Category Archives: Tinkering

Interesting write-up on making flexible wood

Posted on June 27, 2014 by robertwilkie

Never thought of all the different styles you can cut wood to make it flexible.  Now if I only had a laser cutter…. http://www.instructables.com/id/Curved-laser-bent-wood/

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Arduino Helper Functions

Posted on June 27, 2014 by robertwilkie

Nice set of starter functions for working with the arduino do do the basics (light blinking) to more complicated (WiFi). http://makezine.com/2013/05/13/arduino-helper-functions/

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Tutorial on how to use an Arduino for an LED display

Posted on June 27, 2014 by robertwilkie

Ah remember the old calculator displays, here is a nice tutorial on how to use one of those type displays with an arduino. http://tronixstuff.com/2013/05/12/tutorial-arduino-and-mc14489-led-display-driver/

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Video tutorials on Machinist from Cape Cod

Posted on June 25, 2014 by robertwilkie

Never really thought of Cape Cod being a place in need of a custom machinst, but I guess there is as Keith Fenner of Turner Wright Machine Works has a series of youtube videos to get folks started. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDmxnPem-pPfJQATIkfgY2Q

Posted in CNC/3D-printing | 1 Comment

Watch this poor guy try to ride a one wheel segway

Posted on June 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

Interesting product coming from China called the SoloWheel, that is a Segway on one wheel.  The reviewer has a tough time staying on it, never mind navigating with it.  And at $2G’s a whack, its not on my list of … Continue reading →

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Need to test a UI, maybe you need a Cucumber

Posted on June 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

If I understand Cucumber correctly, you can write your behavior of how the software should work in doc like format, and it will convert it to a UI like test.  Or an API test.  Its all written in Ruby.  I … Continue reading →

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Now you can build your own NSA spy tools

Posted on June 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

Apparently some folks have been going over the Snowden papers and reverse engineering some of the NSA spy tools to build their own variants of them.  I wonder if they could sell it to the NSA at a discount? http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229744.000-hackers-reverseengineer-nsas-leaked-bugging-devices.html#.U6mlVnVDtu7

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Multitasking on a TI MSP

Posted on June 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

I haven’t been playing with TI’s 430MSP’s lately anymore (lack of time), but they are a nice cheaper than arduino system.  The author came up with a nice setup to get multitasking working on the board to handle more than … Continue reading →

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Google has an import tool for AWS S3

Posted on June 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

Just became a little easier to move away from Amazon AWS.  Google now has an import tool to migrate data from AWS/S3 storage to Google.  Now if they only could do this with running instances in AWS…. http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/19/googles-new-cloud-import-tool-makes-switching-from-aws-easier/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Posted in Cloud | Comments Off on Google has an import tool for AWS S3

Rebuilding My CNC, CAM HELL

Posted on June 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

OK I am so missing my buddy that had a copy of Meshcam.  I partially figured our PyCAM, nice tool but very confusing.  I did a sample to gCode convert and it TOOK 8 HOURS TO BUILD!!!  Ouch…So back to … Continue reading →

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