Overhead cables + old tree + hurricane = FIRE (and small explosion)!
Continue reading “Wrong sort of July 4 fireworks on Nantucket”
NVIDIA Jetson TK1: adding a hard disk
One of the many nice features of the NVIDIA Jetson TK1 is that it has a SATA interface and power connector so that it’s easy to connect an external hard disk for extra storage. It’s also pretty easy to set up in software…
Linux: setting permissions for USB serial ports using udev rules
It’s pretty annoying that, by default, USB serial devices come up with somewhat restricted permissions. Sometimes adding the user to the dialout group works, sometimes it doesn’t. The most reliable way to fix this for all time is to add a udev rule but I can never remember the syntax, hence this post…
Continue reading “Linux: setting permissions for USB serial ports using udev rules”
Restarting a Qt app programmatically
I had a requirement to restart some Qt apps remotely. This kind of thing can be a little tricky in a multi-platform environment but of course Qt makes it nice and easy – just four lines of code:
QStringList args = QApplication::arguments(); args.removeFirst(); QProcess::startDetached(QApplication::applicationFilePath(), args); QCoreApplication::quit();
The removeFirst() is needed because the first string in the list is the app name – the result is just the arguments that were originally passed to the app.
Hollywood and the progress bar
Where would Hollywood (and TV dramas for that matter) be without the tension of the non-linear progress bar that never seems to quite get to 100%? Until the very last moment that is, when the bad (good) guys are just about to discover the good (bad) guys engaged in their nefarious activities. Saw a clip of the The Net the other night – even a floppy disk wielding Sandra Bullock back in 1995 had a tense and sweaty moment with a low resolution progress bar.
Surely it’s time to move on to a completely different widget! Or at least recognize the progress bar’s contribution to movie excitement with a lifetime achievement award. And, if Bart the Bear can have his own page on IMDb, maybe the progress bar should too.
Pool glitter
Saw this amazing reflection of the sun in the pool. Canon EOS 6D + EF 100 – a great combination. Click image for full size and better quality.
Cloning Silicon Valley
Great one page article here from IEEE Spectrum about attempts to clone Silicon Valley and why they have generally failed. To cut a short story even shorter, it comes down to an entrepreneurial attitude, quality of life and history in the author’s opinion. I mostly agree except perhaps New York, Seattle and London should have got some sort of mention. Whatever, it’s certainly apparent from CrunchBase‘s daily funding round updates that San Francisco and New York are the locations that come up most consistently.
So, what do you need to create a great environment for high tech startups?
