Robots Coming to NYC

February 10, 2016 in conferences, robotics

I just signed up for a free pass to the Robo Universe Conference and Expo in NYC on April 11-12, 2016. Although this event is aimed at commercial robotics for businesses, I am hoping there will be some interesting exhibits for the hobbyist. Their web page also promises "Robots, Drones, and The Internet of Everything." Thanks to the shit show known as O'Reilly Strata + Hadoop , its now seems every conference now needs to include drones and IoT.

Context Menu Overload

February 03, 2016 in software

Do you use a laptop? Do you install a lot of software? If you said yes to both questions, Inevitably your context menu for Windows Explorer is going to grow so tall that you can't even see all the items in a single screen scrolling. This is absolutely ridiculous!

Life Hacker has a review of a simple program - Menu Maid - that can solve this problem. Although the article is 5 years old and all the links are broken, I did find a copy on download.com. For the pasts few years, I've been avoiding download.com because CNET realized they could make money by requiring all apps to be downloaded using their stupid ad-laced "downloader. " Surprisingly, Menu Maid is a single executable that does not require the downloader which is great news.

Anyway, the app is easy to use. Just pick a tab, IE or Windows Explorer, then go deselect menu items you don't want and click "Close." Super fast. Super easy.

Take this XSeries program on edX: https://www.edx.org/xseries/data-science-analytics-context

Columbia University Machine Learning MOOC

February 01, 2016 in mooc, machine learning, data science

Class is in session. Columbia's Machine Learning for Data Science started last week. After just one week, I have to say this class is very different from the many other MOOCs that I have taken before.

Google Cloud Print Server on a Raspberry Pi

January 26, 2016 in embedded, electronics, Linux, Raspberry Pi

For years, I used a Netgear WGPS606 to network my laser printer at home. Although my printer has Ethernet connectivity it didn't support WiFi. Since my router was located many rooms away, the WGPS606 was quite handy. I could print from any laptop in my home.

Digilent Releases New USB Scope

January 22, 2016 in test equipment, electronics

I've always wanted an oscilloscope. Unfortunately, I don't have the desk space for a proper Rigol so I always found USB-based scopes interesting. However, we all know USB scopes are dicey because of limited transfers speeds, lack of resolution and lack of physical controls.