<metaname="twitter:description"content="My name is John. I’m a Embedded Developer. Over the years I’ve dabbled in a lot of side projects. I have a deep interest in making IoT and…">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">About Me</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-26T17:54:48.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 26th 2018</time></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>My name is John. I’m a Embedded Developer. Over the years I’ve dabbled in a lot of side projects. I have a deep interest in making IoT and smart home systems, setting up offline backups of information/Digital archiving, and alternative network technologies.</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">About Me</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-26T17:54:48.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 26th 2018</time></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>My name is John. I’m a Embedded Developer. Over the years I’ve dabbled in a lot of side projects. I have a deep interest in making IoT and smart home systems, setting up offline backups of information/Digital archiving, and alternative network technologies.</p>
<p>Contained within is my attempt to chronicle my efforts, share idea and projects, and at the end of the day, teach. I’ve always thought at some point I would like to teach. Lately I realized that there is no barrier to teaching other than what we impose on ourselves. I have a platform, It’s the internet. Please join me and feel free to ask some questions. I’d love to try to answer them, or at least point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>–John</p>
</div><divclass="article__author"itemscopeitemprop="author"itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><imgclass="article__author__image"src="/images/avatar.jpg"alt="John Warren"><aclass="article__author__link"title="About John Warren"rel="author">John Warren</a><pclass="article__author__desc">Just a place to make stuff</p><divclass="article__author__socials"><aclass="article__author__socials__item"href="/atom.xml"title="rss"target="_blank"><iclass="fa fa-rss"></i></a></div><metaitemprop="name"content="John Warren"></div><divclass="sharer"id="sharer"><divclass="sharer-inner"><divclass="sharer__right"><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-facebook"><iclass="fa fa-facebook-official"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-twitter"><iclass="fa fa-twitter"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pinterest"><iclass="fa fa-pinterest"></i></button><buttonclass="sharer__item"id="sharer-pocket"><iclass="fa fa-get-pocket"></i></button></div></div></div><!-- Disqus Code--><divid="disqus_thread"></div><script>(function(){
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives: 8/2012</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives: 8/2012</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives: 2012</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives: 2012</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:description"content="Just a place to make stuff">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-what-generator/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-what-generator/"title="Static what Generator?!">Static what Generator?!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Archives</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-what-generator/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-what-generator/"title="Static what Generator?!">Static what Generator?!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
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<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Category: Web Dev</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-what-generator/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-what-generator/"title="Static what Generator?!">Static what Generator?!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><header><h2>Category: Web Dev</h2></header><hr><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-what-generator/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-what-generator/"title="Static what Generator?!">Static what Generator?!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:description"content="Just a place to make stuff">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-what-generator/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-what-generator/"title="Static what Generator?!">Static what Generator?!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><sectionclass="post-list"><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/static-what-generator/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/default.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/static-what-generator/"title="Static what Generator?!">Static what Generator?!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so...</p></div></article><articleclass="post-list__item"><divclass="post-list__item__col-1"><aclass="post-list__item__link"href="/posts/table-based-design/"><divclass="post-list__item__link__background"style="background-image:url('/images/tableCode.jpg');"></div></a></div><divclass="post-list__item__col-2"><h3class="post-list__item__title"><ahref="/posts/table-based-design/"title="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</a></h3><divclass="post-list__item__meta"><aclass="post-list__item__meta__link"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div><pclass="post-list__item__description">If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.
<metaname="twitter:title"content="Create Own Membrane Matrix Keypad (and Hooking It Up to the Arduino)">
<metaname="twitter:description"content="So you want to create your own membrane keypad? Why? well making your own keypad can be useful for many reasons. It’s cheap and easy to…">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/matrix/finished.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="February 16th 2010 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Create Own Membrane Matrix Keypad (and Hooking It Up to the Arduino)</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2010-02-16T05:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">February 16th 2010</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Other-Electronics/">Other Electronics</a></div></div><divclass="article__contents"><imgsrc="/images/matrix/finished.jpg"/><p>So you want to create your own membrane keypad? Why? well making your own keypad can be useful for many reasons. It’s cheap and easy to do, it can be placed in situations where it may be vandalized or stolen without much frustration, It can be fully customized to display whatever you like, and you can make as large a keypad as you like with as many inputs as you can handle. I created my keypad to go on the exterior of my door in residence to act as a keypad entry in much the same way as colin353 did <ahref="www.instructables.com/id/An-Electronic-Door-Opener/">here</a>.</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/matrix/finished.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="February 16th 2010 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Create Own Membrane Matrix Keypad (and Hooking It Up to the Arduino)</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2010-02-16T05:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">February 16th 2010</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Other-Electronics/">Other Electronics</a></div></div><divclass="article__contents"><imgsrc="/images/matrix/finished.jpg"/><p>So you want to create your own membrane keypad? Why? well making your own keypad can be useful for many reasons. It’s cheap and easy to do, it can be placed in situations where it may be vandalized or stolen without much frustration, It can be fully customized to display whatever you like, and you can make as large a keypad as you like with as many inputs as you can handle. I created my keypad to go on the exterior of my door in residence to act as a keypad entry in much the same way as colin353 did <ahref="www.instructables.com/id/An-Electronic-Door-Opener/">here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>NOTE:</strong> This is not a complete tutorial for the time being. It goes through the construction of a keypad fully, however it does not yet fully demonstrate the means to make it useful.</p>
<h1id="Step-1-Understanding-the-Keypad"><ahref="#Step-1-Understanding-the-Keypad"class="headerlink"title="Step 1: Understanding the Keypad"></a>Step 1: Understanding the Keypad</h1><p>The first thing I want you to understand is how this keypad works. I know what you’re thinking… Matrix keypad?… “I’m not going to have to take any blue pills to get this to work am I?”. No its not that matrix.. The best way to think about a matrix style keypad is to think about battleship.</p>
<p>A matrix is pretty much a grid like in battleship consisting of rows and columns. each button corresponds to a certain row and column. See the first picture to help illustrate this better. On a 9 button keypad you would use 3 rows and 3 columns. The first button would make a link between Row 1 and Column 1 (R1C1) just like in battleship. 2 would be R1C2, 3 R1C3, and lets say 8 would be R3C2… the rest are illustrated on the image.</p>
<metaname="twitter:title"content="Static what Generator?!">
<metaname="twitter:description"content="Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and…">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="April 27th 2018 17:40:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Static what Generator?!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-27T21:40:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 27th 2018</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so prevalent in sites that they make a very attractive target for exploitation. In fact the first time I lost control of my server it was because of a bug in a themes use of timthumb.php. Basically, the attacker sent it an “image” file from a hosting website that had a php eval script hidden in it’s data. When accessed normally it showed an image but if they accessed the cached file that timthumb made, then the server treated it as a php file. From there they were able to install a remote shell, and own my server.</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/default.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="April 27th 2018 17:40:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Static what Generator?!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2018-04-27T21:40:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">April 27th 2018</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><hr><divclass="article__contents"><p>Recently I’ve become disillusioned with most CMS options. They’re a pain to keep updated, plugins are constantly being abandoned, and they’re so prevalent in sites that they make a very attractive target for exploitation. In fact the first time I lost control of my server it was because of a bug in a themes use of timthumb.php. Basically, the attacker sent it an “image” file from a hosting website that had a php eval script hidden in it’s data. When accessed normally it showed an image but if they accessed the cached file that timthumb made, then the server treated it as a php file. From there they were able to install a remote shell, and own my server.</p>
<h1id="Static-site-generators"><ahref="#Static-site-generators"class="headerlink"title="Static site generators"></a>Static site generators</h1><p>While the timthumb exploit was a pain in the ass, it was very interesting to me and made me seriously consider how I secure my systems. To that end I started reading into static site generators. Static site generators take your posts, usually formatted in some sort of markup, put them through a templating engine that outputs <code>.html</code> files, which you can then serve via the usual methods.</p>
<h3id="Why-tho"><ahref="#Why-tho"class="headerlink"title="Why tho?"></a>Why tho?</h3><p>The idea is that <em>most</em> sites don’t actually need to use dynamic code. Their content is, for the most, part static. Users aren’t interacting with the content (other than the comments sections and forms but we’ll talk about that later). They are, instead, just reading it. The only person who seems to be interacting with it is the person that owns the site. Even then, the owner isn’t actively interacting. They are writing a post, or updating a page. After that, everything stays the same.</p>
<p>All this is a “face-value” reason to move over to a static site. I have an even deeper reason for wanting to use a static site, portability. Static sites allow you to use a generic format for your posts. I write all my posts in markdown, a very common and widely used format. With this I can move from generator to generator without much change. If I were to make my blog in something like Wordpress, my post information would be locked into a <em>very</em> specific database format. If I, for some reason or another, decided I no longer wanted to use Wordpress it would be a lot of work modifying all my posts to be compatible with the new platform.</p>
<metaname="twitter:title"content="Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!">
<metaname="twitter:description"content="If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it. Web…">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/tableCode.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="August 9th 2012 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2012-08-09T04:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">August 9th 2012</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><divclass="article__contents"><imgsrc="/images/tableCode.jpg"/><p>If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/tableCode.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="August 9th 2012 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">Table based design: Why I loathe it, and you should too!</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2012-08-09T04:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">August 9th 2012</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Web-Dev/">Web Dev</a></div></div><divclass="article__contents"><imgsrc="/images/tableCode.jpg"/><p>If there is one thing that grinds my gears it’s table based design and the “web development” companies that continue to use it.</p>
<p>Web development is one heck of an industry. It changes, transforms, and adapts. I feel that in order for you to call yourself a web developer, or your company a web development company you need to develop with the web.</p>
<p>Development as defined by dictionary.com is: the act or process of developing; growth; progress: child development; economic development.</p>
<p>Growth, progress! Our job as web developers is to promote growth and progress of the web. We must adapt as the web adapts. When a “web development” agency provides it’s clients with old, outdated, un-accessible, table-based, web development they are not only stifling the growth of the internet they are literally taking money out of business’ pockets.</p>
<metaname="twitter:description"content="Well today’s the day! On the eve of Canada day I have made a giant step towards a good version of the plasma speaker! After letting the…">
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/plasmaHead.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="May 10th 2010 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.comhttps://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn">Patreon</a></div></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">The Plasma Speaker Saga pt.III</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2010-05-10T04:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">May 10th 2010</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Other-Electronics/">Other Electronics</a></div></div><divclass="article__contents"><imgsrc="/images/plasmaHead.jpg"/><p>Well today’s the day! On the eve of Canada day I have made a giant step towards a good version of the plasma speaker! After letting the magic smoke out of countless ICs and Diodes I have finally put together a working model of the plasma speaker. The first thing I did to guide me on my path was to find a TL494 IC in a dip format. I figured that it was going to be another month until I could make this post as I would have had to special order a TL494 chip online which would cost me shipping and a whole crap more money than the chip was worth. When out of the blue two days ago my father asked me what chip I needed for the Plasma speaker. Having studied the schematic for hours I could quote almost every component off by heart at this point, so I told him “TL494″ he looked at me, let out a little chuckle and a smirk, and pointed over to the other side of the kitchen. I walked over and saw several power tools and construction materials (we’re in the middle of a kitchen reno) and an old pc power supply. I picked it up and said “is this it?”. “Yes” he answered “I pulled it out of the pc that that my work threw out. The power supply was the only thing that was bad in it.”. So earlier on today (yesterday?) I open her up and lo and behold there is a TL494 DIP IC staring me in the face (Nestled right beside a LM339N I might add) as well as several other things I may need in the future of this speaker (toroids, heatsinks, etc…).</p>
<metaname="twitter:image"content="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/images/plasmaHead.jpg"><metaproperty="article:author"content="John Warren"><metaproperty="twitter:label1"content="Published at"><metaproperty="twitter:data1"content="May 10th 2010 00:00:00"><metaproperty="twitter:label2"content="Written by"><metaproperty="twitter:data2"content="John Warren"><linkrel="icon"href="/images/icon.png"><linkrel="alternate"href="/atom.xml"type="application/atom+xml"title="TheBestJohn"></head><bodyitemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/WebPage"><navclass="menu"id="menu"><divclass="menu-inner"><divclass="menu__left-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link menu__item__link--brand"href="/"title="Home"rel="home"><imgclass="menu__item__link--brand__image"src="/images/icon.png"alt="TheBestJohn"><spanclass="menu__item__link--brand__label">TheBestJohn</span></a></div></div><divclass="menu__right-area"><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/">Home</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/about">About</a></div><divclass="menu__item"><aclass="menu__item__link"href="http://blog.thebestjohn.com/archives">Archives</a></div><aclass="menu__item__link"href="https://www.patreon.com/TheBestJohn"></a></div></div></nav><divclass="page-background"></div><divclass="content-container"><divclass="content-outer"><divclass="content-inner"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/Blog"><articleclass="article"id="article"itemscopeitemtype="https://schema.org/BlogPosting"><h1class="article__title"itemprop="headline">The Plasma Speaker Saga pt.III</h1><divclass="article__meta"><timeclass="article__meta__time"datetime="2010-05-10T04:00:00.000Z"itemprop="datePublished">May 10th 2010</time><divclass="article__meta__categories"><aclass="article__meta__categories__item"href="/categories/Other-Electronics/">Other Electronics</a></div></div><divclass="article__contents"><imgsrc="/images/plasmaHead.jpg"/><p>Well today’s the day! On the eve of Canada day I have made a giant step towards a good version of the plasma speaker! After letting the magic smoke out of countless ICs and Diodes I have finally put together a working model of the plasma speaker. The first thing I did to guide me on my path was to find a TL494 IC in a dip format. I figured that it was going to be another month until I could make this post as I would have had to special order a TL494 chip online which would cost me shipping and a whole crap more money than the chip was worth. When out of the blue two days ago my father asked me what chip I needed for the Plasma speaker. Having studied the schematic for hours I could quote almost every component off by heart at this point, so I told him “TL494″ he looked at me, let out a little chuckle and a smirk, and pointed over to the other side of the kitchen. I walked over and saw several power tools and construction materials (we’re in the middle of a kitchen reno) and an old pc power supply. I picked it up and said “is this it?”. “Yes” he answered “I pulled it out of the pc that that my work threw out. The power supply was the only thing that was bad in it.”. So earlier on today (yesterday?) I open her up and lo and behold there is a TL494 DIP IC staring me in the face (Nestled right beside a LM339N I might add) as well as several other things I may need in the future of this speaker (toroids, heatsinks, etc…).</p>
<p>After about 20 minutes of trying to get this chip out with a solder sucker and solder braid, I finally succeed. I pop it into my breadboard (which had the starting of my time fountain, but who cares PLASMA SPEAKER!) and begin wiring up the schematic. Everything looks wired up properly and I have a speaker in place of the flyback transformer (another steal from the discarded television that I got the flyback from). I attach a 9V battery and…. nothing happens…. shit ok well time to pull out the big guns… the 12V motorcycle battery. I attach the battery and…. it kinda works… except the speaker is just puffed out all the way…. it’s not making any noise at all! What should be happening is the speaker should be oscillating at some high frequency but it’s not, it’s just sitting there all puffed out…. At around this time my father gets home from work. I have a question for him. The TL494 chip has a black dot on it (which usually denotes where pin 1 is) as well as a notch in it (Another common way to denote pin 1) on the opposite side. Theres your problem. the chip is in backwards! I reverse the chip and TA-DA a squealing speaker!</p>
<p>Now it was time to attach the flyback transformer and get to the sparky sparky, singy singy. I put it all together and PFFFFFTTTT! all the magic smoke flys out of my diode. At this point I have let the magic smoke out of so many ICs and Diodes my nickname should be John the wizard. I go back to the drawing board and my dad points out to me that diodes (unlike capacitors) have a white line marking their cathode (whereas on capacitors it denotes an anode). Well shit! I must have blown this diode 20 times because that stupid quirk of electronics. I put my last diode in, turn on the power and….. LIGHTING! It verks! for the next 20 minutes I walk around the house with a big shit eating grin on my face looking for some sort of CD, Cassette, or shitty MP3 player to plug into this potential device killer to make me some audio. I finally find an old Mp3 player that I found on the bus in grade 6 and hook it up (the MP3 player needed a non-standard usb cable so I had to settle with what was on it…. Dr.Dre lol) after about 20 sec0nds of it working…. PFFFTTT! magic smoke billows from the IRF540 MOSFET. So I take a look at it… the heatsink isn’t hot!? I put some heatsink compound on the back whats the deal!? Well it turns out there was a sheet of mylar between the heatsink and the original component and it wasn’t very efficient. So I pop off the mylar sheet, clean everything up, add some new heatsink compound and a new MOSFET and there we go… it works for a longer period of time and I am able to bring you the following video.</p>
