I have been playing around with Home Assistant for just a little while now, and while I am impressed with what it does, I find the documentation and the examples to be less than helpful. One thing I wanted to do was simply add a “card” of web links to the UI. Since the Home Assistant interface (Lovelace) is web based you would think that this would be easy.
Continue reading “Adding links to web pages in Home Assistant”Home automation, part 2
This is an update to https://robertjwallace.com/home-automation-smart-home/.
I am finally beginning to move from the X10 system to a more modern system, despite the cost. My existing system is an hybrid of Philips Hue and X10. To integrate the X10 with Alexa I use the X10 CM19 transceiver with the mochad linux driver, and ha-bridge, a Philips Hue emulator. This allowed me to use Alexa to control the X10 system.
Continue reading “Home automation, part 2”Riffle stack
This is something I am playing with.
Effect
The basic effect is that four aces are placed into the deck at random locations and then the deck is shuffled multiple times. Then five hands of poker are dealt out, with the dealer getting the four aces.
Method
Continue reading “Riffle stack”I am a cat lover
I have to admit that I am a cat lover. I can tolerate dogs, some I even like. But cats have my heart. One thing I enjoyed when I was traveling was seeing and taking photographs of cats.
Cat in Valbonne, France
NW Portland, Oregon
Aubry, cat that visited the office, Portland, Oregon
Cat in window, NW Portland, Oregon
Word games for Scrabble training
I enjoy word games like Scrabble and decided to write a couple of games that I could use both for the pleasure of playing, and also as training aids for playing Scrabble and other word games.
Anagram game
The first I wrote is an anagram finding game, simply called wordgame. It shows seven “tiles” any you try to find all of the anagrams.
Word finder game
The other game I wrote is a “word finder“. It can be played on mobile (phone) or desktop devices.
Axtell Lineage
See the book “Axtell Geneology“, my grandfather is listed on page 286.
| Person | Birth year | Death year | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jane Axtell (Mother) | 1920 | 1995 | 75 | |
| Joseph Eugene Axtell | 1889 | 1945 | 56 | |
| John Stockton Axtell | 1845 | 1935 | 90 | |
| Rufus Dodd Axtell | 1815 | 1847 | 32 | |
| Thomas Axtell | 1780 | 1853 | 73 | |
| Daniel Axtell | 1748 | 1826 | 78 | Fought in Revolutionary War. Bio |
| Thomas Axtell | 1727 | 1749 | 22 | |
| Daniel Axtell | 1673 | 1735 | 62 | |
| Henry Axtell | 1641 | 1676 | 35 | Immigrated to US |
| Thomas Axtell | 1619 | 1646 | 27 | |
| William Axtell | 1587 | 1638 | 51 | |
| William Axtell | 1561 | unknown | ||
| William Axtell | 1541 | 1568 | 27 | |
| John Axtell | 1496 | 1553 | 57 | |
| Henrie Axtell | 1474 | 1541 | 67 | |
| Henry Thomas Axtell | 1435 | 1500 | 65 | |
| Thomas William Axtell | 1381 | 1418 | 37 |
Wallace Family Tree
I have traced the paternal linage back to my great-great-great grandfather. Most of this came from the family Bible and was cross checked with records available on the web. My maternal lineage goes further back and can be seen here.
Continue reading “Wallace Family Tree”Jane Elizabeth Axtell Wallace
Forward
I think it is ironic that the people you spend most of your life knowing, i.e. your parents are often the people you know the least about. I can’t say if that is true in general, but with my parents, and my knowledge of their life, it has been. I know very little of their early years, and even of the years I grew up, my knowledge of them is just about the relationship with myself. I know very little of the relationships, the hopes, and the disappointments they felt, those things that are common in everyone ’s life. It was because of this I asked my mother to tell me about her life. I asked her to start to write down her memories. It was apparently difficult for her to do. But she made an effort. I kept at her to keep writing. This is the result. As I discover old photographs of her, and her sister and brother, this story helps those photos come alive. I don’t think she understood how important it was to me to know who she was as a person, rather than as a mother. And while I wish I had more of her story, I am grateful to her for what she was able to give.
Robert Wallace
Continue reading “Jane Elizabeth Axtell Wallace”France Trip, 1978
I had been working at FPS for about six months when I was sent, with a team, to Paris, France to install an AP120B at Dassault Aviation. This was my first trip overseas, I was 27 years old. Unfortunately, being a lowly team member on my first trip overseas I did not write a trip report. Now 40 plus years later I am scanning old slides from the trip and trying to remember some of the stories from the trip.
Continue reading “France Trip, 1978”India Trip Report – 1989
MEMORANDUM
FROM: Robert Wallace DATE: October 6, 1989
TO: Jerry Peek
SUBJ: India Trip Report
CC: Larry W. Bob G. Tom M.
A Survivors Guide to India
Subtitle: “Don’t drink the water and don’t breath the air”
This is a trip report on the trip Jerry Peek and I took to India. The main purpose of the trip was to support Hinditron, conclude a sale, and sign a contract with Hinditron. This report covers the day to day activities with several embedded essays on topics of interest to anyone who might in a moment of weakness consider a trip to India.
Continue reading “India Trip Report – 1989”