Side Project: Building Something Useful with the MSP430

At the middle of the week, two parcels arrived at my door. It was the MSP430 and the add-on (booster) pack that I ordered last Thursday (5 April 2012). That was fast. Thanks to Texas Instrument (TI) and FedEx. In the following week, I am going to explore all the features and functionalities of the MSP430 microcontroller and build something useful with it, such as (not limited to):

• Mp3 player
• Temperature sensor
• Home automation

Or imagine if it can build something like this:

I am going to show you what is it and why did I choose the MSP430 instead of Arduino. Is it a viable alternative?

What Can Over 200 Successful Historical Figures Teach Us About Success?

Last December, I came across this question after reading an amazing book and researching its background info.

Is life just a lottery ticket, or are there choices one can make to direct his future?

What do you think?

For some people, it may seem like a lottery ticket where they received a windfall from winning a lottery ticket. Then their life changed and they think that they would live happily ever after. But, statistics showed that 3 out of 4 lottery ticket winners had gone bankrupt. I won't argue that in this post nor will I go into detail explaining how they lose all their good fortune. I'll leave that one for another post.

However, the question remains.

Is life just a lottery ticket, or are there choices one can make to direct his future?

That is the question asked by Andy Andrews more than 20 years ago and today, where do you think he is now?

I Made a Big Food Keeping Mistake

A few weeks ago, avocados are in season in Melbourne. So is banana with its prices recovering (or tumbling), from disaster-ravaged Queensland. Consequently, I bought 2 avocados for $2.50 and 1kg of banana for $1.98 (they were $10+ per kg a few months back). Then, I store them together in a bag in the pantry.


The Problem
The next day, I decided to eat 1 of the avocados. I took it out from the bag and gave it a gentle squeeze. It was soft (it was ripe). That was fast. Just a day before, they were firm. So, I sliced it open and discovered that it was beginning to sprout. It was still edible (refer to the picture below), but not that tasty anymore T.T

Then I suspected the bananas to be the culprit, since I had read about how to store food properly from Lifehacker. However, I soon find out that I was wrong...

Revitalise

Hmm...this blog has been collecting dust on the net for so long.

Over the few days/weeks, I'm going to revive it again.

Stay tuned.

Entrepreneurial Ideas

Update: the link is out-of-date but fear not, the article is still accessible via the Wayback Machine.

Just had to share this with everyone. It has interesting business ideas from around the world. Clicky.


P.S. I'd been occupied with studying entrepreneurship this winter holiday. It'll be finished in 3 weeks. Hope you all had a great holiday. Enjoy.