Categories
Projects

Keyboard Lighting Project

I came to an impasse. It’s something we all encounter almost everyday in our workaday lives. How am I going to use my keyboard in the dark and not turn on a lamp? I felt you pain and decided that I needed to do something about it. I really wanted to make it as compact as possible so a reduction of wires was key. Since I had a keyboard with an extra USB port on one side I decided that that was the easiest and most accessible power source.

I did a little research and found that USB outputs 5V @ 100 mA. That seemed like more than I needed to make this project work.

Here is a little circuit and math work. It’s actually a lot easier than it looks.

This is the circuit working on a protoboard being powered by the keyboard.


There is the finished circuit on a cheap Radio Shack circuit board.


I just used some sticky putty to adhere it to the underside of my keyboard trade. You can’t see it without being under the desk so outer housing was not essential.


Here is the finished product! Does its job very well.

Total cost of the projects ran about $20 with LEDs, resistors, and PC board. The USB cable was just one I had lying around in my basement. I have since added a switch as well so I could always leave it plugged in. I don’t know why that didn’t cross my mind until after I built it. Fun little project and very useful.

Categories
Personal Projects

Killer Tofu is now Mobile Friendly!

I do quite a bit of mobile browsing myself. Sitting in bed surfing the Internet is quite fulfilling believe it or not. I decided to look into making my site a little bit more friendly for the mobile crowd. Luckily it didn’t actually take all that long to do thanks to the WordPress mobile plug-in. I just dropped it in and poof! K-T automatically detects if it’s a mobile browser and adjusts accordingly. I also made a nifty icon that will appear if you try to add it to the home screen of an iPod Touch or iPhone. I have included photos below. Killer-Tofu: opinions and useless information, now mobile.

iPhone Icon

The Mobile Blog

Categories
Nonsense Philosophy

On Being Muggle and Why It’s Way Better

nowizard

I have Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone going on in the background right now, and I figured this would be just a prime to write this article that’s been bouncing around in my head. I read the first Harry Potter book way back when it came out in 1998. I read it and to be honest I liked it. I kind of lost touch with the series after that though. I read about 1/4 of the second book, but hadn’t talked about or even looked at another book until about 2 months ago. My girlfriend was quite enamored with the series and with the new movie coming out and the movie series just about to be wrapped up I just decided to cave and see what the fuss was about. Surprisingly I didn’t hear any bits of the story even though just about everyone around me was flipping our about it.

 

I am not finished with them all yet (currently on book 4), but I do actually enjoy them. I see the appeal. The writing is solid and the story is exciting. I must put a disclaimer up because this article is written only knowing the story up to about 1/4 of the 4th book read. The one thing that bothered me is that Muggles are portrayed as kind of stupid or not as worthy as the magic folk.

 

Personally, being Muggle is way better. Most people find the adventure and intrigue the of the wizard far more interesting than any old Muggle. The ability to defy the laws of physics, conjure stuff out of the ether, sure sounds pretty awesome. My evidence against it all has to do with that ability. If you are not challenged you normally don’t change behavior. Look at their cities and schools. Everything is straight out of the 18 or 19th century. The wizarding world is stuck centuries behind the Muggle world. They have just ceased to evolve as a people. Muggle’s on the other hand didn’t have magic to do their bidding. They had their minds and the sweat on their brow. They/we learned to harness nature itself. We solved all our problems using just our minds. In many ways we have surpassed the magic world. The Weasleys don’t even know how to use a telephone and they have more expose to the Muggle world than most. We have jet planes, computers, telephones, and the internet. Hell we even left the planet with much less technology than we have today.

 

Now I don’t doubt that some Wizards went into science, mathematics, and engineering, but I am referring to the vast majority. I also understand this is all fictional and I am looking way to far into this debate that no one was having. I tend to overanalyze things that need you to just live within the confines of the story. It’s just who I am. Basically what I am trying to say is being Muggle is WAY better.