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Writing a Simple Project for Espressif IDF Command Line Compiler Tools

Today we're going to write a program that can compile, from the command line, with the Espressif IDF tools. (India-Delta-Foxtrot, not India-Delta-Echo) It's assumed that you have installed those tools already. If not, review the instructions online or in class. You can follow along here in this blog post but also in a YouTube video […]

Exploring RISC-V: Espressif IDE on macOS & ESP32-C3

While we expect our students to use the Espressif IDE software in the Lassonde labs, on computers provided by the School, they should also feel enabled to install the software on their own machines. The following is a description of what I did to get it to work on my macOS machine. Note that once […]

jMusic videos

Here are a few videos that relate to Java Music (jMusic) in EECS 1021: Intro to jMusic: Intro to jMusic in Windows 11: Inheritance: Polymorphism: Combining User Input with jMusic:

Some useful things to do with Arduino, Firmata and Java

When contemplating how to use Firmata with Java, consider some of the following things: Your Main Project will look something like this (this is an older video that doesn't quite reflect changes to the updated project): Install Firmata on your device To do any of this you'll need to install Firmata: Using the OLED display […]

Firmata4j: "Index out of bounds"

If you're trying to use Firmata4j and get an Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index 4 out of bounds for length 0 message, it may be because you downloaded StandardFirmata via the Arduino 2.0 IDE. At this stage, I'm not sure of the cause. I've determined that a solution for this is to use the […]

Exploring RISC-V: Espressif IDE & ESP32-C3

Here is a short post on a successful attempt to write a C program in the Espressif IDE on the EECS Linux computers (LAS 1006). I have an ESP32-C3 development board plugged in and have the IDE loaded with the boilerplate code inserted when I choose a simple example from the menu. I then modified […]

Computer Security: One Time Codes

When I lived in Germany in 2006-8 I had a bank account with Deutsche Bank. To log in securely to my account they printed out a piece of paper with a table in it. The table contained "one time codes". No devices needed. No apps. Just a piece of paper that I could put in […]

Workplace Incident Report: Still Hidden Behind a Password

As I've blogged about before, the Workplace Incident Report documentation and forms remain hidden behind a password wall here at York University. It's unnecessary, making it harder for workers to know how to report workplace injuries or near misses. Why am I blogging about this again? Because our Health Safety and Employee Well Being (HSEWB) […]

Snow Days: we should factor them into the official schedule and workflow

It's time for York University to build in margin to its official schedule for "snow day" events. As I've discussed before, we should design and manage our university's infrastructure and processes to reflect the reality that we have to operate in the winter. Today, January 15, 2026, a snow storm has hit southern Ontario, including […]

AI in our Learning Management System

I opened up eClass today and saw this big disclaimer for the new AI system that management has added to the platform. I don't even know where to start with this. I suspected something like this was coming but I don't recall any real collegial conversation with management about its plans for implementing this. I'd […]