Trip Report: South Africa (Week 3)

Posted on by mrsoltys
Sorry for the delayed post, but I was just realizing that I would be remiss if I didn't post one of the most memorable experiences of our trip: our Safari. Unfortunately, it's hard to describe just how incredible it was to see all the animals on the savana, and after our camera broke shark-diving, my photos are only from my...Read More

Trip Report: South Africa (Week 2)

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="622"] Tasting wine at our neighbors' vineyard![/caption] The end of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch is basically the Boulder of Cape Town. There is great dining, good mountain biking, and many, many wineries.  Courtney and I enjoyed walking to different wine estates for tastings, which normally cost less than $2.50 for five wines.  We've also loved the dining here, with restaurants...Read More

Trip Report: Cape Town and Stellenbosch (The first few days)

Posted on by mrsoltys
The first law of travel is be flexible. With a sudden death in the family, our hosts had to fly back to the UK, and our plans in Cape Town changed.  We were still able to see our friends briefly before heading to the airport. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="671"] Courtney Overlooking the city of Cape Town, with Table Mountain in...Read More

Trip Report: London

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="262"] Court and I in front of tower Bridge[/caption] Home to O(10,000,000) people, London is a city with a rich history and is an important city today for trends, fashion and arts.  So we decided that it was worth a stop here for a week to see the sites.  Truthfully: I don't like cities. Large crowds make...Read More

Tool of the Week: Stack Exchange

Posted on by mrsoltys
Over the past few months I've gotten a handful of requests on this blog to help write a custom piece of code. There are a couple reasons I don't do this: Ain't Nobody Got Time For Dat! One of the most valuable parts of my 10.5 years of higher education was learning how to learn. If I just gave you answers,...Read More

Reading/Writing to CSV in Matlab

Posted on by mrsoltys
When doing data analysis, many times your input will come in a .csv file, and you'll also want output in a .csv file.  Unfortunately, matlab's built-in csvread/csvwrite functions are exceptionally frustrating to use for anything than pure numeric input/output.  Luckily, writing your own code to read /csv files (especially with some knowledge of your desired input/output) is pretty easy. Reading...Read More

$100 Quadcopter: The Sensor! MPU6050 6-axis IMU

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_1515" align="alignleft" width="300"] My MPU6050 connected to my redboard[/caption] I bought this $30 triple axis accelerometer from sparkfun... The first thing we have to do is get it working! Wire it up. The MPU6050 uses a method of communication called IC2. I'm not an expert on this, but this is what you'll need to connect to an arduino uno  to...Read More

Project (In Progress): The $100 Quadcopter

Posted on by mrsoltys
I've always wanted to build a quadcopter, and I've got some free time so over the next couple months I'm going to try to build one from scratch.  Sure, there are a lot of tutorials out there on how to build them, but many come with pre-packaged controls and are basically just buying the right parts and assembling them. [caption...Read More

Reflections on Grad School: Tools and Tricks I wish I knew all along

Posted on by mrsoltys
I've done it! I've gotten my Ph.D.!  Here's a few things I wish I had done from the very beginning. Enjoy Yourself. You're going to take 4-8 years investing in yourself. This is time you've set aside to educate yourself about a subject you're hopefully passionate about.  Along the way, you'll learn a tonne about a multitude of subjects! Besides...Read More