Ask Slashdot: Good Books and Tools For a Software/Hardware Hobbyist? 85
postermmxvicom writes "I have a friend who is a mechanic, but enjoys tinkering with software and hardware as a hobby. I want to get him a gift that will either broaden his horizons or deepen his understanding in these fields. He is proficient at soldering components and removing them from circuit boards. His programming experience is with a wide variety of scripting languages. He recently used teensy and arduino boards and an accelerometer to add some bells and whistles to a toy car he made. He also used his knowledge to help a friend find and correct weaknesses in his shareware (that would have let 'customers' share more freely than intended). He is fascinated that people can create chips to modify existing hardware. Do you know of any good books or kits (or even tools of the trade) that would appeal to a hobbyist and allow him to grow? Is there anything that might also play off of his handyman/mechanic abilities?"
MSP430 state machines (Score:4, Interesting)
Might be too simple but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Web Browser... (Score:4, Interesting)
I totally agree. The adafruit [adafruit.com] site is a very good place to get ideas, and there are some great Adafruit videos on YouTube.
PS: "Getting Started with Arduino", by Massimo Banzi is very good for people with less experience, though this doesn't apply to the poster's friend.