There are times where you may want to build a nice user interface for your Arduino program to monitor input/output. In this tutorial, I will show you how to use C# to send data to and receive data from the Arduino. This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of Arduino programming and C#. For testing purposes, we [...]
7. March 2010
atime, mtime, and ctime
On traditional Unix-style file systems three timestamps are associated with each file. These timestamps are atime, ctime, and mtime. Most people understand atime as “access time.” A file is accessed when its content is viewed or is executed. ctime and mtime generate confusion since “change time” and “modification time” seem synonymous. However, what you need [...]
12. January 2010
Debugging MySQL issues in PHP
Possibly the most common issue users have with PHP is working with MySQL. Executing a query requires a three step process: Connecting to your database server. Selecting a database. Executing the query. When a query fails, many users don’t know where to begin debugging. This guide outlines my debugging procedure. Verifying Database Connectivity 1. A [...]
9. January 2010
isset vs. empty
Many people tend to view these two functions as opposites, causing necessary debugging. This issue frequently occurs when validating forms. isset() From the PHP manual: isset — Determine if a variable is set and is not NULL In other words, a variable is set if it has been assigned a value other than NULL. If [...]
4. January 2010
Basic OCR
This is a very basic optical character recognition script written in PHP. This is untested and serves merely a proof of concept. As noted in the comments, adjusting the sample size can improve results, since with a large sample size on a small image there can be many collisions. A database is needed to compare [...]
4. January 2010
Basic CAPTCHA
Very basic code demonstrating the use of the GD library by creating a simple CAPTCHA.
4. January 2010
Getting to know GD
Create dynamic userbars with GD Introduction: Have you ever been on aim and received a message from one of your friends with a big long URL followed by something like “John%20Is%20Stupid.” You know what ever it is, wont be worth your time, but you click on it anyway to find someone goofy looking holding a [...]
30. November 2009
LOL Monday – Videos
I found this video hilarious. For those of you who are “slow,” it is how comment systems work on blogs. See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor. I found this one just as funny, but for a different reason… I’m just trying to figure out how a GUI interface can track an ip [...]

3. June 2010
No Comments »