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Your Arduino or Grove Board needs a Driver

Some students will find that their Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino board will have trouble being recognized by their Windows or macOS machine. It is important that you download the driver from SiLabs if this is the case, as per the instructions found on the Wiki page for the Grove Beginner Kit. That page will […]

Why is Snow Removal at YorkU so Bad?

Why are so many sidewalks at York University still covered in ice and snow? Because we simply don't have enough employees and equipment to get the job done. What staff we do have has been working really hard to make the walkways and building entrances safe, but there is simply too much ground to cover […]

Version 2.3.9 of Firmata4j

When using Maven to load the Firmata4j library you'll be required to use version 2.3.8 and you'll need to load dependencies in a particular order, as per my earlier blog page. It's manageable but a little cumbersome. That said, most students can handle it. Instead, you can try to use version 2.3.9. I've loaded the […]

Floating Point Math Resources

For EECS 2021 students who are looking for additional resources on floating point math, here are some suggestions. Exercises with solutions: While we're at it, here is the Bit Fiddle app, by Tobias Stamm, a handy tool for converting between base 2, base 16 and base 10, as well as a twos-complement conversion page. Finally, […]

Plagiarism detection for program source code

Detecting copied source code in student assignments is important. Here, I'll explore a few options that are possible for instructors here at York University, but these options may also work for instructors elsewhere. Look, there are a few notable reasons why copied source code will appear in a student's assignment: Given the convenience of the […]

Writing a RISC-V Assembler file for Segger Embedded Studio

I like practical programming. That can be tough with assembler. But one of the important things to recognize is that you can limit the amount of support work that you have to do in assembler by embedding your assembler code in a C or C++ project. In this video I show how to And then […]

Got Bed Bugs? (updated)

File the following in the "for a work friend" category of blog posts. The TL;DR of dealing with bed bugs is this: Let's imagine that your friend, who works with you but in a different building, has discovered a bed bug infestation in their work space. And, let's imagine that the employer is reluctant to […]

H5P: Time Restrictions with Exceptions

I like to do flipped classes with H5P plugins on Moodle. When I do so I set up "from" and "to" time restrictions to ensure that the homework is done during the class period. It doesn't matter to me if the students are in the classroom or not. What's important is that they're doing homework […]

Recipe: Rose Pavlic's Breakfast Muesli

Rose served this muesli at her bed and breakfast in South Africa. She told us about it while visiting with her mother, Bibiana and we've been addicted to it ever since. Here it is. BREAKFAST MUESLI This recipe makes about 8 cups. Ingredients Method Storage Cool & break up in air tight container. Original file: […]