The Blog of Ian Mercer.
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Why smarthomes are hard
Why automated learning is hard for a smart home. The perils of over-fitting, under-fitting and how the general unpredictable nature of life makes it hard to build a system that learns your behavior.

ATAN curve for probabilities
In a home automation system we often want to convert a measurement into a probability. The ATAN curve is one of my favorite curves for this as it's easy to map overything onto a 0.0-1.0 range.

Home Construction Advice
Several years ago we did a major remodel. I did all of the finish electrical myself and supervised all of the rough-in electrical. I also put in all of the electrical system and water in our barn. I have opinions ...

T-Mobile home internet
I'm testing a T-Mobile Home Internet device as a backup to XFinity and a way to offload half our monthly traffic to avoid the XFinity 1.2TB cap

iBeacon meetup in Seattle - January 2015
My notes on the iBeacon meetup in Seattle held in January 2015

Finally got the 1U Atom Server racked up

Timelapse video using the GoPro HD Hero

I should have created Four Square ...

Asian Gadgets

Interesting Twitter Posts March 15th-

Facebook, social gaming and points

Useful Twitter links Feb 8-Feb 15 2010

Future proof your home with a new conduit system?
Running conduit can be expensive but maybe you don't need one to every room

Balloon Boy was much ado about nothing - Twitter
Some of the more witty comments on Twitter about the Balloon Boy hoax

Shortened URLs should be treated like a Codec ...
Expanding URLs would help users decide whether or not to click a link

WMPnetwk.exe started using 50% of my CPU
Uninstalling Windows Media Player - the end of an era

Introducing Jigsaw menus
A novel UI for menus that combines a breadcrumb and a menu in one visual metaphor

Amazon Instance vs Dedicated Server comparison
Some benchmark performance for Amazon vs a dedicated server

Agile Software Development is Like Sailing
You cannot tack too often when sailing or you get nowhere. Agile is a bit like that.

AntiVirus Software is the Worst Software!
When your anti-virus software starts stealing your personal data, it's time to remove it!

It's all about disk speed
Why disk speed is the most critical aspect for most modern PCs and servers

Dell upgrades - a pricey way to go
