Monthly Archives: March 2014

Sorry about the site being down for 24 hours

Posted on March 25, 2014 by robertwilkie

I ran into “technical difficulties”.  And this being a hobby it took me a bit longer than I thought to recover.

Posted in Misc-Life | Comments Off on Sorry about the site being down for 24 hours

Make a microscope for your smartphone

Posted on March 25, 2014 by robertwilkie

Clever ID for roughly $10 in parts.  looks like it works better than regular old microscopes too. http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-conversion/

Posted in Cheap, Teaching and Learning, Tinkering, Tools | Comments Off on Make a microscope for your smartphone

The Tidy Dog

Posted on March 25, 2014 by robertwilkie

I almost fell over after watching this one.  Good idea (if it works).  I wonder if there is a kid version http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20140320/tidy-dog-toy-box-teach-dog-pick/ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/608889985/the-tidy-dog-bin-your-dog-will-love-to-pick-up-the

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Some simple code snips for arduino

Posted on March 25, 2014 by robertwilkie

Some nice simple code sniplets you can use for your arduino from Make Mag. http://makezine.com/2014/03/24/arduino-helper-functions-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=%24%7Bfeed%7D&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+%24%7Bmakezineonline%7D+%28%24%7BMAKE%7D%29&utm_content=%24%7BGoogleReader%7D

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Another possible cheap 3D printer on kickstarter?

Posted on March 25, 2014 by robertwilkie

The Mamba3D printer sounds like its going to be another cheap, good quality 3D printer.  But…not word on price yet.  So don’t hold your breath. http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140325-open-source-mamba3d-printer-set-to-launch-via-kickstarter.html

Posted in CNC/3D-printing | Comments Off on Another possible cheap 3D printer on kickstarter?

Use cheap Google Drive for a media server

Posted on March 25, 2014 by robertwilkie

Wow has remote storage dropped in price, Google is now at $2 for 100 GB for a month.  The article goes on how to use that to made a file system for media so that you can access it from … Continue reading →

Posted in Cheap, Misc-Life | Comments Off on Use cheap Google Drive for a media server

Smart Brake Light for cars

Posted on March 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

I like the idea, the author puts a simple LCD on the back window of his car to show things like braking fast, and other…err…signs to other drivers.  Down side it only works for the newer ford fusions via the … Continue reading →

Posted in Tinkering | Comments Off on Smart Brake Light for cars

Text messaging sump pump alert

Posted on March 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

I like this solution, thought I am not so sure I would dedicate a RPi to it.  The author basically uses a 9-volt battery connector to test if the water has gone up too high (it shorts the connection).  And … Continue reading →

Posted in Cheap, RaspberryPi, sensors | Comments Off on Text messaging sump pump alert

4 ways to get diskspace back in Linux

Posted on March 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

Good article, thought very “Ubuntu” centric.  I did learn one thing from it, you should run bleachbit as root to get rid of copies of packages. http://www.howtogeek.com/185173/4-ways-to-free-up-disk-space-on-linux/

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Another article on the Health care mess for Xerox

Posted on March 24, 2014 by robertwilkie

Nevada doesn’t seem to let the heat off Xerox over the healthcare mess its in. http://vegasseven.com/2014/03/22/three-questions-broken-nevadas-health-insurance-exchange/  

Posted in Xerox | Comments Off on Another article on the Health care mess for Xerox