The Hitchens Consortium Many Thoughts. One Brain. Zero Sense.

Recently, I think I may have posted about wanting to try my hand at some electronics projects. After doing some research, I believe I may be farther along toward my goal than I originally thought, but there are still vast holes in my understanding of some concepts.

Firstly, I've started exploring microcontrollers. The idea intrigues me: a small, low-power processor and memory architecture just waiting for a program and a purpose. I can write in C, compile on a host system, then write it over and see what happens. Naturally, this is an oversimplification, but I'm still liking the idea. The thing is, I have so many questions about how it's done, I sometimes don't know where to start. And, while I like to gush technological on my blog, I'm not sure what percentage of my readers want to go down that rabbit hole. In short, I need forums or communities to trade ideas with and discuss my shortcomings in microcontroller design.

Secondly, I need texts. It's clear to me now that I require an all new base of knowledge if this is an area I want to get into. I even considered going back to school, but that was a brief flirtation with an obvious mistake and has been forgotten ;) Seriously, I'm a terrible student. I am, however, an excellent apprentice, and I can pick things up quickly. If anyone knows of someone looking to do a little electrical/computer engineering mentoring, I'm open to the possibility of working in trade. I have a fairly broad base of experience with all things software if there's someone out there looking to cross over the other direction.

Thirdly, I realize that this is a large undertaking, but I also realize that I do, in fact, like software and my job. Am I doing this to transition to something else? Not really, but I'm open to any possibility. This is mostly to begin realizing a goal I've had for a very long time. I'm starting to realize that I may have deprived myself of a great opportunity in school to bring myself more into the computer engineering fold. At the time, I didn't think I was smart enough to do both, but (at the risk of sounding like a braggart) I know I'm wrong now. It just requires a little more effort on my part.

In D&D terms, I'm looking for my advanced class prereqs. Technomancer/1, here I come.