A few months ago, I was introduced to the Arduino. The Arduino is a great little prototyping platform, but it has a limited number of I/O pins in the standard Duemilanove flavor. Well, I got my hands on an Arduino Mega tonight, the big brother of the Arduino Duemilanove, so I decided to make something with it. What I came up with is a little game called GameChuck.

GameChuck works by lighting an LED that corresponds to a button a Wii Nunchuck. The player, with a Wii Nunchuck in hand, must press that corresponding button within two seconds. (Here, the four corners of the joystick are considered buttons.) If the player fails to do this, he looses the game. The player also looses the game if the wrong button is pressed. To make the game even more challenging, the time window to hit the right button decreases over time. The goal is simply to get the highest score.

Check out my new RC hovercraft! I went through two versions over two nights ending in this bad boy. It is made only out of cardboard and basic RC electronics. The electronics include a DC motor, a speed controller, a servo an RC receiver, and a 350mAh LiPo battery. Features include three rear control surfaces, a trap door along the back for the battery, and another trap door for the receiver. Check out the two videos below to see it in action.

• YouTube clips: Quick Test on Desk
• Driving Around the Kitchen

BeoHawk, a new quad-rotor helicopter that is being developed at USC's iLab, has taken its first flight. This flight was a major milestone for Aerial Robotics Team's goal of competing in the AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition. This year's competition focuses on retrieving a USB flash drive in high security office building. The robot will have to avoid security guards, security cameras, laser trip wires, and weight-sensitive floors while stealing the flash drive. The competition will be held at the University of Puerto Rico this coming August. Visit USC Robotics Society's website to learn more about this project.

Another view of the BeoHawk: USC ART Quad-Rotor Helicopter

YouTube clips: First RC Flight & Blowing Flash Drive Test

There comes a time in each man's life where he must grow up, and become a man. Often times, in modern society, this means moving out of his parent's house and finding a place of his own.

While I haven't found a place of my own yet, it has come time for me to move out of my parent's house. Besides packing up essential belongings and moving them to my home at USC, this means that I have had to turn off my pride and joy - the server that lived in the closet of my old bedroom. The websites that were hosted on this once-formidable server have been moved to a new account at Dreamhost. Besides javconcepts.com, this includes teamshad.org and a few other projects. They will live at Dreamhost until I have a place of my own in which I can set up the server again. Long live my old closet server. And here's too 100% up-time, issue-free hosting on my new Dreamhost account!

This November marks one year since I've switched to the iPhone. Besides being an amazing phone, the iPhone has an App Store that offers thousands of new programs. With such a wide selection, many of the apps can be hit or miss. The following is a list of apps that have stood the test of time on my phone and find themselves frequently used.

Built-in Apps

5. Maps - Thanks to Google's Maps, I always know where I am in the world. Even though Maps doesn't have turn-by-turn directions (yet), it has helped me find my way back home many times.

4. iPod - 32GB of music, always in your pocket? Yes, please! And this iPod has Genius playlists, unlike my old 30GB iPod.

3. Calendar - With professors canceling class and so many random personal events, I would be a mess without Calendar. Syncing with my Mac makes it easy to keep this calendar up to date.

2. Phone - Did you know the iPhone can make phone calls too? I forget sometimes too. Amazing contact management and Visual Voicemail help to remind me why the iPhone is, at its a core, a solid phone.

1. Messages - During the school year, there is a good chance that either I am in class or the person I am trying to contact is in class. Phone calls do not work in these situations, which is why text messaging can be so much more effective. Plus, the inline chat-style display of messages makes using this app a breeze.

Social Apps

5. Wikipanion (free) - You can never go wrong with an encyclopedia in your pocket. I most often use this app to find a quick definition of something or to learn more about a topic that a professor has mentioned in class.

4. AP Mobile (free) - As my only link to real news, the Associated Press has an important job. AP Mobile pulls through with a customizable homepage and decent images to complement the articles.

3. Twitterrific (free) - Although I secretly despise Twitter and hope that it disappears in the near future, the service is still an entertaining alternative to a boring lecture. Twitterrific is one of the most beautiful apps on the iPhone and can follow links, pictures, and YouTube videos all from within the app.

2. Facebook (free) - The iPhone Facebook app is finally useful now that version 3 has been released. With most of the Facebook's basic features showing up in the app, I find myself needing to run to the real Facebook less often.

1. Google Reader (free) - Although Google Reader is only a web app with a link on my springboard, it is by far my most used social app. Google Reader provides an excellent RSS reading experience. Being able to star items and then view them on my laptop later makes using Reader a real pleasure.