This is actually my second post with the same subject/topic/title. :/
As a joke I did a google search for “cell phone for elderly” because a friend of mine has this ridiculous habit of taking pictures with his iPhone UPSIDE down. Sure, it’s easy enough to turn it back upside right – but wouldn’t it just make more sense to simply hold the phone correctly in the first place?
Anyhow, now all the google ads I see are for cell phones for the elderly. Great.
Default Series TitleI missed out on several episodes of The Walking Dead when the second half of season two returned in mid-February. Since AMC was going to re-air season two episodes before last night’s season finale, I figured I’d just wait until the marathon was mostly over and watch everything, including the finale, without commercials. The second half of season two was great with all the scares and drama I’d come to expect.
I’m just not sure it was worth an entire nighttime of dreams about trying to surviving the zombie apocalypse. Lemme tell you, I coulda used a commercial break a few times.
I use a FireFox extension that tells me the Google PageRank, Alexa rank, and Complete ranks in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. What I noticed today is that my main page has a PageRank of 3, but that one page on this site has a PageRank of 6!
What the heck?!
Because I would have just taken to living inside it. Like a hobo.
Like an AWESOME 8 year old hobo.
When using my DrawBot to draw pixelated drawings (versus TSP or vectors)1 I don’t really notice a pause from the machine between each pixel. It takes a few seconds to shade each pixel, then it moves to the next spot and starts over again. However, when trying to draw TSP art I discovered that the time spent shading a picture obscured the amount of lag time that occurred between each drawing point! As I tried to draw a TSP portrait of my family I found it was taking about 3 seconds between each little point – which translated to a VERY VERY long time for a VERY small drawing.
When I asked Sandy about this, he suggested that this lag would be eliminated by drawing from an SD card.
Sandy’s current setup, which allows for computer free printing, consists of an Arduino Mega 2560 R32 , a MicroSD card breakout board3 , and an Adafruit Motor Shield4 . Thus, the electronics setup would cost about $100 if you were starting from scratch, or another $80 if you have been following along at home and have a similar setup to mine. Apparently the problem is you can’t just shove a MicroSD card into an Arduino. If you try to add one to an Arduino, then the card shield will end up taking up the pins necessary to use the Motor Shield. Since the Arduino Mega has a lot of extra pins, some of those can be used towards accessing the MicroSD card.
However, I thought I had seen an Arduino that had a MicroSD slot on board. 5 When I searched around Adafruit, I found this Ethernet Shield R3 with MicroSD connector6 . Not only does this little shield fit my existing Arduino Uno, have a MicroSD slot, and have an Ethernet port, but it also has input pins so that it can be stacked! This makes me then wonder… Could I just pop this $45 board between my Arduino Uno and Motor Shield, add some software and get cooking? I have to admit, the idea of spending $45 more, rather than $80 more for a Mega and MicroSD breakout board appeals to me. I suppose there’s the added benefit that I might be able to run a REALLY long ethernet cable to the ‘bot if I so desired since it would have a built-in ethernet port on the Ethernet Shield.
Now, I’m the first to admit that I know next to nothing at all about programming Arduinos or fiddling with such things. I’m just a fair hand at slavishly following some other person’s excellent directions. Please do me a favor and let me know whether you think adding this Ethernet shield between my Uno and the Motor Shield will or will not work.
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I have been having SO MUCH FUN with traveling salesman problem / single line art! I can’t wait to draw some of these with my DrawBot!
And, really, how much more perfect could this project get? It’s a TSP nerdy math single line art drawing of my favorite sci-fi show for drawing with a robot I built using printed parts from my 3D printing robot. 1 2 3
Default Series TitleI’ve enjoyed this program on Fox called “Breaking In.” It has this affable young guy who has been in a lot of cancelled shows, Christian Slater acting like what I can only imagine is what Christian Slater is really like, and it was always quite entertaining. Since it was a pretty good and funny show, of course Fox cancelled it. 1
I’m glad they uncanceled it, but less glad that they “improved” it. While I generally like Megan Mullally, she’s not adding anything to a show I already liked and her presence distorts those aspects I used to like.
Yay!!!
Now, I’ve already seen Doctor Who Season 6. I liked it, but, on the whole, not as much as Season 5. Why am I so excited then?
Because now I can delete these episodes off our DVR and watch them, unedited, without commercials just as god intended.
So, here’s the thing. I really really really like the Maker Faire. I’m just torn as to the most optimal way to experience it.
First of all, I love taking my wife and daughter to Maker Faire. Getting to see so many amazing things all in one place – and getting to see them all through my daughter’s eyes is absolutely incredible. I could spend the entire weekend just walking from exhibit to exhibit with them.
Second of all, I love talking to Makers and finding out what they do, what they love to make, and how they learned all the things they did to get there. I honestly feel smarter just for having gone each year.1
Third, helping man the MakerBot table last year was AWESOME! There was basically a constant crush of people coming by all super interested in what a MakerBot was and what it could be used to make. Everyone was friendly, polite, interested, and had such excellent and insightful questions. Imagine a place where you got to just hang out with people you like2 and people would stop by and ask you to tell them all about your favorite hobby. Chances are you could talk endlessly and cheerfully about it.
Fourth, I’ve build and made some things over the last year of which I’m kind of proud. While all the actual innovation credit must go to Sandy Noble and others, I like to think that my little drawing robot is uniquely mine. It would be a lot of fun to put it up and have it draw a huge picture all weekend. It would be even better with a time lapse video playing nearby.
So, what’s a maker to do? Experience Maker Faire with the family, spend my time talking to makers, man the MakerBot table, or put something on display myself? In all likelihood I’ll probably hit the Maker Faire before the family is up, help MakerBot, catch up with the family. 3
Oh, Natalie Imbruglia, only you know how I feel!
