Neil Moore's page

Cluedo visual checklist

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 13:22:16 +0000

Children who cannot read yet may want to play Cluedo. Here is a visual checklist for the game that has the name and picture of each item on the checklist.

PDF

Delayed mail in Gmail

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:22:16 +0000

I have implemented a productivity hack so that my email is only delivered twice a day, once between 8 and 9am, and later between 5 and 6. That way I don’t check it when I wake up and I don’t check it during the day. It’s more like the experience when you get home and the postman has been and you can look at all your mail together.

I have managed to completely eliminate compulsive checking of emails. I know there will be nothing new there most of the time.

I use Gmail as a mail client. The way that I have achieved this is:

To archive all incoming email, but apply a tag calling “snoozing”. That means it doesn’t show in my Inbox.
To apply label “snoozing” to all sent email. That means it appears in my inbox later on, and I can decide if it needs a follow up.
To write a “Google Apps Script” program that moves all “snoozing” tagged emails to the Inbox and removes the “snoozing” tag. It runs at 8-9am and 5-6pm.

Implementation

The incoming filter is:

Matches: larger:1
Do this: Skip Inbox, Apply label "snoozing"

i.e. it matches all emails whose size is 1 byte or more, and it does “Skip the inbox” and “Apply label snoozing”.

The outgoing filter is:

Matches: from:me
Do this: Apply label "snoozing"

i.e. it just applies the label to emails from me.

The Google Apps Script is created at https://script.google.com/home/.

Create a new project and enter the following code:

function myFunction() {
  GmailApp.moveThreadsToInbox(GmailApp.search('label:snoozing'));
  var label = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName("snoozing");
  var threadArray = GmailApp.getInboxThreads();
  for (var i=0; i< threadArray.length; i++) {
    threadArray[i].removeLabel(label);
  }
}

Add a “Service” for Gmail API.

Then go to “Triggers” and choose time based triggers for times that will suit you.

Save it.

Do some test runs.

St Andrews EPC prices

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 13:22:16 +0000

I phoned every surveyor I could find in St Andrews and asked them for the price of an EPC certificate.

This data is obviously only accurate at the time of writing.

standrewspropertycentre - £120 incl VAT
Allied Surveyors Scotland - £132 incl VAT
Shepherd Chartered Surveyors - £125 incl VAT
Bradburne Chartered Surveyors - £126 incl VAT

I also found openrent.co.uk that charged £69 incl VAT.

Their service was excellent and they also offer other fixed prices landlord services like gas safety, etc.

Hopefully somebody will be searching for the price of an EPC in St Andrews at some point and they will realise that it’s not worth calling the surveyors.

Guitar

Sun, 17 May 2020 13:22:16 +0000

Over the last couple of months, I have made an electric guitar for the first time. Actually most of those two months I wasn’t doing anything apart from waiting for parts to arrive. I was mostly buying parts from China and they were all held up by Covid-19 delays.

The guitar was based on a Fender Telecaster design, since plans and parts are fairly easy to get hold of and since I like the look of it. It would have been simple enough to have changed the shape of the body and otherwise used the same hardware and general layout, but I just did an exact copy.

Step 1: Buy components from AliExpress

The price of components purchased in the UK can really add up. However they take ages to come, so do this step first probably at least 6 weeks before you want to finish the build. I picked up all the basic components there:

replacement neck for Stratocaster (compatible with Telecaster, main difference is the shape of the headstock),
input jack
bridge
prewired control plate
string tree
machine heads
neck plate
scratch plate
string ferrules
strap pegs
strap

You can build your own neck, but it requires specialised tools and techniques so I skipped that so that I could get a good result. Maybe try that another time.

Step 2: Body

Body wood

I bought the wood for the body from a brilliant wood shop in Glasgow, Reid Timber. As far as I know there is nowhere like this shop or around Edinburgh. It is near Celtic Park so I combined a home game (I didn’t know at the time it would be the last one of the season) with a visit to the shop. The shopkeeper doesn’t necessarily recommend visiting the shop for guitar wood, most of which is not on display, but I wanted to see the different types of possible wood. For example, I don’t really know what “swamp ash” or “sapele” looks like. On the day they had sapele and I think walnut on display. The walnut was much more expensive and I think I read it is hard to work with normal tools, so I got the Sapele at £35 (I think). It was a single piece. Not sure if that is a great wood or not, but certainly many guitar makers are using that and it looks nice. The body blank was surprisingly cheap I thought, taking into account the quality.

The shop in general is fantastic, I have never seen anything like this range of wood anywhere. I will definitely be making all my future wood projects using wood from this shop.

I think that is definitely good value compared to other suppliers like guitarbuild.co.uk where a mahogany 2 piece blank is £77 whereas I got a 1 piece for less than half that.

You can also buy pre-cut guitar bodies with the cavities already made for the electronics and component holes drilled. I wanted to be able to say I built this guitar, rather than assembled it, so that was not for me. Also it would substantially increase the cost; a premade mahogany Telecaster body would be around £180. However if you don’t have tools like a jigsaw, router, files, drill, etc. then it would definitely be cost effective to go pre-made, since those tools could easily cost £250 to buy.

To figure out where to cut, I used plans from Electric Herald specifically this plan. I have backed up the plans here in case they disappear from the internet.

If you have a large format printer then you could print the template out at 1:1, cut round it and then draw round it onto the wood. I don’t so I sellotaped big paper to a big monitor and traced it with a pencil at 100% scale. Then I cut it out and traced round it onto the piece of wood (including marking the positions of cavities to make with the router).

Body marked out for cutting

I cut round it with a jigsaw. To cut the body, professional guitar makers will use a router and a template. I didn’t buy a template and I didn’t make one because I am not sure I’ll make a second guitar. I had to buy special Bosch Hardwood jigsaw blades, after realised the wood was too thick and hard for the blade I already had.

Eventually I had a nice body shape which I filed to get it roughly right and with rounded edges.

Next I routed out the holes for the pickups and control plate. It needs to be quite accurate because it needs to be deep enough to take the parts but not so deep you accidentally make a hole in the back.

Body marked out for cutting

This is when I made a frustrating mistake drilling the holes for the strings to go through. I drilled them squint meaning the string ferrules on the back don’t line up. But it is only a cosmetic issue, the strings go through the holes fine and arrive at the bridge as they should.

Step 3: Neck

I was aware from the very beginning that fitting the neck was the difficult part and that was where I could potentially make a catastrophic mistake. If you put it on squint then it affects ergonomics. If it is too deep into the body, then the strings will be too far off the fretboard. If it’s too far off the body then the strings will be pressed on the the fretboard. If it’s too close to the bridge or too far away then the guitar will be out of tune. There is a little bit of tolerance because the bridge is adjustable, but it’s only a few millimetres in each direction.

So the next thing to do was the route the neck pocket. I cut it with extreme trepidation, but it eventually fitted and looked straight.

I attached the bridge, put on the machine heads and a single string… and to my delight I could play a tune on one string! I even put the rest of the strings on and played it a bit, I was very happy at this point because I had assumed that this would require all types of heroics with a chisel to get it to fit and that I might have to put matchsticks in to get it to work.

Neck in place

Machine heads

Step 4: Finish

Then lots of sanding. I started at 100 grit and eventually stopped at 400 grit.

There were a LOT of options for finish, see Manchester Guitar Tech for lots of great detailed blog posts with advice on finish. At least:

Just oil
Laquer (various kinds)
Stain plus laquer
Opaque self-coloured laquer

I didn’t stain it because I wasn’t sure how stain would interact with the reddish wood. I also didn’t want to cover up the wood grain. I finally went with first applying sanding sealer followed by laquer, both from a spray can. I think using a spray can was a good move because it make it easier to avoid lumpy bits of varnish. The stuff I got was from Chestnut Products, much cheaper direct from the company than on Amazon Prime (remember to check direct with the manufacturer or shop around on the internet, whenever you’re purchasing!)

Before finish

After finish

Step 5: Hardware and pickups

I got a pre-wired control plate, I felt that my electronics knowledge was no up to picking all these components individually. A control plate consists of a volume control, tone control and “3 way” switch.

I was very confused by the switch, because it seemed to have 5 positions. Eventually I found this diagram

at this page.

That diagram exactly describes the wiring required. I spent half an hour using a multimeter to verify what would happen with the switch in various positions.

My wiring and soldering was completely shoddy, it took all morning but eventually I got it to work. I am not going to recommend any resources on soldering, because I can’t tell which ones were good and which are bad.

Electronics half done

Costs

To put together a guitar using parts from a guitar supplier would be much more expensive, albeit I splurged on the pickups. I could have bought a Chinese off-brand and it probably would have sounded similar to my untrained ear.

Item	Cost	Notes
Strap	£9.69	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000234714181.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
Output jack	£2.60	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-High-Quality-Metal-Silver-6-35mm-1-4-Jack-Plug-Socket-Output-Plate-For-Electric/32801316568.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
String ferrules	£1.37	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/6pcs-Electric-Guitar-Bridge-Guitar-String-Mounting-Ferrules-Bushing-string-retainer-Balck-Gold-Chrome/4000617361684.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
Output jack	£2.60	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-High-Quality-Metal-Silver-6-35mm-1-4-Jack-Plug-Socket-Output-Plate-For-Electric/32801316568.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
String tree	£0.93	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-set-3-colors-Electric-Guitar-Strings-Retainer-Metal-String-Tree-Guide-Retainer-for-Guitar-Bass/33008743797.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
String ferrules	£1.37	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/6pcs-Electric-Guitar-Bridge-Guitar-String-Mounting-Ferrules-Bushing-string-retainer-Balck-Gold-Chrome/4000617361684.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
Bridge and prewired control plate	£23.50	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/FLEOR-6-String-Electric-Guitar-Tremolo-Bridge-Tele-Pre-wired-Control-Plate-Set-Tele-Prewired-Control/32882668300.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
Strap pegs	£0.71	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2Pcs-Guitar-Strap-Lock-Locking-Pegs-Pin-Metal-End-Strap-Button-for-Acoustic-Classical-Electric-Bass/1000005709791.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
Machine heads	£6.43	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/6-in-Line-Sealed-Guitar-Tuners-2-Pin-Key-Tuning-Pegs-Keys-Machine-Heads-Set-for/32998818890.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5e554c4doGQo2M
Pick guard	£2.74	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-Ply-Tele-Style-Electric-Guitar-Pick-Guard-Scratch-Plate-Fit-Telecaster-Black-high-quality-Guitar/32950432025.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dzFBfO6
Neck plate	£2.51	https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Chrome-Electric-Guitar-Neck-Plate-Neck-Plate-Fix-Tele-TL-Electric-Guitar-Neck-Joint-Board/4000403151929.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dzFBfO6
Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pickups	£159.95	http://www.hotroxuk.com/seymour-duncan-hot-rails-for-tele-matched-set-sthr-1.html
Maple Neck	£39.84	https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254315249789
Sanding sealer and lacquer	£20.70	http://chestnutproducts.co.uk/
TOTAL	£274.94

Let’s not talk about the new tools I bought because that would make the price seem a bit ridiculous. I had to get a new drill/driver and soldering kit.

Conclusion

This has been a fantastic hobby for the last couple of months. I think I’ve made something that will always be special to me. I am very happy with it and it plays just as well as my Epiphone Les Paul. If anything it is a bit too similar, because with twin humbuckers it really sounds quite similar. Maybe next time I would make something totally different, e.g. a more standard single coil twangy Telecaster or a out and out metal guitar with pointy edges and active pickups.

Finished guitar

Ukulele

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 13:22:16 +0000

I got a Ukulele kit from Ali Express. Probably not any cheaper than an assembled one, but I felt like putting it together myself.

All parts

However it came with no instructions. Not even to say what kind it was, because it turns out there are several types of ukulele! It didn’t say what positions to stick things either, but that is crucial because it would affect the intonation of the ukulele if the positions were not quite right.

I figured out it was a “standard” or “soprano” ukulele, since it was about 53cm long (see wikipedia).

Since the parts came unfinished, I should have begun by painting or varnishing the guitar. I didn’t do that because I wasn’t planning on any decoration. I didn’t want to encourage Katie to start painting my own guitar, avoiding that getting damaged was part of the point of getting the ukulele.

First of all glue the body and neck together. There should be only one way to attach it.

Body and neck glued together

Second glue the fretboard onto the neck. It should be easy to figure out the position, because the neck and fretboard surfaces match. Just slide the fretboard until it fits and glue it.

Neck and fretboard glued together

Third, stick the nut immediately at the top of the fretboard.

Stick the nut on it!

Fourth, install the tuning keys. This is a bit more complicated, but the holes are pre-drilled so just insert into the holes, screw into place and then glue the caps over the pegs.

Tuning keys front
Tuning keys rear

Sixth, glue the bridge into position. This one is difficult, it took me a while to figure out what to do. It is located below the bottom of the fretboard, and needs to be put on straight, i.e. exactly perpendicular to the main axis of symmetry of the guitar. But how far down? This was what took me a while. What I eventually read somewhere is that the 12th fret is exactly halfway down the string. You can verify this on a guitar or ukulele because you can achieve a harmonic at that position. So measure the distance from the nut to the 12th fret, then draw a line that distance from the 12th fret. It will be somewhat below the sound hole.

Bridge

Seventh, another tricky stage. How to attach the strings. For this stage it would be too difficult to explain using words, so here is a link to a video I found useful. It is by Ken Cameron from Hiloguitars. He seems to have been born Scottish, but has picked up a American accent. Visit the youtube here to learn how to string it. Before starting to attach them, check out the following step though!

String attachment at bridge
String attachment at nut

Eighth, in what order to attach the string? The strings in my kit came completely unlabelled, I imagine that is not the case if you buy a set of strings from a shop. Likely each string would come in an envelope with . I could see that they were each a different thickness. Again it took a while to find out what string thicknesses will be. The standard tuning is G4 C4 E4 A4. That means G is the the top string while playing or leftmost string with the ukulele pointing upwards. I eventually found thicknesses of the individual strings on a message board post. This post stated that the thicknesses of the strings as as follows in inches: G = .026, C = .037, E = .030, A = .024. In other words in increasing order of thickness we have the A string, G string, E string and then C string.

String thicknesses

If you get the kit then I hope yours comes with instructions, but if not the above should get you fairly close.

Fergus Samuel Moore

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 13:22:16 +0000

Here is a picture and video of our new baby boy Fergus Samuel Moore.

Photo with Toucan

Video montage

This year - 2017

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 13:22:16 +0000

Most of 2018 is gone but here’s a montage of photos from last year.

Montage

Citroen C4 Picasso software and map updates

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 13:22:16 +0000

I shouldn’t have to write this but I thought it may be handy to someone. I had a terrible time trying to figure out how to update the software on our 2016 Citroen C4 Picasso so I thought I’d write a guide how to get them. Hoping somebody will find this through google and save themselves some time.

You get a few years of free map updates with this car and also software updates are available.

To get the updates do the following

Go to My Citroen UK.
Create a new account.
Click on My Car.
Add a vehicle using the VIN (vehicle identifier number).
Once the vehicle is added hover over “Citroen Shop” at the top, then click on “Citroen Connect Nav”.
You end up on this page.
Download the instructions, map updates and software updates.
Follow the instructions (these are complex as well, but the instructions are clear unlike finding the files themselves - see below).

Edit: if the instructions above don’t give you the files, try this link: https://github.com/ludwig-v/psa-nac-firmware-reverse-engineering

This page in french is handy. This page in English and this page also look handy!

The instructions are here.

The map file is called PSA_map-eur_7.0.0-NAC_EUR_WAVE2.tar

The software file is called PSA_ovip-int-firmware-version_21-06-47-34_NAC-r0_NAC_EUR_WAVE2.tar. It is version Version V.21.06.47.34_NAC-r0.

For context, the reason I decided to make this page was the very confusing instructions on Citroen’s website. Hopefully somebody from Citroen will solve this usability problem. The steps I went through to try to find the maps was roughly:

Go to Citroen’s UK website
Find the FAQ about map updates
It sends me to Citroen navigation.
I make an account there.
I log into my account there.
I register my car there.
I go to the “Find Product” page but it tries to charge me for the maps.
I go back to the homepage and click on my car “Citroen C4 Picasso”.
I click on connect nav which is what my car uses.
It says “Please connect to your Citroen.com Personal Account or visit your distributor to get your navigation system map updates.”
I have already been at Citroen.com and it sent me here, so I call my dealer.
They cannot install map updates for me.
I have to call customer support to try to figure it out but they say “just follow the instructions”.
Eventually I use google to find “My Citroen”. Cannot remember how I found it.
Eventually after much hunting I find the route to the files given at the top of this page.

Please Citroen, make this easier!

Christmas box

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 13:22:16 +0000

As I did last year I made Katie a Christmas present this year. This time around it was a box with doors each with multiple locks on them. The idea was to make something that will be fun for her to use and help her improve her dexterity and problem solving skills. Also it was supposed to be fun for me to make.

It is made out of plywood. There are no nails or screws to hold it together. I did that purely to force me to do some precise cutting rather than butting wood together. I think it probably also improves the way it looks and makes it safer for a small child to use, since there are fewer little bits of metal to come loose.

I had to buy a few things like an electric router and some woodworking tools. I also bought far too much wood because so I could make mistakes. In the end I used only a fraction of the wood that I bought, in fact I spend about £30 on wood and £2 on offcuts and I used only the offcuts! At least I’ve got wood for more projects.

Here is the finished project

For anybody interested in seeing more there were a few steps along the way that I also captured pictures of.

Raw materials
Cut a slot in the base for the rest of the pieces (using router)
Fit the back into the slot
Fit all the sides in
Cut slots to fit the sides together neatly (a mitre joint would have been neater but I preferred to make use of my new router!)
Placed the doors in place and put the locks roughly in their final positions
Cut holes for underneath the doors using the router and plunge cuts (I was inpatient and cut them by hand instead of using the guide to get straight lines)
Glued the sides together
Placed the shelves inside the box
Painted the doors
Sanded the whole box
Varnished the box and attached doors
Attached Katie’s name to the top
Repeat of finished box

All in all it looks OK. I think Katie will like it, but she may never get as much pleasure out of it as I did making it! I also spend a ridiculous and indefensible amount of money on wood, paint, varnish and tools.

10k

Sun, 08 Oct 2017 13:22:16 +0000

Did the 10k in Glasgow last weekend. It had been a while since I got under 45 mins for a 10k. I didn’t manage this time either. It took me 45 mins and 9 seconds. I didn’t pace myself properly and had too much to do at the end.

In the past I’ve done the Glasgow 10k in 45 mins & 13 seconds (2013) and in 42 mins & 47 seconds (2014).

Picture