During one of the New England Patriots’ recent runs to a Super Bowl victory, head coach Bill Belichick put it pretty well: “Do Your Job.” Everybody in the organization, from the owners all the way down to the team’s interns, had a job to do in order for the team […]
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Hi Everyone. Just wanted to give you all a quick update on the status of operations of my websites, adventures, business, blog, and everything else during the COVID-19 pandemic. I am making every effort to minimize the disruption during these unprecedented times. However, as we learned this week, things can […]
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Well, it looks like the coronavirus has arrived in full-force here in the United States. COVID-19 will likely cause some disruptions to day-to-day life. Being a math person, the outbreak has piqued my interest in modeling and simulating some possible scenarios for the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. Before […]
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I recently identified a rather unfortunate bug that left part of my weather station’s QA/QC algorithm redundant. Fixing it treated the symptom, but not the cause of the problem. Today, we’re going to look at what is causing the temperature sensor on one of my Raspberry Pi’s to seemingly randomly […]
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Have you ever heard the expression “Measure Twice, Cut Once”? It’s commonly used in woodworking and carpentry. It’s a reminder to always double and triple-check your measurements when you cut a piece of wood. You’d be amazed at how many times you screw it up. Well, let me tell you […]
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When I started experimenting with smart home technology and automation last year, I spent way too much time planning around the “smart” part of the smart home technology. Indeed, as a user, my first attempt didn’t gain much benefit. I just had a computer telling me when I turned on […]
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A couple years ago, I built a weather station using a network of Raspberry Pi’s. It obtained data from Weather Underground and the National Weather Service. Last spring, I finally added temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure sensors to the weather station. I have plans to add rain and wind sensors […]
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The mathematics have confirmed that the anti-woodpecker spray system can protect the whole house. It’s time to start building a prototype. Most of the system is just 3/4 inch PVC pipe, so we will focus on the smart-home integration with the prototype. I originally looked at using smart valves to […]
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Well, this is the moment of truth. It’s time to calculate the pressure loss from a leak to see if this crazy idea for deterring woodpeckers will actually work. The idea is that the woodpecker deterrent will connect to my outdoor hose spigots, which hopefully will provide ample water pressure […]
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This fall, our neighborhood has been dealing with an invasion of woodpeckers. While you would think they would stick to pecking on wood, they have been doing incredible amounts of damage to the stucco homes in our neighborhood, including my house. Who knew woodpeckers could peck through stucco so easily? […]
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Well, it’s been quite a busy past few months. My three-country road trip in August and September to get the rest of my stuff from my mom and dad’s house in Massachusetts was the highlight. I’ve been busy since I got back, re-touching and refinishing the furniture I brought out […]
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Wow, I can’t believe this trip is already coming to an end. The final stop of the trip is another very unique place: the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. The library was intentionally built with the US-Canada border running right through the middle of it. The opera house on […]
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