Crash!

Well finally I've gotten some rest (but I still need a lot more!). The last few weeks have been a bit much. It seemed that every week I've had a few things due and I've not had time to sit down and relax (or lay down and sleep properly).

Yesterday (Saturday 04/24/2010) I did my HA Presentation at the Trenton Computer Festival. Unfortunately I was unable to bring the Doll House due to some problems with my software interface to my Ethernet IO24 board. Since this was the center of my presentation I had to scramble and put together a different presentation without the demonstration. I found this to be rather embarrassing and I'll do a much better job for next year. I have all the parts ready (LEDs, Kill-a-watt, XBee's boards and micro-controllers, networking, etc.). I just need to sit down and finalize the hardware. I think I'll also sneak in the ELK-M1 just to really have something complete to show. The good news is that I have a little time to get everything pulled together and working before then.

Despite the disappointment of not having the doll house working the actual presentation went well. A few people were having trouble staying awake and I wasn't sure if it was the presentation or the room getting warm. There were around 30+ people in the room and one of the organizers ran in to bring in more chairs. Only one or two people left during the presentation but none in a huff. I'm thrilled that the presentation went as smoothly as it did. I really only put together the slides the night before, I didn't do a practice run with the slides and I was working on a week's worth of lack of sleep, boy was I tired. Next year a few more slides will be gone and some swapped for the Misterhouse/DollHouse demonstration. Towards the end the the folks began asking lots of questions (good) unfortunately I ran out of time to finish the presentation (bad, no one can get me to shut up :-). My friend 'D' gave me a few sugestions (like remove some of the technology and maybe the history). I trust D's opinion as he's always honest with me. I'm certain next year will be better as I'll remove a bunch of stuff and I'll start up my PC well before hand. I wasted a few minutes just trying to get the PC to the point where I could do the presentation. I'll also have some sort of carrying case for the demo so it won't need so much work to put together. Uncle Ray (Ray Duran) suggested having something as simple as a small DC fan that could be made to work in conjunction with a temperature probe. A really good idea, I'll add that to the things we can support.

I'll have the presentation posted some time this week (probably tonight) on my web site. I'll put it on the Presentation page under 2010 TCF Presentation. I'm also posting information on the Doll House on my new Doll House page.