FPGA hardware has been getting a lot more affordable, and I have a few ideas for projects. The new low-cost boards that combine FPGA-style programmable logic with a fast processor are especially interesting. But before I can get to the more advanced stuff, I need to re-learn the basics. I need a plan.
After having a few conversations on this topic recently, I’ve decided to put down my thoughts on behavior-driven development (BDD): what it’s for, how to use it, and how not to use it.
Timing is everything, especially in serial communications. I’ve run into two interesting timing challenges on this project that need to be solved, but they couldn’t be more different. Check out part 1 first if you have no idea what’s going on.
I’m not ready to give up on these speakers just yet. They sound great, but the control LCD is messed up. I wonder if I can get it working even better than before. I ended up reverse engineering some mysterious components, and hopefully my experience can teach you a thing or two about the process.
Yes, people think I’m weird for not letting my main computer go, but I’m just not ready to do that yet.
The mBot is a great little programmable robot, and my 9 year-old nephew is really getting into it. His computer can only use Mac OS 10.7.5 Lion, and the mBlock software almost works. Here’s how I got it running perfectly.
As far as blogging platforms go, Jekyll is both a blessing and a curse. It has taken time to turn it into something I like; let me show you what I’ve done.
Fun with sensors. I had to pick a sensor for my first working location monitors. Why was it a good choice? How much work to get it running?
Overview and quick preview. The start of what should be an entertaining and educational journey. Let’s play with Raspberry Pis, and make them do all kinds of fun things to make our lives better. Let’s make a little network of Raspberry Pis that keep an eye on the home and toss data back and forth at each other. Casually.
You all know I enjoy music a lot. I tend to go through phases with particular genres, but love music of all types. Recently I found myself wondering: what words occur the most frequently in the music that I listen to? I had some guesses, but wanted to do a proper in-depth analysis.
Subtitle: “Whoa, I just reprogrammed a RAM chip”
Every Tuesday at Apple we would get deliveries of fresh fruit to each of the breakout/lounge areas. Every day at the cafeteria there were free apples for people to grab with their lunch. Every Tuesday and Friday morning (I think) after Steve got cancer there was delicious organic vegan broth you could pour into a cup and sip. The only thing we had to drink was Allhambra water from huge water coolers. The division I worked in usually had doughnuts once a week.
This past weekend was interesting for driving.
Having worked at and read extensively on these two fine corporations, a few differences come to mind, that over time I hope to commit to writing. Here are some disclaimers: