Embedded

Micah Elizabeth Scott (@scanlime) came to talk about Fadecandy, a really neat way to control smart LEDs (NeoPixel, AdaFruit's term for the WS2812). The conversation ranged from beautiful LED control algorithms and open source embedded projects to triangle tessellations, art, and identity.  AdaFruit has a great intro to Fadecandy. Fadecandy is open source hardware and software, see the repository. Micah's blog is a combo of art and technology. Burning Man's Ardent Mobile Cloud (also a lovely still pic). Elecia also mentioned Deep Darc's hack of the GE Color Effects lights.

Jen Costillo (@rebelbotjen) joins Elecia White to discuss the secret parts of C, keywords that only embedded software engineers seem to know about. Jen and Elecia talk about interviewing and why these keywords make good questions for finding folks who use the language to its full potential. On the show they mention a list of embedded interview questions with answers. (Note: Elecia's book has many excellent interview questions and what interviewers look for when they ask them.) Producer Christopher White sends along a more concise introduction to the often unused register keyword.  NOTE: This is a repeat episode from before we'd settled on our name. Note that Jen is the co-host of the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast.

We spoke with Kathleen Tuite (@kaflurbaleen) about augmented reality, computer vision, games with a purpose, and meetups. Kathleen’s personal site (filled with many interesting projects we didn’t talk about) is SuperFireTruck.com. Kathleen works for GrokStyle, a company that lets you find furniture you like based on what you see. GrokStyle is used in the Augmented Reality try-it-at-home IKEA Place app. Theory of Fun for Game Designby Raph Koster Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experienceby Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Language translating/learning app and online game is Duolingo TensorFlow in Javascript HCOMP 2018: Human Computer Conference with Keynote by Zooniverse’s Lucy Fortson(no video for that yet but we hope)

Katie Malone (@multiarmbandit) works in data science, has podcast about machine learning, and has a Phd in Physics. We mostly talked about machine learning, ways to kill people, mathematics, and impostor syndrome. Katie is the host of the Linear Digressionspodcast (@LinDigressions). She recommended the Linear Digressions interview with Matt Mightas something Embedded listeners might enjoy. Katie and Ben also recently did a show about git. Katie taught Udacity’s Intro to Machine Learningcourse (free!). She also recommends the Andrew Ng Machine Learning Coursera course. Neural nets can be fooled in hilarious ways: Muffins vs dogs, Labradoodles vs chicken, and more. Intentional, adversarial attacks are also possible. Impostor syndromeis totally a thing. We’ve talked about it before. You might recognize the discussion methodology from Embedded #24: I’m a Total Fraud. Katie works at Civis Analyticsand they are hiring.

This week, we spoke with Addie (@atdiy) and Whisker (@whixr), the Toymakers (@Tymkrs). Their latest CypherCon badges included a complete phone system. For more information, check out the user documentation at hackthebadge.com or the related Reddit post. There is a video of Joe Grand’s 2018 CypherCon talk if you’d like to watch him talk about his juvenile delinquency. In our last episode with Addie and Whisker (#205), we talked about the CypherCon 2017 badges and their Tindie store. Tindie module for phone The "Drew" mentioned is Drew Fustini (@pdp7). Though only Whisker supports accosting him to talk about OSH Park board colors.

Finally! An episode with version control! And D&D! Chris Svec (@christophersvec) joins us to discuss why version control is critical to professional software development and what the most important concepts are. T-Shirts are on sale for a limited time: US distributor and EU distributor. You can read more from Chris on the Embedded Blog. He writes the ESE101 column (new posts soon!). If you are new to version control or learning git, Atlassian has a great set of posts and tutorialsfrom high level “what is version control?” to helping you figure out good usage models (Svec mentioned gitflow). Atlassian has an interactive tutorial that lets you try out the repository commands (or try the Github interactive tutorials). Of course, there is a good O’Reilly book about git. If you are using SVN (aka Subversion), the Red Bean book from O’Reilly is a good resource. (Elecia's shirt said You Obviously Like Owls from topatoco.com.)  

Claire Rowland (@clurr) joined to discuss creating good user experiences for the Internet of Things. Claire is the lead author of Designing Connected Products: UX for the Consumer Internet of Things. You can find more about her on clairerowland.com, from her talks (including Interusability: UX for Connected Products), her book's website, and her guest appearance on the IoT Podcast (episode 21). Her new report about user experience and the IoT will be on Iotuk.org.uk in June of 2018. Elecia was also on the IoT Podcast: episode 158. It was @SwiftOnSecurity who posted the tweet about experts and their typical response.

Chris (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) answer listener emails. We did a show with Dennis Jackson about transitioning from software to embedded: 211: 4 Weeks, 3 Days Chibios RTOS: MyNewt or Zephyr may be more worth your time. Software tool: Beyond Compare for excellent differencing, including folder level Other people answer STEAM vs STEM (in about the same way we did). C++ standards for safety: NASA, ESA, JSF-AV rules, and Jason Turner’s C++ best practices. Elecia played with Javascript to make a watchface for her Fitbit Versa Chris got a Blackaddr Guitar Teensy Shield which uses the Teensy Audio Library to do amazing guitar effects via code. Elecia’s Twitter bot is @pajamaswithfeet (Tracery code on cheapbotsdonequick.com) Making Embedded Systems book Embedded Patreon

Jason Turner (@lefticus) of the CPPCast (@cppcast) spoke with us about modern C++ in embedded systems. Jason’s articles can be found on EmptyCrate.com. You can also contact him there and find out more about his training sessions. Jason’s video channel is on C++ Weekly and includes an ARM emulator written in C++, running on Compiler Explorer. Jason often uses Compiler Explorerby Matt Godbolt (Embedded #190: Trust Me, I’m Right). Jason’s C++ Best Practices Guide on Github. Listen to CPPCast at cppcast.comor on your favorite podcast app. CPPCon 2016 keynote Rich Code for Tiny Computers, where Jason writes a Commodore 64 game in C++. Jason recommended looking at Odin Holmes’ twitter (@odinthenerd) as well as Odin’s talks from CPPCon (such as his 2017 talk about agent based class design). Odin runs an embedded C++ conference in Germany called Embo++. Also look into Jens Weller’s Meeting C++conference. During the show, Elecia was looking at cppreference.com. She would also like to apologize to Bjarne Stroustrup. Embedded Patreon

Alvaro Prieto (@alvaroprieto) spoke with us about laser turrets, tearing down quadcopters, flux capacitors, the moon, and culture at work. Alvaro's blog Alvaro's github repositories including Proto-X quadcopter information, Silta bus monitoring, and Skype video message exporter for OSX. One of the inspirations for taking apart the Proto-X was watching Micah talk about her Coastermelt project. We talked to her about it on episode 101: Taking Apart the Toaster. One of his reasons for going to Planet Labs was knowing Shaun Meehan, check out his Amp Hour interview. Daemon by Daniel Suarez Video of Supercon talk on laser shooting robots Podcast Award nominations open in early 2016 Getting a picture of the moon in stereo requires some planning especially in 1949 when Alvaro's great-grandfather took these. On the slide are two images of the moon that combine to create a nicely stereo image.