There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.
Author: jaywll
Late Night Links – Sunday March 20th, 2016
Itās the first day of spring today! Thatās not really relevant though, so letās just get on with some late night links and not dwell on it.
- Build a Raspberry Pi-Powered DIY Amazon Echo
Talking of Raspberry Pi projects, thereās also this to consider. - Cyanide & Happiness #4230: My Body, My Choice
- This Dog Learned to Drive a Truck, but Not Very Well
- āThe Most Dangerous Writing Appā Destroys Your Progress if You Stop Typing
- This Website Will Show You What Itās Like to Have Dyslexia
This was actually really interesting. - Teens React to Windows 95
I distinctly remember Windows 95 being released, so finding out it was before these people were born was somewhat alarming. - The Perils of Parallel Parking
Happily, our car parks itself. - A Woman Crashed Into a Tree and Proceeded to Just Drive Around With It Stuck in the Hood of Her Car
- The Research
- Let It Go…
- The Four-Cylinder Macan Will Be the Cheapest Porsche You Can Buy
Flo and I looked at one of these the other weekend at the auto show. Possible contender for her next car, but I donāt know if a four cylinder one will cut it. - The Best Rice Cooker
We do need a new small one. - Plan Launches a Better Calendar for Busy People
Iām always on the lookout for a better calendar. - ProtonMailās Encrypted Email is Now Available to All
- Man Hijacks Toronto Bus at Knifepoint, Forces Driver to Take Him to Tims
#Canada - Proof of Evolution That You Can Find on Your Body
And thatās it! Not only are we done for today, weāre also finally all caught up after my hiatus a while back. Until next week, then, Internet. Same time, same place.
Late Night Links – Sunday March 13th, 2016
Thereās still a lot of catching up to do from all the time off I took from late night links. Letās get through another bunch then, shall we?
- A Produced is Tweeting Descriptions of Women from Movie Scripts, and itās Hilariously Awful
- A 12v USB Charger Probably Wonāt Ever Kill Your Carās Battery
Flo and I have talked about this. - Impress Your Party Guests with Cocktails Served Inside Orbs of Ice
Necessary. - Build This DIY, Programmable Macro Keypad for Less Than $30
- Getting Ready for HTTP/2: A Guide for Web Designers and Developers
- What Actually Happens When You Sign Up for One of ThoseĀ āWork From Homeā Scams
Iāve often been curious. - Microsoft, Samsung and Intel Form Smart Home Alliance
I need a future-proof standard I can be confident in, then Iāll buy in! So this is probably a good thing. - Hands On With Eero, Or A Noobās Guide to Building an At-Home Wireless Mesh Network
- The Best Robot Vacuum
- Apple Changed Its Siteās Code so the WordĀ āclickā Doesnāt Look Like…
- Ken M is an Internet Trolling Savant
- Hamsters
- No, Youāre Not Really Working for Free on Leap Day
- John Oliver Wants Donald Trump to Appreciate His Heritage and Make Donald Drumpf Again
A longer watch, but worth it. - The Pros and Cons of Three Different Types of Furniture Paint
This oneās for you, Flo - How the Raspberry Pi 3 Benchmarks Against Older Models
OK, thatāll do for today. More coming your way next week!*
* Weather permitting
Being Smarter by Not Thinking
Thereās a popular
myth that says we only use 10% of our brains.
Itās simply not true. Studies (including the source of all scientific truth: an episode of
MythBusters) have proven that all areas of the brain have a function, and while
the percentage that weāre āusingā at any given time varies by task it can
certainly exceed 10%.

One thing that seems very obvious to me without needing to
cite a study about it, however, is that I certainly have unused brain capacity,
and it can do amazing things when you leave it to its own devices.
As an example of what Iām talking about, I refer you to a
link I posted on this very blog some time ago: Why
Great Ideas Always Come in the Shower (and How to Harness Them).
In the brief commentary I added, I mentioned that never in
my life have I had a good idea in a meeting. Great ideas come to me while Iām
doing other things. Specifically, other things that do not take much in the way
of thought and offer little in the way of distraction: things where my brain
gets left to itās own devices and has an opportunity to wander ā showering,
certainly, but also commuting, trying to get to sleep at the very end of the
day (infuriatingly), and when Iām at the gym.
Talking of the latter one, I havenāt been to the gym for
quite some time.
When we lived in our apartment there was a gym in the
building, and that was great. I could easily fit in a solid 45 minutes there at
lunch. Any spare 30 minute window in my schedule could be turned into 20
minutes on the stationary bike.
I want to go back, but now that weāve bought the house there
is obviously not an on-site gym. Thereās a gym at the office (20 minutes away)
and a Goodlife Fitness close by (10 minutes away) where Iād get a discounted
rate, but small though it is even that travel time is putting me off. I will
most likely join Goodlife, since I rarely go to the office these days and
installing a home gym just isnāt in the budget right now, but Iāve been missing
the ability to easily take 30 minutes and get some exercise, and Iām sad that
none of the solutions will offer me that. In the absence of a perfect solution,
I havenāt done anything at all⦠until yesterday.
Since the weather here in Calgary is distinctly spring-like
these days, I went for a walk before I started my work day. I didnāt go far ā a
little less than 2km, according to the Google Fit data from my phone and watch
ā just down the road a bit and then back along the pathways that run through
our neighbourhood.
I liked it so much I did it again at lunch time, and then
for a third time this morning.
The physical benefits of this, though Iām sure not huge by any
means, are probably much needed at this point. Really though what I like about
it so much are the mental benefits. Iāve never been much of a morning person
and I would never consider going to the gym before work, but rolling out of bed
and attempting to be productive more or less immediately is not a recipe for
success either. Feeling like my day has already started by the time I sit down
to get some work done definitely gives me a mental boost that Iāve been able to
capitalize on. More significantly though, thereās a lot to be said for the kind
of problem solving that can only come from not thinking about something too
much and letting my subconscious guide me in ways that Iād never have come up
with if I were sitting at my desk consciously trying to focus on something.
Itās amazing what you can do when youāre not trying to do
anything.
Late Night Links – Sunday March 6th, 2016
After a fairly substantial break, Late Night Links is back! Thereās quite the backlog and I donāt think weāll get through it all today, but nevertheless letās dive in, shall we?
- Watch This Robot Solve a Rubikās Cube in About a Second
- XKCD #1634: In Case of Emergency
- Welp, He Tried
- Filmmaker Submits 10 Hours of Paint Drying to Film Board
- Modern Outdoor Fire Pits from AK47 Design
When I flagged this I was on the lookout for a fire pit. Now I have one! - The Moment You Realize Your Fashion Sense isĀ āHotel Lobbyā
- Home Theatres That Are Something to be Proud Of
I donāt have one of these yet, however… - Before You Buy an Expensive Train Ticket Home, See if Itās Cheaper to Take an Adventure and Fly Home via Germany
- Make Mac and Cheese Waffle Sandwiches in Your Waffle Iron
I donāt have a waffle iron, but I think I should get one. - Microsoft Wants to Put Data Centres at the Bottom of the Sea
- Monitor the Consistency of Your Broadband Speeds with a Raspberry Pi and IFTTT
I feel like I should do this. - Another One Bites the Dust
- This is What Happens When You Reply to Spam Email
- Florida Man Throws Alligator Into a Wendyās Drive Thru
More adventures of Florida Man here.
Traditionally this is the point in our story at which I sayĀ āweāre done.ā Weāre not done, but I think thatās plenty for today. Join me next week (same time, same place) and weāll pick it up where we left off!
Six phases of a project
Six phases of a project
Quote
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, in the opposite direction
ā Me, reflecting on some meetings Iāve had recently
Sometimes you need to take a step back and learn to walk before you try and run.
New Code Projects: Backblaze B2 Version Cleaner & VBA SharePoint List Library
Itās been a while since Iāve posted code of any description, but Iāve been working on a couple of things recently that Iām going to make publicly available on my GitLab page (and my mirror repository at code.jnf.me)
Backblaze B2 Version Cleaner
I wrote last week about transitioning my cloud backup to Backblazeās B2 service, and I also mentioned a feature of it thatās nice but also slightly problematic to me: it keeps an unlimited version history of all files.
Thatās good, because it gives me the ability to go back in time should I ever need to, but over time the size of this version history will add up – and Iām paying for that storage.
So, Iāve written a script that will remove old versions once a newer version of the same file has reached a certain (configurable)Ā āsafe age.ā
For my purposes I use 30 days, so a month after Iāve overwritten or deleted a file the old version is discarded. If I havenāt seen fit to roll back the clock before then my chance is gone.
VBA SharePoint List Library
This one I created for work. Getting data from a SharePoint list into Excel is easy, but I needed to write Excel data to a list. I assumed thereād be a VBA function that did this for me, but as it turns out I was mistaken – so I wrote one!
At the time of writing this is inĀ āproof of conceptā stage. It works, but itās too limited for primetime (it can only create new list items, not update existing ones, and each new item can only have a single field).
Out of necessity Iāll be developing this one pretty quickly though, so check back regularly! Once itās more complete Iāll be opening it up to community contributions.
I have no plans to add functions that read from SharePoint to this library, but once I have the basic framework down that wouldnāt be too hard to add if youāre so inclined. Just make sure you contribute back!
Late Night Links – Sunday January 24th, 2016
Itās #LNL time!
- A Brick. In a Washing Machine. On a Trampoline.
- Someone Needs to Tell This Russian Skier a T-Bar Isnāt Usually Pulled by a Train
- Ever Wondered About Mentos in a SodaStream?
- Watch a Bunch of Dudes Attack Each Other With an Almost Real Lightsaber
- Your Favourite Smartphone Car Mount is Back Down to $5
Thatās a US price, but this definitely looks better than the ugly car mount I have now. - Build a Dashboard that Can Display Any Data You Can Imagine with a Raspberry Pi
This is interesting. And I do have a couple of spare Pis right now… - New York City Residents Band Together to Push Stuck Ambulances Out of Snow
- You Wonāt Believe This One Easy Trick for Removing Ice from Your Windows
Seems legit.
And as quickly as it began, it ended.