My introduction!

May 21st, 2017
by David Jackson

I'd like to welcome every one to Ineedmytech. I'll go ahead and start this blog, as and introduction to my background with computers. My name is David Jackson, and I am a college student studying for my Majors in Computer Science, Engineering, and Math. If time, and finances allow, I hope to major in chemistry as well, as I personally feel these four fields are so intertwined with one another, that it will only serve to benefit me in my pursuits. I have been working with computers ever since I was seven years old. I first started learning how to repair computers, and by the age of ten I had managed to disassemble, and reassemble my first computer, successfully, with out adult supervision. In my teen years, I started a small business selling candy in high school, and raised enough funds to create my first real gaming rig. This computer was made in 2008 and is still functioning, capable of playing 4k resolution video games. Currently, it serves as a backup lab computer though. *EDIT* I finally upgraded, and the new computer is listed in the super computer blog post if you wanna check that out. :)

After high school, I began looking into developing technology, and I had made my first set of LED grow lights when I was nineteen. I was able to cultivate a small plant for several months, running the lights for periods of eight to ten hours every day. Here was when I realized I had a love for technology so I pursued my passions further. Looking online, I found all kinds of cool websites, wiki pages, and DIY projects. Among them I found an article on touch screen surfaces and decided this would be my next project. I managed to construct a fully functional 54" touch screen surface from a web camera, Plexiglas, infrared LED's, and a projector, with the help of a simple tutorial. It was capable of registering more than ten touch points, and had cost me less than two hundred dollars to make. At the time of making this touch screen, a similar sized model sold for over three thousand dollars. I won't lie, I felt pretty boss looking at the culmination of all the hard work put into this project.

After this project, I felt the need to continue learning, so began to research into this magical thing called the Arduino. I had heard about this all over the net, and never had a chance to look into to yet. For those of you who are still learning about this, the arduino is a miniaturized computer that you can hook up to almost anything. This arduino can then be programmed to do anything you want. Its made to be completely customizable based upon the users needs. I had seen people making all sorts of gadgets, and thought immediately to myself "Well....all that coding stuffs beyond me, I just like putting stuff together." Boy was I wrong. I've had "code fever" ever since I turned on an LED with the arduino. I spend every bit of time and money buying modules and circuits for this awesome little computer. I knew that even if I didn't know how to use them yet, in the future, I would figure it out. I felt confident in my use of this arduino micro controller, after making all kinds of cool stuff. I automated my room window with a wireless remote control.

I made a turn table for 3D scanning objects. I even made a remote control car and terrorized my dog for hours. I learned much of C++ from first hand experience with programming the arduino. One of the cool things I worked on (and I swear I am not a nerd :p) was automating a life size BB8 starwars droid. I had a coworker who found a broken store display, and he brought it to me, hoping I could fix it. I worked on it for two months and redid all of the electronics inside of it. I automated the BB8 unit so that the head moves, plays sound, and flashes its "eyes" when some one walks by. The possibility with the arduino is pretty much endless.

Now at this point in my technological endeavors, did I realize that I was stifled by my lack of computer programming knowledge, and so I sought to change that. I became certified in python programming through a course I found online. Upon doing so, I was eager to prove my certifications worth, so I began developing portfolio work. My first was an application that interacted with pay to click websites, as a proof of concept. The fact that the program made enough change to buy me a cup of coffee was only icing on the cake. :) I was able to use OpenCV to over ride CAPTCHA codes so that no human interaction was necessary, allowing my computer to click on advertisements all day, earning me passive income. I took this further, and ported the application to the Raspberry Pi (another MCU, with a littler more horsepower) for energy effeciency. I had it up, running and working, on a low cost platform, for several hours of the day before the administrators blocked my withdrawals. At this point, I decided to cut my efforts, and move on to learning other important libraries for Python. The libraries I had used for the project above were awesome, but I felt underdeveloped in the understanding of, so I started buying as many books, and courses as I could on python programming. After many months of frustration, and cups of coffee, I had developed my first GUI based program. It was a fully featured text editor, based off of the one found in the HotShotTkinter book from Bhaskar Chaudary. It works pretty much the same way the notepad found in Windows does. It was an awesome experience, and feeling to have worked for months learning this library, and find that I can start making programs you'd find on your every day computer.

I realized, from that experience, the value of consistently learning computer libraries for python (and other programming languages), so I set myself to learn something everyday, and after few more months, I had began to really grasp computer vision topics. I had made computers to recognize faces, track eye motions, track moving objects and specific colors, as well as recognize and classify types of different plants, according to the images given (I have to give credit to Adrian Rosebrock at PyImageSearch.com for helping with that). I could really start to feel the power surging every time I typed. It is an amazing feeling to know that you can make a computer do anything you need it to do, with the only limit being the creativity of the creator. That being said, I decided to throw myself into programs found at my local college, and long story short (the long story will be found in a later blog post :P) I ended up leading a team of student researchers to develop a satellite as a paid intern for NASA, and was recognized by U.S. congress for the work we did. We are currently publishing our work, and hope to have our satellite in space by 2018/19. I won't lie, the above project was the culmination of spending years learning, sifting, and wading through thousands of DIY articles and tutorials (in addition to help from my professors, and many others), so I felt called to start this blog, and share everything I have learned, in hopes of paying forward the creation process for my fellow makers, and lovers of tech. So with that, I welcome all readers to IneedMyTech, and hope that I may be of assistance to you all.

Thanks for your time,
-David