FPGA Design Tutorial from Scratch

Check out this cool step-by-step tutorial that guides you through the process of designing embedded system on Virtex 4 FPGA. Steven Andersson from ZooCad consulting, with 15 years of ASIC design experience, is working on this project for a year on his own time and blogs his experience.

I'd love to put my hands on something like this in the near future.

Tutorial Link

Xilinx Free E-learning courses

Related articles:
Embedded.com
Programming Logic Design

Homemade Nuclear Fusion Reactor

I just came back from the club, partying it up with a some friends from work. A few pages were still open on my laptop that I was planning to shut down for the night. Being all myself, I didn't want to just close it, and gave it a few more minutes of attention. Here is what I came across.

Home made fusion reactor by a 17 year old. "Pumps, deuterium source, neutron bubble dosimeter? Check." http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/03/high_school_stu.html
Full report: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/radioactive-boy-scout


...and if you need to get some deuteruim gas for your next fusion experiement ; ), check out "deuterium oxide" following this link: http://unitednuclear.com/chem.htm, from which you'll be able to get "pure deuterium gas" for just $10!

Revision3 Online Shows

I've got a bit addicted to some of the shows on this website. I don't watch too much TV myself, so by addiction I consider one or two broadcasts a week from the following website.

Tech, comedy, music, etc Online TV Show - http://revision3.com/
Example: Cracking open the iPod

Remote control of PC using Sony Ericsson k790

Last night I was watching one of the episodes from Seinfeld from Season 9. I could not stop laughing at the scene when Kramer pretended to be a "wealthy industrialist, philanthropist and a bicyclist" just to get into the washroom of a $1.5 mil apartment that was put up for sale. I was having my dinner at that time and did not want to stand up from the couch to rewind it back. However, I did anyway.
Sitting at work during lunch the following day I was thinking of a way to add a remote control functionality to my PC with minimal expenses. My cell phone has a Bluethooth and an infrared port. There must be a way via software!
A quick search revealed that my SE k790a has the HID (Human Interface Device) feature and all I need is HID profile supporting soft. Here are a few links I found that are worth checking out:

Sony Ericsson Developers Zone: http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/home/p_home.jsp
VIAO Zone remote control: http://atinyblip.wordpress.com/vaio-zone-remote-control/
Salling Clicker (commercial soft): http://www.salling.com/Clicker/windows/devices.php

For future reference:
http://www.macncell.com/index_html/archive/2006/08/22/sony-ericsson-k800--k790i-cyber-shot-camera-phone-using-it-with-the-mac

Hardware projects

Dev/Project related
Dev board with a microcontroller

Gadgets, ideas, DIY electronics links
OpenSource gift guide
The Time Fountain (really cool fountain project, which uses strobe light to "freeze" or slowdown and reverse the motion of fluorescent drops).
Lucid Dreaming Mask (by the author of The Time Fountain. He claims his inexpensive hardware triggers lucid dreams... thought I might add this here since I've spent some time reading the experiment).
Hacking Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner

Inexpensive Arduino microcontroller dev/project board

Parallax’s Basic Stamp is the mainstay for hobbyists wanting to add intelligence to everyday devices. A new system called Arduino provides the benefits of the Basic Stamp at a greatly reduced cost, increased speed, and is entirely open-source. (http://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/25/arduino-the-basic-stamp-killer/#more-121)