For novel ideas about building embedded systems (both hardware and firmware), join the 25,000+ engineers who subscribe to The Embedded Muse, a free biweekly newsletter. The Muse has no hype, no vendor PR. It takes just a few seconds (just enter your email, which is shared with absolutely no one) to subscribe.

Here's a complete set of back issues of The Embedded Muse.

• Muse 259 - explores where one should enable interrupts in an ISR, and has tool tips salted in as well.
• Muse 258 - contains more discussion about compilers and part 4 of the history of the microprocessor. Lots of tool tips, too.
• Muse 257 - contains a discussion about compilers and part 3 of the history of the microprocessor.
• Muse 0x100 - is the 256th installment, and contains the history of the microprocessor (parts 1 and 2).
• Muse 0xff - contains more about extending the notion of FIR filters to do least squares fits and even derivatives, and lots of feedback about the need for a university degree.
• Muse 254 - contains an article about extending the notion of FIR filters to do least squares fits and even derivatives, and thoughts about the need for a university degree.
• Muse 253 - contains some more thoughts on licensing, a funny embedded story, and comments about on-going education.
• Muse 252 - contains a look at a 68 year-old oscilloscope, more on cosmic rays, and some New Year's resolutions for firmware people.
• Muse 251 - contains a review of the DMMCheck calibration standard, more funny embedded applications, and some insight into RAM failure modes.
• Muse 250 - contains lots of comments about whether engineers should be licensed and some thoughts about engineering introspection.
• Muse 249 - contains a response to the last issue and thoughts on whether we engineers should be licensed.
• Muse 248 - contains lots of tool links, and thoughts about debugging logs and failures.
• Muse 247 - contains thoughts about user interfaces and failures.
• Muse 246 - contains thoughts about uncompensated overtime and some experimental results about the behavior of coin cells, like the CR2032
• Muse 245 - contains thoughts about software complexity and uncompensated overtime
• Muse 244 - contains thoughts about software metrics, and a bit about ultra-small electronic parts.
• Muse 243 - Lots of tools! Plus a review of the Kinetis FRDM-KL25Z $13 Cortex-M0+ evaluation board, and some ruminations about visualizing code.
• Muse 242 - contains comments about fixing hard drives and aging software.
• Muse 241 - contains comments about the death of EDN and Design East, a discussion about engineering school programs, and a book review (in Spanish!).
• Muse 240 - contains a discussion about software aging, embedded security and a book review.
• Muse 239 - contains more embedded blogs, a review of Extech's EX330 digital multimeter, and a toastal story.
• Muse 238 - contains a lot of ideas for dealing with common code bases, and a sampling of embedded blogs.
• Muse 237 - contains more thoughts about the perils of specialization, good tool input from readers, and a link to a neat way to read lots of switches with few I/O lines.
• Muse 236 - An update to the review of the Analog Discovery, which was reviewed in issue 233, and thoughts about the perils of specialization.
• Muse 235 -A review of a BNC board for the Analog Discovery, which was reviewed in issue 233, reader's thoughts on the best C reference book, and a timely warning about some dangers in using USB instruments.
• Muse 234 - A lot of ideas for tracking those random bits of information, and the seven habits of highly dysfunctional developers.
• Muse 233 - A review of the Analog Discovery (a USB oscilloscope), discussion about 32 bits killing off 8/16, and a great idea about managing stacks.
• Muse 232 - Some tool suggestions, a whacky site for electronic art, info on managing stacks and a very clever approach to software engineering
• Muse 231 - Tool suggestions, more thoughts on hardware support for software, and a description of a new interface that recognizes hand gestures. There's also some pictures and thoughts from the Computer History Museum.
• Muse 230 - More on datasheets, Teletypes and some fun stuff.
• Muse 229 - A rant about datahseets, more on watchdogs, and an ode to the Teletype
• Muse 228 - Comparing the Cortex M4 and M0 and a report on Doxygen
• Muse 227 - Contains the history of the op amp and a dive into some strange code
• Muse 226 - Results of last issue's contest, plus a great link to EE Demographics
• Muse 225 - How the Microprocessor has changed, along with a contest
• Muse 224 - The Demise of Print, and responses to how hard are you working?
• Muse 223 - The Demise of ESD and how hard are you working?
• Muse 222 - More spirited discussion about tech magazines
• Muse 221 - Thoughts about reading tech magazines
• Muse 220 - More comments on Margins and Just Reset It.
• Muse 219 - Comments on Margins and Just Reset It
• Muse 218 - Some great tools and tips
• Muse 217 - The origin of the word Geek and Refactoring
• Muse 216 - big.LITTLE and some interesting sites
• Muse 215 - Contains a great rant on C
• Muse 214 - Talking to management and C++11
• Muse 213 - iMSO-104 oscilloscope "plug-in" review
• Muse 212 - Tektronix MDO4104-6 scope review
• Muse 211 - A joke contest and NRE
• Muse 210 - Quotes and Thoughts and some jobs
• Muse 209 - More dumb things and backups!
• Muse 208 - Backups!
• Muse 207 - The dumbest things I have ever done
• Muse 206 - Debouncing
• Muse 205 - Local knowledge
• Muse 204 - Consulting survey results are in
• Muse 203 - A consulting survey and more debate
• Muse 202 - More thought on advanced degrees
• Muse 201 - Interesting thoughts on advanced degrees
• Muse 200 - 200th issue!
• Muse 199 - thoughts on free software
• Muse 198 - More on debouncing
• Muse 197 - Back from summer hiatus
• Muse 196 - Honesty in Resumes
• Muse 195 - Resume follies and superprogrammers
• Muse 194 - Book reviews and tips from fellow engineers.
• Muse 193 - Results of a Haiku contest and tips and tools.
• Muse 192 - 2010 Salary Survey and the annual VDC survey.
• Muse 191 - An interesting look at the Embedded Industry.
• Muse 190 - Thoughts on the word "embedded,"and more on Toyota and compiler optimizations
• Muse 189 - Toyota Brakes, Optimization and a new Paradigm
• Muse 188 - Stop bailing, the danger of Volatile, tools, and are debuggers evil?
• Muse 187 - Restoring from old backups, a story about EPROMs, more on corrosion, tools and tips.
• Muse 186 - Book review, thoughts on corrosion in switches, more tools and tips.
• Muse 185 - I'm History!, Tools and Tips, More, Better, Faster
• Muse 184 - Tools and Tips, Book Review (Statistics in a Nutshell), Salary Survey
• Muse 183 - Tools and Tips, Static Analysis, Optimism and Naming Conventions
• Muse 182 - Tools and Tips, Too Much Optimism, Naming Conventions
• Muse 181 - Tools and Tips, Book Review, Naming Conventions
• Muse 180 - Job Hunting Article, Tools and Tips, Book Review
• Muse 179 - Readers Respond
• Muse 178 - Tools, Naming Conventions, and CS Education
• Muse 177 - Multiprocessing, CS Education, Naming Conventions
• Muse 176 - Tools, Naming Conventions, Book Review and CS Education
• Muse 175 - Visualizing ICs, Past and Present and Responses to Computer Science Education
• Muse 174 - Computer Science Education
• Muse 173 - Responses to Quotes and Thoughts and Funny Datasheet
• Muse 172 - Comments on My Microchip Comments and more on Criminal Coding
• Muse 171 - Criminal Coding, Reuse, and Dot Com
• Muse 170 - Reuse and Dot Com
• Muse 169 - About Microchip, a book review, header guards and funny datasheets
• Muse 168 - Another Book Review and More on Reuse
• Muse 167 - Book Review and The Failure of Reuse
• Muse 166 - MSP430 Microcontroller Basics, Coders vs. Programmers
• Muse 165 - Inheritance, Code Inspections and Comm Monitors
• Muse 164 - Debugging and Datasheets
• Muse 163 - Hacking HP and More on Multicore
• Muse 162 - A Discussion on Multicore
• Muse 161 - Firmware's Best Practices
• Muse 160 - Firmware - Best Practices, and VDC Survey results
• Muse 159 - A VDC Survey, Great Engineer Responses and reasons for a valuable seminar
• Muse 158 - Tin Whiskers and a response to Great Engineers
• Muse 157 - Great Engineers, some history and contest results
• Muse 156 - Low ESR Capacitor Issue and more War Stories
• Muse 155 - A Salary Survey and another War Story
• Muse 154 - Nuggets, a War Story and the ESD - 20 Years Old
• Muse 153 - A Book Review (Serial Port Complete),Open Spaces, Tips
• Muse 152 - A Book Review (A Guide For the Perplexed), Tools + Tips
• Muse 151 - The Future of Engineering and More on Open Spaces
• Muse 150 - A Book Review (First Break all the Rules) and Open Spaces
• Muse 149 - Agile 2007, and Multitasking
• Muse 148 - Secure Software
• Muse 147 - Dependable Software and more Tools + Tips
• Muse 146 - My Readers' Rants on Cubicles
• Muse 145 - Security, Rant on Cubicles, and Tools + Tips
• Muse 144 - Baudot and TTY Corrections and Bit Banging
• Muse 143 - A Software Disaster and Embedded Linux Books
• Muse 142 - English as a First Language, and Tools and Tips
• Muse 141 - The Embedded World 2007, and Book Reviews
• Muse 140 - Free Books and Tools & Tips
• Muse 139 - Engineering as a Process and More Tool Guardians
• Muse 138 - A salary Survey, Tool Guardians and Stack Overflows
• Muse 137 - Book Reviews and Does Expensive = Good Quality
• Muse 136 - Reading Code and Beautiful C++ and more on Debugging Tools
• Muse 135 - New Kinds of Debugging Tools and Starting with the Manual
• Muse 134 - Reading Code, Debouncing and Preserving Design Decisions
• Muse 133 - Preserving Design Decisions
• Muse 132 - Survey Results, More on Tools and Another Failure Story
• Muse 131 - EDN Turns 50, The Show Myth
• Muse 130 - Computer History and another Failure Story
• Muse 129 - A Failure Story, Disasters and More Computer History
• Muse 128 - Live From the ESC, Computer History and Tidbits
• Muse 127 - Test Driven Development and Yet More on Tools
• Muse 126 - Getting Better Firmware: A shameless Promotion
• Muse 125 - A Book Review - How Do Computers Do Math, and Pre Cad
• Muse 124 - Transistor-Free Computing, Firmware is Cheap and More Tools
• Muse 123 - Tools and More Tools
• Muse 122 - Rounding, More on Tools and Testing
• Muse 121 - Tools and Unmaintainable Code
• Muse 120 - Interesting Articles, Tools and Bucks not Tech
• Muse 119 - Windows Turns 20
• Muse 118 - More on Naming Conventions and Engineering Washouts
• Muse 117 - Engineering Washouts and Variable Function Naming
• Muse 116 - Shipping News and a Review: Design Warrior's Guide
• Muse 115 - Backups and Productivity Vs Process
• Muse 114 - More jobs
• Muse 113 - Surviving IT Project Cancellations, Code Guardians and more
• Muse 112 - Computer Magazines and Debouncing
• Muse 111 - Circular Buffer and Testing, Zuse Machines and Consulting
• Muse 110 - Thoughts on Consulting, a Circular Buffer and the Fear of Editing
• Muse 109 - The Digital I/O Handbook and the Rabbit 3000 Microprocessor
• Muse 108 - Survey Results, Computer History and more on Testing
• Muse 107 - Salary Survey, Testing and Ham Radio for Dummies
• Muse 106 - Electronica/ESC, The Deutches Museum, and more Compilers
• Muse 105 - More on Watchdogs, Free x86 Compilers and Core Memory
• Muse 104 - Interesting Articles and Refactoring Function
• Muse 103 - Interesting Factoid, Note on a VCS and Strange Behavior
• Muse 102 - Best Development Team and Codewright Replacement
• Muse 101 - Driving a Hybrid, more on Debouncing and Elvis Explains
• Muse 100 - Debouncing and eXtreme Programming
• Muse 99 - Debouncing, Therac 25 revisited and eXtreme Programming
• Muse 98 - Programming Proverbs, the eXtreme Programming Conference
• Muse 97 - Autobauding and Musings on Debugging
• Muse 96 - Testing and Electronic Voting
• Muse 95 - New Video
• Muse 94 - Feature Driven Development and Time Management Tool
• Muse 93 - Redefining C's Operators and Notes on Spam and Viruses
• Muse 92 - Tips on using Standard Integers in C, Bug Tracking, Scheduling
• Muse 91 - More Endianness
• Muse 90 - Book Reviews
• Muse 89 - Backups and More on Watchdogs
• Muse 88 - Toolchains Aren't Forever (Part 2)
• Muse 87 - Toolchains Aren't Forever
• Muse 86 - Taming C
• Muse 85 - Solutions to Software Failure
• Muse 84 - Software WILL Fail
• Muse 83 - Power Problems
• Muse 82 - Comments on Commenting
• Muse 81 - Book Review - Peer Reviews in Software
• Muse 80 - Fascinating Study on Redundant Code
• Muse 79 - Hands on Courses
• Muse 78 - ASICs and Toxic Bosses
• Muse 77 - Micro Optical's New Product
• Muse 76 - Job Link
• Muse 75 - Comment on Disaster
• Muse 74 - Systems of Units
• Muse 73 - Resources and Links
• Muse 72 - ESD follow-up
• Muse 71 - Electrostatic Discharge
• Muse 70 - Asynchronous Firmware
• Muse 69 - Free/Cheap compiler and tool links
• Muse 68 - Book review, and request for help in newbie resources
• Muse 67 - A Dirty Word (again), and the Best Programming Book
• Muse 66 - A Dirty Word, and a Cool Animation
• Muse 65 - Hope and Despair
• Muse 64 - An Interesting Embedded Book
• Muse 63 - Memory Allocation in Embedded Applications
• Muse 62 - More on FPGAs
• Muse 61 - FPGAs
• Muse 60 - Bad Embedded Designs
• Muse 59 - An On-line Book, and Notes on Academia
• Muse 58 - Embedded Design Disasters
• Muse 57 - Thoughts on Sloppiness and AOL cds
• Muse 56 - A Trio of Embedded Books
• Muse 55 - More on Latency, and Tires that are Too Smart
• Muse 54 - Interrupt Latency
• Muse 53 - The Right Stuff - The Shuttle Software Team
• Muse 52 - MISRA Review (Motor Industry Software Reliability Association)
• Muse 51 - Write Only Memory Contest Results
• Muse 50 - Failures of Embedded Systems
• Muse 49 - Write Only Memory Contest!
• Muse 48 - Embedded Books for Newbies
• Muse 47 - Conspiracy Theory, part 2
• Muse 46 - Conspiracy Theory
• Muse 45 - Delayed Sweep
• Muse 44 - File Format Central
• Muse 43 - Even More Metastability
• Muse 42 - More Metastability
• Muse 41 - Metastability
• Muse 40 - New Embedded Books
• Muse 39 - Floating Point Approximations
• Muse 38 - Embedded Systems Conference
• Muse 37 - Book Review and Write only memory
• Muse 36 - More jokes
• Muse 35 - Embedded Book Review
• Muse 34 - Programming sources on the net
• Muse 33 - Programming sources on the net
• Muse 32 - The trouble with open source (again!)
• Muse 31 - The trouble with open source
• Muse 30 - Engineering Insight
• Muse 29 - Embedded Y2K
• Muse 28 - Embedded Overload, and Tech Training
• Muse 27 - Embedded Overload?
• Muse 26 - Resources, and a Budding Programmer
• Muse 25 - Peopleware
• Muse 24 - E-newsletters and Decision Making
• Muse 23 - More Hardware Helpers
• Muse 22 - More Hardware Helpers
• Muse 21 - Hardware Helpers
• Muse 20 - Embedded History - Part 2
• Muse 19 - Discipline? Bah Humbug!
• Muse 18 - Embedded Rules of Thumb
• Muse 17 - An Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup
• Muse 16 - Embedded History - Part 1
• Muse 15 - Dumb Mistakes - part 5, and Magic Delays
• Muse 14 - Mars Pathfinder
• Muse 13 - EC++
• Muse 12 - Reuse? Bah Humbug!
• Muse 11 - Dumb Mistakes and history article
• Muse 10 - Dumb Mistakes and Windows CE
• Muse 9 - Dumb Mistakes - part 5
• Muse 8 - Interesting article, ESC Notes
• Muse 7 - Dumb Mistakes - part 4
• Muse 6 - Dumb Mistakes - part 3
• Muse 5 - Dumb Mistakes - part 2
• Muse 4 - Dumb Mistakes - part 1
• Muse 3 - Mars Pathfinder
• Muse 2 - The Engineering Mind
• Muse 1 - Tracking Bugs