The Brief

The original brief was set by Claire Thompson as a fund-raising idea for Twestival UK.  I think she wanted a simple screen display that would show when someone donated or tweeted a donation so that a wet sponge could then be launched at her in some stocks while the whole things was streamed online.  I of course ran with this idea and by the time she had finished talking had proposed a sponge throwing catapult and automated launch mechanism that would fire automatically when someone donated.

The Build – Catapult

The catapult itself wasn’t that hard to build.  With a huge amount of help from my father and my parents garage we made it up as we went along.

Items Used

• 2 x 4m lengths of 25x50mm externally treated wood (cut into 4 x 2m lengths to fit in my car)
• A garden gate hinge
• Something heavy (we used a large block of aluminium that we’ve had in the garage for years)
• A 5 litre container cut open to hold the wet sponges
• 2 bolts to hold on the heavy block
• A pile of wood screws

Construction took us an afternoon.  I knew that a trebuchet would throw the sponges further but that they are also harder to setup and fire accurately so we settled on a classic catapult design, it only needed to last one day.  We built the square frame first, then the middle bar and swinging arm before adding legs and weight.

After a few test fires in the garden it worked straight away but was obvious that it would have to be pegged down to be used.  We could have made the legs bigger but we wanted to be able to get it in the boot of my car without disassembly!

The Build – Firing Mechanism

As is always the way, the hardware is the easy part, the software is the hard part!  Having recently discovered the Arduino and itching to play around with the concept I started coding up something that fitted the bill.  I won’t bore you with all the dead ends I went down however I did need to adjust the initial brief a little.

Items Used

• Arduino Duemilanove
• Arduino Ethernet Shield
• Arduino ProtoShield Kit
• Arduino Double Tall Extender
• Serial Enabled 16×2 LCD
• Continuous Rotation Servo
• Lots of Cat5 cable

The idea was to make the Arduino completely self running and getting it updates via the Ethernet Shield.  What is the point of having an Arduino connected to a computer, you may as well programme the computer to do the same job.  Having said that, I was running out of time and I realised that some people had already donated money to the cause.  People that had already donated were due a sponge throw so while the system had to be automated it needed a way of manually adding launches.

Getting the Arduino to connected to the internet wasn’t too hard however I would be using this in a strangers back garden with no way of knowing how they connected to the internet.  I decided to use the excellent DHCP and DNS library’s from Georg Kaindl which once set up saved me huge amounts of time debugging problems.

I also wanted a way of thanking the users that donated so used a serial enabled LCD screen to display where the donation had come from.  This also proved very useful when it came to debugging as the serial console takes a long time to start on my computer (damn you Java).  Using the LCD screen meant I could display debug information about the DHCP lease or status of the program without having to connect a computer.

The final part of the puzzle was the release mechanism.  I used the servo and some gate hooks/eyes to create a firing pin which you should be able to see on the video below.

The program was originally setup to search twitter for keywords and while I could make it work I couldn’t guarantee that tweets wouldn’t be missed.  I wanted to tie it into PayPal or another payment system but time was running out and I didn’t have any of the charity account details.  So, I decided to cheat :-p

So that I could control the catapult remotely I decided to use the excellent txtlocal service which gives a free API for incoming SMS (and very good rates on outgoing ones too).  This meant that I could send a text message from my phone and fire the catapult while displaying any message I like on the LCD screen.  This was also a hack so that I can rate limit the firing and not miss any donations but it worked well!

The Results

On the day there were a few problems.  The catapult was connected to the internet and worked perfectly!  We did loads of test fires and there was no problems at all.  Then we launched Ustream, and everything stopped.  Ustream worked fine, the catapult worked fine, but the two together wouldn’t work at all.  My hunch is that Ustream data was flooding the Ethernet shield and blocked all communication.  After much cobbling we got things working enough to throw wet sponges and much fun was had by all.

Final Notes

Seeing as this entire project was done in a few weeks in spare time I think it went quite well.  I have missed out a lot of my trial and error but please feel free to post questions in the comments and I’ll attempt to answer.

Internet Catapult is a post from: Dogsbody.org

SantaSkate 2009 is a post from: Dogsbody.org

Easter Bunny Stroll 2009 is a post from: Dogsbody.org

Perhaps it is my fault for not reading the small print. I don’t get narked by many things but this has really gotten to me and the service was appalling. So much so that I have set a website to try and warn others (and make me feel a bit better). You never know, it may do something!

I have no problem with vouchers expiring, companies have to do this, prices of the experiences they sell will go up etc. however having a voucher that expired in less than four months with no other option is ludicrous in my opinion!

Update: The website worked!  A very irate company got in touch and offered me a refund!  I have now removed the link to the site that was in this post.

Beware of vouchers that expire is a post from: Dogsbody.org

Silicone valleys,
Germanium hills,
Digital journeys,
And virtual thrills.

Greetings, O hacker,
Feeling unwell?
Microchip tracker,
Welcome to hell.

Jon Ribbens – DoggySoft

Silicone valleys, Germanium hills… is a post from: Dogsbody.org

I have written a script that will tidy up majordomo config files as follows…

• Only shows lists you are subscribed to with the ‘lists’ command
• Does not allow anyone to use the ‘who’ command to get addresses
• Doesn’t allow anyone to use the ‘which’ command to get addresses

This can either be run once or added to /etc/cron.daily so that any new lists created are forced to the correct settings.

Simply download the file, change the directory path at the top of the file if required and execute. Download Here.

Securing Majordomo is a post from: Dogsbody.org

For me, this is straight out of Star Trek.  Saying that, Ironically this is almost impossible without the sort of basic tagging that is only now starting to be done with photos.  I am looking forward to seeing where this technology takes us.

See the TED Talks video on Photosynth for a much better example and demo.

Photosynth is a post from: Dogsbody.org

This year was hard work, both from the organising from (with the new job) and the actual event.  In a complete change from last years heatwave it decided to rain this year.  It could have been a lot worse though as it wasn’t driving rain with setting up the campsite and taking tents down done in the dry which makes a HUGE difference.

The new rota went down well with people changing shifts every 40 mins (was 30 last year) which for 9 people meant 2 hours on and 4 hours off and it was fantastic having pit crew there this year! It made such a huge difference having someone to cook and wash up so that we could get on with sleeping between shifts.

As per usual, the hotel on the Sunday night was bliss, a clean bed, showers and a slap up restaurant meal.  Roll on next year.

Pictures up on Cskate.

Le Mans 24 hour skate 2007 is a post from: Dogsbody.org

Back in 2006 some very fit skaters skated from London to Brighton as part of the BHF bike ride.  I liked the idea of it and have done marathons before (26 miles) but they tend to be flat, smooth and nothing like this.  I really wasn’t sure about this so sponsorship seemed the best way to make up my mind.  I don’t do sponsorship very often (I am not a fan of people that ask for sponsorship to do something they are going to do anyway) but set myself a stab in the dark target of £1000 for the Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust who looked after my grandfather wonderfully during his last days.

The challenge now set it was time to train for this event… unfortunately skating is not a wet weather sport and we have had one of the wettest springs for a long time.  Typically the events I have gone for in the past are at the end of the year, my fitness usually gains nicely throughout the year.  This year I didn’t get anywhere near enough training in, not helped by organising skating events and starting a new job.  Anyway, enough of the excuses!!

As people very kindly started to sponsor me some decided to offer double if I did it in fancy dress, after a bit of indecision I figured that in for a penny and in for a pound.  Jon (Lemming) kindly offered to skate with me and get dressed up too so I felt much better about that, a Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble outfit was ordered. Jon being much taller than me had Fred although with his drinks backpack and my drinks bum bag under our outfits we did look like the hunchback versions!

The day before the event I had a phone call from BBC London (radio station), they wanted to do an interview with me at 7:30am the next morning and again between 2pm and 6pm in their sports show!!  I still to this day don’t know where they heard about me or got my number from!  I was staying the night up in London with Jon and his girlfriend ready for the early start the next morning.  At 7:30 that night (still the night before) my phone rang, we were in very loud restaurant at the time and it was the radio station (yup, wrong 7:30).  I did my interview in a phone box outside and babbled badly but managed to mention the important things such as sponsorship, the London street skates and thanking BHF.

The alarm goes off at 6am, Cheryl joins us and we get a ride to Clapham Common from Jon’s lovely girlfriend.  Clapham Common is heaving as expected so a quick stake through the traffic and we are at Clapham Common South tube station for 7:30 for the off.  There were about 20 skaters there ready to skate with us and another 10 had left at 6am to avoid the rush.  We all left promptly and after pausing for a group photo we quickly got caught in the traffic.  That early on it was very hard not to go into marshal mode and nip through all the bikes and traffic but Jon and Cheryl would get left behind so I didn’t (that’s the last time you will hear me say that).  I had an SMS from mum saying I had just been on the radio!  They used different bits of my interview throughout the day as the “and finally” piece on the news although I would have to wait to hear it.

Download audio file (L2B-1.mp3)

Download audio file (L2B-2.mp3)

Download audio file (L2B-3.mp3)

The first third of the skate was hard, very hard, it is very hilly getting out of London and really not the best roads at all.  Boy was it a wake up call and really made me think about if I could do it.  Jon and Cheryl kept skating ahead but very kindly kept stopping for me to catch up.  At the 18 mile mark (just outside the M25) we met my parents at one of the water stops.  A lot of skaters had gathered there and it made a good rest and photo shoot before moving on.  It was great to see mum and dad there and gave me the push to carry on, I still really didn’t think I could do this but I wanted to get over half way before I stopped, I couldn’t pull out this early.

The next 10 miles were tough, I lost Jon & Cheryl quite quickly who were finding it hard to go as slow as me.  The hills carried on now with accidents at the bottom of most where cyclists had collided and to make things worse we heard there was rain ahead.  This was all we needed, the roads are bad enough without water on them.  One BIG hill later and I found myself at the top of Turners Hill at the 30 mile mark.  I met up with Jon and Cheryl again, we later found out that the skaters which left at 6am were in the pub opposite.  It seems Turners Hill is a bit of a milestone for the London to Brighton and certainly for me, after the event, it is.  We were 55% of the way there but the way we felt we weren’t sure if we could do the same again, we had already done over a marathon and had almost the same to go. We remembered the elevation graph we had seen and seemed to remember the second half being much flatter albeit with Ditchling Beacon there too.  Jon was going on holiday the next day, while he felt confident he could do it he wanted to be able to walk!  Myself and Cheryl still weren’t sure we could do it but after a good long rest and feeling confident that the second half was a bit flatter we all set ourselves the task of hitting 40 miles and then probably calling it a day.

After a lovely glide down Turners Hill I lost Jon & Cheryl very quickly.  The next miles were hard, on my own and spurred on by not wanting to let everyone down.  I would like to say a HUGE thank you to the people that called and SMS’d to encourage me on, I could not have done it without you. The cyclists were great too, especially being dressed as Barney Rubble they would shout “keep going Barney” and “almost there Barney”, it did help.  There were two guys doing it on clown bikes where the axles are offset and the whole bike bucks up and down, funny to watch but hats off for doing it the entire way!!!  The miles were still long and hard though, I kept wanting to stop but knew that would put more distance between myself and the others.  In the end I had to and collapsed for 10 mins at a scout hut that had put on food and water.  I stopped a few times after that, just to catch my breath and eat a snack, I remembered being told that eating and drinking were very important but it was hard to eat when your tired.  I tried not to call Jon too much as I didn’t want to hold him up but he called and while he was definitely getting further away from me he never seemed that far.

As I came into Ditchling Jon called to say they where staying at the bottom of Ditchling Beacon until I turned up.  5 mins later my phone rang, it was the radio station, I had completely forgotten about them!  Worried about skating, being out of breath and loosing signal I pulled over into a side lane to do my interview, it actually went quite well even if I do say so!  It forced me to have a 5 min break and because I didn’t want to sound grumpy on the radio I had put on my best cheery voice which helped the spirits.

Download audio file (L2B-4.mp3)

I never realised Ditchling Beacon was so far outside of Ditching village, actually, looking at a map now it isn’t but it seemed it at the time.  You see the Beacon loom up in front of you too, the pictures don’t do it justice.  I have a break at the bottom and call Jon to find that he and Cheryl are now at the top, it’s no good, I have to have a break.  A friendly house at the bottom of the Beacon had opened their large garden up for cyclists to rest in, it was very relaxing although hard to relax knowing what was coming.  My GPS read 46.5miles and I knew it was 6 miles into Brighton from the top of the Beacon, 6 miles downhill!!  That makes it a 1.5 miles to the top of the beacon.  I set off hoping the encouragement Jon had given me was true.

While it would be impossible to go straight up the side it would definitely get it over with quicker!  Of course the road winds up the side of the hill which makes it longer and also hard to tell when your near the top.  I have to stop a few times, only for 30 seconds but just to get my breath back and point my feet in the opposite direction.  Skaters actually have gearing, not in physical sense but the wider angle that we set our feet down the lower the “gear” but the more strides you take.  By now, with all these hills it was my hips that were hurting the most, I am used to taking long slow shallow strides instead of so many “penguin steps”.  On finally getting to the top it was hard to take in the view, I asked Jon to take some pictures while I went to the loo only to have BBC London call again.  I had told them I was about to embark on the big hill and wanted to know if I was in Brighton yet!  LOL

Download audio file (L2B-5.mp3)

We set off from the top of ditchlng (750 feet above see level) knowing that while it was all downhill to the seafront it was still six mile, I was dreading it being a big steep downhill and 5 miles of flat!  It turned out to be not to bad and after a big push to stay with Jon and Cheryl we managed to pace line most of the way into Brighton which I am sure looked rather cool too, we had a few comments on it.  One mile from the sea front and the traffic stopped us, while they had cone’d a single lane for us they still had to let traffic move around Brighton and so were stopping the cyclists at the lights.  If I had any energy in me I would have loved to nip into the slow moving traffic and weave through them to the front as I do most Wednesdays but not today.  BBC London had asked that I call them as I crossed the finishing line but apparently they were about to go to the news and so would all me back.  As the final set of lights changed and we rounded the final corner to see the finish line a way down the prom.  I won’t say I sprinted but I don’t think we hobbled either it was a final push over the line.  The British Heart Foundation were stamping official cyclists time cards and handing out medals.  Kindly they give medals to non registered participants for exchange of a donation which we gladly did.  After a sit down at the seafront we slowly made our way to the station to catch the train back.  BBC London called again for their last interview, I think you can tell I am a bit tired by now.  A very long queue for tickets and a sandwich later and I am falling asleep on the train back home.

Download audio file (L2B-6.mp3)

Download audio file (L2B-7.mp3)

All in all I am glad I have done it but one week on and I am still saying never again!  Not unless I become a Lycra wearing super fit speed skater and that is unlikely, I like my food too much.  I am glad I did it though, it’s by far the hardest thing I have ever done and I don’t say that lightly but I am so glad I have raised so much money for a good cause.  Thank you to everyone that sponsored me!

For those of you that are interested, here is the map and elevation graph from my GPS…

Thank you to Chris for recording 10 hours of BBC London for me.

London to Brighton on skates! is a post from: Dogsbody.org

Take Google, not the Google you see now but the original startup Google. They didn’t invent the idea of crawling Internet websites, Digital had done that years earlier with Alta Vista.  Google was however the site/company to launch the concept to the masses!

So… if I want to be the next Google, what exists out there today that I could improve on?

The next big thing is a post from: Dogsbody.org