Author: iopadmin

  • The Giving Tree and An Arduino Clock

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    When we bought our house we hired an electrician to install ceiling fans and lights. He worked, worked, and worked. My illusions of electrician’s work dissolved. Their work is a great deal more like laying bricks than solving equations. Oddly, the truth for electricians is also the truth for electronics. Nearly two years after starting,…

  • Wiring an Arduino to a Five-state Guitar Switch

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    I am rebuilding my Arduino-based data collection system. Named the RIMU for some long-forgotten and pointless acronym. My old one used a momentary switch—a button—to change which sensor is displayed on the LCD. It is awful because if the Arduino is busy when you push the switch then nothing happens. I’m fixing it with a…

  • Chutes and Ladders Infinite Loop

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    I play Chutes and Ladders with my kids sometimes. It isn’t a game of skill. Many months ago I was involved in a game that went on and on and on. As soon as someone would get close to the end he or she would land on a chute and be shunted nearly back to…

  • Monsoon

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    In the desert it almost never rains. I know, you know. When I lived in upstate New York, in my foolish youth, I bought a motorcycle in the beginning of April. I was anxious to learn to ride. Too bad, because it rained every day for an entire month. Now I live in New Mexico.…

  • The Spiraling Shape

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    The Spiraling Shape will make you go insane Everyone wants to see that groovy thing –They Might Be Giants The chambered nautilus is sometimes called a living fossil. It is the closest living relative of the ammonoids, and cross sections of its shell are familiar to every adult in the western world. Most kinds of…

  • Ear Tips for Noise Canceling Headphones

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    Most people have never tried in-ear headphones. They get ear wax on them, so to don’t share well. Wearing them on stage, musicians can hear their own instruments without going deaf. Since musicians use them for performance in-ear headphones are also called monitors, just like the speakers that point toward the band from the front…

  • Some Curious Micrographs

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    We have an old microscope and a camera adapter for it. Occasionally we dig it out, and light some small stuff up. Several weeks ago my son’s science workbook had a multiple choice question, roughly “which of these would look different under a microscope” salt in water sugar in water pollen in water An experiment…

  • Typefaces

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    Updated February 5, 2014 to correctly display the LaTeX screenshot, minor prose edits, and added discussion of font styles. I do not know if you have a favorite font. I do. I really like Microsoft’s Calibri font because it is very readable on screen and paper and it looks professional. With that in mind, it…

  • In Youth and Beauty

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    I bought two pieces of art to hang from my son’s elementary school. I loved them immediately. The abstract tiles where done by my son’s 3rd and 4th grade class. The tree was made by a 1st and 2nd grade class. Both pieces of art are really lovely. The tree has a cool property, like…

  • Arduino Flickering Candle

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    Update December 24, 2013: Mokus refined his code so that the distribution is now well-behaved (nearly normal) and the PSD no longer turns up at high frequencies). The plots and post have been updated to reflect this change. He will push code to the same link as available. In my previous post on Candle Flame…