The language(s) of FPGAs
First off: this is not going to be an introduction to VHDL or Verilog, the two languages normally used to define the configuration of an FPGA. There are books for that, it’s a huge field, and yours...
View ArticleTFoC - A wide performance range
(This article is part of the The Fabric of Computing series - “in search of simplicity”) It’s a tricky business to try and define what constitutes the fabric & essence of computing. But it’s...
View ArticleVMs are OUT, Odroid is IN
There are three main internet-facing web servers for JeeLabs - the weblog (jeelabs.org), the community site (jeelabs.net), and the shop (jeelabs.com). The shop is hosted elsewhere and managed by...
View ArticleEffortless fallback server
All hardware breaks, occasionally. In the case of a server - it’s usually the storage which fails eventually, be it SD cards, eMMC, an SSD, or a rotating disk (remember those?). The new server setup at...
View ArticleWhy doesn't this dream setup exist?
The beauty of an all-static website, is that it’s all data, and that it is fully defined by a set of files on the disk. By copying it, or restoring it to some previous state, we can instantly adjust...
View ArticleGetting the most out of rsync
The rsync utility is an amazing workhorse tool: it synchronises file system trees in a very efficient manner, only sending changes in data. Which is particularly useful across a network connection, as...
View ArticleTemporary post-HouseMon script
With the original Mac Mini server now decommissioned, this also marks the end of the HouseMon installation here at JeeLabs. In this case, it was the older 0.7.0 release - based on Node.js and written...
View ArticleGreat visibility, no cloud in sight
Here is some wonderful art called “Nimbus-Probe” by Berndnaut Smilde, a Dutch artist: A cloud, captured inside a house - how very appropriate for this article! With the completion of the recent server...
View ArticlePreparing for a new weblog
Now that the WordPress-powered JeeLabs weblog has been replaced by a static set of pages, we need a way to continue adding new weblog posts and articles. The current approach is clearly an...
View ArticleMy New Year's resolutions
It’s that time of year again - the last day of 2015. Another year gone by. A new one waiting in the wings. In an increasingly connected and technocratic world. Time for making plans. Energy For 2016,...
View ArticleSh(r)edding those CDs & DVDs
If you’ve been around for a while, taking in the wonders of “personal computing” as it happened, then you’ll probably also have collected lots of disks with bits on them over the years. It started with...
View ArticleSquashing tons of source code
And then came internet, open source software, and public code repositories… Never before has it been possible to access so much software, of all kinds, in any programming language, for any application,...
View ArticleKeeping track of lab supplies
There’s this nasty thing with electronics: There Are So Many Kinds Of Tiny Little Components! If you’re into hardware and building circuits, you’ll quickly find out that not only are there so many...
View ArticleA base board for the Hy-Tiny
There are many Arduino “shields” out there, i.e. boards which fit on top of the Arduino Uno and compatibles. Even for one-off prototypes, it may make sense to use this form-factor, as it allows you to...
View ArticleSide-stepping the 0.06" mistake
As mentioned before, the one thing standing between an Arduino and convenient protoyping, is that horrid 0.06” mis-alignment of one of its headers. No longer - meet this...
View ArticleJET, as seen from 9,144 meters
The JET project name is an acronyn for “JeeLabs Embello Toolkit”. And with that out of the way, please forget it again and never look back. A few more acronyms will be explained when the subsystems are...
View ArticleOngoing software development
Ok, with those (somewhat vaguely-defined) requirements down, how do we even start to move in this direction? Well, we’re going to have to make a number of decisions. We will need to build at least one...
View ArticleArchitecture: it's all about data!
Code vs. data… there are many ways to go into this oh so important dichotomy. Here is a famous quote from a famous book, now over four decades old (as you can tell from its somewhat different...
View ArticleAn introduction to JET/Hub
This is the start of a series describing “JET v4”, and in particular the “hub” subsystem. JET is a system which is intended to bring together all the home monitoring and automation tasks here at...
View ArticleConnecting to serial ports
The main mechanisms for communicating between devices around the house in JET are via serial communication and via Ethernet (LAN or WLAN) - often in the form of USB devices acting as virtual serial...
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