Recent Blog Posts

Make: NanoLeaf

I was surfing around on YouTube one day and ran across a project presented by a version personable British fellow who wanted to teach me how to make my own configurable lighting panels which he called NanoLeaf. These are similar but different from a product called NanoLeaf Shapes which you […]

Make: Logo Sign

A couple years ago I decided I needed a logo. Something to put on things that I make when I want to identify that I made them. I wanted something simple and easy to read. This is what I came up with: I liked it so well that it was […]

Make: Canning Jar Lid Organizers!

My lovely daughter-in-law texted me an image a while back and asked if I could make her some organizers for canning jar lids. I immediately responded that of course I could! Then my laser broke. Sigh. What should have been an easy project became a much lengthy one because I […]

Fortune

Once upon a time, in the Before Times (call it the 1990s), software engineers would add to an otherwise boring login by displaying additional things like time, date or weather. Another was to display a random fortune. Some are movie quotes, some are literary quotes and some are just fortunes. Some are profane and some are a little profound. This bit of code accesses an online API to generate a fortune and display it.

Credit to HelloACM, which provides and hosts the API for this and many other cool things.

Staff Spotlight

This is our Staff Spotlight where we focus on some of the folks who help make us who we are!

Kyle Craig

Conversion Optimization Wrangler

Quote: "The giving of love is an education in itself." - Eleanor Roosevelt.
Home Town: Roanoke, VA.

Darryl Irwin

Head of Quietly Judging

Quote: "The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better." - Robert F. Kennedy.
Home Town: Utica, NY.

Kermit Nichols

Chief Ego Operator

Quote: "Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own." - James Cameron.
Home Town: Utica, NY.

Ward Lee

Emporer of Bit-Land

Quote: "Tomorrow is only found in the calendar of fools." - Og Mandino.
Home Town: Emporia, KS.

Credit to HelloACM for the random identity generator, Generated.photos for the AI generated headshots and Pixabay for the random backgrounds and api.quoteable.io for the quotes api.

Random Colors of the Day

Find some inspiration to brighten your colorspace! The three options below are based on trying to assign names to colors as they are represented on a computer screen, typically via a hex value like this: "#546789". Each pair represents the strength of the Red, Green and Blue value. Back in the day, the X11 Consortium declared that colors would be stored in a file called "rgb.txt" and many had names associated with them. Additionally, I found a list of colors and names based on Resene colors. The third one is what happens if you pick a random value and call it a random name. Very useful and highly scientific.

Wheat4

#8B7E66

From the classic X11 file rgb.txt

paco

#411F10

From the set of Resene colors.

Supersystem

#5c6d0c

A unique color and name, created just for you!

About

This is a place where I keep my stuff on the web. The contents and appearance change with time, but tend to reflect my interests. Those interests include: writing, technology, computers, software (both as a user and a developer), 3D printing, crafting, role playing games, computer games, music, art and woodworking to name a few. I do a variety of things that change often and sometimes without warning and typically reflect things I'm curious about.

Darrin Mossor

Human In Training

“Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."

"Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary"