• Category Archives Computers

  • Imagine a life with no computers……ahhhh……bliss…..

  • Pi Weather

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Here is a somewhat intriguing use for a Raspberry Pi computer.

    https://www.tindie.com/products/tmhrtly/airpi-kit/

    The AirPi is a shield for the Raspberry Pi which can automatically provide information to the Raspberry Pi about temperature, humidity, air pressure, nitrogen dioxide levels, carbon monoxide levels, the current light levels and noise levels. Our open-source code then takes this information and automatically uploads it to a online database.

    The main problem is that it costs about twice as much as the computer it’s mounted on, but putting that aside, I think its a great use for a single board computer. Interfacing many sensors to a cloud computer (ie, database via the Internet) is a pretty neat use. It can just sit there and do it hour after hour, day after day.
    Perfect for a single board computer. Low power, low maintenance, low processing needs.

    Am I going to buy one?
    No.
    None of the sensors it has would be all that useful to me in my house.


    Computers

  • Light Paper

    Posted on by beno Comment

    This company has figured out how to print paper that lights up when a voltage is applied to the sheet.

    http://www.fastcolabs.com/3038890/rohinnis-lightpaper-is-incredibly-thin-and-printable

    How would you use light if it was paper-thin and could be applied to any surface anywhere? When Rohinni CMO Nick Smoot asked me that question, I was pretty stumped at first.

    But he’s already figuring it out. That’s because Rohinni has developed a form of what it calls Lightpaper. It’s a way to print lighting and apply it to nearly any surface, in any shape, and for any situation.

    “With Lightpaper it’s more of a platform of light that we don’t even know how it’s going to be used,” explains Smoot. “All we know is that we’re trying to unlock the ability to create light.”

    I love that they have no idea what they are going to do with it….
    Sounds a bit like a solution looking for a problem to me….

    Anyway, I was a bit disappointed that there are no technical details about it at this stage, how much voltage does it need, how efficient is it and so on.

    That said, I can see it being used to come up with some really sweet mood lighting in a home.
    If it can come in other colors and its affordable, I’m all over it.


    Computers

  • Just to be clear as glass

    Posted on by beno Comment

    So, to be clear. I am not going to edit my last blog, it can stand, but I think I can see how I might have written it a little to fast (me? excited?) and made too much of a joke at Apple’s expense.
    Just to be super clear. You don’t NEED an iOS app to make Google Glass work. It works just fine with no app and the web interface. It was always Benson’s plan to share the Glasses around at work, my turn was first, that is all. In due course they will go through the engineering department and so on till the whole place has had any chance they want to try them out.

    Moving right along.

    I did not get a lot of time to play with them today, it was straight down to work.
    Getting them working with our hardware and groov.

    What better task than to use Google Glass to write stuff on my LED sign?
    At the moment, they are rather limited in what they can do (You can side load ‘apps’ and get them to do more, but out of the box they can just do search, send a text and post photos/videos), so that limits what connectivity options you have if you want something going pretty quick.

    Lets get them to send a text. But where?
    Enter IFTTT.
    Benson has been watching and playing with this crowd for a while, I have not as yet, so today was my first dip in their water… And its pretty nice.
    I set up a rule that said if I send a text to them, they would write a file of the text to my dropbox.
    Mary then wrote some code for our controllers that looked at the dropbox on the computer and if it saw a file there, then move the contents of the text file into a string variable in the controller.
    It was simple then for me to take her code and tweak it so that it showed said string on the LED sign.

    I will try and make a little video of the process when I get a chance, but in a nut shell, you tell Glass to send the text. A few seconds latter the file appears in the computer from IFTTT, a few seconds after that, we pick up the file, convert it to a string, send it to the sign and then delete the file so we are ready to do it all again.
    Terrys had a blast using it tonight.
    It really is very cool.

    googleglass to led sign

    Next challenge is to go back the other way.
    Get data from the Opto controller and display it on the Glass interface.
    This could be tricky.

    All that said…. I think I am falling into like with them…..


    Computers Opto22

  • Google Glass. Again.

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    Benson at work signed up for the google glass program when it started, just today, he took delivery of them.

    Its kind of funny / sad from here.
    Hes an iOS guy. Like, hard core Apple fan boi. Its the source of endless teasing both ways, ’cause I am as hard core Linux / Android as he is Apple…. But, we both agree that you have to use the right hammer for the job. There are people where I have strongly recommended that they buy an iPhone. Its true. I have. My other boss Bob is one of them.
    Anyway, point is, we both really love our tech and are both major geeks…..
    So it was with some delight on my behalf when about an hour after getting said Google glasses, they end up on my desk.
    Reason?
    There is no iOS app for them, and they are pretty much useless without one.
    Oh, the joy.
    Anyway, I have been playing around for a little while with them, getting them on my Google account, downloading the Android app and setting things up…. Interesting.
    Im looking forward to seeing how they go a bit more.
    Yes, I have a goal. It is to get Opto gear hooked up to them. The primary way they work is with voice commands.
    So, the goal is to turn stuff on and off at work via them…. In other words, prove the value or other wise in having this ability to control stuff from such a user interface.
    I have to say, I am really looking forward to the challenge both technically and socially.

    Sad to say, they don’t hook to my Instagram account, so I have a Tumblr that I think I will be using a bit for them.
    You can find it here; http://thebaldgeek.tumblr.com/
    Stuff all on there at the moment…. give me some time….. (Im trying to decided if I should just go the hack and post a bunch of ‘Through Google Glass’ photos on there since its pretty easy to do, or if I should just post really significant stuff… thoughts everyone?)

    Also, I am trying to gauge how much interest there is in these things and if I should do a bit more of a tech blog about them and how they work etc.

    Anyway, here’s a photo of me wearing them in the lounge with my new Smart Car shirt;
    IMG_20131211_191931


    Computers

  • Brand new computer.

    Posted on by beno 3 Comments

    Some of you will know this, some of you have a life, and so this will be news for you…..

    2 Weeks back I had a gig on the East Coast. Part of the ‘tech transfer’ from a few brains to a few brains.
    The subject? DeepSea Challenger. A few members of the team got together to show the guys at Woods Hole Oceanographic how to start up, pull apart and put back together their new sub.
    Anyway, while I was there, a small human induced power surge occurred in the house.
    The end result of said surge was that the web server and LED sign went down for around 5 days.
    Once we got back we were able to take a look at it and sadly discovered that the motherboard of the web server computer was fried and same with the power supply for the LED sign.

    This was a bit of a bother since I did not really have a back up (yeah yeah).
    I have the software backed up, but I don’t exactly have a spare computer lying around like I used to in days of old.
    Anyway, the fact that your reading this means its up, and that means something happen right?
    Yep. Two things.
    Firstly, I got the old web server computer back into action.
    This is a little scary as off the top of my head I figured it was around 10 years old. It ran the web site in Buninyong for 5 years, then over here for around 5.
    A week latter, I was talking to the guy that gave me the PC in the first place, and he said that he had used it for about 4-5 years before it failed (blown capacitors on the motherboard)… This kind of freaked both of us out.

    Anyway, long story long……. I have a very generous and kind web site fan.
    A few days after getting the web site back up and running (for the most part, still got a few little odd kinks). I came home to a package.

    20131202_195035

    Not the best photos, we just used the phone (which I should really do a blog of its own about) and even then, Freddy was the photographer. But, you get the idea.

    20131202_195144 (1)

    In case you are wondering, I am taking a big sniff of new electronics!!! Yum!
    Its been so long since I have ever had a brand new shiny computer, so I just had to make the most of the smell.

    20131202_195300

    I am so very grateful for such a generous gift.
    The plan is to take the site down at some stage over the weekend and move the web server hard drive over.
    We can all rest easy knowing that the site will be running on something other than 15 year old hardware.

    The other cool thing is that I was able to bludgen the blown web server power supply into the LED sign, and its back up and running. Not that some of you need the invite, but feel free to leave me the odd polite (MattB, I’m blogging about you) message.

    (But I am still not going to throw out the old old old old PC… cause, you know, its nice to have a backup).


    Computers