Why would you write code for free

Something that just hit me while working on my Weather desktop app is… why am I writing this for free. A number of people I have talked to when talking about this ask me this, and I guess it comes down to a few things… Here is my top 10 list right now

1. When I was learning to code, I relied on others to help me (google is a great tool to have). Giving back to someone in my scenario 15+ years ago is the "right thing"
2. It gives me the option to play with different frameworks and tools
3. It gives me a better understanding of new code types / styles, and the ability to experiment
4. While I am only working on my own code, it gives me the option to work on others code bases and view other coding styles
5. It gives me the option to view others code, and learn from it (good or bad)
6. its helpful to others. The apps I write are based on "issues" I have had, that I worked around with code.
7. gives me input from others when I end up writing bugs or issues.
8. it gives me visibility as a developer
9. It makes my projects real easy to find / backup
10 makes me write cleaner code, since I know others will be viewing my work.

Have an oil less fried turkey this season

As a test case, last week I purchased a turkey, so that this  last weekend I could try my Char-Broil Oil less Turkey Fryer I purchased some 2 years back…. So I cooked the bird for roughly 3 hours and…. WOW. Absolutely love it. It came out a bit too dry, but that’s because I overcooked it, since the thermometer that came with the unit stinks.  Thinking about how this device cooks, it has to be one of, if not, the healthiest ways of cooking a Turkey. There is no risk of flare ups, since there is no oil, and all drippings fall to the bottom, which makes for really simple cleanup.

It’s America Recycles Day, the annual celebration of a culture of disposability feedly

Really an interesting read. While there are huge advantages of recycling, everyone 1, forgets is the last on the 3 Rs (reduce, then reuse, then recycle)… and 2, there is a certain joy in learning how to repair or reuse old an broken things rather then buying new ones. I remember, my first PC came from a palit of old computers a school was getting rid of. and my 3rd pc (I count my parents PC as my second one, even though it was clearly my dads) was a broken tower that was missing RAM and a hard drive.

While people think… yea, this is energy star and my last one was not… some forget the cost in manufacturing, and real cost in power savings (sometimes it takes years… so typically don’t buy a device for "power savings" to justify your purchase… unless its a BIG item like a fridge or dehumidifier)

It’s America Recycles Day, the annual celebration of a culture of disposability
https://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/its-america-recycles-day-annual-celebration-culture-disposability.html

— via my feedly newsfeed

Why do people still commute to an office? feedly

Its an interesting topic that I have been hearing a lot of.

While there are a number of cases, where yea, it’s not needed, there still is the underlying concern of, is this person we are paying, getting things done?

Why do people still commute to an office?
https://www.treehugger.com/interior-design/why-do-people-still-commute-office.html

— via my feedly newsfeed

Where I have been

So, yea. I do want to still use this as a outlet for getting my thoughts across… it just, and still, will be a “from time to time” scenario. Lately, I have been out and about, as well as writing code. I am currently working on a desktop app that can change your wallpaper based on weather conditions outside. I’ve open sourced it, and I think its really neat (but I’m weird like that).

https://github.com/liukonen/WeatherWallpaper

 

PSA Halfway to Backup day, and my crashplan dilemma

Since crashplan switched to business only, I had to decide what route I would take. At first I decided to go the “home grown” approach, having a backup locked away offsite while also having backups at home. Since then, I found IDrive was doing a sale for current Crashplan users. Since my contract is up this month, it was perfect timing. They are charging roughly $7 for 2tb of data. While that does limit me, it also gives me an option and data to store offsite. I will just not backup my massive store of video files I have on my HTPC. What is nice about Idrive, is it supports Linux. And since I am using a Linux server at home, this was a win win.

https://www.idrive.com/idrive/signup/el/get90

 

Better Grillouts

image from Treehugger.com

I am a fan of the grill. There is something about being able to grill that thrills me. However, there are some tricks that I have picked up. This post is because of a recent post on Treehugger, https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/try-better-burger-challenge-summer.html

I want to 1 up there challenge. When it comes to raising animals, it takes 1847 gallons of water to generate 1 lb of beef. Chicken, on the other hand, only takes up 518 gallons per lb. Still a lot of water, but a lot less then beef. On top of that, Chicken is leaner, and is less harmful then red meat. Chicken being pultury still needs to be handled very safely, but I found ground chicken (yes, just like ground beef but pink instead of red) a great choice and alternative then hamburger meat.

There of course are other options too, such as veggie burgers, and other animal meats you can pick from to make burgers. The point behind this post is to remind people that there are other products that do a great job grilling then just red meat.

I do like the idea of mushrooms as an adjunct ingredient to your hamburger meat though, and now want to try it!

 

As to the grill itself (my charcoal grill, I have both Charcoal and gas, and each has its purpose). I recently found CoShell charcoal at my local grocery store (my store charges $1.50 for a 1.5kg bag) and am 100% impressed with it. The charcoal gives off the same taste as most charcoal, but it generates less smoke (as advertised, and witnessed) and is supposedly better for the planet, since its using a bi-product of coconut husks as a burning source rather then trees. Granted, I know that charcoal is a bi-product of the forest industry, and mills, however there are a number of mills dedicated to taking trees solely for making charcoal.  While I am sure there are variations out there, I so far prefer either this product, or lump coal (not mashed and turned into briquettes)

Broken phones, light trips, and how to do things “right”

I had a trip recently that my work paid for, for me to travel down to Chicago and work with a pretty big company on a project we worked on in the past. That said, an overnight stay at a swanky hotel was in my cards. From a sustainability standpoint, I thought it was neat, the hotel had signs left and right about sustainability, including optional turndown service. The bulbs were all some kind of fluorescent tubes (mainly compact, but some larger tube style in the vanity mirror in the bathroom. Even the faucet and shower I noticed was low flow fixtures. I also thought about what most people do, vs don’t do. I brought my own soap. I found the perfect “travel” soap, that can act as a normal bar, as shampoo, and as shaving cream if needed (actually most soap can do this, its all about how much you lather though) I packed as minimal as possible since I would have to carry everything with me most of the time I was down there (it was only 1 night, so, I had to take all my luggage with me to the office on both days, and I have a CPAP machine for my apnea, which was not fun to carry… but some extras that I packed included

  1. A pillow case, not to put on the pillow, but just on top of. It did help me sleep
  2. a light blanket I could bundle with… While I did get under the covers, I prefer to bundle up with something touching my face that I know is mine and know where it’s been

It’s more what I didn’t do which I think most people still do…

  1. I don’t need a mini bottle of shampoo, conditioner, or lotion
  2. I have a million pens at home already and don’t need notepad paper

I pretty much left the room alone from the “goodies” most people take from their hotel rooms… it’s a matter of, what the heck do I need it for? I get, however, if you do unwrap one of the soap bars, it’s not like they can rewrap it… it’s better to grab those if you so happen to open them (no need in my case, since if you see above, I brought my own soap)

As for the phone issues. it’s a double whammy. My cell phone recently cracked while I was out. While I know most warranties are useless, a cellphone warranty, even from a third party like SquareTrade, is worth it, seeing has how you invest a few hundred dollars in a device you stick in your pocket and sometimes even sit on. My phone is now out for repairs. Luckily I have a backup…. no wait, I didn’t. See the battery on my backup phone actually started to swell. I have replaced this in the past, so I ordered a new battery, was well as a certified refurbished phone, as a backup phone. reading my blog, you might gather that I like to play with things, so I ordered a windows phone (the Nokia Luma 635) as my test/backup phone. It’s affordable, has been known to “just work” and works great as a backup device. I want to experiment with some posts I saw about being able to upgrade the device to windows 10 (it’s stuck in 8.1) or even run Android apps inside of the device! I’ll play around with it. I do see why windows lost the mobile phone market, however, the device does just work, and work well…. I just can’t run most apps I want to run, like Amazon Music, on it.