once version 2.73.405.x WWE firmware is loaded (XDA-developers)
Hero ROMS/Radios/Other firmwares to download (android.modaco.com, all in .zip files)
HTC Hero 1.76.405.1_R3_WWE RUU (Megaupload)
HTC Hero 2.73.405.5_WWE_release_signed_NoDriver (Latest Euro RUU) (XDA, .exe file)
How to “unroot” the HTC Hero and many of the available ROMs as RUUs (theunlockr.com)
keep looking »
