As you know we are geeks here @ McYork. So when we needed to get work from home all ramped up – our kit had to include console cables. Everyone (of the geeks) has these. However, most are now on new laptops and such where the older style USB is not native. Well simply grab one of these – we got 5 of them now.
For the next, while I will be posting products we’ve bought and used with links to the sites (mostly Amazon – thank you 2020!) These are “affiliate links” and so I’ll be clear – when you use these links I do get some type of a kickback. However, you may or may not know that I’d never steer you wrong just for my own gain. Every product listed I have bought in the past, probably in 2020, or have personally used (through a friend or work). As we get more “stuff” this site will grow.
What about all the other amazing McYork projects and blogs from the past? These exist and will be reorganized into a new section. Don’t panic.
For the sci-fi lover or not, this is a fun book. Trust me if you like sci-fi you can buy this book without reading anything about it in advance. Go get it is all I can say. Go in blind it really will be one of the best ways to experience it. The audio version is very well produced.
It is clearly getting better out there. We’ve endured the heart of the storm. Regardless you will want to up your Zoom game as that’s never going to end. This is what I use now and have for most of 2020. Simple plugs in USB-C and if I recall came with a selection of cables for other USB options. I use it on Windows 10 so that’s my experience. I expect it will work on MacBooks too.
With Summer here I wanted to cover two producst which have proven particularily usesful.
This hose is just a great hose. On the “farm” we use a lot of hoses in different locations. One problem we have is the hose bibs are not all exactly where you’d like them to be. We run a 25-foot section of this hose to the valve and then this 10-foot section. This setup lets us keep the tap on, as this hose bib is deep in a bush and just the other side of a fence. Not easy to turn on or off – so we leave it on (not the best thing to do, and it works for us).
What makes it so great? It’s out in the Sun all day – remains soft and flexible and does not get hard kinks. If you do loop it on itself it will fix when the water is turned on most of the time and it is soft enough to never “remember” to kink up in the same place and ruin the hose over time.
Now we can use the easy leaver on the valve to turn on/off the water as needed out by the chicken coop.
Flexzilla Garden Hose with SwivelGrip, 5/8 in. x 10 ft., Heavy Duty, Lightweight, Drinking Water Safe - HFZG510YWS
In fact, we just bought 2 more of these hoses.
A battle that’s lost before it really begins. Simply put I see these cryptocurrencies as exactly like MP3. Wait for it… yer paying in Crypto for bread and eggs.
Apple saw mp3 and digital music as a way forward. Bitcoin and the leading cryptocurrencies see the gap and will become the new and dependable (gold) standard.
Printing money to balance the books will become unacceptable, soon.
Get ready to see it all play out one more time.
Building an array or grid of leds from Neopixel strips? You might want one of these little boards I’ve come up with. Here is a video (terrible) of me so
ldering together a few strips into a 3 x 42 array. I found them to reduce the time and mistakes made when using individual wires.
OshPark is where you can oder the boards.
Questions? Please email me (ian @ mcyork.com)
I’ll be honest, today is payday and, I’ve been thinking about improvements to existing projects, surf’n the web looking to buy! Then I thought of my binary Christmas tree display. I remember seeing an 8 relay board on the web a long time ago, and thinking what could I use THAT for? I had to come up with an excuse to buy it of course. I convinced myself I could build a holiday light display with a twist. I decided I’d flash the lights in binary. Check it out if you have not watched it yet.
Now that was a fun project. How do I expand on that in the context of “the farm”. There’s a solar array in the field – ideas?
I can’t say I bought this one below – but they all look about the same. When you are just having fun with an Arduino you can afford the 8 pins to drive these things. I suspect some have a BCD to relay decoder chip built in. That would reduce the number of pins you need to dedicate. Or you can use a shift register (those are fun. Look em up if you have not considered them in your project yet).
5V Eight 8 Channel DC 5V Relay Switch Module for Arduino Raspberry Pi Arm AVR | eBay
So now you’ve got a project for yourself to figure out. The code for an Arduino to do the above binary tree display was fairly simple. You can get fancy if you want. Where you’ll want to be careful is how you wire up the high voltage side of the system. I took a lot of care modifying a power strip. This had the advantage of 8 sockets ready to plug into. Go for it – be safe.
Let’s begin with today and see how full autonomy in vehicles might progress. Today there are some auto-driving cars, but we know they are still just safety features that help you avoid collision more than anything else. Soon, however, these features will be able to take full control of the car and you can sit back and be just a passenger. Once this point is reached there will be rapid changes in where and how driving is done.
Freeways will be split – not like HOV lanes are today, no. Imagine all the Northbound lanes closed to all cars where a driver is in control. The southbound lanes will be split down the middle and drivers will be using this as their new north-south lanes. Those northbound lanes will be only for fully autonomous cars.
But there won’t be any lanes. Traffic will run swiftly in both directions on any side of the road that works for the flow of traffic. You may be heading South at a full clip when the car needs to move over to the left (into oncoming traffic) and the cars will make a path – the car will float over to the left and exit as needed. A bit like the video here but the water is northbound and the car is the swing.
Traffic signs will no longer be needed and perhaps digital markers will replace them. Easier for the car to know what’s up ahead if there are sudden changes beyond its ability.
Once the freeway is 100% autonomous then all old lanes in both directions will be used (again in any direction) and the median will be removed. There probably won’t be any lines painted (waste of paint by now).
Autonomy also brings a freedom from congestion. Your car could pick you up – drop your kids off at school, drop you off at work, go backhome and be available for your spouse all day until it needs to grab you or the kids or both. Schedule conflict? Uber-like services or your friend’s car will fill in the gap. With cars always doing work or being there for the person that needs it – you have fewer cars, less need for parking in a city. If these cars are gas or electric they can go fill themselves up without wasting your time or more importantly encouraging the (now mythical) range anxiety.
Sure there’s trucks and buses and other large vehicles that will need to be developed too.
Old cars will still have a life – where you can use it on country roads and enjoy the top down or whatever. Not forever, but don’t worry most of us will outlive our nonautonomous car and the nostalgia we have for them.
This is not tomorrow – this is the final destination. Well until these things can fly of course.
Enjoy the future.
— Range anxiety: I don’t have it. When all-electric cars have a 200+ mile range and (a big and) people charge their car @ home when they sleep, the anxiety effect will be gone. Even better the fully autonomous car will always know its limits and will be sure to charge when necessary and keep that in mind for longer trips. Also lastly; battery swap we know is possible and fully automatic and autonomous battery swap is clearly within reach.
Everything is turned off but… My fridge glows, my Stove glows, my TV glows, my hard drive glows, my bathroom outlet glows. Everything glows. This bombardment of light, from all the different things in my house, I’ve started to call it a constellation – my personal constellation. It is light pollution people! These products suck. When they are OFF they should be invisible and silent in every way. Sony thank you but a red led light on my TV or PS3 does nothing for me when your devices are supposed to be OFF. The only godsend I’ve encountered is Tivo’s ability to select how annoying or not you want the LEDs to be (and very much OFF is an option). All off THANK YOU! The basic hard drive green flashing light is ill-conceived when you can’t turn it OFF! Who cares if the hard drive on a computer is doing stuff. Really. YOU don’t.
Yes I have a significant investment in BLACK tape to cover these things up. I question this however from the simple perspective of perfection. WWSJD! What Would Steve Jobs Do!
Do you GET IT NOW! We are subjected to these ever-increasing constellations of light and they are all 100% unnecessary in our lives. Unless I install a night light in a room – when the lights are off and the Sun is down – it should be DARK.
Do something like post this on FaceBook and ask all your friends to re-post it. Personal constellations are not the where we need to be headed.
Mr. McYork.