Here's what I do - check the Johnny-Five examples. I browse through all of the parts and pick from there. That way, I know that J5 has support for that component. As a bonus, all the examples come with wiring diagrams, so you know how to hook up the new part. This will work for simplish builds, and it's worked for me so far.
]]> Katie KurkoskiFirst off, your cut line for the piece has to be symmetrical. To fudge this in a shape that's only kinda symmetrical in Illustrator, here's what I do:
Once you've got the artwork settled, you're on to the Glowforge UI:
So there. That's the secret - symmetrical cuts and double-sided tape.
]]> Katie KurkoskiFirst off, you can exclude a site from the search results. Just use this for your search:
plant vine svg -pinterest.com
That will search for plant vine svgs, but not show you any results from Pinterest. The trick is putting the dash/negative sign just before pinterest.com.
Of course, this can exclude any site from search results. If one was so inclined, one could edit certain bookmarks on others' computers to remove, say Fox News for example. Just in case you're visiting your parents' house, for example.
Second, you can force any keyword in your search results with something like this:
plant vine "svg"
That will only show results with the keyword "svg" in the results. The trick is putting that keyword in quotes. In my specific case, it tends to show results with that file in them, but often times they're for sale.
Happy searching!
]]> Katie Kurkoski
I've had my Glowforge laser cutter for several months now and I've made some things that I'm really quite happy about. Someone recently asked me what I wish I'd known before I got the Glowforge, and I figured I'd expand those thoughts here.
I already knew this, but just so you also know: the Glowforge requires an internet connection to work, and it's not open-sourced. The on-line interface and catalog work very well, and make a lot of sense for both the user and manufacturer. But, if you're the type of person who needs to control the hardware themselves, the Glowforge probably isn't for you.
The Glowforge fits really well on this . I spent really quite a lot of time searching on-line for a lot of workbenches that I didn't buy. Ooooooh, now the table comes with a lower shelf.
If you like prototyping on cardboard, get yourself a cutting mat and box cutter to make cutting that cardboard down to size a lot easier.
Gorilla Tape is really great for removing the protective paper from Glowforge's Proofgrade materials. Wrap a loop of tape sticky side out, around your hand, and press the cut pieces into the the tape. Pull the tape off the cut piece, and voilà, the protective paper peels right off.
For the most accurate material-to-cut alignment, place the material as close to center of bed (that's where the camera is) as possible.
A "No Artwork" error in the Glowforge online UI can mean "artwork doesn't fit in laser-able area."
I'm new to vector design software, and so I did a bit of playing around to figure out what worked best for me. Sketch (OSX only) is quite good, and Inkscape (Windows, OSX and Linus) is surprisingly good for free (open-source) software. But I'm most comfortable using Adobe Illustrator, probably because of my previous experience with Photoshop. For bonus points, it's available for both OXS and Windows, and it comes with a Creative Cloud subscription.
If you're considering buying a Glowforge (they're shipping now, you should get it in just 2 weeks), please consider using my referral code: https://glowforge.us/kyt1Ui. You'll save some money and I'll get some money.
]]> Katie KurkoskiAlso of note, she's got a great definition for "Serverless": Functions (the var func = new Function(arg){} kind) as a service, not a web server. Abstract away the notion of a server altogether.
For more info on .architect, definitely , or the website at https://arc.codes/.
]]> Katie KurkoskiOther links about job searches:
href=\"[^\s]*\"\$[0-9.,]+(alpha|beta)^\n[^=]""@mixin .* \{\%[^\s]*Part of getting my Glowforge laser cutter has been learning to use a new piece of software, Inkscape. I was having problems using Inkscape's "Path > Difference" option to combine (well, cut out) shapes and text elements. Here's what I had to do to get the elements merged:
It stands for "call for proposals" or sometimes "call for papers". It comes from academic conferences making it known that they are looking for content for their meetings and conferences. In my experience, tech conferences use to indicate that talk submissions are open to anyone who fills out the online form.
I attended a local meetup and learned about a local conference that had just happened. I continued attending meetups, and following interesting people on Twitter, and started beginning to think that perhaps I could speak too. I talk more about getting involved with organizing conferences here.
It depends, greatly.
A few conferences pay their speakers a fee, in addition to covering the speaker's travel, lodging and conference ticket. Some of these pay only some of their speakers a fee. These conferences are usually - but not always - organized for a profit.
Most of the conferences I pay attention to usually - but not always - cover a speaker's travel, lodging and conference ticket, but it is much more rare to pay a speaker fee. These are usually organized by volunteers in their "spare" time, and some are even 501c3 non-profit organizations.
Some conferences will cover some fees if you ask, and other conferences don't pay for anything - even when the speakers are providing the content! This is more common in academic and open-source conferences, where the expectation seems to be that your employer will cover conferences costs.
Conferences usually publish what they cover along with their CFP. It's up to you to make the call as to whether speaking at that particular conference works for you. For me, it doesn't make any sense to pay out of my own pocket to speak at a conference.
No, almost never. For one, writing the proposal gives me the outline of what's going to be in the talk. More importantly, I don't do speculative work; so I don't write a talk before it's accepted at a conference. I have made one or two exceptions when I just knew it was a good talk, and I was determined to give it at a local meetup.
Twitter is huge in my sphere of influence. Following is a good start. is also a great way to get notified of CFPs which are closing soon. has a crowd-sourced spreadsheet of conferences at . The Global Diversity CFP Day workhops have also put together a list at https://www.globaldiversityCFPday.com/CFPs.
I usually start by looking at the Twitter accounts for the conference itself, and its organizers. From this I can get a sense of how they interact with the community. The conference's website is usually all about the upcoming conference, but often archives the previous years too (try changing 2018 to another year in the URL). Looking at a previous year will tell you what talks they did accept, and those little descriptions of the talks were usually part of the CFP that the speaker sent in. If the conference records its talks, then you can watch videos of last year's talks - the keynote and MC sections can be particularly enlightening.
For me, technical topics commonly come out of bits of "fiddling with code" that I do. I can browse through my old and get some ideas about what's interesting. Also, when I've accomplished something in an evening of experimentation, I often think "I should share this!" and a few related topics can be the foundation of a talk. Even when working, any solution that can be abstracted and shared can be part of a talk.
One thing about meetups is that they're a lot like itty-bitty conferences. Attending conferences is definitely a way to get involved with the community, but attending meetups will get you involved with the community too. At a meetup, you can meet other people with the same interests and talk about current projects. When you're talking about something and the other people lean in and say "oh, that's interesting", then you might have a talk idea right there. Often, conference volunteers and organizers attend these meetups. Also, meetup organizers need to have a few talks each and every month of the year, so they are very likely to accept your talk. You can get very helpful feedback from attendees (What did they take away from the talk? What was confusing?) after giving a meetup talk.