My third book is released! Learn what you'll need to know in order to become an embedded engineer.

Check out my second book; learn practical stuff about building robots and control systems around Linux PCs and the Atmel AVR.

My first book gives you all the intro you need on developing 32-bit embedded systems on a hobbyist budget.

Diary Segment: 2007, March 16-31

Entries are shown in chronological order; scroll down to see later material.

Mar 17, 2007

A certain furry person (who shall remain nameless) has gnawed one of the couch cushions beyond recognition. I'm sure it's very comfortable to sleep on now, but it is significantly irksome for humans to deal with the deflated cushion.

An extremely tiring day today. Yesterday, the strangest icy precipitation fell on New York; the grains were large and spherical (but too small to be called hailstones). When I came out of work to clean off my car, it looked as if everything had been showered with silica gel granules. Over the course of the evening, this strange sleet gave way to normal snow, which meant lots of shoveling this morning. After that, I decided to organize the garage a bit so I could get to my Scout parts. Ultimately, I want to clear out most of the junk so I can also set up a workbench in there - since I'll be working on the transmission in the near future, and that will be a long, messy process with lots of small pieces that I don't want to lose.

The plethora of miscellaneous tools and junk in there has to be seen to be believed. A brick-façade faux fireplace, offcuts of sheetrock and masonite, plywood and particle board, 1x4 lumber, a bicycle, rock salt, mortar, cement, rocks, a post-hole digger, a broken storm window, boxes of stuff I brought from Digi-Frame and haven't unpacked in three years, auto parts and fluids, and approximately eleven thousand assorted rakes. (Huh? Who on earth needs so many rakes? There are springy metal leaf rakes, hard metal soil rakes, wooden rakes, bamboo rakes, all leaning up in every corner of the garage).

I never realized I had so much oil, coolant and miscellaneous bits. I found a big sack of Scout bolts and other mounting hardware, which is a great thing. Also a Scout 80 speedo, combo fuel/temp gauge, instrument cluster plate, bellhousing, headlight dimmer switch, various new gaskets, points, ignition rotor, a Bondo kit, my four new rims (mmmmm... can't wait to get new tires on those rims), oil filters, air filters, gas line, hose clamps, sandpaper, primer, paint, ...

This situation is only going to get worse; I have a bunch of Scout parts en route from Arizona or somewhere, and I've located a dealer in Rhode Island who can sell me some other interesting bits. If all goes well, I'll be able to get up to RI at the end of this coming week, since I've taken Thursday and Friday off work.

There was a surprising amount of work involved in just installing and stacking the wooden shelf you see in the garage picture. What with the shoveling and lugging, I probably will be too stiff and tired to do anything whatsoever tomorrow.

In other news, the editor change at developerWorks is now official. My first PlayStation 3 article is nearly finished, and I hope to be able to introduce myself, and submit the article to the new editor, simultaneously on Monday.