tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85725981544078625872024-03-05T04:01:00.302-08:00Crazy dreams and ProjectsProjects in electronics, robotics, ham radio.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-77765633437001301802012-10-20T19:01:00.000-07:002012-10-20T19:01:20.370-07:00Quick thoughtsSo, I am actually kind of impressed right now with radioshack and how they are really making an effort to start offering some more high quality tools for makers. They have this whole "pro line" set of soldering tools which actually look like they don't suck. Personally I actually use a radioshack iron because at the time it was what I could afford, and just never ended up upgrading. I did pick up a tip cleaner from them today, which is the ball of copper instead of a sponge. It looks like it is a nice addition to my tools, and well worth the investment to not have to deal with a crappy sponge for cleaning the tip of my soldering iron. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-487194350599705322012-01-07T19:54:00.001-08:002012-01-07T19:56:29.032-08:00Reichard magic<div><div><p>I got in my ALES shop the other day and am now starring on construction.  Yes I know I still have to post a build log for the other glider. But today I got the springs for the pull-push system and the horizontal stabilizer mount installed.</p>
<br/><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhks_q_WY5Ch14t-vehufUtuXG3SVgOiv5cUoEatTdhyphenhyphenwmgeADY-xRfTirOS1n-jcINLQreKfQq6zJVbWW1xfAej6qG-QHx_zzqrtaE97JFsv2XDX7AbABw58XXqhSrpX-E8dqchjz9W2rR/' /><br/><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjoKEgx9eab_6aUO29RULk_YIaRDXyTDseY7ffz4lLCt0wnrtTtFi7qhEJvvde1tQU09n7oD4jrkEGNjCEbFK4JsunNFTc9eEY0c6x3QNYPBXhuRKc7iQqFajDBAooGFsaHUuiuLuoCIi/' /></div><br/><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxxlaZVv3pZox-HRypoPny_xGHxyZwaXi97qjHB7kglmbXK6cRLBz9Fe2vEJxtF24S7K-ePLCYnxan-cJt1281z7EQfMF68WesTeFQnZ9SDoatWo7QC3ykDExI522GcPK6rDLOsKGRMQXu/' /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-2288952193362663242011-07-18T04:52:00.000-07:002011-07-18T04:53:00.744-07:00impressive buildFound this interesting http://www.totalgeekdom.com/?p=572Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-22335436149701710612011-07-12T18:45:00.000-07:002011-07-12T19:00:10.216-07:00Homework and DARPASo one of the homework questions that I had for my 'knowledge based systems' course got was about the major AI contests which kind of got me thinking a bit about why not smaller challenges. While there are some things that will only ever be answered by the large and expensive grand challenges, there is another aspect that is lost with them. It is important to note that participation in these projects like the DARPA grand challenge or DARPA urban challenge is a very exclusive thing and requires large interdisciplinary teams. While much good can come of this, I think there is also some harm in all the focus being placed on these projects. <br /><br />First, a large portion of academia in unable to participate in these challenges. While my college has a graduate CS program, we lack ME and ECE programs, which would obviously be required for these projects. Additionally we are not a tier 1 university, but instead focused on professional development. However that does not mean that non of the students have anything to offer to hard problems, and by alienating so many smaller colleges and universities we loose a large portion of potential minds that could work on some of these problems. <br /><br />Another problem that I see is that many of these research groups, because of the huge financial input into the problem, are likely to take risks on outrageous ideas. Sometimes these are critical for making breakthroughs, or even just seeing that another legitimate solution exists. <br /><br />So why not mini challenges? What I see is that the Maker/DIY/Hacker community has incredibly sophisticated tools, everything from arduino, beagleboard, Digilent FPGA boards, Android devices, and the Kinect. As an R/C enthusiast I also know that we have quite sophisticated platforms. So it does not seem like there is a technical reason not to fund small teams of 2-5 individuals, probably university students, with a standard platform to perform some given tasks in a scaled down challenge. <br /><br />In addition to the additional mind share working on the problem I think some other huge things will come out of something like this. First, we will see more people with sophisticated AI backgrounds graduating from ALL colleges and universities instead of just the elite ones. This is great for companies that might want a low cost/risk way to explore some of these ways of solving programming problems. <br /><br />Additionally I think we will see one huge impact if standardized and smaller scaled hardware is used, that of massively filtered data. One of the great things that the human mind does is filter at various levels. Why can we not use the same ideas in AI to take real world problems and simplify them, but still come out with satisfactory results?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-71049378483751164232011-07-03T05:54:00.000-07:002011-07-03T06:06:25.078-07:00ADK adventureLast night I tried working with the USB host shield on the arduino and ran into a number of problems. It seems that the version of the USB Host Shield library that is distributed with the ADK package does not work right on linux. This is kind of annoying. I then spent some time mucking around with version two of the USB host library, since the author notes that the first version is no longer being developed. It appears though that this is a major rewrite of the library, and in no way compatible with the androidAccessory library. I did manage to get the authors quality control test program functioning after correcting a case sensitivity issue. <br /><br />I am now playing around with this again (yes, I am that thick headed) using the most recent copy of the first version of the library available on github. I also ran across this blog post which may be a tad helpful.<br /> http://marioboehmer.blogspot.com/2011/05/android-adk-with-standard-arduino-uno.html<br /><br />Lets see how this all works....<br /><br />And it works. I thought I tried that last night, but sometimes things just work so much better after a nights sleep and starting over. Using the version from github works while the one from google does not. I connected it to the full version of the demokit android app, I will now add in some hardware and see what happens.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-27177886426626056582011-06-28T08:11:00.001-07:002011-06-28T08:11:40.011-07:00so this looks like an interesting read.....http://www.aosabook.org/en/index.htmlAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-50293373723975824392011-06-25T13:38:00.001-07:002011-06-25T13:38:49.096-07:00cool things to play with sometimehttp://wiki.processing.org/w/Android<br /><br />and obviously<br />http://openkinect.org/wiki/Main_PageAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-9493954283624084192011-06-08T09:51:00.000-07:002011-06-08T11:38:22.391-07:00Pair ITSo I had read an interesting article (http://pragprog.com/magazines/2011-06/pair-programming-in-a-flash) over the weekend about pair programming. I have done a bit of pair work with Ron, but not terribly much. It seems like a potentially great idea, especially if you can mix junior and senior level guys together, there is a great deal of learning that can happen, and it is a great way to mentor. <br /><br />The interesting thing however that I thought of today is that most of my pair work is not while coding but with deploying servers. Over the last few months I have been more involved in helping set up webapp servers in conjunction with our IT department. The observation I had is that we are essentially doing paired IT, in much the same way that the pragmatic guys are saying to do paired programming. My observation is that paired IT for deploying webapps is a very good way to do things. Things move very quickly using this technique, and there is very little down time working with new services that have to be deployed. I think one of the keys here is also the combination of people involved. IT is obviously IT, with little programming experience, but a wealth of background in managing servers and networks. Then I am a programmer with a decent background in server technology. That combination I think leads to an effective pairing, where the task can be approached by two people with differing views. The other advantage I notice is that when things go wrong it is in many cases a much shorter troubleshooting period, since having a developer right there means that looking at stack traces is more fruitful in many cases than it is with only IT personnel looking at it, or having to send it to a developer. Obviously this still happens since I am often not the developer for the project being deployed, however I think having that combination of skills is a great way to pair in IT. <br /><br />So, here are some guidelines I think might be useful:<br />- Deploy new services/webapps in a pair<br />- One member of the pair should be from IT and the other from webops or development <br />- experiment with ideas singly, not in pairs<br /><br />So, I think this is just as good of an idea as pair programming, and can really make deployments fairly painless and quick.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-48148489148381087052011-05-15T09:03:00.000-07:002011-05-15T09:16:24.784-07:00ADK compiled for android 3.1I got the ADK compiled for android 3.1. The way it is written is targeted at 3.0 with an additional library. The general instructions and ADK can be found here http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/usb/adk.html <br /><br />First, remove line 10 (<uses-library android:name="android.hardware.usb.accessory" />) from the androidManifest.xml file. Now we must change DemoKitActivity.java.<br /><br />The imports for USB must be changed from com.android.future.usb.... to android.hardware.usb....<br /><br />In line 128 and 139 change:<br /> UsbAccessory accessory = UsbManager.getAccessory(intent);<br />to:<br /> UsbAccessory accessory =(UsbAccessory)intent.getParcelableExtra(UsbManager.EXTRA_ACCESSORY);<br /><br /><br />Line 152 must go from: <br /> mUsbManager = UsbManager.getInstance(this);<br />to:<br /> mUsbManager = (UsbManager) getSystemService(Context.USB_SERVICE);<br /><br />Now I just have to wait for my USB host board to come in so that I can play with some stuff....Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-40680007370890154092011-05-14T14:24:00.000-07:002011-05-14T14:28:46.105-07:00lots of stuffWell, been a long time since I updated. Well, have some new tech toys, particularly a tegra 2 powered tablet. Which just got an os update today, which should include host mode USB. That will be great. I also ordered a usb host shield for the arduino. I am really looking forward to playing with some physical devices hooked up to the android device. I now just have to learn to program for android......<br /><br />Also have all of the functional construction done on my Mountain Models EVA. Hopefully if the weather is nice next weekend I will get a chance to hit the field. We shall see.<br /><br />Also am moving to a new place with tons more room on June 1st. I am really hoping to have some dedicated workbench/lab space setup for doing embedded systems type stuff with arduino and android devices. We will see how it all works out, but there should def. be more room for working on projects which ia always a huge plus.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-2610166258767851692011-04-13T16:46:00.000-07:002011-04-13T18:19:26.680-07:00AntlrSo I have started playing a little bit with Antlr, specifically using antlrworks. I was originally going to learn MPS, however Antlr seems like a possibly better choice. It seems that it can generate python as well as java parsers. Obviously I am most interested in the python ones. <br /><br />http://www.dalkescientific.com/writings/diary/archive/2007/10/30/antlr_mw.html<br /><br />This seems to be a good article that I am starting to work through.<br /><br />http://www.antlr.org/wiki/display/ANTLR3/ANTLR+Cheat+Sheet<br /><br /><br />Some notes:<br />need the python library from http://antlr.org/download/Python/<br />- requires 3.1.3 version of antlr, will not work with the newest version of antlrworks<br />name of file must match the grammar name<br />the language can be specified like(defaults to java):<br />options{<br /> language=python;<br />}Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-36166779593105723852011-03-09T05:21:00.000-08:002011-03-09T05:23:35.842-08:00Well, havent posted anything in a while. I have been too busy with school and work and all of that normal stuff. But I did pick up a 8-bit AVR based game console/dev kit. I am hoping in a few weeks to dive into that. I also want to use the n-gon code I wrote to help implement astroids on the arduino. I think that would be fairly cool, and will learn a great many things. Just have to get through some school stuff first.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-66010968249229385042011-01-03T05:17:00.001-08:002011-01-03T05:20:45.106-08:00n-gonSo this weekend I wanted to use the ST7565 display with the arduino to draw a rotating cube, but decided to start in 2D first. So I did a rotating n-gon, which just showed how distracted and out of practice I am with C. None the less, it works, for the most part. Here is the source, pictures to follow later.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">point.h:</span><br /><br />typedef struct{<br /> int x;<br /> int y;<br />} Point;<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">arduino sketch:</span><br /><br />#include <ST7565.h><br />#include <math.h><br />#include "point.h"<br /><br />#define BACKLIGHT 10<br />#define n 4<br />//n as in n-gon<br /><br />ST7565 glcd(9, 8, 7, 6, 5);<br /><br />static Point p[n];<br />static Point center;<br />float theta=30; <br />//due to error the smallest usable theta appears to be<br />//10 degrees, 15 is even better. anything lower and the steps are uneven due to <br />//rounding.<br />float c_t; //cos of theta<br />float s_t; //sin theta<br />boolean persist = true;<br />float distance;<br /><br /><br />void setup(){<br /> Serial.begin(9600);<br /> pinMode(BACKLIGHT, OUTPUT);<br /> digitalWrite(BACKLIGHT, HIGH);<br /> p[0]= (Point) {40, 10};<br /> p[1]= (Point) {80, 10};<br /> p[2]= (Point) {80, 50};<br /> p[3]= (Point) {40, 50};<br /> center= (Point) {60, 30};<br /> <br /> glcd.st7565_init();<br /> glcd.st7565_command(CMD_DISPLAY_ON);<br /> glcd.st7565_command(CMD_SET_ALLPTS_NORMAL);<br /> glcd.st7565_set_brightness(0x18);<br /> theta = theta*(3.1415/180);<br /> s_t=sin(theta);<br /> c_t=cos(theta);<br /> <br /> glcd.clear();<br />}<br /><br />void loop(){<br /> distance = sqrt(pow(p[1].x-p[0].x, 2)+pow(p[1].y-p[0].y, 2));<br /> Serial.println(distance);<br /> <br /> if(persist==false){<br /> glcd.clear();<br /> }<br /> for(int i=0; i<n-1; i++){<br /> glcd.drawline(p[i].x, p[i].y,<br /> p[i+1].x, p[i+1].y, BLACK);<br /> }<br /> glcd.drawline(p[n-1].x, p[n-1].y, <br /> round(p[0].x), p[0].y, BLACK);<br /> glcd.display();<br /> <br /> for(int i=0; i<n; i++){<br /> p[i]=rotate_point(p[i], true);<br /> }<br /> delay(500);<br />}<br /><br />Point rotate_point(Point _p, boolean clockwise){<br /> //c_t is cos(theta) as a global to reduce computation<br /> //s_t is sin(theat) as a global to reduce computation<br /> //center is a Point, which represents the local origin the point <br /> // will rotate around<br /> float x = _p.x-center.x;<br /> float y = _p.y-center.y;<br /> if(clockwise==true){<br /> _p.x = round((c_t*x)-(s_t*y)+center.x);<br /> _p.y = round((s_t*x)+(c_t*y)+center.y);<br /> }else{<br /> _p.x = round((c_t*x)+(s_t*y)+center.x);<br /> _p.y = round((c_t*y)-(s_t*x)+center.y);<br /> }<br /> <br /> return _p;<br />}Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-16388238701079872662010-12-19T04:03:00.000-08:002010-12-19T04:08:36.545-08:00Well, I created a simple block shooting game using the arduino, wii nunchuck, and LoL shield. This is one of the first times doing multiple tabs of arduino code, and learned that the prototypes are only created for the original one, not all the rest. It is a pretty nifty but simple game. I am thinking though, that after I show it to some of the devs at work I will try rewriting it for the ST7565 LCD display that I got. I think that will allow me to make some more complex scenes and maybe make a space invader like game. <br /><br />I may also try to do a version of pong for the LoL shield sometime. That could be nifty.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-83451141092002850622010-12-10T16:57:00.000-08:002010-12-10T17:00:19.629-08:00Well, my NXT needed some repairs today. The display was acting funny, as in not working. After some research it turned out that some of the caps needed to be resoldered. Wasn't too bad even though they were SMDs. <br /><br />And I found what might be the perfect board for a biped robot. The leaf lab maple, with an arm cortex cpu instead of an 8 bit avr. And it has a modified arduino environment. I think that might be perfect for some of the more complex stuff that I will do with a biped. So may order that and the lynxmotion BRAT sometime in the next month or two.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-17608960931363207852010-11-26T20:32:00.000-08:002010-11-27T06:28:59.855-08:00Randomness<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lWiM37QFagNzYeG88qr67YC1jKOsS_bSNiH0PwCAZ3IkjbWob_XgOos48DBu2Oz6MahWvFnmsRyJfOOKrHoNpXMn5H5LrIOykPK2LnEgjK-YUhKgDqs9IeAmc1xZEWbuim0fgXxBIj1Z/s1600/img_0706.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lWiM37QFagNzYeG88qr67YC1jKOsS_bSNiH0PwCAZ3IkjbWob_XgOos48DBu2Oz6MahWvFnmsRyJfOOKrHoNpXMn5H5LrIOykPK2LnEgjK-YUhKgDqs9IeAmc1xZEWbuim0fgXxBIj1Z/s320/img_0706.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544236381461499090" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ePTxVo3s8M7BSlwtGOT-gzw15F4sgUJW2kHlXOgVtdCCFEQ37F2AXen_vjXkzDduLWqgCnRaVDQ2rrFslZQa-ofwu5A7MMgw7v3MJCV26Gd1fyG7M6OvHWsugsY1D4H6bWNpK7KybncF/s1600/img_0700.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ePTxVo3s8M7BSlwtGOT-gzw15F4sgUJW2kHlXOgVtdCCFEQ37F2AXen_vjXkzDduLWqgCnRaVDQ2rrFslZQa-ofwu5A7MMgw7v3MJCV26Gd1fyG7M6OvHWsugsY1D4H6bWNpK7KybncF/s320/img_0700.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544236131151005778" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF_8LiZltMVNXyy5jq_XB5k-IUJ67VauvdCqs-_HQvZMgKAwFEV1OWkk-IYPsrWUuSIug0MFt6oTet4-kTcw-hQ8kb65LpaPDAjRyOBa2rztG_4gUdPERDS0wuE8J3UvQCPw77wPxh9KBF/s1600/img_0712.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF_8LiZltMVNXyy5jq_XB5k-IUJ67VauvdCqs-_HQvZMgKAwFEV1OWkk-IYPsrWUuSIug0MFt6oTet4-kTcw-hQ8kb65LpaPDAjRyOBa2rztG_4gUdPERDS0wuE8J3UvQCPw77wPxh9KBF/s320/img_0712.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544083835716735634" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WrWJ77Ahwxbn89dvX_R1En7U_74mxzQF1uG3XxufNE1weANryXbGAsHqnJxhY6WjTxTE5PLpvMmsQymtUAVs8zgUxWzck3ZRWTns3h6A3m6HrPYy1oL04TsnbBXdPbQ_pYYBTLGErxG0/s1600/img_0713.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WrWJ77Ahwxbn89dvX_R1En7U_74mxzQF1uG3XxufNE1weANryXbGAsHqnJxhY6WjTxTE5PLpvMmsQymtUAVs8zgUxWzck3ZRWTns3h6A3m6HrPYy1oL04TsnbBXdPbQ_pYYBTLGErxG0/s320/img_0713.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5544083525764445842" /></a><br />This is real randomness.... Matt and I today built a pendulum system based on the instructions from Make Magazine. This allows for both a double pendulum and a Rott's pendulum to be configured. Here are some cool pictures from the pendulum.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-81207486368332476912010-11-25T05:22:00.001-08:002010-11-25T05:56:40.421-08:00LanguagesA talk with my boss yesterday about programming languages got me thinking a bit more. Why is it that some languages become mainstream while others remain obscure or academic? Part of this is languages have to be 'cool enough' to be worth while. By that I mean by the nature of programmers they want to either work on something very cool, or use a very interesting tool. Most have a domain that they are passionate about; for me that is computational biology and artificial life. However many of us don't work within their domain of specialty. (like for me I don't have a PhD, so the jobs are very rare) So if a programmer is working on problems that are not in themselves exciting what gives them drive?<br /><br />I think that the answer is the tools and techniques that they can apply to the problem. As an example, I do not find web technology in itself to be particularly thrilling. I recognize that it is one of the most important technologies around currently, and changes the whole way client server interactions take place (REST interfaces are beautiful). However, something happens when I am using an interesting tool like Python, and test driven development. I get excited when I get each test to pass. It is no longer a matter of focusing on the web technology, but now I focus on the tests, and it becomes a game where my score is the number of unit tests I can get to pass. I think many people who program are the same way. They want to play with cool technology, but also don't want to relearn everything. <br /><br />Since they become productive with one set of tools, they are reluctant to move out of that unless they really have to. If a developer is a java expert, and is given some problem that is more amenable to a perl or python script, and they do not know perl or python already, they will likely solve the problem in java instead of taking this as a chance to learn a new tool. In many cases they will just 'get it done' with the tool that they know and are comfortable with. However over time this leads to situations where the tool that they are expert with is no longer the current industry fad, and they have passed up all these small chances to delve into a new tool. For an individual developer this doesn't mean too much, but as an industry it means that fewer developers are willing to adopt some other tool at any given time point. Thus leading to a problem of how to find enough developers proficient in a new technology to actually use it. <br /><br />The other side of the coin I think is managements perception of 'academic'. Software companies exist to produce a product, and to make money with that product. To do so the product has to work well enough that users actually want to buy it. This leads to the importance of code quality and maintainability and long term service. However to most managers it seems that academic means more whimsical programming, code that is all throw away, and does not have strict quality standards. This very well might be true in the language design labs, or OS labs, where things are proof of concept. However, outside of these areas things change very much. Go to a physics/engineering/genomics/applied math group and likely the situation is very different. <br /><br />For one investments in equipment are taken seriously, and in many cases specialized instrumentation that interfaces with computers may be kept for decades in use because of prohibitive costs in obtaining new equipment. In such cases any custom code written for that instrument must work, and must be maintained over a long lifetime by different people. Additionally there are high stakes if there are errors in the system, as it could invalidate all the research done with that equipment. Costs of reagents are high, and rerunning experiments could be a huge financial drain on a research group. However such systems are generally on the smaller side of programming projects in academia. <br /><br />Consider the case however of the code base used for working on grand challenge type problems. Here code quality is probably more important than in most companies. A team might spend months writing code for their scheduled run on a supercomputer. If their code doesn't work they have to essentially buy more time and wait again for their run to come up. This is not the time to find a null pointer exception. So these things have to be written by teams quickly, robustly, and in a manner that is is maintainable, just like commercial software. However, because of the huge complexity of many of the problems the overhead in learning a new language for a project is just not that big of a deal if it means that the problem goes from impossible to just barely possible. <br /><br />Thus I think commercial software houses should look not to the CS departments for what is up and coming in languages, but to applied math, physics, bioinformations/computational biology groups. Right now this seems to point to Python, Scheme, and R.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-65056120416897553792010-11-21T19:30:00.001-08:002010-11-21T19:39:18.077-08:00Glider timeSo last week I finally got my first R/C glider. I picked up a Dream Flight Alula. It is a simple side arm launched glider. Not a full DLG, but it is a nice step in that direction. It is all foam and carbon fiber, and went together really nicely. I put in a couple hightech servos I had kicking around, but will probably put in some good spectrum digitals once my skill with it starts to exist. <br /><br />I had my first flights with it Friday at lunch. Some mishaps caused a broken nose, however that was easily repaired and a couple small strips of strapping tape now add some more support. I went out again today to the high school fields, and got a good number of flights in. I didn't manage to catch any thermals, nor was I really expecting to. However I did get some good launches in, and a few flights that I would say were even a bit graceful. This glider looks so good in the sky, because of its somewhat bird-like appearance. I also was able to figure out a few things that needed to be changed, such as some sub trim on one of the servos. I now have it set up better, with a bit of reflex dialed in, and both elevons trimmed out right. <br /><br />I also painted the hatch cover gun metal gray, which looks very nice. I am thinking some bright green spray on the wingtips will add a bit more color and help with orientation. However, it flies great, and I am happy. <br /><br />My night vapor did not fly so well today though. I am figuring it was the cold air being blown across the battery by the prop, since that is completely exposed. I made a small battery sock which will hopefully fix that issue. I will try that out sometime during the week hopefully.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-29167991753985919112010-11-10T17:26:00.001-08:002010-11-10T17:30:18.674-08:00Well, today was semi productive. Got my phone rooted at lunch time. Kind of nice to have a clean slate, as it was starting to get a lot of crud in it. Will be nice to play with different things. Although I don't think I will be a heavy modder.<br /><br />I also got some flight time in with the night vapor. It is getting cold out. I probably need to invest in one of those radio hood things to keep my hands warm. But it was still good to get a little flight time in as I didn't really get much on Sunday due to a bad crash. Still need to finish fixing the tail of the super cub. Think it might be getting close to to time for another large aircraft. Another BNF whileI build the trainair 20.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-14339112833922260522010-11-08T05:40:00.000-08:002010-11-08T05:43:19.644-08:00New toyI picked up a livescribe pulse pen a couple weeks ago for school. The desktop software doesn't work on my vista system, which is a shame, but it does however work great on my laptop running XP. This is a really cool thing, as it links lecture audio with my own notes, so I can go back and review material later on while working on problems. I hope that it helps make things a bit clearer in these math classes. We shall see if it was worth it.<br /><br />On a side note, I now have enough space to dedicate a small area to my electronics projects. I am hoping taht keeping my tools and whatever project I am working on out that I will be able to move quicker with them and do stuff more often. Again, this remains to be seen.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-15264302082250376042010-10-14T17:37:00.001-07:002010-10-14T17:38:17.553-07:00Yeah, the night vapor is the perfect after work plane. It is great to be able to get in a little stick time even though it is dark out so early, and that I don't always have time to make it to the field.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-50724114960197305652010-10-08T18:54:00.001-07:002010-10-08T18:58:06.922-07:00Bad R/C dayWell, today wasn't my best day flying. I few the lil' squirt in the yard, and ended up in a tree. I had to use a basketball to get it down, so that caused some damage. Mostly easy to repair, but still, not idea. Thinking I should get a second one, just to have another airframe. I like it, it is a great small field plane, though I tend to fly it in too small of a field. Second time I have tried flying it someplace too tight and ended up in a tree. So think I need to treat it better and fly it at a park. Also seemed like it really needed a good trimming too. So maybe will do that. And just stick to using the night vapor in the yard. Sadly the wind picked up so it wasn't much fun to fly that tonight, so brought it down fairly early. Didn't want to have to get that out of a tree as well. And this weekend will be too busy to make it to the field. Maybe next weekend I will be able to.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-40996214125661546052010-09-23T18:44:00.000-07:002010-09-23T18:48:37.422-07:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdyoQLDtbeZfqBVDpk8dglk8z_9ibx_dTO-Yg8zgD8aIlAMODgwfTYInXzHDj4QmURaGkVOeZx5JR_pMMw9NE1si8yJg0tfp7dj7iqJJw-dg-KB2SVmfY42lKdXhhbBWDc1uRuMXFsgfqc/s1600/IMAG0025.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdyoQLDtbeZfqBVDpk8dglk8z_9ibx_dTO-Yg8zgD8aIlAMODgwfTYInXzHDj4QmURaGkVOeZx5JR_pMMw9NE1si8yJg0tfp7dj7iqJJw-dg-KB2SVmfY42lKdXhhbBWDc1uRuMXFsgfqc/s320/IMAG0025.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520291016724603122" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-dw_myn9ecR_m2hd9gsFMQrxOdncbDZ-D8O1JSBWv_Qo9bPVs3vvwL4hM1QFfpUkmn1UHwB7lzcjPj_FJNTtyVVkMNt7Td2EqAPapxGfuLe8gkcb9lUZkY42j07JqUkLF4we6xRtJ0MW/s1600/IMAG0024.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-dw_myn9ecR_m2hd9gsFMQrxOdncbDZ-D8O1JSBWv_Qo9bPVs3vvwL4hM1QFfpUkmn1UHwB7lzcjPj_FJNTtyVVkMNt7Td2EqAPapxGfuLe8gkcb9lUZkY42j07JqUkLF4we6xRtJ0MW/s320/IMAG0024.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5520290918901733074" /></a><br />Well.... I am back from Europe, and back to building. Had a great trip, just wish it was longer I could have flown a free flight model in the park, would have been different. <br /><br />I ordered some free flight model kits, which came in today. Also got the parts to finish my Matt Chapman flatout. Hopefully can finish that this weekend. But got the build of the Retro RC skyace done today. I just have to do the finish on it. Will look great with some neon green. Will have to get some colored sharpies. But damn it is so tiny, i love it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-13021506978696225832010-09-08T19:20:00.001-07:002010-09-08T19:22:32.009-07:00Pictures from Fly In<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bn-CG15DNedg9AX-UordigxnrDPchaA6DJ0RYvtUKDPUDiu4o15lj-_8IX-AwVByUn93WzGyQyvZSUyVXoIYdc8f2kz3QgcpKXslrgDDgBRJhfK0uTUuaYiS2jH7qOXPHaFWCmmKoWJb/s1600/IMAG0019.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bn-CG15DNedg9AX-UordigxnrDPchaA6DJ0RYvtUKDPUDiu4o15lj-_8IX-AwVByUn93WzGyQyvZSUyVXoIYdc8f2kz3QgcpKXslrgDDgBRJhfK0uTUuaYiS2jH7qOXPHaFWCmmKoWJb/s320/IMAG0019.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514733389881580066" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfPzkrAN9H5SWkP8bVua2wBw4ISwyyMTB9yGtlBEwCxgsZ1qiwoqay83grhyJME_6yhrh4zkwaU8ZVkKEL8_HdMQUMOhee9SVrfOFaEs4YP3I4B-hZNi843Npp4oZOM0xUc6o9rERrt5ty/s1600/IMAG0018.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfPzkrAN9H5SWkP8bVua2wBw4ISwyyMTB9yGtlBEwCxgsZ1qiwoqay83grhyJME_6yhrh4zkwaU8ZVkKEL8_HdMQUMOhee9SVrfOFaEs4YP3I4B-hZNi843Npp4oZOM0xUc6o9rERrt5ty/s320/IMAG0018.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514733283577050562" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYmnqrU5daR8tdRrbjlIqemNVB6kICqHX8TuX35zwyj_uocHpCFJvXb2tWoj6JjHkhcEbYpzXgb6FeHb2RbAujywF3h46ij94v2bTDC4kxaO1ikstwvjbkdnHPd45VME4Pr8jQ0wcF1Gj/s1600/IMAG0017.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYmnqrU5daR8tdRrbjlIqemNVB6kICqHX8TuX35zwyj_uocHpCFJvXb2tWoj6JjHkhcEbYpzXgb6FeHb2RbAujywF3h46ij94v2bTDC4kxaO1ikstwvjbkdnHPd45VME4Pr8jQ0wcF1Gj/s320/IMAG0017.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514733129791132274" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB6ohKC0ZHHrgxn5X0hzPl0jlM7U9ga0zavnd9IZF4AFpmu3j5zHyqjCEC8YrWOxgw4JfKm-ldS7g2SYBOoA0_UMGyuawjtuRV0_9TSqoI98bBOXHsf5IprjOi7B0gnMIbdCsW2bfxVbFv/s1600/IMAG0016.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB6ohKC0ZHHrgxn5X0hzPl0jlM7U9ga0zavnd9IZF4AFpmu3j5zHyqjCEC8YrWOxgw4JfKm-ldS7g2SYBOoA0_UMGyuawjtuRV0_9TSqoI98bBOXHsf5IprjOi7B0gnMIbdCsW2bfxVbFv/s320/IMAG0016.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514733005059572594" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8572598154407862587.post-69242266892006384582010-09-08T19:08:00.000-07:002010-09-08T19:19:13.898-07:00Poor P-51<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGm3j1FuzgNMoXi_EJtn5_qxJjqA_mmfY9qEKM20wAJIf26p0B-H7ZfqWo4N5oMI2lojAxBEFuHwidnHputugeBNV_0C17uv9_x6m9MGYBKDiZVUcT0gLx6DNfbjzdiSPac6icb1cXluYE/s1600/IMAG0022.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGm3j1FuzgNMoXi_EJtn5_qxJjqA_mmfY9qEKM20wAJIf26p0B-H7ZfqWo4N5oMI2lojAxBEFuHwidnHputugeBNV_0C17uv9_x6m9MGYBKDiZVUcT0gLx6DNfbjzdiSPac6icb1cXluYE/s320/IMAG0022.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514732461343150018" /></a><br /><br /><br />I got in the light set for my ultra micro P-51 and realized that the stabilizers were damaged severely, beyond repair. I will hopefully be able to pick up a set at R/C Buyers tomorrow. I also realize that I really need to go through all of my batteries and figure out which are still good and which need to be tossed, and then get a bunch to replace the bad ones. Probably go with the 150 mah ones from Common Sense R/C as they have a nice form factor compared with the e-flight 150mah batteries. <br /><br />I also got all of the tape covering on the Gremlin. It looks good, except it has way too many wrinkles. I hope some come out when shrinking with a covering iron, but still, not the best covering job in the world. But, it should fly, and that is all that matters since it will be my first combat event. Hopefully I can get some experience before then.<br /><br /><br /><br />And two aircraft I really want, the Quickflick II DLG and the E-Flight UMX Beast. I will probably pick up a Quickflick in the next couple months to build. But the beast is so pretty, and impressive. The new receiver brick seems like something I should consider getting as well for a foamie or something. So many aircraft to build. I am trying to stay away from the ready made stuff, but some of the eflight and parkzone stuff is just perfect, especially the ultra micros.... hopefully one day I can build stuff just as good. Easiest might be a kit for the Plantraco hardware as a first ultramicro build. And then a foamie for the new spektrum brick. So many possibilities.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07259542945083113570noreply@blogger.com0