JD Presents | Development In Reach

PC Case Repair

I thought getting a new case with all the fans, that heat wasn't going to be an issue anymore. How sadly I was mistaken. I take you through a short journey repairing a "fashion over function" issue that the computer industry has embraced.

Blog - blah blah blah and a yackity smackity

This page is the blog of Joshua Donelson from JD Presents. Various topics are discussed, and some views may be shared by others, while others may be disagreeable or in contrast to your own. If you agree to these terms, feel free to read at your leisure and we hope you enjoy. -JD

ChatGPT

I am not alone in reading and hearing about ChatGPT in the headlines and news outlets; another common message is that Google has been failing miserably at keeping up with this latest technology bursting with popularity developed by Microsoft.

I shared some answers that I got this session.

Breakfast

From Middle English brekefast, brekefaste, equivalent to break +‎ fast (literally, "to end the nightly fast"), likely a variant of Old English fæstenbryċe, (literally, "fast-breach"). Cognate with Dutch breekvasten (“breakfast”). I enjoy breakfast a lot more than I used to. I have become the breakfast-making champion in the house.

Yellowstone Art Museum

A couple days ago, my wife and I visited the Yellowstone Art Museum for a day date. The YAM as it is more commonly referred to, holds art exhibits regularly and on this day, the YAM was showcasing local talent with the theme “I refuse to be invisible”.

NEW Website Launched

This year started in a bit of a calamity for my family, as it did for many. On top of dealing with all the absurdity of COVID, there were plenty of issues going on the home front that needed my attention.

Russell Walks Star Wars Gallery

My lovely wife likes to surprise me with adventures as much as I like to do to her. I make it a little hard for her sometimes because I’m a good guesser and sometimes she is too excited and can’t keep it bottled up. But this one I didn’t see coming.

Gem Mountain

For one of our adventures we went and did some mining. This was the first time I have ever been mining, but my better half did some when she was younger and thought I would like it, and she was correct.

COVID Test

I had to recently get one of those nose swab COVID tests before I could go visit my mom. She just got a couple surgeries and has a super low threshold for getting sick and I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t asymptomatic or in fact had COVID.

Finish & Start Strong

I wanted to finish 2020 and start 2021 with an easy success. That success for me was picking up 2 Geocache souvenirs. There was one for the end of 2020 called Last 2020 and another for the first 2021 souvenir appropriately named First 2021.

Astrophotography Tips

Ever since I can remember, I have been inspired by the vastness of the night sky; staring up into it gives me a calm and humbling feeling. I have explored more into astrophotography and here are some tips I have picked up along the way.

To Mars!

As Perseverance has made it to the halfway mark, I wanted to take this time to share some of my fondness of space travel and NASA's missions to Mars. I have been watching the exploration of Mars for many years with excitement.

Atom Editor

I recently picked up Atom Editor, and it is a free and open-source text and source code editor for macOS, Linux, and Windows with support for plug-ins written in Node.js, and embedded Git Control, developed by GitHub.

Siglent SDS1104X-E

Upgrades People!!! I have endured long enough with a scope I have; it has gotten to the point where my projects have outgrown it. I did research, spoke with friends, and tech support and customer services from various companies to find this solution.

Zero Hunger

The world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger would surpass 840 million by 2030. Of all the goals I try to achieve, putting efforts to ending hunger locally and helping others is my most worthwhile.

Marble League 2020

I am new to the whole Marble League fandom, but I am here to stay. I have been a watcher of John Oliver ever since the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I have to say, this is one of the best suggestions he’s come up with to pass the time. It’s simple and pure.

To mask or not to mask

Everyone has heard about this debate to mask up or mask off. Many states have even gone so far as to require them if you leave your house. I don’t think there is a debate on if masks help or not, it’s how much do they help, and is it worth it.

Grant Imahara

Today is a sad day indeed for every maker and geek alike. Our kind has lost one of its most value players across many industries. He has inspired us through film, shows and just an all-in-all good person. Grant Imahara has died, and he will be missed by an untold many including me.

Clear Cache

Press the keys [Ctrl], [Shift] and [del] on your Keyboard. A new window opens, where you can setup the options to delete the cache. Select the period "since installation", to empty the whole browser cache. Check the Option "Images and Files in Cache".

Every Tool’s A Hammer

I started a book back on May 20, 2020 named Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage. The book is about a popular maker’s life from when he was a small child playing in his dad’s studio, to a full-grown adult with successes ranging all over the film and maker industries.

Added Features

I have added 3 featured materials to the homepage. A project, YouTube Channel that I feel inspires in some way, and an article I feel is worth sharing. Don’t worry if you miss one, I have an archive of all the YouTube Channels and articles that I have featured.

Birdhouse

With everyone stuck inside, I wanted to do something else with my time that could let me be outside and creating. Me and the lady have wanted to put up some bird houses since last year’s garden lettuce bug fest fiasco.

DI.FM

It’s taking a while for me to realize it, but I’ve included so many tools and great programs on this site, I’ve forgotten one that I use more than any other, music. I am always listening to some type of music, and I have listened to DI since 1999.

COVID-19

So, it has some to this, it’s 2020 and we are all locked up by government mandate to try and “flatten the curve”. A worldwide virus started in lab halfway across the globe in China has us all locked in our homes. It started as hitting the elderly hardest, but the virus has upped its game

Gmail Launched 2004

Do you remember when the email game changed? I do, it was when I was invited to use Gmail and have used many Google services over the years. I used iGoogle, Labs, and countless others over the years, and they have grown to unimaginable size and influence, for better or worse.

Github

I finally made the move over to Github. I have used my domain and various project forums to share my projects for years, but there has been a solid community move to using Github on top of those sites.

Convert

While making a list of very functional programs that I have found along the way, I forgot about one that I use all the time, and it's an easy, free program that I have used for years. It's a converting program created by Josh Madison.

Why CPR?

I wanted to renew my certification for CPR once I learned that Udemy.com offered it at free of charge. I first got my CPR certification from Parallax back in 2008 and wanted to renew it since it's a great use of a couple hours.

RS 200 in 1 Kits

Radio Shack (Tandy) came out with various kits for kids to teach them about electronics while building projects with it. When I was around 10, I got a 200-n-1 kit and it was awesome and set me in a direction to work in programming and electronics.

Udemy Academy

I have always been a big fan of learning but not always a big fan of school environments. I have attended a couple colleges, American River College and University of Phoenix and I learned quickly that “learning” wasn’t the main focus.

Refresh the Rims

This was my 3rd time attending the annual Refresh the Rims event to clean up an area that locals frequently visit. It is hosted by Billings Park and Rec and MSUB leadership program. We get to clean up one of Billings best areas to play recreationally and has great views of the town.

Lets Robot.tv

Let's Robot is a new kind of live-streaming telepresence platform for controlling robots and other devices through the internet. You can build and share your project with others and have people interact with your robot.

Raspberry Pi 4

I started early with Raspberry Pi’s and this is the latest and greatest they offer. I was eagerly awaiting this release because I had a perfect project for it. I have been building a Retro Pi and the 3B+ that I have was almost powerful enough to run everything.

Adobe Tutorials

There are many options and places to get help with Adobe products like Photoshop and Lightroom, but personally I like to start at the source. Adobe offers tutorials and in extension classes that you can be an approved authorized user. Here are a couple tips that I have used frequently.

Hot Air Balloon Glow

Billings has an annual Hot Air Balloon event that sends off a whole host of hot air balloons and then in the evening they come back, which gives for some cool pictures. We plan on going again in the future because it was an east but nice outing.

Endomondo

If you don’t track it, did you really even do it? This is a joke, but is a common thought when people share about their workouts or achievements. I have used Endomondo for a couple of years and overall, I have been happy with it.

Happy 4th of July

If anyone knows me, then they know that 4th of July is by far my favorite holiday. This year we found a new spot to light off a whole bunch of fireworks. I got to play with the camera and grabbed a couple fantastic shots.

Highline & Pipeline Trail

It's summertime and that means outside adventures, Geocaching, Endomondo and finding new places and photograph. Today we found a new place we have not visited before and it’s awesome; theres a lot of trails.

GuruShots Contest

My first photography contest with GuruShots. I'm going for Newbie of the Week and Most Voted Photograph, lets hope I nail one of those.

Patio Garden

It's that time again, starting all the garden projects and seeing what veggies I can get going. I am doing a small "Food is Free" with seedlings this year too. I hope things go well and if they do, perhaps this will feed a couple neighbors with fresh foods.

Geocaching

I have been Geocaching since 2008, and it's a great way to get out of the house. I have used it many times when I wanted to go outside but really didn't have an exact place to go. It’s an adult treasure hunting adventure that the whole family can enjoy.

Free Hosting Solution

I spent a year researching the most cost-effective solution for web hosting while still being able to use up-to-date programming; find out how you might be spending more than you need in this summery.

Measure Accurate, Buy Once

Ever build anything out of wood and find out the measurements that are given to common pieces are anything but accurate? Me too. Let me share with you my initial experience when I believed that wood dimensions where actually what is advertised.

All Hail WD-40

Everyone knows of WD-40 and the 1001 uses that it gets used for other than the lubricating spray that it started out as. I personally have used it mainly for tools and keeping my bike and equipment running smoothly, but there are all kinds of uses and they keep coming.

RetroPie 1B vs 3B+

I started with a Raspberry Pi 1B, and quickly found the RetroPie, which I created my project JDIY3 - RetroPie. I finally got my hands on a Raspberry 3B+ and wanted to do a comparison between the two.

Local Guides

Google Local Guides is a project that I have been working on for the past couple years. It's a service that relies on open-community sources efforts. Anytime someone shares a review, edit, photograph, video, adds a place, provides an answer.

Notepad++ = A solid editor

Notepad++ is one of the greatest free solutions for programming I think there is on the market; it has syntax highlighting and allows multiple pages/documents to be open at once and has addons as well.

No More Minwax at Home Depot

If you want Minwax stains and products, you had better act fast otherwise Home Depot will not have any more again; they discontinued the product in favor of the Varathane line.

Bootstrap 4

This is a great web development tool for anyone who is into building a site quickly and keeping up with technology trends.

TableTop Simulator

I wanted to focus on community focused projects the past couple of years and started building and importing games for TableTop Simulator on Steam. I have completed 15 games with have over 10k current subscribers.

Star Wars

I started leisurely reading around 2015; all my reading before focused on learning a new skill, programming syntax manuals, and similar materials. So, to start off a new genre of reading strictly for pleasure, I went with a storyline that I, like millions of others have gravitated to, Star Wars.

Ring of Elysium

I had to put a blurb up about a new game that has captivated me for the last couple months. It's called Ring of Elysium on it's available on Steam.