I’m getting closer to have a second prototype of the PSX project. Strangely, I seem to be building the breadboard prototype (lower image) simultaneous with the PCB prototype (the thing on top). I think the breadboard prototype is mostly for working on the firmware for the Propeller, which is going better than I had…

Digital Designers Rediscover Their Hands is an important piece on the ways that “sketching” in hardware can become a way to invigorate a relationship between creativity and materiality. It features some friends from the Sketching ’08 workshop that I was at a few weeks back at RISD. (Link to some stuff.)

Persistent nagging problem — shifting logic levels between devices that are fabbed with different technologies so their voltages end up being different. Digital circuits “trigger” based on voltage levels — a logic 1 or high signal is relative to the electrical specifications of the device and the fabrication process…

A couple of curious vanity plates seen in rapid succession. The inconsistency between the sentiment expressed in the vanity plate and the sensibilities, politics and mythology/religion captured in these particular vehicle’s brand culture seems almost diametrically opposed.

Not the most exciting thing, but an interesting challenge here. I’m trying to get a Parallax Propeller chip to behave nicely as an TWI/I2C slave with the idea that I’d like to create a pretty much black-box interface that’ll allow a TWI/I2C master to control it for stuff. Ultimately I’d like to use the Propeller in…

Curious expressions of status through social practices. For those unfamiliar with the kind of bumper sticker — for which this instance is an ironic, long-overdue kick in the ass — they typically will express how well one’s child has performed in school, or sport, or other cultural affair for which parents can be pro…

Shuttling around San Francisco in a cab, I found this intriguing set of improvised holders for a mobile phone and a bluetooth headset. California just began enforcing a law requiring that drivers use a hands-free device when they take a call while in the car. Anecdotally, we’ve seen many people continue to hold the…

Sketching ’08 held at RISD’s Industrial Design facilities. 45 folks who, for all intents and purposes, live in the near future — doing the things that will likely become conventional in a few or five years. We convene annually to share insights, thoughts, projects and approaches to doing design, technology and art a…

A few interesting contrasts here. This is the sort of expression of familial/local pride that seems particularly New England-y, not to mention the fascinating and huge Safe and Vault store. The contrast of material, rather than digital, protected storage is curious, and the fact that there is a store to sell vaults…