Apr 17

Friday Post: PyCon 2015!

Hey All,

PyCon 2015 is over.  It was an amazing time in Montreal.  My coworker and I presented ProctorHub, the homegrown proctoring solution that we created for our university.

We met a lot of fellow educators, tons of fellow pythonistas, and learned a ton!

A PiPlay kit was also auctioned off during the PyLadies auction, where it brought in $200!

All of the talks are up on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxzjK6GuOHVKR_08TT4hJQ

I’ve also picked up two of these nrf24l01+ Transceivers.

11038420_10104069360076632_3430831120835634129_o

I have a neat project I’m working on involving a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino.  Hopefully I’ll have the prototype to show next week 😀

Have a good weekend!

Apr 03

Friday Post: PyCon 2015, also Make!

Hey All,

So next week I will be in Montreal for the annual Python Software Foundation conference: PyCon.  My coworker and I will be presenting a project we developed at UCF that uses Django, AWS, and a bunch of other tools that allow us to help 60,000 students learn in a better environment.

Next Friday’s post will probably be late, depending on what the internet connection is like up there.

Also, Make featured PiPlay in their latest video!

Have a good weekend everyone!

-Shea

Dec 21

Sunday Post (Can I pretend it’s still Friday?): Pycon 2015

Hey All,

I can’t believe it’s getting to the end of 2014. What an amazing year this has been!

I just found out that my coworker and I have had our poster submission accepted into Pycon 2015’s poster presentation session.

I’m really excited that I get to again showcase my work in front of the Python community.

I hope everyone has a really great holiday! I look forward to writing my last blog post of 2014 next Friday.

Enjoy!

-Shea

Apr 11

Friday Post: PyCon 2014 – Hello Montreal!

Hey All! I’m in Montreal right now for the annual PyCon conference.  I will be presenting PiMAME PiPLAY on Sunday during the poster presentations.  I’m excited to be showing off the software and getting feedback from fellow Pythonistas.

My flight in was horrible.  Finding my way around Montreal was horrible.  But now that I’m here and settled, it’s awesome!  The first day of PyCon has been interesting.  It feels a little disconnected since we are in a new conference building with multiple floors and the hotels are seperated.  The previous ones in California were all connected and on one main floor.  Either way, I’m having fun and the talks are good.

PiMAME PiPlay Kickstarter

So, 2 pieces of big news.  My Kickstarter has been 100%+ funded.  Within 18 hours you all helped to fund my project to 100%.  It is increasing every day.  I’m overwhelmed and humbled.  Thank you all!

I have had to change the name from PiMAME to PiPlay.  As I stated in the Kickstarter update, it has come to my attention that I am possibly violating the trademark(s) of the MAMEDev team.  This is something that I never meant to do, as I have nothing but the utmost respect and awe for the team that develops MAME.

PiMAME has evolved past just MAME, and it is a perfect time and opportunity to update it.

I will be updating all the names once I get back from this conference.

Thank you all for the all the support and help.

-Shea

Apr 04

Friday Post: Captain America!

Hey All,

Made it with a few minutes to spare to do a Friday post, but I have a good reason.  CAPTAIN AMERICA!!!  Wooo!  I love pretty much all things Marvel, and I was very happy with the sequel to the first Cap’n movie.  Go see it, and wait till they very end, there are two teasers.

PiMAME

I’m putting in time with PiMAME, I’ve gotten screen shots working, and I need to reimplement the Xing encoder kernel patch for joysticks.  Busy busy busy!

PyCon 2014

Next weekend I will be in Montreal for this years Python programming language conference, PyCon.  It’s an incredible event, full of talented people and great projects.  I will be presenting PiMAME during the poster sessions on Sunday.

That’s all for now.  I’m exhausted.

-Shea

Mar 14

Friday Post: Book Stats

Hey All,

Happy Friday!  I got an email this morning from Packt giving me the stats for my book sales from October to December of 2013.  I’m happy to report that I have sold over 200 copies.  Thank you all so much!

This weekend I will be doing a last minute presentation of PiMAME with FamiLAB at the Orlando Science Center.  I will then be preparing for PyCon in Montreal, where I will be doing a poster session on how PiMAME was built in Python.  I will also be attending Instructurecon in Utah and speaking about LTIs and how we program and implement them at UCF.   It’s going to be a fun two months of traveling 🙂

I have gotten some great feedback on PiMAME 0.8, and I am going to be working on some fixes this weekend (these are my two low hanging fruit goals to complete):

  • Tankstick / Numpad support
  • Configurable Buttons through config.yaml

Have a good weekend all!

Jan 17

Friday Post: January

Hey All,

It is the middle of January and it already feels like a year full of events has occurred.  I turned 30.  It’s a weird feeling not being in my twenties anymore.  It will take some getting used too.  I spent my birthday with good friends.

My new computer has been built and is running beautifully.  Had to return the old PSU because one of the fan blades cracked, which was causing it to overheat.  Picked up a Corsair modular PSU and it’s been running 24×7 with no issues.

2014-01-12

PiMAME was featured in the January / February issue of Raspberry Pi Geek.  It was given a 2 page spread, as well as reviews of other gaming environments for the Pi.

RPG_UK_02-2013

 

PyCon 2014

I was notified that I was chosen to give a poster session at this years Python programming conference, PyCon, in Montreal.  I am very excited to be showing off the work I have done with Python and the Raspberry Pi.  It’s going to be April 9th through the 11th.  The past two conferences have been amazing, and I am excited to be able to have more of a role this year. More information is available at us.pycon.org

Adafruit

Back in 2012 I hacked together a crude but effective USB power cord with a switch.  Adafruit is now selling a professionally manufactured cable that does the same thing for only $2.95.

Mine:Photo Jul 22, 4 13 45 PM

Adafruits:1620_MED

 

I’m so glad this cable has finally been made.  It was a pain to hand make them!

Have a great weekend all!  PiMAME news next weekend 😀

 

-Shea

 

Mar 16

Saturday Post: PyCon 2013 Redux!

Hey all,  hoping not to make [Saturday Posts] tags a habit but I feel bad that the wireless ate my last post 🙁

So PyCon is going amazingly well.  I have seen some amazing talks,  I gave a small talk about PiMAME for 15 minutes in the Raspberry Pi lab.  Everyone who attended got a free Pi.  Sourceforge told me they could easily host my PiMAME images so that’s a plus for everyone here.

I got to hold (but not wear) a Google Glass.  It feels incredibly solid.  Light.  Balanced.  I’m excited for it.  O’Reilly was giving out a ton of books, and I have my reading for the next year scheduled.

A lot of the attendees  were impressed with PiMAME and I’m excited to get the next version out.  I’m brain fried.  I will have pictures and things and stuff to post when I get back to Florida on Monday.  Woo!  PyCon!

-Shea