Arduinos on the way with another J and it’s OK

The title is a Pharcyde reference, incase you’re a square.

Fueled by my dear old friend OCD, I have been pondering for months on what I could do with an Arduino. It should arrive TODAY along with an assortment of components from SparkFun.

The projects I want to dive into are a bit too advanced for a microcontroller n00b, so I will humbly learn to crawl first. Always embrace the role of the rookie, because you have to be a rookie before you can make fun of them.

I have two very kick-ass one-of-a-kind binary clock designs but I don’t want to give them away and then see it a week later on one of my favorite websites. It’s MINE. Besides, talk is cheap.. let’s get that pretty little PBC fired up first.

BenHeck, CircuitGirl & TheUnknownLobster

The man : the game mod legend : a king among geeks : (drum roll) : Ben Heck has pretty much finished his insane Bill Paxton Pinball Machine.

This project will not be officially complete until I see Mr.BigLove himself step up to those buttons and give it a go. I’ll bet he would gladly autograph it. It’s not like every D-List celeb gets immortalized old school arcade style.

I also bet the only woman in the entire planet that will truly appreciate that thing is Miss Pinball herself, Miss c64… (drum roll) Circuit Girl. Lately she’s had a thing for roasting Peeps with volatile substances and a blowtorch.

I know, I know, but come on. How are you going to have a hacker / mod related blog without inducting these two? Cut me some slack.

Just to balance things off a little, here’s a young rising geekster with the skills to pay the bills. This video is a resume unto itself, but far more enjoyable than any resume could be. Even tech-tards will enjoy that one

Hello World.

From the TI-994a to the MacBook – from Pong to Xbox, I’ve been along for the ride. I may be getting old, but gadgets are getting better.

So, it’s time to quit procrastinating and make a tech blog. The plan is to update daily with articles and tutorials that I normally find, as well as my own articles/reviews and documenting my ongoing projects. Eventually I’m sure to expand the site to have other functions, but I’m not going to worry about that right now.

I’ll figure out how to add images and banners later. Just click the links for pop-ups of related material. There is a corresponding youtube channel for the sake of hosting videos, but there will no facebook, myspace or twitter. I don’t want to know what you had for lunch, I don’t want to be poked and we ALL have an upcoming album. Sorry, I’m just worn out on that fluff. I just want to make stuff.

Speaking of fluff : I can’t help wondering about this thing with the Apple programmer who lost the super secret new iphone while drunk at a bar. If anyone knows how to create media hype before putting out a new product, it’s Apple. Leaking that phone out only helps them and the website that exposed it. As much as I love the Apple products I have, they are like the Madonna of electronics. They’ll ban their own shit just to make you want it more.

If you hadn’t heard already : Israel banned the iPad. No, I’m not kidding. They will confiscate your shit at customs if you try and bring it there, and then charge you a “storage fee“. Apparently it does not conform to their WiFi regulations, and have to wait a few more months for their own special model to be released. (or maybe their government just wants to make a New Official Version of their territory map on google.) Zing!! ok, ok, no politics.

I had hoped this was going to rival the much hyped iPad but it seems to be annoyingly sluggish. It’s still being worked on so I shouldn’t count it out quite yet. This is the same company that recently released a very promising multi-touch portable gaming device called Odroid. Just a few of the details off the top of my head : WiFi; internet browser, HDMI out; lots of built in flash; SD expansion; accelerometer; developer boards, the works… and open source. Delicious.

They sold these units rather quickly and there’s been no word on the website about putting it back in stock anytime soon. I hope they don’t a have a Pump N Dump philosophy, because the engineers are obviously capable of making a kick ass product. Whatever the case may be I hope someone gives that limited iPad a run for it’s money soon.

I always say :  Don’t ever buy a first generation product.