Rosie the Red Robot

WARNING: We must be fast approaching the giggly, festive season. Or it's simply the effects of the "grape juice for grown-ups" kicking in. Whichever the reason, there is an uncustomary sprinkling of sentimentality and holiday cheer seasoning this post. (ANOTHER) WARNING: The names Santa Claus / Father Christmas / Saint Nicholas / Abominable Snowman are all being used interchangeably throughout this post to describe the identical, elusive character that symbolises the spirit of Christmas.  We apologise if you are offended by this carelessness generalisation. We're not that sorry, really. Let's reflect (seriously) for a moment.  If in the often chaotic run up to Christmas, finding time to dabble in our next project (or the spare change required to fund it) appear high up in our list of festive worries, we can consider ourselves extremely fortunate.  What a luxury it is to be encountering completely trivial dilemmas, such as whether we can refill...

You know that feeling, right? A big 2 day hike that we have planned for some time has somehow crept up on us. And it turns out it's actually happening this very weekend. Oops. Are we prepared? Are our muddy boots (just about) dry from our last outdoor adventure?  Do we have sufficiently waterproof gear to counter the inevitably atrocious UK weather? And most importantly, is that Raspberry Pi we converted into a GPS logger really ready for service? Yes, we remember the age old wisdom.  That a weekend away in the wilderness is an opportunity to get away from all the modern amenities that we have grown so dependent on. And a chance to appreciate mother nature in all its beauty and glory. But a titchy, single-board computer - named partly after a fruit - doesn't count as real technology, right? After all, it's apparently made not too far in South Wales from our proving ground, so it could almost be described as a respectful homage (albeit a completely unintende...