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Resources: Introduction (re: microcontrollers, circuitry & programming)

 

A forewarning - As of 2005, I moved into some different artistic and technical territory, so I haven't been involved with computer music, SuperCollider, or electronics since then. As a result, I don't currently update or support the SuperCollider or Electronics portions of my Resources pages - I'm just too busy, plus I'm not up-to-date and am often unable to answer even the most basic of questions (I rarely fully understood the inner workings of what I was doing in the first place). In addition, new projects and interests now consume most of my time, so I am rarely available to tend to the many questions that the following pages seem to generate. In other words, you can try to contact me with questions, but these days I rarely have the answers or the time - but rest assured it's nothing personal. Thanks for your interest, and thanks for understanding.

 

 

 

Hello there. Guess what folks - there's nothing to be afraid of. My good friend Blake Williams taught me that a long time ago, and then, along the way after I had forgotten that wonderful fact, other beautiful people came along and reminded me.

 

 

I'm speaking here primarily of basic circuitry and programming, i.e. sensors and switches and the lovely chips and homemade software that can interpret them, plus the wiki wiki world of sharing. From 2003-2005 I was very active in developing music, performance and installation work that uses this interactive technology, and since then have been heavily involved in the wonderful world of wikis. Through this process I have learned quite a bit via trial, error, and expert guidance. The most amazingly important thing that occurred to me along the way is that there truly is nothing to be afraid of, that this stuff is actually soooo much easier and soooo much less mysterious than you ever would think. The road can definitely be a bumpy one, but for me, at least, there was still much adventure to be found in tackling these challenges. It's like the crossword puzzle that never ends! Hooray!

 

 

This section of my site is dedicated to all of the millions of times that I have finally figured something out, having leapt past some seemingly immovable obstacle, and then said to myself, "Now, why didn't someone fucking tell me about how to do that in the first place?!" There have been so many instances where a simple head's-up or a super-basic introduction would have saved me hours or days of trouble. Of course, the amount of time that I spent figuring out my problems was in many cases very helpful in further developing my understanding, but more often than not there were several obstacles that were just plain aggravating and that kept me from making more significant progress in a shorter amount of time because it was just assumed that I should have already known a little tidbit more about what I was doing.

 

 

First off, here are some general rules regarding research and software:

• You probably don't need to buy a book. I agree, sometimes it's nice to have a book, but in relation to PICs, Basic Stamps, Supercollider, PmWiki, etc, there's so much FREE information to be found online that you can look at, print out, whatever. Look online first.

 

• You probably don't need to buy any software. Free, well-developed software is out there in open-source-land and is waiting for you. And there seems to be no better time than now to be a Mac-user - a whole bunch of very-useful Linux software now works on OSX.

 

• You-might-not-need-to-know-nearly-as-much-as-you-think-you-do-in-order-to-do-the-wonderful-things-you've-heard-of. Things are so much easier than they first seem, so fear not, and jump right in.

 

 

So, this section is for those us who don't claim to already know-it-all. It contains the few bits of information that I wish I had had right from the get go. I plan to constantly occasionally update this as I continue to plod along, so check back periodically for updates.

 

 

I hope this is helpful to somebody out there. Feel free to let me know if part of it is. Also, contact me if you find any errors, broken links, or a better/easier way to do something.

 

 

Alrighty. Good luck, and have no fear...