electronics Building a Magic: the Gathering Life Counter with Arduino and MAX7219 by Michael Earls Before dedicating myself to the task of soldering 64 LEDs to make my 4x4x4 LED cube, I decided to build a life counter for the card game Magic: the Gathering. Basically, it is
What does a software developer do all day, anyway? by Michael Earls The story is a little different for all software developers, depending on the technologies they use and the work environment, but I'll describe what my day looks like as a developer at the
michael Why I quit working for Microsoft by Michael Earls Back in mid 2000, I realized my lifelong career goal of getting a job at Microsoft. It was awesome. I wasn't selected after my first interview for a Software Engineer in early 2000,
programming Is it Intelligent? The Braitenberg Vehicle by Michael Earls Back in 2010, I started reading a book titled Vehicles - Experiments in Synthetic Psychology written by Valentino Braitenberg in 1984. Braitenberg was a cyberneticist and wrote this book as a series of
software development C# Building your own extension methods. by Jeff Tyler C# has had extension methods since 2007 and with it came LINQ (Language INtegrated Query) and a massive set of extension methods that changed C# development forever. It is a prime candidate for
blog Comments are back by Michael Earls I fixed the comments system on the blog tonight. I use Disqus for comments and I had not yet modified the new Ghost Casper theme to include them. I love using this theme,
electronics 4x4x4 LED Cube - Part 2 - Schematic by Michael Earls I sat down and built the schematic for my 4x4x4 LED cube tonight. I only built out 2 layers. The other 2 layers are identical to the first two. They are stacked on
electronics 4x4x4 LED Cube - Part 1 - Design by Michael Earls This post is the first in a series on making a 4x4x4 LED cube utilizing a Max7219 as a multiplexer.
software development GitHub is not necessarily the best judge of developer skill by Michael Earls I recently read where someone said that GitHub was the place to go to determine a developer's skill level. I have to say that I totally disagree with this statement. It might be
Pathfinder Being bored has never felt so good by Michael Earls Ater two 55+ hour work weeks and a 17 hour day (we didn't leave the office until 1 AM and I worked through lunch that day), I've been a bit lazy. In fact,
Pathfinder Easy and inexpensive bases for paper and cardboard RPG miniatures by Michael Earls I print my own miniatures for use with Pathfinder. I buy the PDF version of the Pathfinder pawns and print out the pages that I need to use, cutting and gluing the pieces
Pathfinder The Adventure Begins by Michael Earls We just had our second gathering to play Pathfinder (Pathfinder is based on the D&D 3.5 Edition Rules). We started playing the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path last
ghost How to add Prism Syntax Highlighting to your Ghost blog by Michael Earls I have been using Ghost pro for a few years now as my blogging platform and I love it. However, its lack of code formatting (syntax highlighting) has made it difficult to use
.NET Beyond the Demos - Part 3 - The DTOs by Michael Earls To make passing data between the various parts of our application easy, we need a way to encapsulate that data in such a way that it can easily be transported across the network and consumed by various clients.
.NET .NET Beyond the Demos - Part 2 - The Architecture by Michael Earls In order for me to communicate this particular story, I first need to outline the overall architecture. At the highest structural level, the architecture is really quite simple. Let's start there and work our way down.
C# .NET Beyond the Demos - Part 1 by Michael Earls I like code demos. They're good for getting you familiar with how a specific technology works. However, many times, it's hard to get a feel for how different technologies work together to create a larger ecosystem in the enterprise environment.
Star Wars Solo: A Star Wars Story actually looks good by Michael Earls I just watched the latest trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story. I have never been a Han Solo fan, but I'm really excited about a new Star Wars movie since Rogue One
addiction Goodbye Facebook (for real this time) by Michael Earls Update: July 11, 2018 - Facebook is just too darn useful. I have rejoined to keep up with local gaming groups and other user groups for things I'm interested in. Maybe this time
art Staring at a blank canvas by Michael Earls I recently bought painting supplies. The whole works; Brushes, Canvases, Paints. I even bought a new easel. I managed to paint one painting using the intuitive painting technique. However, I keep finding myself
smartwatch I have officially turned to the dark side by Michael Earls Slowly turning to the dark side, I just purchased my first Apple watch.
facebook Hi, my name is Michael, and I'm addicted to Facebook by Michael Earls I don't remember life before Facebook, and that bothers me. We recently went on a week long vacation, and while we were there, I never once checked my Facebook. Sure, it kept bugging
music The New (and arguably improved) Tangerine Dream by Michael Earls I've been a Tangerine Dream fan since 1990. Since that time, when someone asked me who my favorite band was, I instantly answered "Tangerine Dream". I was usually met with blank
No more ads by Michael Earls After seeing the type of ads that I was getting on my site, I decided to get rid of them altogether. I was getting a few high quality ads from places that I
3D Printing 3D Printer Z-Axis Woes by Michael Earls In a previous post, I discussed my new 3D printer and I briefly mentioned that I'm having z-axis banding issues. I'm not quite sure what's happening, but I initially had severe z-axis banding
3D Printing My first 3D printer - the Geeetech i3 Pro B (Prusa Clone) by Michael Earls Back in the day... When I was a kid (back in the 80's), I used to come home from school and watch a great TV show about future technologies. I don't remember the
