Automate All The Things

So much has been happening lately that I forget to sit down and take the time to write about it all.

I had surgery, started a new job, finished building the Ultimate Gaming PC, and the kids are learning woodworking by making Mom’s (belated) birthday gift. I also designed a project that should make building amazing forts for kids super simple and accessible. We have new bots that help us shop for a car, I’m automating indoor gardening with microcontrollers and data collection, AI is managing my stock portfolio through APIs and databases, we added Cloudflare Tunnels so home resources can be accessed externally - and so much more.

Let’s knock out one or two real quick.

Our family van is on its last legs, and we need a replacement. We’re not going anywhere anytime soon since I’m out of commission, so that gave me the opportunity to write bots that scan local Hyundai inventory for Santa Fe options. We test-drove one a few weeks ago, and the family has fallen in love with it. It’s comfy and holds a lot of nonsense - perfect for hauling kid crap on long trips. The hybrid gets around 35 mpg, which will be nice when gas prices in California start hitting over $6 in July.

Our family Discord gets all kinds of important updates. For example, MovieBot 9000 tells us what movies to watch on Family Night, WeatherBot Pro provides the forecast and tells the kids how to dress for the day, CountdownBot Alpha informs us how many days remain until the next important calendar event, Rosie the Robot monitors the kids' bedtime and chore progress, and Hey Jambi! gives us a random secret word of the week (à la Pee-Wee’s Playhouse).

Back when all my health issues started, it was really difficult to continue cooking and meal prepping. Food services like Factor75 (no affiliate link here - unless you want one) offer a lot of options that fit within my new renal diet requirements. The convenience far outweighs the price, as I can simply toss a box in the toaster oven, eat, track, and continue with my day. The problem is that I never know when they’re going to deliver. Enter FactorBot.

My days are typically spent automating tedious and repetitive tasks. Why open a browser, log into a site, and click around for what you need, when you can just get the information in one place? Now that the family is on Discord, I can start automating things for them too. I’m not an expert programmer trying to develop the next groundbreaking SaaS system, but it’s incredibly fun to solve problems and learn along the way.

Oh! One more thing. I’m a big EDC (Everyday Carry) nerd who always has a Leatherman on me. They fit snugly in the coin pocket of my jeans, but when I’m wearing lighter clothing, a heavy chunk of Leatherman metal flops around in your pocket and becomes incredibly irritating. Most EDC dorks buy a pocket clip that can cost up to $70 for fancy etched titanium. Forget that nonsense. I printed one for $0.01 and couldn’t be happier. It’s amazing what a little 3D printing knowledge can solve.

Time to Retire My Skates

We took the kids to the park yesterday with their brand new rollerblades. They were so excited they practically jumped out of the car ready to go. It also helped that they were padded up enough to join a full-contact sport. Nothing was going to get through those colorful exoskeletons!

We started the day off with freeze tag. They were flying around with little regard for safety, but they didn’t need to. If they fell, they would bounce right back like an inflatable punching bag. We lost track of time, and eventually, a few neighborhood kids joined in.

Later on, one of the new kids challenged me to a race - skates vs. bike. I put everything my arthritic, cancer-surviving, old-man body had into smoking that kid. It wasn’t even close. In your face kid!

Sadly, my rollerblades didn’t make it. I’ve had these skates for well over 20 years. They’ve been all over the place. After my mom sent them to me in the service, they rolled across every air base I was stationed at. I’ve replaced the wheels and bearings more times than I can count, added padding and inserts, glued parts back together, and made a custom velco straps for ankle support. They were mine and they were perfect.

After one of the races, it was clear something was off. I looked down and the frames were leaning hard to the outside when standing still. The supporting plastic used to hold the frames were brittle and snapped under the pressure of dominating the playground. They managed one last sad trip back to the car before retirement. My wife grabbed the pieces left in my wake.

Today, the kids are taking me out to buy new Father’s Day rollerblades. They even woke me up this morning with handmade gifts I’ll keep forever. At this rate, I’ll need a second fridge just to hang all the cute things they make.

Under-Desk Mini-PC for Dedicated 3D Printing Stuff

Our GPD gaming laptop, used exclusively for Windows apps, has developed an intermittent black screen when connected over Thunderbolt. I’ve tried reinstalling the OS and messing around with AMD graphics drivers, but the screen continues to go dark randomly. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Since we’re replacing our main gaming PC setup with a custom build, this lets us shuffle hardware around a bit.

When the dust settled, a powerful Minisforum mini-PC ended up under my desk - mounted with custom 3D-printed brackets. These had to be revised quite a few times until it was stable, had decent airflow, and let me hit the power button without it shifting.

I used NTLite to build a custom Windows 11 image (how-to coming later), deployed it over PXE with iVentoy, and ran Chris Titus’s Windows tool to remove unwanted apps, apply tweaks, and install only the essentials.

The funny thing is that I honestly don’t hate using Windows on this machine. It’s so lean, clean, and quick (say that 10 times fast), that you hardly think about all the system-rights atrocities going on behind the scenes.

The links to all these apps can also be found in Collections > Digital Toolkit and a few Windows annoyances are at Collections > Annoyances

On-Hold: The Ultimate Gaming Machine

The details of this project will come soon enough in the form of a proper post, but I needed this brief mental break to decompress and focus on the next steps.

I am in the middle of building a new gaming PC with my son. The ideas are plenty, but we first need to get it assembled and powered on. This is proving to be a challenge.

The goal here is to throw in a beefy GPU / CPU combo, maybe a few TB of storage, max out the RAM, and make it look nice sitting next to the TV. It’ll unfortunately run Windows, but I wanted to play around with creating a minimal Windows 11 ISO so it’s less work to clean up after install.

Next, this machine is intended to be a cloud gaming platform via Moonlight and Sunshine. This will replace all our gaming computers since this will allow us to connect and play from any device.

The problem now is that it won’t POST (Power on). It just shows me an orange diagnostic LED and sits there like a chump with no video or beep. The fans power on and things get hot, but that’s not why I’m building this. Annoying little space heaters are readily available and much cheaper on Amazon.

The case I chose looks incredible from the outside, but is insane to work with. There’s no space and everything fits incredibly tight. There’s little working room or extra space for anything but critical parts.

The motherboard manual couldn’t be more useless. They visualize 11 steps to plug stuff in, but don’t explain what the POST diagnostic codes are. Thankfully Reddit is telling me that this static amber light means the RAM isn’t happy with a smaller likelihood of the CPU being angry. I ruled out the RAM and GPU, so that leaves the processor.

“Those things are so small! Using my precision microelectronics tweezers makes me feel like I’m Andre the Giant trying to change a mouse diaper."

As you can see by the super zoomed in picture above, 2-3 CPU pins are out of position. There’s no amount of adjustment that I can do that’ll put them back correctly. Even if I was able to, that board could no longer be trusted. It’s not worth potentially frying a CPU too.

See you again Wednesday after the RMA is delivered.

Made my office closet useful

Closets are usually crammed with lots of useless stuff like clean clothes. But no more! Now, that totally boring and pointless space can become something awesome for building and making things.

There’s a large community around the Honeycomb Storage Wall, The goal is a 3D-printed, organized workspace that keeps all your important tools within easy reach. Since the entire setup is 3D-printed, you can customize it to fit any space and color scheme you like.

My focus was entirely on function, so this was a nice opportunity to use up old filament while turning random chaos into something pretty.

The above layout was the plan going in, but it’s not how things ended up. Turns out, orientation matters. I didn’t realize it was turned 90° sideways until everything was mounted and looking perfect. Minor setback, but now it’s stylin'.

Connectors and components are available for all kinds of tools. Can’t find the one you need? Well, it’s easy to design a new one to fit your stuff.

Call in the next 30 minutes and we’ll throw in a year’s supply of Carnauba Wax. Act now! Operators are standing by!

The internet upgraded a smidge

It wasn’t more than a few weeks ago that we were still using Starlink as our home internet provider. Upgrading from 16 Mbps to Starlink’s 100 Mbps was a huge moment for us. There was no way our original network pipe could have supported working from home and a family addicted to streaming video. Those were rough times that would’ve got worse as the kids grew up. Starlink was a massive improvement. It solved all our basic internet needs, with the only downside being some latency during work meetings.

Then one magical day, we heard a whisper. Fiber was being installed next door. Our neighbor did his best to explain what was going on, but a lot was lost in translation. He’s not a “nerdy nerdy four eyes geek face” like what my childhood friends called me, so I had to do some digging. Turns out Frontier was not only able to install fiber internet, but it was $20/month cheaper than Starlink. So of course, we jumped on it without hesitation.

I would have given my last kidney for fiber internet - but now I don’t need to! It’s not as dramatic of a jump as going from 16 Mbps to 100 Mbps, but there’s something oddly comforting about knowing that speed and latency are no longer things we need to worry about.

There was a minor issue, though. I had to upgrade everything on network layer 1-3. That means all the switches, Ethernet cables, and routers needed upgrading. We (i.e. “I”) got everything working smoothly now, but it was a bit of an adventure getting every device and wire replaced. We’re also on WiFi 7 now, but that doesn’t matter much to me. I’m still pushing the Pixel 4.

I also had the opportunity to design and 3D print some ethernet switch brackets. If you want to wall-mount your network gear, 3d printing custom brackets is perfect. You can get creative with your setup and spend pennies doing it.

DIY Lightboxes

My home office is only about 15% work and important stuff. The other 110% is dedicated to fun, games, and relaxation. The gaming area is a constant work in progress, frequently upgraded with neon signs, new ambient lighting automation, fancy arcades, and gaming-themed decor.

Recently, my son and I printed and assembled a Spider-Man lightbox together and I instantly fell in love with how amazing the finished product looked. The two signs above were found on MakerWorld, where there are a wide range of user-created designs.

Turns out, lightboxes are surprisingly easy to make. If you have a multi-color 3D printer, it’s a set-it-and-forget-it™ situation. The only tricky part is the lighting.

Before America poked the Chinese bear, AliExpress sold these COB (Chip on Board) LED lights for cheap. They only have a positive and negative wire and run off 5V, so you can plug them right into a USB wall adapter and let them go nuts. That said, you’ll probably want a voltage regulator as a middleman to keep the light from being seen from space. Something like this, wired in-line with your new colorful box, allows you to adjust brightness with a touch.

This week’s project is to master the offset option in Fusion360 and design my own lightbox. The On Air Light is in desperate need of an upgrade, and I’ve got a lot of ideas I can’t wait to try out.

Dr. AI

I had a conversation with family today about AI and creating custom GPTs. I don’t typically use them, but they can be incredibly handy when you need a focused perspective on a specific topic.

Yesterday’s blood tests came in, and they’re showing a slow increase in my creatinine levels. I’ve talked about creatinine extensively on this blog as it’s the main signal doctors look at to assess overall kidney health. The tricky part is that elevated levels can result from exercise, diet, or medication. Your guess is as good as mine, but I can definitely feel the difference today compared to a few weeks ago. It’s that full-body “ugh” feeling that just nags at you. Balancing energy and kidney disease is no joke.

So let me walk you through how to create a custom GPT (or a similarly focused AI) to help guide you through whatever journey you’re on.

The first and most important step is to compartmentalize. Don’t just start throwing random requests at an AI. You need a game plan, just like with any other project. I’m a pretty awful program manager, but after nearly two decades in the role, I’ve picked up quite a bit of helpful knowledge.

Before you do anything else, work with the AI to create a document that outlines exactly what you’re planning. Here’s an example prompt to start with. Fill in {role} with details.

You’re a Project Manager. Our customer requests a Custom GPT that can {role}. You and I will work together to develop a BRD (Business Requirements Document) that we’ll hand to the custom GPT. Review the role, suggest enhancements, and provide follow-up questions as we develop the document.

This keeps the AI focused on a very specific task. It is acting as the project management glue that holds everything together. After a bit of back and forth, the result will be a clear, structured document outlining responsibilities and expected outcomes. This is how any good project should begin, and it’s no different when working with AI.

Once you’re satisfied with the BRD, upload it to the Custom GPT interface. In my case, I also pulled the last few months of health data from the SQLite databases in my Garmin Replacement dashboard. These CSVs include calorie, liquid, protein intake, exercise details, and health metrics like blood pressure and weight.

In short, the more data you provide, the smarter your new AI assistant will be. This ensures nothing is hidden and all relevant information is available to Dr. AI.

After a short conversation, we agreed on a temporary plan to monitor and manage the situation. The idea is to narrow down the potential causes so I can make lifestyle adjustments accordingly.

Here’s the plan we came up with:

• Switch to low-impact exercise like walking, and keep sessions under 45 minutes
• Reduce protein intake to 60–65g/day
• Focus on lighter protein sources like eggs, tofu, fish, lentils, and quinoa
• Increase water intake slightly (2.2L/day instead of the usual 2L max)

The next round of blood tests is in about a month. Hopefully, by sticking to this plan, we’ll get some clarity on what’s going on. Fingers crossed. 🤞

No clue why I was doing this manually

Turns out the Oura Ring has an API! This is incredibly helpful because my dashboard’s BMR calculation is based on the previous day’s activity levels. This used to be entered manually every morning, but no longer! Now there’s a handy Python script that dumps the most recent day’s data to a SQLite table.

This was one of those “spend an hour to save a minute” situations, though. Sleep is always elusive after discovering cool new things. Anyhow, I learned stuff and there’s now a shiny new health insights section on the dashboard, so whatever. It passes the I Dig It™ test.

Note: Resting Heart is wrong, but that’s a tomorrow problem. Fixed this and made it more pretty.

Because a $60 Shadow Box is Just Dumb

My brother grabbed a really neat birthday present - a copy of EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) from 1994 in pristine condition. It came wrapped in plastic with a cardboard backing and a certificate of authenticity. So of course, it needed to be displayed on my wall.

Looking around on Amazon, magazine frames were really expensive and generally had subpar reviews. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend that much anyway. So I quickly designed and printed some minimalist magazine holders that fit my tastes much better.

Download and Print

• Magazine Holder 3mf
• Magazine Holder STL

Now it’s presented in all my childhood glory for all to enjoy! No touchy!