Launching Into 2015

Man, it seems like I was just starting this blog a year ago when 2014 began.  While things have slowed down in recent weeks, I can assure everyone that it's not for a lack of what to write about.  In fact, as of now, I have almost too much to write about!  Thus, to save some time and make a quick post about what to expect from me in 2015, read on!

Finished with School

...for now!  Some day I would like to get my master's degree, but for now, I am going to focus on my own projects and plans for a while.  I finally graduated this past December with a double major in computer engineering and computer science, and have a bit more time since I'm finished.  Expect many more projects as a result of this, assuming my job doesn't take over too much! Speaking of which...

A (Semi) New Job

Yep, that's right!  I have officially been hired on at Swisslog, a very interesting company (in my opinion) where I hope to do some super cool stuff!  Sadly I can't really talk about it all on here currently, but when I can, expect some neat articles about what I do there.  I know warehouse management solutions might sound boring, but I can promise you that it's much more interesting then you'd think!

3DS Projects

As some of you may know, I did my best to help out with some of the recent homebrew developments for the Nintendo 3DS!  It was a load of fun, even though I didn't do a whole lot thanks to the amount of time my school took up, but rest assured that I plan to do more in 2015.  I've already got three projects underway for the 3DS as of now, and hope to share more information about them soon!

Twitch Stream

That's right, I will now be streaming on Twitch!  Specifically, I will be talking about game development in C++!  Some of you may have seen this recently, as I began testing the waters on streaming this past December.  All of these videos will be on Youtube in the future, like the one below.

You can watch me over at www.twitch.tv/gemisis/ on Saturdays at 1:00pm EST (6:00pm GMT) and view the resulting videos on my Youtube channel.  The first video of 2015 will be about making a simple Pong game, and the complexity will be setup for beginners to start, so tune on in if you are interested!  I may also stream the development of some of my other projects too, but this will depend mainly on interest.

Hardware Projects

Now that I have a job, I am also starting to invest in some new hardware.  I've recently built a brand new computer, as you can see to the right!  The specifications for it are as follows:

• Intel Haswell i7 overclocked to 4.2 GHz
• An NVidia GTX 970 with 4 GB of RAM
• 8 GB of RAM overclocked to 1.6 GHz
• An Asus Z97-Pro motherboard with WiFi-AC and Bluetooth support (That's the little box on top)

While not the most powerful machine in the world, it is definitely more powerful than before!  I've also started a few Arduino projects, specifically dealing with capacitive sensing for cheap!  You can see a video of this below!

I plan to do more Arduino projects soon, and am contemplating doing a Youtube series on different Arduino projects.  Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments below, but also expect a couple of write-ups on here about what I am up to with my Arduinos!  I've also recently received a Raspberry Pi, and plan to do more projects with that too!  Expect many hardware projects in 2015!

This Blog

While I didn't make my goal of 52 posts for 2014 (though I did make it over halfway at 30 posts!), I still plan on continuing this blog as I feel like this has been a pretty good success (I am now celebrating 5,000 views!).  I've decided to go through and scrap a few things, as well as update it more on other topics.  Specifically, I plan to talk a bit more about where I think technology is heading, projects I've worked on/am currently working on, and tutorials on how to do things in code and with hardware.  Sadly, my good camera is out of commission, so the photos of the month will be on hold for now until I can get a new one (feel free to send some money to my gmail for a camera though if you like those haha), and I will be toning down the cooking posts as well (though expect a few more still).  I plan to schedule time into my week to sit down and just write, so definitely expect even more posts in 2015!

I hope this gives everyone a bit of insight into my plans for 2015, and while there's a ton of stuff I didn't put into this post, you can definitely expect information on my other projects soon!  I hope everyone has a happy New Year!