Links

The Brain-Activity of People Coding Is Different

shapeof.com

From the study:

The researchers saw little to no response to code in the language regions of the brain. Instead, they found that the coding task mainly activated the so-called multiple demand network. This network, whose activity is spread throughout the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain, is typically recruited for tasks that require holding many pieces of information in mind at once, and is responsible for our ability to perform a wide variety of mental tasks.

I’ve long thought programming is to a great extent about organizational skill, especially when it comes to larger projects.

I agree. This is one thing that I’m finding is a big benefit in hardware work, where the hardware itself is also huge and complicated but also largely planned and recorded on paper, while the code behind it is contained only in the code — and then temporarily at times in the brains of the designers & organizers.

13 Levels of Beatboxing: Easy to Complex | WIRED

youtube.com

2005 Female World Beatbox Champion Butterscotch explains the art of beatboxing in 13 levels of difficulty. Starting with just the bass drum, Butterscotch layers more and more vocal drums and instruments on top of each other until she starts adding real, live instruments as well.

There was a time in my life where vocal percussion was a major hobby as it fit into my a cappella participation in college. Great video that shows the lay of the land from a master.

Build a 6502 computer

eater.net

Learn how computers work by building and programming a computer with the classic 6502 microprocessor. This was the first truly low-cost microprocessor that started the personal-computing revolution. Versions of 6502 found their way into the Atari 2600, Apple II, Nintendo Entertainment System, Commodore 64, Atari Lynx, BBC Micro and many other computers and game consoles of the era.

In this video series, I’ll build a basic 6502 computer with an LCD display and a few buttons, explain how to program it in assembly, and write a game or two.

I watched this all and was blown away. Ben is such a good teacher and explainer, and I understand so much more about how this all works now. I was never interested in the low-level stuff of software before, but now I am from the hardware side building up.

I’ve got enough projects right now, or else I’d certainly order his kit.