About

Developing things with software and/or hardware can feel like living in a Skinner Box. Your heart races when you stumble into a solution, or get a clean compile, or smoke a chip. When something doesn’t work, you vary your actions slightly in the hopes of getting a better result.  In time, you lose your connection with the bigger problem your solving and you get lost in your intense focus on the technical details.

Think about it! You sit in front of computer screen, pecking away at keys, and when your rewards come flowing in, you repeat the pleasing activity late into the night … just like B.F. Skinner’s pigeons.

This web site is to capture my exploration of software & hardware hacks, and in general, those projects that I find entertaining and educational.  I do them to fulfill my inner pigeon!

Welcome to my Skinner Box!

Skinner Box

Wikipedia tells us that an operate conditioning chamber (also known as the Skinner Box) is a laboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of behavior to study animal behavior. A subject (typically a rat or pigeon but it also works for people) was placed in the box, and the mechanism gave small amounts of food each time the subject performed a particular action, such as depressing a lever or pecking a disk.