week in review 2024-43
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Raspberry pi’s, e-ink, visitors and a trip to Belgium
Notes on the week
We’re just back from a short trip to Belgium for the bank holiday weekend. We took the bus to Ghent and got to see Irish artist Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s show at the Kunsthal before continuing on via train to Bruges. It’s probably the most beautiful urban centre on earth, but I think that 2 days is all you’d really need to spend there, which was perfect for our little trip! Side-note, cobblestones are really cute, but terrible for walking/cycling on.
Before heading away on our trip we had Elle’s Sister’s partner stay with us for a few days after a conference in The Hague. It was really nice to get some one-on-one time, as usually we only get to hang out at family events where everyones attention is being pulled in a million different directions. He had the honour of being the first visitor to see version 2.0 of the apartment, and I gave the usual tour of the city and some of the new things we’ve found since moving to the south.
I’ve started work on building my new bike. A classic steel frame was salvaged from the collection at the Bike Workshop, and after a good bit of cleaning it’s going to be the basis for my “MGOOF” build - Modern Gear On Old Frame. I don’t care about being era accurate, I want to build something fast, cheap and sturdy. I expect progress to be slow, as it will take time to find parts that fit the older frame, but I think the end result will be worth it.
We are swimming in Raspberry Pis. At my last count we have 5 in the house, and I’ve really fallen in love with how convenient these tiny computers are. They make incredible media players using software like MP4MUSEUM, and are a great starting point for any electronic tinkering. Over the past few days I’ve updated my e-ink project from last year, this time to focus on realtime bus information for the stop outside our flat. I’ll do a more detailed write up on that soon.
Links
The case of the 500-mile email
Where Is the Bus? GTFS Will Tell Us! | by Leo van der Meulen | Toward…
Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Physics of Formula One Racing
Elon Dreams and Bitter Lessons
Hiding Images in Plain Sight: The Physics Of Magic Windows
Arduino 3D Printed self Balancing Cube
Reading
A bit late on this one, but I’ve started reading Sapians by Yuval Noah Harari. After enjoying Home Deus so much, and his new book on AI after just coming out, I figured it was time to go back and check this off the list. So far it’s fascinating! More to come later.
Listening
I couldn’t tell you why, no reason at all probably, but I’m in a Bob Dylan mood this week