Well, this was my plan – to create an extremely simple virtual piano with Lego Mindstorms, just by using the ultrasonic sensor in the manner below: To play the correct frequency for the detected key, I first tried a ladder if-then-else within the Mindstorms visual programming environment, and it absolutely tanked! For every if-then-else path, … more
I wanted to create a robot that can draw something on a paper. Searching for some inspirations, I found on YouTube, a variety of very amazing and cool implementations. Yet, they all drew on a horizontal plane, and were mechanically complex. I wanted something that I could mount on my son’s easel, and draw like … more
Last weekend we walked into Fry’s to find an awesome deal for Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0. Mindstorms is a robotics system for kids 10+ years, and it comes with 3 servo motors and 4 sensors (1 ultrasonic sensor, 1 color sensor and 2 touch sensors), and a wide variety of Lego technic pieces. I had … more
Recently I found that a WebGL program I wrote earlier was not working anymore due to CORS restriction. To get around this, I wrote up an extremely simple proxy using node.js and hosted it on the amazing nodester service. You can access the service like this: http://corsproxy.nodester.com/?src=<image url> It just fetches the data from remote … more
Electronics used to be my hobby while I was growing up, and one of the components that always fascinated me was the seven segment display. So when I wanted to get my feet wet on YUI 3 couple of weeks ago, I thought how cool would it be to develop a widget that renders a … more
Today, I casually went to see what’s new on jQuery mobile and was treated with a wonderful surprise. The alpha is released! I immediately fired up my stock browser on droid and tried it out. It is so beautiful and I can’t believe its not a native app! It worked great when the device orientation … more
I’ve never been excited about typing text on my mobile, but a new technology called swype well might change that, and I bet is going to revolutionize the way we all input text on mobiles. Unlike tapping a series of softkeys, you enter text by “connecting” keys. You should check out the demo videos! When … more
I was trying to associate specific file type with PHP editor when I noticed some profane text in Eclipse! There is a content type called “s**t happens”, tied to .sql files. Can you believe it? See screenshot. I traced it to DBEdit plugin. I like humor in code, but I am strongly against profanity, even … more
With your support for Let It Snow! application, we were able to raise USD 750 for Myrtle! This will go a long way in supporting the educational expenses of many underprivileged kids, and also raise HIV/AIDS awareness in rural Chennai. Thank you, thank you! Also, the number of application downloads is 1042 as of today. … more
v1.0 Do you live near the Tropics and wish you had snow? or live in the Northern hemisphere and had enough of it? Don’t worry, this application will let you enjoy falling snow within the comforts of your home on your Android powered phone. Let it Snow! is a fun Android application for the Christmas … more