A few months ago I joined the drop for the Massdrop x RAMA M10-A Mechanical Mini Pad - a programmable 10-key mini-pad designed by a collaboration between industrial design studio RAMA WORKS and UK-based manufacturer Machine Industries. The keypad is CNC-ed from aircraft-grade aluminum and has a hefty weight. In short, it's absolutely beautiful. Included with the machined housing and reprogrammable 10-key PCB is a set of Cherry switches, keycaps and micro-USB cable. The keypad was available unassembled or assembled for a few bucks more. I went with unassembled. Assembly of the M10-A The physical assembly of the keypad wasn't too bad. To start I watched a few videos as a refresher on soldering. Then soldered in the Cherry MX Clear switches, popped on the keycaps,
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A -post collectionProduct Manager Wannabe: War Robots
One of my current guilty pleasures is sneaking in a few robot battles on War Robots, a mobile, multiplayer game that pits teams of robots against each other. Like many other mobile games, the game is free to download and play with the option to purchase or speed up upgrades. Matches typically last a few minutes and it's a great way to pass some time on the train. One aspect of the game I like is the level of customization. There are currently 24 robots and 25 weapons. Each robot has different characteristics and abilities (speed, armor, jumping, number of weapon mounts, built-in shields, sprinting, stealth, etc), and similar for weapons (damage, rate of fire, distance, splash-damage vs point, etc). Both robots and weapons can be
UK Holiday Commercials
I love commercials, everything from local to infomercials, and my recent move to the UK has opened up a whole new world of them. So, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered the major UK retailers compete for the best holiday commercial. Here are the best I've seen from 2016. Waitrose (grocery) John Lewis (department store) Aldi (grocery) Sainsbury (grocery) Marks & Spencer (grocery/department) Tesco (grocery) Allegro (auction site) - from Poland, but still in the xmas theme
Bozeman Javascript Meet-up
Excited to announce the creation of the Bozeman Javascript Meetup group - a meetup to network with other Javascript coders, discuss JavaScript tips, tricks, hacks, and frameworks, show off interesting projects and learn what's going on in the JS community. The local Javascript community is growing rapidly and it will be great to have a time/place to meetup each month. The reasons for the growth in the community? For one, Javascript itself is growing in adoption. Stats from Github show more Javascript repos than any other language. Other factors: Montana Code School, our local coding bootcamp, is focused full-stack Javascript development Many Bozeman start-ups and businesses are using Javascript in their stack First Meetup Our first meetup will be at 7pm on Thursday July 21,
Tech for Transplants
Over the past year the following question has come up several times: I'm thinking of moving to Bozeman, which tech companies/start-ups do you recommend? More often than not the question comes from someone involved in tech. Bozeman Tech Startups Over the past 2 years I've developed a shortlist of companies and startups I recommend most frequently. This list is by no means exhaustive, Bozeman is an active start-up community with new ventures continually coming and (sadly) going. The relatively recent acquisition of RightNow Technologies by Oracle created an influx of dollars and talent to the local start-up scene as well. Large/Established Oracle - If the corporate lifestyle is your gig, look no further. Zoot - Zoot provides solutions for 'loan origination and credit decisioning'.