Sergey Pisarenko

$$ \int_{1}^2 x^2\,e^{2x}cos(x)\,dx $$

If you asked me early last year what these symbols mean I would not have had a clue! For the past 6 months I was on a mission to improve my understanding of mathematics from that of a rusty high school level to at least college level. One could call it a “side project” as I was averaging about 8-20 hours per week on it. I’d like to share the approach I took, explain my reasons for doing it as well as uncover the challenges I faced along the journey. Of course, this journey towards knowledge never ends and is still ongoing!

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In the final article I finish the series about the IoT hackathon project by explaining the server side component of the system. Admittedly, it is the smallest part and I intentionally chose to make it trivially simple. 4 days of project of work is not infinite, after all. I think it took me roughly 4-6 hours to set everything up.

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In this second post I continue with the short hackathon project I worked on last week. The goal of the project was to hook into engine data of a KTM motorcycle and stream that data in real-time to the cloud. I explain how I reverse engineered the USB wire protocol of a proprietary device called Power Commander 5 from Dynojet and wrote a simple Java program that works on Linux. I also show the tools I used along the way and share my thinking process.

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Since autumn 2016 I’m working at an IoT company – we build Internet-connected home automation devices. Last week we had an internal hackathon to try something new. Essentially, it was a chance to work outside of the comfort zone and try out new APIs and hardware in the vast world of IoT. At first I was struggling to come up with an idea. Some ideas seemed trivial, others unrealistic. Finally, I brainstormed over available hardware and my surroundings and decided to make my KTM Duke 390 motorcycle join the IoT party!

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To complete a full Iron Man is still an important milestone for me. I really dig endurance challenges. However, I reluctantly decided to reduce the number of hours of training per week and let the ultimate deadline slip a year or two into the future. I don’t want to spend 15 hours per week of training on it yet. There are ongoing projects that I am not willing to sacrifice. In a way I’m adapting to the opportunities that currently present themselves instead of forcefully pushing a preconceived plan against the reality. [Read More]

This week we went to the Grindelwald area for hiking. Getting there wasn’t easy – a relatively long 4-hour train journey each way plus additional delays due to an accident on the tracks. The accidents seem to become common as the same happened the week before. Anyhow, Grindelwald is vast with hiking routes. I’ve been to Grindelwald several times before and even stayed overnight once. Our hike wasn’t difficult but very pretty. [Read More]

Just like junkies deny their addictions I denied mine for as long as I could. Perhaps I am predisposed to addictions as I notice just how quickly obsessions form in my mind from even the most remote sparks of excitement. Mainstream drugs – alcohol, nicotine, etc – have never caught my fancy but the more subtle hijackers haven’t left my brain’s reward system untouched. In this post I’m going share my struggle against a deeply rooted consumerism addiction that I have only recently taken a hold of. [Read More]