I live to tinker with stuff, which means I start a frankly unnecessary number of side projects, most of which languish after I learn what I came in for. Never mind that, though – here’s some of my favorites!
Microcontrollers/computers like the Arduino and Raspberry Pi have helped to usher in a new golden era for hobbyists. Since my first RetroPi – basically the “Hello World” of microcomputing – I’ve fiddled with any number of applications, ranging from a network monitoring system, a time-lapsed dolly shot of my neighbors’ new house going up, to my personal favorite, this tiny theremin I stubbornly built to prove that my hangover could, in fact, get worse.
Most recently, I’ve been developing a custom smart home setup to handle my needs that aren’t being addressed by other platforms like IFTTT. A Raspberry Pi 2B running Python scripts queries a remote PHP REST API as necessary, allowing me to handle slightly more complex or unsupported behaviors, like starting an omxplayer-based white noise process on the Pi when a certain smart plug is turned on. Is it fancy? Not especially… but it keeps my dog from barking at his friends all night
A lot of my professional work has been VR lately, and I always like to find personal projects that mesh well with my work – it often lets me dive a little deeper without causing undue strain on the real stuff. Having recently purchased a fixer-upper in east Austin, I took the site survey (and a series of hand measurements where needed) and replicated the new house in VR, where we could safely explore furniture layouts, different finishes, removing this or that wall, etc.