Memory management (by alaric)

A lot of the core infrastructure in a computer system - such as memory management - is somewhat overlooked for opportunities to improve things, because a vicious circle of conservatism sets in: we tune memory manages for systems that work like POSIX, and then stick with systems that work like POSIX since the memory management is so well-tuned...

So I set myself the task of designing, from scratch, an approach to memory management that's appropriate to an event-driven system based around a purely functional language with mutation expressed via unique typing.

It's far from complete, but here's a brain dump:

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Guinea Pigs! (by sarah)

Yes I'm still going on about our visit to Yorkshire!

Ulrike has four guinea pigs and they are so cute - they make little fepping noises that sound like an underwater bubble 🙂

Jean loves them as at her pre-school they have guinea pigs and rabbits!

I took and had taken lots of pics of the piggies! But somehow only managed to capture two of them! They have a fantastic cage set-up too that I ment to photo but somehow didn't :/

This one I rotated the wronge way!

I can only remember two of their names - Trillion and Milka! Ulrike did tell us lots of things about them such as they have bauld spots behind their ears and naming of types due to colouration but I unfortunatly can't remeber much of it.

When energy levels are better and we have the ducks - I think we might get some guinea pigs but not right now - I have enough trouble remembering to feed the puss-mogs!

Alaric got a bit annoyed at how long we took to leave becuase of the guinea pigs - I didn't know weather to be sympathetic or laugh when he got narky about it :/

The workshop’s getting there (by alaric)

My good friend and colleague Andy came over to stay for a while, which meant I had 'entertaining a guest' as an excuse to do some of the fun stuff I've wanted to do for ages.

So we finished making the welding bench! I'd made the top and gotten part way through cutting the legs to length, so we finished cutting them and welded them in place, then welded extra flat strips around the bottom to make it reasonably rigid. It's all just tack welds, and it'll almost certainly need some diagonal struts added, but it stands upright and is surprisingly sturdy; I'm going to experiment with it a bit to see just how many more struts it needs. I'd also like to drill holes so I can mount my vice on it, too.

Then we cleared a space and moved my electronics workbench down into the workshop! This is great news, as it clears up space in the office (albeit revealing the piles of junk that were lurking beneath the bench), means all my tools are in one place (which is most convenient, as things were always in the wrong places), and creates more storage space in the little garage, meaning less stuff on the floor.

I've since reincarnated my power distribution rail, which I had when we lived in Ealing, but haven't used since; the idea being that it'd be good to do my electronics experiments on the end of a dedicated RCD so I don't trip the one in the house. It also splits the output into four circuits, each with a six amp circuit breaker (the smallest I could obtain easily).

I still need to get rid of a lot of waste cardboard that's sitting around, and we're still looking after Seth's motorbike, and there's still junk to be sorted - many things need to be elsewhere; the little garage isn't a place to store things we only use a few times a year, as we have the Big Yellow for that!

Although the lighting's not really good enough when I'm explaining the power rail, here's a quick video tour:

For my next trick, I'll stop procrastinating by building infrastructure, and get on with actually making myself a digital watch with an embedded ARM processor and colour dot-matrix LCD. Watch this space.

Beltane Fun and a Little Sun! (by sarah)

Sunday saw us awaking at Ulrike's and Mikes in deepest darkest Yorkshire - we were upstairs in the 'computer workshop' a.k.a the spare room and another friend Rob was downstairs in the lounge on a pump up!

Ulrike like me loves dressing up for events and she had found a cool looking event to light a Beltane Fire in the three Henges at Thornborough.

I had bought along my new floaty skirt and fluffy big collored jumper from a charity shop and Alaric had his black velvet cloak (I had ummed and ahhed about weather to bring that on or the rugged out doors one he inherited from Lionel but as Helium had been sleeping on the other on I thought the velvet on best - plus its more dressy).

For Jeany I packed her Gizel Dress - Ulrike had lent us the film Enchanted where the princess makes her dresses from the curtains - Jean wanted to be Gizel so mum made her a dress from an old set of curtians :/

I was a bit worried that our outfits weren't that good as Al only had his cloak but then Ulrike rescued us by having a buetiful dress and headdress I could wear and a tunic for Alaric.

She herself had a fantastic flowey dress with a green braided belt that came down to a point and a fresh flower garland in her hair.

My dress was a bit long but made me look like an elfan princess I feel and maybe be replacing my wedding profile pic once reduce file size etc!

Alaric and Mike were in the tunics from Mike and Ulrike's wedding (this was the one that I still haven't put the photos from the phone up from but was one we catastrophically broke drown coming home from (well one of the weddings we catastrophically broke down on the way home from!)).

Alaric looks so good in his outfit too!

Rob on the other hand had bought a kilt - which was very complicated to put on! He had a lovely broach and a sporen too 🙂

Once we were ready we made our packed lunches and headed out

• got lost and then arrived (after asking people with brightly coloured guitars where we needed to go) just in time to see the fire lit!

It was very sparkly 🙂

It was actually a lovely sunny day in patches but also very windy resulting in Jean hiding underneith Daddy's cloths and us all huddled on the picnic blankets! Later we were huddled underneith the blankets!

I don't think that you can actually tell there that Jean isn't Ulrike's!

There was a play and things but unfortunatly we had arrived late and there was a big crowd and we couldn't see anything - also as a group I think we were a bit shy and so remained right on the edge for most of it. But there were some stalls we went around including a catering tent where they had made all the flap jack in the field that morning! Which was actually very very cool 🙂 They also used real mugs which I approve off from a waste point of view.

We found a cute knitted princess mouse for Jean and fiary hair braids for me - my friend Taz had these at university and I always wanted some but at the time they where far too expensive!

We joined the circle just in time to see the hand fastings (a wedding ceromony - there was a priest there who mentioned a goddess of the henges though I can't remember what he called her). They then closed the event by everyone holding hands in a large circle and facing the fore winds.

We were then cheeky and took a free calander with the wheel of seasons on it!

Ulrike looked so good in her woollen cap and picnic basket I just had to point out this photo seperatly!

I found it very interesting and me and Ulrike went around talking to the stall holders - by this point the boys had mutinied saying they were cold and gone and hunddled in the car!

We found an archeologist to talk to who has a side line in pottery including jewellery and I found a fairy door to put in Jean's fairy garden - it's quiet big and was £3 covered in purple glitter - the man said it was outside safe - we shall see!

There were some cool masks for sale and hair garlands.

There was also a tent were everybody was collecting with instriments which looked fun but alas and alack the boys decreed it was too cold and home time 🙁

To be fair Alaric was very sad as I had packed his nice indoor cloak and it blew up onto the barbed wire and now has a rip in it 🙁 I spent most of the time wearing it!

Also it started hailing just after we left! So maybe they were right.

The festival made me a bit home sick and I was sad that I didn't see any actual morris men (my dad will disown me for saying that as he thinks they are silly and always groans when I make him watch them) - Rainham Essex tends to have a Mayfair around the church in the middle of the road with stalls, and plays and music and hot dogs and morris men dancing and a man dressed as a sort of green stag and the church has hot drinks for everyone - the roads are closed and it really alot of fun! The last I went too was when I was pregnant and I bought some lavander knitted booties (I thought well if its a boy they haven't got any flowers on them and he'll be too young to notice!).

Apparently there are Morris men that visit the village but as we don't go to the pub we never get to see them :/

Still here are more pics of us looking all medievally and stuff!

I ment to get more pics of the boys but somehow didn't 🙁 I remember asking them to line up but assume something sistracted us!

When we got back I decided the fluffy jumper was going to be worn anyway 🙂 as I'd lugged it all the way from Gloucestershire!

The rip in Alarics cloak 🙁

The silver headdress was a suprize - I expected it to hurt but it didn't! And I wore it all day! I think this style of clothing suits me in a way nothing modern ever will - ho hum!

To Yorkshire and Beyond! (by sarah)

This weekend me, Alaric and Jean headed down to Yorkshire for a fun packed weekend - I was a bit worried we weren't going to make it due to my energy levels and stuff but we did and I;m so glad we did.

We started out late (as always), things had gotten pushed back to Saturday for leaving instead of Friday night due to Al's work commitments and then he was late and I hadn't finished packing and I had to take photos of family friend and Barbara who was visiting and on and on.... and then we were off!

And then we were back again much to Barbara and Maggi's amusement - Al had put Jean in the car without her shoes on - he assumed I'd packed them. Just as well we had to return though as I'd left Jean's bed bear and rainbow blanket behind not to mention her coat!

And we were off again, with me navigating, Al driving and Jean chatting away.

We stopped at a services for lunch and a big stretch - there where some cool cars in the parking lot, sort of collectors items - low old and new sports/racing type cars. Jean announced they were squashed cars and we upset Daddy by going to see them and photograph them! They were driving out as we were leaving and waved to Jean 🙂

Jean also had a fun time on the toys at the services and it was odd but it really was fun and part of the holiday!

Though Bed Bear a.k.a Yellow Bear decided that as Jean was not playing with him and she'd dragged him out of the van anyway he would drink her juice!

We arrived at about 6 o'clock at Mike and Ulrike's house which is lovely with gnomes in the garden, fairies and dragons in the house and a lovely easter wreath on the door!

We went shopping for food - including stuff for packed lunches the next day and Alaric cooked us a fantastic pasta bake - with the table all laid out nicely - with candles and flowers too!

Over the weekend there was a lot of larking about including a pillow fight between Ulrike and Jean 🙂

Me shoeing Alaric out with a broom which he then ended up rolling on the floor with!

Lots of film watching resulting in sleepy Mikes trying to crawl behind Ulrike's and sleeping!

Mike and Ulrike got out their musical instruments and had a little practice with them - Ulrike spent alot of time on Saturday looking for a tutor for her drum but no luck so far :/

Ulrike also had Jean wanting to stay with her - this might have something to do with the fact she cuts the fruit all up in exciting mannars for Jeany.

Or that she gave JEan a pink plush armchair jewellery box and a fairy ridding a horse (more on that later!). Or just becuase she's fun - Jean was very annoyed with us for leaving and wanted to stay there forever - I think the presance of Guenea Pigs probably helped with that one! (more on them later too!).

Ulrike also gave me DVD and two (well actually three but two are together) Pocket dragons which Jean has labeled Mummy, Jean Bean and Daddy - Daddy's the one with the sword!

Saturday we went to a May/Beltine celebration - but more on that later!

Alaric got upset with me delaying our departure today by stopping to photo the piggies but it had to be done! Unfortunatly a) we had woken up late - probably something to do with the fact we'd stayed up late chating and then had a Jeany climbing on us all through the night and b) the traffic was horrible on the way home which sucked but it did mean that I spotted a Local Traffic Only sign which I thought was funny!

Alaric recons we have them around here too but I've never seen one!

The 'holiday' continued for the journey home especially when Jean had her lunch of yogurt with oats, raisins and honey at the services - they never have little spoons and she was very sad she wouldn't be able to get all the yogurt out so I showed her she could us the other end of the spoon - unfortunatly being three she decided that she should alternate which end of the spoon she used!