Snoo7654

Arggg sounded like it was about to be a killer book, alas a good meme though

No because its a projection, but in a month well get to see the actual data that they are making projections about here: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth

Don't worry guys, its all part of the plan. Short term pain, for no term gain.

For those in the US, regardless of anyone's opinion on the president elect, his stated policy plans are extremely isolationist which will make our work improving manufacturing capabilities in our borders more important than ever. This post details a mental model for controls engineers entering the field of industrial automation and gives some appreciation to the value of what we do!

Automation/controls engineers have to stich together super specific solutions using various pseudo-compatible hardware, networking software, IIOT devices, & proprietary solutions. Its hard!

There's a dizzying array of industrial automation tools/terms/brands out there with overlapping capabilities that blend together into a gray mush of confusing vernacular: IPC, PLC, DAQ, SCADA, PAC, DCS… HMI, GUI, Touchscreen, Web Interface… EtherCat, EtherNet, ProfiNet, ProfiBus, modBus… OPC-UA, MQTT, HTTP/REST… LD, ST, SFC, IL, FBD?

My thought process when exposed to a new tool is categorizing it by its capabilities in a mental map to help make sense of things. Basic but important for clear thinking!

Printed circuit boards are widely recognized for their essential role in electronics tech, but I think they have underappreciated potential as an artistic medium too. The PCB badge projects you see at hacker conferences always catch my eye for their unique look and creativity.

Back in 2017 I struggled with electronic-CAD software for a sumo robot project, and ever since I’ve found excuses & clever ways to avoid trying again.

Last August I decided it was time to work through this skill limitation. I set a goal for myself to produce a birthday cake badge in time for my daughter’s 7th birthday at the end of the month!

In this post I’ll share some practical tips I picked up along the way plus a new product reveal!

In this post I share actual numbers from my experience buying solar panels as an alternative investment.

In this post I share actual numbers from my experience buying solar panels as an alternative investment.

I was recently tasked with a reverse engineering project that ended up being a real drag to carry out. The work literally felt like a puzzle, which I normally love, so why not this one?

This post is about tips for designing better tools & controls interfaces, but in the process of writing it I came up with an even more interesting idea at the root of the problem, so I’ll start there!

Every challenge in life can be viewed as a puzzle, and by classifying the qualities that make puzzles challenging we can improve our approach to designing better tools & solving them!

As a father of 2 & software designer I guide people as they engage with new-to-them technology almost every day. In this post I share a unique approach for designing better tools to prevent your creations from becoming unintentional puzzles!

If ever there was an appropriate use of the clickbait title phrase "one weird trick" then this would be it. In this post I take a deeper look at how to better use an extremely effective design tactic: Modularity. (Plus a 3d printable catapult!)

I think you might have them confused yourself. First result from google: "Saturated fats (including a type called trans fat) tend to stay solid and can cause fatty deposits in blood vessels, leading to atherosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries"). By contrast, unsaturated fats stay liquid at room temperature and are less likely to clog your arteries."

She should have fled the country while she had the chance

In this article I go in depth into various bitmap vectorization methods for the purpose of making plotter art.

When following a recipe doesn't produce the intended result, who should take the blame? In this article I share a long lost fable and two approaches to procedural work.

This article will be useful to HW & SW engineers who design customer facing aspects of products.

Summary of Topics: Human Centered Design, The Design of Everyday Things Book, The Paradox of Technology, Learned Helplessness, Preventing Errors, Seven Stages of Action, Discoverability, Feedback, Conceptual models, Affordances, Signifiers, Mappings, Constraints, Consistency.

As an engineer transferring skills into profit is surprisingly difficult because the market need for what I do is so narrow & product R&D is so expensive.

Selling handmade goods may sound like a trite endeavor but it is a surprisingly effective way to bridge the problem of transferring skill into profit.

Still, new product development is costly, so how do you figure out what's going to win before spending time to develop it?

In this article I share a new system of data-driven metrics that revolutionized my crafting-for-profit strategy!

Plus 4 free resources to level up your craft business!

This brief article is about professionally getting ahead. Anyone concerned with professional growth & compensation the important question to ask yourself is: ‘For whom am I producing value?‘

(5 min read) As a mid-career engineer, micro-business owner, & parent of 2 the opportunity cost of anything I do has never been so apparent.

Each passing year brings more fun opportunities, resources to work with, ideas to investigate, & productive work to carry out than the previous year, to the extent that my primary constraint in life is time.

There is not enough me to go around! A good problem to have but a problem nonetheless.

So I came up with a selection system to help sniff out the best uses of my time and I thought I’d share it with you!