Friday, December 18, 2009

Rage Against the Machine for Christmas


The time has come to bust thought the strong hold of the music lords that manufactured Pop.
Reunited for a special interview and live performance on the BBC 5 morning show to topple the X Factor monopoly. The X Factor is a song written by a group of overpaid song writers. Rage Against the Machine is competing for the number one position this Christmas with their song " Killing in the name of" in a bid to take back the charts from the music lords that monopolise the industry. Rage wrote the song in the slum of Los Angeles and it reflexes some of the tensions people are feeling. Its a liberating revolution and there is going to be a break in the chain of control.

More at http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/rage-against-the-machine-perform-killing-in-the-name-uncensored-230139


Friday, November 27, 2009

End of November

Well its been a long hard year but its all paid off. My research went so well I published my findings in the ENZ conference. Last week I was in Dunedin giving a presentation on the slot cars I have been working with all year. This week I finished my 400 hours at Gallaghers Research and Development. I learnt a lot there and also was able to contribute to the company with experiments that will advance some of the products on the manufacturing line there.
I have joint a gym over the river so have also been keeping up a health routine there. So whats the plan from here? This week I start on my placement report for Gallaghers. Then I guess I have a bit of a Holiday at the beach, surfing and relaxing in the sun.
I am getting very excited about February coming up and getting organised for my move to The Netherlands. I always thought I'd take off somewhere and live an adventure, so this is it. The opportunities that lay are in front of me are endless, I just have to grab them. Well looking into jobs now.

Have fun.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Artificial Intelligence in Slot Cars






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5FI-cyGsBg

This project involved programming a PIC16f684 micro processor to learn a slot car track by reading barcodes and then racing the track to the full potential. I succeeded at doing this and am finishing off my reports and presentations on my findings. There is an engineering day on the 21st of October and my slot car track and prototype will be on display. From what it sounds like, its going to be the feature display on the day.

Check out the small video I made on you tube. Hopefully you can understand the difficuilty on this project. the silver Ferrari is driven by a human and the other car is my A.I. car. If your wondering if there is magnets in the car, there is not. The project is about skill. being able to push the accelleration and braking speeds to a limit.

Any Questions Im happy to answer.

Oh and these are not toys!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Well the days are getting longer and the end is getting closer. The end of university that is. Two months left and lots to be done. The artificial intelligent cars are flying around the track and the report is on its way. I'm finding a small amount of spare time to go skiing.
I've got the summer in NZ and then in February I'm off to live in Holland. Exciting times to come. But right now some hard work.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

Netherlands




Well it was a great long flight to Netherlands. But when I got there Paulien was waiting. The weather is very nice here and the place Im staying is big with lots of rooms. We are having a party this Sunday so can't wait for that. Went out with all Pauliens family on saturday. was a great day out and was able to see some very nice little villages. The pictures are comming.
Got a day to myself now so going to make the most of it.

Doei.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

First Objectives Met

Going for a holiday in Netherlands today. Just first have to do an exam.
Thanks for the great semmester. It was one of the most exciting. They just keep getting better. Well, they're are some good times to be had.
Ill keep you posted on my travels.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Study Break





Great trip to the beach and to the woods.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Boat day







The greatest Engineering day the Waikato University put on.
My boat got second on the day. SECOND, again, I know. First place win come.
Thanks for everyone who made this day fun.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Toilet Paper Lego Race


Team France


Arvin

Amelie

5 + 1 Team

Stat Man was there

5++ Team


Phillip

Steve's Robot (Raging Mechatronics)

What a great day. Hope the pictures tell the story. Well Philip won the day with his slightly faster robot. Well done. Its been a great semmester with the 5++ electronics team (seen in the group photo), Amelie, Arvin, Shane, Rafeal, Cameron, Steve, Philip.
Its been very encouraging / motivating working with these people who strive for excellence, I'm sure some rubbed off on me.
Well great times.
Thats Amelie and Arvin in the paper by the way.
Oh and anyone want some toilet paper. Un rolled of course.
Boat day tomorrow.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Race Day is Comming

The Beast II




The pirate boat of 2009. To be raced in the open class this Friday. This is ready for war.
I built this from a polystyrene mould which was plastic formed.
The motor is out of a remote control car. The inspection port is from Mums kitchen, the rest is classified.

The opposition:


The Bath Tub

Still a work in progress. Can the bath tub beat the defending champ, "The Beast II". The beast from last year was powered by a methanol engine. It won the race then turned on the opposition for the worst. Some boats did not finish as they were struck by the beast.

The Beast
2008 Beast team. The methanol Fan boat. Built by a team with power on there mind. Again in 2009 the power is there, Raging against the machine.

Who will win?
Find out, not too long now. Its going to be a show down.
Still more teams to show. The pirate team will be waiting.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Hard Work

Pretty big week this week just gone. Didn't even have lunch breaks. Spent most of the days in the Large Scale Lab finishing a big Mechatronics project. Friday night I finally completed in, shut the power down and went home for the weekend.
The next project is making a Lego robot the measures the length of paper. Very exciting. This weekend Ive been preparing a boat hull for the great race. Last year was great, just thinking about it makes me want to go on about it, but I wont.
14th August. Steve Kane will defend his title.
See you at the SHOW DOWN.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Uni Games 09

Cousin Jeremy and I.


Bendik before the down hill race.



The Mountain biking Team


The Games started on April 14th 2009 in Taranaki with the opening ceremony. The cross country race was on Friday, the down hill race was on Thursday, which left Wednesday for training. The weather was warm and the feeling of being in the outdoors was amazing.
The down hill race was fun and exciting. The speed which you reach before corners gives you a rush. I did have trouble staying on my bike, but considering the bike I had I thought I did ok. My final run I achieved a time of 1:20 minutes. Put me in the middle of the field.
The cross country race was three 12 Km laps making 35 Km. This was a very hot and dusty track. I did my best against the elite group of competitors, but again finished in mid field.
This will be my last Uni games for a while, I have made a decision that I will be leaving University at the end of the year to pursue a career in the field I have been studying.
The Uni games closing part was great and the people were fun to hang out with.
Thanks for the great time.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Tongariro






What a weekend. Another best weekend ever.

The sun was shining and the views were amazing, on the trip down to the mountain that is. We stayed at a school camp very close to the start of the walk. It brought back some memories.

On the Saturday the team and I were up at 6am. The weather had turned to the dark side but we pushed on to the start of the walk. The walk took 4 hours and for the whole time we were in cloud, unable to see anything, probably lucky that we could not see the shear cliffs that lurked beside us. The wind blew strong in the direction that favoured our gradual decent to the finish line where our ride home awaited.

The hot pools were thoughts that came true on our journey back to Hamilton that afternoon. Bathing in the natural springs were great to relax after a walk in the park. The day ended with partying in town. I couldn’t imagine fitting much more into a day but I’m sure I will in times to come.



Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Rotorua Down Hill




Bendik and I had a great adventure to the Red Woods on saturday.
It didn't matter which direction I biked it was steep one way or the other. Bendik caught the bus to the top of the track as I followed it madly behind. Going down following Bendik was a rush, especially doing a steep drop off. I always think you should do one thing every day that scares you. This should be enough to cover the week then.
Uni has been going well. Im getting started on my project.
Sunday was a nice day for sitting in the sun and eating home made Pizza. All up it seemed to be a nice relaxing weekend, even though I biked for 5 hours.