Download the development program for the Mac or Linux or Windows for free and install it. Connect your Arduino to your computer via a USB cord and you can write programs and load them onto your Arduino, disconnect it from the computer, give it power and it will run whatever program you wrote.
The first program you can run on your new Arduino is Blink.
Computer programs are written by you and then you press a button to compile them and then you press another button to download your program to the Arduino (connected via USB).
Whenever you press the reset button (or add power) on the Arduino board, it will begin by running whatever code you put into your Setup() routine and then it will run your Loop().
When you write software (or design hardware or write literature or music or make movies) you must decide under which kind of License to release it.
The DMCA (law) of 1998 makes it against the law to circumvent copy protection mechanisms to allow you to copy something, even if you're legally allowed to copy it.
Fair Use in copywrite law will disappear if the TTP passes.
There's a new law in California which newly criminalizes libel.
Corporations use copywrite to prevent us from learning how to build the machines needed to build our civilization.
The first inexpensive 3d Printer was the RepRap. It can print a new set of plastic parts for making another RepRap. You still need to buy the electronics and metal rods, but otherwise, this is the first low cost self-replicating machine. This is a major milestone in human evolution.
The Cotton Gin
Instead of a hundred serf families tilling the land, now the king could use the Cotton Gin to work the land with one family and the rest could be kicked off. So those people had nowhere to go but work for factory owners in the city.
The king made deals with the factory owners to use the kings guards to prevent the people from making stuff in the factory for themselves but to merely accept the slave wages offered.
The refrigerator was the next big advancement in human civilization, making it possible for humans to do substantially other work besides feeding ourselves fulltime.
computer automation will change us again.
Self driving cars will put delivery drivers, truck drivers and taxi drivers out of work.
Modern Artificial Intelligence software is beginning to put a few white color workers out of a job.
FarmBot is a small CNC farming robot. It plants, waters, pull weeds but doesn't yet harvest.
The founders of the United States assumed that occasionally, the second ammendment would be required for us to organize and overthrow our government if it stops serving our needs. I beleive that ham radio and the internet need to remain free from censorship and survailence (to the best extent possible) so we can continue to have the tools necessary to overthrow our government when it no longer meets our needs. I beleive our current government is clearly headed in that direction.
The song at the end is called, "Choices" by Heather Alexander before she became Alexander James, the heir. I like how it reminds us to think about our actions in terms of how they affect our futures' possibilities. Here are the lyrics.
If I've made any mistakes, please Call me or email Kila or you can call us directly at (707) 413-6435. Here is my main website.
