Tzikis

Where by ‘we’, I mean P-Space, the local hackerspace in Patras. Recently, I designed an (open source, ofc) system to control our door for entry, using RFID tags an a remote controller. Everyone liked it, so we installed it and I set off to document it on GitHub. We aptly named it Jarvis, after Edwin Jarvis.

To put it simply, Jarvis consists of a remote control that tells the computer to open the door when pressed, the door controller that reads the RFID tags and send the information to the computer, and the computer that validates the RFID information, … Continue Reading

I’m writing this blog post while sitting at our local hackerspace at 1.15am and working on a new Secret Project™. I’m using a semi-transparent glass and trying to light it up with LEDs from the sides.

Anyone who has used high power LEDs to light a surface could tell you, these things need to be diffused, because the light isn’t distributed evenly to the surface and it looks like crap.

So I was sitting and trying to find something to diffuse the LEDs with, and then it hit me (ouch)! Rolling paper for cigarettes*! After some quick googling i found out that … Continue Reading

If you’re a mac user, you might have heard about Growl, perhaps you’re even using it. Those of you who know me might have heard me rant about how its greatness. It’s simply such a well thought-out, designed and developed software.

For those of you who have never heard of it, Growl is a notification system and framework for OS X. It’s highly configurable, yet easy to do so. The user can choose the notification style, the position of notification on the screen, set different notification styles and behavior for each program, etc. It’s even possible to have the notification emailed … Continue Reading

I’m proud to introduce my latest Arduino-related project. For the past year, I’ve been using the Arduino Pro Mini from Sparkfun extensively, and I’ve come to love it for its small size and awesome XBee connectivity. Since I’m frequently using relays, I’ve been making lots of relay boards, and every time I needed to add or remov a relay to a project, it’s been kind of a pain in the ass, so I devised a smart solution.

First of all, I need to make a small introduction. Using the Stackable Headers from Sparkfun, I made it … Continue Reading

Back from vacations.. only for a few days. But i came up with a couple of ideas during my vacations which should keep me busy for a while ;)

Till then, take care, and take some vacations for yourself. They’re the best thing for unleashing your creativity :)

No, this will not be another serious blog post. It will, however, be an exercise in ingenuity and thinking outside the box. Most of all, I’m writing this because people requested it on Twitter :P

Long story short, a friend of mine and me wake up at my place after a long night of drinking, and start making coffee, and more specifically, the Greek favorite, Frappé. This includes shaking the coffee into a shaker, or using a device like this to stir the coffee. But the batteries were dead, and I had no replacements!!!!! We were left with 3 … Continue Reading

So, yeah, I’ve been pretty busy in a while, what with my exams, work, etc, but I am finally proud to announce something I’ve been secretly working on. That is, my article on the last issue of Linux Inside! For those who’ve never heard about it, Linux Inside is THE linux-related magazine in Greece, by Dimitris Kalamaras, who’s done a great job educating people on open source, and creating a magazine targeted to everyone, geek or not :) First things first, I’d like to thank him for giving me the opportunity to write about Arduino (the article is … Continue Reading

As I came home, I realized I had to write something about my first day on on the ellak conference. Not only was it nice to compare it to this year’s FOSSCOMM, and look at the pros and cons of each, some things I consider we did better, and things they managed better than us, but about the experience as well.

As chance would have it, I was the only one left in charge of the arduinoproject.gr booth, since the 2 other guys who were supposed to come couldn’t. For those who don’t know, arduinoproject.gr is a work-in-progress in creating a … Continue Reading

With this year’s FOSSCOMM finally over, and having some free time after co-organizing it, I ‘ve decided to make a blog post about the conference. I am still not 100% operational (:P) so I ‘ll keep it a bit short.

First things first, if you’re planning to organize a conference, don’t take it lightly. It’s a HUGE job, and if you decide to do so, do it with a team of awesome great guys, like we did this year. I can honestly say it was thanks to everyone’s hard work, passion, and determination that we managed to make everything work and … Continue Reading

So as you must know, I have recently created an app that uses Growl notifications to alert the user when caps lock is pressed. As I stated before, the idea is based on CapSee, but I really wanted to use Growl notifications instead of the custom, bezel-type notification CapSee used.

Recently, a friend of mine just commented on Capster, saying he prefers the Bezel notification. Could I support that as well, as a choice for the user? Well, sure thing, fella! See, the thing is, I don’t even have to. Growl has a lot of customization options, one of which is … Continue Reading