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When the Tech Debt is You
I’ve been doing some freelance work for a former employer of mine. It’s been an interesting experience to crack open files that I wrote years ago. I’ve always been a firm believer that, if your code doesn’t improve with time, you’re doing something wrong. But, it’s still a disconcerting experience to ask yourself “what…
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Symetrix Composer and the Future of AV Controls
Full disclosure: I haven’t had a chance to play with Composer yet. This article is based on a demonstration at ISE. I’ll also add that they aren’t the manufacturer that I wrote about on rAVe [PUBS] last week. This article is cross-posted from LinkedIn The most disruptive feature of Symetrix, Inc. ‘s new Composer…
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A Haters Guide to Useful AI
There’s a reason that Merriam-Webster selected “slop” as its word of 2025. From the mundane (75% of my LinkedIn feed), to the nightmare fuel (Grok creating non-consensual porn), generative AI is unavoidable. I’m at the point where I see more than one em-dash and/or oddly used emoji and my brain shuts down. Don’t put…
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What’s Wrong With Door Handles?
I worked in commercial lighting for seven years, and if it’s one thing it taught me it’s this: it takes a lot of work to supersede the humble lightswitch. The lightswitch has two jobs In theory, a relay panel handles this task, while a connected smart system does the smart stuff. But, when it…
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Do What You Love, or Maybe Just What You Don’t Hate
A friend posted a meme on Facebook right around New Years. The basic gist of it was “If you’re complaining about going back to work on Monday, maybe you need to find a new job.” I usually scroll past memes, but this one stuck with me (it must have, or I wouldn’t be writing…
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Where Have All the AV Programmers Gone?
Anyone who has spent more than a little bit of time on an AV-related job board can tell you that the positions that always seem to stay open are the ones looking for AV programmers. It’s something I get asked about all the time, “How in the hell do I find a decent Crestron programmer?”…
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“Don’t Praise the Machine” (the Future of Integration)
One of my favorite episodes of the Simpsons involves Bart Simpson and an elephant named Stampy (who turns out to be a bit of a jerk). It also involves a couple of radio DJs are who are in danger of being replaced by a computer, the DJ 3000. DJ 3000: Looks like those clowns in Congress did…
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How Bill Belichick Taught Me to be a Better Programmer
A couple of months ago, I read The Education of a Coachย by David Halberstam (affiliate link). It’s a pretty fun read if you’re a football fan. (Well… it’s a pretty fun read if you’re a football fan who loves the New England Patriots. I can’t say much for all of the New England haters…
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Gadget Review: The Garmin vรญvofit
I’m a pretty active person, but I like having a little nudge to be more active. Especially now that I’m more of a programmer and less ofย a tech. You tend to sit still a lot when you’re typing lines of code instead of climbing ladders. (Funny how that happens!) I wanted to get an…
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Barbara Roth: Technology Pioneer
My grandma. What can I say about her? She makes the world’s greatest pumpkin bread. She gave handmade quilts to all of her grandkids when they graduated from high school, college, and got married. She’s the first person who will bring you soup if you’re sick. She was also a kick-ass computer programmer. I’ve…
Hope Roth
Curiously Creative
