The Group Work Complex

So, University life; you could call it that, I suppose, but you’re not really alive in Uni. Its more of a horde of shambling bodies, possessed by a combination of new TV shows, food and an urge to learn.

Yeah that last bit is only half true, you don’t go there to learn as much as you can, you go there to learn as much as you need.

Group work is an interesting aspect of the University experience, or really any job requiring too much work for one person. The main point I want to type about is the train of thought that just goes:

“… Wait wasn’t <Person A> supposed to do this bit?”

“or was I supposed to do this bit?”

“… *breathes in through teeth*”

“Oh. Nope it was <Person B>’s job.”

Then they have the same train of though, and its an endless circle.

Choo-Choo.

So I bring this up because I just completed milestone 2 of this 4 part group assignment. Nothing too complicated, and the group members seem alright.

In other news, I made two orders to Element 14 through a friend, it all started when he said last week:

“Hey, getting some uFL connectors and shizz from Element 14, want anything?”

So I brought up all of the little projects I want to do in my mind…

So yeah I ended up ordering $40 worth of components, including but not limited to:

– Potentiometers

– Pot. knobs

– D shaft knobs

– Super Capacitors (3 Farads!!)

– other things

Then to order came in the next day (dang they have fast shipping), and the Super Capacitors I ordered were… I’m gonna say misplaced, but they sent me out two black plugs, meant for a ruggid four core wire connection. Sent them an email and they fixed it up straight away, but my friend and I had a little chuckle.

Then my friend said that he ordered the wrong thing for himself, and so he was making another order for parts, and again asked if I wanted anything else.

Much obliged! I ordered $50 more of parts, including but not limited to:

– 50A continuous N channel MOSFETs

– Schottky Diodes

– Arduino Uno dev. board

– other things

ARDUINO! ZOMG!

First time owner of an arduino, but I have played with software/hardware integration before with a Teensy from Uni. That was actually lots of fun, made a tank game.

I got this dev board to do some experimenting and testing for the light switch control circuit and temperature monitoring for the house. Also to see just what this thing can do, so excited!

I’ll be posting again soon, thanks for reading!

Travers.