Our Father, the Maker

This Sunday morning mass, the word 'maker' struck me when I professed my faith together during the Nicene Creed - "We believe in One God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and all that is seen and unseen..." Before this I didn't realize the word 'maker' is being used in the church all the while and I thought the word 'maker' is only often used in the makerspace community in this decade.

Isn't how wonderful is our almighty living God who is the greatest maker, who created the universe, and a supreme creator. The world is His perfect creation that made for all of us. And He did this for us because He loves us so much.

"Abba Father, Maker of heaven and earth, I ask Thee for the gifts of making. With this gifts, help me to use them for good, and to glorify You. When I make, guide my hands and use them to heal not to destroy. Remind me everyday to admire your beautiful creation, and to praise You always. Amen"

New Pi on the Block

Latest Raspberry Pi model B+

Just imagine I got my Raspberry Pi model B about a year ago and recently they just launched a new B+ version. My model B board is yet on my to do project list and tirelessly making effort to master Linux on the RPi board. Following this I will have to put more effort to find a project using the RPi. Working on a project helps me to accelerate learning. The good news is the price of the new B+ version is same with B. Element14 is selling at around RM120 which is at a reasonable price.

Sticking to the same BCM2835 processor, the B+ has more GPIOs compare to the model B with additional 14 pins (yeah! more hardware). However the Beaglebone black board still top in the list for number of GPIOs. The model B+ has top up to 4 USB ports which I think is a super cool upgrade. I found out that 2 ports is never enough and you will need a USB hub to work with more peripherals. The normal size SD card is replaced with microSD card in model B+. I'm neither too keen nor excited with this change. So, what am I going to do with my existing SD card? You're safe if you are using the microSD card adapter now.

So, there are few other improvements such as lower power consumption, lower noise supply which improve audio quality and better physical board arrangement gives a good favor in this new model. Eventually, I can't wait to get this board on my working table soon. 

A Simple PowerPoint Control Foot Switch

As a guitarist in a praise & worship session, I will have problem flipping my lyrics with chords on the paper while I'm playing. I have to pause a little while and quickly flip the pages or press enter on my laptop if the lyrics is in the PowerPoint slides. This will cause a moment of interruption on my strumming. In order to solve this problem when I'm using my laptop to refer the chords and lyrics, I built a simple foot switch control to change the slides using an al'cheapo USB keypad which you can get it from the computer shop with less than RM20.

 My PowerPoint Foot Switch Control Box