Projects
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- Category: Home Automation
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It's a funny thing - what you find when you start a project you think you know something about. If you're doing it right then you'll likely discover that you're not as slick as you thought you were. I suppose that is why I love these projects and goals so much. They make me stretch. On the flip-side, scope creep is real thing and not every project can be a voyage of discovery. So, this is my self-imposed roadmap for the first two phases of my overall home automation goals.
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- Category: Home Automation
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Internet of Things, Zigbee, Z-Wave, X10, MQTT, nodes, pairing! What is all of this? In this article, I'm going to go over the common language of home automation and try to help you make sense of all of these terms and concepts. *NOTE* this article is alive and will change as time goes by.
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- Category: Home Automation
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As I mentioned in the introduction article of this series, there isn't a standard yet for smart home devices to talk to each other. However, the advertising and hype sure makes smart homes look like an easy care free way of life. Well, it isn't. If someone is telling you it is, beware! Snake oil will soon follow!
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- Category: Home Automation
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Since February of this year, I've been working on a lengthy project - I am slowly adding digital control and automation to the everyday things in our home. This project, unlike most of the others I've started grew out of a need rather than a want. Sure, the want is there and I'd be lying if I said that this wasn't one of the most fun projects I've committed to but, in this case, this project started with attempting to fill a need. Now that this project has matured a bit, I want to start chronicling my journey so that others with a similar need may find these experiments useful.
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- Category: Home Automation
- Hits: 11083
Jay Napier is Mr. IncredibleIt is so easy to take everything for granted. Let's take for example, turning on the TV. Next to none of us give this simple task a second thought. I have had days when I came home from work so distracted that, after a few minutes of scurrying around the house, wondered if it was actually me that turned on the TV.
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- Category: Personal Development
- Hits: 1134
One of my late 2025/2026 goals is now complete!
I am now officially a Linux desktop user. No Microslop, no ads, no data collection, (so far) no updates that crash this or that feature AND I am now back in control of my expensive equipment!
Oh, and my computer is noticeably faster.
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- Category: Personal Development
- Hits: 4792
So, by now, we all know that social media creates "echo chambers" or news and social feeds that can reinforce extreme views and beliefs.
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- Category: Personal Development
- Hits: 5267
A couple of years ago, I responded to a post on Facebook with a personal story that I have rarely shared. I don't talk about these events in my life often and not because I don't think of them as important or central to my identity but rather, because I do. I have kept it to myself largly because, it is a fundamental piece of me - one that is sensitive and utterly personal.
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- Category: Personal Development
- Hits: 5790
I'm back on Facebook.
Now, before you get that look on your face, let me also note that I'm a FB Ghost. My profile only contains the items that are required to register and I have zero friends. I turned off all of the available settings to find me and it isn't possible to send me a friend request. So, now that look on your face probably looks puzzled. Let me explain.
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- Category: Personal Development
- Hits: 9472
I've been noticing that I spend a lot of time online. I don't have a lot of social media accounts to manage but nonetheless I've been feeling like the time I've spent wasn't worth much. Sure, I've started some discussions on topics I think are important and I've learned a lot from other's point of view, but what has the net balance to all of this online perusing been? Did I really gain anything or add to the world in any meaningful way?
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- Category: Personal Development
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It is an early Monday morning. I get out of bed to get ready for work and before getting in the shower, I sleepily step on the scales - 205. ~sigh~ I go about the rest of my morning and go in to work. For the last two months it has been this way, except that the number has been increasing, slowly inevitably, again.
Subcategories
Omnibot Modernization
As a kid I dreamed of getting one of the Omnibots from RadioShack! Each Christmas and birthday I would beg and bargain for one but to no avail. They were too expensive for a toy, my parents would say. I dreamed of "programming" it to do all kinds of things little knowing that my parents were right. As cool as they were, Omnibots just weren't as useful as the advertising and my imagination made them.
Over the course of this series of builds for "version 1" I hope to turn my Omnibot into the bot I thought it was when I was a kid. I want to keep the original functionality but bring it into the modern era. So here's my punchlist:
- Moveable arms (motorized upgrade)
- Expressive "Eyes"
- Omnidirectional movement
- Status and time display
- Record movement with playback
- Record audio and playback
- Walkie-talkie function
- Full Featured remote control with motor and arm directional control, "eye" expression control, PTT, record movement mode select, and preset playback