Making progress on the Roomba (And home improvement follies)

So I haven’t pushed any actual code, but I have sketched out some plans for how to do the platform on the robot. A 18” x 24” sheet of .22” plastic is less then $15, and that should be easy to cut with a Dremel.

In other news, I attempted my first home improvement project: adding a wall jack for network, instead of using the holes cut in the baseboard (yuck).

Lessons learned so far:

• I need a better drill. My little 6V thing is getting old, and had a hard time making a 1/2” hole in the subfloor :(

• When measuring, use the same reference point upstairs as you do downstairs. If you don’t, you’ll end up trying to drill through the end grain of a stud.

• Dremel’s are the greatest thing ever invented.

• Expect the unexpected. I cut the hole in the sheet rock, no problem. Tried putting in the box, it won’t go all the way in. I look, there is a strange piece of wood against the opposite wall (I think its part of the closet wall). 3” left or right, its clear, but I don’t have the stuff to patch the wall and try again. So now it’s back to Lowes to get a shallow box.

Last week on Twitter

• RT @codinghorror: “LEGO Mindstorms Sudoku Solver http://bit.ly/HF864” #
• how to install gem with less fail on ubuntu 8.04: http://bit.ly/3m6zqY #
• skimming through popular questions on stack overflow… found one asked by a coworker. cue the small world music #
• oh, and i cant find my fish tape. #
• managed to pick the one spot in the wall where it wasnt deep enough for an oldwork box… hit this random 1x6… #
• sipphone/gizmo’s stability has been sucking. so much for a fairly reliable sip trunk. #
• RT @Drudge_Report: “World record firework display fails after all 110,000 go off at once!… http://tinyurl.com/n2bdzg” #
• the chillers were “malfunctioning” yesterday at the office (translation: it was comfortable) they’re fixed today: 75 and 60% RH #
• git commit does not work in a svn working copy #
• you know something is probably wrong with your httpd when you have a shortcut to ssh in and restart it on you desktop #
• omg awesome http://bit.ly/IoCka #
• tried clicking on a link in a work email: http://bit.ly/ is categorized as Computing/Internet;Malicious Sites #
• RT @Drudge_Report: “Mortgage deliquency rate hits all time high… http://tinyurl.com/mudekw” #
• whats with these people and their love of php… shudder #
• interviewing web designers… finally, someone gets to give an artistic touch to my monster #
• i like the idea of gallery… but NIH is striking… #

Last week’s interesting links

• How to Use Notepad to Create a Log File

Posted 23 Aug 2009