Recently I worked on a project where I needed to receive DMX commands into an Arduino. All I had on hand was a Tinkerkit Master DMX shield. I wasn’t able to find a whole lot of documentation on how to read DMX with the Tinkerkit shield, as the shield is primarily designed for transmitting. After digging around a bit on the net, I was able to make it work. DMXSerial seemed to be a solid library that I wanted to use in my project. DMXSerial uses the hardware serial port on the Arduino to ensure proper timing. ... Read more

In hopes of helping a few fellow PC builders, I ran into a very odd issue the other night while helping a friend install Windows 7 on a new PC. I created a bootable Windows 7 SP1 USB drive using the handy Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. I popped the flash drive (a Sandisk Cruzer) into one of the USB 3.0 ports and entered the BIOS settings. I configured the boot settings for using the Cruzer as the first boot device and rebooted the machine. Still smooth sailing, the machine jumped into the Windows installer sequence as expected. After I clicked the “Install now” button, all of a sudden I was greeted with the message “A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing”. Just for reference the motherboard I was installing this on was an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX r2.0. ... Read more

Well here we are. The Post-PC era. At least that’s what we’re led to believe nowadays. I’ll admit…I’m only 21 years old, but already I’m beginning to miss the common act of picking out custom PC components, building out that bad-ass system, and configuring my software just right. I don’t think that part of me will ever die, but it’s quite evident that times are changing. Younger generations have definitely not had the same exposure or experience with computing. A lot of people are saddened by the fact that younger generations may never have this opportunity. That it’s a generation being handed an iPad without an explanation of how any of it works. ... Read more

This is a reminder. A reminder for myself to always come back to when I’m facing a difficult decision about what I want to do with this life. Time is short – none of us are long for this world. The time we are given is just but a tiny sliver of all human history – past, present, and future. The key is to make the most of this time. Of course making the most of time is both a relative and subjective goal. ... Read more

Let’s sync some files In my quest to find the perfect cloud syncing and storage service, I’ve been trying out all the big names (Dropbox, Google Drive, Skydrive). My current setup relies on storing all my data in my Dropbox folder and then backing this directory up locally. Most recently I decided to give Google Drive a spin (caveat: I’ve only used it on OS X so far). For many, one of the most appealing reasons to use Google Drive is the pricing. $5/mo for 100GB and $10/mo for 200GB. For myself, I already use a lot of Google services so it made perfect sense to use Drive. ... Read more

I’ve been thinking a lot about cloud computing and storage lately. Moving to the cloud scares me. But at the same time, the convenience of having my files everywhere and always in sync is too good to pass up. Although I’ve been using a multitude of different cloud services, I’m still searching for that perfect solution where I still have control of my data. I recently received my Raspberry Pi in the mail, which I was really excited for. I stayed up hours on end the night of preorder availability, bashing my F5 key in hopes of getting a hold of one. Yes, I eventually got my preorder in, but not after pulling close to an all-nighter and feeling like a zombie the next day. Worth it. ... Read more

Digging deep within the abyss that is my hard drive, I stumbled upon a file named “Blog.txt” earlier this week. A file I had completely forgotten. 40 pages of 11 pt text that essentially summarizes my life from 2003-2008. Migrated across multiple versions of my very first HTML site I built and eventually gave up on. Scrolling all the way to the bottom I see my very first entry. “Today I started my blog. I’m sure a lot of you have no idea what a blog is so I’ll tell you now. A blog is a place where I post what is going on with me and my server and stuff like that. I might tell you what I ate at different times of the days, If my server is all messed up and I have no idea what I’m gonna do, and whatever I may have on my mind. Well this is it.“ ... Read more