Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Lots of cool stuff, including keeping the interface controls when you web-connect a thing. If the only...

Lots of cool stuff, including keeping the interface controls when you web-connect a thing. If the only way to turn something on and off is via a command-line switch, the wife acceptance factor drops precipitously.



But, I also never knew about the WiFly shield. Double-plus cool.




And I see this on day 16 of a 21-day caffeine fast.

And I see this on day 16 of a 21-day caffeine fast.




Shouldn't be too much trouble to make it a 64 bit int. Should it? After so long in Perl, I've lost my...

Shouldn't be too much trouble to make it a 64 bit int. Should it? After so long in Perl, I've lost my C legs.




Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Hey, +Nick Molo , I want this printed. How do I start that? http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:44947

Hey, +Nick Molo , I want this printed. How do I start that?

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:44947




Having a thought. 1) We make a t-shirt design. Sell shirts at a profit. This leads to .... 2) We order...

Having a thought.



1) We make a t-shirt design. Sell shirts at a profit. This leads to ....



2) We order materials. Simple things. Resistors and capacitors and LEDs and such. Enough that someone coming in with no electronics can be given a resistor, a LED and a 9-volt and walk away with a flashy light and a feeling of accomplishment. Or, if you need some very small caps to do your project, give us a buck and we'll give you 10 caps. Or whatever.



Clearly, there will be several layers of "But Dave" errors, starting with "We don't have a designer" to "We don't have a bank account". I'm not there yet. I'm at the idea stage. Other than "We need someone to handle this, and I guess it'll be you, Dave", any comments out there?




This is a funny video, showing all the things you should think about during a demo, and showing something...

This is a funny video, showing all the things you should think about during a demo, and showing something that could be ramped up to something dangerous. #CoilGun




Step 1: Set up a Raspberry Pi with Pd (an open source take on Max/MSP, written by the same developer)...

Step 1: Set up a Raspberry Pi with Pd (an open source take on Max/MSP, written by the same developer)



Step 2: Develop an Arduino-based pedalboard to control the thing.



Step 3: Rock!




Monday, January 28, 2013

My sister shared this on the other social network, and I thought most people I know here would love it...

My sister shared this on the other social network, and I thought most people I know here would love it.




Here's some inspiration for the Iron Hacker Challenge: Someone using two servomotors and an IMU to make...

Here's some inspiration for the Iron Hacker Challenge: Someone using two servomotors and an IMU to make a self-stabilizing platform.




"An underlying problem with artificial intelligence that I have personally experience in my forty years...

"An underlying problem with artificial intelligence that I have personally experience in my forty years in this area is that as soon as an AI technique works, it's no longer considered AI and is spun off as its own field (for example, character recognition, speech recognition, machine vision, robotics, data mining, medical informatics, automated investing.)" -- Ray Kurzweil




Trying to add cookies to a long-existing web app.

Trying to add cookies to a long-existing web app.




If the Android app comes out, I'll be all over this.

If the Android app comes out, I'll be all over this.




Friday, January 25, 2013

I applied an NFC tag to my smartphone holder in the car. It seems like NFC tags don't like to be bent...

I applied an NFC tag to my smartphone holder in the car. It seems like NFC tags don't like to be bent. I could be wrong, but it was too cold for me to spend much time debugging.




MeCam helicopter records your life and streams it to your smartphone http://androidcommunity.com/mecam...

Was going to go to ICC this AM, but K took my car to take the boys to school, and by the time I got to...

Was going to go to ICC this AM, but K took my car to take the boys to school, and by the time I got to campus, it was 8:25. By the time I'd have made it to Morton Center, it would've been 8:40, and showing up 40 minutes late for a meeting is bad form.




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A friend got a new Strat, and he decided to get rid of his Steinberger copy. He gave it to me. I'm thinking...

A friend got a new Strat, and he decided to get rid of his Steinberger copy. He gave it to me. I'm thinking I'm going to rewire it, because the neck pickup doesn't work, and the body itself is perhaps a little relic'd but pretty solid.




My friend Mike says that Arduinos are so addictive, they should have a Surgeon General's warning.

My friend Mike says that Arduinos are so addictive, they should have a Surgeon General's warning.




Received 4 NFC tags from @Tagstand last night. I have one holding my name and email address in my business...

Received 4 NFC tags from @Tagstand last night. I have one holding my name and email address in my business card holder, for easy contact info passing. Might switch that to my about.me page. One will trigger Car mode (WiFi off, Podcast player on). Don't know about the other two.




Monday, January 14, 2013

I've learned so much working here. At the Clinic, I was much more an admin/system integrator, while here...

I've learned so much working here. At the Clinic, I was much more an admin/system integrator, while here, I code. I love it, and looking back at the code I wrote here years ago, I'm finding all sorts of bits where, yeah, I get why I thought that was cool, but in practice it was stupid.




Here's my new thing! Courtesy of the fine folks at New Relic and Werehaus. MP3 is at frontalot.com/music...

Here's my new thing! Courtesy of the fine folks at New Relic and Werehaus. MP3 is at frontalot.com/music if you want it.




Sunday, January 13, 2013

After some home cleanup, I'm going to bring a file and some fine-grit sandpaper to the axles of my son's...

After some home cleanup, I'm going to bring a file and some fine-grit sandpaper to the axles of my son's Pinewood Derby car. Anyone have a Dremel polishing stone I could borrow to finish up the process?




Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Is there a place in town where I could get NFC tags? or is that strictly an order online thing?

Is there a place in town where I could get NFC tags? or is that strictly an order online thing?




So, I was invited to talk about Perl to a local general software group, and that talk was yesterday. ...

So, I was invited to talk about Perl to a local general software group, and that talk was yesterday. One of the questions was, "If you were to teach someone programming, why would you teach them Perl?"



I was at a loss. I've been programming in Perl for half of the 30 years it's been in existence. Perl has been very very good to me. But, right now, I'm kinda starting to get into that question with my elder two sons, and I'm more looking at Arduino/Processing (because making things move is fun) and Java , God help me (because my middle kid is beginning to look into programming Android).



So, does anyone else have a good answer to that question?