What’s going on?

I shouldn’t be surprised. Every time I upgrade the OS on my Macbook a few little behaviours I’d taken for granted start breaking. It’s just the way of the world. Here’s a couple of things I’ve fixed already

Weeks 3–11 - Hurry Up and Wait

Week 3 – Musical interlude

Week two – SQL

Week one – Rust

Finally catching up with Dominus

One hundred years ago , we got caught up in a really stupid war. War’s never what you’d call a good idea, but the first world war is the benchmark of stupidity (unless you’re Michael Gove, but he’s fast becoming the new benchmark of stupidity).

Something strange happened at the end of the war. In 1914, only around 30% of the adult population had the vote. By February 1918, a general election was years overdue. The Russians had killed the Tsar and were embracing communism; the women’s suffrage movement was threatening to start up again; and millions of returning soldiers — men used to violence by now — would have no say in how they would be governed.

Where do Moose roles come from and what are they for?

Some things never disappoint. And reading Alan Turing is one of those things. In an earlier post I told an incorrect anecdote about Turing, and Russ Cox pointed me at proof, in Turing’s own words, that I was wrong. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long, but I finally got around to reading his /Lecture to the London Mathematical Society on 20 February 1947./

Wow.

I watched the rugby yesterday. England vs Wales at Cardiff Arms Pack. It was a great game of rugby - England were comprehensively outthought by a Welsh side with more experience where it counts, but by gum, they went down fighting to the very end. It’s going to be an interesting few years in the run up to the next World Cup.

While the game was going on, I found myself wondering why the crowd’s singing sounded so very good.

Welcome back. I realise that I left off without telling you how I’d chosen to wire the matrix up. I’m basing my layout on the Jesse’s “Blue Shift” layout:

Where were we? Ah yes, I’d just unwired my Maltron, pulled out all the switches, ordered some Cherry MX brown stem keyswitches from a Deskthority Group buy and a Teensy++ from Pieter Floris. Now all I had to do was work out how I was going to wire the thing up. Jesse’s article had some great pointers, but as I disassembled the Maltron wiring loom, I gained a great deal of respect for their decision to use fine enamelled wire (which a bit of googling revealed to be solderable copper magnet winding wire - I bought some 30SWG stuff from wires.co.uk) which, because it’s thin and solid core is easy to bend into shape and, because the enamel coating melts into solder flux, is easy to solder without worrying about stripping insulation.

Some years ago (I have the awful feeling it was 1999) I was stricken with a bout of tingly numbness in my right hand. When you’re a computer programmer, the thought of being unable to type, and thus unable to program isn’t something you ever want to deal with. Terry Pratchett’s words about gnawing the arse out of a dead badger if it would make it better spring to mind. So, I replaced my mouse with a trackball, got a better chair and invested three hundred and some pounds of my own money in a Maltron keyboard.