Most of the traffic to my website appear to come from people interested in my Senior Design RFID Project that I finished back in 2008 to graduate from the University of Iowa Engineering Department.

They search fairly typical keywords: RFID, manchester, decoding, hid, hack, spoof,  125kHz or other basic parameters of RFID technology.

These key-word searches increase during the middle of the semester, when I surmise the students are scrambling to figure out how to make their OWN RFID Senior Design projects work.

It’s cool.

Recently, some guy going by sketchsk3tch on Instructables referenced my senior design project. It was VERY kind of him to add my project to his list of references, but wasn’t to happy with what he mentioned in reference to my project, stating, “School project, cool ideas, missing some details though.”

Missing some details? Like what? The entire schematic is up on that page! What more does this guy need?

Which brought me to another issue: Why didn’t he ask me for those missing details? Because, I would not have provided the REAL missing piece: The Arduino Code. Yeah, he would have “stolen” the Arduino code (the Java-like code that instructs the Atmega168 PIC we used for the project). Well, maybe he wouldn’t have “stolen” it, but I’m confident any bits he used would NOT have been attributed properly.

…and that is precisely the reason the entire RFID project is NOT up on my website. I hate leachers. Period.

As much attention my Senior Design Project seems to get from across the globe, I refrain from providing some of the critical pieces to make the entire project work. It’s self preservation.

So, to those seriously interested in my project, skim through my website and have fun. It’s for the community to enjoy. Ask me questions! I’ll answer, but don’t be surprised if I make you work at it. How else are you really going to learn?

I finally constructed my ‘door-as-desk’ project and am now placing my belongings in a more fashionable place: my desk (as opposed to the kitchen table). However, my evening unpacking has lead me to rediscover a small piece of paper. On the folded scrap of white printer paper, I inscribed the following note:

• HR – 128
• BP – 86/46 (61)
• SpO2 – 99
• 250ml/hr

These are my mother’s, Mary Albers, (God rest her soul) evening medical stats that I scribbled during one of my many visits to the University of Iowa Hospitals. I reported them to my family in an email when I got home from the hospital.

I miss her so much.

Well, sandbagging at the Iowa Memorial Union (IMU) has ground to a halt. Not only has Cedar Rapids been in the news, but Iowa City and all the volunteer efforts on the University of Iowa campus. I took a short bike ride around the IMU in an attempt to determine just how bad this could get. The basin area along the Iowa River is going to take a serious hit if the river rises another couple of feet. It’s not just the IMU, Main Library or the Art Building that is at risk, but the water-treatment facility along the Iowa River near Burlington. If that gets flooded, then our water supply will be seriously affected.

More pictures around the Iowa Memorial Union are here.

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Well, now it’s known across that land that Eastern Iowa is in a world of hurt. It simply won’t stop raining and the land has been saturated since Spring began. Many of the farmers in the area haven’t been able to plant, as the fields have been too sloppy. Those that have planted are having to plant again. No wonder corn and bean prices are going through the roof.

The kids and I are here in Iowa City and what we’ve been watching around the Iowa River area has been awe inspiring. I just started work in Cedar Rapids and now I can’t even get to work. Not only is I-380 a mess, but the downtown area is under 2 to 3 feet of water. Since my mother went into surgery here at the University of Iowa Hospitals, my sister, Michele, and step-sister, Beth, have been in Iowa City. But, they can’t stay here forever. So, they both plan on leaving Iowa City Friday morning, but as of now, Beth can’t get back to Chicago on I-80 because it’s closed just West of Iowa City. Larry, as well as the rest of the family in Benton County, will also have a difficult trek to Iowa City, as they might close I-380 if the flooding gets worse.

Jared and I have spent a couple days at the IMU on the University of Iowa campus filling sandbags. I’m sure we’ll be shoveling sand for a couple days until this all resolves.

I found a link to a story on the current Eastern Iowa flood here.

Agent Peeps posted some pictures of her building’s evacuation in Cedar Rapids here.

More to come as the week progresses.

The kids have been working hard on snapping photographs of the more locally famous Iowa City landmarks this summer. So far, the work has been rather good. The family has been playing the University of Iowa version of Monopoly called, “Iowopoly”, the past couple years. The goal will be to take the best pictures and glue them to the original gameboard. Here’s some more pictures:

In order to get my kids (Jared and Haley) accustomed to life in Iowa City, I have set them upon a task. Now, this task (or series of tasks) is to take personal pictures of each purchasable land-item on the actual Iowopoly board game.
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It’s early Wednesday morning and I have finished tackling the mind-numbing task of upgrading my WordPress engine to version 2.5. Not only that, I’ve finally uploaded some of my blog’s pictures that were missed when I transferred this blog over to my new domain.

This should be a fine summer; with my kids with me for almost seven weeks this year. It’ll be different than previous summers since I am not living in Van Horne. Living in Iowa City should be really good for no only myself, but the kids as well. I’ve already planned a series of events to get them accustomed to the downtown area. I have the kids making periodic trips to downtown Iowa City (only a few blocks away) to take snapshots of the real locations depicted on the University of Iowa‘s version of Monopoly. The entire family has been playing Iowaopoly for a couple years. I’m looking forward to see how the pictures turn out.
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