January 08, 2020

An Anniversary, Of Sorts

This fall marks the 20 year anniversary of going back to school and switching careers. Having been in the clinical laboratory (forensic pathology, medical technologist, then laboratory supervisor) for over 16 years, I made the decision to go into Information Technology. I enrolled in an adult continuing education curriculum at University of Virginia. At the time, this was a new hybrid program of IT certification courses combined with traditional management classes at the university. After making it through the classes and passing the certification exams, I would be a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (Windows NT 4.0) and awarded a certificate in Information Systems Management from UVa.

I was already working two jobs - full time laboratory and part-time managing the corporate web site and online presence. Now with these shiny new certificates in hand, I was ready to make the career change!  Still, it took another four years before I was completely full-time IT. The first position had many hats to wear - some system and database admin, maintaining web servers, web development, help desk management and whatever else needed to be done at the time.

It feels like another lifetime ago. Blogging was just starting to become popular. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram had not arrived on the scene yet.  The CEO of the healthcare system where I worked wasn't too interested in the new emerging online technology.  "You can't download a nurse," he was famous for saying at meetings. It was also the post dot-com bubble period. Maybe not a great time to switch careers?

Looking back, it all worked out OK.  Other changes in healthcare drove new developments in IT. Legislation such as the "Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act" and passage of the "American Reinvestment & Recovery Act" (ARRA) in 2009, are collectively known as Meaningful Use. These changes still generate more than enough work in Healthcare IT to keep me employed. But those are topics for another post.

July 07, 2019

The Many Flavors of Linux running on Windows 10

These are the instances of Linux that I've tried out so far on Windows 10

  •  Kali - a go-to distribution for InfoSec
  •  Ubuntu - the tried and true standby
  •  Pengwin - a new distribution developed just for Windows Subsystem for Linux

New - Yet Another Tech Blog

How I spent my day - writing up a couple of new blog posts.

YATB on DevCali.co

Changing the default favicon on Gatsby

Trying out the spiffy new Windows Terminal

Enjoy!

June 18, 2019

Need a favicon? Generate it now | RealFaviconGenerator.net

I just tried this - worked well! Need a favicon? Generate it now | RealFaviconGenerator.net: Get rid of the favicon hassle. RealFaviconGenerator.net generates all the pictures and HTML code you need.

October 09, 2018

Elegoo Smart Robot Car V3 - Unboxing

Starting with a review and brief description of the components included with this kit, this is the first part of a series about the Elegoo Smart Robot Car kit, version 3.  Future videos will cover putting together the chassis and building the robot car. Projects will include using the ultrasonic sensor for obstacle avoidance, line following, IR remote control of the robot and remote control using the bluetooth module with an app on your phone.



Elegoo has provided a special discount code for a limited time for purchase of this kit so you can follow along with this series!

Code: ROANOKE1
Discount: 15% OFF
Start Date: 10/08/2018  5:00 PM PDT
End Date:  10/13/2018  11:59PM PDT

September 04, 2018

Radioddity GA-5S Review - Setup, Programming and Power Output

We take this new dual-band analog VHF/UHF handheld transceiver (HT) out for a test drive. A brief review of the various menu items to setup the radio, program a repeater channel into memory and check the power output. Overall, a good quality HT, ideal for a new Ham's first radio to get on 2 meters and 440 repeaters.



July 22, 2018

DMR Radio Roundup - Four Handheld Transceivers for Ham Radio

A brief review of Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and comparison of 4 popular makes/models of dual-band handheld DMR transceivers that are available on the market. Provides a good guide for a ham operator looking to jump into DMR!



July 21, 2018

Baofeng BF F8HP - Program the radio from the keypad - Part 2

In part 2 of this review, I show how to program the radio from the keyboard for your local repeaters in 6 steps.



1) Enter VFO mode, enter receive frequency

2) Menu 12 - CTCSS code

3) Menu 25 - Tx Shift

4) Menu 26 - Offset Frequency

5) Menu 27 - Store Channel

6) Press * Scan - reverse mode, press Menu x 3



Baofeng BF-F8HP - Review New Features - Part 1

We take a look at the 3rd Generation Baofeng BF-F8HP, discuss the new features and the improved Owners Manual from BaofengTech. Programming the radio from the keyboard is covered in Part 2.



June 09, 2017

January 03, 2017

How I Learned to Program circa 1978

Just for fun, here's a vintage photo of what it was like learning to program in BASIC back in 1978.


Spend a couple hours punching in one line of code per card. Hand the stack of cards to the person at the counter (you didn't actually think you got to operate the computer yourself, did you?). Get the print out of your program a couple of hours later. Easy peasy!

#LearnToProgramRoanoke #Vintage

How to Start Making Games (with No Experience)

Why couldn't I have seen something like this 10 years ago, before I got old? LOL