My final GDS for the Enigma machine (source available on github)

I stumbled across TinyTapeout offering very low cost chip shuttles last month, and decided I had to get on their next shuttle in March 2025. For the early-bird pricing of US $150, you can design and tapeout a (small …

I have my Edgerouter configured to hand out static leases for all my network clients using Dnsmasq, which also automatically puts an entry into the DNS with the client name. The Edgeos configuration for this is relatively straightforward:

dhcp-server {
...
    shared-network-name LAN1 {
        authori …

The state of I/O standards these days can be confusing, even for experienced engineers, and this article attempts to explain some of the intricacies involved in picking the right docking station for your needs.

I recently upgraded my five year old MacBook Pro to a newer model with Thunderbolt …

Lego® just announced their brand-new (as of April 2019) robotics education kit, the SPIKE …

BrickNil [*] provides an easy way to connect to and program LEGO® Bluetooth hubs (including the PoweredUp Passenger Train 60197 and Cargo Train 60198 sets, and the Lego Duplo Steam Train 10874 and Cargo Train 10875 ) using Python on OS X and Linux. This work was inspired by this EuroBricks thread …

Here's a set of Ansible playbook files to do an unattended compile of Python 3.7+ with SSL on a headless wifi-connected Raspberry Pi. A recent project of mine (bricknil) uses 3.7, and it was a little frustrating to get the default 3.5 upgraded on my Raspbian image …

This is the third in my series on using Curio to build an event-driven simulator for hardware processes. The first two parts can be found here: Part 1, Part 2. We're going to use the simulator framework to implement a distributed and concurrent hardware palindrome checker in less than 50 …

This is the second in my series on using Curio to build an event-driven simulator for hardware processes. (see Part 1 for the first article)

In this post, the first in a series of three, I'm going to show you how to build an elegant simulator of a concurrent system using the amazing Curio library from David Beazley that's built on Python 3.6's async coroutine features. I hope it'll provide a nice intro to …

This post describes some of my experiences writing a python extension for Moneydance, a cross-platform personal finance manager (an alternative to Intuit Quicken). I was originally attracted to this product because it runs on a Mac (albeit using a Java look and feel), uses Direct Connect to download transactions from …

This script will take a source directory (say the contents of a flash card from a camera), scan all the image/video file EXIFs, and sort them into date-based folders in a user-specified directory. It will optionally only copy files that have not already been copied (deduplication per folder). Photo …

Currently, this program supports downloading transactions from Maryland's 529 College Savings plans and exporting to QIF, for import into your financial software like Quicken, Banktivity, or MoneyDance. An OFX/QFX plugin is also in the works.

• Free and open-source software: ASL2 license
• Blog: http://virantha.com/category/projects/funds_gather
• Documentation …

Growing up, I missed the window where Pokemon and its associated card game were hugely popular; I suppose my parents caught a lucky break, but then again, they did have to deal with my Transformers and GoBot toys all over the house!

As of 2016, I'm not sure if Pokemon …

Both for my work and personal use, I tend to develop many command-line Python scripts that are very data-driven and configurable. In Python, it's pretty trivial to use argparse to support complex argument and option structures, and then use the integration with configparser to allow one to write files that …

I recently needed to get an open-source circuit toolkit (HACKT)compiled and deployed on my local system. I already knew the C++ source compiled and installed fine on Linux, and didn't want to jump through the hoops to get it running on my Mac 10.11 (El Capitan) system, so …

OneResumé is a data-driven resumé generator for text and Microsoft Word documents. Write your resumé content in YAML and quickly and easily generate multiple versions and formats of your resumé using this program.

• Free and open-source software: ASL2 license
• Blog: http://virantha.com/category/oneresume.html
• Documentation: http://virantha.github …