I have not written here about Magic: The Gathering, a collectible card game that I have been playing for about a year and a half.  It started in my workplace, that was, at one time, very active with MTG players.  One co-worker decided to revive interest by sponsoring a draft tournament, with prizes, for the small entry fee of $10; less than the retail cost of the cards we received.  I played and lost, but I got hooked on this wonderfully flavored game with complex interactions!  I even sponsored one of our “Lunchtime Magic” tournaments! Lunchtime play died down at work, but I got my sons interested, and we started playing at home and at our local game store (Friday …Read the rest of this post

Claymation Explanation of Pointers

This is hilarious and educational, all at the same time!  For those who don’t get how pointers work, this clears it up:

Powered Breadboard Build

  I noticed I was doing a lot of breadboarding at my desk (as opposed to my worktable in the basement).  That was fine, but I always had to have …Read the rest of this post

STM32 Value Line Discovery board released

STMicroelectronics has a new “evaluation board” for its “value line” of STM32 microcontrollers, priced at “under $10″.  (Product page) This seems to be a follow-up to its little brother: the …Read the rest of this post

Electricity Consumption Monitor… A Step Forward

With some very helpful basic electronics advice from NJC (of NJC’s MSP430 LaunchPad Blog), and others on the Four-Three-Oh! forums, I rebuilt my IR sensor with a lower value pull-up …Read the rest of this post

Now With Mobile!

13 Sep, 2010
Now With Mobile!

I added a mobile theme (coincidentally named “Mobile Theme” – link in pic) because I was tired of my blog looking like crap on my Android phone.  I’m not sure …Read the rest of this post

Joes Bytes LaunchPad Mini Proto Board

TI’s MSP430 LaunchPad is growing a great community, and along with it, some opportunities.  Joe over at http://joesbytes.com/wordpress/ recently sent me a sample of his new LaunchPad Mini Proto Board; …Read the rest of this post

Bug in the code…

30 Aug, 2010

Since some people have actually been visiting the site and taking the time to post comments, I should pay a little more attention to my blog.  I have noticed the …Read the rest of this post

Measure Three Times, Fab Once?

My circuit boards arrived, and they are beautiful!  The quality on these boards is outstanding.  I will definitely be ordering through DorkbotPDX again.  You can see that the cuts are …Read the rest of this post

In Theory, It Was Perfect…

One of the main reasons I wanted to learn microcontrollers was that I wanted to make my own energy consumption monitor.  I live in the US, and I have an …Read the rest of this post

Free EZ430-F2013 USB Stick Development Board

On Saturday, gatesphere posted a code on the Four-Three-Oh! forums for a free TI eZ430-F2013 USB stick style development board (+s/h).  Well, since “free” translates roughly to: “You must order …Read the rest of this post