Jon Simpson’s Weblog

I’ll use a timeline to indicate events:

Timeline -20 days: Order PowerBook.
Day 1: Get new PowerBook
Day 2-3: Enjoy excellent new laptop & get all my docs/settings transferred.
Day 4: Find ethernet port not accepting any cables. Contact Applecare to arrange replacement.

Isn’t life great? I waited almost 3 weeks for this one to ship. I wonder how long its replacement will take. Not that I hold anything against Apple or the Apple store. The PowerBook is (was?) a great laptop, and I’d do it all over again, but its going to suck being without it after getting used to its vast superiority over the iBook.

Oh well, maybe one day..

So the much rumoured PowerBook updates emerged at lunchtime on Monday of last week (01/02/05), and underwhelmed the Mac masses anxiously awaiting the Powerbook G5 (any Tuesday now, right?). Not content with bringing you this ‘news’ a week late, I’ll continue with random information about how the update affected the PowerBook range, and why I care enough to write a weblog entry about it. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so I seem to have taken a short hiatus from writing weblog entries recently, but I figure its time to start writing about interesting things again. There have been two CSCS meets since my last entry, both of which have focused on getting results with the PDA+Brainstem+Servo combinations that we’re using. Both sessions felt quite productive, and it felt like we worked through some of the issues that had been holding back development on the various fronts we’d been working with the kit on. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so it was already pretty clear that Macworld SF was going to be big when Thinksecret broke the Mac Mini, iPod Shuffle & iWork rumours, but the actual event itself was still pretty amazing even with the removal of surprise. Maybe it was just Jobs’ showmanship & the much famed Reality Distortion Field, but it seems as if Apple have kicked off 2005 doing more of what they do best, making great hardware and software. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday evening was the first session of CSCS (Cool stuff in Computer Science) of 2005, and we separated up the larger robotics kit that has been sitting around for a while (part of which I’d had for a good part of last term, while working out how to get the Brainstem and Zaurus talking using my iBook, something I posted about earlier). It seems to have been quite a good note to start the term on, and I’m optimistic about what can be achieved Read the rest of this entry »

This document is intended to be a reasonably concise guide to cross-compiling & installing Acroname’s C Development Kit for the BrainStem on the Sharp Zaurus using the Mac OS X 10.3 operating system. This particular combination presents specific challenges and is different enough from the Linux procedure if you have no prior experience with cross-compiling to cause some issues. This document may also be of use to those compiling the C Development Kit under Linux or other platforms, like BSD. Read the rest of this entry »

On my earlier theme of Cockroaches and potentially of interest to those following the current stream of CSCS, is a story from Slashdot regarding the use of robotic cockroaches within real cockroach societies to control the behaviour of a group. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been following the Mac world since about January 2003, in terms of new products & technologies coming from Apple, mainly because they seemed to be doing interesting or innovative things which were somewhat lacking in the Microsoft camp. From this ensued my massive interest in converting over from Windows/Linux dual-boot to OS X as a desktop platform, something I’ve recently had the chance to do with my move to university. After seven weeks dealing with the platform on an every-day basis, there are some reflections I’ve gathered together on it, and some potential tips for any would-be switcher. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, the meeting this evening was pretty interesting. Basically the e-mail reminder had said that we’d be moving on to a specific problem instead of free-form play. Given a choice of options, the group as a whole chose to pursue the challenge of modeling a cockroach’s behavioural patterns using the Mindstorms. This led into an introduction/discussion regarding both the design of models for biological items (i.e. how do we set about modeling a cockroach?) and how to design parallel programs effectively in the light of these models. Read the rest of this entry »

Firstly, to explain this post to the outside world; CSCS (Cool Stuff in Computer Science) consists of a group of students at the University of Kent who gather to do interesting things involving Lego Mindstorms, occam and other things in the vague subject area. Read the rest of this entry »