(Comments from Blogger)
2018-01-07 by Mike Halcrow
Now that you mention it, I’ve got an ATmega thingie lying around in one of my drawers that I’ve never gotten around to hacking on.
My wife has always kept her phone on another level of the house than the one we sleep on, and I use an app to turn off sound+vibration for my phone between 10pm and 6am. I suppose I’m fortunate that I seem to have zero temptation to check anything internet-related when I’m in bed. Part of my concern revolves around impact to melatonin levels.
2018-01-07 by Russell Graves
I’ve been running various “red-shift” things for a long while now to mitigate that whole “late night blue light” thing. Twilight on Android wasn’t very good, but was better than nothing. Night Shift on OS X is awesome, and I believe new Android devices get the same sort of features.
Definitely play with that ATmega gizmo. It’s a fun little chip - super pure. Old-school C programming on a Harvard architecture.
2018-01-08 by Anonymous
I still remember your sine clock and your early version of F.Lux like screen adjustment back in college.
2018-01-08 by Russell Graves
I really should revamp SineClock. I’m sure I could run it on an Arduino board now as a standalone device…
I don’t recall the F.Lux stuff from college, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I’d been messing with color temperatures.
2018-01-12 by Ned Funnell
I totally agree about keeping my phone away from my bed side table. It’s way to easy to want to look at ‘just one more thing’ until it’s 2:30AM. Smartphones are the new heroin.
I started charging my phone away from the bedroom last winter, and I’ll never go back.
2018-01-12 by Russell Graves
“New Heroin” doesn’t really capture the addictiveness of modern phones, sadly. Heroin takes a lot more effort and generally isn’t hailed as the New Great Thing that everyone should be trying.
2018-02-15 by EugeneGTI
Great post. I found that running a smartphone in black and white mode (inversed at night) really dampens the urge to look at it. On flipside it is great at waking me up in the morning.
+1 on locally resilient systems. I found that thermal mass Trump’s smart home connected wizardry. Not everything needs to be connected. Open source is a great ingredient in locally resilient systems.
My resolution would be to design and publish a 3d printable small scale stackable vermicomposting system. I’ve enjoyed turning banana peels and coffee grounds for 6 years and by now have a great breed of worms selected by some wintering outside in Issaquah. Let me know if you would like a pound to get your vermicomposting farm started.
2018-02-16 by Russell Graves
I’m no longer in the Seattle area, but have considered vermicomposting for kitchen scrap. Any good suggestions on ways to get started?
2018-02-18 by EugeneGTI
I started with just a home Depot 5 gallon bucket with 5/16 holes, covered by a stapled air filter. Ordered the worms over internet, shredded a bunch of carton boxes, did get them, added dirt and food scraps, added worms, closed the lid. On some occasions they arranged exhodous. Mostly when it rained on them directly. Always have a lid. Banana peels are yum for them. Coffee grounds are good, but make them fluffy and moldy first. They adore shredded Amazon boxes, white paper - not so much. Egg shells are fine, as worms hang out in these. Leaves are great too.
Things they don’t like - grease, citrus, white paper ( it clumps together). They can tolerate an occasional orange peel or chicken bone. Avocado peels and seeds take years to decompose, so don’t put these in.
Overall it is a fun experience and my tomatoes love the resulting output, raspberry, grapes, zucchini and pear seem to like it too.
I since upgraded to a worm factory, which holds ~50 lbs of material now, so I don’t worry that worms would freeze, on a frosty night. They have plenty of heat from the material. In summer, kerp the material humid. Drainage is a must.