Every project manager knows the moans and groans for the evil not always objective “traffic light” chart used to denote risks to a project. In sufficiently complex projects, risk is based on a risk matrix (typically a 5×5 matrix) with consequence of a risk occurring on one axis and likelihood of the risk being realized…
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Using a Parallax Propeller microcontroller and some assembly language, we can get a nice strobing LED effect. And now for some code, you can also grab it here.
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When I study a problem the thing that is foremost on my mind is do I understand the problem at its most basic functional level? To get past the current form of a thing so as not be prejudiced by how things are done today in their current form. To understand the function of thing…
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X10 SDKAutom8 – how to get your public facing IP address, set up port forwarding on router to feed to Autom8 serverUltraVNC
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Two trends are occurring as we speak. First, the smartphone has become the new PC. Secondly, programming computers is becoming child’s play literally. Case in point look at the two image belows, similar, yes? On the top you have Scratch, a program from MIT used to get kid’s excited about programming through Lego block-esque “click…
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Vibra-Bot Over the weekend my family attended RobotFest at the National Electronics Museum. It was an awesome event that introduced my daughter to soldering, rockets, and R2-D2. Hopefully this will inspire her to find her inner geek. The highlight for me was watching my daughter solder her first bit of electronics. It was a simple…
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I recently picked up “Make: Electronics” by Charles Platt from Amazon from $23 (vice $34 on MakerShed). It is one of the best introductory books written for those with little or no electronics experience. It is fantastic mix of theory and practical, and is all based on experiments that are well explained and illustrated. The…
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I heard this story by watching a recent lecture given by MIT’s Open Coursware initiative. It traces the history of how the rocket booster design of the Space Shuttle was influenced by Roman Empire horses. t goes a little like this. Thoikol is a Utah-based company that builds the rocket boosters. The boosters are transported…
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I have been having an interesting discussion with friends on the future of various businesses. One topic that we keep hitting on is the idea a company providing a product vice providing a platform. A company that provides a product is the traditional corporate model. Some market research is done, a product is designed, and…
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President Obama today addressed the National Academy of Sciences and made a quote that harkened back to his book “The Audacity of Hope” where he wished the world had more engineers and less lawyers (which is a bit ironic coming from someone who was the president of the Harvard Law Review). He challenged the members…
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