amorphic

Play Batman: Arkham VR on PS4 and if you're not convinced then you'll never be...

I wrote this a while back which touches on some similar points: https://jimter.net/open-source-the-journey-from-project-to-p...

A great place to do this is at your local maker/hackerspace! Since we started ours (sparkcc.org) I'm constantly amazed at the amount everyone learns from one another.

And as you say, that one night a week at the makerspace meetup could just as easily be spent in front of the TV.

You missed this part of the question: "Some boards, like the beaglebone, have specialized hw like PRUs or I2C pins. Is it possible to access these with Docker containers?"

I'm really interested in the answer also!

I'm reading the MachineKit docs and I kindof get how it works. From the gcode docs (http://www.machinekit.io/docs/fdm/fdm-gcode/) it seems like it should be reasonably simple to add support for it to OpenGB.

Have raised an issue for this: https://github.com/re-3D/opengb/issues/18

That's awesome! Sounds like with the PID/PWM loops in the works he's well on his way to a working 3D printer solution!

I've added an enhancement issue to OpenGB for adding BeagleG support: https://github.com/re-3D/opengb/issues/17

On reflection - you're absolutely right. In fact this is exactly the way OpenGB is designed!

OpenGB uses an abstract base class (called IPrinter) to describe a printer interface. At the moment there exists a Marlin implementation and a Dummy implementation (as you describe) of IPrinter.

Other comments mention BeagleG and MachineKit. It should be pretty trivial to add IPrinter implementations of both of these.

Thanks for the inspiration! :)

I actually had no idea that the Beaglebone had these guys hiding onboard. A nice alternative to something like a RasPi with an Arduino hat or a USB-connected Arduino.

This is great for projects where you control the whole stack and don't plan to support anything else. I guess the only downside to going down this path is that you're locking in the Beaglebone Black as your sole hardware platform and losing some modularity.

For example it would be great to control a 3D printer by running something like OpenGB (http://opengb.readthedocs.io/) on the main CPU and something like Marlin (https://github.com/MarlinFirmware) on a PRU. But that would require a Beaglebone-centric approach which wouldn't work on other hardware combinations.

That's just an observation though - I'm really impressed that the PRUs are there!

+1

Ill add that having your data in Elastic means that a (probably non-technical) user still can use it as part of their analysis without having to get dev involved.

For any home brewers who might be interested I maintain braubuddy, a temperature control framework written in Python:

http://braubuddy.org/

It was written to scratch my own itch - I use it to maintain fermentation temperature within a certain range. Especially useful for lagers or brewing ales in the fridge in the Summertime.

It'll also publish metrics to a variety of outputs, with the next release to support Twitter, Librato, and Hosted Graphite.

Beautifully put.

At the risk of sounding old (I'm 34): at 21 you're still scratching your arse and bumping into things.

You still have a great deal to learn and you will be learning for the rest of your life. Doing technical work at any organisation, even a 'boring' one will provide you with opportunities to learn and grow:

1) You may be a brilliant coder but you admit that you lack social ability. Do not view this as a permanent handicap but rather a skill to be developed just as you would a new programming language or methodology. Working as part of a team in a professional environment will teach you to communicate and provide opportunities to build your confidence.

2) You also admit that you have 'created dozens of projects but they were all unsuccessful'. One of the key tenents of building a "change the world" startup like the one that you hope to create some day is to build something that people want and will pay for, (see the notes from Peter Theil's CS183 for more on this: http://blakemasters.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup). Working in a real company will teach you the importance of building great products which customers want to buy. It might also teach you how you might convince customers that your product is great and that they want to buy.

3) You are fortunate that you will be able to earn a professional salary at such a young age. As mentioned in previous comments, this will allow you to enjoy life but also to put some money aside. If you want the flexibility to do great things, being financially independent is a huge plus, (Jimmy Wales talk about this here: http://www.quora.com/What-advice-would-Jimmy-Wales-give-to-t...).

4) You already have a qualification. With a couple of years of proven experience, some open source projects and a little money up your sleeve you will be in a great position to make your next move. That would be a great time to do some serious travelling or even temporarily migrate to another country. Nothing will improve your perspective more than seeing the world and the many ways in which its citizens live their lives.

Hold on to your passion for doing great things. Don't become encumbered by consumerism + debt. Remind yourself every day of all of the things for which you are grateful. And above all don't fear the path you're on: the road is long and there are still so many forks to come.

I finally got tired of the pain of hosting my own Wordpress-backed blog a few months back and made the switch to Pelican. Here's a post detailing my overwhelmingly positive experience so far:

http://jimter.net/switching-the-jimternet-from-wordpress-to-...

I agree that we in the IT profession often forget that we're being paid relatively well to work in a comfortable environment, doing something that's reasonably challenging/interesting. Most of us also have an outside interest in tech, so it's pretty close to having one's hobby as a job.

However I think focusing on physical exertion is misguided. A carpenter may be out doing physical work all day, but his/her job requires nothing like the mental exertion of a programming role. A long day of coding is just as exhausting as a day spent climbing ladders and lugging tools, if not more so. And as one gets older, both types of exertion take a greater toll and require more recovery time.

You don't mention any details of your current role. Are you full-time or contract?

If it's the former, you could always try contracting for a while. A few potential benefits:

- You're only in the same organisation for 6-12 months so it's less likely to get stale.

- You'll earn more $/day so you can take more time out to pursue other interests, holiday, play with your kids etc

- It's a solid precursor to starting that 'successful tech business' that you dream about. You're less likely to break out and pursue that while you're earning wages.

Of course if you have a family to support then a lot will depend on your financial situation. But as another poster said you should be in reasonable shape if you've been a dev for 15 years...

If you're not already, look into doing a couple of resistance training sessions per week. You don't have to be He-man lifting huge weights, in fact you're better not to be. Focus on core and "all of body" movements.

You'll not only feel stronger and look healthier, you'll also burn a lot of energy. And as you get older, maintaing strength and flexibility guards against aches, pains and injury.