#techtinkering

[adafruit]

🖥️ 🧸 a new (old) approach for 21st-century kids using computers… chronological order

as our kiddo gets older we are going on a journey with her, focusing on the evolution of computing from where it started, and using each one, in order.

our adventure begins with retrofitting a 1998 littletikes/ibm playset to house the early computers, providing her with a tangible way to interact with these machines. might need to do emulators for some of these, but trying to see if we can get many of these, build/re-build, or borrow -

some of the plans will be to explore the hardware - on how it all worked before computing moved to sealed black rectangles that's mostly used to buy things or pay subscriptions services.

here's the "playlist" so far - have any suggestions?

altair 8800 (1975) apple i (1976) commodore pet (1977) apple ii (1977) atari 400/800 (1979)

commodore vic-20 (1980) ibm pc (1981) commodore 64 (1982) apple macintosh (1984) amiga 500 (1987)

next computer (1990) sun sparcstation 10 (1992) compaq presario 425 (1993) sony vaio pcv (1996) apple imac g3 (1998) dell dimension xps t500 (1999)

this approach also seems like it could be a kid's book - a book for parents to follow along with their kids on the history of computers with how-tos on building, or emulating them. maybe even a "build-a-bear" - style workshops / classes for kids and parents, but for making their first computers together…

more later!

🕹️ this was inspired by andy baio's approach of guiding his son through the chronological history of video games (2014)

[begouristore]

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[hsdr2]

Positioning Yourself

A. Write down design fields you would like to pursue. (e.g. Consumer, Medical, Social Innovation, Furniture, Transport, Interaction...)

-User Experience Design, as in how users feel when using the products/services.

-App/Website Design

B. Write down what industries interest you. (e.g. Homewares, Electronics, Furniture, Footwear, Fashion, Outdoors equipment, Health devices…)

-Food & Beverage

-Technologies related

C. Write down what type of work interest you. (e.g. User research, concept generation, prototyping, techtinkering, material experiments, strategy development…)

-Prototyping

-Operation

-Management

D. Write down 2-3 products you would like to design. Now frame the underlying issue they solve. Bucket list products: Underlying issues/problems they solve:

Really have no idea yet….

E. Is the above reflected in your current portfolio yet? YES / NO / SOMEWHAT

no

F. Write a list with your strengths and weaknesses in design projects. What would you do best in a team? What would you leave for others to handle? What type of problems do you like to tackle? Strengths (Tasks you would cover best in a team):

-I always pay attention to details

-Giving overall feedback Weaknesses (Task you would let others in a team do):

-Doing research and writings

-Drawings/sketches

G. Are you a commercial-, experimental- or artistic-, social-discursive-, tech-driven designer or other? What really drives you? How would you like to have an impact as a designer? Are you entrepreneurial, engaged in social discourse, interested in self-expression...?

I think I’m a more commercial person, I don’t really towards self-expression and very artistic. When I’m doing design, I’ll always consider what others will think about the design. I always keep my design conservative.

H. List social, economic, environmental... phenomena, trends, current problems or market opportunities you are aware of and that intrigue you. (Maybe you discussed this topic passionately with friends. Maybe you engage politically or in the community about this. You, a family member or friend mentioned/observed something interesting or have a specific problem…)

-Packaging problems because of environmental

-People tend to follow to the current trends (what their friends/others like)

-Unnecessary works have to be done

I. Assess the above and see if you see a certain type of project work and topic direction emerging. Have some project ideas already. Write them below and evaluate how they sit with your answers above

I think that none of my answers above are connecting, but only like how to make our life more simple, but I’m not towards a product designer.

[adafruit]

Festival of lights - night #5 0.85" 128x128 TFT breakout 🎆🌈

We're doing 8 days of light-filled designs to wrap up this year. We started with the Sparkle Motion Mini

which can drive thousands of shimmering RGB LEDs. Then, we did the Sparkle Motion stick, a USB-pluggable version

On the third night, a 1.28" round TFT display

, and on the fourth a 1.8" round TFT with captouch overlay

. we've over the hump and still going strong! Tonight, we did a 0.85" TFT breakout; it's 128x128 pixels and so tiny we had to put the breakout pads on opposite sides.