I then started thinking about how to really put my ideas out there for the sake of.. well.. putting them out there.  I’ve always struggled with the notion that I have too many different areas of interest to contain them in one place.  I fractured my personal and professional writing interests into two separate and segregated locations.  I have a post that has sat in “draft” purgatory for well over a year that outlines the dilemma that created this segregated stream of thought.. and how I wanted to merge my split identities back together.  I don’t know that my next move will do much to resolve this, but I digress…

I have the following semi-discrete areas of interest: electronics design, coding/programming, music (listening and creating), and general encounters and insanity from my own life.  I also find that I spend a great deal of time taking pictures and want to share that as well.  If I ignore my professional stream of consciousness (secondary education), this puts me in a “holy shit, that’s four different things with possibly four different audiences…”.  The dilemma continues…

I find that this blog has always been my engine that could.  A place where I wrote.. well.. whatever, and didn’t give a shit what anyone thought.  I always found my blog’s lack of appeal to others to be frustrating, yet this lack of appeal was self-introduced by the fact that my stream of consciousness is a textbook definition of ADHD and that I can seldom start and carry through with any one idea I’ve got.  This is where my blog will end — a series of ill-conceived thoughts and a scrambled set of posts that, in all fairness, accurately represent my own thoughts.

If you’ve been reading this blog, I thank you.  This blog isn’t going to die completely — merely undergoing a massive transformation.  More information to come

Thank you, and good night.

So, I’m sitting here after having written a few very short (and annoyingly meaningless) posts about things that I have yet to do and am wondering why the hell I’m writing again?  So, here’s the short version of “what’s up”, even though I’m sure few (if any) of the following items will even occur.

• I am in the process of making a list (and checking it twice) of all the things that need to be backed up on my laptop.  I will be reformatting the machine to get both of the following: a better partitioning scheme, and a dual-boot environment where I can stay in linux and occasionally drop into Windows if I need to.  I’m sure our IT guys will hate me for it.
• I am in the process of gentoo-izing an old machine.  I was surprised that it took so well to my pci wireless card.  +1 for them (ubuntu and debian hang and crash because of this card)
• I wanna (really wanna) start up my arduino madness again but alas, this is the item that will get dropped.  Stupid life getting in the way.

I’m also going to massively screw with my website (where you’re reading this) and hopefully some good will come of it.  More on that later.

ciao… gentoo is ready for me to kick ass!

More soon…

So, while the rest of the “GeoGebra” discussion is suited for a different place and time, the fact that I’m about to dive in and use Inkscape for real this time is definitely relevant HERE.  I have very few thoughts for or against the software.  I find it’s the one I often install, never open, then uninstall a month later when I’m trying to declutter my machine.  They seem to have a decent set of tutorials online.. the documentation is rather weak.  Still unsure.

Then again, it is open source and appeals to me from that angle.  We’ll see.  Could be fun!

Attention Dear Beneficiary,

How are you today? I write to inform you that we have already sent you
$7000.00 usd dollars through Western union as we have been given the
mandate to transfer your full compensation payment total sum of
$2.7Million USD,via western union by this government’s was calling your
telephone number to give you the information through phone but you did not
pick up my calls through out that yesterday even this morning.

Now, I decided to email you the MTCN and sender name so that you will pick
up the $7000.00 usd to enable us send another $7000.00 usd today as you
know we will be sending you only $7000.00 usd per day. And it was agree
that you will pay the sum of $98usd before they will release the payment
to you.

Please pick up this information and run to western union to pick up the
$7000.00 usd and call Director of Operation JOHNSON MATTSON because he is
the person in charge for your payment so that he can send you another
payment today, phone line +234-703-124-82-30, Email

( westernunion995@gmail.com ) call or email Him once you picked up the
$7000.00 USD today.

Here is the western union information to pick up the $7000.00; which you
will be receiving your payment $7000.00 us Dollars immediately you sent
them their transfer charge of $98usd and it will serve as re-confirmation
of your file payment from the office in charge. So you are to contact them
on below

information,

www.westernunion.com
Sender First Name:ANNE
Sender scond Name:LEHMANS
MTCN NUMBERS :7763520440
Question:Who made you?
Answer:God
Amount: $7000.00 usd.

Be advice that the $98usd is a compulsory as they told me that is only
money you will pay until you receive your payment completely, and you have
to re-confirm your full Name and home address and direct phone number to
avoided any wrong deposit okay.I am waiting for your call once you pick up
this $7000.00

usd, please email me your direct telephone number because I need to be
calling you once we send any payment for the information’s.

Thank,
Mrs Roselyn Diggs.

Try to call him with his cell phone number +234-703-124-82-30 OR +2342139954

Here is the western union information to pick up the $7000.00usd.

My entertainment is derived from the complete lack of coherent English.  It’s best if you go back, read this out loud (as you’ll laugh more), then come back and read the rest.

I’m nosy — I know how to read an e-mail header and determine at a minimum where the mail servers are and, with some luck, where the email originated.  SO, this lovely piece of literary AWESOME originated in Lagos, Nigeria by way of Dhaka, Bangladesh.  On the plus side, I was glad to see that the mail server was running linux.

The e-mail address has the Russian country code on the end.

Spam is truly global.  It’s us silly dumb American’s that let it perpetuate.  I’m glad I know better.

Attention Dear Beneficiary,

How are you today? I write to inform you that we have already sent you
$7000.00 usd dollars through Western union as we have been given the
mandate to transfer your full compensation payment total sum of
$2.7Million USD,via western union by this government’s was calling your
telephone number to give you the information through phone but you did not
pick up my calls through out that yesterday even this morning.

Now, I decided to email you the MTCN and sender name so that you will pick
up the $7000.00 usd to enable us send another $7000.00 usd today as you
know we will be sending you only $7000.00 usd per day. And it was agree
that you will pay the sum of $98usd before they will release the payment
to you.

Please pick up this information and run to western union to pick up the
$7000.00 usd and call Director of Operation JOHNSON MATTSON because he is
the person in charge for your payment so that he can send you another
payment today, phone line +234-703-124-82-30, Email

( westernunion995@gmail.com ) call or email Him once you picked up the
$7000.00 USD today.

Here is the western union information to pick up the $7000.00; which you
will be receiving your payment $7000.00 us Dollars immediately you sent
them their transfer charge of $98usd and it will serve as re-confirmation
of your file payment from the office in charge. So you are to contact them
on below

information,

www.westernunion.com
Sender First Name:ANNE
Sender scond Name:LEHMANS
MTCN NUMBERS :7763520440
Question:Who made you?
Answer:God
Amount: $7000.00 usd.

Be advice that the $98usd is a compulsory as they told me that is only
money you will pay until you receive your payment completely, and you have
to re-confirm your full Name and home address and direct phone number to
avoided any wrong deposit okay.I am waiting for your call once you pick up
this $7000.00

usd, please email me your direct telephone number because I need to be
calling you once we send any payment for the information’s.

Thank,
Mrs Roselyn Diggs.

Try to call him with his cell phone number +234-703-124-82-30 OR +2342139954

Here is the western union information to pick up the $7000.00usd.

I’ve always struggled with my online existence.  It always boiled down to a rather obvious and annoying “ADHD”-like quality that I exert pretty much all of the time.  I am seldom satisfied with the status quo but tend to drift towards a never-ending thought process that creates the distractions that derail any hopes at accomplishing, well, anything.  I’ve always found it interesting that I am my own worst enemy.  While that borders on cliche, I suppose it’s true.

First, here’s a running account of my previous endeavors, their statuses, and my hopes for them moving forward.

Carduino :: I placed a sparkfun.com order this past summer for a bunch of things and laughed when I noticed my previous order from them was almost a year beforehand.  This puts my initial arduino purchase somewhere near July 2009.  I had planned the carduino project over that summer and then, as it tends to do, life got in the way and stalled the project.  It’s gone through a plethora of revisions (so much so that I installed and maintain a wiki for the project) and is becoming increasingly complex.  While I’m not worried about the 16MHz limit on the arduinos I have, I worry about the limited flash space for code.  I did pick up a sanguino kit this summer which gives more IO and bumps up from 32k to 64k flash.  With the release of the new arduino mega (with 256k flash space — holy shit!), I may try to grab one of the old MEGA’s (128k flash space) on the cheap.  Some things that have changed:

1. My main goal was to use the cassette adapter in my 1994 Explorer as a massive audio switching device (aka Carduino).  My explorer went to car heaven about a month ago and my new(er) car has no means for line or aux in (without a $70 part that would live in the trunk — I will buy it at some point).  I’ve tried those “play it over FM” pieces of crap and they are just that: crap.  I still have the goal of having the box be independent and the output be fed into whatever amplification device is present (car, boombox, etc).
2. I am toying with the idea of putting in an mp3 player kit directly in the box.  This is fairly cost prohibitive, especially since I’m putting a great deal of effort into an iPod specific cable for this project (it already does audio — need to get the power working next).
3. My new(er) car has a digital compass so my need for GPS is significantly diminished.  Again, this was a cost-prohibitive addon.
4. Every day that this project drifts on, the less likely I am to want to code the damn thing.  This is almost always the reason that this project gets shelved.  If I were smart (big IF!), I’d build the thing in pieces.  Start with basic UI and audio, then build in the larger systems.  I2C is still the thorn of all thorns in my side.

Mathiness :: I noticed in my categories snafu that I mentioned some sort of mathematical/teacherish endeavor through software.  That won’t be happening as I just didn’t care enough to make something happen.  Ideally, I would have some sort of database that would tell me which students owed me what… I find that a piece of paper in a binder that is always with me works just as well.  Call me old fashioned…

Second, I want to discuss future ideas that are floating out on the horizon for me right now.

TV Unit :: At some point this fall I will be converting a semi-broken dresser into a TV unit where the components are hidden (yay 11-month-old daughter!).  The components will be accessible from the front via the existing drawer faces (design pending) and all IR will be fed through a repeater system inside the unit.  I’m also planning a server to reside in the unit as well for my eventual subversion and media box (read below).

The Box :: I am going to put some kind of server-like box in the tv unit mentioned above.  I have two distinct needs: a versioning repository for file storage/sync, and large-scale file storage for mostly media files.  As I am low on reasonable parts for a box of this nature, this project is excessively cost prohibitive.  We’ll see on this one.

And last, here are some goals of my own (project related or otherwise).

Start it and Finish it! :: I lead off with a rambling discourse of my inability to really commit to any one project and complete it.  The carduino is a shining example of this.  I really want to finish it but get caught up in “dreaming” about what it could be instead of finishing it off for what it IS.  I also find that life gets in the way during the school year.  So, I suppose this goal is more along the lines of “I really want to carve out an hour or two per week for ME time”.  I know my wife will argue that I already have this… maybe she’s right.  I guess I want another hour or two… please don’t hurt me!

Don’t Neglect the Core :: I get cranky when I don’t work on personal projects for long spans of time (this blog post is a direct result of a long run of crankiness in this regard).  I want to commit to posting on my blog at least once a week and keeping up with that pain-in-the-ass service called Twitter.  If I’m at least thinking about things and writing them down, the fact that I don’t have enough time to really sit down with my projects will be an afterthought.  I suppose after a while I will have very little to write about and this will break… but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

Leave Work at Work :: I never understood why this was important until I had kids.  So far this year I have brought very little work home with me.  I find that I am much more productive while at work as a result (none of that “I can do it later” bullshit that I used to tell myself).  I feel like I’m a little behind in general as a result, but I’m managing.

That’s all I’ve got.  I can’t promise anything at this point.  I’d love to say that I’ll meet all of my goals and complete all of my projects.  I’d consider it a victory if I more-or-less met my future goals and completed one project by June 2011.  I’d consider it status quo if I failed on all goals and had projects in limbo (per usual).  The nice part about this: I can’t fail.  If only I could tell my students something like this..

There’s a decent amount of writing that will be making an appearance on here shortly (or, wherever this blog migrates to).  Many ideas are floating around in my head and I’ll have to write them down at some point.

…that is, if I can stop this “oops I didn’t write for two months” nonsense.

1. Picked up an FM receiver board — I always wanted to include one just so that the box itself would only need amplification.
2. Bought an iPod connector — yay?  Mad props to the iPod Linux project and ladyada for very helpful information on the connector and charging circuits.  Intending to run Audio L/R, and the charging circuitry (looks like 5 wires… great… don’t have one of those — should be a ghetto-fabulous wire!)
3. Picked up a RBBB Arduino and a Sanguino so I can stop this bullshit of “hey, if I had a sanguino…”.  I don’t think I need the sanguino for this project.  I am intending for the RBBB to be semi-hard-wired in the box for this one.  Plus I picked up a BUB board (the one that connects the TTL to USB for writing the sketches/code to the chip) with em so I can just buy the cheap kits now.  Yay!

As far as project status — it’s alive and sluggish.  It’s really difficult finding time.  I have so much soldering to do that it’s somewhat intimidating.  I also need to build/verify the VU meter circuit with the 3915′s.  I’m actually putting the code off until the very end.  While I was sketching the hardware diagram for my project, I also took the time to see how much power I would need to run the whole shebang.  Looks like I’ll need three 5V rails (one for the arduino and hardware, another for LEDs alone, and one for the iPod cable) and a 3.3V rail for the FM module, real-time clock, and the logic level converters (also bought today).  At peak, this lovely car-puter will be pulling over 2 amps (scary shit right there), close to 800mA for LEDs alone, another 1 A for the iPod cable.

As you might have figured out, I’m avoiding the code.  But, code related items so far: I will be debouncing switches in code as opposed to via hardware (cheaper, and my code will not be very complex so I can spare the CPU cycles).

Lingering items — the real-time clock will need to be powered when the unit is off.  OR, it needs a battery backup.  I have the parts for a 3V lithium battery but haven’t figured out how to have it switch to battery from main power when the box is shut off.  That’s semi-important to using the RTC to its fullest.

And that’s all… for now.  New parts should arrive just in time for me to leave the house again (figures!)

My LCD appears to be dead — it was sort-of working for a while (displaying partial garbage, partial correct characters (but in the wrong place)… then it decided it didn’t need to do anything.  I am not sure I’ve even used the thing for more than an hour of total “on” time.  So…. I’m going to redo the wiring on the LCD board to see if I didn’t screw something up in the last day or so.  If/when that fails to help, it’s on to buy a new one.  I’m eyeing a 128×64 display at adafruit… except taht it requires a little more OMPH than the base arduino has (in terms of memory at least).  So… the “do I get a Sanguino or Mega” discussion is now back.  Yay?

Regardless, I’m still pissed that my display is dead… grrrrrr!!!!!