Thanks! For PDF form filling, I use the APIs that pdf-lib [0] exposes. That includes text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns and options lists. Give it a try and let me know if you find a type of form field that's missing.
One idea was a workout mobile app with achievements (badges) - Duo Lingo for workouts. You pick a ready-made workout plan (or create your own) and it gives you badges to reward your progress and encourage you to keep going. What concerns me is that the market is over saturated - a quick search in Google Play shows hundreds of results for workout apps.
Another idea was improving the renting experience in London (where I'm based). There are so many new flat listings here that it's hard to find the ones you like. My idea is to crawl over the more popular agencies' websites and organize the listing information neatly with extra customizable filters, such as "1 mile away from a tube station" or "bedroom that is at least X sq.m." (for the ones that have an included floor plan). I haven't actually tried out that idea yet, and it would definitely solve a problem all my friends and I are having - we all go through a miserable experience in finding a flat. However, one problem would be that some of the agencies' ToS prohibit crawling.
I also had an idea about a Citymapper-like tourist guide mobile app, but with the pandemic, that won't be relevant anytime soon.
I’d say do the second one as it solves a problem you have. At the very least you get that. Also make sure you set up the business properly so that you are protected personally if the business does break ToS and you’ll learn that process as well.
In another comment on this thread they explained that space and time are parts of the same vector, <x, y, z, t>, with velocity being the speed of light. Here you mentioned time is frozen at the black hole event horizon - does this have to do with the theory that we can use black holes as "portals" to distant parts of the galaxy? So if time is 0 and we have <x, y, z, 0>, does this mean we travel at the speed of light?
1) I'm a software engineer, have a good foundation in mathematics and physics. I could use a refresher on the electrical engineering area of physics though.
2) What I want to do - for starters, small hobbyist projects like playing with sensors, displays, etc. My end goal is to be able to design cool IoT projects, such as smart security cameras, and sell them.
3) I can dedicate 1-2 hours per day. I don't expect to have the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree any time soon, but am happy with any kind of pace.
Sorry it got a bit long but here's something. Let me know if you need more or different suggestions.
I would say you need at least three things: (1) a physics textbook with some EE emphasis to get the fundamental physics (again?), (2) a circuit theory book to transform the physical knowledge to reading circuits and (3) some resource to transform the circuit theory to working PCB designs.
(1) and (2) are easy to come by (digital or in book form) and any moderately recent textbook you can pick up at a second hand store should suffice. I like physical books but YMMV. I learned using [1] and [2]. More recently, there are high-quality videos but I think it is better to get a book and then search for additional help on the topics you don't understand from the textbook explanation.
(3) is more difficult. This kind of experience can be obtained from lab exercises in a university or work experience. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to point to a single book or video resource because there are so many directions. Here are some things that may help, I tried to organize them from easy to difficult.
You may need to spend a little money (<$100) in hardware in total.
Then, there is the programming side. This is most often in some C-flavor for microcontrollers so dust off your knowledge on that (or follow one of a million blogposts on Google if you're stuck).
- Get a Raspberry Pi and attach some sensors to it. There are many manufacturers of Pi-compatible stuff. Try to use the low-level functionality of RPi because it will be useful for future microcontroller projects.
- Use your Raspberry Pi with some generic sensor PCB that is not specifically RPi compatible.
- Related to above: learn about datasheets of microcontrollers. Learn that a microcontroller needs quite some external components to function (try to understand why). Learn how to program the microcontroller (extra hardware may be necessary)
- Try to mimic one of the sensor boards you got with your own PCB+microcontroller design. Maybe you can extend its functionality if you design it? Design your own PCB: integrate microcontroller, sensor, crystal, power supply+regulator, etc.
- If you want to get more fancy, you will need to spend more money, unfortunately, but in general the components are very cheap. Maybe try to get a Bluetooth chip and two Raspberry Pi's or two custom microcontroller boards to communicate? Or get a WiFi chip to communicate with your computer? Bluetooth light switch (careful with mains power!)?
- Someone else mentioned the EEV YouTube channel. Great content in general (although I can't vouch for all videos). It's nice to watch some and try to Google more information based on what interests you.
[1] "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" (now that I searched the title, I realize there are many books with the same title, from my short glances they all seem pretty equal, but I am sorry I can't remember the authors of my book)
