David Findlay

a man, a plan, a cake: nirvana

Wand

My wife has been reading the Harry Potter books to our kids. So, naturally, my son wanted the $30 crappy plastic officially licensed wand when he saw it in the book store.

Rather than buy it, I made him one from a stick that he picked out in the yard:

Carter & Wand

Construction

I dremeled a channel to run the wires from an LED at its tip to a switch and power at the base. Initially I used a 3V coin cell because it was light and not bulky. Then I remembered I had a pager motor lying around, so I added that into the mix at my son’s request. Unfortunately the coin cell wasn’t able to drive the LED and the pager motor so I switched to a 9V battery instead. (Also, I couldn’t find the coin cell holders that I know are around here somewhere…)

The 9V is a bit bulky but I think we’ll be able to fashion a housing that isn’t too obtrusive.

Power Closeup

Books

I couple of friends asked me on twitter what iOS development books I’d recommend, based on my experience building Notesy.

I grabbed a shot of the books I still had in my bedside table and sent them along with a few comments. But digging them out made me realize just how many technical books I’d managed to cram into that little Ikea cuboid.

Here’s them all hanging out on our bed:

Books!

— and that’s not counting the multiple years’ of Wood magazine I also have in there. I think it’s safe to say I’m a geek.

Pittsburgh Glass Center ||

After enjoying ourselves at the Christmas-themed “Make It Now” event at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, we knew we had to go back. They put on another event for Martin Luther King day, and this time Carter and Mary came too. All three of them made fused glass tiles:


Make It Now Glass

That’s Cameron’s tree on the left, Mary’s design in the center and Carter’s kitty-cat on the right. Mary preferred hers prior to it fusing, as she’d used a lot of zig-zag pieces of glass. I think my favourite is Carter’s cat.