Derry Hamilton
Derry Hamilton

Dad to cats, Uncle to actual humans.

Professional wire wrangler, bit banger, and database poker.

In Search of the Simplest Oscillator

Derry Hamilton - 10/02/2014

Studying chemistry, one of the lightbulb moments was the realisation that lab skills weren't about learning how to use techniques, but instead about learning how to avoid stuffing things up, and rescue things once they were stuffed up. As the saying goes: "In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there's a...

Polldubh climbing

Derry Hamilton - 18/10/2013

Tor and I headed to Fort William for half term, intending to do some climbing, some walking, and some touristing. Tuesday saw us climbing at Polldubh. Looking for an appropriate climb, Alan had been talking about "The Gutter" and that seemed like a good place to start. A nice easy lead, good belays, and...

Dumby

Derry Hamilton - 28/09/2013

I was at a loose end, so I took a trip to Dumbarton. It's good, and very convenient by train. It would be more useful if either it and I were at the same side of the country. It's hard. Much harder than I am; there's only about a dozen named problems I...

Bennybeg

Derry Hamilton - 02/06/2013

A few people were after a rock climbing, picnicing sort of a day, so we headed to Bennybeg; easy sport climbing in a nice setting. Since this was the first time on real rock for a few people, we figured sport climbing was a better bet, since it was most like indoor climbing. Tor,...

Ben Nevis on New Year's Day

Derry Hamilton - 01/01/2013

Trying to climb Ben Nevis on the first appears to be becoming a tradition. Not that we always succeed. This year, we found some (almost friendly) ptarmigan in their winter plumage. ...