Geekcamp SG

Last year, in a fit of wild enthusiasm I offered to talk at Geekcamp SG. The talk was to be called "Hardware is NOT boring" and would show racing cars being controlled by a mobile phone and an Arduino. Sometimes this is the only way that I can kick myself into doing something for fun.

The thing is, you only get to talk if enough masochists vote for you. They did.

With the deadline looming, I stayed up late in my favorite JB coffee shops working on the code, built hardware by day - and worked out a backup plan (trains) in case the cars didn't want to run properly.

I had to be in North Johor the day before the event till late - when all was done I jumped on the Harley and rode like the devil down Highway 1 to Singapore. Gotta love night rides on un-illuminated Malaysian roads. Reached Singapore at 4, stayed up till about 6.30, grabbed a couple of hours sleep and made it to GeekCamp just in time.

Being a bit dazed, I was not really awake enough to pay attention to Subh's talk so I started hacking a mouse controlled by a 3D accelerometer and an Arduino Leonardo - which also made it into the talk. Went home, out like a light - but up early next day for Hari Raya.

So seriously, am I stupid enough to do it again? Not a chance. This year I have a partner in crime : Adnan Jalaludin, the designer, maker and seller of the Raspy Juice - an add on board for the PI which features a buck regulator, real time clock and an AtMEGA processor for servo control.

So, this year it is all about Raspberry Pi, Servos, DC motors, webcams and anything else we can get our hands on. We will be drawing on Adnan's encyclopedic knowledge of Linux, Hardware and other stuff and seeing what we come up with.

I, for one, am quite looking forward to seeing it.

And there will be circuits you can build.
There will be software to download and try.
There may be flying things if I can bend enough ARMs....

Oh yeah. When things don't work, there will also be some really bad jokes.

Geekcamp SG.
7th September 2013,
Microsoft Singapore.