This is the latest in a more or less monthly series of posts that are more personal and inward focused (but still looking at science and tech) than the ones I normally write. Why? To have some variety for both readers and for myself. It is absolutely not because I'm out of ideas for things to write about. Really, it's not!

A friend of mine has a 3D printer. I think it's his third one. He has a good time with it as well as making useful stuff. I thought about buying one a few years back but I couldn't think of anything useful to do. Besides, there was no where to put it. That's the same reason I gave up (for the time being) on holography. Making a good hologram takes a fairly extensive set up and I don't have anywhere for it.

In case you don't know, a hologram is a 3D image of something that is made and viewed, with lasers. Except it's apparently also possible to make holographic images with pure software. The learning curve on that seems to be a little high. The hologram is something I do have plans for. But they'll have to wait a while. Probably until I retire and buy a bigger house, which you know is a thing all retired people do. Of course the whole "being able to afford to retire" part is a slight flaw in that plan.

Maybe I just need to throw away about half of what's in the house I've got.

Both 3D printing and holography are expensive hobbies. Not (quite) like writing software. All you need to do that is a little knowledge and a computer, preferably with an Internet connection. And patience. I think all tech hobbies call for enough patience to troubleshoot some thing that was supposed to work but doesn't for some reason. Like the problem I was working on last night that I figured out later was because I was working in test mode and had very carefully ensured that there would be no permanent changes in test. In other words, I outsmarted myself. Easy work if you can get it!

Lots of people go the route of writing games or developing web apps to please themselves and maybe sell. But if you ask me, it's the expensive hardware-based stuff that sounds like the most fun. 3D printing. Holography. Drones. Robots! No, I haven't taken up playing with drones or robots, either. Again, where would I put the hardware? Although just now, thinking about it, I came up with a cool idea. How about programming a drone to patrol the driveway and yell at kids to get off the lawn? Or to call the police on potential intruders?

Not only does that sound like a lot of fun, I'll bet I could sell it, too. But then there's the potential for lawsuits. That might happen if it calls the police on kids or yells at burglars to get off the lawn, especially if it startles them so much that they hurt themselves¹. Do Jehovah's Witnesses like to sue?

One of the greatest things about living in the 21st century is that there is an almost infinite number of ways you can find to make things with your hands and your brain and whatever talent you have. A hundred years ago your choices were pretty much restricted to things with wheels. You could tinker with cars or maybe steam engines or bicycles. You could try to put them together and make a plane. Or there was woodworking, of course. There has always been woodworking and there will always be woodworking.

I leave that one to people who aren't quite so likely to slice off something they'd rather keep if they get within ten feet of a band saw. Dangerous tools are not for me!

Fifty years ago stereos and ham radios had been added to the mix. Cool toys. Now? All that and more!

Just for fun I decided to search for hobby or open source kits around DIY self-driving cars. Surprisingly, I didn't find much. A little. But I thought there would be more². Especially when you consider that a self-driving car is just a big robot with a passenger compartment. Robotics is booming. Maybe it's because people are afraid that, if they actually made a self-driving - hang on. This is too much typing. Let's go with the acronym. SDC = Self Driving Car. Got it?

Where was I? Oh, right. Maybe people are afraid that if they made an SDC and then took it on the road, they'd end up in jail. Not to mention sued into oblivion if an accident happened. Not everyone has the deep pockets and exceptional hubris of a Waymo or Tesla.

There seems to be a lot of activity around building self-driving miniature cars, though³. I with those I suppose you only have to worry about miniature lawsuits.

If you set your sights a little higher you might consider developing a payload for a cubesat. A cubesat is a teeny-tiny satellite. Space satellite. For sending into space. They're great for high school science projects and DIY, uh, science projects. The satellites themselves aren't hideously expensive. Getting SpaceX or someone⁴ to send it up to space is a bit more costly. A bit.

I thought about doing something with a cubesat, too. But they don't have any propulsion system of their own. They just go round and round in orbit until they fall into the atmosphere and that isn't what I want at all. I want something that can break out of Earth orbit and head into the solar system.

I have plans, you see. Now if I could just come up with about $20 million to carry some of them out!

Here's that prompt: "A thrilling car race featuring a variety of vehicles of different sizes and types racing on a futuristic track. The vehicles range from a massive semi-truck down to a tiny go-kart, with some of them flying above the track. One of the cars looks like it's launching off the track and heading for outer space, leaving a trail of glowing energy behind. The scene is dynamic and chaotic, with vibrant colors, speed lines, and a mix of high-tech and imaginative vehicle designs. The background includes futuristic cityscapes and distant stars."

Just for fun I tried to get Grok (X/Twitter AI) to make an image for this post but it doesn't massage the prompt the way dall-e-3 does and the results were not very interesting.

I keep seeing advice to do some hard selling of my substacks. It sounds like it would be too annoying but here goes: YOU COULD PAY FOR A SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS NEWSLETTER and if enough people do, someday I will put up another paying-customer-only post. So how about it? Or just subscribe for free like everyone else. Go on! I won't take it personally if you don't want to give me all your money. But how about just a little? Every month forever?