Four antennas and 3 guy lines. Yes!
Ham radio is a hobby. It can be much more than that, but it goes well with a large dish of experimentation and learning. That's the biggest appeal to me.
I knew when I made the leap …
read more
Image: The yoke holding the pulley is there.
I am past both the social and legal definition of retirement age. I still work full-time, and will continue to do so as long as they want me and I want …
read more
Image: This was purchased to replace a very old AA battery powered cordless trimmer.
. . . or so they say. But sometimes you don't even get that.
My old Wahl AA battery powered beard and mustache trimmer was on its last leg. It had endured leaky …
read more
Image: This is what I call fun.
. . . there lived a not-quite-so-young man who was about to realize a life-long dream: he was about to get his ham radio license.
It was the mid-90's in the Great Republic of Texas and my wife and …
read more
Image: This is The Monstrosity. It was thusly named by my wife.
My hobby bench was in a seriously sad state. I can't believe I don't have a picture. I can only guess I was too embarrassed to let anyone see …
read more
Image: It all started here: a condenser fan motor.
When I was a child I rarely needed a good reason to do a thing. When asked why I had done a thing, quite often my first response was, "Uh, I dunno. Just …
read more
Image: The screen served by Brilliant on my local network.
(PlayerPi? Brilliant? wha?) 1 Photo gallery below.
It is possible to control devices using IR with a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian.
In the old days if you wanted to …
read more
Image: Inspiringly beautiful, and yet deadly.
A Frenchman shares my thoughts. Maybe my thoughts are not so strange after all.
I stumbled upon a documentary on Amazon Prime the other night. Legacy. Narrated by …
read more
I was out in the back yard a week or so ago and just happened to see a bird perched happily on the pointy top of LilWeatherPi. I thought, "How nice," and went on about my business.
A couple of days ago I …
read more
Image: This is an IPv6 address. Gaze upon its glory, mortal.
I was having problems with random wifi dropouts.
WeatherPi, DoorPi and LilWeatherPi all suffered from a tendancy to just randomly lose their wifi connection for no apparent reason. Video …
read more
Image: The XMerge icon.
If you are an Excel guru, you probably don't need XMerge. But if you have a bunch of .csv or tab-delimited data files that you want to merge into one .xlsx file, this tool may be exactly what …
read more
When I was a child the world was infinite, spreading out in all directions without end. From the sugar sand beaches of the northern Gulf Coast through the hushed waters of the Okefenokee, out to the sprawling deserts of Nevada, up to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness separating Montana from Idaho, my …
read more
I'm no dummy. I know how to google a thing. But I struggled to solve this simple problem regardless of the fact that I have the entire Internet at my disposal.
I use VS Code on both Linux and Windows. I use an …
read more
Multiple personalities can be fun until they turn into a mess. Then it's fun again when you find out you can clean up the mess quickly and easily. Such is the case here.
I chose 'casspop' as a username on Github a long …
read more
Image: One long row of boring.
It seems to me we are very interested in divorcing the physical world and marrying instead a sanitized, dead image of it.
It must be the fate of old men to decry the progress of younger generations as loss …
read more
Does this look like a project to you? It does to me.
It's one thing to read about recycling on the Internet, or to see kids shows promote the ideals of good stewardship of resources. It's another thing altogether to actually make something useful out of junk. I maintain the …
read moreIf I put the gallery at the top of a post, it got included in the post summary.
There were a few times when posts with galleries of images that were also the 'index.html' post (the featured post) had a problem. Their gallery would have …
read more
I just burned up two whole days trying to solve a problem caused by an invisible non-entity.
It was a space. Well, two spaces to be precise, one at the end of each account password.
We recently …
read more
This is not a rant, it is just communication.
The Pelican static blog generator system is wonderful. It is not perfect, but few things are.
I only use two plugins on this blog, and both of them took quite a bit of …
read more
At work, we use a AutoLISP routine called CAF (Cable Auto-Fill) that snags values from one block and inserts those into attributes in blocks that are determined to be within two grid spaces (GRID=15) from the first block.
read moreThe proximity …
It seems easy enough. Just think about everything you know not existing. Go ahead. Do that.
Nothing is a term we use a lot, but it's actually a conundrum, a paradox, a falsehood. It is not possible to conceptualize nothing; to create …
read more
These blog posts are not the exercise. The code is the exercise, and that is where most of the useful information is to be found. If you only read my post and skip over the code block …
read more
Image: The MPD logo. Basic. To the point. Just like MPD.
I really stressed over titling this article this way. "Awesome" has become another perfectly useful term to find itself tossed into the refuse pile of formerly 'cool' terms. That's so sad.
Awesome is one of the best words I …
read more
We learned about writing AutoLISP to select an area in model space. We learned about using those coordinates to do something else, specifically to draw four lines making a rectangle.
Then we learned about using the 'mapcar' function to generate lists …
read more
This codeblock (below) is a complete AutoLisp program. Load it into a running instance of AutoCAD and issue the command DOAMAPCAR. Nothing will happen on the screen, but you will see quite a bit of output into the console.
The comments …
read more
Up to now, Python has been my only programming language. Now there's AutoLisp. Once I discovered LISP routines in AutoCAD, I wanted to learn how to write and debug them. Until recently, there was no practical tangible reason for me to do that …
read moreWhen I built WeatherPi, I was trying for a robust, reliable, repairable Raspberry Pi based weather station. So far, it has lived up to every expectation.
WeatherPi has now lasted three times longer than either of two consecutive Accurite …
read moreThere are those among us who are inclined to think spending $1,100.00 on a pair of side cases for a motorcycle is insane.
I was one of those people.
But no longer.
Image: Are these cases really worth $1,100.00? Absolutely …
Image: These people really do exist.
No matter to what lengths you go, you simply cannot be connected to the Internet without exposing yourself to bad actors out there who want as much data …
read more
Image: The Majestic White Pelican in Flight
The software that creates this blog out of plain text (Markdown) is called Pelican (an anagram of calepin which is French for notebook).
Ours is a world full of highly popular services like Medium, WordPress and even LinkedIn all promising to make your …
read moreI had finally gotten around to starting a small woodworking project I had put on hold for a long time. It was a relief to actually get some traction on it.
Then the table saw …
read more
Oh. My. Gosh.
I miss the old Goldwing. But it only takes about three seconds on the new kid in town to lose any sense of reminiscence over saying goodbye to the old girl.
This is the 2022 Triumph Bonneville T100 …
read moreIn 500 B.C. that may well have been true. Even 100 years ago, that may still have seemed true.
However, the expanding mass of humanity has engendered new perspectives, and from those perspectives we draw new conclusions.
Careful examination of the …
read more
We are either the giver or the receiver in interactions with our world. We stimulate, they react. They stimulate, we react. Both sides provide feedback to the other. This goes on …
read moreIntroducing the SnapSafe Item No. 75430. It fails job number two. I purchased this at …
read moreA few weeks ago I was able to take the old girl out on a 510 mile road trip. I rode up to see my mother. It had been far too long, due in no small part to Covid. Other than my ride from NW Florida to Denver, this is …
read more
Last night I finished converting all the content from my old WordPress Dr.Gerg site into markdown.
Another reason I'm happy is after literally decades of contemplation and half-hearted attempts, I finally made headway into IRC. That may not seem like much to most of you …
read moreApprehensive. A past-participle of apprehend. (A participle is verb that can do the work of an adjective, like 'baked' in "baked beans".)
Apprehend comes from the Latin word apprehendere meaning, "take hold of, grasp" In essence, when you've taken hold of something mentally, or if it …
read moreThanks to The Markdown Guide for providing this cheatsheet.
This Markdown cheat sheet provides a quick overview of all the Markdown syntax elements. It can’t cover every edge case, so if you need more information about any of these elements, refer to the reference guides for …
read moreI truly was. It is an awesome system that gave me the power to generate a nice looking site in a short amount of time.
So why leave it behind?
those are the three reasons that come to mind.
I …
read moreIn our previous encounter, we ended with the really sad photo of the damage I did by violating one of my cardinal rules: "If you don't feel comfortable doing something, don't do it." The result was I smashed the fairing into the doorpost and broke my heart.
I made a …
read moreI came real close to deciding it was time to let someone else have my Rescue Bike. In the end, I decided we're not done with each other. So it was time to finish some repairs and get back on the road.
I had already rebuilt the '83 rear master …
read more
Time's a cruel-hearted bastard.
Nature's a cold-hearted bitch.
Both will surely wear me down,
and scoff at my last twitch.
From the day that I was born,
Until the day I die,
They push and prod and poke and pinch,
and dare me to defy.
Their hand is cold. So …
read more
Your world is not my world,
Is not his world, is not her world.
Our world is a mixed world,
Made of their world plus yours.
Eight Billion Worlds.
There are eight billion worlds,
Each one the same, with nothing in common,
Each knowing the other but not the same …
Many years ago, I was given this rebuilt payphone as a gift. It is fully functional, but the two locks are not. The bottom lock is completely missing. My granddaughter loves to drop coins in the slots and hear the bells ding, so we pull the door out and it …
read moreSome time ago, one of the GPIO pins on WeatherPi stopped working. It was the one the tipping bucket rain gauge was attached to. I was able to move the wire to another pin, and change my program. Problem solved.
When the rain gauge stopped working again, I assumed I …
read moreThis post is a listing of the OpenSCAD code for the 3D printed parts of the LCDPi. Slideshow at the bottom.
This is PiddlePi, one of the P*Pi's. 
Here is the main body file. I have it saved as "2004 LCD case.scad".
// Dr.Gerg's Pi LCD Mount …I recently read an article about how to speak in a manner that would make me sound more confident. There were good points in it.
While the writers were technically correct, their advice was sharply focused on a single aspect of communicating: presentation. There is much more to communicating than …
read moreIf you have more than a hundred lines in your Python script, remembering where in the flow any particular print output comes from can cause you pause. I felt like having the line number from my code would help me more quickly and easily recognize the output.
I googled to …
read more
LilWeatherPi is the newest member of the PiNet family.
Why another WeatherPi? Well, I was concerned that my humidity readings may be skewed by the proximity of WeatherPi (the original) to the pool. There are times when the air is completely still, and I have actually measured the humidity with …
read more
Every once in a while I learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes that lesson is more valuable because it actually costs me money.
Today's lesson is that, even though these three batteries look the same on the outside, and all three fit into the same holder, one of them is very …
read moreWe have a nice fiberglass in-ground pool in our backyard. Like everything we own, it comes with some responsibilities.
One of those responsibilities is keeping the water clear of all the critters that find themselves suddenly fighting for their lives in the water.
There is a device on the pool …
read moreThis is a follow-up to this post introducing an "spreadsheet to receipt printer" shopping list system.
There are downsides to everything, including paper shopping lists. The most frequently confronted downside to paper shopping lists is experienced when you reach into your pocket for the list, and realize you left it …
read moreIt has been really humid here for several weeks in a row. Rain nearly every day. But that doesn't explain the BME280 Temperature/Pressure/Humidity sensor saying we have 100% humidity nearly all the time. So I read up on it, and found several places where it was written that …
read more
We've been around the block with shopping lists. From a piece of paper with handwritten notes to desktop PC created lists printed on 8.5x11" paper to apps like Out of Milk on the phone, we've done it all.
And we've been less than happy with all those. Now that …
read moreOMG. Finally! I've been trying to find a low-cost crimper for Dupont-style open-barrel pins and sockets for years. After purchasing a couple of tools that failed to fully measure up, I finally have one that crimps these little guys perfectly.
This is not in any way, shape or form a …
read moreI've printed a bunch of parts on the Prusa printer. But today (yesterday, actually) I printed the smallest functional part I've ever done. Roughly 7x7x5mm. Tiny thing.
The tiny thing is part of PoohPi.
PoohPi sits at my wife's desk and greets her every morning with statistics that will inform …
read moreHere's another model in my project. It's a 2-row 16 character per row LCD screen with an i2c interface module attached. I'll be using this to display whatever I want on my portable project.
You may be wondering what the value of this is. The value is in fitting this …
read moreSurely, among the MILLIONS of people who are regularly devouring every word I write here on this blog, someone has asked the question, "Why go to all the trouble of building your own bespoke home automation system when there are great open source offerings like OpenHAB and Home Assistant out …
read moreWhen I build things using the Prusa 3D printer, I like to also create a model of the part I'm making brackets or enclosures for. That way I can see how the whole thing is going to fit together without making bad assumptions about how any particular part is going …
read moreNothing has really changed. Sure, we speak with sophistication, wear finely woven fabrics and adorn our feet with coverings to enhance or protect. We are able to keep ourselves out of uncomfortable circumstances for the most part. We adjust the way we smell to make close proximity less revolting, or …
read moreFor years I've wished I could recycle laptop displays instead of just throwing them away. It just seemed so unnecessarily wasteful. Now I can reuse them thanks to some enterprising people in China and eBay.
Using this driver card and cables, I was able to build a Raspberry Pi development …
read moreI just re-discovered OpenSCAD. I say 'rediscovered' because I knew it existed, I just didn't know I liked it so much. It took finding a book called "Mastering OpenSCAD" by Jochen Kerdels to get me over the hump. The text of the book is available online as well. I bought …
read more
We engineering types want to know how things work. We'll spend tons of time learning how things works so that we can make things do what we want them to do. So …
read more
Everybody wants a daddy.
Everybody wants to call,
A hero when the lightning flashes,
To hold us when we're small.
Everybody wants a daddy.
Protector. There in time of need.
Arms like trees, a loose, quick smile,
Arrow-straight in word and deed.
Where can I find him? Where do they …
read more
I want to talk about truth. ("Oh boy, here he goes . . . ")
You might be inclined to think the definition of truth is pretty well settled. A lot of people believe that, and for a lot of those people, there's no need to even talk about what truth is. So I'm …
read moreNow this could be a problem. We have new silverware (stainless steel, actually, but you know what I mean). First time in the dishwasher we discover the handles of the large spoons and forks will only fit in a few of the slots in the silverware tray. This not only …
read more
I don't think we will EVER get there. I've been sitting in this back seat for most of my life. Every time I ask the people in the front seat how much longer, they say stuff like, "About two minutes less than the last time you asked."
The day is …
read moreThere. I said it. Somebody needs to say it.
Come on, people, this isn't rocket science. It's just simple math.
You want to know what the human population of the planet was in 1950? Go look it up. Compare that to the current human population. If you …
read moreYou look at him. He looks at you. You're thinking, "How could replacing a SSD in a computer take all day?" He's thinking, "Where do I …
read moreThe GE air conditioner came with a cute little remote, and WiFi connectivity. Of course, the window unit wants to connect with GE's servers. I'm not a fan of the concept.
read more
My dear mother gave me one gift that has been more valuable to me than anything I know or can imagine. She taught me to laugh at myself.
It's easy to laugh at other people or at situations that …
read moreI am compelled to talk about my lack of social-ness here in a virtual diary that is a common tool of social media.
I tried to listen to a podcast the other day. It's not the first time, just the latest of …
read moreI like knowing what the temperature is in my back yard.
And the rainfall amount when it's raining. And the wind speed and direction. That's why I've had a weather station in my backyard for several years now.
We had two Accurite stations in two years. Both crapped out after …
read more
We are not all the same height. We are not all the same build. We have different smiles, different hair, different tastes.
We do not all make the same first …
read moreWhen my wife's in-ground pool was completed, it quickly became apparent the controls for the pump and lights were designed in a tech vacuum.
The control head (receiver, and manual buttons) was attached to the power panel through a knockout on top. It looked like …
read moreWould that be a good thing? As you might surmise, the answer is not clear cut.
IPFS: the InterPlanetary File System is intended to replace HTTPS and de-centralize the content delivery process …
read moreI've always been curious about coding, even before I knew it was called that. When I became aware of the first personal computers that weren't just game consoles, I wanted to be able to make it do what I wanted. But I didn't know how to …
read moreThis is a retrospective of sorts. The project started in the spring of 2013 when I saw this 1983 Honda GL1100i at a second-hand store on U.S. 41 in Hahira, Georgia.
The bike was loaded down with every conceivable piece of aftermarket bling known to man. I'm sure someone …
read moreI started this project in 2015 and it does exactly what I need. The project eventually morphed into a component of what I have come to call my PiNet, a network …
read moreIt's the middle of January, 2021. You know what that means, don't you. We're waiting to see what is going to happen. If you're like me, you feel a bit of trepidation about the future. You may be feeling a bit vulnerable. A bit unsettled. A touch afraid.
We watch …
read moreEight Raspberry Pi's and two desktop computers, what is now called PiNet started six years ago as a simple wish to know whether the garage door was open or closed.
It started in 2015 with my wish to know whether my garage door was open or closed …
read more
This love is a slow love,
This love don’t move too fast,
This love was in the first place,
This love will be the last.
This love can bring me to my knees,
This love can give me wings.
And carry me to heaven high,
Or bind me with …
With all that is within me,
I will choose serenity,
accepting the things I cannot change,
standing courageous to change the things I can,
and seeking wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hard work as a path to …
In the beginning was the word,
Dawning mouth to ear.
The word begat motion,
Became action, became consequence,
Became eternal.
The word made friend of stranger,
Carried power, grace and death.
Made weak men strong, strong men servants,
Masses slaves.
The word ignited, spreading,
Consuming speaker,
Engulfing parent, partner, prodigy …
I am.
What more is there to say?
I wake to find the dawning,
Another Earth-bound day.
Another quest which lay,
Before my feeble feet.
Another hour of effort,
Exchanged for bread and meat.
I am.
Alone it should suffice.
To breathe, to laugh, to struggle,
Between the fire and …
Died a drunken loser,
That's what the papers said.
It was all they needed for,
The vacuum in their heads.
Never mind his torment,
Leave go his private pain,
Years of wretched discontent,
The dis-enabling strain.
So easy to ignore,
The strength with which he'd pull,
To live his life …
The sun melts 'neath the western line,
my body hushed at rest.
These days, these joys, these loves of mine;
my treasures of the quest.
(c) Copyright 2010, Greg Sanders
This is my highway.
It stretches true and straight
as far as the eye can see
from mountain to mountain,
without hint of ambiguity
or duplicitous intent.
This is my road.
It waits, neither friend nor foe,
impassionate, trustworthy, honest.
And when upon it I step with the load I …
Seven bells wail their plaintiff song,
One for childhood,
Two for love,
Three for waits too long.
Four more times the cold air rings,
Four for youth,
Five for lust,
Six for shiny things.
Last the crystal sound is heard,
Seven . . . seven . . . seven,
Seven for the stifled word.
(c) Copyright …
I watch a new piece of wood on my fire.
It slowly warms up to its surroundings,
and,
when ready,
bursts into flame,
adding its energy to the
cumulative heat of the community.
Brightly it burns,
eager to express,
to produce,
to participate.
It gives all that it is
in …
It is in my heart to cry,
But barren is my eye,
A smoldering fist in my chest,
Snatches the tear,
That would fall silently by.
It is in my soul to scream,
More questions than answers seem,
Obsidian steam builds in my chest,
And slashes my resolve to dream …
What started out as many,
By fate became as one,
A single surface scoured,
And rudely etched upon,
By wind, by water, sun and time,
The face does slowly change,
The core, however, holds its own,
Its substance will remain.
Though besieged by all the force,
That life can bring …
When day alone is not enough,
To illuminate my soul,
When I eat life dry and tough,
And force to swallow whole,
When the wind of circumstance
Blows cold against my skin,
It is then, only then I truly know,
How blessed I am
To hold your hand.
When it …
read moreSome people think that dogs are dumb,
but that's a mistake as a rule of thumb.
They sucker you in in their hang-dog way;
when you're asleep they commence to play.
It's late at night and the puppy's bored,
she's looking around for a brand new toy.
Sneaks into the …
"Mommee! He hit me!"
"Did not! She hit me first."
Onto the placid summer scene,
Two small tornadoes burst.
And Mom, with inward summer smile,
Plays referee once more,
"Go sit out on the porch a while,
And please don't slam that door!"
The words have barely hit the ground …
read moreEvery woman is beautiful. Deep in the eyes of all women shines the hopeful expectancy of a young girl gazing up at her father with all the wonder, trust and love of the whole world sparkling. If you look past the hurt, past the fear, beyond the suspicion, yes, even …
read moreSome are like the towering oak,
impervious to the storm.
Some are like the grass that patiently
crumbles great mountains beneath its roots.
Some are like the apple or plum,
yielding up their fragrant fruit.
But I am like the sunflower,
easily bending, long and spindly,
face following the sun …
