Projects

So here we are then, one week in, still got a ton of things to sort – bath taps, car park gate, intercom, BT and internet, but i’m getting there. Still sat on my laptop as i don’t yet have any form of desk to put my PC onto – which will be solved by a trip to IKEA in the near future (is it just me that thinks IKEA is scarily close to UKAEA? do the UKAEA even exist any more? or have they been renamed?) Anyway, i digress, that solved, there will still be a load of other things to buy – drawers, coffee table and more. I should be about settled by September i think, including having internet sorted out.

I’m probably just going to have to fork out the ?125 to BT for a man to come and look at the line and go ‘ok’ but nevermind, i think the 24meg broadband should make up for it – if the electricity bill isn’t shockinly high which is the way it’s headed.

I’m helping Martin move back to the Wirral tonight, so will be off to Manchester shortly, also checked out the Three Stags pub nearby which is a rather nice little place which does decent, cheap, food. What else…..umm…..back off home on saturday to work at Fellside on this IT job that’ll provide some much needed income (hopefully i’ll hear back from my bank tomorrow about my overdraft otherwise im going to be in muchos troublous).

I might attack my monitoring controller this week a bit more – at least the sockets install side, though i’m probably going to need a new hole saw as the one i have is completely screwed.

Nothing else to report really, so i’ll get on, stick the telly on for a bit – which, by the way i still dont get decent signal – digital is crap unless you live right on top of the transmitter, it’s really rather annoying.

So this is it, i’m all moved out and am in my brand new flat on the wirral (i’ll send out the address to all the important people later) with all my stuff – 5 trips from manchester it took, without any help, i’ve managed to clock up nearly 600 miles in 3 days -quite good going i thought.

It’ll take a while before im all settled – having quite a few issues at the moment – bath taps dont work (so i can’t use the jacuzzi), key fob for the carpark doesnt work and the intercom doesn’t work. Plus most companies refuse to believe the flat exists and BT want to charge ?125 to come and look at the phone line that’s already installed.

I do need to get some more furniture from IKEA soon, but most importantly a desk, rearranging furniture is being awkward as i want to get the projector in somewhere too, i think i’ve found somewhere now, but it will take a while before it’s right.

I’ll update you all with whats going on when i can, but for the next few days its just unpacking and buying new things for the flat and then im off home for a week at Fellside doing some IT stuff.

Will see you all soon, TTFN

Yes thats right, i’m building my own LCD projector! All it takes is one standard overhead projector (the type found in schools and offices all over the world) and an LCD panel – this is the tricky bit. To get an LCD panel requires dismantling a normal TFT/LCD monitor – without breaking the panel and its associated controller circuitry. I did manage to do that, although it is at home so the actual building will have to wait a while.

The OHP i got from the lovely people at Northern Realisations Ltd. for the grand total of 20 quid. It’s bright, fairly quiet and runs cool – overheating is a problem with this project.

Looks like if it works it will be an ace project – imagine sitting in your living room watching a cinema sized screen that you know cost less than ?50

Speaking of living rooms, i’m moving to my new place on the 24th May (well, couple of days after that as i have exams, thats when i get the keys) . Will be good to get out of this place thats for sure, i could do with the peace and quiet for a while.

Anyhoo, i should be revising, got 4 more exams to go! TTFN

Ok so really all i’ve done in the last few days is watch lots and lots of Frasier but i think i deserve a little time off after all those assignments. We’re straight into exams next week for a fortnight but i’ll be glad when thats over. Hopefully i will be getting all the paperwork back for my flat soon, i want to move in asap, i need the peace and quiet, its just far too noisy here – my flatmate crashes about like a rhino.

Yesterday was a day from hell, everything just went wrong at once, was extremely annoying, cleaners, bad drivers, uni, just one thing after another. I did find out i’m going to be back at Fellside for a short while in June so that’ll give me much needed cash, it’s going to be very tight until August, i don’t know how i’m going to manage.

I’ve picked up a pair of nice 3Com Superstack 3 3300XM switches – 24 port 10/100 level 2 managed, for the grand total of ?22/pair. Those are going to be put to good use in my own set up – DMZ and LAN, though if i get the Netgear switch which has Gigabit uplink im looking at then i’ll get rid of one as i will then upgrade the backbone onto gigabit – fileserver, desktop and mediacentre.

My room is a huge tip at the moment, theres just boxes everywhere, trying to get everything packed up safely so i can move as quickly as possible – down to taking the majority of it with me when i go to collect the keys.

I might be hit with a ?120 charge from BT to install a line into the flat which is extremely annoying, but there was a bit of confusion so i dont know whats going on, cable is so much easier it’s really annoying it doesnt seem to be in the area.

Anyways, im going to get back to Frasier, TTFN.

…if that doesn’t scare you off then you’re made of harder stuff than I am!

I’m in the midst of coding a Schoroeder reverb unit in MATLAB for my Digital Audio assignment, it’s� not going too badly, just slow, i’m testing it with a fairly long sample now and its taking some time to process. But it does create reverb!

If i can get it working properly by the end of the day i’ll be happy, then optimise and tidy it tomorrow followed by writing the report on Monday all due for a Tuesday hand i, some people say it can’t be done, i disagree, it’s simply a matter of logic.

Once this is out of the way i’ll feel much better and can concentrate on revision for exams and sort out my new flat in the Wirral. It’s in the process of paperwork at the moment but hopefully that will all be sorted out soon and i can move in, be great to get away from Salford, especially uni accomodation.

Martin and I didn’t win those servers due to Irwell internet keeling over at the critical moment, but no matter really, its ?100 saved, i’m watching some switches and a UPS on ebay at the moment for my new infrastructure – need to be able to have a DMZ switch and Gigabit uplink really on the LAN side.

Best be off now, waiting for my reverb to finish, its really rather inefficient at the moment, TTFN