test please delete

[MrMarkyMark]

Big news from Chateau Renard... useless PM has declared that he doesn't want me on the next project. That's good because the useful PM wanted me to hang around and has now said he will give me a reference and try to take me back when the other PM is moved elsewhere.
...it's also good because I was planning to take the summer off and do things like gardening, brewing, redecorating and walking The Dog (tw)

I always consider such things a massive compliment .

The useless ones don't want anyone verbally speaking common sense around them as:-

a) They don't understand what they should be doing.
b) You make them look bad.

[NickFitz]

Making the most of this three day week thing, I just washed some towels

The washing machine has a spin speed, above 800 but less than 1200, at which it was vibrating terribly; and as it stays at that speed for about two minutes on its way up to 1200 or 1600, I'd taken to standing over it holding it down during that period, ever since it almost vibrated the microwave off its place on the worktop.

I finally got around to grovelling before it, trying to adjust the feet. Only one of them could be moved, and then only a tiny bit - maybe a sixteenth of a turn. But it's made a huge difference, so I think I can leave the machine to do its spinning thing unattended in future

Mind you, I thought that when I made a similar adjustment last year. It must have managed to move slightly, and the Victorian floorboards under the lino aren't the most even of surfaces

[zeitghost]

This afternoon's PIC programming dilemmas including using MPLAB X, which I detest, some Microchip compiler called XC8, and the PICKIT3.

• Turn on target power in PICKIT3: easier said than done
• Program device to use external crystal so we can see if the fecker is oscillating
• Turn the master reset pin to master reset so we can make sure it's in run not reset
• Program device using PICKIT 3: find it doesn't oscillate
• Try a different device in test board: does oscillate.
• Compile, build, program N times: still doesn't work
• Discover that the config enables Low Voltage Programming: never A Good Thing.
• Finally do something & it does work.
• Leave esteemed customers to carry on: mistake
• Doesn't work again.
• discover that it suddenly starts working with the deft prod of a scope probe: change capacitors to see wtf is going on
• Turns out the crystal is 11MHz instead of 4MHz. Replace crystal with 4MHz crystal. Thing bursts into life.
• Discover esteemed customer had written

  while( 1 );

  which didn't help a lot.

So, after a mere 4 hours the fecker now flashes a LED.



And we won't go into the twat with the comparator circuit that "suddenly stopped working" because he'd pulled a wire link out.

[SueEllen]

Exercise done staring at a program on shrinkflation on Channel 4.

Shrinkflation is when you buy a bottle of beer one day that is a British pint, and the next day it's half a litre but the same price.

[NickFitz]

Lamb chops for tea, with chips, peas, and gravy

As my chip-making process is somewhat longwinded, I've taken to making twice as many as I need and freezing the surplus after Stage 2. This means I don't have the hassle of making them on days when I'm working and really don't feel like faffing about in the kitchen when I get home. They turn out really well when cooked from frozen at Stage 3, too

[SueEllen]

I forgot to buy a dust mask. I realised the last layer of lino has been down since 1950 and the dust from it nearly killed me.

[NickFitz]

I forgot to buy a dust mask. I realised the last layer of lino has been down since 1950 and the dust from it nearly killed me.

[NickFitz]

Much to my surprise, the project I've been working on still works when I deploy it to "The Cloud" using AWS Opsworks. Looks like all that time spent working with Chef at ExClientCorp wasn't completely wasted after all

Once it's actually doing what it's intended to do, rather than merely executing a bunch of dummy tasks to log whether things are happening in the first place, it'll be very useful: it will read Twitter for me, saving any links it finds (while combining duplicates, resolving URL shorteners, maybe categorising them, and so forth) for me to review at my leisure

This means I'll be able to regain huge amounts of the time I currently spend on Twitter looking for interesting stuff

[NickFitz]

Better get an early night, I suppose, ready for the voyage to ClientCo tomorrow

I've even managed to make my sandwiches ready for taking with me. I'll probably forget them

Goodnight all

[vetran]

This afternoon's PIC programming dilemmas including using MPLAB X, which I detest, some Microchip compiler called XC8, and the PICKIT3.

• Turn on target power in PICKIT3: easier said than done
• Program device to use external crystal so we can see if the fecker is oscillating
• Turn the master reset pin to master reset so we can make sure it's in run not reset
• Program device using PICKIT 3: find it doesn't oscillate
• Try a different device in test board: does oscillate.
• Compile, build, program N times: still doesn't work
• Discover that the config enables Low Voltage Programming: never A Good Thing.
• Finally do something & it does work.
• Leave esteemed customers to carry on: mistake
• Doesn't work again.
• discover that it suddenly starts working with the deft prod of a scope probe: change capacitors to see wtf is going on
• Turns out the crystal is 11MHz instead of 4MHz. Replace crystal with 4MHz crystal. Thing bursts into life.
• Discover esteemed customer had written [cod]while( 1 );[/code] which didn't help a lot.

So, after a mere 4 hours the fecker now flashes a LED.



And we won't go into the twat with the comparator circuit that "suddenly stopped working" because he'd pulled a wire link out.

My sympathies he will make a great PM.