To start something exiting

Cats are remarkable, one second they are on the floor walking. Then they jump 4 feet in the air onto a tiny ledge that runs along the bottom of a window and continue to walk just like nothing happened; you should try that, it’s not something you can just do. Yet, even a cat, agile as it is, doesn’t feel comfortable entering an empty new room.

So what does the cat do when it enters a new room ? It stops, all it’s senses seem gone; it’s processing it’s new environment. Then slowly, it will be able to jump on that ledge. But to get to that level it had to take time and explore. After a while you forget what it took to get there, it seems like second nature for the cat to jump on the ledge.

You need to take time and realize that you too had learnt some things that seemed impossible yesterday. Just touch your nose or feet; seems simple right ? You might not remember it but when you were born it wasn’t like that ! Now, to the novice it seems like it’s very easy and can be done without any practice; don’t be fooled because it looks easy. Touching your noise seems easy for you since you’re a master at that, you had years to practice, however to the baby it, while it looks easy, it will take years of practice. Now don’t get discouraged, you did, eventually, touched your nose !

To start something exiting you need to step out of your comfort zone.

Project of the Year

Well I need a new past time, guitar, photography and living is not keeping me awake at night. So I thought I should connect my air conditioner on my local network. This is a simple project from the hardware point of view, the hard part will be the logic. The first step is listing my Inputs/Outputs, with this list I’ll be able to choose my micro-controller.

Inputs (10):

• Room Temperature
• Pipe Temperature
• Wet Sensor (Humidity)
• Microswitch (x4)
• Pressure Switch (Normal Level)
• Pressure Switch (Security Level)
• Infrared Sensor

Outputs (9+):

• Display Unit (Unknown Number of lines)
• Motors (Utility x2)
• Drain Pump
• Circ Pump
• Upside Fan Motor (3 speed)
• Bottom Fan Motor
• Compressor (External Protector)

I was able to get all this because I opened my AC:

Fun, they mixed 115v AC with 3.3v DC on the same board; what could go wrong ?

Basically the choses I have, for my controller, are:

• EmbeddedARM TS 7260 (30 total DIO pins)
• CM-HSC12NE64: Based on Freescale MC9S12NE64 Microcontroller (Development board has more then 10 output lines and 12 input lines)
• FoxLX (48 general purpose I/O)

The MC9S12NE64 is very nice since it is the only one that will fit in the current enclosure however it is a bit short on inputs/outputs.

Compiz + Virtualization FTW !

Windows, Mac OSX all running on a Linux host with super eye-candy !

Ubuntu 7.04 on a Dell Inspiron 4150

I previously had Debian Unstabled installed on this machine. But since I have nothing better to do, I formatted and installed Windows Vista… er no sorry, Ubuntu.

Well, I wasn’t that worried, everything worked fine in Debian – Suspend/Resume, Wireless, Sound. And Ubuntu ?

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The Best Creative Way to Propose

Don’t ask me why I thought about this, but hows this:

Buy a book full of poems, Get one with quite a few, not just 4-5 poems and each poem should be a page long. Carve a heart in the pages leaving only the first few pages intact. Sew the engagement ring to the back of the book so that it’s in the middle of the hear you carved.

Suggest you take turns reading the poems and plan to read the last complete poem and give your girlfriend the book, she will turn the page and reveal the heart and the ring that were hidden inside.

I find that this proposal idea is not only creative but also incredibly romantic. What do you think. Think you can be more creative then me ?