Wireless Google Calendar Display using Raspberry Pi and Arduino

Posted on by mrsoltys
When I'm not in my office, I like for people to know where to find me. Am I teaching a class? Working from home? In the manufacturing area? So I thought it'd be cool to build a little device that I could put in my office window that shows where I'm at and when I'll be back... On the window...Read More

ATtiny85 and the Particle Photon

Posted on by mrsoltys
As you know: I love all things Arduino and use them extensively both as a hobby and as a teaching tool... I wanted to talk about a few products that I've been especially stoked on lately, just for those nerdy blog readers out there. ATtiny85 [caption id="attachment_1637" align="alignleft" width="300"] Here's the ATtiny connected to two 8-bit shift registers to give it...Read More

Home Buying

Posted on by mrsoltys
My last post was more than 8 months ago! I want to start updating my blog again, So we'll start with the biggest update I can think of: we bought a house. A little background: [caption id="attachment_1630" align="alignright" width="300"] In early 2015, Boulder housing prices began to climb steadily[/caption] The city of Boulder is surrounded by a moat of open-space...Read More

Poormans Nest

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="attachment_1616" align="alignright" width="300"] Ok, for sure not as sexy as the NEST[/caption] I start a lot of projects and never finish them. So in the spirit of documenting where I've been, here's my Poorman's Nest.  Here I'm using one of my Microview's I had laying around A potentiometer (on pin A0) A small digital temperature sensor (on pin 3)...Read More

Replacing Dropbox Pro with Amazon Glacier, and other services

Posted on by mrsoltys
Recently I've started auditing my tech spending to save some money.  One of the things I decided to drop was my subscription to Dropbox Pro, costing me $99/yr for 100 GB.  (really 140, because they double your free-space with a pro account). Here's what I did. Photos: Amazon S3 Glacier Backup A big chunk of my data in dropbox was photos:...Read More

Trip Report: South Africa (Week 3)

Posted on by mrsoltys
Sorry for the delayed post, but I was just realizing that I would be remiss if I didn't post one of the most memorable experiences of our trip: our Safari. Unfortunately, it's hard to describe just how incredible it was to see all the animals on the savana, and after our camera broke shark-diving, my photos are only from my...Read More

Trip Report: South Africa (Week 2)

Posted on by mrsoltys
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="622"] Tasting wine at our neighbors' vineyard![/caption] The end of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch is basically the Boulder of Cape Town. There is great dining, good mountain biking, and many, many wineries.  Courtney and I enjoyed walking to different wine estates for tastings, which normally cost less than $2.50 for five wines.  We've also loved the dining here, with restaurants...Read More

Trip Report: Cape Town and Stellenbosch (The first few days)

Posted on by mrsoltys
The first law of travel is be flexible. With a sudden death in the family, our hosts had to fly back to the UK, and our plans in Cape Town changed.  We were still able to see our friends briefly before heading to the airport. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="671"] Courtney Overlooking the city of Cape Town, with Table Mountain in...Read More