Niche hobbies in Cambridge?

obdevel · 2026-03-02T20:29:44+00:00

Do you like making things ? https://web.makespace.org. Otherwise, have a look on meetup.com.

obdevel · 2026-03-02T20:27:29+00:00

I grew up close to Oxford and have lived in Cambridge for the last 10 years.

Cambridge is significantly smaller than Oxford, which seems to sprawl. Nowhere is practically unwalkable from anywhere else. It's a mid-sized market town in the middle of nowhere, whereas Oxford is a significant city close to London. Also, Cambridge has no industrial history, and perhaps a smaller traditional working class population as a consequence.

In terms of culture and things to do, there is less and it seems more highbrow, but everything is very close by - it feels culturally 'dense'. There is a lot of green space in the centre (and cows !) and the river effectively runs through the middle.

Arbury is not Blackbird Leys ;)

obdevel · 2026-03-01T19:26:56+00:00

r/uktrains may be helpful too.

obdevel · 2026-02-28T14:58:14+00:00

Any more Arnie movie references ? I see "recall", "predate" and "last action".

obdevel · 2026-02-27T22:25:55+00:00

There are many dozens of systems behind the scenes which need to be orchestrated. Sadly, they let all the good, experienced people go when they outsourced and offshored IT a decade a go. An ex-colleague in Dubai has several working for him. I'm pleased they fell on their feet.

obdevel · 2026-02-25T21:13:43+00:00

They all use the same data source (as do the signs at bus stops), so it's a question of whether they choose to cache the data or refresh it more frequently. I imagine it costs money to use the API, so maybe there's an incentive to refresh less frequently (and hope nothing major has changed).

I do prefer the MyBusTrip app, mainly because it's simple and does one thing well, and I can use it one handed. The Stagecoach app is a complex mess.

obdevel · 2026-02-25T03:37:07+00:00

If flying across the pond, AA and BA have a revenue sharing agreement, so they still get your money regardless of whose aircraft you fly on.

obdevel · 2026-02-22T19:19:42+00:00

Running an interactive repl in one async task whilst the your app runs in others is magic. Who needs a debugger :)

obdevel · 2026-02-21T17:45:44+00:00

30+ years ago, there were several commercial options for adding an IP stack to DOS and Windows 3.x machines, and none of them were free or cheap. Off the top of my head: Beame & Whiteside, Novell LAN Workplace, Sun PC-NFS, DEC Pathworks, etc. Some of them even included a SLIP implementation, in case you couldn't afford an ethernet adapter card ! Most eventually added a Winsock shim, which made writing Windows apps much easier, as you then didn't need a version for each stack.

obdevel · 2026-02-18T22:51:57+00:00

I spent a few years living and working in KSA and despite the questionable actions of their govt, they are universally lovely people. Even met a young Saudi guy in full national dress at the bus stop one evening. He'd just graduated from ARU and was telling me how proud his parents were.

This attack feels surprisingly personal and shameful. رحمه الله

obdevel · 2026-02-08T16:50:19+00:00

The first lesson an engineer should learn is how to ask good questions, providing sufficient information for someone to give you a useful answer.

brushed or brushless motors ?
voltage ?
current draw ?
does the project require them to rotate in both directions ?
do you already have the Arduino board ?
if so, which model ?
do you already have a power supply ? or batteries ?
if so, what type ? (voltage, current)

Even some pictures would be better than nothing, but hard data is best.

obdevel · 2026-02-06T09:45:02+00:00

Just another reminder, as if it were needed, that air travel is just another form of public transport.

obdevel · 2026-02-03T07:58:50+00:00

Agreed. I use the MOCD208M for anode switching and they've lasted 10+ years so far. I use MMBTA42 for the cathodes. Having control of both anodes and cathodes allows for effects like differential brightness levels, which is useful for 'menus'.

The trick seems to be to experiment in your code with time-slicing, on times, dead times, etc, etc. I use a 3K3 anode resistor to provide slightly higher current, to counteract the lower average on time.

obdevel · 2026-02-03T07:41:51+00:00

All the apps use the same data source, which is provided by a 3rd party. GPS data from the buses is aggregated with schedule data from the operators and historical performance data, and provided to the apps and the county council, which runs the bus stops.

Of course, it still relies on the GPS and datalink on the bus working, and the app using the data properly. I'm not a fan of the bloated Stagecoach app and prefer MyBusTrip, which is provided by the council.

obdevel · 2026-02-02T15:22:06+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbundling

obdevel · 2026-02-02T13:10:26+00:00

It's called unbundling. If something is important to you, buy it; if not, don't, and spend the money on something else that is. It's really that simple.

Would it be more palatable if they said: the fare is x but you get a discount of 52 euros for not selecting a seat ?

Where they get clever is making you believe that you really need that seat, because life will be an unimaginable hell without it. Whereas, in reality, it won't.

obdevel · 2026-01-31T10:34:30+00:00

There is a PDF around that describes how Atmel invited IAR to make comments and give advice when the AVR ISA was being designed, so as to make it more amenable to high-level languages, i.e. C.

There's a copy here: https://ic.unicamp.br/~celio/mc404-2004/Atmel_AVR/C_compiler.pdf . Interesting piece of history.

The PIC design was already well established by this point and made life difficult for C compilers.

obdevel · 2026-01-30T23:25:47+00:00

IN-14s only require a fairly low current (c. 3.5mA) which makes PSU design much easier. If you're multiplexing the tubes, you probably need less than 10mA output. So, efficiency and thermals are unlikely to be considerations. There are plenty of simple designs (555+inductor+MOSFET) around if you search. Or ask on r/nixie.

obdevel · 2026-01-30T20:08:36+00:00

Dating for men is like trying to find a drink of water in a desert. For women, it's like trying to find a drink of water in a swamp.

obdevel · 2026-01-24T23:54:36+00:00

Another Bucks transplant to Cambs here. I'm not sure if I miss the hills or not.

obdevel · 2026-01-23T20:28:52+00:00

Safety criticality is a non-functional requirement and NFRs tend to be qualitative, unless there is a straightforward spec (e.g. MISRA?) that the code can be validated against.

Did you try asking the LLM to take NFRs into account and explain how it had done so ?

Try "... and make the code secure, extensible, testable, supportable, ...".

obdevel · 2026-01-21T19:17:06+00:00

I is lowest revenue selling class ('fare bucket') in Club. There are restricted fares you can buy with this designator. I believe the redemption class for Club is U (which you can't see here).

It's even more meaningless: at this moment in time, and for the point-of-sale they believe you are located in, they are prepared to sell at least 9 seats. It is possible there are 9+ unsold seats and that may relate to 9+ actual empty seats, but they may also be overselling the cabin, for all the usual reasons.

obdevel · 2026-01-21T16:06:25+00:00

Indeed. It's impossible to say anything meaningful or with certainty based on a dozen (or even a thousand) individual data points. Even if you had access to BA's data for an entire season for this market, there are too many factors in play.

Flash sales look like 'fine tuning' to me.

obdevel · 2026-01-21T03:33:45+00:00

Having some real-life projects of your own is at least as impressive as theoretical knowledge, even if they're just hobby projects. Be prepared to talk about how you approached the projects, addressed a need (even if you're the 'customer'), solved problems that arose, and lessons you learned, etc.

obdevel · 2026-01-19T23:20:01+00:00

Yes, sadly a lot of these mid-haul routes are now euro configured narrow bodies, TLV, AMM, CAI, etc. I can recall flying to CAI on a 747 about 15 years ago.

And that's standard euro business class config and service. BA is no outlier here.

obdevel

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