LED Clock – Part 2

In part 1 of this series I demonstrated how I created a clock using my 64x32 LED panel. In this blog I will expand upon this experiment and add current weather observations as a scrolling ticker across the bottom of the panel. The first step to add weather observations to the clock is to register … Continue reading LED Clock – Part 2 →

LED Clock – Part 1

Over the Christmas break I had some fun with my MLB LED scoreboard (see that blog for a BOM and specifications). The LED panel doesn't get much use during the offseason, so I decided to learn how to program it as a clock when it wasn't functioning as a scoreboard. The next few blogs will … Continue reading LED Clock – Part 1 →

Blackjack (a.k.a 21) Simulation

I had so much fun with the War simulator I decided to write another simulator for Blackjack (or 21). It offered a more challenging set of rules to implement, and I was curious whether playing "by the book" actually improved your odds of winning or not. Like the War simulator, I implemented this simulator in … Continue reading Blackjack (a.k.a 21) Simulation →

Who is John Galt?

Is it you? To find out, read Ayn Rand's, Atlas Shrugged. It has been prophetic for more than 50 years.

War Sim (the card game)

After playing the card game War recently, I wonder about the probability of winning, and on average, how many "battles" were fought and how many wars waged in a single game? Intuitively, I figured the odds of winning were 50-50 because there really is no strategy to the game; it's all chance. To explore my … Continue reading War Sim (the card game) →

Another Nifi Experiment: Hashing Files – Part 3

In the first two installments (1, 2) of this series on Nifi, I demonstrated how I used Nifi to generate MD5 hashes for all the files on my hard drive and save them to a MongoDB for quick reference. I also demonstrated how I checked the database for the existence of the hash value before … Continue reading Another Nifi Experiment: Hashing Files – Part 3 →

Another Nifi Experiment: Hashing Files – Part 2

In part 1 of this blog I explained how I used Nifi to read files from my hard drive, create MD5 hashes for them, and check a database to determine if they were duplicates. I also reviewed how I used Wait/Notify processors as a gate to ensure only one file at a time was processed … Continue reading Another Nifi Experiment: Hashing Files – Part 2 →

Another Nifi Experiment: Hashing Files – Part 1

I had some more fun experimenting with Nifi this week. I set out to create a database containing MD5 hash values of all the files on my hard drive. I wanted to use only Nifi out-of-the-box components and was encouraged to find processors already designed to read files from a file system, create hashes, and … Continue reading Another Nifi Experiment: Hashing Files – Part 1 →

Jupyter Notebook and the Steel Challenge

I shot my first Steel Challenge this past September and absolutely loved it. There is something very satisfying about hearing a steel target "ping" when it is hit. After shooting my first match I began to think about ways to practice the Steel Challenge indoors with a laser and in spaces less than the size … Continue reading Jupyter Notebook and the Steel Challenge →

YOLO and Nifi: You Only LOOK Once – Part 2

In part 1 of this blog I described how I integrated a YOLO (You Only Look Once) image classification process with Nifi. The first part of the process sent images to YOLO for classification and retrieved the results. The second part, and the subject of this blog, will aggregate the results of each image into … Continue reading YOLO and Nifi: You Only LOOK Once – Part 2 →