Toronto Mini Maker Faire 2011 Review
May 7th and 8th 2011 was a weekend packed with tons of amazing DIY work showcased at the Toronto Mini Maker Faire. I figured this event would be a great chance to finally get my FI-AUAV out in public to see what the general impression was. After two days and a couple thousand people, I can easily say – I can’t wait until next year! The event was hosted in the Evergreen Brick Works, which was a great venue for this type of show. There were tons of makers with great things to show off. From crafts to robots, the Maker Faire seemed to...
read moreTap Madness in the BlackBerry App World
A simple game I wrote for the upcomming BlackBerry Playbook has been accepted today. Tap Madness is a simple touch based game written in ActionScript3 and published with the BlackBerry Tablet AIR SDK. The current public version is 0.4alpha and I have spent about 3 weeks working on 0.5alpha which is close to completion. More details will be posted soon! More information on Tap Madness can be found...
read moreAn Accident Waiting to Happen
As I was cleaning up my work bench, I lost focus and started building this little prototype. The idea was to build a simple vertical take-off aircraft that had the ability to move on the ground. All of the components are basic RC plane electronics and the airframe is made from Depron foam. This has to be one of the most unsafe things I have built in a while, as it is horrifically unbalanced and the propeller is just begging to tear you to pieces. I can safely say, this did not fly very...
read moreFlashInTO Playbook App Presentation
This months FlashInTO topic is “An Evening with Playbook”. I along with some other developers from Toronto will be presenting our applications that we have built prior to the RIM Playbook launch. There will be a short presentation and talk on each app and then time to have a Q&A with all of the developers. If you are in the area, be sure to come and say...
read moreLearning GPS Parsing via Bike Rides
During the summer months of 2010, I decided to better understand interfacing with GPS data by creating some simple experiments to actually see how GPS’s work, and how I can use them in my projects. GPS NMEA Syntax NMEA 0183 (or NMEA for short) is a combined electrical and data specification for communication between marine electronic devices such as echo sounder, sonars, anemometer, gyrocompass,autopilot, GPS receivers and many other types of instruments. It has been defined by, and is controlled by, the U.S.-based National...
read moreSkatoony Home Game Launches
After many months of hard work, marblemedia has launched the Skatoony Home Game. The Home Game is marblemedia’s and Teletoon’s first ever multiplayer Flash game. I played the role of lead developer on this project which ment I was tasked with building the entire game engine which consisted of a client side and a server side setup. The Home Game is a live triva game in which real people get to play against each other right in their web browsers. The backend server setup for this system is built on a redundant cluster, which...
read moreFun With Foamy Airframes
During the testing phases of the FI-AUAV project, I spent tons of time building and destroying RC planes. To save myself tons of time and money, all of these planes were built from foam and cut out with my FI-FoamBurner. Since 90% of the crashes (some even from extremely high altitudes) only resulted in airframe damage and no electronic damage, I could literally have a new plane ready to fly the next day (at around $12 all in for the foam, tape and glue). Normally I would use Depron foam for the constrcution of the main body, wings and tail....
read moreCNMA 2010 Developer of the Year Finalist!
I am both excited and flattered to be a Developer of the Year finalist for the 2010 Canadian New Media Awards (CMNA). To be considered alongside a group of highly deserving developers is truly an honour. Be sure to check out the full list of 2010 CMNA finalists and their inspiring, benchmark-setting projects. I look forward to connecting with industry professionals from across Canada at the awards show on December 1, 2010. Best of luck to everyone nominated and I hope to meet you at the...
read more