C++11

I can definitively say that my favorite addition in C++11 is the fact that I can finally write this:

std::vector<std::vector<int>>

Instead of this:

std::vector<std::vector<int> >

Pimp My Raspi(de)

The summer heat gets to all of us, even our machine friends. I thought I'd give the gift of cool to my Raspberry Pi in the form of some heatsinks.

I realize it's pretty hard to mess up a heatsink, but I'm happy with these little guys. A quick before and after reading (vcgencmd measure_temp) shows a drop of a few degrees Celsius on my stock cpu/voltage Pi. 

My only cosmetic wish is that the second heatsink was more size appropriate for the LAN controller. 

Charles Bukowski, Factotum

If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don't even start.
This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. 
It could mean not eating for three or four days.
It could mean freezing on a park bench.
It could mean jail.
It could mean derision.
It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it.
And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. 
If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that.
You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.
It's the only good fight there is.

No offense Charlie, but this is complete bullshit. What is success without someone to share it with?

Tick Tock

I promised myself I would be better at making lists, so here we go.

Books Tom has read at least halfway through but not finished:

1. Clean Code
2. The Ruby Programming Language
3. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
4. The Art of Computer Programming: Fundamental Algorithms
5. The Pragmatic Programmer
6. The Algorithm Design Manual
7. Understanding Comics

Things Tom has plenty of:

1. Stress from working on Master's thesis
2. Stress from looking for enjoyable employment
3. A great girlfriend
4. A dog that thinks she is a human
5. Interests

Things Tom will do this summer:

1. Finish thesis work
2. Find employment
3. Complete 50+ Project Euler solutions in at least three different languages
4. Write some audio effects for Mixxx
5. Finish the Raspi/Arduino controlled treat dispenser website for Lisbeth
6. Create a tiled screensaver/installation of public IP cameras using GStreamer
7. Finish the work I started on a granular synth for Buzztrax

Things Tom does not have, at all:

1. One focused interest
2. Free time
3. A pet Grue
4. The new Boards of Canada vinyl (why did I order from overseas...)

Aaron

Finally got my Spring 2600 issue, this was the opening article. I wanted to share it but couldn't find an electronic version so I apologize for the scan quality. 

Aaron's passing definitely hit me hard. I never even knew the guy, but I feel like I did. Same age, the same interest: Learning/Growing/Fixing.

Raspberries and Dremel Tools

The official camera module for the Raspberry Pi was just released and I received mine a few days ago. I've had an idea for a neat case for one of my rPis and this was just the kick in the pants I needed to follow through on it. Plus it was nice to get away from my thesis work for a bit.

Backstory: One of my goals for the next few weeks is to get a tracer bullet for a side project involving a  raspPi, an Arduino, a camera stream, and a doggie treat dispenser. I plan to run a Node.js server on the rPi that hosts a game (HTML5/libGDX) starring none other than my dog Lisbeth. If the player wins the game, the rPi will tell the connected Arduino to dispense a dog treat from a servo-driven treat dispenser.  The site will also have a live stream of Lisbeth, who will be alerted by a sound when the game is started. For the bullet a simple "click to win" resulting in the servo turning will be enough for me.

I never purchased an official case for the rPi, wanting to do something creative on my own. I toyed with the ideas of putting together a Lego case but those are all buried away in the depths of my childhood, somewhere far away in the countryside of northern Indiana. A quick search of my apartment provided me with the perfect specimen, an old Panasonic mono boombox (complete with a New Kids on the Block sticker).

I ripped the guts out and went ballistic with a Dremel tool. The rPi sits very comfortably in the back, while the Arduino takes the place of the cassette up front.

I power my rPi through a powered USB hub which I attached to the back of the boombox. Throw in some purple LEDs controlled by the Arduino and we can call it a day!


I'm very pleased with the camera module. I was able to set up RTP streaming from the rPi to my laptop using GStreamer1.0, but haven't been able to embed a stream as of yet.

Booming

I have a problem with collecting things. Some might call it hoarding, I call it electronic adoption. One of the items I am constantly on the lookout for is a boombox. You know, those huge clunky 8+ D-cell battery monsters from the 80s. Awkward to lug around, audibly intrusive into other's bubbles, and built around a physical form of media that is all but extinct in the present day. I find it interesting that the image of a boombox is still an icon in today's graphics, and recognizable to those kids who have never even used a cassette tape. Kind of like the floppy disk icon still being used as the universal "Save". But anyway, on to the point of this post.

Some of these boomboxes were built with TVs inside of them. The model I find most often like this is the Emerson XLC-450.

In actual boombox levels, it's a pretty weak contender. One thing going for it is a line-in option, but this guy pretty much just sat on my shelf gathering dust until I started to read up on possible ways to utilize the TV screen for some cool visual stuff. There are plenty of tutorials around the net on how to turn an old TV into somewhat of an oscilloscope, so I figured why the hell not. This will be the third of these models that I've modded this way, so I decided to document the process.

DISCLAIMER: I am not any sort of electronics expert, and honestly am surprised that I didn't blow something/someone up in this process. Attempt at your own risk.

So a CRT display basically works with two coils. One coil moves the electron beam horizontally, the other coil moves it vertically. Looking inside this boombox we can see these coils, with four wires leading up to them.

Two of these wires control the horizontal coil, two control the vertical. By trial and error you can find the pair that controls the vertical coil (disconnecting the vertical coil will result in a horizontal line on the screen, and vice-versa).

What we're after are the pair of wires that control the vertical coil, which are then resoldered onto the horizontal coil. This is because of the vertical frequency 60Hz, as opposed to the horizontal of 31500Hz, gives us the output that we're after. Switching the wires around the other way (horizontal coil wires stay put, input on the vertical coil) gives a horizontal line that just moves up and down with the input signal. At this point we're ready for some input! I simply split the right channel into the vertical coil. Feeding in a square wave gave me this as output:

Not very impressive so far. If you look around the board itself, you'll see several potentiometers that control the various properties of the screen. (SERIOUSLY: Be careful about poking around in there). 

I'm sure these vary from TV to TV, but by twiddling around with different positions of the pots I eventually got a nice solid horizontal line across the screen. The only thing left to do: dim the lights and play some tunes!