MSP430F2012 (ez430 usb stick target board) to breadboard

In between accepting delivery of a ez430 USB stick programmer and when my Launchpad boards come (if ever) I decided to cook up a slot-in method for using the F2012 target boards.

 No fewer than 26 right-angled SIL header pins were used. Though I could have gotten away with 24 had I not connected the SPW pins.

 Hopefully this minimises the overhang from the target board.

It's turning out to be a lot more effort than Arduino but the marginal cost is a lot smaller, given that there are free samples of the microcontroller itself. I'll have to cook up another board to program the 14-pin dual inline packaged versions though.

Dodgy USB pen camera

I bought a pen camera in Shenzhen while on exchange last semester. It took me this long to realise that it's dodgy - 2GB instead of 4GB. I tried recording a friend's thesis presentation but failed.

It appears as "company pmp platform opn usb" in device manager.


Warning: Only 3646 of 3647 MByte tested.
The media is likely to be defective.
1.7 GByte OK (3730824 sectors)
1.7 GByte DATA LOST (3736184 sectors)
Details:1.5 GByte overwritten (3327203 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
199.6 MByte corrupted (408981 sectors)
123.5 KByte aliased memory (247 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x0000000000000000
Expected: 0x0000000000000000
Found: 0x05d5522043425355
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 1.40 MByte/s
Reading speed: 5.47 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

These were helpful:
Setting the time - the microcontroller eats up the text file. 
http://shaddack.twibright.com/projects/reveng_spypen/ 

Create a file named "SystemTime.txt", with a single line in format
e.g. 2009-10-05 04:30:00
Then save it to the root directory of the spy pen. 

Reformat to proper capacity using low level format:
http://fake-memory.com/forum/index.php?topic=567.0 

good week

• Frolicked about the laboratories in my Vibram Fivefingers imitations
• Got a call to schedule a Melbourne-based vac work interview
• Got back an essay with no comments marked 25/30 - I was typing this up until 6AM on the day it was due
• Missed a departmental photo but instead had lunch in very amiable company
• Got to see the effects of five midday beers on a Malaysian kid (after the departmental photo/bbq)- 太贪心了
• Set a personal best cycling commute time of 35 minutes to make it on time to a friend's thesis final presentation
• Broke my pannier bag clip trying to make the return journey in the same time
• Had the pleasant company of graduating classmates over a steak dinner
• Bought a $5 government subsidised helmet
• Converted a 20+ page report (done mostly in the 8 hours before it was due) into 30 slides and got through my mid-thesis satisfactorily
• Consulted with a classmate about my laziness/procrastination and whether it can be attributed to post-exchange syndrome

quick ride

While riding the 50km Around the bay in a day trip, I realised that my odometry on my bicycle computer is screwed up. The calibration resets, along with the clock, every time I reset the distance counter. Lame.
The 50km ride is pretty quick and flat - even the Westgate doesn't pose much of a challenge because of the huge lead-in making the slope fairly gentle. I saw no fewer than three unicycles along the way. There were also three guys on a triple bike. A lot of corporate groups, some couples and lots of solo riders. I'd say if you have anything faster than a mountain bike, 50km isn't worth doing more than once. I got 1:27 there, 1:10 on the way back. On the way back I was keeping up with a teenager on a road bike.

Figure 1: Monash manufactured enthusiasm.

Figure 2: Evolved pest.

I can confirm that Melbourne is a flat city and great to ride it. Unfortunately it doesn't apply to the suburbs.

wording

ambiguous
ambivalent
cagaguous?
Okay... not really sure was my supervisor was saying by the third big word but it was an interesting journey getting to that strange conversation. He had been giving some second-year kids a grilling over plagiarism. Each of them got about thirty minutes and each of them was unsuccessful in disputing their plagiarism charge. They seemed like overseas students who wouldn't be able to appreciate those kind of words (although I'm not sure whether he was speaking to them with the big words too). Kids nowadays... What was he thinking? Being wrong and then teaching his mistake to other people. Good game.
I think there was something a bit strange about that kid though. He asked why I was here and I explained that I was here to see him about my project. He said 'same here'. I wandered off to speak to a PhD student. When I came back we ended up exchanging those exact same words.
I'm going to try to find out what that third big word was.

fooding

Here's a Cafe-de-coral inspired creation.

I especially like how proper plates were more common in Hong Kong. Big ones too! When going to my 8AM lecture I noticed how most food outlets weren't even open to serve food.

This division is interesting too:
 http://www.cafedecoral.com/web/sbu/sbu3_4.htm

Pricing is positioned with a slight premium to reflect consumers' psychographics' need.
Customer profile is cosmopolitan, young and upwardly mobile executives who are image conscious and need an upscale and sophisticated environment, with superior food quality, at a slightly higher premium on price fast food shops.

the podiatric journey begins

collision

I was late to work today. This week I've been catching the bus. I had managed to injure my leg while coming downhill and riding off a 30m cliff getting off my cousin's trial bike. Anyway, hopefully my leg will be better by next week for ride to work/uni day (in order to claim free breakfast).
Anyway, the 902 had a hard time getting southbound through Glen Waverley. Two cars had collided in the turning lane from Springvale Road into Coleman Parade. Police cars and a fire truck blocked off the adjacent southbound lane as well as the eastbound exit of Railway Parade North. Springvale Road down to two lanes should be bearable but it wasn't.
It turns out that another two cars had managed to sandwich a motorcycle in the next lane. They had stopped and weren't helping with traffic flow. Two policewomen jogged over to help. Springvale Road southbound was down to one lane only. Ridiculous.
Since the eastbound exit of Railway Parade North was blocked, the bus driver took us around the back of Novotel via Kingsway. Good on him for trying.

escaping reality

Oh, so this is a club. I seemed to have a much more elaborate image in my mind but it turns out to be a densely-packed loungey area with excessively loud music coming from behind an even more densely-packed standing area. The pulsating coloured patterns projected upon the ceiling were nice though.
It would certainly be interesting to run experiments on groups of people with loud sounds that affect balance and fake drinks that have no alcoholic content.
I also found that the environment is not conducive in the slightest manner for conversation. It is difficult to convey ideas to new people in such an environment.
It was also an opportunity to observe the inebriated. Here I see a very different facet of a colleague and it's not one that exemplifies his best qualities as a person. It seems as though people want to spend as little time in this 'real-world' as possible. They recreate their dreams or unawareness by excessively loud music, alcohol, lighting effects and possibly other elements.
Another matter - how can foot traffic be so heavy in such a small area. Where is everyone going? There aren't all that many destinations within such a confined space.
One colleague certainly demonstrated his 'can-do' attitude.  Although he had no fewer than three 'attempts', he declared the session a failure.  It begs the question of how to measure success. Perhaps it is impressing sufficiently with a dance in order to exchange contact details (sounds like a David Attenborough narration). Otherwise it could be related to that strange conversation emanating from a male toilet cubicle. hrm
Nevertheless, I'll try to keep an open mind on what others enjoy. It might even help on a developing professional relationships interview question. Having said that, Government House was a lot nicer.

Good for you!

It was quite an interesting twenty-four hour period for me earlier this week. I got fitted for Vibram Fivefingers shoes and talked to some people.

Of course I’m not putting the correct emphasis on those events. Monday afternoon was my interview session for ATO vacation work. It was only supposed to take thirty minutes but I ended up wasting forty minutes of their lives, asking a few questions at the end. ATO dress code seemed pretty casual. I found it funny how the interviewers brought up work-life balance as a pull factor towards the ATO while revealing that they don’t have scheduled lunch breaks, or any breaks for that matter, on interview days. They kept on saying congratulations on getting this far in the process – it started sounding tiresome!

Making the most of my time in the CBD, I decided to get fitted for Vibram Fivefingers shoes. My feet are too small for the men’s range. The ladies range has some outrageous colours. All the prices are pretty steep though.

The next part of the day was at Government House. I had only really orbited the place in high school as part of cross country running. Today I had a follow up for my exchange program. “Thanks for taking our money and doing stuff overseas.” Well more on that later. It was a bit messy outside the gate. There was only one person verifying guests coming in by car and on foot. Luckily for me there happened to be quite an attractive young lady within my field of vision with whom I could query the matter. Her hair was most impressive and she had an interesting voice.

While waiting for the ceremony to begin, a buxom lady who works in administering the program talked to me about a variety of topics. It was an opportunity for her to see who she administers the program for. At this stage there was finger food and alcohol floating about freely by waiters emblazoned with EIIR.

Important people made their speeches. The grants help strengthen ties in this global world. Apparently they’re fiercely contested too. Hmm. Each awardee was presented with a slab of glass labelled with their name. It’s pretty thick too. Looks nice. Group photos were taken in another room. Due to the official party being composed of largely tall people, the awardees had to be moved backwards, up stairs to be visible to the camera. I ended up next to aforementioned young lady due to a photographer instigated swap.

My mother wasn’t very helpful in the next part of the evening. She wanted me to make the most of the food and drink floating about. I had planned to talk to some representatives of a locally-based company owned by the group that finances these exchange grants. The organisers were helpful in helping me locate a representative. Unfortunately he was a few levels too high, being the chairman and all. It was nice to learn about the field from those managers. I liked how a CEO of a related company said he started off by living in a hut while installing hydro generators. Another guy who reminds me of Richard Dawkins managed to use “good for you” as a filler phrase while there was nothing said. I shall endeavour to try that at some stage. It was also stated that current graduates are expecting too quick a career progression, but can overtake older engineers by rank on merit, rather than the old system of age. I ended up having to drive the car home.

On the morning of the following day I had an interview at a detergent factory for vacation work. It was quite a long drive and the time was over allocated. It was interesting to note that this organisation runs its vacation work solely as part of its corporate social responsibility programme. There are no graduate positions available and only three engineers employed. Oh well, hopefully I get something suitable for this summer.