Carl Chesser

This was the inaugural year of CommunityDays KC. The conference was connecting multiple different technical communities / meetups across Kansas City in a two-day event. It was hosted at Lifted Logic’s office space, which was a neat location - had a larger community room on the lower level, with several rooms for different sessions. Adam Fichman, the founder of Lifted Logic, kicked off the event with a quick talk on his background and the analysis on the value of a customer in relation to the costs of acquiring them. I noticed he has done a TEDx talk before, which hits on some of the similar elements on the value of a customer and analysis on getting conversion for site visitors. It was neat to have that perspective shared at the beginning of the event, especially hearing from a tech entrepreneur in Kansas City.

A little over a year ago, I was looking into options for modifying an existing Berg pedal tractor to have an electric motor as a Christmas gift to our kids. We had previously purchased these large pedal tractors (that even adults can use), but wanted to renew the interest with the kids by making it a powered go-kart. These pedal tractors are fun, but take a significant amount of energy pedaling uphills or anywhere off-road. The manufacturer offers similar models now that have an electric powertrain, so I was hoping I could just buy parts and swap them into these existing tractors. To find out, I submitted the following question to their customer support:

I recently built an Eastern Bluebird house. I used plans shared by the Oklahoma State University Extension Office, using their “Plan A” (Simplicity) design with 3/4" cedar boards. What I thought may be helpful in sharing was the 3D model design I created for having some white trim added to the roof of the house. I thought it would be nice to add a little character to the house, and we previously had a cottage house that has this type of looking trim. So, I thought I would share this if you also have bluebirds in your area, and are looking to provide them with a new home that has some charm.

Last week was the legendary KCDC conference in Kansas City. This was the first year that DevOpsDays KC combined with the event. It was a full-day event on Wednesday, which was paired with other workshops, before the sessions on Thursday and Friday. Right when I first arrived at the conference on Wednesday, I saw friends I hadn’t seen in over a year. Conferences like this are such a rich ground for networking. While we all enjoy going to the talks, the unique value in these events is connecting with people. DevOpsDays KC has a concept of open spaces, where there is a dedicated time window that people post discussion topics, and then form tables with different topics that people can join and discuss a topic. You can quickly connect with others on different topics by discussing the problem and sharing ideas on solutions in this space. I enjoyed the networking and time with others as part of DevOpsDays KC, and then other open times (like breakfast and lunch) during the conference to further meet and talk with others. Living and working in Kansas City, this conference enables you to meet and see other professionals in the area, while also connecting with others from all over the world.

Documenting Repairs # Life is busy. Outside of the typical workday, a recurring time investment of mine revolves around repairing mechanical things. Things that are not of the software world, but things that naturally decay and fail based on environmental factors. As we age, it is easy to accumulate more things, which require maintenance or diagnosing to repair. This spawns growing TODO lists, and scheduled reminders on things to inspect and replace. While this blog has been a place where I have previously shared notes and thoughts about software development, I thought I would start adding notes on random things I have had to diagnose or repair. Some of these things are quite simple and thought it would be of value to share as I couldn’t find anything online and answered my problem.