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iPad specific Current Cost web page - MET maker

2010-05-29T16:08:08Z

Over on my Current Cost power consumption tracking web site I have created a summary page optimised for an Apple iPad. The page makes use of the iPad's larger screen size and shows numerous power and temperature charts. I have also created a link to this page from the front page of that web site that is only displayed if you are using an iPad. The link to the iPad specific page does not show up on any other browser. However the link above will take you directly to the page.

Current Cost pages updated with SVG goodness - MET maker

2010-05-16T09:25:38Z

I have updated my Current Cost iPhone optimised web pages to use SVG images. These scale well but are larger than the previous PNG versions.

Apple iPads cheaper in the UK you decide - MET maker

2010-05-09T06:29:15Z

People always get excited about the difference in the price of electronic goods in the UK compared to other countries, particularly the USA. I first went to the USA in 1979 and soon learnt about US sales tax. A nasty shock to some. Several years ago I created a small spreadsheet to calculate the cost of an item based on the number of minimum wage hours you would need to work to purchase the device. Not only do you work less hours here to buy an iPad but you also need to keep in mind the cost of fuel is much higher here. Meaning that EVERYTHING costs more a a result.

Click on the link below to see comparison for the Apple iPad. An unfair comparison? I do not think so, it does not however take in consideration the general cost of living and the amount of disposable income the average person may have.

On average someone above the age of 22 in the UK needs to work LESS hours to buy an iPad compared to someone in the USA. The difference is small (~2% less hours) but certainly no one in the UK can complain. Get a grip folks. And be thankful you can afford a new toy, many people in the world get decent drinking water.

View spreadsheet image

Custom power consumption view - MET maker

2010-04-25T10:44:25Z

I have corrected numerous errors and formatting issues on one of my power consumption pages. The Custom View page allows you to display the power consumption over a defined period. These pages are optimised to display correctly on a iPhone. However they work well on most modern browsers. See the project entitled "Current Cost data published to iPhone using Perl, RRDTool and iWebKit" on my projects page for a complete description of how the pages are created.

New project - Waterrower S4 data to Excel - MET maker

2010-04-24T16:14:05Z

I have created a new project to create an Excel spreadsheet from my Waterrower data. My original project was to capture data from a Waterrower S4 computer and store it in an MySQL database. My latest project is to extract that data and create an Excel spreadsheet. In addition a chart is created from the data. At this time I only extract three data elements; time, heart rate and distance. From these a chart is created showing heart rate over time. The application was written in Perl on an Apple Macbook Pro, but should work equally well on a Windows system which has both Perl and MySQL installed.

The code and documentation can be downloaded from here.

As always I hope you find this project useful.

Nice to be wanted.... - MET maker

2010-04-24T14:35:38Z

I really do not consider myself to be a programmer. I have been an IT pro for a very long time and yet never a programmer. When I decided to document and publish my own small projects it was really for my own satisfaction of doing a complete job. Anyone can hack a project a together, the web is full of examples, but very few people every bother to fully document them. So while I am happy that people enjoy these tiny projects it does mean that people have started to come to me for advice. I am currently helping three separate people around the world with their Current Cost or Arduino based projects.

I am truly humbled by the experience. I just wish I was a better coder.

Power consumption over the last year - MET maker

2010-03-13T10:00:51Z

The power consumption at my house over the last year. The red line is the average and the blue line are the peak usage. This chart was created using Cacti, while the underlying data was created from my Current Cost project.

Ice Tube Clock - MET maker

2010-03-12T19:40:44Z

I recently made an Ice Tube Clock from Adafruit Industries.

Web site fixed... - MET maker

2010-02-05T19:59:02Z

I have managed to fix some very strange issues that were causing the article links to not work correctly on this site. I have simply no idea what the issue was - I do suspect that some of the templates had become corrupted when I uploaded them.

Whatever the issue it all looks good now.

Enjoy,

Mark

The Apple iPad, hmmmm, do I get it yet? - MET maker

2010-01-31T22:31:21Z

[There is something with this entry. It appears that the extended text is not being shown correctly. I will hopefully resolve soon.] I

Image by Farid Iqbal via Flickr

converted to the Mac world nearly 5 years ago. I fully switched about 6 months later. I love my Apple kit. I have owned four Apple computer and still own three. Plus an old Mac Classic, just for fun. I consider myself and Apple advocate, but not a fan boy. Apple kit "just works" but is no means perfect. Would I trade all my Mac's for some top of the line super-sexy PC with Windows 7? No way, but will say that W7 and Office 07 make a sweet combination, just not as reliable as my Macs.

I think I had made my mind up about the iPad before it was announced. To my friends I said "if it has an iPhone-like OS then I don't want one". So when last Wednesday came I took one look and said to myself "why would I want to carry around a giant iPod Touch?". At the time I immediately said no. I have iPhone, I have several Macs. Do I really need a device that is neither? I had yet to get it.

Today I read two articles that went a long way to changing my mind. Secondly I spent the day analysing my own use of a computer.The first article I read was all about how the iPad represented a new world way of using computers. I am definitely old world. I am a long time IT pro and a geek, so messing with computers is both what I do all day and I enjoy. While I want to install a web server and run native Perl application in a terminal window I realised today that I do need to. Having used an iPone 3G for the last 19 months I realise that I should not need to think of a computer as a operating system, file system, window and applications, but rather as window to my data. I have long realised that most new world users are more open at using new applications and web sites than I am. While I look at Flickr and think I wonder their proxy servers work, most normal people look at Flikr and think what a great way to share the pictures from the office party. This first article nicely sums up my thoughts much better than I can.

I also read Andy Ihnatko's first impressions article. It is a great summary of how the iPad works and some of its short comings. Andy thinks the lack of a 'visible' file system is an issue. I would agree, the ability to move data between applications is a very important aspect of a multi tasking data device, i.e. a computer. While I do not think the lack of obvious multi tasking is an issue, the ability to move data between applications is going to be crucial for the larger device. Data sharing on the iPhone is of no real hardship. As the iPad is supposed to site between the iPhone and a full on Mac then in my view it needs to be more like a Mac and less like an iPhone.

As well as the ability to share files and data between applications I would also like to a better way to exchange data with a real computer. The monster that is iTunes is not really suitable for moving my Pages, Office, PDFs and other files between my desktop and the iPad. An Apple Insider article touches on this very topic. Maybe Apple's plans for cloud computing will address this. No doubt Apple would charge for such a service. Which is fine by me as I loath advert laden or limited functionality free services. However there a plenty of PC users that would be reluctant to follow sign up to The Apple Way.

In addition I would also like to see an easy way to directly print documents from the iPad.

I started to write this entry after I realised that I could have spent most of the day using a iPad and not really needed my Mac Book Pro. I spent some of the time coding, but I could have done that on my iMac. For the rest of the day I could have wandered around the house with an iPad and been just as productive (sic).

So have I changed my mind and do I now want an iPad? Well maybe. I suspect that I will not be at the head of the queue on day one the launch in the UK. Just as I waited for a iPhone 3G rather than buy the first generation iPhone. I will wait for a few months to read how others a getting on. I have no need to be an early adopter these days. Also it would be good to see the iBooks application and accompanying store be available in the UK.

Keep in mind that thousands of people said when the iPhone came out; why would I want one? Some three years later the iPhone has made Apple one of the largest mobile devices companies in the world. Apple always seem to start slow and grow with amazing speed. The iPad juggernaut has only just started to get rolling.

Image portfolio updated - MET maker

2010-01-31T16:24:23Z

I have updated my image portfolio today with 22 new images. The updates are from page 6 onwards, image number 88 onwards.

Lose Flash and gain speed - MET maker

2010-01-30T23:30:00Z

Today I installed ClickToFlash, as small application that disables Flash content in Safari. This has lead to a significant improvement in web surfing speed. There is simply no need for a proprietary technology, like Flash, these days when HTML 5 does everything any web site may need.

A similar utility is available for Firefox, called Flashblock.

Highly recommended.

Apple now a $50bn company - MET maker

2010-01-25T23:25:09Z

Amazing for a company once thought to be an IT dead end. Profits up 50% and several lorry loads of Mac and iPods sold.

If you were Apple who would you buy with all the cash? Sony music and video, Adobe, Amazon, Akamai or someone else?

Perpetual art reselling its self via eBay - MET maker

2010-01-24T21:37:50Z

A stunning piece of art from Caleb Larsen. A beautiful smooth black box that is connected to the Internet. This connection allows the box to create an eBay auction for its self. If you the work you are expected to sell it one, once again via eBay.

Wonderfully imaginative. I love it.

Via Makezine.

Waterrower S4 monitor data logger using Perl and MySQL - MET maker

2010-01-23T15:47:38Z

I have been using a Waterrower rowing machine for quite a number of years. However I wanted to record the data from the S4 monitor automatically. I could not find an application to do this that ran on a Apple Mac. So I set myself a small challenge to learn the programming language Perl to record the data in a database.

The application will record the data output from the S4 monitor at regular intervals and store the samples in a MySQL database. If a heart rate monitor is attached to the S4 it will record that data as well. At the end of a rowing session the application calculates a summary of the data.

This application is a very crude but it does what I need it to do. Here is an article (PDF) describing how I created the project. You can download the application code from here.