Baby Don't Hertz Me

As the ranks of embedded system developers swell with the hobbyists and amateurs, the question of simplicity versus precision is coming up more regularly. Should we learn to use Arduino? Should we learn to use ARM? My simple answer would be learn both but as with most technological dilemmas the answer is never that simple. In my education I have been forced to use an ARM based micro-controller. Being tossed into a complex development environment was really great for me as a developer. I have always been enchanted by embedded systems and this experience allowed me to sink my teeth into a design problem. Designing a hardware and software solution in one clean package is satisfying. Before beginning this comparison I would like to say that I am not looking at advanced tools for ARM like NXP's Processor Expert or other tools that simplify the design process. We will be comparing unassisted development of Arduino vs ARM. Simplicity Arduino UNO, one of the more commonly ...

Despite usually being an auditory experience music can also come with an equally wonderful visual experience. With everybody and their dog trying to make it big on YouTube there has been a massive emergence of beautiful music videos. There are some fantastic live-action videos but for this list I am looking at animated videos only. I even decided to save you all the convenience of having to search for the videos or going link by link and made a YouTube playlist. IF you do want to thank my just comment your favourite video. You can find the playlist here . I will also link the titles of the videos to their respective clips. 10. She Wants Me Dead by Cazzette This song makes it on the list but just barely. I like the song and the music video is pretty good. I remember some kids shows I used to watch having a similar art-style.  9.  Jenny by Studio Killers This is the song I found to discover the Studio Killers. I like some of their other songs but this one ha...

No time to blog (I am in blue). I shall start by apologizing for vanishing from the face of the earth (or at least my blog) for three consecutive weeks. One of my favorite hobbies is judo, an Olympic grappling sport that originates from Japan. I have been competing for many years and was given a spot on the Francophone Games Team. Ironically I am an anglophone attending the Francophone Games. This being said I am bilingual (english and french) so I am at least able to communicate with the locals while I am there. It was my best international result so far which has me excited but I am still sad that I didn't medal. I went 3-2 for bronze and only lost to other Canadians who are going to senior worlds in a few weeks. From a technological perspective the Ivory Coast is an interesting topic. Africa has tended to lag far behind in technology which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The lag has allowed for some rapid jumps to newer technology. At least in the city I was in (Abid...

This past week at work I finally had a reason to sit down and start learning how to use Git. So far this summer I have written large amounts of code for a control system which will be used to perform antenna and RF testing. One of my room mates (and coworker) is currently working on a massive software project which is really cool. I don't want to talk to much about it since it is a work in progress but he suggested I start using git for version control. I was hesitant at first since my system for version control wasn't too bad. BUT I don't regret learning to use git. Hopefully I can have my him talk about his software project in the coming weeks. Upon starting using GitHub to host my repository I decided to take a look around and see what I could find for interesting software. So I decided to compile a list of my top few repositories currently available. Passwords for the Manly Man Creating passwords can be hard. Creating secure passwords can be even more diff...