Subversive Learning
The educational and technology content I produce covers a broad set of topics in my areas of interest (Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics). I try to pick topics where there isn't any other good information available, or where it isn't aggregated into a straightforward video. The videos strive to be accessible to anyone regardless of background, and to provide all the information needed to get off the ground in a given area. I think back to the sorts of things that I wish were available back when I was learning these topics, and try to communicate clearly, while still mixing in some humor. I strongly believe that anyone can learn, design, and build.
General STEM Topics
Electricity from Heat: The Seebeck Effect in Action
Produced as an educational video for the local 2020 Cool Science Festival, this video explains the Seebeck effect in simple terms, and includes a demonstration of how it can be used to generate small amounts of electric power. This was produced to be accessible to students 6th grade and up.
You can't solve this puzzle! - Trover Saves the Universe Button Puzzle
Tackling the design behind the impossible button "puzzle" from Trover Saves the Universe. It is specifically designed to be impossible to solve by providing enough flexibility that it feels like you can arbitrarily change the button colors, but the starting state and "solved" state are in two disconnected halves of the possible state space where each half can be completely traversed.
Projects
VoIP Ham Radio Phone Patch
Demo video of a phone auto-patch that I designed using a couple of ham radios, a raspberry pi, and some software. It allows you to make phone calls using your ham radio mobile rig by just dialing them directly, and then the calls are routed through a VoIP provider. All the software and hardware designs are open source.
Scam Busting
Elon Musk is NOT giving away free bitcoin!
2020 had a rash of Bitcoin and Ethereum scammers trying to trick people into sending them their cryptocurrency by pretending to be famous rich people who are "doubling your money" if you send it in. The scammers hacked into and ran livestreams on legitimate YouTube channels, hacked dozens of official twitter accounts, and stole tons of money.
Spotting TF2 Scams w/Full Scam Recording
This video exposes a common Steam Marketplace scam method where the scammer poses as a potential buyer, and then tries to trick the user into sending them valuable items. Includes both some chat transcripts of the scammers, as well as a voice call with one of the scammers.
Tutorials
Add External Antenna to Pi Zero W
If you've ever used a Raspberry Pi inside a metal enclosure and been disappointed in the WiFi performance, there is good news. All the Raspberry Pi models that have a build-in ProAnt PCB antenna also support attaching a U.FL connector so you can use your own antenna. This video shows how to do this modification on the Raspberry Pi Zero W.
Add External Antenna to ASIAir Pro Astrophotography Controller
The ASIAir Pro is a Raspberry Pi based astrophotography controller, but its default WiFi range is abysmal because it's inside an aluminum case. These detailed instructions show how to modify the ASIAir Pro to add an external antenna. Includes before/after performance comparisons which are pretty stunning (as expected).
