tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87001507538201744552024-03-10T05:42:13.589-07:00Needs more polishMusings on life, and occasionally on work. You need a balance, after all!Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.comBlogger162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-44317270933124715032020-07-06T02:18:00.000-07:002020-07-06T02:18:13.440-07:00Bye, Plusnet. Hello Zen!I should have done this months ago, but I've finally swapped over to <a href="https://www.zen.co.uk/">Zen</a>.<br />
<br />
For some reason, I wasn't expecting the connection to start for a few more days - I had it in my mind that I'd arranged it to swap over on the last day of the billing month with Plusnet (which would have been later this week). So, when I woke up to no internet this morning, I was a little shocked.<br />
<br />
A quick check on my home router - yup, my Plusnet credentials don't appear to be working any more. That's either a great sign (Zen's got my line swapped over) or a terrible one (Plusnet have disconnected me and I've got a week of sitting on my hands!)<br />
<br />
Still, the Fritzbox router was sitting there, ready to plug in - so, away we go!<br />
<br />
A little bit of danging wire work, disconnected my main router (a now aging Asus RT-AC68U), plopped in the Fritzbox, turned everything on, and (as the documentation suggested) made a cup of coffee and waited.<br />
<br />
2 minutes later, and I've got wifi, and through that, internet. Rejoice!<br />
<br />
The next step is to get my old router set up with new credentials - I've got a decade's worth of router setup (DHCP addresses, port forwarding, etc) that I'd prefer to just keep as-is for now. Unfortunately, I don't appear to have a valid account as far as the Zen website is concerned - yet. I'm sure it'll propagate at some point today, but I can't yet find my DSL credentials (I know where to look, the button's just not there yet).<br />
<br />
Luckily, my Asus router has a "dual WAN failover" mode which lets you nominate a LAN port as a backup internet connection - and after plugging that into the Zen router, it just automatically works. Second rejoice of the day!<br />
<br />
One quick check of the weather on Alexa later, and we're up and running as though nothing has changed.<br />
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Speedtests are showing that the speed is at the bottom of the range I'd like to see (hovering around 50/15) - hopefully that'll train up over the next week.<br />
<br />
So far, then, so good - internet works, I'm assuming the phone works but if not, no problem (I mean, who uses the landline these days anyway?) and my existing setup seems happy. And it's cheaper. And I'm not locked into a multi-year contract. And it's Zen - who (from previous experience, and lots of research) actually give a damn about customer service and quality of care.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-91894484532925114892020-01-11T08:24:00.000-08:002020-01-11T09:07:21.053-08:00Going down the only road I've ever known<h2>
Here I go again. </h2>
It's that time of year - the time where you get the yearly reminder that you're over-paying for your broadband, but if you just pay a year in advance, you can save yourself 20 quid a year on line rental for a phone you don't use.<br />
<br />
Because it's 2020 now, I've had the same mobile number for over a decade, and my last landline phone stopped working because I used it so rarely the battery broke.<br />
<br />
What better way to waste a few hours than idly clicking through your current internet provider's website, seeing just how expensive your current deal is, compared to the offers for new customers. It's one of my favourite pastimes.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Oh Plusnet, how could you get it so wrong...</h3>
So, I'm currently paying the grand sum of £20.99 a month for my broadband (Unlimited Fibre Extra, which is basically 60Mb down, 15Mb up give or take). On top of that, I'm paying the line rental, which on the saver plan is around £18 quid a month, rising to £20 a month when my yearly deal runs out.<br />
<br />
Let's do the math here - that's 41 quid a month. Not cheap. Not ridiculous (especially compared to other countries) but it's over the 40 quid mark, so close to 500 quid a year for broadband.<br />
<br />
Plusnet have, to their credit, provided a pretty solid service since I've been with them - nearly two years since the BT switcheroo debacle. Internet is normally working, normally hits the speeds they advertise, and has decent latency etc.<br />
<br />
But still - it's 41 quid! Let's see what new customers get these days, shall we?<br />
<br />
If I were a new customer, I'd get the same package (broadband and line rental, which is now included pretty much everywhere) for £27 a month (actually £26.99, but I'm going to round up for clarity's sake). 14 pounds a month cheaper. Of course, the downside is the contract length - 18 months. Wonderful if you never plan on moving house or provider. Terrible for everyone else, and that instantly gives me pause *but* (and here's the big stickler) - this is for new customers only.<br />
<br />
So, before I start the "I'm paying too much" dance with customer support, I take a few minutes to check out the alternatives.<br />
<br />
BT - slightly pricier. 50Mb down for £30 a month, 67 Mb down for 35 quid a month. 24 month contract (what the hell, I mean seriously - I've had numerous relationships and jobs that didn't last 24 months). Price is still cheaper than my current, but that contract is faaaaar too long. Plus, BT really pissed me off last time I was with them (and the time before that, and the time before that). Hard pass.<br />
<br />
Zen - £30 a month for 35Mb down, £35 a month for 66Mb down. 12 month contract. That's looking a a lot better. I used to have Zen dialup back in the day, and they were excellent.<br />
<br />
Who else is an option? Talk Talk is out, as everyone I've ever spoken to who used them really didn't value the experience. Sky is an option - £27 a month, 18 month contract. So is Vodafone - £23 a month, 18 month contract.<br />
<br />
The list goes on. EE. Shell. Origin. Even John Lewis provide broadband these days. All for at least 5 quid a month less than my current price.<br />
<br />
This quite clearly shows that I'm overpaying for t'internet.<br />
<br />
Then I have another dig on the Plusnet site, and wonder of wonders - there's a price quoted on my current package, clearly stating "out of contract price - £13.00 a month".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNr-Om-x_hSRN7NRpJSceKqMelsg9Wrtu_Wa0O_7gOB2NBvfLyDPXK7BaUSik9bW64HZZK35b5txfwdHVqLV8HSjLzN4VSxryfyaJEh50HEk1ttW-gw9EYiZ4djYJj4wb-r4VfDiQf9QE/s1600/plusnet-out-of-contract.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="1417" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNr-Om-x_hSRN7NRpJSceKqMelsg9Wrtu_Wa0O_7gOB2NBvfLyDPXK7BaUSik9bW64HZZK35b5txfwdHVqLV8HSjLzN4VSxryfyaJEh50HEk1ttW-gw9EYiZ4djYJj4wb-r4VfDiQf9QE/s320/plusnet-out-of-contract.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h3>
£13 a month? but I'm paying £21 (plus line rental)!</h3>
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<br /></div>
<div>
It's time to play the "contact customer service" game. I pop a quick chat message to the effect of "Why am I paying 21 when I should be paying 13" and wait.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"Oh, I can see you're overpaying" says the first customer rep. "Let's get you over to our options team, who can surely get that price reduced with a new contract ..."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Er, no. I don't want a new contract. I don't want lockin. I want the price you're showing on your website, which says "out of contract price".</div>
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I then get passed to the customer options team, who tell me in no uncertain terms that this price is a website glitch.</div>
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When I say that I find that hard to believe, the chat is unceremoniously ended (to be fair I did pop to the loo for a minute, but still).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
A little more back and forth, and I'm told:</div>
<div>
The price shown would be if I entered a new contract (even though it says "out of contract")</div>
<div>
The price shown would be if I completed the order I'm currently processing (I'm not trying to order anything)</div>
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The price shown would be what I paid if I just pressed the button next to the price (which says "no change! you continue with your plan")</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Computer says no.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And we've been here before, haven't we? Oh yes, we've been down this lonely road a few times.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h3>
The correct way to deal with this</h3>
<div>
Here's a lesson in customer service, for any interested readers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If your website shows a price, and you think it might be wrong, <b>honour it.</b> And then go fix whatever is wrong in your backend.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Don't fucking argue with the customer.</b></div>
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<b>Don't tell them that they're wrong, can't do math, and don't understand their monthly charges.</b></div>
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<b>Don't try and persuade them to sign up to a new 18 month contract that's more expensive than a new customer gets.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Just honour the price, and if it's a mistake, fix the problem at your end.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Just to be clear - at £13 a month, I'm still paying more than your competitors when line rental is included (£33), and I'm still paying more than your new customer deal-of-the-day.</b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
I'm not asking for a pot of fucking gold - I'm just asking for the price you show to be the price I pay, and for that price to not be 25%+ more expensive than your competitors.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h3>
I ain't wastin no more time</h3>
<div>
I've got a few more weeks on my current line rental saver plan, and then I'll be heading off to greener pastures. Thanks, Plusnet, for the total lack of effort on your part regarding customer retention. Yet another abject lesson in how to not win friends and influence people.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
Brand loyalty</h2>
<div>
But this circles back to the much bigger issue - which is the whole concept of brand loyalty, and service inertia. Some folks stick with a brand because they like the product. Most folks stick with a brand because it's a recognisable "thing" in their catalogue of "things", and (especially if they're in contract) it's a pain in the arse to change. Switching your cornflakes is hard enough - switching your car insurance, power provider, or broadband is far too much mental effort for most folks (myself included, although I'm working on this).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Branding works, and contracts designed for customer retention through inertia work too. Humans are fragile meat sacks, and constantly hunting for the optimal choice in the tech tree of life is exhausting work. Ain't nobody got time for that, right?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Except, I do have some brands I'm loyal to - and that's because <b>they've done me a solid.</b> As a tangible example, Sonos replaced my six year old, £500 speaker when it broke, no questions asked. <b>That's customer service. </b>I will honour that effort with brand loyalty, because they have <b>earned it.</b> </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The rest of you, who use branding and human nature to retain and overcharge your customers? You can all go suck a lemon, because at some point, your business will wither and die on the vine, while your competitors (who do actually value a customer's investment) reap the rewards.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I could probably write a book on my frustration with those that rely on quirks of primate behaviour to drive their business models, but at least I'm aware of how it works - there's a lot of people out there who are simply oblivious to this stuff.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The upshot of all of this, though, is that I have to go hoop jumping to get a decent goddamn deal, and I'm getting tired of that. So very tired. I keep searching for an answer, but I never seem to find what I'm looking for. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Enough ranting - time to listen to some Whitesnake ;)</div>
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<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-5297882831418805532019-02-25T13:27:00.002-08:002019-02-25T13:27:16.161-08:00Ain't life grandSometimes you have to smell the roses, don'tcha?<br />
<br />
Today's been a beautiful summer day (February be gosh darned), warm enough to fire up the fire, and toast some marshmallows. I'm a big fan of the simplest things in life, and today had them in spades - wrestling, a movie, the smell of wood burning and a clear starry sky.<br />
<br />
I love days like today ;)<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-13582243681438691632018-12-20T07:46:00.001-08:002018-12-20T07:58:00.716-08:00You ignorant retards, you've messed it up for all of us.Yes, at long last, it's the Brexit post I've been writing in my head for - well, since the referendum was first proposed. Certainly since half the country (the idiot half) voted to throw all of our value and culture into a huge pile, piss on it, then burn it down.<br />
<br />
"We voted for Brexit" is something that Mendacious May and a huge slice of the Government and Media repeat, ad nauseam. But that's wrong, isn't it? I didn't vote for it. I voted Remain. I voted to keep the UK in the EU - regardless of the failings, regardless of the federal machinations, regardless of the huge number of issues - it's better than the alternative.<br />
<br />
Because, what is the alternative? No-one knows. It's been discussed over and over, but there is no clear Exit strategy. And it's obvious why that is - it's because people just can't fucking agree about what they don't like the most.<br />
<br />
Some people don't like all them foreigners, coming over here, taking the jobs, and being on benefits.<br />
<br />
Some people don't like all them politicians, over there, telling us what to do.<br />
<br />
Some people don't like being treated like an equal at a table of equals, because we're the UK, goddamnit (or to be more accurate, we're Britain) - we used to have an empire that spanned half the world, we're the best bloody country that ever was, and the rest of them are all just trying to take us down.<br />
<br />
Some people don't like globalisation and automation, and the impact it's having on their jobs, which is obviously because we're in the EU, so we should leave.<br />
<br />
And some people just want to see the world burn, to their own benefit. I'm looking directly at you, Rees-Mogg and Boris. Oh, and you, Farage.<br />
<br />
You see, there's a whole boatload of reasons, and *none of them are reasonable*. Not *one* of those reasons is a good reason to leave the EU.<br />
<br />
There *are* some good reasons to be wary of the EU's long term political strategies, but the best way to deal with those are to be at the table, not to walk away, throwing insults behind us as we leave.<br />
<br />
And that's simply the stage. The play - that's still in progress! Because half the country voted leave, when they literally have no idea what that means. The dictionary defines idiot to mean "Stupid person". If you pick one of two options, where one is "status quo" and the other is "Who knows, but it's probably going to be bad" then you're stupid.<br />
<br />
And not only that, but we've had to endure close on two years of listening to the idiots try and figure out how to get out of the divorce bill. Before they decide how we're actually going to live our lives. Two years of bickering, posturing and ignoring half of the damn country who didn't want this, didn't vote for this, and knew it was a shitty idea in the first place because there was no plan.<br />
<br />
I've watched, angry, disconsolate, from the sidelines. I predicted we'd be here or here-abouts at this point, because the folks in charge are a bunch of ignorant retards who are all out for themselves. Our PM didn't want to leave the EU, until the job opportunity came up, so now we've had two years of "Brexit means Brexit" and a deal that's much worse than what we've currently got as our only tabled option. (I predict even that won't be what we end up with - time's ticking here, folks).<br />
<br />
I've watched the opposition, lead by a man who does want to leave the EU, sit on their hands and let Rome burn because a) they don't have a better option (no-one does) and b) they prosper where the Government fails. I had hoped that Labour would at least provide a sane exit to this whole debacle, but Corbyn wants us out, and if he can blame the whole thing on the Tories, of course that's the path he'll take.<br />
<br />
Of course, that'll never be discussed openly in the BBC news, because god forbid we actually get honest coverage of this whole shit-show.<br />
<br />
Here's another prediction - we'll come out of the EU on time, on schedule (because there's no alternative now) and the economy of this country will tank, and everyone will blame it on the Government (rightfully so) but will also pass blame on to the next Government (also, rightfully so) and they'll ignore the small cadre of people who make out like absolute bandits off this process, at the cost of everyone else living here. The UK will lose out on all the wonderful immigrants (skilled and otherwise) who bring value to our society. And all of the idiots who voted Leave will move their hate over to a new target, and blamestorm that instead.<br />
<br />
I'm angry, and this time it's justified. If you voted Leave, fuck you. Fuck you very much. You should have known this was coming, because I did. Next time the fate of a generation is in your hands, do the decent thing and do some fucking research before you fucking vote.<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-60045524404436451732018-05-14T06:46:00.002-07:002018-05-14T06:46:24.877-07:00The problem's at your end<br />
<h2>
Goodbye, BT</h2>
<br />
A few months ago, BT decided to raise my broadband and phone costs again. While I don't mind paying some form of premium for reliable internet access, when it gets to being twice as much as their competitors (57 quid a month, they wanted - for infinity 2 and a phone line I don't use) - that's the point where I start making annoyed noises and scoping out the competition.<br />
<br />
But, this time I thought I'd give them a chance to make a me a deal. I got in touch with their customer service department, and explained to them politely and clearly that they were trying to charge me too much, I was prepared to leave, but if they would match their new customer deal I'd stay. (this was advertised at 38 quid a month).<br />
<br />
"Computer says no" was the response, both times I rang up.<br />
<br />
Really, BT? you're unable to match the rates you give to new customers, even though I've been a customer for years? You're so stubborn you're willing to throw away 400 quid a year revenue just to stick to your guns?<br />
<br />
So, I dropped an email to the head of customer service. Of course, she's never going to read that email, but it only took me a few minutes to register my sincere disappointment. And what do you know, I got a call back (nearly a week later, all told, but it's something).<br />
<br />
And do you know what they said?<br />
<br />
"Computer says no".<br />
<br />
Why even bother ringing me, if you are not going to match my request?<br />
<br />
Then, after I said that 43 quid a month was too much (bear in mind, Plusnet are doing phone plus 60Mb fibre for 31 quid a month) - they rang me back again, and offered me 38 quid a month!<br />
<br />
So, yes - they can offer me the same rate as new customers (better, in fact). It only took four emails and four phone calls to get to that point.<br />
<br />
Now, by this point I'm just pissed off with them, enough that they can bite me. No, that's simply not good enough now. Off to your competitor I go.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Hello, Plusnet</h2>
<div>
(which is actually owned by BT, and runs over the same hardware connected to the same wires).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, now we've got broadband and phone for 31 quid a month. And for the first two months, everything was absolutely perfect. I never use the landline anyway, so that might have had serious outages - who knows? But the important thing, the internet connection - seems fast and was rock solid.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Right up to today, at which point it went down.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
So, I fire up my mobile hotspot, shift over all my important infrastructure to use that instead of the fibre connection, and open up a chat window to Jordan, the Plusnet support rep.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
"Afternoon Jordan", says I. "My internet isn't working".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
"Oh dear", says, he, "let's just do the ten minute the-problem-is-at-your-end-have-you-turned-it-on-and-off script".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
"Please, can we skip the script", says I. "I've got dial tone, rebooted everything, and it was working an hour ago. can you please just check if there's a problem at your end".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
And what do you know - he did! and there is! A major service outage, with an ETA of 7pm for resolution.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Which is Awesome to know. Now then, have a guess - is there <b>any</b> mention of this on the support/service status pages?</div>
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<div>
Is there hell. Of course there's not.</div>
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<h2>
Why not just tell me?</h2>
<div>
Seriously, in the 21st century, why the hell don't you just update the service status page? If I know what's going on, and I have an idea of when it will be fixed, <b>I can make a plan around that. </b>If I have no idea, then I just get angry and frustrated, and I will direct that anger and frustration at you, Plusnet.</div>
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When will you goddamn learn?</div>
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I don't need you to pretend you're perfect - I need you to give me all the information you have, so I can make informed decisions around that. I understand things go wrong, I understand things break, and I understand problems take time to resolve.</div>
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<div>
What I don't understand is the idea that simply lying about it is in anyone's best interests.</div>
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<h2>
<br /></h2>
Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-988388036919885382018-03-09T07:53:00.000-08:002018-03-09T08:52:25.589-08:00Fixing the heating, upgrading to a NestMy wonderful homeland had a huge dump of snow last week, and then a fast thaw over the weekend, leading to all sorts of shenanigans, mainly involving burst pipes and the like. It's eye-opening to see what living without water is like, even for a few hours - no flushing loo, no washing clothes or utensils, no shower - it's like living in the stone age, or some blighted third world location. It certainly makes you realise how horrific it must be to live somewhere that's had decent utilities (power, water, internet) and then have it taken away from you. My heart goes out to everyone living in that situation.<br />
<br />
Another side effect of the weather was a slew of issues with our central heating at home. Due to some leaks and a bad expansion valve, our heating system is incredibly temperamental at the best of times - the pressure drops to zero, I have to add water to get the pump working, then the pressure goes up and the safety valve kicks in, unless I nurse it very carefully.<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
A Very Old Thermostat</h2>
<br />
The cold snap meant we needed the heating on pretty much constantly, which has evidently put strain on all the components, culminating in our wall thermostat giving up the ghost. It was a <a href="https://www.plumbcenter.co.uk/product/potterton-prt2-electronic-room-thermostat/">Potterton PRT2</a>, which is old enough that it's discontinued and marked obsolete pretty much everywhere - it doesn't even show up on the Potterton website, which is just awesome (and why the above link goes to a retail site).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGQC96M_k7Q9coOTUOgqTkixohEyjPJHOUvQYCc7sV5Yj8vRBVFX5aTHachp8RZ8B9lcqHlnMAgTw8JdPFfjUEqmM7kR5uH92b5VhyphenhyphenRutwDQvbDS6shEKO2HidGuFSckm6jpl4KXjQtA/s1600/P_20180308_155715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGQC96M_k7Q9coOTUOgqTkixohEyjPJHOUvQYCc7sV5Yj8vRBVFX5aTHachp8RZ8B9lcqHlnMAgTw8JdPFfjUEqmM7kR5uH92b5VhyphenhyphenRutwDQvbDS6shEKO2HidGuFSckm6jpl4KXjQtA/s320/P_20180308_155715.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
It was functional (before) - it certainly isn't any more. For a few days, the temperature didn't remotely reflect the real world, and then finally it decided it was going to stay on "below" unless I turned it down to 5 degrees, and even then it kicked in every now and again.<br />
<br />
This caused the pressure to spike, as the heating was on constantly, our house became comfortably warm, then ridiculously warm, and finally we'd had enough.<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
A New Thermostat</h2>
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I've had a Gen 1 <a href="https://nest.com/uk/thermostats/nest-learning-thermostat/overview/">Nest Thermostat</a> sitting in a box for ages, waiting to be fitted. I'd examined the instructions numerous times, but the Heat Link portion of the Nest was scaring me - inside the box were connections for 7 wires, and I understood four of them but was a bit vague on the other three. I had looked behind the Potterton thermostat previously, and seen that there were three wires going from the wall into the box, and that didn't appear to be enough wires to drive the Nest Heat Link. So, in the box it stayed (for more than a year).<br />
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After the PRT2 started to get flakey, I decided to order a pretty cheap replacement - nothing fancy, just a dial and a temperature gauge, as well as an indicator light showing if the boiler was expected to be working or not. With all the other issues in the heating system, having an indicator to show state is critical for debugging the system!<br />
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I settled on the <a href="https://www.heatmiser.com/en/room-thermostats/">Heatmiser DS1-L</a> which was about £25 on Amazon. It arrived a couple of days later, the day after the PRT2 completely gave up the ghost. I took a quick read of the instructions, turned off the power, and got stuck in.<br />
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Off with the old, on with the new</div>
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<b>Potterton PRT2 wiring</b></div>
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Here's the wiring inside the Potterton PRT2. Three wires coming from the boiler - Live (red), Neutral (blue) and Switched Live (yellow) - sometimes referred to as Call For Heat or Boiler Live.<br />
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You'll also see a tiny stretch of brown wire, bridging from the Live in terminal 4 to Common in terminal 2. For maximum correctness, the red wire really should be going into terminal 4, and then bridging to terminal 2 over the brown wire. I'll come back to this in a minute.<br />
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And here's the Heatmiser DS1-L with the same wires connected.<br />
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<b>Heatmiser DS1-L wiring</b></div>
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The Heatmiser can work two ways - with 230+ Volt switching, or "Volt Free" switching. The former uses the live line to provide the switching signal, and the latter uses a different line (with a much lower voltage, e.g. 12 volts) to provide the switching signal, presumably with a relay or something to bridge the two. Because I've only got three wires, I went with the reasonable assumption that I should wire this thing in 230+ Volt mode, so I pinched the brown wire from the PRT2 and wired everything in as you see above.</div>
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Once the wires were done, I screwed it all together, turned the power on; et voila! a working, accurate, thermostat!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtzJr9GP3ylcSHXcAheOjR3o0P4cWPdsyvMo1BVwCwzQm-ur2DpbP2DX2TSLS2i7ozfzYqHrpLE7BLY4e1hyphenhyphenc2ATRTovBeBsLGKnp7Ni7pa-AZvJehKHpZTCLwX7dAsObfNz-1qfLXEtA/s1600/P_20180308_163109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtzJr9GP3ylcSHXcAheOjR3o0P4cWPdsyvMo1BVwCwzQm-ur2DpbP2DX2TSLS2i7ozfzYqHrpLE7BLY4e1hyphenhyphenc2ATRTovBeBsLGKnp7Ni7pa-AZvJehKHpZTCLwX7dAsObfNz-1qfLXEtA/s320/P_20180308_163109.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Heatmiser DS1-L</b></div>
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It was around this point (just after the radiators finally got warm) that a slow realisation dawned on me. The Nest Heat Link - that needed four wires, didn't it? but maybe it could work with three and a bridge wire.</div>
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And indeed, in the manual, there's a paragraph describing just that:</div>
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<i>"If existing controls operate at mains
voltage, you can add a jumper cable
between live and common. The jumper
cable should be 0.75mm2
and 55mm
long (with 8mm of exposed cable at
each end)."</i></div>
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I'd totally missed the relevance of this the first three or four times I read the installation instructions. Oh well! So, that meant I should be able to simply replace the thermostat with the Heat Link box. </div>
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The first issue I came across was that the wiring holes for the nest are really small - barely large enough for the single-core copper in my heavy duty spare wire, and definitely not large enough to fit a jumper wire and the live wire into a single hole - so I crafted a single-to-double splitter with some spare wire and a cable connector, turned the power back off, and got to work for a second time.</div>
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Here's the wires all attached inside the Nest Heat Link. The thermostat wire (the right two connections) is some temporary cable I was using to check the whole shebang was functioning properly.</div>
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You can see Neutral (blue) in terminal N, one of the two Live wires in terminal L, the "Satisfied" terminal (1) is empty, the "Common" terminal (2) is the second Live wire, and the "Call For Heat" terminal (3) contains the yellow wire.</div>
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The remaining two terminals on the right are the 12v connection between the Heat Link box and the Thermostat puck. You can connect the two wirelessly, but if you do that you need to provide power to the Thermostat puck over a USB cable. I debated for a while as to where I actually want to put the Thermostat, and finally decided that the best place for it was probably where we had the PRT2 anyway. So, I ran a tiny portion of cable connecting the two boxes. The Thermostat puck has a backing device that has both a USB charging port and two terminals for the other end of the connecting wire. If it's wired to the Heat Link, it charges over that connection, so no USB connection is required.</div>
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I originally sited the puck on the provided mounting plate, but it looked a bit rubbish - I think having the circle of the thermostat is a much nicer look on the wall.</div>
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<b>Fully Installed</b></div>
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Power on, and a bit of tidying up - and it works! It's great to be able to trust the temperature sensor, although we've been used to the old "18 degrees" which was probably closer to 22 or 23. I wish I'd sanity-checked the old thermostat temperature before it decided to die on us.</div>
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Is the Nest any good?</h2>
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We've only had it running for a day or two now, but I really love how we can control the temperature overnight, when we're out of the house, and use the phone to adjust things. I also like the look of all the smarts in the system (true radiant, scheduling, that sort of thing). I don't have any other Nest products, so I don't know whether the ecosystem as a whole is worth diving in to - and I probably won't need anything other than this particular device. So far, though - two thumbs up from me.</div>
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Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-34926975631500550612018-02-05T06:11:00.000-08:002018-02-05T06:17:57.209-08:00Life, Liberty and the pursuit of HappinessA whole year has flown by; or maybe it's fairer to say it's crawled, staggered and rushed by, depending. My intention of having a flow of work-related posts on my work site and personal posts on this blog right here just didn't come to pass, and I think it's time to remedy that.<br />
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I've had over a year now - nearly two years, in fact - of self employment and rumination time. I think I've learned more about myself in that time than in the previous decade, and it's an ongoing process.<br />
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The American Declaration of Independence contains a phrase stating that all men are created with some unalienable rights, among these the rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. I've been lucky enough to really give that a go over the last year or so - or at least to try and identify, for me, what these things mean and where the value lies.<br />
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I can tell you one thing, right now - working sucks. Or, to be more precise (because it really is relevant) - working to enable subsistence sucks. Work, in it's many forms, is awesome. Creating things of value - turning time and effort (and occasionally raw materials) into useful constructs is a wonderful pass-time. Working to pay the mortgage - not so much. I really wish that every human alive had the opportunity to live such that their passion was their goal, regardless of the fiscal value associated with that effort. I've been able to spend the better part of a year pursuing my passions (VR development, scanning technologies, learning about cool things, as well as spending time with my family) and it's enriched me hugely. I wouldn't give that up for all the tea in China.<br />
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Can you imagine living in a society where people worked because they wanted to, rather than because it was required to prove their value to enable subsistence? Note, I don't say "to survive", because I think we're already in a place where we've moved past the basic necessity of everyone putting their daily effort into providing food and shelter for themselves, their family and their tribe. Try as we might (and the culture we live in tries *really hard*) we honestly don't need everyone to be slogging their guts out to feed and clothe themselves. We already over-produce food, there's no reason we couldn't over-produce housing if our society deemed it valuable. We certainly over-produce plastic crap and reality TV.<br />
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So, what are we all working for? What are we all working towards? Are we all working to provide ourselves with an identity? What's the point of it all?<br />
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I've just finished reading a very interesting deconstruction of <a href="http://sciphijournal.org/why-the-culture-wins-an-appreciation-of-iain-m-banks/">Banks' Culture</a> which touches on the basis of a non-resource constrained society, and the motivations for being part of it. I'd like to think that at some level, we've already solved the Life and the Liberty parts of the equation, and should really be starting to drill down into the Happiness bit. So much of this is tied up in our self and cultural identity, it's kind of scary envisioning where our society moves to when much of the "work" becomes unnecessary, and then irrelevant. As autos replace taxis (which they can, and likely should) - what does that mean for those who use that role as their subsistence tokens and cultural identity? What happens as the other roles get taken away?<br />
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Are we still going to live in a society where, if you're not clocking in 40 hours a week, you are "part-time"? If you're not gainfully employed in some fashion, you're lazy or worth-less compared to those who are? If you haven't read <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/keynes/1930/our-grandchildren.htm">Keynes' essay</a> where he postulates a 15 hour working week, I'd highly recommend it. One key phrase: "We have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy."<br />
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When people begin to divorce their own worth and identity from their societal role - who do they become?<br />
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I appreciate I'm regurgitating the thoughts of a well-regarded critical thinker from nearly a century ago, but I think the coming decade is going to bring an end to the expectation that there will still be meaningful "work" for every person to do, for the benefit and advancement of society. Indeed today, much of the work that people do is centered around diverting people from appreciating the time they do have to spend on themselves, and our society is heavily structured around reinforcing the self-value of striving (working) as self-worth.<br />
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I think we've solved the economic problem - maybe now's the time to solve the other matters, of greater and more important significance.<br />
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<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-20083929830112588282016-02-28T08:54:00.001-08:002016-02-28T08:54:31.048-08:00Evryway dev blog is live!After a hard week bashing away at the keyboard, I thought I'd get my first dev blog post up. I'll be moving pretty much all my technical posts over to Evryway from now on. Take a gander!<br />
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<a href="http://www.evryway.com/Dev-Blog-Week-1/">http://www.evryway.com/Dev-Blog-Week-1/</a><br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-57772694240242284652016-02-26T01:29:00.002-08:002016-02-26T01:29:19.713-08:00What a week!<br />
This week, I have mostly been making a holodeck.<br />
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I've got motion tracking working with a mobile headset (Tango in a durovis Dive) including device input (Droidbox), gaze tracking, world-space menus and a bit more. From scratch. The Unity ecosystem that enables all of this stuff is simply incredible.<br />
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This morning I also received confirmation that I'm incorporated!<br />
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Videos to come shortly, but I'm really happy with progress so far.<br />
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Next week I'll be getting live environment capture into the device working, which I think is going to be pretty special - possibly something that no-one else has shown yet.<br />
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There's a huge amount of work ahead of me, but it's amazing what you can get done in one week, even with the distractions that come with working in your garage!<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-15271618603270712282016-02-23T08:38:00.000-08:002016-02-23T08:38:02.281-08:00Rift confirmationThe Oculus kickstarter just asked me to confirm my address. Awesome sauce. It's coming!<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-50121516549095822202016-02-20T04:23:00.001-08:002016-02-20T04:23:29.645-08:00Good lord, this is scarySo, I'm sitting here.<br />
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ready to begin.<br />
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I have a *huge* number of plans for things to make and things to do. Enough for a lifetime.<br />
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Where do I start?<br />
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Step 1. Breathe.<br />
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Step 2. Start a new repo!<br />
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OK, that's step one done.<br />
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<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-73146508357722242502016-02-20T04:01:00.000-08:002016-02-20T04:01:11.728-08:00A new beginning!I'm unemployed! woohoo!<br />
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Yesterday was my last day as a Zynga / NaturalMotion employee. Lots of mixed feelings - leaving behind the Boss Alien crew has been really hard, I get the feeling I'm going to be missed which is nice. No paycheck is going to be very hard to adjust to.<br />
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I'll not be sorry to see the back of the corporate environment. The way big companies make games is just - well, <i>not ideal. </i>I think I have enough information now to write a book on it. Whether anyone would listen is another matter entirely.<br />
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I'm incredibly proud of the work I've done over the last 4 and a bit years. We've made a lot of mistakes along the way but we've created a game that's spawned a franchise, has over 200 million downloads across the various platforms and incarnations so far, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that double over the franchise lifetime. We've been running a live game for over three years, which is just crazy.<br />
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I've had a large number of awesome times working with team Boss Alien. Given that I was involved in hiring a large majority of the folks I've worked with, I can safely say that our "only hire people who are competent that we like" policy and our "yes, maybe, no - and a maybe is a no" policy has worked out fantastically. Or maybe it's confirmation bias. Anyway, it was the best leaving card I've had ;)<br />
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So - what's next?<br />
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VR is next! a big steaming bucket of VR!<br />
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and the first thing I'm going to be working on is a holodeck.<br />
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And I'm going to try and document my progress, pretty much live.<br />
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If you're interested in watching or participating, drop me a mail. I'll be looking at ways to fund this over the next month or two - I've got a warchest that'll get me through summer but if I can figure out a revenue stream by then I'll be able to think a bit bigger. Patreon and Kickstarter are options, I guess.<br />
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I've got a lot of bills and logistics to get cracking on next, and I've got to recreate all of my hacking and prototyping of the last year or two, from scratch, starting today.<br />
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Time to get cracking!<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-43714811168360900002016-02-18T16:08:00.000-08:002016-02-18T16:08:08.103-08:00Last day ...Last day today.<br />
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First day tomorrow!<br />
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squeeeee!<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-80896633893039353182016-01-13T10:33:00.001-08:002016-01-13T14:35:47.258-08:00Failure before ubiquity - and undoubtedly some lessons to be learned<br />
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Failure before ubiquity</h3>
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<br />
On a rare day off (love you, missus) I've been doing the usual Reddit browsing and stumbled over this article as to why laptop computers were a failure - from 1985, no less. Take a read, pop on back - I'll wait.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/08/business/the-executive-computer.html">http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/08/business/the-executive-computer.html</a><br />
<br />
I don't think any sane person today would say that laptop computers, and mobile computing in general, is a failure. Nearly every pain point mentioned in the article then has been conquered by technological and process improvements - better screens and batteries, vastly improved computational power, the internet (and mobile connections to the internet), app stores - the list is enormous and each brought paradigm shifts in use cases and general usage. Nearly all of those have been to the advantage of some new industry, and to the detriment of an old established industry. Anyone involved in print media, especially newspapers, would hopefully be nodding in agreement.<br />
<br />
There's some technological paradigm changes coming - some are here now if you look - that are going to have similar swan songs written for them, and then become so ubiquitous that people in 2050 will be looking back at today, shaking their heads and thinking "Boy, were they wrong". AI, automation, robots and VR/AR are the cases I'm most interested in and I think VR is about to be the next chunk of tech that people buy and scratch their heads over, quickly declaring "Well, that doesn't work because thing X is a bit rubbish".<br />
<br />
Here's a mental exercise - what's going to be the things that, in 2017, stop people from realising they are doing something that's going to become ubiquitous, but just doesn't work properly right now? Because those are the areas where the fun is going to be (and possibly the money). I'm going to pick VR as my highest close-term interest, but the same exercise can be applied to Automated cars, Rocketry, medicine - pick your poison.<br />
<br />
For VR, Here's my top three:<br />
<br />
<h3>
HCI (Human computer interaction).</h3>
<br />
Remember that scene where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hShY6xZWVGE">Scotty talks to the mouse?</a> Funny at the time, blindingly obviously necessary right now. My typing speed is, if I might toot a horn, pretty bloody good - if I needed to get a job as a secretary, I'd probably do just fine. I've used keyboard input for computers since I was a wee bairn, and it's a very normal part of my day. But that's not going to work in VR, or AR, and the control and speed of that interface is required for decent computer interaction. What's going to change here?<br />
<br />
Obvious candidates are speech recognition and gesture recognition, and both are on the cusp of breaking into normal usage. Google Now, <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa">Alexa</a>, Cortana, CMU Sphinx and a variety of other controllable speech interfaces are out there now, and they're bleeding awesome. Why are we not using them every day? Possibly because the input tools themselves are not pervasive (although <a href="https://developer.microsoftband.com/">computers on wrists</a> is the obvious channel, as is your home being mic'd up). Possibly because we don't have a really compelling reason to right now, but that's going to change as IoT devices and especially VR/AR devices need interfaces where we are not able to, or can't be bothered to, walk over and type stuff. I don't know many people who just talk into thin air yet, but I do know folks (including myself) who will happily talk to a computer - I use "OK, google" pretty much every day.<br />
<br />
Gesture rec is a bit further out. Tracking of some form is required, and not everyone is living in a space that is understood by computers. Would it seem strange to have something like a Kinect in every room? Because that's what's required right now. The ideal is to have sensors tracking your fingers, face and pose with a feed into any apps that fancy interacting. None of this stuff is Sci-Fi, though - it's all eminently achievable right now. I've messed with the APIs for <a href="http://wiki.etc.cmu.edu/unity3d/index.php/Microsoft_Kinect_-_Microsoft_SDK">Kinect</a>, <a href="https://developer.leapmotion.com/">Leap Motion</a>, a few others (and I've been doing work around this stuff in the games industry for years now!) and it's technically ready. It's certainly not consumer ready, not by a long shot. I'm excited to get my hands on <a href="https://developer.oculus.com/documentation/pcsdk/latest/concepts/dg-input-touch-poses/">Constellation</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqPaaMR4kY4">Lighthouse</a> (and <a href="http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-valve-s-amazing-lighthouse-tracking-technol-1705356768">more Lighthouse</a>!), as they are going to be the first real generation of hardware that lets you feed things directly into VR apps natively, but this is really going to be the year where we see the space explode, both with understanding, technology and capabilities. Wiimote and PS Move, your time may be over shortly.<br />
<br />
You've then got to do something with the speech and the gestures - and that's going to be very interesting to watch!<br />
<br />
<h3>
Motion</h3>
<div>
<br />
Knowing what you're doing is one thing. Knowing where you do it is another. This requires that the device you're interacting with knows both where you are and where you're looking. Gyros and accelerometers get you a tiny part of the way, GPS is another part of the picture, and the tracking capabilities of systems just discussed gets you a bit closer. the APIs and hardware for this stuff is crazy now and going to get better very quickly.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.oculus.com/en-us/">Oculus </a>has very good seat-scale tracking, <a href="http://www.htcvive.com/us/">Vive </a>has very good room-scale tracking. Of course, your definition of room scale may vary - church halls and multi-user shared spaces are rooms by my definition, and accurately tracking everyone within those spaces (ideally non-intrusively) is an interesting challenge right now. Once that's nailed, though ... Of course there's many other contenders about to properly change the space. I'm not talking about iBeacon or any of that other nonsense designed to tell things that you're close enough to purchase junk - I mean sub-centimeter accurate position and orientation information for you and your things.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One of the biggest perceptual disconnects with VR is that you are often expected to move in an environment where that motion isn't matched in the real world. Our brains really don't like this. Walking around in a virtual space where the real world and the projected space match, perceptually, suddenly makes it all click (and I don't mean this metaphorically). If you've yet to try out the Vive, then that's likely your best conduit to understanding what I'm talking about, right now. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Computer Understanding the Environment </h3>
<br />
I'm not sure of the best term for this, to be honest - computers have been understanding (directly, to a lesser or greater extent) the environment ever since we started using them as tools. However, right now, it doesn't tend to feel very personal.<br />
<br />
Your personal devices understanding the space around you, however - that is where the gold is. <a href="https://www.google.com/atap/project-tango/">Tango</a>, <a href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/9940/intel-and-google-equip-smartphones-with-3d-cameras-and-computer-vision">RealSense </a>and various other devices that do area learning, spacial rec, and feed that stuff back into your system - they're here, and they are very much in the developer-sphere right now, but boy are they going to explode really soon.<br />
<br />
Laser scanners, photogrammetry, <a href="http://www.computervisionblog.com/2016/01/why-slam-matters-future-of-real-time.html?m=1">SLAM</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyJUg-ja0cg">lightfield capture</a> (both static and dynamic) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ-XZIV-o8s">other mechanisms</a> to accurately represent world-geometry - they all feed into this. They're all very hard to do but they are becoming better and cheaper every day.<br />
<br />
Once the computational system knows the difference between a chair and the floor, all kinds of awesome ensues. This stuff is critical for AR but it's a massive multiplier to the capabilities of VR systems too - just look at <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/05/htc-vive-virtual-reality-chaperone/">Vive's chaperone system</a> for one obvious example.<br />
<br />
You take photos and videos right now, yes? I'll lay good odds that you've probably got a video-capable camera within 5 meters. When you can record everything around you so that it can be played back in VR - would you want that? Why wouldn't you want that?<br />
<br />
<h3>
Putting it all together</h3>
<br />
Soon, baby. Soon.<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-6520494428886086032016-01-07T12:08:00.000-08:002016-01-07T12:08:06.345-08:00If you want to change the world ...Change it for the better, please?<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This means positive action - make someone's day better.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This means persuasive discussion. If you want to change someone's mind, explain to them rationally why it's a good idea.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anything else is just a waste of time, and will probably not make the world a better place.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-90873261122661667642016-01-06T12:06:00.002-08:002016-01-06T12:07:36.148-08:00Oculus Rift pre-orders are go!I'm super excited (and I mean SUPER EXCITED - you just have no idea!) about getting my grubby mitts on a CV1. I've had a DK1 and DK2, and I'm awaiting my gratis KS edition CV1 in the post, but I want to get in there with a consumer kit via pre-order too - reasons why will become obvious in a few months.<br />
<br />
The pre-order page is open now (click here :<a href="https://www.blogger.com/%C2%A0https://shop.oculus.com/en-us/cart/"> https://shop.oculus.com/en-us/cart/ </a>) and grab one if you've got $600 plus tax and delivery (or £500, or 700 euros!). Which is (imho) insanely pricey for their first release - but - (and I may be one of the first people to publicly say this) - it's NOT a ridiculous price point. After all, people pay that for a phone. If they're crazy.<br />
<br />
And you'd have to be crazy to jump in on CV1 at this price point. Even if you can make it past the terrible first-day store experience (it may improve later, I hope it does!) - I've put in an order but I still have no idea if it's actually valid or not - no confirmation email, trying to update my order fails, etc. Whoever did their load-testing for day one on their shop could sure use some help! Either that, or they are getting absolutely loopy amounts of orders. I'm guessing the former, and I'm hoping for the latter.<br />
<br />
Why? Because I'm one of the crazy ones who believes we're about to see a total sea-change - not just in games, but in all kinds of spheres. Communication. Travel. Media production. Learning. Games, obviously, and that's my background - but VR and AR are about to hit, and they will be here to stay - and it's only going to get better.<br />
<br />
I really really want one. (And a Vive, and the next-gen GearVR, and ... )<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-92079433546617593902016-01-01T03:40:00.002-08:002016-01-01T03:40:26.291-08:00Happy New Year!2016 is going to be a BIG ONE for me and the family. Hope you all have an excellent year!Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-10233911391058324822015-12-25T10:26:00.000-08:002015-12-25T10:26:01.419-08:00Merry Christmas one and all!I hope you've had a wonderful day, regardless of creed or circumstance! Best wishes to everyone.Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-60147246516705012132015-12-13T06:12:00.000-08:002015-12-13T06:12:01.031-08:00Happy Happy Joy Joy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA2FxF0yM05nJPBiYsoRWTbTNANbN1l1Cy5XMBjU4G8vGsd03hqnxbQO1s4bBUr4zML3Wq9xZGcKRza1keQsFNBJ_2H-kt90E8Mtyx4jpGYCXMoN8MHC5KpMtqtLSzX9ie1nuX01IH1E/s1600/69dude.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTA2FxF0yM05nJPBiYsoRWTbTNANbN1l1Cy5XMBjU4G8vGsd03hqnxbQO1s4bBUr4zML3Wq9xZGcKRza1keQsFNBJ_2H-kt90E8Mtyx4jpGYCXMoN8MHC5KpMtqtLSzX9ie1nuX01IH1E/s320/69dude.jpg" width="320" /></a>Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-2196628466578487682015-11-30T13:59:00.003-08:002015-11-30T13:59:35.030-08:00 However you choose to spend it, your time is valuable, and it’s yours to spend.It goes without saying, that we're all going to shuffle off this mortal coil at some point. One of my very close friends recently lost her father, and that's not something anyone can carry well. Nic and I are no strangers to loss, and if it's reinforced one thing strongly with me, it's that time is short and you'd best make the most of it.<br />
<br />
I've often voiced my personal opinion about working hours, but <a href="http://www.daedtech.com/the-beggar-ceo-and-sucker-culture">Eric's post here</a> captures it beautifully (if a bit aggressively) and it's something I've hoped to inform all of the people I've had the pleasure of working with over the last few years (so far, my only opportunity to really get involved in the culture and politics of an organisation, while feeling as though it actually is my place to say this stuff).<br />
<br />
The tagline above really sums up the critical bit. You've got one life, so spend it wisely.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-78062954442288126292015-11-24T12:51:00.002-08:002015-11-24T12:51:21.145-08:00We're very nearly living in the futureOh, such exciting times ahead. I'm literally jumpy all day with the prospect of what next year holds, both personally and for the world at large.<br />
<br />
One of the areas I've personally been interested in for a long time now is the process of governance and policy making through the mechanisms of democracy. I registered a site for this ages ago, but as per usual my current employment contract is both wonderful and onerous - having to spend all day working on someone else's cool stuff, and promising anything awesome that I create to said employers. This leads to mental and time-constraint deadlocks that stop me actually doing anything awesome (more on this later - much more, hopefully).<br />
<br />
I've proposed this concept many times to people before, but this is the first time I've seen it properly captured by someone in an easy to digest form (and props on the name too, I love it).<br />
<br />
Ladies and gentlemen - Liquid Democracy.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://medium.com/@DomSchiener/liquid-democracy-true-democracy-for-the-21st-century-7c66f5e53b6f">https://medium.com/@DomSchiener/liquid-democracy-true-democracy-for-the-21st-century-7c66f5e53b6f</a><br />
<br />
In short, the concept boils down to this - <b>you vote</b> on what <b>you</b> wish to vote on. If you want your opinion heard, but don't feel informed enough to vote, you can delegate your vote to someone else (anyone else) for that particular issue.<br />
<br />
This pretty trivially expands to groups of issues over longer timescales (express a preference for a proxy or delegate to vote on your behalf, and let them control issues grouped by policy type or any other grouping mechanism).<br />
<br />
For example, Alice can vote directly on the upcoming "Raise the pension age to 100" issue. Or, she could delegate to Bob (who in turn could delegate to Chuck, etc) who can vote for her. At any point, she can switch her delegate based on who she prefers (which is instantly advantageous compared to our current system). Win all round, then.<br />
<br />
Technically, this is pretty trivial to implement - the hard part is the security aspect (including privacy of voting). The good news is that's all solved problems, pretty much. It just needs making.<br />
<br />
I'm picturing an app on your phone which shows:<br />
<br />
a big YES button<br />
a big NO button<br />
the name of the issue<br />
a link to the details surrounding the issue (including background research)<br />
<br />
Imagine if the relevant stats / arguments could be collated in a visible, searchable fashion (including links to learning materials / research where applicable). Imagine that, for those who opt in, voting records could be transparently examined (and of course, if people don't wish to opt in, then their vote is counted on the issue and nothing else).<br />
<br />
Who gets to decide the issues that are voted on, and when? That's a bigger question! but raising the meta level of the game would be - I hesitate to say, interesting.<br />
<br />
Lots of devils in lots of details (letting people vote up to the wire, tracing influence networks, security implementation, etc) but I'd very much like to live in a society that is willing to try this form of representation.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://liquidfeedback.org/">LiquidFeedback </a>platform looks like an excellent starting place for this (and it's possible - hopefully highly likely!) that the technology is there. If so - what's stopping us using it?<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-79806733716914910822015-09-25T07:30:00.002-07:002015-09-25T07:30:52.149-07:00TelepartationJust want to capture the word before it goes mainstream (if it ever does):<br />
<br />
Telepartation (noun):<br />
<br />
The act of virtually participating in a different virtual or physical space than the one you physically inhabit.<br />
<br />
includes Teleparting, 'parting, and "part in".<br />
<br />
Portmanteau of tele (ancient greek, "at a distance") and participation.<br />
<br />
You read it here first.<br />
<br />
(yes, I'm aware there's search hits, but they're all mis-speeelings of teleportation)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-13176022196473766002015-07-13T14:12:00.002-07:002015-07-13T14:12:18.914-07:00Busy Busy ...Ah, life. So much of it, happening all around us.<br />
<br />
If you've been waiting on me to add to my E:D beginner's guide series, then you have my sincere apologies. I've been kind of caught up with work, family and brewing beverages.<br />
<br />
This week has been a bit of a turning point for me. If you're down for Develop, catch up with me for a beer, I might even tell you all about it ;)<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-74763503116382448622015-04-01T10:15:00.002-07:002015-05-08T13:09:35.066-07:00Fingerbob's guide to Exploration in Elite Dangerous<br />
Hi! Welcome to my very fast guide to exploring in Elite: Dangerous. I'm assuming if you're reading this you're either pretty new to E:D or you've got terribored by the grind that is commodity trading (and if that's the case, I don't blame you).<br />
<br />
<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/elite-dangerous-trading-step-by-step.html">If you do want to learn about trading, take a look at my beginner's guide here.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
If you've never done any exploring yet, then we're about to go through the basics. The galaxy is full of beautiful and wonderful sights. Put the time into a bit of exploring and you'll realize just how incredible space can be. Frontier Developments have managed to put a huge number of known stellar objects into the game and seeing them with your own eyes is often very rewarding.<br />
<br />
So, without further ado - let's explore, commander.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Kit out a ship!</h2>
You'll need a ship to explore with. You can do this in a Sidewinder if you desire, but I'd recommend something a little more suited to the job. That means ideally an Asp, or potentially a Hauler or an Adder. You can honestly explore in any ship though, if that's your thing.<br />
<br />
The reason I suggest an Asp is because it's designed to explore - the jump range is phenomenal and you can easily kit it out with all the goodies you're going to need - and there's a couple of basic things that really you don't want to be without. A Hauler can also be kitted out with a great jump range and can just about squeeze in what you need, so if you want to do it on a budget that's the ship to pick.<br />
<br />
The main thing you'll need is a good jump range. That means the best class <a href="http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Frame_Shift_Drive">FSD</a> you can afford - ideally the A class for your relevant ship.<br />
<br />
Next up, you should be packing two scanners. You should get the<a href="http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Discovery_Scanner"> Advanced Discovery Scanner</a> - the other two (Basic DS and Intermediate DS) are pretty much useless if you're intending to go out into the wild black yonder and find things, because they have a limited range. The last thing you want to be doing is flying around in the dark, literally, trying to spot planets and stars via parallax motion. The Advanced Discovery Scanner is pricey (at 1.5 million credits) but it will pay for itself within a couple of hours.<br />
<br />
You should also take along a <a href="http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Detailed_Surface_Scanner">Detailed Surface Scanner</a> because it provides more information when you scan a planet or star - this translates into more knowledge for you, and more credits when you sell the information to the cartographic service.<br />
<br />
You'll be sundiving to refuel regularly while exploring - there isn't anywhere for you to stop and refuel. Pick the largest <a href="http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Fuel_Scoop">fuel scoop</a> you can afford, as it will save you valuable time and make scooping less of a heated affair. In an Asp, you can get away with a 3A scoop, but if you can find a class 5 (or better yet, 5B or 5A) you'll not regret taking it. If you fit a class 6 scoop you'll often be done refueling faster than you can scan.<br />
<br />
You might normally find a shield booster or extra hull armor useful. However, the goal is not to take any damage at all, so if you want to squeeze the most out of your jump drive, then don't take them with you. Shields don't work in supercruise and you'll be spending all of your time cruising unless you make a mistake.<br />
<br />
Jump range is always affected by what you're carrying, so try and slim down your ship to the basics. Don't take anything with you that you won't need, such as Kill Warrant Scanners, heavy plating or loads of weapons. I'd recommend taking a couple of guns just in case you get in trouble in the fringe systems before you leave the Sol core, but most explorers don't carry them. You'll also not need any cargo space, so feel free to remove any unnecessary cargo bays to lighten up your ship.<br />
<br />
If you're set on getting your jump range as high as possible, then you can reduce performance in some of the systems you'd normally want to max out. For example, you can get away with a smaller power plant, as long as you pick the A class (which has the best heat dispersion, which is crucial when scooping). You can also pick a smaller class of thruster, as they don't affect performance in supercruise.<br />
<br />
I'd highly recommend carrying at least one (and possibly more) <a href="http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Auto_Field-Maintenance_Unit">Auto Field-Maintenance Units</a>. These allow you to fix any module damage that happens when you inevitably crash into a star or overheat yourself when fuel scooping.<br />
<br />
I'd also recommend carrying a <a href="http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Heat_Sink_Launcher">Heat Sink Launcher</a>, for that one-in-a-thousand time where you fly into a binary system and arrive inside one of the stars. Yes, folks, this can and does happen.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Example loadouts</h4>
<br />
<a href="https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=103314">Here's a good conversation about the best Asp loadouts.</a> Pop over to <a href="http://www.edshipyard.com/">EDShipyard</a> and work out your explorer spec before you head out.<br />
<br />
As an example, here's my current <a href="http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,mpa4yH4yH,2-6Q8S7_6u4s8S8I,mpT50U13q0KU7Pc2jw2UI">Asp explorer loadout.</a> You can slim it further quite easily by skimping on systems and weapons. The absolute stripped explorer spec will hit 35LY or more depending on what you want to leave behind.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60g,,2-3I6u7_6Q2C8S8I,52M0Nw0Ko0Ko0Ko2jw2UI">Cmdr Aygen has recommended the following loadout</a>, which is considerably more optimal than mine! You'll see that he's gone for multiple (AFMUs) which can repair damaged systems if you do get into trouble when out in the stars. He's also dropped his power plant and power distributor right down to the bare minimum.<br />
<br />
Here's an example <a href="http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60V,,2-3m3m3I2C2C2C3c,mpT2jw7OW2UI">Hauler loadout that will hit 30LY.</a><br />
<br />
You can also push an <a href="http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=60f,,2-3I3m4s2C3m5K5A,mpU7OW2jw2UI">Adder</a> to nearly 30LY but you'll be sacrificing everything to get there.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Go Explore!</h2>
<br />
Once you're kitted out, then it's time to go exploring. For your first trip, I'd recommend heading out from the Sol sphere to the sides, or up, or down - don't go into the centre just yet. The galactic core is a very long way from Sol and it will take a day or two of real travel time to get there even if you don't stop to look at the sights. It's also where most people start heading first, so you'll be waiting a while for discovery bonuses. Pick somewhere between 500 and 1000LY away, set your jump to fastest, and head on out.<br />
<br />
As you travel, you'll see that most of the systems you arrive at will be fully scanned by other commanders - their name will be on the stars and planets in the system. The first person to discover a stellar object is given a name credit, as well as a discovery bonus when their data is sold. As you push out from the core, you'll start to find more systems where only the primary star is tagged. These are good systems to grab a credit if you want to get your name on something - but remember, you don't get the name tag or the money until you return to sell your data.<br />
<br />
You don't need to be the first person to find an object to be rewarded for scanning it. The cartographic service will still give you a hefty cash reward for scanning something even if it's been seen before by someone else.<br />
<br />
Once you start travelling past a couple of hundred LY out from the core, you'll begin to find the occasional entire system that's undiscovered. Depending on the direction you pick, you might find you need to travel 500LY or more before you get lucky. Don't get frustrated, just keep pushing on out and enjoy the sights.<br />
<br />
Once you find yourself in true virgin territory, that's your opportunity to start claiming credit for everything you see. Unless you have a specific goal in mind, then switch over to efficient jumps and explore the area, scanning as you go.<br />
<br />
If you're not sure where you'd like to travel - pick something pretty and start flying towards it! The Orion nebula is an obvious first candidate. Pick HIP and HR stars on the way to your goal and you are guaranteed to see some wondrous sights.<br />
<br />
Don't forget your fuel scoop, and don't forget to keep your tank topped up.<br />
<br />
Always remember : FOG! KBAM! if you fly too far into the unknown, you're going to crash.<br />
<br />
(There's loads of other mnemonics, like KGB FOAM or various poems, to help you remember which stars you can scoop. You can also turn on "show by star class" in the galaxy map and select only the ones you can scoop from, to help ensure you don't run dry).<br />
<br />
<h2>
Scan things!</h2>
<br />
How do you discover stars and planets? Simple! you scan them.<br />
<br />
Before you set off, set your discovery scanner on a fire group (not the same group as your weapons) and try it before you enter supercruise. You can use the discovery scanner in supercruise as long as it's been previously used in normal space.<br />
<br />
The first thing you should do on arrival at a system is fire off your scanner. Assuming you have an Advanced Discovery Scanner, this pings the entire system with a lovely braaaap noise and tells you what's available to scan. You'll get money simply for performing the initial scan, but you won't get a discovery credit until you actually scan objects. If you have a Beginner or Intermediate scanner, you'll see objects within scan range (500Ls for the basic scanner, 1000Ls for the intermediate). You will most likely be missing a load of objects that are further out in the system - you'll either need to ignore them or fly out and repeat the scan. This process is tedious and time consuming, so (again!) I highly recommend you get the Advanced version.<br />
<br />
Really, the ADC should be called the Advanced Discovery Pinger, because it doesn't actually scan anything - it just pings the system and tells you what's available to scan. This was pretty confusing to me at first. Once you've done the ping, you then have to actually scan objects.<br />
<br />
To scan something, you simply target the object (either by using your controller to target, or by selecting an object from the navigation system list). Point your ship at the object, and if you're close enough you will begin scanning the object. Nothing else is required.<br />
<br />
If you're not close enough, the scan won't start. Simply fly closer to the object. The mass of the object doesn't affect scan distance, but radius does. <b>You can scan something at a distance of 4,000 times the radius of the object you're scanning.</b> Of course, normally, you're far enough away from something that the distance is measured in Light Seconds (Ls) instead of Km. remember that one Ls is approximately 300,000 Km.<br />
<br />
Most planetary bodies have a radius that's measured in thousands of Km - for example the radius of the Earth is 6,371 Km. If you're trying to get a distance in Ls and you're using a radius in 1000 Km, then you just need to <b>multiply the radius by 13.3 to get a rough scan distance.</b><br />
<br />
Here's some examples:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>Radius (1000 Km)</th>
<th>Scan distance (Ls)</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>0.5</td>
<td>6.67</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1.00</td>
<td>13.34</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2.00</td>
<td>26.68</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5.00</td>
<td>66.7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">6.371</span></b></td>
<td><b><span style="color: #6aa84f;">85.0</span></b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10.00</td>
<td>133.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20.00</td>
<td>267</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>50.00</td>
<td>667</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b><span style="color: #e69138;">695.8</span></b></td>
<td><b><span style="color: #e69138;">9282</span></b></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
You'll see the Earth and the Sun are both coloured here. One solar radius is 695,800 Km. When scanning stars, you can use this as a guideline for how far you'll need to be from the star. Half a stellar radius will normally scan at around 4500Ls.<br />
<br />
The closer you fly to an object, the faster you'll scan it. Sometimes you will want to do this at close to minimum distance (for example the last planet you scan in a system). Normally, you'll actually want to scan from half maximum distance or further, because the closer you get to the planet, the further down the gravity well you travel. When you're close to an object, your maximum speed gets limited, which means travelling to the next planet will take you longer (and the closer you get, the slower you go on the way out).<br />
<br />
A good approach strategy is to fly to 7s with the aim of slowing to a stop once you hit maximum scan range - look at the radius in the system map for the object you're heading towards and work out the max scan distance before you head there, or while you're in transit.<br />
<br />
If you're flying towards a gas giant with orbiting planets or moons, you will normally scan the gas giant a long way out, before you're remotely close enough to scan the orbiting bodies. Keep heading towards the planet rather than stopping, and try to park yourself above the gas giant with the rest of the moons orbiting around you, ideally 20-30Ls above the planet. this will give you a good view of where to head to scan things, and you won't get caught up in the gravity well of every moon as you fly past it to the next one.<br />
<br />
If you get lucky with alignment, you can fly-by scan larger objects like Jovians, keeping your speed up as you go. If you get unlucky with your alignment (all the planets are scattered around the star) then don't simply head to the closest one over and over - spend a bit of time planning a route out and back in if necessary. If you're not sure where all the planets are in space, then head up from the ecliptic so you can see the orbit lines.<br />
<br />
once you've finished scanning objects in a system, you can select your next jump destination by finding the highlighted item in your navigation list, or by binding a key to "Target Next System in Route".<br />
<br />
<h2>
Make some money!</h2>
<br />
All stellar objects are not created equal. Some things are incredibly valuable - Earth-like planets, water worlds, black holes, neutron stars. Planets that are candidates for terraforming give a decent price bump. Tiny ice rocks orbiting distant gas giants are virtually worthless and asteroid clusters are actually worthless, so don't ever scan those.<br />
<br />
Here's a <a href="http://i.imgur.com/Lw01Dg5.jpg">lovely graphic created by Dubardo</a>, based off Nutter's excellent work (and <a href="https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81653">Nutter's exploration guides</a> are a great place to get you started after reading this).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Lw01Dg5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/Lw01Dg5.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Various folks, including Cmdrs Corporate Shill, Exploration and Aygen, have pointed out that the prices on this graphic are no longer correct. Commander Girsi has done the <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/eliteexplorers/comments/31o65e/exploration_reward_statistics/">most recent pricing analysis</a> that I'm aware of, with this graphic telling you the kind of rewards you should actually expect.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/n4ydB4n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/n4ydB4n.jpg" height="63" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Depending on your play style, there's a couple of different ways to make money exploring. If you're not bothered about your money per hour, then just head on out and scan just about everything. Anything coloured is worth at least 5K and worlds that look vaguely earth-like are always worth more than that.<br />
<br />
It's nearly always worth scanning the star you arrive at, because you'll likely need to scoop anyway. Fly in far enough to get your scoop slurping, point directly at the star, select it, and start scanning. While you're doing this, ping the system.<br />
<br />
Once you've done the ADS ping and you're scanning the star, take a quick look at the system map to see what's there, and then take a quick look on the navigation pane to see how far out everything is. You often find you can target close planets (either metal planets close to the star, or occasionally gas giants under 700Ls from the star) without having to move while you're scooping. Secondary stars are also often close enough to scan without moving.<br />
<br />
Here's a video showing my normal process whenever I arrive in a system. I hold the ADS ping button as I arrive, and slow enough that I get into comfortable scooping range before stopping. While the primary is scanning, I quickly check the system view and the distance to any other objects that might be worth looking at. If there's nothing cool to see - move on to the next system.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EZ09d7X3B_M/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EZ09d7X3B_M?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
If your scan shows stars over 5K Ls, or a load of ice planets, then you're normally best off moving to the next system (unless you simply have to put your name on everything). If the scan shows Earth-likes, or water worlds, or close Jovians - head on out and discover them.<br />
<br />
If you're looking to make the absolute maximum cash you can, then you're often best simply jumping in to a system, scooping and scanning the primary, ADS pinging, and if there's nothing that looks like Earth, head on out to your next system. On average you'll get maybe 10 objects per ping, which is 5-10K, and including scooping and primary scanning you can be in and out in just over a minute. That'll run you around 400K/hour. Add in some decent worlds every couple of hops, and you'll be getting closer to 700K/hour. Not as good as RES farming or T7 hauling, but you're here to explore, not to make huge money. Don't turn exploring into a grind, or the fun will drain away pretty quickly and you may find yourself a long way from home wondering why the hell you are out there. Just take your time, enjoy the sights, and appreciate the beauty of good ol' Via Lactea.<br />
<br />
When you come to sell your data, you'll get both money and faction reputation with the faction controlling the station where you sell the data. You can use this to help you improve your standing with minor factions allied to the major factions, which might be useful if you intend to grind reputation with the Alliance, Federation or Empire.<br />
<br />
<br />
I'd love for Frontier Developments to improve the mechanics of scanning - allowing you to scan while you're orienting, or adding something to boost active scan range, or exploration probes you drop off and pick up on the way back through - we can only hope they improve this part of the game in the future.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Sights to see</h2>
There's literally billions of stars, each with potentially hundreds of planets. There's obviously cool places to visit by simply zooming around the galaxy map, but you'll also find some excellent spots to visit by looking through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_Catalogue_of_Nearby_Stars">Gliese</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_the_Hipparcos_Catalogue">Hipparcos (HIP)</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Star_Catalogue">Bright Star (HR)</a> catalogs - or you could do a tour of the <a href="http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog">habitable exoplanets</a>. Do a bit of reading up, and you'll find <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_catalogue">something out there</a> to pique your interest.<br />
<br />
Alternatively, pick a direction and head out - see what you find on the way. The ends of the spiral arms, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A*">Sagittarius A*</a> in the galactic core, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Annihilator">Great Annihilator,</a> Galactic north and south, or try looking up systems from your favourite Sci-Fi stories - you might be surprised what you find on the way.<br />
<br />
Don't ignore the systems you fly through, either - there's nothing quite as spectacular as a pair of Earth-likes orbiting each other around a neutron star, and they're out there to be found.<br />
<br />
<br />
Happy exploring, Commander!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8700150753820174455.post-24474374962706491342015-03-21T15:06:00.003-07:002015-04-01T10:28:24.023-07:00Fingerbob's guide to Elite Dangerous Trading, Part FiveHi! Welcome to the last post in my beginner's introduction to trading in Elite Dangerous. This post, we'll focus on how to find a good trade route to make the big money.<br />
<div>
<br />
If you want to see the rest of this series, here's some links to my beginner's guide:<br />
<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/elite-dangerous-trading-step-by-step.html">Part one - the basics</a><br />
<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/fingerbobs-guide-to-elite-dangerous.html">Part two - I think we're going to need a bigger boat</a><br />
<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/fingerbobs-guide-to-elite-dangerous.html">Part three - Rare trading for the win</a><br />
<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/fingerbobs-guide-to-elite-dangerous_12.html">Part four - Ahab and the whales</a> (bigger ships, mo money)<br />
<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/fingerbobs-guide-to-elite-dangerous_21.html">Part five - Commodities, economies and route planning</a><br />
<br />
<br />
If you're getting bored of trading and fancy heading out to see the sights, <a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/fingerbobs-guide-to-exploration-in.html">check out my explorer's guide here.</a><br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
Are you prepared?</h3>
<div>
Hopefully you've been following along at home and you're in a ship that's big enough to justify normal commodity trading. If you're still in a Type 6 or smaller, you're probably best served by running one of the various rare routes I covered in my introduction to rare trading. If you're in something larger, or just want to get the hang of making the most of your space with normal goods, then let's go!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
What do I buy, and what do I sell?</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/QsxScn1.png">Here's a fantastic graphic showing, for each commodity, where you can buy it and where you can sell it.</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One thing it really doesn't show is the trade spread. This is the difference between the lowest you can buy the commodity and the highest you can sell it for.<br />
<br />
<b>Assuming you can afford a full hold of the most expensive items, then you are always best buying the item with the biggest spread - this has the largest profit potential.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I ran some numbers on the latest trade data from<a href="http://eddb.io/commodity"> EDDB</a> (and cross-referenced the results with <a href="http://www.davek.com.au/td/">MadDavo's dataset</a>). please note that this is not ever going to be accurate, as the only people who have the full live trade database are Frontier Developments - until then we're relying on croudsourced data (this is true of Thrudds, Slopey's tools, etc).<br />
<br />
All of the prices below are based on hundreds or thousands of sample values with anything that appears invalid stripped from the analysis. I'm calculating the lowest and average buy price of any good that has supply, and the highest and average sell price for any good (you can sell something even if the demand is zero, you'll just get an average terrible price for it).<br />
<br />
<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/p/commodity.html"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Take a look here for a rundown of the top ten trades by economy pair for every commodity, ordered from largest profit delta to smallest.</a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Painite : DELTA 36497 SELL 360 < 35768 > 36497</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Platinum: DELTA 19954 SELL 697 < 19706 > 19954</span><br />
<br />
You can't buy Platinum or Painite anywhere. They have high sell prices, so if you're mining, they are the best things to target. The average sell price is pretty close to the maximum, so you'll likely get a good deal at most stations.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
In general, <b>slave trading</b> is the highest profit! unfortunately, the supply is low - they just can't crank slaves out fast enough to make it worth chaining gangs of them inside a Type 9. This leaves you with the obvious candidates of <b>Palladium, Gold, Beryllium, Performance Enhancers, Consumer Tech, Progenitor Cells and Superconductors</b>. Looking familiar? You're probably used to trading these commodities already, either through your own trading routes or those suggested by other tools.<br />
<br />
You are not going to be able to pick the top two and hope to run them back and forth, however - because the economy of the systems and commodities comes into play, both in terms of what they care about (supply and demand balance) and how much they actually have to trade (supply and demand values). If we take Slaves out of the running for now, then it should be fairly obvious you can't trade Palladium one way and Gold the other - anywhere that sells Palladium at a good price will probably also be producing Gold at a good price.<br />
<br />
So, what you actually want to know is the <b>economy type </b>that sells the commodity for the lowest price, and the <b>economy type</b> that <b>buys </b>the commodity for the highest price.<br />
<br />
You can make a pretty good guess based on the infographic above. You can sell goods of just about any type in just about any station or outpost, but some economy pairs are much better than others, as the infographic indicates.<br />
<br />
However, not every system is created equal. Some systems have a primary economy - and some don't. Systems with huge populations are likely to have more production capacity and more demand. Many systems have secondary economy stations mixed in with their primary (often of a different faction) and some stations satisfy more than one economy type (with varying results on the prices due to internal supply and demand satisfaction).<br />
<br />
But, why guess? Let's just do the math! I've worked out the top pairings for every commodity type to validate the kind of routes you should be planning to take.<br />
<br />
You'll see in the table that there's a breakdown of the top ten (by <b>profit</b>) economy routes. You'll also see the <b>average supply</b> in the starting economy. A small supply number relative to another economy source means it's highly unlikely you'll find a starting system with a large amount of that commodity (and potentially it won't be there at all).<br />
<br />
I've also removed all the data for systems where the economy isn't obvious - this is a big proportion of the dataset and accounts for most of the outlier prices. You might be able to make slightly more if you expand your system search away from the obvious spots, but in general we're talking less than 5% difference on the best prices I've listed.<br />
<br />
Again, these prices change constantly. I'll be updating the list every week or so.<br />
<br />
<h3>
How much money can I make?</h3>
As you can see from my prices by economy list, the actual sell prices don't vary hugely between different economies - but the supply and demand of the economies varies enormously. As expected, you're best off buying commodities in the economies that provide the highest supply and selling in the systems that have the highest demand.<br />
<br />
Jump distances impact your time and profit, but fuel is a tiny cost against a large load (much less than 1% of your total profit even for a full tank) and 45 seconds per jump means a four or five jump trade route is likely cost effective if you can earn more on the trade. As an example, you can run a 10 minute route 6 times an hour, and a 12 minute route 5 times an hour. If you make 1.8K/t on the 10 minute run and 2.2K/t on the 12 minute run, you're going to make more profit on the slower run.<br />
<br />
The absolute maximum profit you can make on Palladium / Consumer tech is 3.5K per ton. That would be awesome, but in all the various routes I've plied, the best I've managed on these two is around 2.8K - the buy price is never as low as you want, and the sell price is never as high. If you're making 2.5K/t or more, you're on a good route - stick with it.<br />
<br />
With a <b>Type 6 </b>at full cargo (112) and a 10 minute 2.5K/t run, you're making <b>1.68 million per hour</b>.<br />
An <b>Asp</b> at full cargo (128) on the same run can squeeze <b>1.9 million</b>.<br />
A <b>Type 7</b> at full cargo (232) can make <b>3.5 million</b>. Hitting 10 minutes might be trickier and you're not going to be able to use outposts, so finding a 2.5K/t route will be a longer search.<br />
A <b>Type 9</b> at full cargo (532) can push <b>8 million</b> an hour.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Stop with the statistics, and give me some examples!</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
using the table linked above, all you need to do now is figure out how many systems you want to visit and make sure you link the economies. For example, an obvious high earner is:<br />
<br />
Palladium (Extraction to High Tech) with a max profit per ton of 1899<br />
Performance Enhancers (High Tech to Extraction) with a max profit per ton of 1621<br />
<br />
another, potentially less illegal, route would be:<br />
<br />
Palladium (Extraction to High Tech) with a max profit per ton of 1899<br />
Consumer Technology (High Tech to Extraction) with a max profit per ton of 1598<br />
<br />
If you want a three station route, and don't mind being a slave driver, then<br />
Imperial Slaves (Agriculture to Extraction) (1954)<br />
Palladium (Extraction to Industrial) (1915)<br />
Slaves (Industrial to Agriculture) (1866)<br />
<br />
would fit the bill nicely.<br />
<br />
The typical two jump trade loops will be:<br />
<br />
<b>Palladium -> Beryllium</b><br />
<b>Palladium -> Consumer Technology</b><br />
<b>Palladium -> Resonating Separators</b><br />
<br />
Switch Gold with Palladium for slightly lower profits.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>What should I avoid?</b></h3>
<b><br /></b>
Apart from Tobacco and Slaves, Agriculture systems sell hardly anything that will ramp your profit. You might find an extraction station in an Agriculture system that can hit you up with some Silver, Indium or Gallium. If you're looking for easy to find routes, I'd skip them.<br />
<br />
Industrial systems are also generally going to give you mid-profit items. If hauling Power Generators and Mineral Extractors is your thing, then throw an industrial stop in your loop but be prepared to take a hit to your profit per hour.<br />
<br />
Just like the real world, the big money is in illegal items (weapons, drugs, slaves), shiny metals and huge TVs.<br />
<br />
<h3>
How do I pick a starting place?</h3>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Use the galaxy map, filter by economy type for the starting economy of your first planned stop, and then ramp up the population. You'll start to find candidate stars. check the system map (buy it or fly there) and check out the stations to see if they have enough supply to satisfy your needs.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Once you've got a starting spot, repeat the process for each hop in your route. You can speed this up by, after docking at candidate stations, checking the "exports to" for systems that are already expecting to get that commodity. Sanity check it is of the economy type that matches your next purchase.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Or, if you're feeling lazy, look at Thrudds or use Slopey's tool (or any of the alternatives). If you're hauling huge amounts of cargo around, don't be at all surprised if the prices are not what you expect when you arrive (or tank as soon as someone else jumps on your route).<br />
<br />
You will mostly find that systems don't list the top candidates in their export list. There's two reasons for this - the first is that the supply is lower than another item (and you'll only see three items on the list). The second is that it's just not present. Because of this, you can't just rule systems out based on the "imports / exports" view in the system map. You can try and purchase trade data and then filter the map view to show the trade arrows, which will hopefully let you filter to exactly the commodity you want - if you see it flowing, great. If not, it might still be there but not in the supply you want, or it might be there but no-one is moving it.<br />
<br />
Trade routes tend to show AI trade just as much as player trade, and an existing flow does show the route is <b>possible</b> - but it doesn't show that it's very <b>profitable</b>. If there's a lot of trade on the route already, chances are the supply is high but the commodity will be well off the price extremes you're looking for - if there's lots of traders hauling a commodity then the station won't be motivated to sell at a discount or buy at a premium.<br />
<br />
Ultimately then, this means that the in-game tools are <b>not much use</b> for finding the best trade routes. You can't rely on the import/export panes, you can't rely on the trade route flow indicators and you can't rely on the system map to tell you what you need to know. <b>You are going to have to go visit stations yourself and write down the prices somewhere (</b>or take screenshots).<br />
<br />
I find this pretty frustrating - you might really enjoy it. It's all down to your playstyle, I guess. I'd definitely prefer FD to put in some sort of trade prices log for pilots in-game, so you could see what prices were like at the stations you previously visited (instead of having to capture them outside the game). We can hope they add this at some point.<br />
<br />
Using the in-station price list and the commodities profit spread data above, you can pretty quickly see if the buy or sell price is going to give you a good profit.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
How far should I travel?</h3>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Finding your starting system, I'd recommend pushing out of the core (but obviously not as far as the outer rim systems). You want somewhere that's a bit backwater but has a large set of populated systems in a fairly close range.<br />
<br />
For your jumps, don't be afraid to make a couple of hops - it's going to add less than a minute to each leg for every hop you make, and fuel costs are negligible these days.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<br />
<h3>
Tools of the trade</h3>
<br />
Thrudd's Trading Tool:<a href="http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/"> http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/</a><br />
Elite Dangerous Database : <a href="http://eddb.io/commodity">http://eddb.io/commodity</a><br />
MadDavo's price database : <a href="http://www.davek.com.au/td/">http://www.davek.com.au/td/</a><br />
Slopey's Best Profit Calculator : <a href="https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=76081">https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=76081</a><br />
EliteOCR : <a href="https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=68771">https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=68771</a><br />
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There's plenty more tools out there if you look - but I'd recommend learning how to do this in the game as much as possible - I'm certain Frontier Developments will make our lives easier in the long run.<br />
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<h3>
Wrapping up</h3>
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Thanks for reading along, I hope you've found this introduction to trading a useful resource. I'll be continuing to update it over the coming months (maybe even with some pictures and videos) but for now I'm heading out into the wide black yonder to see the sights.<br />
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<a href="http://needsmorepolish.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/fingerbobs-guide-to-exploration-in.html">If you're interested in Exploring, check out my explorer's guide here.</a><br />
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See you out there, Commanders!<br />
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Tim Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06910940384715330490noreply@blogger.com4