ChaseKBH Archives - James Howard

Is Sewing Engineering?

December 13, 2016 7:03 AM James Howard Blog Leave a comment

Last night, Nina spent some time working on a holiday dress for Ducky. There will be another post about this next week, but Nina hit me with a question, How is this not engineering? And I responded, “It is.” But that’s only half the story. As I post on a lot of different subjects, I usually like to make sure at least one of the tags for each post is a top-level subject and for a list, I like to use Wikipedia Outline of Academic Disciplines.1 So I figured that sewing would somehow or another fall under materials science or

Why I Won’t Play Greedy Dice

August 22, 2016 8:24 PM James Howard Blog Leave a comment

Chase and I have started playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game, a lot. Perhaps obviously, this comes from the confluence of two events. First, in July, we started playing Pokémon GO. Second, he turned 7. And 7 year-olds occasionally bring home random Pokémon cards. So we bought some. A bunch, actually. And the other day, I picked up a couple of packs of Steam Siege, for us. He got two and I got two and we each pulled Greedy Dice: Greedy Dice – XY – Steam Siege, Pokemon – Online Gaming Store for Cards, Miniatures, Singles, Packs & Booster Boxes

Read My Response to What Parents Need to Know about Pokémon GO

July 17, 2016 9:29 AM James Howard News Leave a comment

There’s been a lot of talk about the Pokémon-based robberies, the Pokémon stabbing, and even a guy who quit his job to play Pokémon full time. There’s often a reaction when something new and different comes out, and we are used to it. Every generation complains the next is going to hell. Today’s edition brings a game that has swept the English-speaking world and will soon take the rest. Amanda Yates of Highya asks what parents need to know about Pokémon GO. While there’s a focus on risks, I told the story of how my children and I play the

Carme Test Plan

May 15, 2016 10:49 PM James Howard Blog Leave a comment

This week in the Coursera IoT Capstone Course, we had to complete a test plan document. The plan had to include both component and integration testing. I have posted the test plan document to the Carme Project page. Image by Justin Hamel via Wikimedia Commons.

Carme Design Alternatives

May 8, 2016 10:52 PM James Howard Blog Leave a comment

This week in the Coursera IoT Capstone Course, we had to complete a design document. However, unlike a true design document, the requirements specified a list of options for potential design, along with evaluation and selection. this makes it much closer to a design alternatives document. Anyway, I have posted the design alternatives document to the Carme Project page. Image by Justin Hamel via Wikimedia Commons.

New Balloon Project

April 28, 2016 11:28 PM James Howard Blog Leave a comment

I’ve talked about it quite a bit, and even mentioned it here, but the kids and I are planning to build a space robot. We’ve wanted to do this for several years, and have slowly gotten closer to our goal. We began by constructing the “Ground Robot” that is a simple FM beacon described in the link above. Our next goal is to do a tethered balloon flight followed by a free flying balloon flight. At the same time, I am taking the Internet of Things specialization on Coursera. I decided to make the balloon-based system my capstone project. Also,