I’ve just taken delivery of a device, which I believe, will mark the end of the paperback book as we know it: the Amazon Kindle. Electronic books aren’t exactly new. E-readers of various types have been around for some time now – but never before have they had quite the flexibility & performance of the […]
Electric Cars – tomorrow’s technology…
I’m about to buy a new car; and with a bit of luck it’ll be the last oil-burning vehicle I ever own… But what it won’t be is an all electric car. Before I go on, a few disclaimers. Firstly I’m not any kind of tree-hugging hippie – in fact I am what might be […]
Shift Register
Whilst you have quite a few outputs to play with on an Arduino board; sometimes there won’t be enough. One way to get around this is with the use of a shift register. This is a brilliant way to output eight pin’s worth of outputs – using just three pins. What’s more – it’s a […]
Introduction to Arduino…
Something that I really want to write about here, is Arduino. Arduino, if you’re not familiar with it, is a really splendid, simple, low-cost, open-source micro-controller based board, originally created to be an easy to use platform: specifically to permit “designers & artists” to create projects with embedded micro-controller devices. There’s a really good introduction […]
Ed Roberts (1941-2010)
I was saddened today to hear (albeit rather belatedly) about the death of the some-time pioneering micro-computer engineer Ed Robterts. Roberts died on 1st April 2010: aged just 68. Roberts’ creation, the Altair 8800 was, arguably, the most important personal micro-computer ever made. It was the machine that made the dream of a personal computer […]
iPad delays…
Wired is now reporting that Apple have now said that the iPad won’t get an “international” (i.e. European) release until the end of May 2010. This is somewhat disappointing news for Apple fans on this side of the Atlantic. Apple cite spectacular sales figures in the US as the reason for the delay. Keeping people […]
Why iPad isn’t a laptop killer…
There’s been a lot of comment about Apple’s new iPad – much of it very positive but not universally so… It’s Cory’s point that I want to talk about here. Before I start, I have to “declare an interest” (as it were) – I am an Apple fanboy; I admit that – but that doesn’t […]
Well, it is called “Random Thoughts”…
It’s called “Random Thoughts” – so I figured maybe I should start out with something genuinely random (though I’m not sure you could really call it a thought!), courtesy of the folks at random.org. 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 […]