Something other than vegetables

Using Python I was able to construct a simple Monte Carlos analysis tool for use in Project Management scheduling.

It takes in the PERT outputs (a weighted average estimate and standard deviation) and runs simulations across a list of tasks, providing outcomes in percentage format (i.e. the percentage of times each estimate occurs relative to the number of iterations).

As it just now exists, it will be an important task to assess the accuracy of the output over time. However, it was a useful exercise and cost-saving for the company if it turns out to be an accurate tool. Project Management software capable of running this type of analysis tend to be expensive, which is fair, but with my newly minted Python skills it was a chance to combine career and new skill to generate business value with a much lower total cost.

Again, another item I intend to revisit on the blog as results come in, but also an example of how I sometimes stop sniffing the literal flowers in my planters and try to solve other problems.

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Return to the garden

After the mediocre performance of my vegetable garden last year (50% of the plants produced), winter is the perfect time to reflect on what went wrong. First, I started the project with a simple idea and absolutely zero experimentation. Second, the methods I chose did not work as I had hoped they would and my fall back was too simple. Third, minor tech troubles exacerbated the issues caused in the previous two steps. To address item one, I have started prepping my solution as of the end of November 2017 with an eye on March 2018. This is giving me time to test and refine as I go. On item two, I had to look at what worked and what didn't. The pump system worked well, but needs to be reconfigured to deliver water at the soil level; even a moderate drop of four inches resulted in erosion and root exposure over time. The planters were acceptable, but the height differential was tough to deal with. New planters will be needed. The right microcontroller was not available immedia...

Flask, uWSGI, and NGINX - a saga

I have been creating a web page for my wife. It is a booking site for her business and is written in a combination of jquery, HTML, CSS, CouchDB, and python. For the python side of the house I am using Flask. This micro-framework works well for me and allowed me more freedom than I saw reading about Django. It has taken some time, but the app works well. It can retrieve bookings from CouchDB, display them in a calendar, and accept new bookings from a form on the same page. Jquery handles the calendar display, as well as the AJAX call to populate it. Flask handles the data collection from Couch, the data, and the writing of new data to Couch. For cleanliness, two repositories are used for bookings: one for confirmed bookings and one for requests that have not been reviewed. Another repository provides a client list, but is not accessible from the website. Then came the fun part. To serve a website with Flask, the internal web server is insufficient. You need additional tools. In my...

Watering problems...

So, I have been having issues with my automated watering system. I had built a moisture sensor from metal screws held in a plastic lid. Using nuts and washers I could hold wires in place rather than trying to solder on to such thick metal. To prevent surface water completing a circuit, I sealed the heads of the screws with waterproof caulk. However, after two weeks of good performance, the sensor went doolally and emptied the water source in one go. I had avoided the usual issue of electrolysis by powering the sensor circuit no more than four times an hour for a few seconds each time. The screws do not appear to be damaged, but readings are consistently showing high resistance, even in waterlogged soil. Rather than leave my plants at the mercy of the weather, or a malicious water sensor, I have decided to move to an ESP8266-driven setup. This setup uses and ESP8266 to trigger the arduino controlling the pump. Why two microcontrollers? The ESP8266 board only has 3.3v out, but has...

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