I made a special trip to Dallas to check out VCF SW. I intentionally wanted to travel and visit as many VCF events in 2026 after many years of only attending my local VCF Midwest. VCF SW was the largest event that I've attended so far this year. The main show was split out into 2 rooms and a few more if you count some of the spin-off rooms for MiniDisc and Arcade repair rooms. In fact, I think they could easily grow square footage by 50% and not have any problem filling up. Some areas the booths were arranged with fairly narrow isles and there were multiple times where I intentionally avoided areas and just tried to come back a few times throughout the show waiting for less crowds.

I visited my second VCF of 2026 this past week just south of Seattle conveniently near the airport. I attended day two of the event and by the sounds of it, the first day was really busy and cramped. The venue was a community center area with enough room for close to 30 exhibits. They had close to 800 attendees come through the first day and it sounds like they had enough interest to grow the event next year to somewhere with more capacity.

My planning for this year's #MARCHintosh started on April 1st of last year. Over the last few years I've used #MARCHintosh as a milestone marker and a way to encourage me to take on new projects. I was more ambitious with some of the projects, including more soldering and ordering PCBs. I'm going to break this post down into a few sections: the prep leading up, the results, and the plans for next year.

I'm leveling-up my VCF game in 2026. I started going to VCFMW back sometime in the mid-2010's with a close friend. We met as we started our first real "IT" jobs together the senior year of high school. Initially, the VCFMW event would be an interesting curiosity and a morning where we would walk through a hotel ballroom in the suburbs of Chicago, grab lunch, then head back home. In the last few years we both have had ongoing retro projects. In the meantime VCFMW grew

This is my MARCHintosh 2025 project post. My goal was to get the physical hardware of a "classic" Mac online and connected with the other folks participating in GlobalTalk. I'm very happy that after years of trying, I actually have a working solution this year.

When we last saw our mighty SE/30, we had a fully working system. Unfortunately, there are still long-term stability issues with the machine. I ended up re-capping the analog board in an attempt to help with video jitters. I also swapped out the power supply as well.

Two years ago I found a clean SE/30 locally on Facebook Marketplace for $200. The case wasn't too yellowed and it powered up so I thought it would be a small retro computer project to do with my son. It turned out to be

I'm starting this post during the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020. I have both extra time on my hands and the need to disconnect. With that said, I realized it was difficult to recall every show I recommend on streaming plat

This project makes Alexa respond with my kegerator statistics.

Each day I try to read a book for at least 10 minutes. I don't always hit my mark, but slowly I've improved on this habit. I'm sharing impactful books that have helped me dramatically.

Wow. My phone beat out my upgraded, 8-core Xeon Mac Pro in both single core and multi-core performance. Yes, the computer is 10 years old. But it's still hard to believe. That computer weighs over 40 pounds. That computer is painful to lug around. My iPhone X weighs 0.38 pounds.

10 years ago I started this blog and journey. One of the overarching goals was to challenge myself to reach the RHCA certification. It's the culmination of 7 exams which range from 3 to 4 hours each. Most were painful and

First of all, time goes by way too quickly. It has been a year since I posted and over a year since I've posted any certification updates. Late in 2010, I achieved my RHCE . In the following two years, I passed two

My first experience with beer was quite formative. I was 5 and was standing in front of my father’s kegerator with a dixie cup. Before you quickly judge my parent’s abilities, I must note that there was a lock on the fau

When this blog was started I was persistently trying to learn new things and obtain new skills and certifications. I have been proud of what I've accomplished. In the past year or two I've passed some exams from Apple an

The ability to devote attention to detail is important. Learning how things are made helps to bring that ability to a new level. One example is some badging I did for data center cabinets. In the past I've worked with an

It's great to build something. To create something from little or next to nothing. Something that is useful. Sometimes a small project or challenge can be the most fun. I recently tackled a small project in less than a d

For years small craft breweries have broken my heart. They change keg size offerings, discontinue specific beers, or run into production constraints. All understandable, but hard to be at the receiving end of this disapp

Time for a change. After 5 years of running this site on Wordpress, I thought I'd try something new. Learning and trying new things is the only way we can move forward. The installation, setup, and importing of posts int

After 35 kegs and nearly 3 years with this kegerator there are very few parts left over from my original kit besides the tower and fridge. The co2 regulator and co2 line were from the original kit and started to show the

2 years ago I tapped my first keg. I learned a lot about pressures, temperatures, cleaning techniques with this project. Even though I’ve only had a few different beers on tap, it’s also pushed me to try more variety. I’

I’m nearing the two year anniversary of building my Kegerator . I’ve modified components, dialed in pressures, and stabilized temperatures during this time. Occasionally, during the hot summer months the temperature woul

Back on July 4th the video card in my 2008 Mac Pro died. Luckily the card was an Nvidia 8800 GT and was completely replaceable. Unfortunately it took a week to receive the upgrade ATI Radeon 5770 HD card. In that week I

Between being busy at work and home it’s been harder to keep up with education and certifications. Luckily Apple makes recertifying a painless process. As I mentioned when I took the OS X 10.7 test, the annual release cy

I put a dozen 1/6 barrels through the kegerator before I took the plunge towards the 1/4 barrel. According to the measurements on the internet it shouldn’t fit with my mini fridge. It was close enough though that my loca

Recently I made a big change in my sanitation process for the kegerator and I’ve been very happy with the results. For the first 10 or so 1/6 barrels I religiously ran a powder based sanitizer and rinse through the beer

After a dozen 1/6 barrel kegs I knew my co2 pressure was a little low. Normally the gauge was 500 psi. Before this last keg went in it was a little lower and after the keg was empty the co2 bottle was reading really low.

It’s been a few months since I’ve built my kegerator . I’ve put about 31 gallons of beer through it, mostly Sam Adams Summer Ale, but I did take a crack at a keg of Boulder Brewing Co’s Mojo IPA. For fathers day my wife

Recently I was digging through some older CDs and came across this gem. It was the first Linux distro that I downloaded and installed. I had picked up an old computer from a friend and installed it and had it running on

Recently I was given a Danby DAR452BL mini fridge by a friend. This fridge lacked a freezer compartment and made the perfect base to for a kegerator project. I first tested it overnight to see how cold it could really g

I’m one step closer to both the Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist and Red Hat Certified Architect certificates after passing the Red Hat EX401 exam last week. The RH401/EX401 covers Red Hat deployments and their Sa

Earlier this year I updated my Apple Certified Technical Coordinator to the latest version of OS X. Lion came out in the summer of 2011 and days after I took the ACTC update test OS X 10.7.3 was released. 10.7.3 was a hug

2011 was more of a maintenance year for my training. The exams become more difficult and less frequent. With RHEL6, Red Hat switched over to “currency window” expiration for their certifications. My RHCE expires 3 years

This year I’ve pushed myself to expand my knowledge and skill sets. It was not always easy but I managed to take and pass eight technical exams. I started out with multiple choice style exams administrated by ProMetric o

It has been awhile since I last posted. This year I attempted to achieve certifications, learn new things, and continue to grow professionally. With less than a few months I am ready to end this personal challenge on a v

I just passed my Ubuntu Certified Professional (UCP) test. Technically it's an add-on test to the two LPIC-1 level test. For those keeping track at home that is 6 certifications and 1 motorcycle license in the last 7 months

Its been 3 months since I last obtained a certification. I started this year with the goal of expanding my knowledge and skill sets. Earlier this year CompTIA adopted the LPI 101 & 102 tests for their latest Linux + cert

So far I’ve been able to take one test a month this year. In March I passed the Apple server essentials test. Just as with the support essentials test, my experience made the test easier. I’ve been testing and working wi

I recently took my second certification test of this year. I am challenging myself to accomplish as many certifications as possible in 2010. This test was the Support Essentials test for OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). It was