Throughout the years, I have had the chance to meet several American people in person or online, with whom I have had numerous conversations. Often, we have talked about our respective countries because this has been one of the topics we have been interested in. We have usually asked each other a lot of questions … Continue reading An Imaginary Trip to the USA — Chapter I: Introduction
Ideas for a DIY Smart Home: How to Build a Simple LoRaWAN™ Network from A to Z — Part I
Important update (2019-06-02) After publishing this post, I received some relevant remarks from LoRaWAN experts who are active in the The Things Network community. The most important is the fact that the system here described is not based on a true gateway because my implementation is not compliant with the LoRaWAN specifications. Further issues: The … Continue reading Ideas for a DIY Smart Home: How to Build a Simple LoRaWAN™ Network from A to Z — Part I
AI Don’t Lie
Most basketball fans remember the famous sentence that Rasheed Wallace often repeated during the games: "ball don't lie." This post's title should be a reminder of that sentence. As a matter of fact, this article talks about the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play in basketball. Even though I never wrote an article on AI … Continue reading AI Don’t Lie
Losing the Edge
Manager: a professional who achieves set objectives by organizing other people's work. Recently, I had an interesting conversation about management with my good friend, Matteo. Specifically, we discussed the role of the technical manager in modern companies. Matteo has a deep technical background and is a great engineer. Currently, he is experiencing a stage of … Continue reading Losing the Edge
Ideas for a DIY Smart Home: Energy Monitoring
Introduction Last year, I decided to analyze in detail my house's electrical power consumption as I found it quite high, given the limited utilization of my home. I googled around to find a relatively cheap solution. This post describes briefly what I did to measure the overall consumption, 7 days a week, 24 hours a … Continue reading Ideas for a DIY Smart Home: Energy Monitoring
Class T Audio Amplifier with Integrated USB DAC and Bluetooth Receiver
Introduction This post is rather technical and describes a homemade class-T amplifier that I started to build in 2010. I consider it a never-ending project because, from time to time, I tweak it to add new features or to improve existing ones. For example, in the spring of 2017, I put my hands on it … Continue reading Class T Audio Amplifier with Integrated USB DAC and Bluetooth Receiver
Italian Creativity
The readers of this blog know well that I am not afraid to criticize my country. When I do this, it's because I really wish we could sort out its dysfunctionalities. The first step to take is, therefore, to recognize these difficulties. Nevertheless, I'm also aware of the positive peculiarities that still make Italy unique. … Continue reading Italian Creativity
Immortality for the Masses
In this previous post, I talked about a literary festival that I attend every year called pordenonelegge.it. As stated there, this event provides regularly much material for this blog. This post is an example of a topic—immortality—which I have been thinking about for a while and which was discussed by one of the writers who … Continue reading Immortality for the Masses
Ideas for a DIY Smart Home: IP-based Video Surveillance System
Introduction This is the first of a series of posts describing some (hopefully) compelling ideas for DIY projects that you can carry out to make your home a little bit smarter. I have tested these solutions myself throughout the years. Indeed, from time to time, I like to "hack" my house in order to add … Continue reading Ideas for a DIY Smart Home: IP-based Video Surveillance System
The typical day of the embedded systems engineer
To relax, I occasionally read a web site which talks ironically about basketball. It is called "La giornata tipo", "the typical day" in English. Many of the articles you can find there describe hypothetical average days of basketball teams and players. These hypothetical days are littered with invented facts that exacerbate the flaws of the … Continue reading The typical day of the embedded systems engineer
Playing with cryptocurrencies and blockchains (previously: Playing with Bitcoins) – Part II
Introduction Last January, I posted an article about Bitcoins. This post is a sort of part II of the linked article. Due to the fact that the new post will talk about Bitcoins as well as other cryptocurrencies, I decided to change the title. I realized, in fact, that the world of cryptocurrencies goes well … Continue reading Playing with cryptocurrencies and blockchains (previously: Playing with Bitcoins) – Part II
When part of the Silicon Valley was here
A couple of years ago I had the chance to meet Giovanni De Sandre, who has become a good friend of mine. He is one of the engineers who, under the supervision of Pier Giorgio Perotto, created the first ever desktop Personal Computer, known as Programma 101 (P101 for short). After retiring, he is used … Continue reading When part of the Silicon Valley was here
Tesla Model S test drive
Introduction A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to do a Tesla test drive in Padova. [1] The car I drove was a brand new Model S 90D, priced at € 125,000. I will not bore you with the list of the technical specifications of this car, as you can easily find hundreds … Continue reading Tesla Model S test drive
Is Tesla’s master plan feasible?
Nowadays, Tesla Motors is on everyone's lips. They are not manufacturing cars, they are trying to revolutionize the mobility and use of energy on a global scale, as described in their master plan written by co-founder Elon Musk. [1], [2] Regardless of what you think about fossil fuels, climate change, etc., I think that the … Continue reading Is Tesla’s master plan feasible?
Playing with Bitcoins – Part I
Introduction Generally speaking, I'm a curious person, and I like to learn new things. Economics, finance, and technology are examples of fields that I find very fascinating. Therefore, I couldn't resist experimenting with one of the finance-related technologies that is currently on everyone's lips, the blockchain. Bitcoin cryptocurrency is probably the most famous application that … Continue reading Playing with Bitcoins – Part I
Photovoltaic data logger – Part III
Introduction This is the third post of this series. I'll describe here: The software that I have developed for the Arduino Mega board The IoT platform I have used to store and visualize the data collected on the field. Previous posts are available here and here. It is worth remembering that most of the choices … Continue reading Photovoltaic data logger – Part III
Photovoltaic data logger – Part II
Introduction In this post, I will briefly describe the hardware component of the project I introduced in this Part I. First of all, I have chosen to use Arduino Mega [1] because it provides four hardware UART interfaces. I have allocated them as follows: UART0 (Serial): used for informative and debug messages that can be … Continue reading Photovoltaic data logger – Part II
Photovoltaic data logger – Part I
Introduction I have been thinking for a while about a simple project that would allow me to combine two different needs. On one hand, I would like to experiment with some kinds of technology that I have not had the chance to play with so far, specifically: The tools used to build an Internet of … Continue reading Photovoltaic data logger – Part I
Lego Base
I have recently helped my friend Anna Brenelli to make the prototype she has designed and built for the graduation thesis of the Industrial Design course at the Iuav University of Venice, named Lego Base. The project is described in detail in this document. I have dealt—try to guess it ...—with the Electronics parts. Since … Continue reading Lego Base
Audiophiles
If you have been an Electronics student in your youth, audio amplifiers are probably one of the first practical applications of this discipline you have run into. When you understand the potential of Electronics, you become eager to build something with your hands. You know well that the satisfaction you get when you see your … Continue reading Audiophiles
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