technology

Arduino biofeedback and brain wave projects

A week ago or so, a friend of mine told me about a game called Mindflex where you can use your brain waves to control a styrofoam ball. Ever since then, I've been wondering if you could do something like this with an Arduino.

This video shows an attempt at doing that:

Here's a link to that video:

By Alvin Alexander on October 6, 2012

iPad base stands (including a 2002 iMac G4 base)

Summary: A look at iPad base stands.

For a while now I've been interested in finding an iPad stand that I can use in my kitchen. The idea is simple: If you're cooking something healthy, it takes a little time, so I'd like to be able to put my iPad in a stand and listen to Pandora or a show on Netflix while I'm cooking, or cleaning the dishes.

By Alvin Alexander on February 1, 2013

Arduino projects and information

(The following content is from an email I sent to a relative about the Arduino. They have a college-age student who we might be interested in this.)

The programmable electronics kit I showed you is named "Arduino". Here's the main URL: arduino.cc

Here are links to some fun Arduino projects:

By Alvin Alexander on September 9, 2012

If Facebook owned Netflix

For a long time I've thought the Netflix UI/UX sucks. Their designers don't seem to understand how I want to use their service, they just seem interested in promoting their "You might like this tv show or movie" algorithm. I keep thinking about buying their stock (which just tanked again to $60), but then the thought comes into my mind, "They're enamored with their algorithm and architecture, but they don't understand UX or social."

By Alvin Alexander on July 28, 2012

Charts of recent tech stock IPOs

With the Facebook IPO coming up this week, I thought I'd take a quick look at recent IPOs from other tech companies. These charts generally show the early months after an IPO.

With thanks to Yahoo for the graphics, here are the charts:

Angie's List:

CafePress:

Google:

By Alvin Alexander on May 15, 2012

The difference between Twitter Daily, U.S., and World trends

As I've mentioned before, I recently wrote a series of Twitter scripts (such as this Scala Twitter client example), and the most recent version of these scripts sends me an email with the current Twitter trends. If you didn't know it, there can be a significant difference between various "Twitter trends", including these:

By Alvin Alexander on November 1, 2012

Amazon Kindle eBook cover specifications (height and width size requirements)

I'm in the process of publishing my second eBook for the Amazon Kindle, and one thing that's currently hard to find on the Amazon website is what the eBook cover height and width size specifications are. You can currently only find this information when you get ready to publish your book.

So, as a brief public service, as of May, 2012, here are the Amazon Kindle eBook cover height and width specifications, courtesy of the Amazon KDP book publication website:

By Alvin Alexander on May 4, 2012

Hey, there are 226 Flash cookies on my computer

Flash and web privacy FAQ: What are "Flash cookies", or "Flash super cookies"?

A few weeks ago I wrote an article on Web browser privacy, security, and Flash cookies, and as I was just correcting a few mistakes in it, I noticed this line:

When I first installed Better Privacy, I found a whopping 226 Flash cookies (LSO files) on my filesystem.

By Alvin Alexander on March 21, 2012

A simple Arduino Uno LED fade program

Shortly after writing my Arduino Uno Hello, World example, I read my documentation a little more, learned that Pin 9 on the Arduino Uno board is an analog pin, switched the LED wire to that pin, and created the following program, which slowly lights up the LED using an analog programming approach, and then fades the LED light out.

Here's the source code for my LED fade sketch:

By Alvin Alexander on August 13, 2011

An Arduino Uno Hello, World program

Last night I finally got some time to work with my new Arduino Uno board, and created a little "Hello, world" program. This program is just the same "LED on Pin 13" program I see repeated in every book and on every website, but it really is helpful when you're struggling to get started with the Arduino hardware, like I was.

By Alvin Alexander on August 13, 2011

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