Month: April 2013

Dinotopia: An Interview with James Gurney

I’ve had the intention to cover and post about my favorite artists for a long time now, finally getting off my lazy butt to do it. No better way to kick it off, than with a living legend, James Gurney. James is best known for the Dinotopia series, where he combine an amazing world of fantasy, and the prehistoric natural world, sparking the imagination of millions of kids and adults alike. Gurneyโ€™s not only a creative genius, but also a true master of light, compositionโ€ฆ .. heโ€™s just a bad ass painter, I donโ€™t know how else to say it. His books are among my favorites, where he shares his secrets sauce. His approach, breaking down of the basics, to advanced painting techniques and theories, are simply invaluable. I was lucky enough to get some Q & A with Mr.Dinotopia himself, and here it is!

Teardown of the TI SensorTag

Last time I was up in Rhode Island my good friend Brian Jepson pushed a small red box into my hands with the words, “…try this, you’ll love it.” I immediately started looking for the blue pill. However I needn’t have worried, because it turned out to be a SensorTag from Texas Instruments. It’s an interesting bit of hardware aimed squarely at simplifying smart phone developers lives when prototyping Bluetooth accessories. It can add a lot of data collection capability to your maker project quickly and cheaply.

Voice-Controlled Resistor Sorter

Voice-Controlled Resistor Sorter

Right now I’m sorting all my resistors into plastic bags, and it’s kind of a lengthy process! Anthony Clay wrote a program called EESPeak that speaks the numeric value when you describe the colors. Have you ever had a giant pile of loose resistors to organize? I have! Instead of slowly calculating every single part […]