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Work stopped here at SteamDesk for a quick play this morning, when the first batch of SparkFun Arduino Starter Kits arrived this morning. These are here for Rob Miles’ hardware programming Hull Digital Hardware Meetup course that starts on 6th March at C4DI.

The lovely folk at HobbyTronics have also said they’ll send us some interesting other bits to play with, a pile of slightly-faulty LCD display/control boards (just the odd dodgy button apparently, not good enough for real world use but just fine for learning to code with) and a couple of Nabduino boards, which sound like fun. So thanks very much to Sarah and Mike at Hobbytronics.

We’ve also just ordered a Raspberry Pi, for research purposes of course…

Last night, at a packed meeting of the Hull Digital Hardware Meetup group at C4DI, we enjoyed talks about using Arduinos and other microcontrollers to make life easier for amateur radio enthusiasts, and saw how they could be used to make fun robots. There’s a real buzz around this, it’s a technology that in the last few years has come down in price enormously, removing barriers to entry and opening it up to bedroom coders/builders in a way reminiscent of the home computers boom of the early 1980s.

Rob Miles announced plans for a “learn together” set of talks. People are being encouraged to attend with their own Arduino Starter Kit.  Rob and Peter Robinson from University of Hull have offered to lead the lessons as we all build gadgets together and learn a bit of the programming/hardware skills needed to make something practical (and fun!) with these systems. I was quite conscious that sometimes people need a push (especially if they’re being asked to put their hands in their pockets), plus we currently have a number of sixth-form and some even younger students coming to these meet-ups.  I was worried that the price of one of these development kits might prevent some people from getting involved and enjoying the sessions, so on behalf of SteamDesk I’ve offered to sponsor a number of kits. Mike Clarke, the group organiser is going to arrange who gets a sponsored kit, trying to allocate them as fairly as he can (i.e. the early bird students will get first dibs, I expect!)

Rob with a SparkFun Arduino Starter Kit

I’m really excited about this whole group. I’ve already been playing with Arduino kit for some time, making modifications to some of my old pinball machines (hopefully I can bring one up and give a talk when I finish my current project), and it’s a real eye-opener as to what can be done with cheap technology these days. If we can inspire a few more people to go down this route in their careers then I think we’ll be seeing some great gadgets and inventions in the future, and it might just have all hinged on the day that they first came to the Hull Digital hardware group at C4DI.

Even though all I’ve done this week pretty much is sit at a desk on the computer, it honestly feels like I’ve had about 4 hours sleep for the whole time period that I’ve been here! Who knew being this inactive was so exhausting?

When I decided back in the summer to come to SteamDesk for work experience, I thought that I would either be used as a tea lady or be given really difficult spreadsheets to complete, but I was wrong. On the first day I had to dress and undress a mannequin and upload the photos that I had taken to the company’s state of the art online pant store. Gabriel (the mannequin) was a pain in the neck to dress, and had to have the majority of his limbs removed and his body twisted in half. This activity is probably the reason why I am still tired 🙂

Maya photographing products for our www.pants2you.co.uk website

These past few days haven’t been as exhausting as the first day, but I have still enjoyed myself. I have even made presentations that will be displayed in the window of the office, so whenever I walk past in future I can look at them and think “I made that”!

Overall I have really enjoyed my time here, and I wish I could have stayed for another week instead of going back to school!

Well, the office has been abuzz this afternoon with some good news only revealed today, namely that Benjamin and Becky got engaged last Thursday. Apparently Benjamin was relying on FaceBook to disseminate the good news, but FaceBook took it upon itself to consider an engagement not exciting enough to put on other peoples’ news streams! By the end of Friday he thought it was old news, and wasn’t sure how to raise it in normal office conversation without being guilty of a crass non-sequiter. The perils of modern office etiquette!

Becky’s Engagement Ring

Congratulations from everyone at SteamDesk!

We’re pleased to be sponsoring the trophies and various other aspects of the Christmas Cracker Pinball Competition 2013.  You can read all about it here: www.christmascrackerpinball.org.uk

It’s an annual event which is hosted around the midlands, at which pinball enthusiasts  socialise, eat lots of food, and compete in a fun tournament.

We’ve been over at Well this afternoon helping with some of the last minute preparations.  Besides sponsoring the event, we’re also providing technical support – we have written some software which connects some old-school chimes to a more modern pinball machine, and we’ll be projecting an interactive Excel score sheet to keep track of the competition.

Dave kindly brought some Christmas-themed muffins, made by his wife Sal.  They didn’t last long!  Very nice, thanks Sal!

Official company policy now states that anyone who brings the boss a cake is “top boy” for the day, and entitled to as much tea and coffee as they can be bothered to make 🙂