The first time I pulled a little blue ceramic capacitor out of a parts bin and saw 104 printed on it, I figured it was 104 of something. Microfarads, maybe. It isn't. It's 100 nanofarads, and once you know why, you'll ne…
Read the full write-up →Through-hole resistors have color bands. Surface-mount resistors are far too small for paint, so they get a few printed characters instead, and the first time you look at one under a magnifier it can be a puzzle. 472. 47…
We've all heard it: "AI slop." And I have to say that a lot of AI writing is slop. It really rubs me the wrong way when I'm reading something that I know is AI, but it tries to be personal or gives a personal opinion. Wh…
Ohm's law is the one piece of electronics math you can't skip. The good news is there's almost nothing to it — one triangle, three little equations, and you're done. If you've been avoiding it because it looks like homew…
Working alone, it is easy to get tunnel vision. I always think that my ideas are awesome, and I have no gaps in knowledge. Until I'm proven otherwise, which is usually about halfway into a project. Man, I could have save…
I have seen the future and the future is AI. Since the beginning of the year, I have been diving head first into the AI pool. I started off using ChatGPT and I was able to create some really cool utilities; but I was str…
If you've worked with any kind of through-hole electronics, you've had to squint at a tiny resistor and decode the bands of color painted around it. Surface-mount components have made this less common — most SMD resistor…
CSV files are often treated as “ready-to-use” data. In reality, most CSV files need cleanup before they’re useful for analysis, reporting, or automation. Skipping this step can lead to bad results, wasted time, and hard-…
CSV files are everywhere: logs, exports, sensor data, financial records, and application telemetry. They’re simple, portable, and universally supported. The problem shows up when those files get big. If you’ve ever doubl…
Passwords are still one of the most common ways we protect accounts—email, banking, social media, developer tools, and everything in between. The problem is that attackers don’t “hack” passwords the way Hollywood shows i…