Opening the Open Source Kimono

Gears of Resistance Episode #5 1 April 2015 http://greenshoegarage.com/podcast/GOR/2015/GOR_0005_1APR15.mp3 So we are shifting gears (pun intended) with Gears of Resistance. I’ve come to realize that there are tons of great electronics tutorial videos out there already. I love the idea of an Open Source Hardware podcast, but just can’t dedicate the time to do really…

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Why I Believe: Potential over Fear

There is any interesting dichotomy at play in the technology world.  As someone is who is cold-stone engineer by day, but a struggling product design artist by night, I am keenly aware that people both embrace (at the notion of) innovation yet fear change.  We like to dream of a better tomorrow, rather than live it….

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Why Science Matters In Politics

Vaccines.  Evolution.  Global climate change. The World is round.  Things that should not be in question in the 21st century, A certain U.S. governor and 2016 presidential hopeful responded to whether or not he accepted biological evolution as scientific fact.  To which he promptly responded “I’m going to punt on that one, as well, that’s a…

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Comparing Form/Function to Program/Algorithm

In product design, striking a balance between form and function is constant struggle.   I ascribe to the philosophy that when faced with a design decision, it is better to given precedence to function over the form.  I say that not just because it’s better for something to work well vice looking good, but rather…

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Wearables Prototyping: Digital Compass Glove

I am admittedly a better electronics hacker than I am a seamstress.  But I firmly believe that wearables is going to be more than a fad, eventually.  So I figure I better at least get enough skills to be able to design prototypes, as I have done with straight up electronics for the last 17…

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Making Snail Mail Cool Again!

I have a new article over at Mouser Electronics Bench Talk for Design Engineers blog!  Click here  to go right to the article. See what magic you can make happen with some TI MSP430s and a TI LaunchPad!   Hint:  Snail Mail Gets a High Tech prototype!  You don’t have to be an engineer to enjoy…

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More Phidget Phun

I have been playing with Phidgets more and more lately. Mainly because it is forcing me to go relearn good OOP programming skills, it’s also serving to push me to learn Python. As a hardware guy, it’s always a challenge to get motivated to learn yet another new programming language. But so far, so good….

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Android and Arduino Made Easy

I did a post a while back for Mouser Electronics about controlling an Arduino-based LED strip via a Bluetooth-enabled Android app.  The app had three sliders, each controlling one of the three colors used in an RGB LED strip.  The code necessary to drive the LED light strip on the Arduino side was especially complicated,…

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Majoring In STEAM

S.T.E.A.M. Power Podcast #53 9 November 2014 http://greenshoegarage.com/podcast/2014/STEAM_0053_9NOV14.mp3 Audio only this week!  In this week’s episode we interview my brother-in-law and his friend who are both current undergrads at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, GO RETRIEVERS!  We chat about STEM majors, relationship between math and music, and women in STEM! [Download] For more tech…

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