30–08–2021
Field programmable gate arrays, or FPGAs are wonderful little devices. In a nutshell, they are a whole load of logic blocks, wired together with interconnects. These logic blocks can be wired up however you like, to create simple, or complicated circuits. Anything from a simple XOR gate, to a CPU, to an entire system (if you have enough money to buy the biggest ones). Think of them as a big box of lego bricks that you can combine in any way you want to create any kind of digital circuit.
30–07–2021
I don’t often talk about my work on the internet — it’s been somewhat under wraps for a while now. But just recently, I’ve had a little breakthrough, writing up my results in a paper and getting all the code and data ready for folks to review online. Since it’s definitely computer related, I figure I’d finally get around to posting something.
At the moment, I’m a PhD student working in the fields of artificial intelligence, bioinformatics and microscopy. I’ve been trying to see if we can get 3D structures out of 2D microscopy images, using deep-learning. …
30–06–2021
The Nintendo Famicom — one of the earliest consoles, released in 1983. To most of us in the West, we know it as the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). I was lucky to pick this up in Ojamakan for around £9 and at the same time, snaffle a couple of games too: Labyrinth, Rampart and a game I’d not heard of before — Golf. When I picked this last catridge out of the box I immediately had an idea. I was moving to St Andrews, known as the home of golf. …
28–05–2021
The ZX Spectrum is quite the beloved retro computer here in the UK (and in other parts of the world too I believe). It was cheap, it looked cool and it enabled a lot of young folks to get into computing and create their own software. Designed and built by Sinclair Research in 1982, there were a number of different models over the years. The most popular among retro aficionados seems to be the Spectrum +3 or possibly the Spectrum 128. …
26–04–2021
Masks have become somewhat more normalised these days. I won’t go on about the, well, utterly terrible pandemic that’s still raging on at the moment, except to say quite a few things have changed — some in deep and subtle ways. I used to check I had my wallet, keys, phone and handkerchief in my pocket before I went out. Now, I need to check to see if there’s a mask in there too.
I thought it might be fun to try and turn this mask thing around and make something of it — try and be somewhat…
28–03–2021
The Polybius arcade cabinet is an urban legend. It’s been going around the gaming community for some time now. In short, the legend tells of a mysterious arcade machine appearing in an arcade, somewhere in Portland in the 80s. This arcade was rumoured to be an experiment in mind control by the US Government, with men in black arriving to remove the machines soon after. The whole thing is a wonderful modern myth; Ahoy has an excellent video about the Polybius story which is well worth your time.
Of course, this means folks in the arcade enthusiast world love…
26–02–2021
Why are images still a pain? They seem like that to me. Getting a good image from one place to another seems more complicated than it needs to be. Ever since flickr changed hands I’ve been wondering how to deal with all the different images I generate and consume. To be fair, even when flickr was the one decent thing yahoo owned, I still had issues organising things. Add to that the subscription model that adobe now uses and I figured I needed to devote some serious time to sorting out my image processing and sharing.
18–01–2021
For ages, I’ve wanted to do some sort of alternative Queen’s Speech. For these not familiar, the reigning monarch in the UK gives a speech, recorded earlier in the year, but broadcast on Christmas Day. Personally, I’m always a bit fifty-fifty on it, but I do love a good parody. Since Deepfake technology has been mentioned rather a lot in the news -and because I work in A.I.- I felt this year was the perfect time. …
12–12–2020
Quick reminder! You can get my posts fresh in your inbox if you join the mailing list here
I’m telling a little bit of a lie here really. When I say fish, I really mean poisson and when I say poisson I really mean Poisson Disc Sampling. Turns out, Poisson disc sampling is really useful in my A.I research. Problem is, it’s not the fastest process in the world, particularly when python is involved. So what can we do? …
24–11–2020
At the beginning of the pandemic, there seemed to be a spate of virtual tours, popping up all over the internet. At the time, it seemed like a good idea, though many seemed not to be very popular for very long. Nevertheless I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and try my hand at making something similar. I figured I’d post all my 360 Antarctica videos in a sort of tour-format and see if anyone was interested.
Something immersive
When I go on big trips, I like to have a bit of a project to do on the way. On the…
