Freesteel Blog » 2005 » June

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005 at 8:25 am - - Weekends

Skived off for 2 and a half days in Anglesey in the sunshin with Becka. Took kayaks and camped in the low-profile campsite down the dirt track with the “private no vehicles” sign, which was full. On Saturday evening we paddled from Roscylin to the Norman Court wreck, which had a steel girder above low water. There’s a bouy on it now. Shallow and good for snorkelling. Two huge dogfish swimming around it.

Sunday morning we went from Roscylin again, which was perverse, because we paddled all the way to Trearddur Bay. I wanted to check out the flood tide at the beacon. There was a huge counter-current in the bay behind the Hermine, and horrid viz. We eventually got to the island in front of the haunted house in the bay for a dive at 2pm. Viz was awful, but Becka found a conger. The idea was to then paddle to the shop and fill our tanks. The beach was full of divers, but no one took an interest in us at all. Becka fetched lunch.

The Hermine was disappointing. Awful viz again (we were followed by a boatload of divers), then back to the tent for the rest-overs of food.

Long waste of time in the morning in Rosneiger looking for a cafe. There’s some posh one that pretends it’s a launderomat. Then out from Porth China to the Kimya, which took an hour, not 40 minutes. And I failed to find the wreck in spite of trawling back and forthe everywhere with 40 metres of anchor rope trailing from the canoe. We dived on sand and continued looking for it. All we found was a huge knobbly stingray.

Late in the evening, instead of going home, we used up our dregs on the Kyle Princess. I was surprised to find it, and it was worth it. No mistaking for the amount of hull metal and the huge boiler. It was one of the ones we saw on a map in the pub, where they’ve drawn on all the wrecks round north wales like flies stuck to paper. We left at 8pm when the tide was low again and there was a big portage. Next time we go when low tide is midday.

Friday, June 24th, 2005 at 4:47 pm - - Machining

Feeling bit crap, with that sore eyeball feeling. And my knee is starting to give gyp, possibly with the arthritis I was promised.

Wasted most of the day searching for a digital camera to buy. Ah, consumerism. Not so good at doing that. Ordered some compact fujifilm thing, so it will be small.

The inflatable diveyak supplier I was trying to order from has really pissed me off. For 14 kgs they want to charge 50 quid carriage. Turns out they have to ship it from Germany. So what’s the point in having a dealer in England?

Weekend to yorkshire is cancelled. Excuse not to go Penyghent. May go diving at last.

Finally thought about some work. The latest cockup with the toolpaths is the roll-on function, which hits the wrong place when there is a cusp and makes a deep gouging toolpath. I’m beginning the implementation of a stripped down voronoi calculation to find all the smoothings that could be there. What a craze.

We’ll see if I can get into the freesteel blogging at some point. I must confess I’m not so enthusiastic at writing it. Doing the myron ebell climate seems more fun.

This blog is targetted at all you all victims who program CAM software out there, and work for some shitty company with bosses, hours, and no control over your work, and the satisfaction that you are directly helping some layabout toss-head CEO and board of directors to make a good living from bullshitting and ripping off anyone they have power over. Look. There is another way of doing it, if you have half a mind about how to develop software, come up with ideas, and work out for yourself what are useful things to do.

So we will show. The more who are free, the better it will be.

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 at 11:50 am - - Machining

Things to do: link from start page to this blog

Monday, June 20th, 2005 at 6:19 pm - - Machining 1 Comment »

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