Thea's work is immaculate, and always an interesting read. Her synthesizer modules use FR4 PCBs as the front panels as well, a technique that's pretty popular but executed so well it's beautiful. [1] Even her documentation is made with care; when I have more disposable to spend I'm definitely buying a module.
It's a very cute box, and I particularly enjoy that this small blog reflects a microcosm of development, fixing bugs for a product, and making it usable for a "customer". That said, games for the author's child remind me of the MIDI Fighter 64 as used by Shawn Wasabi [0], which while a MIDI controller, has reactive patterns to button-presses while being used to play music.
Thanks for the video, I love seeing performances like that.
I've been fascinated with those grid MIDI controllers for a while. I started this project with a Launchpad Mini but didn't have the energy to work out how to make it battery powered and reliable (there's an excellent Python library but it was a bit flaky with a Raspberry Pi).
I wonder how you use them in reality. Learn a new layout for every song? I can play a few instruments' keyboard layouts, but it would be a challenge to remember where each sample was mapped.
>I wonder how you use them in reality. Learn a new layout for every song?
There is usually no predefined layout (exceptions apply), but more modern controllers with certain software allow you to save your presets and transfer between different projects (kinda like a template).
Normally, it is like a giant chessboard, and you map synths/samples/etc. individually for every new project. So if you are used to having all drums in the top right corner, you can just assign them there on this controller.
In the same area, both my hometown and the district I attended had 1:1 Chromebook policies. They also had Orwelian programs to allow teachers to see what was on student's screens (!) and later a list of recently closed tabs (!!).
I think as a child your mind is pretty easily distracted ( looking at you IT classes of my time where 90% + of the class would be sneaking on miniclip every time a teachers back was turned )
It's pretty essential if we're going to have those connected devices in the classroom there is a way to control it.
I would prefer rigorous blocking over teacher control - but reasonably I think it's kind of necessity in a classroom setting.
If you're thinking about FIRST Robotics Competition, then yep that's nail-on-head about what they do. I briefly talked to one of the folks responsible for that system and they mentioned looking into using a CDN, but couldn't match the relatively low cost of serving a static file over HTTP elsewhere. That being said, the traffic is still enough to tank that entire Azure region last time I checked during the release window (other assets on the same host / their other hosts in the same region were incredibly slow to load.)
I thought Linus Torvalds was almost wholly responsible for the initial development of git? Even so, everything, especially software, is easier in hindsight....
Several years ago during the MTGox collapse, /r/bitcoin over on reddit had a suicide hotline pinned to the top as multiple evangelicals had sunken their life savings into BTC. It's going to be a very difficult situation if / when BTC crashes again, and it won't end well for just about anyone.
Given the recent uptick in posts about people investing their life savings into bitcoin and bragging to friends and relatives about their wealth, it seems like the community hasn't learned anything from past turbulent times.
I don't think it really matters. All of the meaningful technology behind Vive (Lighthouse sensors, SteamVR, and the associated IMU firmware) is all developed and licensed to pretty much anyone who wants it by Valve. In the end Vive will be the VR equivalent of the first Android phone. A breakthrough piece of tech which led the way for an entire ecosystem of products to develop, but forgotten and obsolesced in it's own right.
I think OPs point was, even if HTC stops manufacturing Vive there will be Vive quality or better headsets that use Lighthouse tracking, which along with the upcoming knuckle controllers and vive trackers are the real competitive advantage Vive has over Rift or Microsoft MR headsets in PC VR.
Windows is putting VR into the OS at the driver layer. This will open up a lot of new device opportunities. I am not sure if VIVE has a major competitive advantage in that scenario.
Ah, that would've been interesting for Google to own too, considering they've been dabbling in VR, and have actually created content for the Vive such as the drawing app or Google Earth.
I very much find myself agreeing with the items on this list. However, I think it can be expanded to anything that's the "opposite" of programming.
Hands-on projects that are as far away physically and mentally from programming are amongst the most relaxing in my experience. I enjoy writing personally, especially on pen and paper. The total cognitive disconnect for me between writing on a computer and on paper makes it a wholly more enjoyable experience. Along the same vein is working on bicycles, anything with hand-tools.
[1] - https://twitter.com/micktwomey/status/1383527521744867338/ph...