7/26/09 - I Made Good Pico De Gallo (After 2 Tries)
The missing ingredients was lime juice! Here's how to do it: Assemble the ingredients, roma tomatoes, red (spanish) onion, fresh garlic, some sort of hot pepper, cilantro, and limes (see picture). I grew the cayenne peppers in the picture and they are extremely hot. Jalapeno or serrano peppers might be a better alternative. Simply dice the onion and tomatoes in about 1/2cm pieces. The peppers, cilantro, and garlic should be chopped finely. The peppers can be seeded and the ribs removed to reduce the heat. Rinse these ingredients together in a bowl with a good amount of water. Strain the water, and squeeze the limes over the mixture. Mix well and refrigerate before eating.
7/21/09 - 97 Honda Civic Tie-rod End/Boot Replacement
7/21/09 - I discovered that the passenger side tie rod end on my 97 Honda Civic (164k miles) has been exposed to the elements for some time now. The inner tie-rod end ball joint has rusted and corroded, and is responsible for the noise I've been hearing for about a month. When I removed the wheel, I took the following pictures:
The first image is of the ball joint for the innner tie-rod end with the boot pulled back. The rusty and corroded ball joint is clearly visible. The second image is of the outboard drive shaft boot with a gash in the bottom and leaking grease. Of course, the drive shaft boot is a separate problem, but needs replacement also. About the same time as I discovered these problems, the check engine light came on, revealing a faulty (pre catcon or post?) oxygen sensor, which will also require replacement.
7/26/09 - Of course, the rack boots must be replaced. In the process, I will also replace the tie-rod end boots and the CV joint boot. I purchased these boot kits from Parts Geek, LLC online for $44.70. The boots are pictured below. The boot kits are nice because they come with the necessary accessories (clamp/clip/tie/grease)
I was able to purchase two tie-rod ends on eBay for much less than the local auto parts shops. The inner and outer tie-rod ends are in the second picture above. I purchased the inner and outer tie-rod ends for both sides for $40.00. Although the tie-rod end on the driver side is not corroded, I will replace it also.
7/18/09 - CSCLUG Microcontroller Presentation
On July 19th 2009, I gave a talk to the CSCLUG and others about my experiences with the Atmel ATmega168 microcontroller. The title and abstract are below. The presentation slideshow may be downloaded here. The example programs may be found on my code page. Eugene also took some pictures at the event.
An Introduction to 8-bit Microcontroller Development in LinuxApplications for the 8-bit microcontroller (uC) include use in portable electronics (e.g. cellular phone, iPod, GPS), robotics, home automation, remote sensing, and many others. This introduction aims to provide a starting point for technical minded individuals with no previous experience with microcontrollers. However, some experience with basic electronics and the C programming language would be useful. The presentation will begin with a discussion of microcontroller hardware, including the power circuit, microcontroller chip, and serial communications. The discussion will then turn to microcontroller firmware, how it is developed in Linux using free (GNU) tools, and how it is transferred to the hardware. Finally, a demonstration program will be used to blink an LED in a working prototype (the "Hello World!" of microcontroller programming), and another to collect temperature measurements using a digital temperature sensor.