I took the lead designing a story during planning today. The work was somewhere between simple and complex; the scope was neither large nor small; and my name is certainly on previous commits in the code base. Still, I think I said “I don’t know” at least 15 times in under 2 hours. The audience […]
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Mocha Protein Smoothie Made Simply at Home
Need In the afternoon I like a coffee “pick-me-up” and am usually a bit hungry. Since I’ve been working from home, it’s even easier to pop into the kitchen and make something reasonably healthy that will sustain me through the rest of the work day. What I’ve settled on hits my needs well: High protein […]
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Wireless Xbox 360 PC Adapter Fuse Bypass
Lights Out With no warning, my Microsoft brand Xbox 360 wireless adapter, for playing games on my PC, stopped working. The LED was no longer coming on, regardless of which USB port I tried. When I cracked it open, I found that a fuse had basically worn out. Getting Inside There are several guides about […]
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Simple Low-Power Arduino Weather Station
With two lines of code and cutting one trace I reduced the use of my Arduino Nano Wireless Weather Beacon by 66%! Baseline Low Power Library Cut LED Trace Max (mA) 14.48 13.22 11.70 Min (mA) 12.73 4.8 2.75 Average 13.50 6.54 4.58 Notes Always on 7 seconds @ 4.72 seconds @ 13.0 7 seconds […]
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Weather is Local
With the temperatures rising and nearing 100°F, my son started paying more attention to the temperature. It didn’t take him long to notice that the various devices that can display the current temperature were different. Together, we found that the thermostat, my phone’s lock screen, a weather app, and a smart display in our living […]
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If Your Kid Won’t Help, Automate!
This weekend project starts with my 5 year old, as so many do these days. Armed to the teeth with NERF guns, we we’re shooting the evil toilet paper rolls off the coffee table. When we had cleared the table of targets, I asked my son to set the targets up again. He had quickly […]
Continue readingLearning Opportunities
Are learning opportunities buried treasure or ships passing in the night? When an event happens and you see something important in the aftermath, a possible chance to learn: Is it equally visible to everyone? If not, how many questions do you ask in order to get others to see it? Is it as effective (or […]
Continue readingMorning Mocha Oatmeal
I have found, in my humble opinion, a hearty and healthy breakfast that is easy to make and inexpensive. The impetus to find such a meal has a longer back story than I’ll get into here, but it boils down to a focused effort to improve my eating habits; meal by meal. I had a […]
Continue readingBook Review: Linux Kernel Development
I reviewed Linux Kernel Development by Robert Love on Idle Engineers… Check it out!
Continue readingBook Review: The Lean Startup
I just reviewed The Lean Startup by Eric Ries on Idle Engineers… Check it out!
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