Soldier, Painting
Thomas Wilkinson
How to Paint: The Dead of Dunharrow

In which I finally start delivering on the promised painting guides...

I have been sat on a fully constructed Battle of Pelennor Fields box for just about a year after purchasing it as a Christmas present to myself at the tail end of 2021. Having signed up to a few "slay the grey" style challenges in the New Year I thought it was time to start with a nice easy paint job.

How to Paint: The Dead of Dunharrow
Puddings, Sponge
Thomas Wilkinson
Vegan Christmas Puddings

In which I modify an old family recipe to be vegan friendly...

After successfully turning my hand to vegan Christmas cake I thought it was high time I adapted my old Christmas pudding recipe to be vegan too.

Vegan Christmas Puddings
Tinker, Web, Python
Thomas Wilkinson
Dominant Colour Extraction in Python (for a ...

In which I discuss getting the dominant colour from an image quickly...

I have recently made a Discord bot that searches for online versions of board games to help people find games to play remotely. This link will add it to your server.

Discord embeds have a colour bar down the side that can be manually set. I thought it would be cool to have this display the 'average' (i.e. dominant) colour of the board game box and decided to investigate the best way to do it.

Dominant Colour Extraction in Python (for a Discord Bot)
Tinker, Productivity
Thomas Wilkinson
The Holiday Do List

In which I plan my holiday tasks…

So it may just be because it is 2020 or perhaps I'm just a bit lazy but I’ve found that I often start holiday breaks with a list of things I’d like to do and by the end of the trip* I’ve not achieved most of them. Whether it’s odd jobs or relaxing activities I wanted to get through I just accidental sit around and don’t do them. This holiday season I decided I needed a to do list and though I’d try out the new Todoist Boards feature.

*Or, let’s be real this year: sitting on the sofa at home.

The Holiday Do List
Tinker, Podcasting
Thomas Wilkinson
How to Record a Podcast Remotely And Get It ...

Remote interviews are a fact of life for every podcaster, and in today’s era of social distancing, more so than ever. Since you rarely get the chance at an interview do-over, nailing down your remote recording workflow is essential. We’ll show you how to prepare for and record a remote interview, so you get it right the first time — with some additional tips along the way to make sure all your bases are covered.

How to Record a Podcast Remotely And Get It Right The First Time
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Green Earl Grey

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In which I restock my work tea...

Teat for the Tea God! Mugs for the Mug Throne!

I was down to my last few tea bags at work and so decided to head the the Lowry Outlet Mall where there is a Whittard's outlet shop with a few friends.

There were some good discounts available:

  • Buy one get one half price on all tea/coffee
  • Ridiculous discounts on all Christmas packaged products (up to 80% off)

And now I have a large stock of new tea for work and for reviewing!

I will endeavour to review other tea brands in between all these Whittard ones too!

Green Earl Grey

"Stop what you are doing and savour!"

Regular readers will now I am a big fan of Earl Grey. With the aforementioned offers I just had to risk it and get hold of some green Earl Grey. This tea is essentially just green tea with bergamot added.

It's a lovely brew and means I can enjoy Earl Grey at work without the need for milk or lemon*. It's lighter than the black tea equivalent and very refreshing. I would heartily recommend it!

*Yes I drink Earl Grey with milk - I like it that way!

Web-link

Lowry Outlet Mall: http://www.lowryoutlet.co.uk

Tea: http://www.whittard.co.uk/tea/green/green_earl_grey/green_earl_grey_50_teabags.htm

Tom Out!

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Chrome Problems

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In which Chrome causes some problems for once...

So my work computer has been playing up a lot recently. It's been so slow that I've even had to hard reset several times. I've tried the usual tips and tricks:

  • turning off unnecessary services
  • turning off unnecessary startup programs
  • uninstalling unecessary programs

None of this worked. Starting up Task Manager I found that Chrome was using about 60% of my CPU even when I wasn't actively using it. This was odd so I had a quick Google...

Plugin Problems

Chrome runs plugins as separate processes (which is why there are so many processes in Task Manager called chrome.exe). If one of these has a high CPU usage you can end the process and chrome will give you an error that the plugin has crashed. You can then disable that plugin.

Annoyingly it was Adobe Flash Player causing the problems. Since I use this all the time I couldn't just uninstall it. The problem was luckily easy to solve - I had enabled hardware acceleration to fix a YouTube bug a few weeks back. Turning that off sped the computer up significantly.

Chrome's Malware Feature

Sorting out Flash did reduce the load Chrome was putting on the CPU but didn't remove all of it. It turns out that Chrome has a real time anti-malware protection feature which can use a lot of processing power. You can disable it in Settings>Privacy>Enable phishing and malware protection. This didn't have as much of an effect as the Flash problem but has helped speed up my computer. *

*If you're worried about not having the protection I've found Lavasoft Adaware to be more than ample against malware.

Related Articles

Tom Out!

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Ginger Tea

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In which I review a ginger flavoured tea...

While at a conference (a little while ago) I had the opportunity to visit Cambridge's lovely market. There I purchased a ginger flavoured black tea to try.

This is a lovely cup of tea with or without milk. There is a hint of ginger in the aroma but you can definitely taste it. I love ginger and this is a very pleasant tea experience. With milk in the tea it would be the perfect accompaniment to dessert. Perhaps some gingerbread :) Without milk the black tea flavour is stronger and I might even consider having it as a regular tea.

Conclusion

Lovely gingery black tea. Perfect with milk!

Tom Out!

P.S. Once I find a link for the tea seller I'll update this post with it.

P.P.S. I hope people are enjoying the slightly different review style :)

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Steam on (Gentoo) Linux

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Steam on (Gentoo) Linux

In which I install Steam on Linux...

Steam is now officially supported on Linux! I decided to try it out.

Hold your horses!

Firstly - there are only 78 games supported* at the moment. So just be aware some of your faves might not be there yet.

Secondly - if you are running an Nvidia card you need to have x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers version 304.4 or higher installed. Steam will install but it won't get past login if you don't do this. You can solve this on Gentoo quite simply:

  • emerge x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers -avuDN

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Installing QT Creator

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In which I setup an IDE for my coding...

As with most of my Tinker posts to do with computers this is a guide to something I might need to do again in the future. You can probably find out how to do it online but I struggled with bits and am putting it here for my own and other's reference.

I am currently demonstrating a C++ lab at the University and it's good to be able to run the example code myself ahead of time. Also I am continuing to teach myself C++ as part of Project Euler.

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MRI Basics: What Do I Need?

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MRI Basics: What Do I Need?

In which I describe the components of an MRI scanner...

So following on from last week – other than a lot of money to pay for it all*, what do you need for an operational MRI scanner?

*Scanners are often upward of several million pounds.

A Large Magnet

In order to make a significant number of the spins in your body align in one direction a very powerful magnet is needed. The strength of these magnets is measured by a large unit called the Tesla (symbol: T). To get an appreciation of how strong that is there is another unit called the gauss which is also used to measure magnetic fields. 1 Tesla = 10,000 gauss and a normal bar magnet is around 100 gauss.

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Project Euler

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In which I get back into coding in C...

I did a programming course* during my undergrad but it's fallen by the wayside recently. In an effort to improve my coding skills, and my understanding of maths, I have started on Project Euler.

*I took two actually but only had time for the coursework in one - I might upload my program for it later.

Project Euler

Project Euler (http://projecteuler.net/) is a website which sets maths problems and asks you to solve them with programming. There are currently 410 problems for you to solve.

They usually give an example or two and then ask for a harder calculation. Par example, the 6th prime number is 13 - now find the 15,000th.

This has been very helpful for re-learning my coding skills. You have to break down the maths problem into steps and then work out how the hell you would code that. Also it's fun and challenging!

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Moist Rich Indulgent (MRI) Cake

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Moist Rich Indulgent (MRI) Cake

In which I post a really late cake...

Apologies for further lack of tea - reviews will be coming next week I promise :)

MRI Cake

2 years ago, just as I had started this blog*, I had to go to a departmental barbecue and they asked people to make cakes - this is what I did!

*before I posted regularly.

The Cake

  • I used a simple sponge recipe to make two 9" round chocolate cakes. 
  • I used a round cookie cutter to remove the centre of one of the cakes.
  • I stuck the cakes together with jam.
  • I used ready roll icing to cover the cake pushing it down around the edges.
  • And trimmed the icing to make a hole and give it nice edges.
  • I then made a scanner bed out of icing.
  • And put the correct writing onto the 'scanner'.

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MRI Basics: What is MRI?

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In which I explain the very basics of MRI...

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) allows us to detect a signal due to a fundamental quantum property of atoms - spin (which I will explain in an upcoming post). Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) uses these same principles to obtain images of (usually) hydrogen atoms in a substance/tissue.

(N)MRI is a non-invasive, non-ionising, imaging modality and is widely used in hospitals worldwide. What does all that mean?

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ImageJ and Volume Measurement

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In which I describe the complexities of analysing 3D images...

3D image analysis just seems to be one of those things that is harder to do than I'd like it to be.

Before starting it is worth pointing out that with MRI you can acquire volumes in two ways - traditional 2D with multiple slices or a 3D scan. As far as this blog post is concerned these are the same.*

A common measure in clinical MRI is the volume of an organ or part of an organ. After all when someone has brain cancer - "How big is the tumour?" can be a very important question. Here are my experiences of trying to measure volumes on MRI images.

*There are differences between these two methods of acquisition but that would require a whole blog post on it's own.

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Project Reynolds: Objects in Space

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In which I look into the required gear...

So far I’ve only been able to internet shop for my costume but these are my preliminary ideas.

Coat

The full replica coat is around $350 (plus shipping to the UK) so that’s out of the question. Currently I’m looking at something like this:

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2012 in Review & New Year's Resolutions

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In which I look back on a year (ish) of blogging and look ahead to 2013...

That Was The Year That Was!

Firstly WordPress have provided this nice summary of my year in blogging: http://tinkertailorsoldiersponge.com/2012/annual-report

So this is my first proper year of blogging (I posted a few things before but wasn't really regular at all). It's been a lot of fun and I'm definitely here to stay :) I've managed the majority of my 3,000 odd views this year :)

Let the summarising commence!

Tinker

I've messed about with Linux and Windows. I upgraded to Windows 8 and enjoyed it (it hasn't pissed me off yet!). I've also spent a fair amount of time learning $latex LaTeX$.

Tailor

The main event was Project Thor which was a lot of fun and helped keep me in shape.

Soldier

I didn't do much in the way of Airsoft this year :(

Sponge

Due to foolishly agreeing to bake a cake for every CAOS rehearsal in order to become Social Secretary I have baked a lot of cakes this year. Also there was the annual Pudding Party!

PhD

I've had a placement at AstraZeneca which has been very useful and is still on going. I've also started looking into PostDoc options.

Reviews

I reviewed a board game based on a TV show you might just have heard of. I also made an advent calendar full of alternative Christmas songs :)

Tea

I drank lots of tea and so it was a good year :)

I got featured on http://www.reddit.com/r/tea/ which was awesome! This is thanks to the Great British Tea Test 2012 :)

On to 2013!

Having survived the apocalypse let's have a few New Year's Resolutions:

Tinker

I'll keep tinkering. No particular promises here but expect some more $latex LaTeX$ and Linux stuff along with anything interesting I find out :)

Tailor

  • There will be some cryptic updates to Project 0 soon!
  • ManSSAGO is hosting the Manchester 2013 Cartoon Rally in February which I intend to have a costume for (I'm thinking Inspector Gadget).
  • Project Reynolds has a slight delay due to the party being moved back. This Project will be finished by mid-February.
  • I intend to get down to 13 stone for Project Reynolds and then down to 12½ stone by October.
  • There will be more sotumes later in the year :)

Soldier

  • I will definitely airsoft more next year!
  • There will be some site reviews!

Sponge

I'm 'contractually obliged' to make cakes until March sometime once a week so expect more cake making. It'll give me an excuse to use my new Mason Cash mixing bowl and silicon utensils :D

PhD

  • I'll finish my placement at AZ.
  • I will get a paper written (and hopefully published).
  • I will collect all of the data!
  • I will probably decide on PostDocs/future plans.

Reviews

I'm expecting to get the following things* to review next year:

*I should go on KickStarter less!

Tea

Armed with my trusty new leaf tea, teapot and a new review style I will continue to drink lots of tea!

Tom Out!

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Christmas Trees & White Balance

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Christmas Trees & White Balance

In which I mess about with exposure and white balance for some Christmas photographs...

So I'm going to cover some basics settings for photographing a Christmas tree and also show the difference between white balance settings and how it affects your pictures.

Christmas Trees

Auto mode doesn't really capture Christmas Trees at all well so stick to Manual mode. Below is a picture of my first attempt before I re-positioned to counteract the reflections from the windows. I also turned the lights off to make the shot easier. As you will be using long exposure times a tripod comes in very handy!