It was an interface that launched a thousand hacks. Near trivial to program, enough I/O lines for useful work, and sufficiently fast for a multitude of applications: homebrew logic analyzers, chip programmers, LCD interfaces and LED light shows, to name a few.
Today the parallel printer port is on the brink of extinction (and good riddance, some would say). Largely rendered obsolete by USB, few (if any) new peripherals even include a parallel connector, and today’s shrinking computers — nettops, netbooks, media center PCs — wouldn’t have space for it anyway. That’s great for tidy desks, but not so…
Introduction to FTDI bitbang mode
Wacom light graffiti
[Jon] wanted to have some fun with the Graffiti Research Lab’s LASER Tag. Unfortunately his computer wasn’t quite up for the challenge of detecting the laser pointer with a webcam. Not to be discouraged by this hardware limitation, he purchased a used Wacom tablet and threw together some code to make it work with the GRL display software. Now designs can be scrawled on the pad and the projector displays them with the familiar dripping paint effect.
U.S. Mortgage
U.S. Mortgage Requests Jump Down as Refinancing Loses Steam
By Julie Haviv. NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage requests dropped for the first time in four weeks, caused by a decreasing in need for home refinancing loans because interest rates climbed, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.
Requests for loan to purchase a home, a basic pointer of sales, were flat. Lack of interest for buy loans does not bode well for the hard-hit U.S. housing market, which otherwise has been showing signs of stabilization.
The U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association supposed it seasonally adjusted index of…
Javascript pseudo protocol (is EVIL)
This post is somehow related to my previous post about javascript function context. Recently I helped one of my friends to debug a very funny problem. He told me that his inline event handler doen’t work, because he could not pass this object to his function.
You probably wonder what did I find?
<script type=”text/javascript”>
function doSomething(obj) {
obj.style.color = ‘#cc0000′;
}
</script>
<a href=”javascript:doSomething(this)”>Link</a>
this keyword in his case was not A object as expected but window.
Having javascript: in href attribute is like running JavaScript from address bar of your browser. It will run in window context.
Only if…
Poor man’s thermographic camera
Using an IR thermometer, there are two ways to go about building a thermographic camera. The first uses a pan and tilt head. Scan lines are emulated, as a computer controls panning from left to right, taking a temperature sample from each step. Vertical resolution is accomplished by tilting. Another method uses a web cam attached to the thermometer. The thermometer’s laser pointer is captured with temperature annotations, as the computer records the field of view. We think the best outcome can be found with a combination of both methods. The video embedded below demonstrates the results. This would…
Parts: I2C real-time clock calendar (PCF8563)
The PCF8563 is a real-time clock/calendar/alarm chip with an I2C interface. This would be useful in projects where the primary microcontroller doesn’t have enough resources for an interrupt driven clock.
We demonstrate the PCF8563 using the Bus Pirate after the break. For a limited time you can get your own Bus Pirate, fully assembled and shipped worldwide, for only $30.
PCF8563 real-time clock calendar (Octopart search, $1.33). Datasheet (PDF).
The schematic above shows a bare-bones circuit for the PCF8563. It requires a simple external oscillator circuit with a 32.768khz watch crystal (Q1). The oscillator input pin needs an external…
Microsoft IntelliPoint / IntelliType Pro v7.00
With IntelliPoint mouse software you can customize the unique features of your Microsoft mouse to fit your needs Each mouse button including the wheel button can be reassigned to perform a command or keyboard shortcut such as Print Close or an application specific function You can also modify mouse settings such as pointer speed and horizontal scrolling IntelliPoint also includes the Magnifier which makes it easier to read a small block of text on a Web page or to enhance a photo IntelliPoint software even offers biometrics support for advanced identity management With IntelliType Pro keyboard software you can customize…
Speed up mouse motion
Some of you people notice that no matter how high you put the speed of your mouse, it is still not at it’s maximum point. A way to fix this, on most options, has a little choice under the mouse speed. Go to Control Panel>Mouse. Click on Pointer Options, and then you will see a bar. The first bar is the motion speed. Under that, “Enhance Pointer Precision,” is shown, uncheck that and see how much faster your mouse will go.