It’s almost my turn to present my video this year on December 13th, for the 2023 Festive Tech Calendar. I chose to do something fun vs. something about the cloud or databases, etc. This blog post has all the support info on the spinning Xmas tree, along with the RPI playing Xmas music and flashing Xmas colored lights, while the video goes into everything about the Raspberry Pi, why contribute to this year’s event donation and my project demo. Project Goal To use a Lego Xmas tree, attach it to a DC motor and use code with a Raspberry PI…
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So since I already complained about what I hate about tech from a diversity and culture perspective, I felt I needed to explain all the things I love about tech and why I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Everyone would expect me to start with databases or virtualization, but I thought I’d keep everyone on their toes and start with my favorite programming language- PYTHON! 1.Timed Pauses, Stops and Waits Sometimes systems are just too fast for humans. It’s important to have proper delays between tasks so that people are able to interact or systems are able to respond…
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So one of the things I like to do is test out a lot of my python gaming code, (as far as for the coding and syntax) on my Oracle Virtualbox image of my Raspberry Pi. Another great thing about building games on the Raspberry Pi, is a built in module called Pygame. Well, that doesn’t exist on the Raspberry Pi image and it really limits what we can do when it comes to the VNC build we play on the Oracle Virtualbox, (that’s a mouthful… :)) Get Outside Access The first step is to first get out to all…
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Back on August 7th, the RMOUG’s Quarterly Education Workshop, I walked everyone through using a Pibrella board to create an art or flyer project that was powered with a python script and a motor. Today, we’re going to take that same code and reuse it with a simple robotics kit to control power and rotation speeds/time to the Insectoid. This kit, puchased from the Go! store in Flat Irons Crossing mall, was $16 and can be built in less than an hour, even for a small child. If you’re interested, you can also purchase the kit online at Amazon, but…
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So I don’t doubt that many parents are bleeding out money for kid’s school fees, supplies, clothing and other demands this time of year. How many of you are in their local Target, Walmart or other store and after filling the cart with the necessary, the kids eye up the toy aisle and start to ask for something? Even teens are not immune and may be asking for games. If you could turn around and say to them, “If you want the game, then why don’t you build it instead of buying it?” Now as many of you have figured…
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There’s an old joke about the evolution of a programmer. It starts with the programmer in their infancy and typing: Print “Hello World” and so the output returns: The programmer continues to evolve. His coding knowledge increases and his code in the end of his evolution becomes a script of 5000 to 10,000 lines. What does the output return? You guessed it: I often joked that I’d make a terrible developer. I over think everything, but the truth is, I may have just evolved too much and need to devolve to improve. There used to be a sign up on…