• 1 min read

TimeMap.org - World History Atlas

Link: TimeMap.org - World History Atlas: "The easy-to-use getaway to historical maps in libraries around the world."

Linked is an amazing free tool. It lets you move a slider to shift the year that you are looking at. And then it shows a zoomable map and all sorts of historical info.

  • 1 min read

How to Calculate the Motor Torque for a Mobile Robot

Link: How to Calculate the Motor Torque for a Mobile Robot: "This guide outlines how to calculate power parameters for a mobile robot and select an appropriate power system. We cover frictional and acceleration forces, wheel type, and motor parameters to design a direct-drive system with a brushless motor. With the rated voltage, speed, and torque of the motor, we calculate the required power and minimum battery capacity to power the robot successfully. This discussion is a valuable resource for designing or selecting a power system for an indoor, service-oriented mobile robot capable of carrying a payload of 20 kg and achieving a speed of 1."

Linked is an article explaining how to calculate torque. But why? When choosing a motor for a robot, you need to calculate the torque required, which in turn depends on the weight of the robot, the diameter of the wheels, and other parameters.

  • 1 min read

marimo-team/marimo: A reactive notebook for Python — run reproducible experiments, execute as a script, deploy as an app, and version with git.

Link: marimo-team/marimo: A reactive notebook for Python — run reproducible experiments, execute as a script, deploy as an app, and version with git.: "A reactive notebook for Python — run reproducible experiments, execute as a script, deploy as an app, and version with git. - marimo-team/marimo: A reactive notebook for Python — run reproducible ..."

An impressive "rewrite" of Jupyter Notebooks which has more logical "recalc" rules.

  • 1 min read

Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim

Link: Find Out Why Health Insurance Denied Your Claim: "You likely have the right to access records that explain why your insurer denied your claim or prior authorization request. Use ProPublica’s free tool to generate a letter requesting your claim file from your health insurance company."

We all will get a claim rejected at some point. Sometimes not a very big deal, other times a huge deal. This web site is recommended as a tool to figure out what happened and how perhaps get the decision reversed.

  • 2 min read

Coding with AI is not all that

I am a long time software engineer and of late college professor. I’ve done a lot of programming and recently have been using AI (I will use that term generically, but for me it is Claude.ai) to assist. I have thought of it as a super-duper Stackoverflow which instead of returning a series of semi-useful posts, actually gives me working code. It is truly remarkable and I use it every single day.

As a teacher, I have encouraged students to think of AI as a power tool which they need to learn to use. Some other teachers treat the use of AI as “cheating”. For me it is no more cheating then using google to search. However…

Of late I have discerned a dark pattern which I had not identified before. And this applies to students but to myself as well. AI in coding gives a nice sugar high. Instead of thinking and understanding how my code works or how a new API works, it is so easy to get the code from AI and just try it. I recently dug into async in Python which I had not used before and that was the trap I fell into.

Now we all know that the code that AI is n to necessarily correct. But it may look almost correct, in that it is syntactically right and sort of works usually.

The problem is that while it an almost correct piece of code it is often the totally wrong solution to your problem. In other words, it often sets you on the wrong path. A dead end. The trap is that you spend your time debugging an approach that is totally wrong.

When does this happen? I find that it happens when I am tackling something I don’t really understand and want a shortcut to my sugar high. Upon reflection I have found more than once that I spent hours debugging an approach which, once working, I realized was all wrong and I had to start over.

So my lesson is: beware of using code generated by AI, not just because it may be “wrong” or “buggy” but because it sends you in a wrong direction and you end up with a cul-de-sac solution which is sub optimal and in the end you will have to rewrite.

  • 1 min read

Random Nerd Tutorials | Learn ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi

Link: Random Nerd Tutorials | Learn ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino, and Raspberry Pi: "Random Nerd Tutorials helps makers, hobbyists and engineers build electronics projects. We make projects with: ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Home Automation and Internet of Things. If you want to learn electronics and programming, you're in the right place."

I just came across the linked catalog of free tutorials. Looks like it could be very useful! Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, and more.