Well it has definitely been quite some time since I wrote up a post. It even took me a while to remember the password to log into my blog. Having three kids apparently really cuts down on the time to blog. I'm hoping to start making more of an effort to post something on a regular basis. I've gotten into several interesting hobbies and have been busy at work solving problems so hopefully those things will unfold into some interesting blog posts. (Do people even blog anymore?) I'm still an independent contractor and even though on my current contract I was brought in as a .NET developer my job has really morphed into a problem solver or MacGyver as I call it. I've had some interesting projects including figuring out how to talk to some machinery via a canbus (and deciphering a lot of hex values) along with a system of Raspberry Pis all across the globe running Windows 10 IOT. I've also put together several Android apps for a client. Needless to say I work on a variety of things which I like and find it hard to call myself solely a .NET Developer. As for hobbies, I've been dabbling in a lot of different things that span the spectrum of topics. I have always been very interested in hardware and electronics so after building a respectable workbench, I have filled it with a soldering iron and drawers of electronic components. I recently added to the workbench a 3D printer in order to build respectable enclosures for my "research and development" department.

At the other end of the spectrum I have been working on my own aquaponics system in order to grow a small amount of vegetables inside. It was a very interesting build and I learned a lot about construction, plumbing, biology, and chemistry.

I will have to admit that I am notorious for starting a project and not finishing it so I was quite happy with myself when I completed this little functioning ecosystem. Unfortunately, after several months I have yet to eat anything that has grown in it, except 3 leaves of some random plant that definitely was not romaine lettuce. (As a side note, pay attention to where the seed comes from that you are buying off Amazon. Skip the stuff from China.). I'm still alive though and I hope to have the system providing us with some lettuce and maybe even some cherry tomatoes this coming winter. Until then at least the 4 goldfish are happily swimming around. Anyways, if anyone is actually reading this blog or randomly comes across it then you can expect to see any one of these upcoming topics appear in a post as this blog begins to evolve in the coming months.

What does it mean???? Could some actual content be forth coming????

If you haven't been living under a rock lately then you have probably heard the term "The Internet of Things" getting thrown around to refer to non-computer items that are getting hooked up to the Internet. Conceptually this seems great, but it made me think about what items I can and what items I would even want to connect to the internet. That's when I remembered this little thing from Liftmaster.

Liftmaster 828LM Garage Door Opener Internet Gateway

For about $30 this little box allows you to never have to turn your car around again to check if you left your garage door open. More specifically, it allows you to connect your newer Liftmaster garage door opener(s) to the Internet and then check the status of your garage door(s) from you IPhone or Android device. I had originally came across this when we first moved into our house, when I was looking up the garage door opener model that we had, but at the time Liftmaster wanted $1 a month for the service. Now they have made it free once you buy the device.

Setup is pretty easy. It plugs into your network via a built in ethernet jack and then links up to your opener(s) via Liftmaster's MyQ technology. You need to make sure that your opener is compatible, but if it is then its a simple task to set it up. I downloaded the IPhone app and it easily walked me through the setup. The most annoying part was needing to pull out a ladder to press the button on my garage door opener in order to link the two devices. Once all is setup you can now check whether your garage door(s) are open or closed from anywhere with internet access along with opening and closing them. You can also setup alerts to notify you of various states, like if your garage door has been left open at night.

Chamberlain, which is a sister brand of Liftmaster has what looks like the exact same product for that line of openers (the CIGBU) and based on the screenshots I have seen of the phone application and website it works exactly the same.

Chamberlain CIGBU MYQ Internet Gateway