Author Archives: Justin

VW Reservation Assistant

The change log for the extension can be found at the bottom of this page. I created the “VW Reservation Assistant” extension for Chrome to gather more information about Volkswagen ID.4 reservations and display it on the screen as an overlay, eliminating the need to search for the data manually using the browser’s developer tools.… Read More »

Giveaway.City

Amazon shut down its giveaway program back in October of 2019. It was a lot of fun while it lasted. In what little spare time I’ve had lately, I put together a new web site, Giveaway.City, that provides an up-to-date list of Amazon Giveaways. If you’ve never participated in an Amazon Giveaway, they’re actually pretty… Read More »

ITEAD Studios Smart Home Switches

I was recently contacted by a representative from ITEAD Studios and asked if I would be interested in taking a look at their new smart home switches. It looked like a fun product, so I happily agreed. My samples arrived a few days ago, and I’ve had a little time to play with them, so… Read More »

Syma X5C-1 Quadcopter

My nine-year-old son wanted a quadcopter this Christmas, an idea I was honestly a little excited about myself.  After a bit of investigation, the Syma X5C-1 appeared to be the perfect option, offering great stability and the ability to fly it outdoors.  As a bonus, it also comes with a built-in HD camera.  I was… Read More »

Adding Mass Actions to Magento Orders

I recently needed to add the ability to perform mass actions to Magento’s order screen.  I’m far from being a Magneto expert, but I was able to find several examples online that got me part of the way there.  After some experimentation and learning, I finally succeeded in adding the most crucial feature we were… Read More »

DIY Virtual Wall for Roomba – Part Two

This is the second and probably final part of my Roomba virtual wall project.  In my first post, I talk more about the technical details that of how the signalling works, etc., so I recommend it as a starting point.  In this post, I’ll talk about how I put it all together and deployed.  This… Read More »

3D-Printed Ping Pong Table Bracket

Recently, my neighbors asked me if I wanted their old Kettler ping pong table.  Imagining all the family fun we’d have, I gladly accepted.  The table is aluminum and meant to be outdoors, which is good news because it has been for the past 15-20 years.  It’s mostly in great shape, but on one side… Read More »

Touch Screen on the Arduino Mega 2560

This is an addition to my post about the Touch Screen Shield for Arduino UNO, so if you’ve landed here, that may be a good place to start for more information. Several people have asked about using this touch screen shield with the Arduino Mega, but I didn’t have much advice to offer because I… Read More »

In-Car Raspberry Pi Media Player

My goal for this project was two-fold.  First, I wanted to create an in-car media player capable of storing enough videos and music to keep things interesting for my kids on long trips.  Although my car came equipped with a DVD player, storing discs in the car and constantly swapping them in and out, not… Read More »

Playing Sound in Java

This isn’t much of a post, but I’ll put it here for anyone (especially a current tutoring student) who needs it. The SoundClip class I’ve provided can be used to load and play an audio file from within the current JAR’s res folder. Usage In this example, the code will load the file “res/sounds/brick-hit.wav” and… Read More »