Category Archives: tech

Things that are technical in nature

Repairing the laser harp

Posted on June 1, 2010 by mahto

In preparation for the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire and upcoming Make: PGH meeting, I took a look at my laser harp to figure out why many of the channels were no longer functioning correctly. My design basically consists of … Continue reading →

Posted in tech | Leave a comment

Controlling a tiny 7-segment display

Posted on June 1, 2010 by mahto

As I was leaving the shop this evening (morning?), I noticed this neat, tiny display thingie in one of the drawers I was returning components to. It had what looked like a row of tiny 7-segment LED displays on it, … Continue reading →

Posted in tech | 7 Comments

East coast tour!

Posted on May 26, 2010 by mahto

I’m finally back from my east and west travel adventures. Thanks to everyone who took the time to show me around and share their thoughts with me! I had a great time checking out the ITP Spring Show, Alpha One … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, Photo, tech | Comments Off

The “5 minute” agitator

Posted on April 28, 2010 by mahto

This is why Arduino is awesome: 5 minutes, some junk, instant PCB etching agitator! Confused about whats going on here? Basically Matt Stultz, my fellow cohort at Hack Pittsburgh, was etching a custom PCB breakout board and got tired of … Continue reading →

Posted in Ridiculous, tech | Leave a comment

Controlling a Rigol oscilloscope using Linux and Python

Posted on April 27, 2010 by mahto

After many frustrated nights trying to debug electronics projects blindly (the analog scope is wayyyy too much work to pull off the shelf and use), I decided it was time to spring for a digital storage oscilloscope. Since I had … Continue reading →

Posted in tech | Tagged , , | 39 Comments

Homebrew flash triggers using xBee radios

Posted on April 15, 2010 by mahto

A year and a half ago, I started dabbling with using off-camera flash units, in order to exact better control over the lighting in my photographs. Of course, to do this, I had to invest in some equipment. I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Photo, tech | 5 Comments

RSS Invaders: A novel approach to managing information overload in syndicated feed readers

Posted on April 2, 2010 by mahto

At SIGBOVIK, the annual conference held in honor of Harry Q. Bovik, I presented the latest research by myself and my esteemed colleague Marty McGuire in the area of optimizing the way in which we consume content. The result, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Ridiculous, tech | Leave a comment