One year ago today: July 26, 2025, it’s not real MP4.
Five years ago today: July 26, 2021, Wal*Mart on ‘tard day.
Nine years ago today: July 26, 2017, I don’t actually dissect.
Random years ago today: July 26, 2013, six dollar popcorn.
This could be another fun day of contrasts, or I could play it safe and read. I like days that sway between robotics, music, boxes, and food, but I also like energetics that last that day. You see, y'day happened. I slept for 17 hours and right now, I feel supercharged. Let me check the day count for you. Aha, day 117, meaning I’m likely heading for full recovery, but I've been tricked before. Maybe I'll write, what a boon to the blog community, some might say. The old kitty in the yard got a scrambled egg, with half & half, and a tablespoon of beef drippings. And yes, I will, later today, turn up the doggie donation site.
That wonderful aroma is grits with a hint of garlic. If you want the best, you have to wait a bit longer. We can’t record everything, so this morning’s topic is electronics theory. This photo shows two advanced components. Some recognize the Uno in this photo, the dots are a 5x7 array of LEDs called a matrix. What’s the challenge? The wiring, for the way the pins are manufactured into the array is not geometric. I’ve wired the pins to a circuit board, then over to the Arduino, and here’s why.
That pin configuration is a headache, so much so there are “driver” chips to match the various array styles. One common chip is the MAX7219 for around $3. They are just a bunch of logic gates that let you interconnect the array in a more human-logical pattern.
The latest model of the Uno, called the Robo Uno is in the hands of a few, but not available on the market yet. How did they manage that? I want one.
Figuring out these chips is not what is going on here. I feel these chips do not teach anything new. My goal is always to create the code that uses logic to operate the chips. It’s more fascinating work that forces you to think with reason, something I’m not the only one needing more practice with. There is another consideration, which is software in the Arduino, called “libraries”. This is a major reason Arduino fell out of favor with me—lack of control and standards over these files, with the attendant lack of documentation.
You could just download a library that claims to operate the array, and learn little to nothing. Also, that is placing a vast amount of trust that the author of the library knows what he is doing, follows good coding practice, and has not taken even one shortcut that deviates from Arduino protocols. Nor is there a known location to seek these libraries, no naming convention, and if anything goes wrong, you are in the dark. Often literally.
Another consideration is that, although the Arduino community has been shit-brick lucky so far, libraries are executable code off the internet, written by strangers, and downloaded into files and folders you [probably] do not monitor.
For the advanced user, be aware that there is no “reset” or “clear” function on the Arduino that restores the ATmega chip to factory defaults. You can overwrite what is there, but the overwrite only affects the memory locations which use the new incoming addresses. Fragments of these libraries can persist where you least want them. You done been told.
Slum tourism.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
Nothing for you this afternoon. Some quiet reading and hot coffee. I got some planning done and one item I would like to address is the time it takes to stain the boxes. It is done by had, with sponge brushes, as bristle types drip too much if you get them wet enough to get a good cover. The solution is to dunk the boxes and let them drip dry. But I’m short a suitable container. It must be deep enough for the Z-box and at least 12” x 9” and capable of being sealed shut or at least easily drained and refilled. Any ideas?
That’s interesting. The gang members shipped to the prison in San Salvador are suing the airlines that deported them and the US government. The claim is they knew the prison was torturing prisoners and nobody has ever come out of there alive. Imagine that, prisoners not liking the prison. Folks, that prison is for gang members and the US continues to send more. The courts have declared illegals have no rights to such protections.
At dusk I went Wal*mart for business envelopes. Not just any, they must be tinted and peel ‘n’ stick. Many an idiot thinks is makes no difference. Fools they be, if you know anybody who works at the post office, talk to them and never use an untinted envelope even for a birthday card. Gummed is also out, no Glenn, not because the government takes DNA samples. Because the smallest box of 40 envelopes is a nine-month supply. And in the Florida humidity, you are just wasting money. It’s not the paper, its making the trip there and back that costs more than the goods.
Then an hour on the phone with the Reb. Yes, there is a security breach. We cannot place the connection but I can tell you our passwords are not allowed to be written down. And the only time we would say them is in a private room where even an eavesdropper would not know they were passwords or to which account. In any case, each password has a suffix that is never spoken aloud. Everybody besides us who knows that suffix has been dead for years.
I will mull over the remaining possibilities. The one that stands out is a laptop computer. People do leave those logged on and unattended for what they think is too short a spell to pose a risk. I don’t think that way. The Reb judges people on personality where I judge by character. Seems a cute twist of words until you see us work together.
ADDENDUM
For the goFund account, I used one of my dormant e-mails. That was 18 hours ago. I have already received 6 junk-mails and they sold my addy to Sport Mazda North, who got a piece of my mind. I never do business with intrusive advertisers and neither should you. It encourages on-line delinquency. By now, I have dropped [viewed] most of the goFund menus and do not like their general attitude. Likeable people do not, repeat do not, hit up their friends and neighbors for donations. It stinks of Amway. But, as long as my surrogate doggies get a good last meal, I’ll go along with such GenX nonsense. I hope these people think they’ve invented something new.
Way down here is some math. Last day I posted a method whereby the Enigma output could be used to narrow a key search. This does not work on computer generated codes, which use unknown prime factors to scramble text. Instead, there are massive investments going into recording your data now on the premise that in the near future, quantum computers will crack all keys. It’s the SNRL “store now read later” acronym you never heard of, but you will.
So, how does quantum theory find these elusive factors? One theory begins on the principle that if you guess a small number close to the answer and keep multiplying it by itself, you will eventually find a number that, when divided by the prime itself, will have a remainder of 1. The math formula is x = mN + 1, where N is your guess (your multiplicand) and m is your multiplier. None of this will be on the exam; the point here is that a simple formula can be used to eliminate, you guessed it, millions of wrong combinations. Cubits can crunch the smaller numbers that result, this theory only works in certain cases.
This growing threat has been known for years, so what defense is available? Some of the world’s best brains are working on it. My prediction is it will be lattice technology. Lattices are fixed but equidistant points on a grid. To get from A to B, you can go, say, three steps east and two steps north. But you can also get there by many other paths. Here is where you remember once learning that computer arrays have no problem dealing in more than three dimensions. With 1,000 dimensions, even quantum computers will take too long to give meaningful results.
