Tom's posterous http://tomwardill.posterous.com Most recent posts at Tom's posterous posterous.com Tue, 17 May 2011 04:34:11 -0700 Biking at Sneck Yate Bank http://tomwardill.posterous.com/biking-at-sneck-yate-bank http://tomwardill.posterous.com/biking-at-sneck-yate-bank Saturday, we went biking. For the first time, we went Mountain Biking, at somewhere other than a prepared trail centre.

This was something of a revelation, as it's the first time we've done any trails that weren't specifically built for biking. Turns out that that there's a lot of ups. And then some more ups. And then a bit more.

The route we chose was from the rather excellent North York Moors Mountain Biking by Tony Harker. (Buy it here http://www.amazon.co.uk/North-York-Moors-Mountain-Biking/dp/1906148082 No, really, do it's excellent).

The book has an accompanying CD (buy that too), that has handy printable PDFs of all the routes, including the directions and the maps. The one thing that's missing is a GPS track of the route.

So, we chose route '9'. Sneck Yate Bank. It lead to views like this:

P1040640

The route was very easy to follow, and the guides very clear. Some climbing, then a shortish section of singletrack downhill (that was a bit churned up by horses, but still perfectly ridable.)
On to some more up, then an awesome gentle descent on open fire road, stopping only to let the lambs get out the way.

The final result, looks a bit like this:

Google_earth_map

A great day out, and a great guide.

Attached is a GPS track of our ride, should you want some technological assistance or reassurance.

2011-05-14-10-31-11.gpx Download this file

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:02:00 -0700 Using Fabric from Celery in Django http://tomwardill.posterous.com/using-fabric-from-celery-in-django http://tomwardill.posterous.com/using-fabric-from-celery-in-django

Recently, I’ve been experimenting somewhat with Celery, Django and Fabric.

These fit really nicely together if you want stick a web interface on system management tasks, such as deploying some code.

There’s a couple of gotchas with the way Celery uses fork to run a task though, as it removes the environment that the Celery task is running in.

  1. RNG must be re-initialized after fork(). Hint: Try Random.atfork()

If you do this:

@task
def update():
    run('ls')

It’ll fail with the above error. The fix is to do what the error says:

from Crypto import Random

@task
def update():
    Random.atfork()
    run('ls')

This will initialise the Random Number Generator sufficiently for the paramiko ssh library that fabric is based on to connect.

  1. raw_input(“No hosts found. Please specify (single) host string for connection: ”)

You’re using fabric as an api, rather than using the fabric runner. This means the usual technique of doing:

from fabric.api import *

 env.hosts = ['192.168.0.1']

Won’t work, as there is no processing done on the env. The fix looks like this:

from fabric.api import *

@task
def update():
    Random.atfork()
    env.host_string = 'ubuntu@192.168.0.1'
    run('ls')

If you need to connect to multiple hosts, you’ll have to do your own flow control.

  1. disable_known_hosts

This is more of a tip, and not a brilliant one at that. If you’re doing a lot of work with pregenerated VMs (such as the cloud providers), then destroying a VM on an IP, then rebuilding it, will cause the host key to change. Fabric uses your local .ssh/known_hosts for it’s connections, so this will probably cause the connection to fail as the keys will not match your previous one.

from fabric.api import *

@task
def update():
    Random.atfork()
    env.host_string = 'ubuntu@192.168.0.1'
    env.disable_known_hosts = True
    run('ls')

disable_known_hosts will disable this behaviour, at the cost of some security, as you are no longer verifying that you are connecting to exactly the same machine. The current alternative seems to be that every time you rebuild a VM, you must remove it’s line from your known_hosts.

Each and every Celery task you use with Fabric, must set these variables, or it’ll fail. I’d recommend either inheriting your tasks, or creating a helper method to pop them all in, and call that at the start of your task.

Hope this helps someone.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Mon, 03 May 2010 12:41:17 -0700 Some more smoke art http://tomwardill.posterous.com/some-more-smoke-art http://tomwardill.posterous.com/some-more-smoke-art Had some free time today, and a sunny day to get some more light.
Decided to revisit some smoke photographs.

Pleasantly surprised to find that the new beta of Lightroom 3 can tether a 400D (despite the release notes saying it can't). Also some twiddling with Pixelmator, rather impressive program.

Got lots to experiment with, these are the first 4 off the press.

Smoke_1-053 Smoke_3-097 Smoke_3-133 Smoke_3-137
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:43:30 -0700 Gadget Show Live and Cannock Red Trail http://tomwardill.posterous.com/gadget-show-live-and-cannock-red-trail http://tomwardill.posterous.com/gadget-show-live-and-cannock-red-trail This weekend was the Gadget Show Live.
Lots of stalls and a live show. The stalls were fairly good, with some good discounts on stuff, and lots of stuff to play with. I got some more crazy shoes. The show was reasonably disappointing. Worth going too, but very little in the way of tech was discussed, and it seem to mostly be aimed at 10 year olds winning prizes. Although the flying penguins were rather cool.

Img_0836

Sunday was biking at Cannock Chase. 10.5 k, in 1:11. Not too shabby, and good fun. Much more technical trail than Sherwood Pines.

Img_0875 Map
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:51:02 -0700 Biking in the red. http://tomwardill.posterous.com/biking-in-the-red http://tomwardill.posterous.com/biking-in-the-red Today, we went to Sherwood Pines again.
We attacked the Red route for the first time, which turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable 15.5 km slog through some very, very muddy terrain.
Also, for the first time I got a decent GPS track of the event.

The Red is a decent trail, no huge climbs as the gradient of the terrain is fairly flat, but a good mix of up and down, and some 'swoosh'. Which today, mostly went 'Swoo-Splat'. Couple of jumps and dropoffs, which we mostly ran way from. Decent way to spend 3 hours.

Img_0778-2 Img_0778 Img_0780 Img_0782 Img_0787 Img_0795 Img_0799 Img_0800 Img_0802 Map
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Sat, 03 Apr 2010 09:41:01 -0700 Kittens meet the Outside. Take 2. http://tomwardill.posterous.com/kittens-meet-the-outside-take-2 http://tomwardill.posterous.com/kittens-meet-the-outside-take-2 In the ongoing quest to make sure the kittens can at least attempt to find their way home once they're properly released into the outside world, they have been out under close supervision again.
Mostly, there was a lot of panicking that they'd hid under cars, and were going to jump the fence.

No kittens escaped, and they were both successfully brought back in by the promise of feeding time.

More to come.

Img_0652 Img_0654 Img_0655-2 Img_0655 Img_0666 Img_0668 Img_0670 Img_0676 Img_0689 Img_0692 Img_0702-2 Img_0702 Img_0703 Img_0705 Img_0715 Img_0770 Img_0773
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:24:45 -0700 The kittens go Outside http://tomwardill.posterous.com/the-kittens-go-outside http://tomwardill.posterous.com/the-kittens-go-outside Today was the first day the kittens made a bid for freedom into the garden.
I had a camera, pictures were taken.

Img_0557 Img_0564 Img_0566 Img_0570 Img_0571 Img_0575 Img_0579 Img_0580 Img_0595 Img_0599 Img_0612 Img_0629-2 Img_0629
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:47:55 -0800 Enchanted Garden http://tomwardill.posterous.com/enchanted-garden http://tomwardill.posterous.com/enchanted-garden Halloween week/weekend, a local English Heritage maintained hall had an 'Enchanted Garden' at night.
Basically, lots of lights, a walk around the gardens and some pretty atmosphere.

The family went along, armed with cameras, and I took some photos. Some of them even came out okay.
I was rather impressed with the lights, they did some good work and it looked rather nice.

Img_0011 Img_0023-2 Img_0023 Img_0027 Img_0031 Img_0036 Img_0047 Img_9915 Img_9919 Img_9930-2 Img_9930 Img_9938 Img_9965 Img_9973 Img_9991 Img_9995
See the full gallery on Posterous

See attached.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:15:36 -0700 A Night Photo Walk http://tomwardill.posterous.com/a-night-photo-walk http://tomwardill.posterous.com/a-night-photo-walk My mother is doing a photography course, this week's theme is night
photography.
After a wander around in the freezing cold, and some Lightroom Editing,
I produced these...

Img_9245 Img_9245-5 Img_9250 Img_9262 Img_9270 Img_9275 Img_9280 Img_9289 Img_9291 Img_9293
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:45:36 -0700 WWPF 2009 http://tomwardill.posterous.com/wwpf-2009 http://tomwardill.posterous.com/wwpf-2009 And now, for something that very definitely is an annual tradition.
Charlie and myself headed up the big road that is the A1, the A66, lots
of weirdly numbered motorways, ending with the A82 into the magical
place of Fort William.

There is only one reason that I would undertake such an effort for a
weekend. Wet West Paddle Fest (2009 edition).
This means 2 days of dam released rivers, and my favourite river of all
time (so far).

No water on Friday unfortunately meant the Etive wasn't running, unless
you didn't like your boat, and your back.

Saturday, a blast down the Garry, and the discovery that the best parts
of the river are actually _after_ the usual get out.

And then onto the Morriston. I decided I didn't fancy the Lower (always
leave something for next time), but proceeded to run the Upper twice
with Pete and Joanne. Messy run the first time, styled it the second
time... until the last wave forced a swim out of a minor undercut.

Rather excellent photos taken by Charlie attached.

Img_9195 Img_9199 Img_9200 Img_9205 Img_9209 Img_9217 Img_9219 Img_9221 Img_9236 Img_9239
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:28:56 -0700 Harefield Slalom 2009 http://tomwardill.posterous.com/harefield-slalom-2009 http://tomwardill.posterous.com/harefield-slalom-2009 Can you call something an annual tradition after just 2 years?

 I have a feeling that the Harefield slalom could become one in the future.
Once again, we trekked down to London, to stay with Cat on the boat, to see if we can make Bryn jump into the canal, and to eat Hunter's Chicken in the pub.

 A very good weekend, with perfect weather (book Nicky to organise any weddings, outdoor sporting events or the Ashes.)

 A fun weekend was had by all, notables including Tom's first introduction to C2 paddling (conveniently, he's left handed... I like this idea) and a relaxed bbq with a hammock.

 Lots of pictures attached, I may have attempted to be arty with one or two of them. Um, yeah, not sure they came out....

 --t

Img_8427 Img_8430 Img_8431 Img_8432 Img_8438 Img_8446 Img_8452 Img_8459 Img_8480 Img_8487 Img_8488 Img_8489 Img_8495 Img_8507 Img_8508 Img_8510 Img_8523 Img_8533 Img_8534 Img_8537 Img_8543 Img_8552 Img_8557 Img_8565 Img_8570 Img_8572 Img_8595 Img_8598 Img_8600 Img_8613 Img_8637 Img_8659 Img_8661
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:52:51 -0700 Pickle Strikes Back http://tomwardill.posterous.com/pickle-strikes-back http://tomwardill.posterous.com/pickle-strikes-back So, a small puppy update, and a lot of photos.
So far he has learnt to:

    Bite ears
  Chew stuff
  Chase Balls
  Answer to his name
  Cages are not evil
  Fail to sleep through the night and demand playing with
  Chew lots
  Chew some more.

 Lots of chewing, lots of fun, and I heard him bark on Tuesday.

 Yay for puppies.

 And now, pictures:

Img_8264 Img_8270 Img_8280 Img_8284 Img_8290 Img_8294 Img_8295 Img_8302 Img_8305 Img_8316 Img_8326 Img_8333 Img_8338 Img_8345 Img_8354 Img_8360 Img_8364 Img_8371 Img_8374 Img_8380 Img_8397 Img_8405
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:45:13 -0700 The arrival of Pickle http://tomwardill.posterous.com/the-arrival-of-pickle http://tomwardill.posterous.com/the-arrival-of-pickle Look what my father got!

Img_0794 Img_0817 Img_0853 Img_0884 Img_0927 Img_0962 Img_1017 Img_1025 Img_1050 Img_1206
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:35:54 -0700 Isotoma go kiting http://tomwardill.posterous.com/isotoma-go-kiting http://tomwardill.posterous.com/isotoma-go-kiting After work today, we went to the racecourse.
This was postponed from friday after some horses had the imposition to actually use the racecourse for some form of overpriced chase or something.

 My first time out, lots of ouch after I hit the floor.

 Other than that, great fun!

Img_7966 Img_7967 Img_7968 Img_7973 Img_7984 Img_7986
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:01:41 -0700 Van Phase 2 http://tomwardill.posterous.com/van-phase-2 http://tomwardill.posterous.com/van-phase-2 After a lot more work by my father, and some wood, and carpentry related activites, I have cupboards in my van.
I also have a small camping stove (though a permanent one, and propane, so actually decent to cook on), and curtains and an overhead storage net.

 It's just about complete, just some electrics left to fit with any luck.

Img_7951 Img_7952 Img_7953 Img_7954 Img_7955 Img_7956 Img_7957 Img_7958 Img_7959 Img_7960 Img_7961 Img_7962 Img_7963 Img_7964 Img_7965
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:25:10 -0700 Fan based office entertainment http://tomwardill.posterous.com/fan-based-office-entertainment http://tomwardill.posterous.com/fan-based-office-entertainment
20090701002.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Of special note, the twine fabricated from a carrier bag and pure win.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:50:37 -0700 Chocolate Cake http://tomwardill.posterous.com/chocolate-cake http://tomwardill.posterous.com/chocolate-cake Last night, I made chocolate cake.
Today, it was eaten at work.

 Good cake.

Chocolate_cake Chocolate_cake_slice
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:40:49 -0700 Fruit Cake http://tomwardill.posterous.com/fruit-cake http://tomwardill.posterous.com/fruit-cake
Fruit_cake_slice

While awaiting Charlie to arrive on Friday due to traffic, I decided to
make Cake.
After some running around by my father to bring me a cake tin.
 
I made this: http://forkd.com/recipe/simple-fruit-cake-1369
 
Attached is a photo of a slice of said cake before people at work ate
it.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:18:44 -0700 Charlie's Course with FlowFree http://tomwardill.posterous.com/charlies-course-with-flowfree http://tomwardill.posterous.com/charlies-course-with-flowfree At the weekend, Charlie did a couple of Ladies specific White Water skills and confidence courses, run by the excellent Lowri Davies of www.flowfree.co.uk .
I went along with a camera, got some photos in and got some faffing around in playboats in.

 There's a lot of photos attached to this, testing posterous and flickr....

Img_7941 Img_7876 Img_7874 Img_7868 Img_7864 Img_7857 Img_7850 Img_7818 Img_7812 Img_7804 Img_7804-2 Img_7798 Img_7885 Img_7886 Img_7895 Img_7937 Img_7935 Img_7931 Img_7922 Img_7922-2 Img_7921 Img_7918 Img_7914 Img_7913 Img_7902 Img_7901 Img_7826
See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:27:12 -0700 There's nothing quite like... http://tomwardill.posterous.com/theres-nothing-quite-like http://tomwardill.posterous.com/theres-nothing-quite-like
20090613063

A day spent messing about in boats. In the sun. And real coffee to finish.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/915762/avatar.jpg http://posterous.com/users/168ADFR4k1P Tom Wardill tomwardill Tom Wardill