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Mike (@drmike)

I love math and physics, learned DSP and embedded systems to do math and physics, and found FPGA's a hell of a lot of fun. I graduated in 1982 with a PhD in nuclear engineering and have been programming in assembler and C ever since.

Ancient History

Mike January 18, 201612 comments

The other day I was downloading an IDE for a new (to me) OS.  When I went to compile some sample code, it failed.  I went onto a forum, where I was told "if you read the release notes you'd know that the peripheral libraries are in a legacy download".  Well damn!  Looking back at my previous versions I realized I must have done that and forgotten about it.  Everything changes, and keeping up with it takes time and effort.

When I first started with microprocessors we...


What IS an electron?

Mike December 21, 20155 comments

When I was a student I got kicked out of a professor's office for having the gall to say that an electron was nothing more than a theory. I still believe that. It is an amazing and awesome theory, and the more we learn the more wonderous the theory becomes.

The word electron first appeard in 1891 long after electricity had been in use. In 1897 the electron was discovered by J.J. Thompson who proved it was a sub atomic particle. By this time we already had electric lights. In fact...


The Art of Debugging

Mike December 11, 20151 comment

Debugging electronics is similar to any technological process.  In theory we know how things are supposed to work, in reality they don't behave as expected.  The challenge of engineering boils down to making things work, and debugging is the fundamental task we use to go from lumps of sand to picosecond accurate switching networks.  Debugging is an art that requires a lot of time to learn.  Like any skill, the more we work at it, the better we become.  

The first...


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