The Cerebral Kitchen

Welcome to the Cerebral Kitchen, the personal website of Michael Earls, where we discuss technology, hobby electronics, 3D printing, music creation, software development, and other nerdy topics.

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keyboards

New Cherry MX Black Keyboard

I got a new keyboard for Christmas. It has Cherry MX Black switches. I'm noticing that my typing has fewer errors with this linear switch. It feels amazing to type on. I think

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
1 min read
Retro Computers

Retro Computing - My first retro computer kit build

I got my SC126 Z180 computer kit in the mail a few nights ago. After two nights of soldering after work, I finally got it assembled. Having a flux pen was helpful, even

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
2 min read
Retro Computers

Retro Computing - Getting Started

I've been investigating getting into retro computing using old CPUs like the 6502 or the Z80. Ben Eater is doing a series on building your own 6502 computer on a breadboard, but I

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
1 min read
keyboards

Mechanical Keyboard Frenzy

I recently discovered the mechanical keyboard community. Wow, what a bunch. The demand for a great keyboard kit is higher than the supply, so the market is totally out of balance. For all

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
2 min read
Programming

Dynamic database driven authorization policies in .NET Core 3.0 (Blazor)

Assume we had a requirement to dynamically load our authorization policies from a database. To make things easy, let's make the policies specific to a given resource, or page. Different pages can share

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
9 min read
Programming

Baremetal programming, Assembly Language, and FPGAs

I've been exploring how to program in assembly language lately. It's been a fun experience. I just ordered a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM from Adafruit. It should be here by

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
2 min read

Light up LEDs on an Arduino UNO using Assembly Language

I've been exploring assembly language the past few weeks. As a .NET developer, I've never really been all that careful with memory (why worry? Just put more RAM sticks in it). Assembly language

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
4 min read

Driving the Max7219 7-Segment Display Device from a TinyFPGA using Verilog

I recently bought a TinyFPGA to replace my Mojo FPGA. The primary reason for this was the outdated toolset required by the Mojo (Xilinx ISE Web doesn't properly run on Windows 10 without

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
9 min read
FPGA

Installing TinyFPGA BX Requirements (APIO) on macos Sierra

I recently purchased a TinyFPGA BX. I thought I would go ahead and install the prerequisite software while I'm waiting on it to arrive. I didn't expect it to go so bad. It

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
1 min read

Simple Max7219 7-Segment Timer on Arduino Uno

I was just playing around today and thought I'd write an Arduino Uno program that increments a timer displayed on a MAX7219 7-Segment Display. It was a pretty straight forward process. I had

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
2 min read
Music

Reason won't load my VST plugin (Softube modular) - macos

In this post, I discuss how I solved the issue of not being able to load a VST in Reason 10.

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
2 min read
Programming

Getting Started with microservices the sane way. Part 4: Tying it all together with logstash

Tying rabbitMq to logstash and integrating with elasticsearch and kibana

  • Jeff Tyler
5 min read
Programming

Getting Started with microservices the sane way. Part 3: ElasticSearch and Kibana

Set up a basic kibana and elasticsearch docker instance in order to explore the demo data and see how they work.

  • Jeff Tyler
2 min read
Programming

Getting Started with microservices the sane way. Part 2: RabbitMq

Minimal setup for a rabbitMq instance running in a Docker Container.

  • Jeff Tyler
2 min read
Programming

Getting started with Microservices the sane way. Part 1: Introduction

When thinking about microservices you have to think beyond the APIs. Maintaining communication and consistency is where it starts getting complicated.

  • Jeff Tyler
4 min read
Programming

Useful docker and docker-compose commands

Commonly used docker commands that I sometimes take for granted until I forget one of them.

  • Jeff Tyler
1 min read
Reading

Keep Your Child Reading Every Day

The traditional bedtime story may work for your family, but don’t worry if it’s not a good fit. There are so many other reading opportunities throughout any given day.

  • Thompson Earls
    Thompson Earls
1 min read
3D Printing

Handling Extrusion Issues on the Ender 3

The Ender 3 is a great 3D printer. It is inexpensive and is a good starting printer (as well as a great reliable printer for more advanced users). It is easy to upgrade

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
4 min read
drones

DJI Spark Drone - Our newest acquistition

We picked up a DJI Spark drone yesterday so we could create some aerial photography. It's a lot of fun to fly. It's also very easy to fly. All you have to do is hit the takeoff button and it will hover 4 feet in the air. When you raise altitude, it will maintain it when you stop.

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
2 min read
Michael

As a programmer, I tend to see the world as broken, and I don't like how that makes me feel

I've been trying to be more positive lately. I can sometimes be a real downer with my wife and I'm recognizing that. In trying to narrow down why my brain sees everything in

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
1 min read
3D Printing

Is 3D Printed Terrain the Future, or just a passing Fad?

I have to admit, I bought my second 3D printer (an Ender 3 Pro) with the sole purpose of using it to print terrain for a Pathfinder game that I am the GM

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
2 min read
3D Printing

Ender 3 Woes - Time for maintenance

I recently started printing some large objects. The prints were taking between 14 and 16 hours. After printing 2 pieces (I'm printing an update of this Shuttle from the 2nd Dynasty Starship III

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
3 min read
3D Printing

Setting up Klipper with Ender 3 and BLTouch

In a previous post, I discussed installing a BLTouch Auto bed leveling sensor onto my Ender 3 Pro 3D printer. In this post, I will discuss how I got faster print speeds using

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
8 min read
3D Printing

Getting things to stick to a glass bed on my Ender 3

So, today I printed a 3.25 hour print. it took me three failed attempts using a brim (the brim kept coming off the bed) on my glass bed. I tried to raise

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
1 min read
3D Printing

New Design - Futuristic Computer Terminal

I posted my latest design to Thingiverse. This is the first one that I've developed completely in Fusion 360 that I didn't use the Lithophane generator for.

  • Michael Earls
    Michael Earls
1 min read
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