Daily December #10

Back in the Before Times, in the Long Long Ago, I’d save up links and stuff over a couple of days, and then post a link dump on my blog. With the advent of platforms that are specifically designed to do quick hits like links and pictures and whatever dumb thing just crossed my mind, it’s kind of pointless to do that today.

But I’m going to do that today, because the whole point of Daily December is to just post something every day, even if it’s a bunch of dumb links.

Let’s start with this really cool thing that @midnight is doing! A weekly Spotify playlist of recordings by the comedians that are on the show.

How cool does Hardwick look in that picture? The answer is all the cool.

I may have bought myself a glowing Enterprise schematic from ThinkGeek because I don’t need a reason.

I did the Arduino version of Hello, World last night.

Hello, World!

A video posted by Wil Wheaton (@itswilwheaton) on

Maybe it’s my eyes getting older, but I struggled more than I expected to put the wires into the right places on the breadboard. I haven’t worked with electronic connections that small and precise in like thirty years, at least, and I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. It turns out that I managed to get it right on the first try, so I guess I win a gold star?

My first impression of Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi is that the rPI (or RPI? I don’t know what the cool kids call it, but I know it’s something like that) is more my speed. I like the idea of connecting electronics, but the reality of writing code and getting software to do stuff is more satisfying and comes more easily to me. I had also forgotten how inscrutable C (the language, not the mathematical constant) is to me, and how much easier Python is for me to understand as a programming language. Maybe it’s because I struggled with C a lot when I was trying to learn it in my teens and twenties, while I’ve been learning Python as an adult with access to more resources to help my understanding, or maybe Python is just easier than C for someone whose brain is wired like mine is. Whatever the reason, my heart or my shoes, I’m going to have an easier time writing a Python script to annoy the Whos.

I’ll probably end up copying sketches for Arduino instead of trying to write my own, at least for the foreseeable future, and I’m okay with that. I think the fun and challenge of Arduino is in the actual use of the electronics, anyway, and not the programming.

This picture makes me so happy. I feel like the world is on fire, and I’ve been finding comfort in little things, like pictures from the RPG books I read when I was a kid and it seemed like the world would never be on fire.

I shipped all the coffee orders from the secret store yesterday. The other thing you can order in the secret store has like ten left, and I’m going to ship all of those things on Monday. If you don’t know what the secret store is, or how to get in, don’t feel bad; it’s a secret to everyone.

This is your yearly reminder that Christmas Lounge from SomaFM is the only Christmas music station you need.

I get these stats from Instagram, and they tell me that like 50,000 people on average are looking at the dumb videos I post there. I don’t know if that’s a lot, but it sure feels like a lot. I realized that something has changed in me, because instead of panicking about it, I feel like oh man I gotta make something amusing or stupid or stupidly amusing, because that’s a lot of people who I can entertain.

I got this picture of all the tires in the world from imgur, and used gimp to make it seamless, so if you wanted your desktop to be a bunch of tires for some reason, you can tile it.

Yeah I don’t know why, either, but there it is. At the very least, it can probably be used as a cool texture for some layers or whatever.

16 thoughts on “Daily December #10”

  2. Oh. My. Spaghetti Monster. This is an unbelievable treasure trove of delectable and geekletical goodies!!! Wil, you have made my day. And tomorrow. And likely TNG. Thanks!

  3. You might like to try an ESP8266 with micropython. It’s approximately an arduino but with wifi, more RAM, and more flash storage. Also, cheaper, ~$8 or so. Get one of the boards that comes up when you search for ‘nodemcu’ on amazon, and then google ‘micropython on esp8266’ and you should be good to go.

  4. I had better-than-average eyesight (20:15) until about age 30, after which I started using computer glasses (+1.25 diopter), then a few years later reading glasses (+2.0), and when I reached +2.5 I became unable to easily work on small electronics without a magnifying glass or microscope, which was really inconvenient.

    An EE I worked with had the solution: Stacked reading glasses. He literally wore two pairs of +2.5 reading glasses, with both down when working on a circuit, one down and one on top of his head when looking at a scope or meter or schematic, and both on top of his head when looking around the room.

    Sounds strange and awkward, but it actually works great with the cheap plastic reading glasses you can get in a set of 3 at Costco.

    There is another option that works for about 30% of people: Monovision. Put a strong reading contact lens in one eye (the one with the worst distance vision) and leave the other (with better mid and far vision) alone. I’m one of the lucky few for whom this works. When I know I’ll need both sorta-near and far vision (say, a day of driving and shopping), I wear a +2.5 contact. Then when I need to get really close, I add my +2.5 reading glasses.

  5. I want in on your secret store. How does one go about getting let in on the secret? Is there a secret handshake? A contest? A puzzle to solve?

  6. Speaking of C vs python, I do work these days with python, but will always have a soft spot for C. “The C Programming Language”, aka K&R, which was my introduction to C, is a sterling example of concise, clear and illuminating writing. Even if you don’t really want to learn C, that book is good to read.

    The sad reality is that I don’t do any real C programming, nor have I ever. Always just little things here and there. I’ve written a lot more python than C, but that’s fine cuz python rocks.

    Recently I’ve discovered Go (the Go programming language — https://golang.org/) and am convinced It Is The Future. I haven’t done any arduino, but there is this: https://gobot.io/

  7. Hooray for anything @Midnight does, I watch it every night it’s on, and love when you are on it! And does anyone “really” need a reason to buy from ThinkGeek?

  8. Ever since you started doing this Daily December, I’ve been thinking about my blog, which I started in 2001, was originally a place where I posted little rants about whatever was on my mind along with links to cool things I found on the web, and how that seems like a weird idea now since there’s Twitter and Tumblr and other places that are so well-suited for that kind of link sharing. (And I post most of my little rants on Facebook, because it’s usually easier for me to deal with feedback on those from friends only, rather than random strangers.)

    When you were doing your Choose Your Own Adventure thing on Twitch this week, you used your line “back in the Before Times, in the Long Long Ago” and it got me seriously thinking about when the Before Times ended and became the Now Times. Watching movies and TV shows from my youth in the ’70s and ’80s often feels more like watching movies and TV from the 1950s than now, the technology is so different. I’m thinking it’s smartphones. Even when the World Wide Web started getting big, it didn’t really feel like as much of a paradigm shift as the proliferation of smartphones does. Smartphones make Star Trek communicators and PADDs seem quaint. (Although I’m still waiting for tricorder functionality on my smartphone.) Cell phones and the internet changed the way we all communicate with each other, but it feels like smartphones cranked that all up to 11, and now non-smart cell phones seem weirdly old, like VCRs and 8-tracks.

  10. The RasPi is way spiffy, and very usable if you’re already coming at it from the point of view of a unix-savvy kinda person. But that big advantage is its big downfall – it’s a multithreaded machine that’s always doing the unix process juggling thing of swapping stuff in and out of memory because each process must get the love and affection it needs, so anything that requires really precise timing (like, say, cool ‘persistence-of-vision’ LED work) will go all wonky compared to an Arduino. The Arduino (or any similar microprocessor) approaches its task with a laser-like focus because there are no interrupts, no page swapping, no multiple processes. Like the terminator, that Arduino is out there! It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until you unplug it or flash it with a different sketch. Then, like a politician on the Russian payroll who’s got new orders, it shifts its mission to whatever new thing you’ve told it to do.

    1. Also, welcome to “old”. Check the drug store for low powered ‘cheater’ reading glasses. Try the 1.25 and see if it improves your life. They did for me when just upping the brightness on my phone was no longer enough to read the small print.

  11. I love Hardwick. Thanks for the Wil Wheaton recommendo! I feel yucky today. Too much physical work in my basement yesterday, building shelves and rearranging furniture, then the littles had a 2 am dance party. Spending a lot of emotion thinking of my neighbors whose house caught fire last night and the second floor collapsed into the first. She has twins and an older kid too. Everyone is ok, but gave her some kid clothes and gift card and it’s supposed to snow like a foot tomorrow. Rough weekend. :/

  13. So I got inspired with your last few entries – and bit the bullet on a pi as well. Time to unlock all those computer engineering courses that have been locked up in my brain for far too long. Probably going to do a RetroPi first – because – well, just because. AND kick my kids rears at some old school games, none of this PS4 business. In my research I came across this – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=810ujA_BBFA

    None other than WW talking’ Tankstick! So – do you really use that thing?

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