Adam's Blog

Adding Alerts to Spiderplant Sensors

Adding Alerts to Spiderplant Sensors
My friend Bob makes these absolutely brilliant sensors and runs the cloud service behind them. The sensors were originally built to monitor temperature and humidity. Bob came to visit and brought one for me. I put it in my storage room where we also have a fridge that sometimes gets too hot when th...

Thoughts on Programming Languages

Thoughts on Programming Languages
I have a WhatsApp group for our Holberton grads and one grad was talking about learning Rust. Another grad commented that he's actively looking for jobs and rarely sees Rust as a requirement. It made me think and I wrote up this response which I thought was worth turning into a post.

Vanguard vs Schwab

Vanguard vs Schwab
I have used Vanguard for many years. It's the low cost leader and mainly I'm investing in boring things like VOO, VEU, and BOXX. More on BOXX in another post.

Interactive Code Art with p5.js

I've been experimenting with p5.js lately - it's a JavaScript library that makes coding visual art surprisingly simple and fun. Here's a quick demo of what you can create with just a few lines of code.

Libby: The Library App That Changed How I Read

I've been using the Libby app by OverDrive for a many years now, and it's honestly revolutionized how I consume books. If you're not familiar with it, Libby connects you to your local library's digital collection - ebooks, audiobooks, magazines - all free with your library card.

AI Voices and My Growing Claude Code Addiction

So I was staring at my HTMX blog this morning, trying to figure out something interesting to do with it beyond the basic mobile fixes I'd been working on. That's when inspiration struck: what if readers could transform my posts into different voices?

Failing ChatGPT Tasks

I saw some video about using ChatGPT tasks. The guys setup a prompt to get the latest AI news and summarize it into a report that he could send to his users. It made me start thinking about how I could use these _tasks_ in an interesting way.

Paris Travel Tips

We're spending some time in Paris and we've been here a lot over the years. Here are some travel tips that come to mind.

Build a new blog

I keep coming up with things I want to write up but don't really have a place to put them. I tried using Hugo for a while and did't like it. Back in 2007 I was using Blogger and that just seems way too old.

Personal Gated Community

Personal Gated Community
When we first moved to Puerto Rico and started looking for a place to live we were directed mostly to gated communities like Dorado, Palmas del Mar, Bahía, and Rio Mar. These are all great places to live, but we were used to owning our own home and didn't like the idea of having to deal with an HOA...

MySQL New Slave Settings

I can never remember which fields are important. It's the `master_log_file` and `master_log_pos` but these come from `show slave status`. `Master_log_file` is from `master_log_file` but `master_log_pos` comes from `exec_master_pos`.

USB Tethering to Mac with Nexus 5

I've been traveling around Australia for over a month now. Mainly we've been staying at hotels where we have some sort of status, Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, etc., and the WiFi has been free.

Growth Hacking with Virtual Assistants

Growth Hacking with Virtual Assistants
I first encountered virtual assistants (VAs) through Tim Ferriss's book "The Four Hour Work Week". My initial attempt to hire a VA in 2007 was challenging, particularly when trying to find storage for a Tesla Roadster.