Aside from my startup (which fills most of my evenings), my side projects never pan out. They're never completed, or end up being too difficult to complete. I consider them learning opportunities more than marketable projects.
Currently, I'm way out of my comfort zone: I'm on the way to build a proof of concept for an optical computer. No simulations, real hardware. My hope is that I can build a few passive logic gates, and go from there. Without a shadow of a doubt, I'll fail. There are a million factors I didn't consider or underestimate, and my knowledge of things like laser physics and optics is marginal at best. But I'm learning a lot from it, which is the main goal. I also just want to see if it can't be done. From what I could gather, there is far too little serious research being done into the whole field. If all else fails, at least I'll know why that is.
And hey, any side project where you get to play with lasers on your kitchen table has got to be a good one, right?
Currently, I'm way out of my comfort zone: I'm on the way to build a proof of concept for an optical computer. No simulations, real hardware. My hope is that I can build a few passive logic gates, and go from there. Without a shadow of a doubt, I'll fail. There are a million factors I didn't consider or underestimate, and my knowledge of things like laser physics and optics is marginal at best. But I'm learning a lot from it, which is the main goal. I also just want to see if it can't be done. From what I could gather, there is far too little serious research being done into the whole field. If all else fails, at least I'll know why that is.
And hey, any side project where you get to play with lasers on your kitchen table has got to be a good one, right?