Stanford and Sebastian Thrun offering more free online classes
I posted previously about the free AI class taught last fall by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. It was a marvelous experience. I learned quite a bit, and completed all the homework and tests, with a perfect score on the final exam (which was not terribly hard). Well worth the time investment. The video format […]
Experimenting with Sous-Vide Cooking
For the holidays, I asked my husband to get me an item from the Seattle Food Geek Gift Guide. I’ve been doing a great deal more cooking in the past months, so much that it has distracted me from other maker projects. At its best, cooking fulfills some of the same needs: learning something new, […]
Taking Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence course
This week marks the beginning of Stanford’s introductory course in Artificial Intelligence, taught by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. This is the same course being given live at Stanford’s campus as CS221. Enrollment is free, and includes video lectures, quizzes, and (optionally) homework and exams. I have signed up for the full boat, they say […]
A crash course in sewing
I’ve been meaning to learn to sew for a long time. I knew the basics, of course, sewing on a button, fixing a tear, and making a (crude) hem. It was clear that learning to use a sewing machine would make things much easier and provide a useful option for projects. I love engineering, and […]
A visit to Maker Faire
Last weekend we went to Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science. This was a repeat visit for us, and I wondered if we would see anything new or just a repeat of last year. Good news: lots of new things and we all had a great time. The Faire has gotten a […]
LED stair video and how-to
For everyone who has contacted me regarding the automatic LED stair project, good news: the official instructions page is now available. Here is the video of me using the stairs. Movie making is not my greatest strength, but I think this gives an idea of what the stairs can do. They are beautiful. I am […]
LED stair lights installed and working!
Just a quick post here, I want to let everyone know that the automated LED stair lights are in the stair wall and running successfully. Video to follow. As promised, I will be publishing the full schematic, code, and list of materials. Everything I used was off the shelf parts and chips, no PCB required. […]
How to hack the bodybugg to work without a subscription fee
In my previous post I talked about the bodybugg and how I used it for body recomposition. Many people that look at the bodybugg hesitate due to the cost: first for the hardware itself, and second for the website subscription fee. The website displays those pretty graphs and totals that I showed earlier. More importantly, […]
A princess canopy for Laurel
On Thursday, Laurel had a day off of school. It is rare for her to get a holiday while her sister has to go to school, so I offered to spend the day with her. I gave her a lot of options, and her favorite was to simply stay home and do crafts with me. […]
How to add a power strip to perfboard
Things are moving along well with the automated LED stair light project. All the software is completed and sensors tested. I’ve begun moving the components from breadboard to perfboard, the permanent construction. Along the way I ran into a puzzle that I haven’t seen posted anywhere so I thought I would write about it here. […]