Chris M.

Hertz goes with Tesla The news that Hertz is purchasing 100,000 Tesla's has pushed the stock above $1000 its market cap over $1 trillion. This deal was an excellent move by Hertz and about the best one to get into the EV game that they could have made. #1. The Tesla Brand Tesla is a household brand, yet it has no advertizing budget. Tesla is also struggling to keep up with vehicle sales, achieving a 73% increase in vehicles shipped between 2020 Q3 and 2021 Q3. Hertz has gained a unique association with the Tesla brand. Interested in renting an EV or a Tesla? Hertz is that company now. #2. Worry free trips due to Tesla's charging network Charging on trips is one of the most stressful parts about having an EV, although this is getting better each year. No one worries about driving someplace and not finding a gas station but finding a charging station is a real concern with an EV, even in 2021. When I got a Tesla Model S in 2016 there were far fewer charging sta...

As programmers we often work several layers above cpu instructions, working with tools that make our lives simple, easy, and stress free! Hahah, of course that isn't the case. We face different challenges at different levels in the system. It really is amazing to think about what goes into a typical appliation level software stack, for example: These millions+ lines of code that a Linux, Windows, or web application is running on top of means the details of the hardware and processor are abstracted to a far away land. Processor features and the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) often don't matter from a functional perspective. Tools, OSes and other systems take care of lower level details. You might choose a particular processor or processor family for specific attributes, but often as long as you've got a compiler and other tools for that processor you don't really care what ISA is being used. Goal Care about CPU and ISA? Application develop...

JLCPCB is an offshore (Chinese) low cost quick turn PCB manufacturer that can also perform PCB assembly (SMT components only). I've had a half dozen or so boards built by them so far and their SMT assembly service has saved me countless hours of populating SMT passives (resistors, capacitors, inductors) under the microscope. Here are some things I've learned while using jlcpcb that will likely save you a TON of time and effort. #1. JLCPCB's parts library is NOT the same as LCSC's JLCPCB (PCB fab + assembly) is related or owned by the same company that owns LCSC (parts supplier, think DigiKey, Mouser, Arrow) BUT JLCPCB's parts library is only a relatively small subset of LCSC parts . You'll want to search JLCPCB's parts catalog for parts, these are the only ones that JLCPCB can populate on your PCBs. Don't do what I've done and put together a BOM for a PCB using LCSC parts and then find out that 90% of these parts aren't availa...

If you've been keeping up on tech news you've likely seen the positive stories reassuring you about the upgrade to Windows 11: Windows 11: Just say no | Computerworld No, you don't have to upgrade from Windows 10 to ... - CNET WHY did I get my hopes up? - Windows 11 Announcement There are a number of unpallatable things being pushed in Windows 11 ( specs ): "You need a Microsoft account" - what? why do I need this? any privacy concerns? "Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0" - again, why is this necessary? Windows 10 works fine without it... Shifting CPU requirements - A month ago the Windows 11 compatibility tool said you needed a pretty new CPU (for no technical reason anyone can figure out), now it looks like a wider range of processors are supported. This is a remaining area of confusion. Not excited about Windows 11? There are some options: Switch to OSX (via Apple) or Linux Remain on Windows...

2019-02-24 update: Wrote this back in 2014 and only got around to publishing it now after making some final edits. After the final repairs listed here the hot water heater worked without issue until we moved a few years later. It felt, and still feels, like this was just one of those products that was launched with known issues and that it should have had some design changes. Instead they kept shipping the same design for a number of years inspite of knowing a number customers would have to deal with them. In this case the condensate pan was made of inappropriate material for the fitting attachment that was intended for use, and the condenser had a design or manufacturing flaw that caused a serious galvanic reaction. It's too bad that so many people had a negative experience with this relatively new technology given how energy efficient heat-pumps can be. - Chris 2013 We've had a string of issues with our new GE GeoSpring Hybrid water heater. Many reviews on Amazon ...

Omega2S Omega2+ If you are as big a fan of the Omega2 as I am I'm guessing you want to do as much with the platform as possible. Recently I've been looking to get a low cost Linux system on a CANbus, to sniff on some traffic. What are the options for adding a CAN interface to your Omega2, either when you are designing a solution or looking to easily add it to an existing system? eLinux has a great guide on a number of CANbus adapters that I'd recommend to anyone looking to integrate CAN into their system. Interface Typical use case Available on Omega2 / Omega2S serial (via SLCAN) Design-in/Add-on Simple protocol but not considered reliable, efficient or fast by Linux CAN developers . SPI Design-in Not usable , the Omega2 (MT7688 cpu) is only half duplex SPI Software SPI Design-in Higher cpu load than hardware SPI USB Design-in/Add-on Available (Omega2 has one USB host port) Note that all of the design-in options could be used ...

Gmail address mapping Gmail has some interesting rules that it applies to email addresses. Gmail ignores periods, '.', and all of text after the plus, '+', character up until the '@. Others have written pretty extensively about the situation, I'll try to be brief here. Using periods to make email addresses easier to read You can insert periods to make your email address easier to read, Email sent to Will go to John.Doe@gmail.com -> JohnDoe@gmail.com j.doe@gmail.com -> jdoe@gmail.com Unique email addresses for each site Using '+' you can use unique email addresses when registering with websites. This can make it easier to figure out who might be selling your email address. Email sent to Will go to JohnDoe+somesite@gmail.com -> JohnDoe@gmail.com JohnDoe+anothersite@gmail.com -> JohnDoe@gmail.com If spam starts arriving on one of these site specific emails you can be pretty sure ...