When most people find a phone lying on the ground, or in this case lying in a ditch, the first instinct is to try and return the phone to its rightful owner (right?!). But, if the phone has been reported as stolen, how do you know that if you take the phone into the carrier’s…… Continue reading Avoiding the good samaritan’s snare
Author: Steve da Enginerd
How I Get (& Stay) Good at Vim
Vim is one of those tools that most everyone who uses a computer for most things outside of “regular” computer use (email, web banking, facebook, etc.) should use.
Board level repair?
Board level repair is simply repairing an electronics board by fixing broken traces and/or bad components. In years past this was done by simply unsoldering the bad parts and replacing them with new parts. But they were bigger and easier to see. Nowadays, with the advancement of technology, the components are much smaller. Most can’t…… Continue reading Board level repair?
Our take on an affordable 3D Printer
TI’ve wanted a 3D printer since forever! Well, at least since the turn of the century. But, as we all know, they are not cheap! So I haven’t gotten one. However, recently the availability of open source hardware and software for 3D printing and CNC machines, along with the decreasing cost of components, has spurred me…… Continue reading Our take on an affordable 3D Printer
How to Fix Bluetooth Network Unavailable on OS X 10.10.4
UPDATE: In the comments a new workaround has been identified since my solutions don’t seem to be working anymore. Try making sure the hotspot is turned on on your phone! It’s a weird one, but it works! The best way explanation I can come up with is because of the way hand off works in…… Continue reading How to Fix Bluetooth Network Unavailable on OS X 10.10.4
Getting Android Studio Working On Mac OS X Yosemite
So, changing from a Windows development platform to a Mac OS X platform has been surprisingly smooth. While it has only been a few days, the only glitch I have encountered is when I started up Android Studio 1.0.1 for the first time. tl;dr Go and install this to fix it. Read on to…… Continue reading Getting Android Studio Working On Mac OS X Yosemite
What I did with Twilio
A few months back, a client asked me to look at and improve the SMS messaging ability of their Java program. After seeing that they were using an email to SMS gateway (and associated throttling requirements) I researched the options, and came to the inevitable conclusion that the answer to making the SMS messaging capabilities…… Continue reading What I did with Twilio
Fixing a power problem
After being uber excited to get a brand new Nexus 7 for Christmas, I quickly realized that there was a problem with my new gadget! I found that no matter what I did the battery showed 0%, even after spending several hours on the factory charger. After a couple hours on El Goog finding some…… Continue reading Fixing a power problem
Included Bugs
I spent the better part of a day and a half beating the keyboard with my head over a very frustrating problem: “WTF! Where’s that cookie I set?!” in a PHP project that I was working on. See, the problem came from abstracting all the cookie related functions to a separate PHP file. Easier to…… Continue reading Included Bugs
Having an “wow” moment
I was watching “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” with my kids today, and it is really neat to see my kids enjoy a movie that I enjoyed years ago. Without the CGI and special effects that we have come to enjoy and are accustomed to in modern movies, its refreshing to see some creativity of…… Continue reading Having an “wow” moment