Coursera

My doors to programming opened up for real as I took a engineering startup course online. It introduced me to Github, Amazon Web Servers, JavaScript, Node.js, Express, Bootstrap, and a world of development for mobile and desktop applications.

I followed a fantastic course on coursera.org named Engineering Startup hosted by Balaji S. Srinivasan, an enthusiastic entrepeneur-turned-teacher out of Stanford University.

By being introduced to basics and quickly setting up a server, a web page and implement some graphics, the bug of coding bit me, and now I spend a lot of time figuring out new features.

I love to learn new technologies, and the feeling of opening up a new toolbox often overshadows the actual need I have, so like many times before, I end up reading and learning how stuff work, diving in to details I probably never will use.

This time I have landed a project where I run a web server on AWS, which reads a google calendar and a MongoDB with to-do actions for the family. Updating of the calendar is done through google’s interface on the web, and I have made a web page for entry and maintenance of to-do actions.

The result is a webpage shown on a screen in our kitchen run by a beaglebone connected to the wireless network. If I only could figure out the wifi-setup on the beaglebone. Might turn to a Raspberry Pi instead if the setup is easier.

The screen is taken from an old laptop, and I’ve made a wooden frame where the computer fits on the backside. eBay provided me with a HDMI screen controller that fits on the back of the screen box.

For power supply I’m using a 12V adapter for the screen, and step down to 5V for the computer with a linear regulator (7605)

Will post pictures when it’s working.