Thinking about various inputs/outputs for the Arduino-based meditation shawl. Was going to go with click button x times = x(10) minutes until lights start up, but now thinking about input from pulse sensor (pulse reduces x amount = lights start up) or temperature. Also could add sound to the shawl. Sound could be an input or an output. Nerds and/or meditators, your thoughts?
Also, the pulse sensor that I found is wired, not e-textile, but I think I could make it work. How often does one through a meditation shawl in the wash, anyway?
Decide that you really should knit the shawl that you want to attach the Lilypad board to, because there’s no way some fabric you’ve purchased would suffice. Therefore, you have months of work on lace-weight yarn to go before you even plug that Arduino board in and start coding!
At least it’s a pretty distraction….
Let’s be honest: learning to play bass, working out what our band is, and figuring out how two people can make as much noise as six has been a bit more enthralling than learning to code.
And then you get to drool at the possibilities of using something like this:
And then you and the bandmate go to Control Voltage and find something made by Korg that does this at a fraction of the price and size. Provided you can figure out the software side.
Read this book, it’s short but vital and sums up more elegantly why I’m doing this than I’ve managed to put into words so far.
Not so coincidentally, author Douglas Rushkoff is now affiliated with CodeAcademy, where I’ve been earnin’ some badges as of late. Just read yesterday that CodeAcademy is making academic packs for in school/afterschool/library use.
Other than that: bass-playing, Maker Faire attending, author party attending, and going to see one of the great media makers, Laurie Anderson – I’ve been blissfully busy.
Haven’t got the Aniomagic sparkle boards to blink yet. And yes, I am foolish enough to sew things in place first and then realize I need to troubleshoot. Hands were needing a project – haven’t made a necklace in a while.
Apple shrine above the computing books. There was also a NeXt.
We had house guests on Friday. Jeremy is an old friend from Virginia who is now in Chicago; he’s a pastor in a United Congregation of Christ. His husband, Mike, wanted to come to PDX specifically to go to Powell’s technical bookstore (it now goes by Powells 2). Mike maintains a list of books he’s interested in acquiring.
“Great,” I respond, “because there’s some Arduino books I’d like to look at.” Eyebrows raise a little. Mike and I then explain Arduino to Jeremy.
“Do you know if you were born with some of the wrong chromosomes?” asks Mike after a little more geekspeak.
Also entertaining: Powell’s 2 shares a PA system with the mothership Powell’s next door. “Question on Christianity on line 2…” we hear repeated. “I offered my assistance,” shrugged Jeremy.
I have been a very good end user. And I’m tired of it.
I’m a librarian by trade and a creative tinkerer by nature. I knit with wire and beads. I crave color and texture and interesting constructions in knitwear. I’ll pick up music instruments, some passionately, some just to try. I cram reading time in like it’s coffee.
But in technology, I’ve been an avid end user. Tinkering means playing with new devices and apps, but not making them. Let’s change that.
So, first up: Committing to blogging this process. Which meant doing it robustly, finding a domain and a host company and installing the software rather than using a sign-up-and-play blogsite. Um, this took far longer to do than I anticipated. But I learned to evaluate FTP clients fairly well…. And to ask for help when getting stuck. Which I did. (Thank you, Laughing Squid, for not being Laughing-At-The-Newbie Squid when I had questions.)