Projects

For the past 5 years the Audio-Technica ATH-M20X headphones have been my workhorse for all audio when sat at my desk. Great sound, noise isolation and comfort at a very reasonable price. However, the cord that comes with them is very long and not removable, unlike the slightly more expensive versions produced by Audio-Technica. Also, I fancied having a pair of bluetooth headphones. My solution is to open up my headphones, and replace the cable with a very short jack. This can be extended for normal use, or plugged into a bluetooth adapter with a very short cable.

It is common for the Guardian cryptic crossword to include a theme, sometimes clearly referred to, sometimes waiting to be discovered as the answers are filled in. For good examples see Maskarade. When I decided I wanted to set some themed crosswords I didn’t fancy spending ages filling out a grid with theme words by hand, let alone checking that once a theme word was in place, the rest of the grid could still be filled. As I couldn’t find a program to achieve this goal I wrote one.

ALTA is a device for freeze/thaw cycling samples. In my case, usually water and a suspension of K-feldspar, a mineral dust which is an efficient ice nucleator. It is a cheap and simple device to make, and requires no human interaction once it has been set going, making it an ideal device for ice nucleation experiments.