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Monthly Update (January)
7 years ago
A message from your friendly neighborhood silver fox.
Figured it was time for one of these again. Planning on doing these on a monthly basis again.
It's been an eventful month!
First off though, I've been sick for the last week, probably will be for another week or two. The plants are at it again, and my nose does not agree. So the past few days in particular was rather terrible for productivity.
Studies: While classes only start this week, I've had to do some vacation training at a company for one of my university modules. I did some computer vision work for a local surveillance/IoT company, which was pretty exciting and challenging. Learned a lot as well, and might have secured a more permanent job for later. It's also why I haven't been able to do much in terms of art and other projects, as it was pretty much full-time. Buuuut, the place has an awesome coffee machine, which is always great.
Art: Not a lot going on here. My pic-a-fortnight challenge is taking some getting used to. I've actually thought I missed a week because of the longer gaps between deadlines. But my perception of time is a little out of whack, due to work. I'm actually still on track, just need to remember to use my little chart I printed out. However, I need to use the time I have to put more effort into my drawings.
I've slowly been trying to get back into digital art as well, but that's been rather difficult so far. I'm waaay more out of practice than I initially thought. I'm not even sure how I used to do digital art all those years ago. But, I'm hoping with some practice, I can get back into it. I miss some of the cool possibilities that digital offers.
Music: This may or may not become a new category in these updates.
As mentioned in a previous journal, I acquired a MIDI controller, specifically a Novation Launchkey Mini. I've still only been able to make some random noises in it, still figuring out the settings and instruments.
Another music-related project is making some CV-based synth modules. Aiming for at least an oscillator or two, and a few filters. Also got some schematics for a MIDI-to-CV converter, so I might be able to control analog modules with a computer and my Launchkey!
Ideas for an FPGA-based synth has also been floating around in my head, after acquiring a cool little FPGA development board.
Tech: Some pretty cool stuff here!
My new laptop has been working pretty nicely, which I am pleased with. Though, it's a little on the hot side while gaming or doing heavy processing. But this is the middle of summer now, so that's to be expected.
I got yet another mechanical keyboard, this time for my campus computer. They're so much nicer to type on, so I thought it'd be a justified purchase for writing reports. Now I don't need to carry my home PC's keyboard back and forth whenever deadlines approach!
But the best bit of tech news for January is my new retro addition that I got from my nerdy mouse friend, Anoyomouse: A working Commodore 64! With tape drive, printer and display. It only needed some light restoration and cleaning, and now it's ready for all the glorious 8-bit bleepy-bloopy action! For the most part at least. Finding game cassettes in 2018 here in my area of SA is pretty much impossible. (I know of a single cassette at the moment) However, I'll be building a cassette drive emulator soon, so I can load games onto it more easily. Another option is to restore an old 80's cassette recorder I have, and use it to record programs and games to cassette from a PC, and then use those in the C64's original tape drive. Maybe I'd even take a stab at making a game myself!
That's about it for January. Pretty cool month, save for being sick of course. February is gonna be interesting, have a bunch of projects I wanna do, getting back to studies and doing some part-time work for pay and experience.
It's been an eventful month!
First off though, I've been sick for the last week, probably will be for another week or two. The plants are at it again, and my nose does not agree. So the past few days in particular was rather terrible for productivity.
Studies: While classes only start this week, I've had to do some vacation training at a company for one of my university modules. I did some computer vision work for a local surveillance/IoT company, which was pretty exciting and challenging. Learned a lot as well, and might have secured a more permanent job for later. It's also why I haven't been able to do much in terms of art and other projects, as it was pretty much full-time. Buuuut, the place has an awesome coffee machine, which is always great.
Art: Not a lot going on here. My pic-a-fortnight challenge is taking some getting used to. I've actually thought I missed a week because of the longer gaps between deadlines. But my perception of time is a little out of whack, due to work. I'm actually still on track, just need to remember to use my little chart I printed out. However, I need to use the time I have to put more effort into my drawings.
I've slowly been trying to get back into digital art as well, but that's been rather difficult so far. I'm waaay more out of practice than I initially thought. I'm not even sure how I used to do digital art all those years ago. But, I'm hoping with some practice, I can get back into it. I miss some of the cool possibilities that digital offers.
Music: This may or may not become a new category in these updates.
As mentioned in a previous journal, I acquired a MIDI controller, specifically a Novation Launchkey Mini. I've still only been able to make some random noises in it, still figuring out the settings and instruments.
Another music-related project is making some CV-based synth modules. Aiming for at least an oscillator or two, and a few filters. Also got some schematics for a MIDI-to-CV converter, so I might be able to control analog modules with a computer and my Launchkey!
Ideas for an FPGA-based synth has also been floating around in my head, after acquiring a cool little FPGA development board.
Tech: Some pretty cool stuff here!
My new laptop has been working pretty nicely, which I am pleased with. Though, it's a little on the hot side while gaming or doing heavy processing. But this is the middle of summer now, so that's to be expected.
I got yet another mechanical keyboard, this time for my campus computer. They're so much nicer to type on, so I thought it'd be a justified purchase for writing reports. Now I don't need to carry my home PC's keyboard back and forth whenever deadlines approach!
But the best bit of tech news for January is my new retro addition that I got from my nerdy mouse friend, Anoyomouse: A working Commodore 64! With tape drive, printer and display. It only needed some light restoration and cleaning, and now it's ready for all the glorious 8-bit bleepy-bloopy action! For the most part at least. Finding game cassettes in 2018 here in my area of SA is pretty much impossible. (I know of a single cassette at the moment) However, I'll be building a cassette drive emulator soon, so I can load games onto it more easily. Another option is to restore an old 80's cassette recorder I have, and use it to record programs and games to cassette from a PC, and then use those in the C64's original tape drive. Maybe I'd even take a stab at making a game myself!
That's about it for January. Pretty cool month, save for being sick of course. February is gonna be interesting, have a bunch of projects I wanna do, getting back to studies and doing some part-time work for pay and experience.
Import is on the crazy expensive side too. x.x
I got some cassettes (new in box, no less!) for the cassette drive and saved/loaded a small application using it. It took a while. xD
Worked pretty well though! I'll use that to save the type-in programs and games from the stack of magazines I got with the system.
But if I manage to fix up the Panasonic tape recorder I have, I can use that for recording from a PC.
A floppy emulator is also on the agenda. Found a DIY one that works as an interface between the C64 and a PC. Not as nice as an SD or CF device, but it's super easy to make, and most of all, cheap.