December 31st will mark my first full calendar year writing on the Adafruit blog. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank ladyada and pt for giving me this great opportunity to put a little bit of myself out into the world. Even more, I’d like to thank all of you for your readership and comments — it wouldn’t be possible without you!
My personal rule for posting on the blog is that I never post anything I wouldn’t want to read about. 2011 has been a great year in that regard, because there are so many awesome projects, events and other things that I got to write about. The following is a list of my “Top 12”, one from each month, sometimes with honorable mentions or runners-up. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane as much as I enjoyed putting it together:
January– Hector Martin talks about OpenLase:
There were a lot of great talks from 27C3 — this one was one of my favorites. Hector Martin presenting his OpenLase project.
Honorable Mention: Reverse Engineering the MOS 6502 — another awesome 27C3 talk.
Runner-up: Ma Bell Tests Phones — it’s just very amusing.
February– Robo-Rainbow:
This project caused some controversy. After I posted it here, Becky posted it on MAKE, and from there it went all over the place — attracting lovers and haters alike. Personally, I still think it’s pretty cool.
Honorable Mention: If You Cheat in Engineering Classes…
Runner-up: IPCalypse Now — this was actually posted 30 January, but was the most viewed page on Adafruit for the month of February 2011.
March— Here Be Dragons: Ancient Maps of the Internet
A fun journey through the past, looking at early maps of the DARPA/ARPA/Internet.
Honorable Mention: “If membership… is restricted to men, the loss will be ours” – Carl Sagan calls out The Explorers Club
April– Math Dance Moves
Honorable Mention: Fun With Superconductivity
May– Telehack: A Retro Command-Line Museum
Honorable Mention: “it isn’t just a library… it is a space ship” — A letter from Isaac Asimov to young readers.
Runner-up: Student Balloon Captures Photo of Shuttle Launch
June– Slow Motion Crash: A Vibrating Cymbal at 1000fps
Honorable Mention: Bit Banger: An ATTiny Video Demo
Runner-up: New Cave-Mapping Technique Uses Gunshots as Impulse Functions
July– NyanCat on a Commodore Plus/4
I still love 8-bit demos!
Honorable Mention: Quadrotor Outtakes
Runner-up: The Hacking Matrix
August– Amazing Mathematical Artwork – The Bridges Conference 2011 Gallery
Honorable Mention: Compressed 02: Time-Lapse Ferrofluid Moving in Soap Bubbles
Runner-up: NASA Video: Solar Storm Enveloping the Earth
September– How The Transistor Got Its Name
This one was an easy choice and is also my favorite post of the whole year!
Honorable Mention: Why the Best Days of Open Hardware are Yet to Come – great talk by Bunnie Huang at the Open Hardware Summit
Runner-up: Sesame Street to Focus on Math, Science and Engineering
2nd Runner-up: The Deleted City: Geocities Archaeology
October– Switching Regulators for Poets -or- They Told Me I Couldn’t Leave the Last Page Blank
Classic Jim Williams Appnote.
Honorable Mention: Adobe Photoshop Image Deblurring – How Does it Work?
Runner-up: Remembering Resistor Color Codes with Style
November– The Strange Birth and Long Life of Unix
A great history of Unix from IEEE Spectrum
Honorable Mention: Engineering Flowchart
Runner-up: 11.11.11 — Last Binary Day of the Century!
2nd Runner-up: NASA Releases Highest Resolution Ever Topographic Moon Map
December– Admiral Grace Hopper on David Letterman, 1986
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0g5_NgRao&feature=player_embedded
This was posted only a few days ago, but here’s your chance to watch it again!
Honorable Mention: Oscilloscope Christmas Tree – lots of folks ran with this and made it their own!
Runner-up: Happy 150th Birthday Georges Méliès!
Phew! It’s been quite a year, and I look forward to doing it again in 2012!
Once again, I’d just like to say thanks to all of you who read this blog, submit projects, and leave comments. I wish you all a happy, healthy, and project-filled 2012!
