506: How Do I Fit a Whale Into an Apartment Building?
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Dmitry Grinberg joined us to talk about running Linux on small microprocessors (physically small and/or 4-bit). Dmitry does this by emulating a MIPS processor. Boot times vary between minutes and days, depending on the processor. Dmitry’s projects are on his website () including: (Cortex-M0+!) Dmitry recommended , an online game about building up a processor. We mentioned Eric Schlaepfer of . He was on the show on , with EMSL’s Windell Oskay, talking about their book Open Circuits. Mouser Electronics has a dedicated Empowering Innovation Together hub that covers the...
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505: Potato in a Number Field
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We spoke with Peter Griffin about Jumperless Breadboards, no-install GUI development, Excel, and puppies. Excel GUI for Jumperless Breadboard (though it has some USB DTR issues as noted in the show: . Note Microsoft is a serial interface to Excel will have talks up soon! . We didn’t bleep the word for this episode since it’s becoming an essential part of tech criticism. . You know what you did. Miso Come Here (, ) shows puppy communication buttons. Mouser’s Empowering Innovation Together hub dives into all sorts of topics like renewable energy, energy-efficient...
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504: The Robot Was Expecting It
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It’s another episode with Elecia and Chris. This week they discuss people that have influenced their lives and careers, thinking about past career choices and regrets therein, identities, the Embedded Slack book club, and electronic projects. Chris is currently taking Dogbotic’s course which covers making an analog drum machine from components. We had Dogbotic founder Kirk Pearson on the show on . Elecia mentioned the book that the Embedded Slack #book-club channel is working through, Data Driven Science & Engineering Machine Learning, Dynamical Systems, and Control, which you can...
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503: The Tiniest Laptops
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Emily Lovell spoke with us about teaching how to contribute to open source, including her own experience creating the LilyTiny as a Master’s student and researching the impact as a PhD student. The LilyTiny work was done in conjunction with Leah Buechley (). See the paper or watch . (note this is different from the Center for Research in Open Source Software () that we spoke about with Carl Maltzahn (). Emily recommended the curriculum from . Emily’s other life is at and . She spoke on . Mouser’s Empowering Innovation Together hub dives into all sorts of topics...
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502: Chat, J'ai Peté!
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Chris and Elecia talk about Murderbot, LLMs (AI), bikes, control algorithms, and fancy math. The website with the ecology jobs is from with Meredith Palmer and Akiba.. The algorithm Elecia mentioned was from . The is a great introduction to control systems beyond PIDs There is also a book from the same folks (with matlab and some python code): . Finding bad AI interactions is too easy. that was discussed. . . Nordic Semiconductor has been the driving force for Bluetooth Low Energy MCUs and wireless SoCs since the early 2010s, and they offer solutions for low-power...
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501: Inside the Armpit of a Giraffe
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We spoke with ecologist Dr. Meredith Palmer and embedded engineer Akiba about lions, terror, and technology. Akiba works for on global conservation projects. We talked about their which Meredith uses to create experiments to map the landscape of fear in predator/prey relationships. While this may look like pranking animals with jump scares, well, there is real science being done. What would it look like to be smooched by a lioness? () Bird hears lion, decides to go over there () Checking the reflexes of some zebras and other critters () Hyena eating camara () These are...
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500: Nerding Out About the Ducks
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Komathi Sundaram spoke with us about her enthusiasm for tests and test automation. We talked about the different joys of testing vs. development, setting up CI servers, and different kinds of tests including unit, hardware-in-the-loop, and simulation. It may sound dry but we had a lot of fun. Komathi’s site is which hosts her blog as well as contact info. She will be speaking on . Nordic Semiconductor has been the driving force for Bluetooth Low Energy MCUs and wireless SoCs since the early 2010s, and they offer solutions for low-power Wi-Fi and global Cellular IoT as well. If you...
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499: This Is Your Problem
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We spoke with Janet Hansen about the world of professional costumery (with electronics) and becoming an artist. Janet’s business is where you can find custom illuminated clothing as well as Janet’s ready-made art. Janet’s personal site is which is more focused on her artistic pursuits. Janet mentioned Seeed’s . We talked about Janet’s light up pillow with Debra Ansell on . If you’re interested in the intersection of neuroscience and engineering, you might want to check out what Mouser Electronics is doing with Brain-Computer Interfaces. It’s all about how you can control...
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498: To Consume Stickers
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At the end of this week’s show, Elecia reads a Winnie the Pooh poem as Cookie Monster death metal. Before that, Chris and Elecia chat about mental health, journaling, personal projects, and listener questions. Please sign up for the ! You can also sign up for the . Maybe now with job postings? Elecia’s journaling notebook is (which is where she gets her nice pens and some of her stickers and washi tape). From discussing some listener messages, we mentioned: Matt Keeter’s talk on debuggability in production where you don’t have access to the system that is...
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497: Everyone Likes Tiny
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OpenMV has a new Kickstarter so CEO Kwabena Agyeman chatted with us about more powerful (and smaller!) programmable cameras. See ’s site for their existing cameras. See for the super powerful N6 and the ridiculously small AE3. Note that OpenMV still is committed to open source. See their if you want to know more. Edge AI is the idea of putting intelligence in the devices (instead of in the cloud). There is an advocacy and education foundation called . This organization was formerly the TinyML Foundation. and are companies that aid in creating and training AI models that can be put...
info_outlineIt’s another episode with Elecia and Chris. This week they discuss people that have influenced their lives and careers, thinking about past career choices and regrets therein, identities, the Embedded Slack book club, and electronic projects.
Chris is currently taking Dogbotic’s DIY Rhythm Widgets course which covers making an analog drum machine from components. We had Dogbotic founder Kirk Pearson on the show on Episode 491.
Elecia mentioned the book that the Embedded Slack #book-club channel is working through, Data Driven Science & Engineering Machine Learning, Dynamical Systems, and Control, which you can find for free at https://databookuw.com along with code and examples. The group is two sessions in but if you want to join late, join the Slack group via Patreon or Ko-Fi.
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