TechnologyIQ

Education: Meet the Megaprocessor: A 20kHz behemoth CPU you can actually see in action via Extreme Tech Ever wanted to climb inside a computer and watch all the parts to their thing? The Megaprocessor might be one way to do just that. James Newman looked at all the computerized miniaturization around him and thought differently. He wanted to see how the computer worked at the transistor level so he blew up the computer by 100 times so he (and, thankfully, we) can see the sweet goodness of every bit, every byte, every ad, every register and more as it runs programs. You can get a tour of the Megaprocessor in this video where Newman explains how it all works — and even plays a game of Tetris on the computer while you watch the blinking lights. Read the entire article

Here is a cool project for your private or public makerspace/hackerspace. This porthole was originally designed to solve a specific problem, but it would look cool almost anywhere. Motion sensors detect when someone approaches the door and opens the porthole, then close it again when the person has passed. While the porthole is cool, you can probably think of a hundred other shapes, uses, and designs that would be just as cool -- or even cooler! Door Iris Porthole is the Perfect Fix for Detroit Hackerspace via Evan's Techie-Blog At i3Detroit we had a door (as seen it the scrolling, scaling web 2.0 bliss that is i3’s main page [just go to the wiki for important stuff]) that frequently got opened into groups of people standing by the front door.  The groups stand there because despite this door always having existed someone decided that a good bottleneck for people is right there, in the way.  Other hackerspaces have paperwork filled out elsewhere in their space, p...

I have been thinking of just such a display (or something similar using Neopixels) and this gives me a great starting point. I love passive information delivery and this makes the upcoming weather so clear. I also had thoughts of building something similar for commute times, as my wife and son drive over an hour to college each day. (She is  a professor and he is an incoming freshman at the same school) Knowing the current commute conditions can help them be aware of those days they need to leave earlier. I would probably be building my project with Arduino and not Raspberry Pi, but a lot of the logic and design could be quite similar.  The creator has some nicely designed icons and also provides the API links to access the NOAA resources he used for the weather data. There’s even some great info on how he created the cabinet and mounted the LED Matrices. Very nice. Raspberry Pi based weather forecast display from caternuson Displays the weather forecast for the next four days as...

Update (July 8, 2016): CANCELLED due to scheduling conflict. So sorry, but we will reschedule this event in the next month or 2. -- Douglas I’ll be presenting this kid-friendly Arduino session this Saturday, July 9, 2016 @ 1 pm at Meltdown Comics. Meltdown Comics 7522 Sunset Blvd. LA, CALIF 90046 USA 323.851.7223 [ Map ]    What is an Arduino? What can it do? Arduino Microcontrollers are tiny, palm-of-your-hand-sized customizable computers that you can make do amazing things -- but how do they work? At this session children will learn how Arduinos perform their technological "magic" by becoming part of one. Dive inside the Arduino as you become the individual components of the board and act as various sensors and displays. Run a program processing data, inputs, outputs, writing to displays and more. Move bits and bytes around the room and develop a deeper understanding of what happens at the microscopic level of the Arduino. You'll make the Arduino come alive a...

I came across the “ Soldering is Easy ” comic book in my internet travels and learned quite a bit in a very short time. My soldering skills have never been the best, so it's great to have an easily accessible resource in such a fun format. What a friendly way, too. to introduce kids to soldering concepts and help them jumpstart their own electronics projects. Even better — it’s available in 22 languages, so everyone can get i on the fun. Check it out! Download “Soldering is Easy” in PDF format from MightyOhm  

This shield has me quite interested and it might just drive me to pick up and Arduino Uno so I can play around with it. As I have mentioned before, I love connecting my projects to the outside world and this shield does that and more. I think it is a great idea to make use of the sensors we already have in our smartphones to expand what out Arduinos can do. This could be a great way to repurpose an older Android phone. Click through to the iSheeld web site for more information, including a video to get your started.  1Sheeld (Android shield for Arduino) Imagine an Arduino Shield that can be configred to be an LCD, GPS, Wuifi, or any shield you may think of! 1Sheeld is a new easily configured shield for Arduino. It is connected to a mobile app that allow the usage of all of Android smartphones' capabilities such as LCD Screen, Gyroscope, Switches, LEDs, Accelerometer, Magnetometer, GSM, Wi-Fi, GPS …etc. into your Arduino sketch. Basically, our product consists of two parts. T...