Lauren’s Bed

Overall Design Lauren was disappointed when we had to take 30" away from her already small room to build a bench for a duct after adding a furnace to the third floor. Lauren did an initial sketch of what she wanted to build. Her overall goal was to maximize the space available in a smaller … Read more

The Codebreaker

Walter Issacson’s words formed my understanding of Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci. Given his habit of writing engaging biographies from the most well known people on the planet, I was surprised to hear that his latest book was about someone I’ve never heard of: Jennifer Doudna. This is probably both … Read more

Organize Images

I deleted and recovered a large number of photos (thanks foremost). However, a large number of images from a browser cache was messing up my photo library. Who wants to keep 10,000 of these images stored on my harddrive? I used the number of unique colors to filter them out via MATLAB. As expected, if … Read more

The Making of a Manager

I’m a manager and have been one for 20 years. The Air Force never gave me the chance to be an individual contributor except for 5 months where I wrote FORTRAN code to develop chemical dispersion models. A manager leaves behind their individual contributor role and assumes responsibility for the output of a team. The … Read more

Sled for Picture frame

Making perfect miters is hard and doing the math to get the inner rabbit dimension to add up isn’t easy. One thing I’ve learned about making stuff is that jigs make life better. I love making picture frames. Not only do I enjoy saving money, but I love dressing up art. Even a bad piece … Read more

Meaningful Work

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to folks like me trying to connect their vocation to meaning, but I had to get past a rough start. "It’s not the chocolate, it’s the chocolate." is the banner quote of this book — a book I was seeking to help me understand the intersection of … Read more

What you do is who you are

This book was a timely opportunity to understand the intersection of culture and action. Ben Horowitz is the cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs building the next generation of leading technology companies. The firm’s investments include Airbnb, GitHub, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Previously, he … Read more

Crossing the Chasm

Crossing the Chasm is a marketing book by Geoffrey A. Moore that explores the dynamics of marketing high tech products in early stage startups. While an older book, it continues to be read because the exploration and expansion of the diffusions of innovations model continues to have a significant and lasting impact on high tech … Read more