pick two…

The title sounds like it could be a thesis or book, but I’m not feeling that lofty right now.

To me, Heathkit is the Kleenex of home electronics kits, and though Heathkit Educational Services is still in the business of electronics education, it is no longer geared towards the individual home consumer. I remember when I was a kid that my dad had a Heathkit Freezer Alarm (GD-1183) (for if you leave the door ajar) and my older brother got a Photoelectric Switch (GD-600) (don’t break the beam of light). These electronics interested me the most, and I think it was because they were put together by members of my family, even if the reality was one of simple assembly. The act of putting the puzzle pieces together, and that the results didn’t look like perfection, was perfect. I was hooked. And though I haven’t been a kit builder per se, I’ve embodied the spirit of the tinkerer.

Of course at the time, the holy grail of the home electronic kit was the Hero Robot series, and saw mainstream advertising. But the DIY electronics has caught on only slightly better than the Sears DIY mail order houses.

But in the modern computer world, fueled less by social networking and more by viral videos, there has been a resurgence of hacking – the art of modifying things in a roughshod way to fit our needs. Popular sites like Slashdot and Digg often feature simple hacks for others to try (generally illegal hacks are not shared so publicly). Great sites to check out include Hack a Day, The Daily Hack, Make, Lifehacker, and Instructables.

For another way of getting started with your own programmable electronics, you can look to NerdKits or SparkFun Electronics for kits and eduction resources. From these kits, you can move beyond basic electronics with software coding, memory, and processors that let you quickly develop more complex projects.

When in doubt, there are plenty of broken or discarded electronics all over the place that you can carefully take apart and see what you can see. Be careful, and have fun.

Listed as the most viewed video of the day on YouTube.  Obama’s first weekly address (now a video rather than radio address) to the nation outlines his recovery spending plan for the nation.  Pending the passage of the bill, details and updates on the program will be found at the new Recovery.gov website.

Highlights of the program include a 3-year plan to double alternative energy production, three thousand miles of new power lines (I suspect many of those will be from the new distributed power sources), energy efficiencies for federal buildings and weatherizing 2.5 million homes.  There is a 5-year plan to computerize medial records, and a stopgap measure for healthcare coverage of the newly unemployed.

Everything is available from The White House website.  Remember: if it’s created by the US government, it’s either classified or it’s public domain.

In a major broadcast media coup, Al Roker scooped the first interview of President Obama during the walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. Roker, positioned along the probable walking part of the presidential parade route, shouted out to the walking President from the sidelines. Recognizing the iconic Roker (the mic and TV camera may have helped) remarked “It’s warm”. It was clear this was a momentous occasion for Roker who beamed that it was his first Presidential interview in 12 years of trying.