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5 free resources for improving your programming skills
There are two truths about programming that didn’t sink in (for me) for several years: We have to be life-long learners. There are a lot of people who will help us along the way. (And eventually, we...
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The Beauty and Joy of Computing (mooc), and My First Snap! Script
“The Beauty and Joy of Computing” (BJC) is a new mooc that started just a few weeks ago. Dan Garcia has been teaching it at UC Berkeley for awhile, and now it’s available on edX. Discover the big ideas...
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Saturday Morning Reads #1
I read so many good articles during the week, stuff that’s so much better than anything I could dream up. Every week or two, I’ll share some of the more thoughtful and inspiring ones on here. :) “Can...
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HacktoberFest, and Making My First OSS Contributions
All last month, DigitalOcean carried out an event called HacktoberFest. In their own words… HacktoberFest is a month-long event encouraging people to contribute to GitHub-hosted open source projects,...
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Saturday Morning Reads #2
I read so many good articles during the week, stuff that’s so much better than anything I could dream up. Every week or two, I’ll share some of the more thoughtful and inspiring ones on here. :) If...
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Saturday Morning Reads #3 (free stuff, git resources, blogging and public...
I read so many good articles during the week, stuff that’s so much better than anything I could dream up. Every week or two, I’ll share some of the more thoughtful and inspiring ones on here. :) Gift...
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Yes! My kids are finally old enough to help fix their own toys!
When you’ve got kids, every issue is more important than the last, and everything needs immediate attention. A snack, some juice, a game on the top shelf, a stuffed animal left out in the car. Missing...
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How (and why) I built my kids a bunk bed instead of buying one
Last summer, my wife was looking to reorganize the homeschool area of our living room. We had a few smallish book cases lining the wall, all different colors and sizes. They were beat up, shelves...
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Must… resist the temptation…. oh, for pete’s sake just MOVE OVER and let me...
One of the coolest things about being a parent is getting to teach your kids something new. A new game, a new skill, something they didn’t “get” before. It’s a bit of immortality, in a way. Imparting...
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Building a Model 4-Stroke Internal Combustion Engine (your car explodes gas...
Garage sales are great for finding random, interesting things to do with the kids, usually for dirt cheap. Unless you run into one of those garage sales where everything’s only 5% off the original...
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Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi 2
I got a Raspberry Pi 2 for Christmas, and finally took it for a spin this weekend… just as the community is getting ready to celebrate the Pi’s 4th birthday. After using it for a few hours, here’s what...
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Learning Python for the Raspberry Pi
Once you’ve connected the peripherals, installed NOOBS, and gotten your Raspberry Pi up and running, pat yourself on the back and take a moment to bask in the glow of the large raspberry on your...
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A Tail of Recursion in Erlang (a C# developer’s observations)
A group of us at VHT has been meeting weekly, reviewing some Erlang basics and running through examples. Even though it means giving up a lunch hour, over a dozen people have still been showing up to...
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“Hello World” for the Raspberry Pi (Making an LED Blink)
I finally unboxed my Pi a few weeks ago, and since then I’ve been learning some Python, which is the primary language of the Pi. You can do fun things with it out-of-the-box, like running and modifying...
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How to Access Your Raspbian Desktop on the Raspberry Pi from Another Computer
When I want to play around with the Raspberry Pi, I typically end up on the floor in front of the TV (my “spare” monitor). I’m surrounded by HDMI and LAN cables, a power adapter and mouse/keyboard...
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Building a Morse Code Transmitter on a Raspberry Pi
Last week, I made the Raspberry Pi blink an LED a few times. As thrilling as that was ;) I almost immediately wanted something more. That led me to… Note: Source code for this project is available on...
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Using PullUp and PullDown Resistors on the Raspberry Pi
When you start out creating circuits with the Raspberry Pi and its GPIO pins, there’s an unexpected but important concept to understand, called “floating”. A Simple Circuit Imagine you’re creating a...
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Being a Judge for Believe in Ohio 2016
I had the opportunity to judge the Believe in Ohio competition again this year. If you’re unfamiliar with it (it’s only the second year), high school students from around Ohio come up with new ideas...
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Generating Morse Code on the Raspberry Pi Using a Button on a Breadboard
Last time, I created a morse code generator. It took user input from the console, translated it into morse code, and blinked an LED to “transmit” the message. I decided to build on that a bit, adding...
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How to Flash an LED on Your Raspberry Pi When You Get New Email
This week we’ll create an email notification system using the Raspberry Pi. The idea is to check for new email, and flash an LED when we get one. Connecting to Gmail The circuit will be extremely...
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