Distractions
Friday, July 31. 2009
I've not been myself lately. Luckily, I've not been anyone else in particular either, which could have led to some nasty lawsuits. No, I've just been a little different than my usual self—that is, my schedule has been disrupted.
First major distraction: I took a two-week vacation earlier this month and traveled a bit. Moving about one's plane of existence always tends to make it harder for one to keep to any sort of regular schedule, so writing and blogging fell by the wayside for the duration of the trip.
Second major distraction: I've discovered microcontrollers.
I've always been a software guy who has a fascination with electronics. I've been hanging around Radio Shacks since I could stand on two legs (back when they were actually cool places, and not just glorified wireless phone stores). They used to have walls upon walls of discrete components, and I loved finding a schematic somewhere, going to Radio Shack and buying the few dollars of parts I needed to try to build it, and then going home and never following through completely.
My cousin Craig and I even started to build little robots, once. I still have the wooden body for mine somewhere, along with a handful of ill-suited DC motors.
Anyway, now I have a little more technical knowledge, perhaps some more sticktuitiveness, and the vast resources of the Internet to assist me. And somehow, early this month, I stumbled upon Parallax, the makers of the famous Basic Stamp microcontroller. But what really intrigued me was the newer Propeller chip—eight processors on a single 40-pin DIP. For a mere $99.99, I could get everything I needed to start from zero and learn how to play in this microcontroller world, so, of course, I took the plunge.
It's really cool. I quickly went right off the "educational" materials and started doing "practical" stuff. Last night, I finished up the code for a very compact little WAV (audio) player that can play back 8- and 16-bit mono sound files at any sample rate from a microSD card. It uses only two of the Propeller's eight processors, and only a handful of electronic components. Oh, the applications of these microcontrollers are endless.
So, yeah, it's pretty distracting right now. But I'm going to let this distraction continue, particularly because I have a couple of product ideas related to the Propeller, so it's not all just fun and games. And I'll get back to writing later...soon...
I've not been myself lately. Luckily, I've not been anyone else in particular either, which could have led to some nasty lawsuits. No, I've just been a little different than my usual self—that is, my schedule has been disrupted.
First major distraction: I took a two-week vacation earlier this month and traveled a bit. Moving about one's plane of existence always tends to make it harder for one to keep to any sort of regular schedule, so writing and blogging fell by the wayside for the duration of the trip.
Second major distraction: I've discovered microcontrollers.
I've always been a software guy who has a fascination with electronics. I've been hanging around Radio Shacks since I could stand on two legs (back when they were actually cool places, and not just glorified wireless phone stores). They used to have walls upon walls of discrete components, and I loved finding a schematic somewhere, going to Radio Shack and buying the few dollars of parts I needed to try to build it, and then going home and never following through completely.
My cousin Craig and I even started to build little robots, once. I still have the wooden body for mine somewhere, along with a handful of ill-suited DC motors.
Anyway, now I have a little more technical knowledge, perhaps some more sticktuitiveness, and the vast resources of the Internet to assist me. And somehow, early this month, I stumbled upon Parallax, the makers of the famous Basic Stamp microcontroller. But what really intrigued me was the newer Propeller chip—eight processors on a single 40-pin DIP. For a mere $99.99, I could get everything I needed to start from zero and learn how to play in this microcontroller world, so, of course, I took the plunge.
It's really cool. I quickly went right off the "educational" materials and started doing "practical" stuff. Last night, I finished up the code for a very compact little WAV (audio) player that can play back 8- and 16-bit mono sound files at any sample rate from a microSD card. It uses only two of the Propeller's eight processors, and only a handful of electronic components. Oh, the applications of these microcontrollers are endless.
So, yeah, it's pretty distracting right now. But I'm going to let this distraction continue, particularly because I have a couple of product ideas related to the Propeller, so it's not all just fun and games. And I'll get back to writing later...soon...
First major distraction: I took a two-week vacation earlier this month and traveled a bit. Moving about one's plane of existence always tends to make it harder for one to keep to any sort of regular schedule, so writing and blogging fell by the wayside for the duration of the trip.
Second major distraction: I've discovered microcontrollers.
I've always been a software guy who has a fascination with electronics. I've been hanging around Radio Shacks since I could stand on two legs (back when they were actually cool places, and not just glorified wireless phone stores). They used to have walls upon walls of discrete components, and I loved finding a schematic somewhere, going to Radio Shack and buying the few dollars of parts I needed to try to build it, and then going home and never following through completely.
My cousin Craig and I even started to build little robots, once. I still have the wooden body for mine somewhere, along with a handful of ill-suited DC motors.
Anyway, now I have a little more technical knowledge, perhaps some more sticktuitiveness, and the vast resources of the Internet to assist me. And somehow, early this month, I stumbled upon Parallax, the makers of the famous Basic Stamp microcontroller. But what really intrigued me was the newer Propeller chip—eight processors on a single 40-pin DIP. For a mere $99.99, I could get everything I needed to start from zero and learn how to play in this microcontroller world, so, of course, I took the plunge.
It's really cool. I quickly went right off the "educational" materials and started doing "practical" stuff. Last night, I finished up the code for a very compact little WAV (audio) player that can play back 8- and 16-bit mono sound files at any sample rate from a microSD card. It uses only two of the Propeller's eight processors, and only a handful of electronic components. Oh, the applications of these microcontrollers are endless.
So, yeah, it's pretty distracting right now. But I'm going to let this distraction continue, particularly because I have a couple of product ideas related to the Propeller, so it's not all just fun and games. And I'll get back to writing later...soon...
Craig on :
Brent on :
I don't have time either, but oh well. I've set up a new company that's paying the R&D costs. Since I'm it's only investor right now...um...well, I paid cash at Skycraft today...