Avocational topics
The following is a collection of random additional topics that I’m happy to share, which could perhaps save you some time and effort.
Minimalistic Web Site Design
Designing web pages is fun, but maintaining them is a pain. This becomes particularly evident if one has to move the web site to a different ISP or change design tool with a proprietary format. Maintenance overhead is a good reason for keeping one’s web pages as simple as possible within reasonable limits. My suggestion is to use just simple Markdown with the Github style sheet. You can find more details here.
Minimalistic Fitness Training
By minimalistic training I mean simple and concise training based on simple movements, low risk for injuries, and minimal investment in time and equipment. I think such minimalism is critical for the motivation to start and keep up training. Minimalistic training at home is especially useful when one’s ordinary gym, sports club, or running track is unavaliable, for example due to vacation, quarantine, or bad weather. While running fast is an efficient way to improve fitness, it can be hard to achieve at home. However, standing up cycling on a simple, foldable exercise bike can do wonders to the fitness.
StripCAD - A Circuit Editor For Stripboards
PC interface designed with StripCAD. The interface converts the RS232 status signals to two bidirectional digital I/O lines.
StripCAD is a free program for stripboard (a.k.a. “Veroboard”) circuit CAD running under Windows and Wine/Linux. StripCAD is intended to accelerate prototyping electronic circuits. The fundamental approach is (1) unify circuit schematics and circuit layout, and (2) to minimize soldering by mounting components vertically and using horizontal strips for interconnections. You can download it from here.
Using A Smartphone As A Desktop Computer
Smartphones are getting so powerful that they can be used as desktop computers. At the time of this writing (February 2021), there are not so many smartphones that satisfy the full requirements, but the trend is that this number will grow quickly. The main obstacle seems to be software support, but although it is developing quickly, there are some difficult software issues that cannot be solved easily.
How To Make Collapsible Ski Poles
When you travel with roller skis, ski poles are rather awkward to transport. While the roller skis are short and fit into a handy bag, the ski poles are quite long (~1.5 m) and do not fit into the same bag. It would be nice to have collapsible ski poles that fit into the same bag as the roller skis!
Here is one way you can make collapsible ski poles.