'lectronics

i bought an arduino almost two years ago, messed around with it a little and then put it in a drawer.

but then i had an awesome idea for a halloween costume that would have all kinds of light up bits and what-have-yous. i spent a lot of time programming and researching and making stupid syntax errors.

and then i got really busy and had to skip halloween. but i was too deep to just shove my work back in a drawer. so i finally got the last few resistors that i needed and finished soldering up a 25 led display with four 74hc595 8-bit shift registers. it looks like this:

the shift registers allow you to independently control more outputs than the arduino board has room for so you can hail each led independently within a program. (if you really want to know more about 8 bit shifters, or if you want to get a great arduino library to help program them, go here.)

unfortunately, i don't really need a halloween costume right now and i have yet to come up with any good uses for this bit. thoughts?