[Opinion] My introduction to Arduino

I began writing a description of the Arduino unit and then I decided theirs was better.  

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. - http://arduino.cc/en/

While looking at all the fun stuff on the website http://hackaday.com/ I noticed a pattern.  So many of the titles had Arduino in it.  Figured I would see exactly what it was an wow, a prefabbed unit desigend for people to build all sorts of goodies.  

Now its my turn.  I am thinking I want to start with what has been done, and then move on from there.  My first goal will be to use SiriProxy and my iPhone to control the temperature in my home.  Using VPN, I believe I will be able to adjust the temperature even while I'm on the road.  So for those weekends away, I can leave my heating down to a bitter 55ish degrees and when I'm on my way home, I can adjust it remotely and have it nice and warm by the time I pull in the drive.

Yes, I do realize that I must be a huge geek for being excited about this, but for those who were thinking the same thing, me being a geek that is, is only because this type of action isn't mainstream yet and you haven't had time to take it for granted.

I am truly intrigued at all of the projects popping up using Arduino, Microsoft's Kinect, and other setups.  The possibilites are endless and the platforms have already been developed and handed to us in a nice shiny box!

Time to get my learn on.  Fortunatly for me, my best friend is an electrician by trade, and he can expect that I will be hounding him about all sorts of basic electrical questions.  Capacitors, voltage, 

[Personal Note] The Walking Dead on AMC

I have just recently found a fun past time in AMC's The Walking Dead.  It's the first show that I know of on this subject.  Although post apocalyptic shows are nothing new to this fan, such as Battlestar Galactica, it is nice to have an ongoing zombie story to look forward to.

It's about the lives of several survivors who are living in a zombie-infested reality.  I was super stoked to find this on Netflix, yet it only wetted my appetite.  I was forced to download the remaining series to catch up.

Now I thoroughly await seeing the new episodes.  If you like zombie flicks, then you too may enjoy this one.

Lion update

I see it's been a while since my last post. Now that I've been using Lion for some time now, I can speak more about it.

Of course there are the common rants about Lion. Rosetta is a big one, but that's not really Apple's fault, they gave developers plenty of time to update their software. This causes people to grumble about having to spend more money to buy newer versions of their applications. But did you have to update to Lion in the first place? It was a well known fact that Lion didn't support Rosetta anymore, so if you upgraded and don't want to spend the cash, time to roll back that install to good ol Snow Leopard. SL is still a great OS, nothing wrong with sticking with what works. If it aint broke...

I really hated the resume feature of Lion personally. When I restarted my computer or application, I did it to clear the work space, not so I can continue with the mess I had before. If that was the case, I wouldn't have restarted. Of course there are plenty of applications that can solve the resume problem and even some command line tweaks if you are a do it yourself kind of person. TinkerTool (http://bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html) for example is one of many applications that can help you rid your self of a few "features" of Lion and tweak a few other settings. For just a resume fix, try Resuminator (found on OSXDaily.com - http://bit.ly/v0xRev).

Speaking of OSXDaily.com, if you are a Mac or iOS (iPod/iPhone/iPad) user, then you should visit this site often for a ton of great tips, tricks, and news.

I have recently acquired an iPhone 4S, so my trusty Captivate went to the Mrs. Which leads me down another rabbit trail. Got to remember to send my old Captivate to a trusted kernel dev for that platform. But back to the 4S for a sec. Now I get to learn how to use Siri, which is supposed to make my life so much easier. Hoping to wire my home into my network so I can use Siri to adjust my lights and temperature from the couch and the road by just asking about it. Thanks Siri Proxy Devs (http://bit.ly/u8wFCC). I'll post more on that in the future.

Guess it back to work time, so in case I don't get back to you all, have a merry Christmas everyone!