Welcome to my site! Here you will find my projects organized in blog posts, general pages, info about me, ways to contact me and more. Mostly focused on programming and electronics, although other topics will be mentioned. This site is extremely minimalist and contains no advertisements or trackers, and is thus extremely eco-friendly and privacy-conscious! Enjoy your stay!
Featured post:
Video games, challenge and me
Looking inwards to see how I view challenges through how I play video games.
In category: general
All posts:
Gnome-challenge:
Posts documenting my progress in the GNOME Community Engagement Challenge competition (Phase One Winner!).
- Some much needed advice
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 27 Sep 2020
 How "beta testers" help a lot
- It's all about the looks
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 21 Sep 2020
 How I'm trying to make my project look good
- How I made the project
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 15 Sep 2020
 The problems you arrive at when you listen to the opinions of people on the internet
- The first steps
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 14 Sep 2020
 What needs to be done and how
3r-project:
A series where I show you what you can do with broken or unneeded electronics. Leaving them in a basement is a waste of space, and throwing them away is extremely harmful to the environment. Repairing electronics has been my hobby for a couple of months now, and I couldn’t be happier with it.
- Three Rs of recycling – reduce
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 19 Oct 2020
 Fixing an expensive game controller
- Three Rs of recycling – reuse
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 19 Oct 2020
 Turning an old PC fan into a desk fan
- Three Rs of recycling – recycle
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 19 Oct 2020
 Salvaging a broken solar flashlight
General:
General posts which don’t fit into a specific category.
- Video games, challenge and me
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 26 Jun 2023
 Looking inwards to see how I view challenges through how I play video games.
- On University
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 17 Jun 2023
 A description of my situation with universities.
- What are soldering fumes made of?
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 10 Mar 2023
 A smell as sweet and deadly as an expensive perfume. Featuring the MQ-135 gas sensor.
- Greenifying the blog
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 06 Jan 2023
 Long live WebP!
- A log and lessons learned from electronics repair
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 15 Aug 2022
 A log of my first repair, and what I learned from all subsequent ones.
- America's Artillery Supercomputer
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 18 Jun 2022
 Fully transistorized mathematical supercomputing from the 50s!
- Playscribe
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 19 Oct 2020
 A simple tool to practice play analysis
8051-microcontroller:
A series of posts about the 8051 microcontroller.
- 8051 IO ports
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 29 Mar 2022
 Blog post describing the IO ports of the 8051 microcontroller
- 8051 Clocking
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 26 Mar 2022
 Blog post about the clocking an 8051
School:
Posts related to school, most often school projects, but can be anything.
- Chemistry balancing made easy
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 01 Apr 2022
 Tutorial on how to balance equations easily using systems of equations.
Electronics-projects:
Posts documenting different electronics projects I build, of which there are many.
- Vex Robotics V5 Brain Analysis
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 25 Feb 2023
 Let's make a better one!
- Crafting the USB-MIDI converter of my dreams!
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 08 Jan 2023
 A year and one hour in the making...
- Building an 8052 BASIC computer
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 03 Dec 2022
 One of the coolest birthday presents ever.
- Building a sustain pedal (for my Yamaha DX7)
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 23 Nov 2022
 I have a Yamaha DX7.
- Building a dual-voltage USB-UART converter
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 11 Oct 2022
 Damn you FTDI!!!!
- Building a DIY chorus guitar pedal
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 09 Oct 2022
 Honestly I just want to play bass guitar in a Russian post-punk group.
- Building a 7 segment display driver with a custom protocol
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 11 Aug 2022
 Building my own display module with my own protocol!
- PLC Reusing and Recycling
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 19 Jul 2022
 Finding use in a mysterious, long-dead PLC.
- Accurate Analog Measurements
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 01 May 2022
 Going above and beyond to achieve a nerd's dream - a perfectly flat line!
- DIY PIC-based Thermometer
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 23 Apr 2022
 My odyssey in building a DIY thermometer and the challenges and successes along the way!
- Building a DIY bench-top power supply
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 03 Apr 2022
 Documenting the challenges of building a DIY power supply on a low budget.
Music:
Everything music-related, mostly synthesizers and MIDI files!
- A short analysis of Crying All The Time
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 06 Nov 2022
 It's a pretty good song!
- A collection of my transcribed songs in MIDI
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 22 Aug 2022
 I often enjoy transcribing songs and chord progressions, a small number of which I made into a post!
Македонски:
Објави на македонски јазик (posts in Macedonian).
- Нови песни, нови весници
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 24 Oct 2022
 Дигитализирани изданија на првите броеви на „Нова Македонија“ и „Дедо Иван“ (кумановски социјалистички антифашистички таен весник)
Media-reviews:
Reviews of media (books and anime) that I found notable and interesting to discuss.
- Only Yesterday: Lent et douloureux
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 09 Feb 2023
 An excellent anime about... being human.
- Cells at Work! Code Black Review
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 14 Jan 2023
 A dark and fascinating anime about the human body.
Project-videosex:
Trying to recreate the magic of the Yugoslav synthpop group Videosex from scratch.
- Project Videosex Intro
 By Stefan Nikolaj on 22 Jan 2023
 Introducing Project Videosex
This blog is dedicated to my dearest friend Sara, who constantly pushes me to improve myself and my skills.
Important pages:
Categories:
- 8051-microcontroller
- gnome-challenge
- general
- 3r-project
- notes
- school
- electronics-projects
- music
- македонски
- media-reviews
- project-Videosex
Featured Videos:
- A video on introductory programming in the BASIC language in the LibreOffice Calc application.
- A video exploring the surprisingly powerful capabilities of LibreOffice BASIC - it can send emails!
- A video showing my DIY synthesizer.
Posts in PDF form:
- Exploring constant current sources and sinks - Explanations and schematics for programmable constant current sources and sinks.
- DRAM Dosimetry Mini Research Article - Exploring the feasibility of using commercial DRAM modules for radiation dosimetry.
- Calculating the maximum theoretical rate of reaction in a free radical substitution reaction with my UV-C LEDs - The title is quite self-explanatory.
