The New Hobbies Thread

[Jim Lahey]

I've decided to learn how to code. Starting from scratch. Apart from being competent in Excel, I'm next to useless otherwise on all things tech. The aim is to learn a bit so I can create some fun simulators/games for my kids, and hopefully get them interested from an early age.

From what I can understand Python is meant to be one of the easiest to learn so going to start with that and learn a bit of SQL as well. I signed up for a couple of courses on Udemy to try and kick-start things.

Apart from that I'm aiming for 6hrs a week on Zwift while the weather is shite outside as I gear up for the Maratona cycle in July. A trip up Ventoux and the Alpe each week, along with the Gorby/The Wringer plus a race, and maybe a boring C Cadence ride while I'm watching the rugby at the weekends.

What crazy shit have you planned to get yourself into this year?

[ASMO]

I've decided to learn how to code. Starting from scratch. Apart from being competent in Excel, I'm next to useless otherwise on all things tech. The aim is to learn a bit so I can create some fun simulators/games for my kids, and hopefully get them interested from an early age.

From what I can understand Python is meant to be one of the easiest to learn so going to start with that and learn a bit of SQL as well. I signed up for a couple of courses on Udemy to try and kick-start things.

Apart from that I'm aiming for 6hrs a week on Zwift while the weather is shite outside as I gear up for the Maratona cycle in July. A trip up Ventoux and the Alpe each week, along with the Gorby/The Wringer plus a race, and maybe a boring C Cadence ride while I'm watching the rugby at the weekends.

What crazy shit have you planned to get yourself into this year?

Python is good, especially if you want to create apps, it is a decent entry level code.

[Insane_Homer]

Code: Select all

print (‘Hello World!’)

[tabascoboy]

Code: Select all

print (‘Hello World!’)

How everyone started...

10 PRINT "BOLLOCKS"
20 GOTO 10

[inactionman]

Depends whether you like coding for coding's sake, but looking at things like arduino to make little devices is good fun - requires an ability to write code to manage inputs and outputs, although internal logic isn't that significant (i.e. they're not 'computers', more like configurable controllers

My long-postponed project is to use an optical sensor as a light trap to fire a DSLR camera - can start to extend the functionality through e.g. dwell time, or input from multiple sensors.

eta: cheap as chips too - can pick up a starter set with a load of sensors, components etc for less than £20 on ebay, arduinos themselves can be found for a fiver or so unless you want the branded stuff.

[FalseBayFC]

I went on a week long cheese making course. It was brilliant. I've been making mozzarella, feta, cream cheese and ricotta at home so far. I am building a cheese cave out of an old fridge. When that's done I plan to start doing the hard cheeses and moldy cheeses etc.

[ASMO]

Depends whether you like coding for coding's sake, but looking at things like arduino to make little devices is good fun - requires an ability to write code to manage inputs and outputs, although internal logic isn't that significant (i.e. they're not 'computers', more like configurable controllers

My long-postponed project is to use an optical sensor as a light trap to fire a DSLR camera - can start to extend the functionality through e.g. dwell time, or input from multiple sensors.

eta: cheap as chips too - can pick up a starter set with a load of sensors, components etc for less than £20 on ebay, arduinos themselves can be found for a fiver or so unless you want the branded stuff.

Also be worth investing in a Blackberry Pi to play with, great little things and remarkably powerful for their size.

Another idea is to create your own Alexa skill, you can publish it to your own device and play around with it, Python is perfect for that, have made one for my home LED lighting, also a smart mirror.

[Kawazaki]

Code: Select all

print (‘Hello World!’)

How everyone started...

10 PRINT "BOLLOCKS"
20 GOTO 10

It's 30 RUN next isn't it?

[tabascoboy]

It would never get to line 30, you just run it as is

[ASMO]

It would never get to line 30, you just run it as is

Run is the command, doesnt need to be coded unless you have a different trigger

[Slick]

I went on a week long cheese making course. It was brilliant. I've been making mozzarella, feta, cream cheese and ricotta at home so far. I am building a cheese cave out of an old fridge. When that's done I plan to start doing the hard cheeses and moldy cheeses etc.

This sounds fantastic!

[inactionman]

Depends whether you like coding for coding's sake, but looking at things like arduino to make little devices is good fun - requires an ability to write code to manage inputs and outputs, although internal logic isn't that significant (i.e. they're not 'computers', more like configurable controllers

My long-postponed project is to use an optical sensor as a light trap to fire a DSLR camera - can start to extend the functionality through e.g. dwell time, or input from multiple sensors.

eta: cheap as chips too - can pick up a starter set with a load of sensors, components etc for less than £20 on ebay, arduinos themselves can be found for a fiver or so unless you want the branded stuff.

Also be worth investing in a Blackberry Pi to play with, great little things and remarkably powerful for their size.

Another idea is to create your own Alexa skill, you can publish it to your own device and play around with it, Python is perfect for that, have made one for my home LED lighting, also a smart mirror.

Wrong fruit, old fruit

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

They are brilliant gadgets, and were originally intended to help education in computer science so a good starting point.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

I went on a week long cheese making course. It was brilliant. I've been making mozzarella, feta, cream cheese and ricotta at home so far. I am building a cheese cave out of an old fridge. When that's done I plan to start doing the hard cheeses and moldy cheeses etc.

This sounds fantastic!

He is blessed.

[ASMO]

Depends whether you like coding for coding's sake, but looking at things like arduino to make little devices is good fun - requires an ability to write code to manage inputs and outputs, although internal logic isn't that significant (i.e. they're not 'computers', more like configurable controllers

My long-postponed project is to use an optical sensor as a light trap to fire a DSLR camera - can start to extend the functionality through e.g. dwell time, or input from multiple sensors.

eta: cheap as chips too - can pick up a starter set with a load of sensors, components etc for less than £20 on ebay, arduinos themselves can be found for a fiver or so unless you want the branded stuff.

Also be worth investing in a Blackberry Pi to play with, great little things and remarkably powerful for their size.

Another idea is to create your own Alexa skill, you can publish it to your own device and play around with it, Python is perfect for that, have made one for my home LED lighting, also a smart mirror.

Wrong fruit, old fruit

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

They are brilliant gadgets, and were originally intended to help education in computer science so a good starting point.

my bad, they are highly capable machines too, i use them as working machines not just playthings

[inactionman]

Also be worth investing in a Blackberry Pi to play with, great little things and remarkably powerful for their size.

Another idea is to create your own Alexa skill, you can publish it to your own device and play around with it, Python is perfect for that, have made one for my home LED lighting, also a smart mirror.

Wrong fruit, old fruit

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

They are brilliant gadgets, and were originally intended to help education in computer science so a good starting point.

my bad, they are highly capable machines too, i use them as working machines not just playthings

We used one as a makeshift network-attached storage when we had 5 of us working on the same project for a client, tiny little thing we could lock in a safe each night (although you could just remove the memory card we were worried about losing it). Kensington-locking it to the desk proved a bit more tricky though!

[Mahoney]

I've decided to learn how to code. Starting from scratch. Apart from being competent in Excel, I'm next to useless otherwise on all things tech. The aim is to learn a bit so I can create some fun simulators/games for my kids, and hopefully get them interested from an early age.

From what I can understand Python is meant to be one of the easiest to learn so going to start with that and learn a bit of SQL as well. I signed up for a couple of courses on Udemy to try and kick-start things.

Apart from that I'm aiming for 6hrs a week on Zwift while the weather is shite outside as I gear up for the Maratona cycle in July. A trip up Ventoux and the Alpe each week, along with the Gorby/The Wringer plus a race, and maybe a boring C Cadence ride while I'm watching the rugby at the weekends.

What crazy shit have you planned to get yourself into this year?

I've written code in quite a few languages over the last 22 years - Java, Groovy, JavaScript, Scala, Python, Ruby, Clojure, Typescript, Haskell, Visual Basic. Oh, and bash of course.

Kotlin is now my swiss army knife. I think in types, and find statically type checked programming *much* easier to reason about. It's a very consistent language, the type system is solid without being bewildering (Scala & Haskell, looking at you...), and it makes the easy things easy, and encourages you to write in a way that will minimise your fuckups. Combined with IntelliJ IDEA (there's a free community edition) you get a lot of automated help. The Slack workspace is helpful too.

The JVM's a bit heavyweight now-a-days, and of course static type checking makes compilation slower than some like. And gradle as a build tool is... not entirely simple. So it's not all sunshine & rainbows.

But it's pretty good.

[yermum]

Making drum and bass music

[Slick]

Can we talk more about cheese?

[ASMO]

Can we talk more about cheese?

Make your own Paneer, just need milk, lemon juice or vinegar and a teatowel

[FalseBayFC]

As a link up to the electronics hobby, I have an engineer friend who is helping me set up the cheese cave. We'll use a Rasberry Pi to control the humidifer, heating pad and refrigerator to maintain the ideal environment for cheese ripening. I've bought an old coke display fridge set up in the garage. I want to get another one and set it up for my garagiste project. I live right in the middle of the Cape Town wine area and joined a club to do a cabernet/shiraz blend. We bought grapes from a local farm in mid Jan and now have about 150 litres in secondary fermentation. It'll need to sit at a temp a few degrees warmer than the cheese.

[Paddington Bear]

Spent yesterday clearing out my new garden which was infested with weeds and other crap. By all accounts a previous owner but not the immediate one took excellent care of it, and that means recovering it shouldn't be too hard. Don't have a clue what I'd be doing but that's never stopped me before.

[FalseBayFC]

Can we talk more about cheese?

Make your own Paneer, just need milk, lemon juice or vinegar and a teatowel

Paneer is great. Mozarella is also an easy one to start with. You can do it just with rennet but its better with a culture. I do a big batch because you can use the whey to make ricotta afterwards.

[Niegs]

I went on a week long cheese making course. It was brilliant. I've been making mozzarella, feta, cream cheese and ricotta at home so far. I am building a cheese cave out of an old fridge. When that's done I plan to start doing the hard cheeses and moldy cheeses etc.

[Niegs]

I'm now one of those weird middle aged guys you see out and about on a strange bit of gear.

[S/Lt_Phillips]

I'm now one of those weird middle aged guys you see out and about on a strange bit of gear.

There's a cycle track in Fife I've been to a few times that's used for racing and training (it's like a motor-racing circuit, outdoor, tarmac, but no cars allowed, it's fantastic), and there's often a couple of guys using it for this dry cross-country skiing thing. I've wondered about giving it a go!

[inactionman]

I'm now one of those weird middle aged guys you see out and about on a strange bit of gear.

There's a cycle track in Fife I've been to a few times that's used for racing and training (it's like a motor-racing circuit, outdoor, tarmac, but no cars allowed, it's fantastic), and there's often a couple of guys using it for this dry cross-country skiing thing. I've wondered about giving it a go!

Given my propensity for ending up on my arse when trying anything with wheels that isn't a car, that looks like a degloving waiting to happen.

(Complete aside, but when I lived in west country one of my colleagues was a member of a cycling club who booked out castle combe race circuit for evening rides. Looked exhausting)

[TB63]

Messing with wood.

[Niegs]

I'm now one of those weird middle aged guys you see out and about on a strange bit of gear.

There's a cycle track in Fife I've been to a few times that's used for racing and training (it's like a motor-racing circuit, outdoor, tarmac, but no cars allowed, it's fantastic), and there's often a couple of guys using it for this dry cross-country skiing thing. I've wondered about giving it a go!

Given my propensity for ending up on my arse when trying anything with wheels that isn't a car, that looks like a degloving waiting to happen.

(Complete aside, but when I lived in west country one of my colleagues was a member of a cycling club who booked out castle combe race circuit for evening rides. Looked exhausting)

Oh, I'm an embarrassment to my nation in my lack of skating ability ... so when I tried rollerblades for the first time last month, I was glad to have a patient teacher and a private space to look awkward and not laugh when I fell hard. However, these are really stable in comparison. In my first hour or so, I've not even come close to falling and had just one wobble as I stood too tall - the sort of move that would have had me on my arse with rollerblades. It takes some concentration to get in a groove if you're not used to the skating action, but I am from my x-country skiing background. But even then, the poles give you stability and help immensely with the push.

[pjm1]

I'm a collector of many hobbies, few of which persist for long. Cheese making was fun and I'd definitely recommend anyone who likes it to give it a bash. I matured some not-stilton for about 12 weeks in our downstairs toilet about 10 years ago which didn't go down well with the missus.

Bacon making was even better and the results were really rather good. But slicing the thing was a pain in the arse - even with a cheapo electric machine, so that's fallen by the wayside a bit. I then shifted onto making some boerewors for a south african neighbour which was delicious but then my meat grinder broke (somewhat user induced, frustratingly). Perhaps buying cheapo gadgets from the middle aisle isn't the way to go with these hobbies...

My latest food-related one is fermenting vegetables. I've made a truckload of genuinely exceptional fermented hot sauce in the style of sriracha from a kilo of scotch bonnets I bought online. Utterly divine. I've now got a load of mixed-veg sauerkraut on the go so we can have on tap coleslaw whenever we fancy it (just add mayo). Haven't made any botulism yet but it'll probably be next on my list if I'm not careful.

[Guy Smiley]

I'm a collector of many hobbies, few of which persist for long. Cheese making was fun and I'd definitely recommend anyone who likes it to give it a bash. I matured some not-stilton for about 12 weeks in our downstairs toilet about 10 years ago which didn't go down well with the missus.

[FalseBayFC]

I'm a collector of many hobbies, few of which persist for long. Cheese making was fun and I'd definitely recommend anyone who likes it to give it a bash. I matured some not-stilton for about 12 weeks in our downstairs toilet about 10 years ago which didn't go down well with the missus.

Bacon making was even better and the results were really rather good. But slicing the thing was a pain in the arse - even with a cheapo electric machine, so that's fallen by the wayside a bit. I then shifted onto making some boerewors for a south african neighbour which was delicious but then my meat grinder broke (somewhat user induced, frustratingly). Perhaps buying cheapo gadgets from the middle aisle isn't the way to go with these hobbies...

My latest food-related one is fermenting vegetables. I've made a truckload of genuinely exceptional fermented hot sauce in the style of sriracha from a kilo of scotch bonnets I bought online. Utterly divine. I've now got a load of mixed-veg sauerkraut on the go so we can have on tap coleslaw whenever we fancy it (just add mayo). Haven't made any botulism yet but it'll probably be next on my list if I'm not careful.

I haven't tried smelly cheeses yet. It gets hella hot here and thats why I'm doing a cheese cave for ripening. The stilton in the bathroom sounds hardcore. I've heard of toilet wine before but not toilet cheese.
The DYI food hobby is cool because you're making fairly healthy stuff. I also do a bit of fermenting. Kimchi and Sauerkraut are my current favourites. I do sausages and boerewors and use a friend's 1/2 HP grinder and a big heavy duty stuffer. I'm on a early retirement for health reasons and love hobbies that have a functional or consumable result. Its feels like I'm working and producing for the family.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

I'm a collector of many hobbies, few of which persist for long. Cheese making was fun and I'd definitely recommend anyone who likes it to give it a bash. I matured some not-stilton for about 12 weeks in our downstairs toilet about 10 years ago which didn't go down well with the missus.

Bacon making was even better and the results were really rather good. But slicing the thing was a pain in the arse - even with a cheapo electric machine, so that's fallen by the wayside a bit. I then shifted onto making some boerewors for a south african neighbour which was delicious but then my meat grinder broke (somewhat user induced, frustratingly). Perhaps buying cheapo gadgets from the middle aisle isn't the way to go with these hobbies...

My latest food-related one is fermenting vegetables. I've made a truckload of genuinely exceptional fermented hot sauce in the style of sriracha from a kilo of scotch bonnets I bought online. Utterly divine. I've now got a load of mixed-veg sauerkraut on the go so we can have on tap coleslaw whenever we fancy it (just add mayo). Haven't made any botulism yet but it'll probably be next on my list if I'm not careful.

I haven't tried smelly cheeses yet. It gets hella hot here and thats why I'm doing a cheese cave for ripening. The stilton in the bathroom sounds hardcore. I've heard of toilet wine before but not toilet cheese.
The DYI food hobby is cool because you're making fairly healthy stuff. I also do a bit of fermenting. Kimchi and Sauerkraut are my current favourites. I do sausages and boerewors and use a friend's 1/2 HP grinder and a big heavy duty stuffer. I'm on a early retirement for health reasons and love hobbies that have a functional or consumable result. Its feels like I'm working and producing for the family.

Good Kimchi is fantastic. One of my local pubs does a Kimchi burger which works really well.

The best Stilton available isn't allowed to be called Stilton for rather shite reasons. https://stichelton.co.uk/ Get a piece of that if you want to know what it should taste like and are aiming for.

On another note, I've been getting in to building and rebuilding bicycle wheels. There's a nice Zen element to it in that you can't rush it or you will screw up.

[pjm1]

I haven't tried smelly cheeses yet. It gets hella hot here and thats why I'm doing a cheese cave for ripening. The stilton in the bathroom sounds hardcore. I've heard of toilet wine before but not toilet cheese.
The DYI food hobby is cool because you're making fairly healthy stuff. I also do a bit of fermenting. Kimchi and Sauerkraut are my current favourites. I do sausages and boerewors and use a friend's 1/2 HP grinder and a big heavy duty stuffer. I'm on a early retirement for health reasons and love hobbies that have a functional or consumable result. Its feels like I'm working and producing for the family.

That sounds excellent and our food-related hobbies clearly have a fair bit of overlap. I have a Korean friend who makes me kimchi so I'm not really inclined to give that a go as hers is so good... I'll just be disappointed with whatever I try to make (and won't really have the broader knowledge that she has of what I should really be aiming for). I'd definitely recommend bacon as a bit of a fun project - it really does taste good and if you want it for lardons then obviously the slicing problem I had isn't an issue. I tried par-freezing to make slicing easier but it was always just a ball ache.

Your cheese cave sounds a genius idea, except I'd start with that and end up trying to dry age a forequarter of beef in it before long...

[Slick]

Started offshore skiff rowing after new year and had my first regatta this weekend, was bloody brilliant.

The old competitive juices came roaring back and found myself completely immersed in it. Got a 3rd place medal in my first race (mixed over 50’s) and a creditable 5th in the mixed pursuit!

Not sure everyone was quite as competitive as me, but they were all very polite about it

[epwc]

Messing with wood.

Very nice, me too. Kind of forced into it, when we were building our house our biggest client went bankrupt, couldn't afford to buy anything except Ikea crap so we started making stuff.

We've now (me and the missus) done loads, in the middle of kitting out the girls flat; 2 beds, 3 wardrobes, 2 desks, 2 bedsides. We haven't managed to kill each other yet

[Punter15]

I went on a week long cheese making course. It was brilliant. I've been making mozzarella, feta, cream cheese and ricotta at home so far. I am building a cheese cave out of an old fridge. When that's done I plan to start doing the hard cheeses and moldy cheeses etc.

I’d always thought about learning carpentry, proper craftsman stuff, but fuck that. All I want to do now is make cheese.

[Slick]

I went on a week long cheese making course. It was brilliant. I've been making mozzarella, feta, cream cheese and ricotta at home so far. I am building a cheese cave out of an old fridge. When that's done I plan to start doing the hard cheeses and moldy cheeses etc.

I’d always thought about learning carpentry, proper craftsman stuff, but fuck that. All I want to do now is make cheese.

[petej]

I went on a week long cheese making course. It was brilliant. I've been making mozzarella, feta, cream cheese and ricotta at home so far. I am building a cheese cave out of an old fridge. When that's done I plan to start doing the hard cheeses and moldy cheeses etc.

I’d always thought about learning carpentry, proper craftsman stuff, but fuck that. All I want to do now is make cheese.

Saw this thread pop up and was curious about the cheese making. I make my own sauerkraut and kombucha. The sauerkraut is so much better than any shop bought stuff. Kimchi and ginger ale are next on the list. Might try cheese after that. Tempted to do foraging course at some point.

[epwc]

We do love cheese but I need 36 hours a day already

[epwc]

Jam making is easy, chilli sauce too if you have a pasteuriser