My Year of Making Stuff
In 2016 I worked on a ridiculously broad range of projects, both fo...
Blog
2017
2016
CNC Experiments: Baltic Birch Plywood
I’m planning some projects involving CNCing shapes from plywood and...
Worms! Worms! Worms!
Last weekend I finished a project that’s been on my list for close ...
Introduction to CNC Routing
Last week I taught a new class at Pumping Station: One, an introduc...
Dotfile Makeover 2016
For the past couple years, I’ve halfheartedly maintained a dotfile ...
2015
Carbonation Rig
I recently got the itch to make my own sodas and other carbonated b...
Coriander seeds
Did you know that coriander and cilantro are the same thing? I reme...
Dusting off the old web-log
I’ve been meaning to start writing again for a while, and before I ...
2013
Archiving a website with Amazon S3
About five years ago, my friend Zach and I made the EnerJar, an ope...
A way-too-deep look at Ubuntu Edge’s Indiegogo numbers
TL;DR: Prospective Ubuntu Edge buyers are ridiculously sensitive to...
Let them read text
In a country known for 100-megabit home internet and one of the hig...
Amusing myself with basic Javascript
Just look at that ...
The most American cookie of them all
Discussion topic: What kind of cookie best represents the United St...
If at first you don’t succeed…
Image credit: someone from the interne...
Generalizing entire nations of people for fun and profit
A coworker recently gave me a book that she hoped would help me ass...
2012
Getting started with sourdough
Now that I’ve kind of settled in in Sweden, I decided to start a pr...
Photos: vacation edition
I just got back from a week-long trip to Spain. I traveled around t...
Olof Palme
One of the great tragedies in modern Swedish history was the assass...
Nordic television at its finest
So I’ve started watching some Swedish TV shows in an attempt to lea...
Förstar du Svenska? Nej, inte alls
One of the many services benevolently provided by the Swedish gover...
Island Living
After a month and a half in a tiny temporary place, I’ve finally mo...
Swobservations
So I realized I don’t really like the whole “talk about things that...
Interesting bug in Google Translate
Since moving to Sweden, I’ve been using Google Translate quite a bi...
A terrifying induction into a foreign civilization
Sometimes the most interesting differences between countries can be...
Some convenient Swedish stereotypes
About a month before officially moving to Sweden, I was in Stockhol...
“Home” again
After a week away, I arrived back in Sweden yesterday. Since this w...
Where in the world is Matt this week?
Hint: this ain't a...
Just some photos of Stockholm
As promised, a few shots from around STHLM.
Frequently answered questions
It’s come to my attention that not everyone reading my blog is 100%...
Expats, pancakes, and pea soup
Today I had my first truly Swedish lunch experience: pea soup and p...
Sweden: day one
Due to overwhelming demand for updates regarding my experiences liv...
Outlook 2010: Adding a rule for internal/external emails
After banging my head against my desk in frustration for months, I ...
Here comes the darkness
As many of my nonexistent faithful readers already know, I will be ...
Dehydrated hummus? I’ll stick with the wet stuff, thanks
During my packing and preparation for Bonnaroo, I decided to try ma...
Arts and crafts roundup
Lately I’ve been spending my free time doing fewer tech-related pro...
2011
Raw Reflections
For the past month I was on something of a detox diet: I gave up al...
Poor man’s time sync in Linux
Want to sync the clocks of multiple Linux machines but don’t want t...
The science of cast iron cooking (or: Look at all the pretty colors!)
My Dad recently purchased an infrared camera for his work. While an...
How to transport a full-size bike pump on your bike
I bought a sweet new bike pump and needed to get it home from my of...
Making Dish Washing (Slightly) More Fun
I recently picked up a laboratory wash bottle at American Science a...
Hamentasch(n+1)
The other day I made...
Quick Trick for Refoaming Speakers
I recently acquired a pair of Advent Smaller Speakers. They were in...
2010
My New Toy
I got a new toy in the mail today:
Hacking A Sony Kitchen CD/Radio
Product shot
How to Bake Bread
Figure 1: Obligato...
Rough Draft Recipe: Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
Stuffed Portabella...
2009
Fan Mail
Whenever I’m feeling down, I read through the comments on my blog t...
The Gift Exch-ch-ch-change
Last night I attended a white elephant-style gift exchange hosted b...
Dynamic link to currently playing Last.FM artist
Obligatory acknowledgment of lack of posting recently. I hope to be...
Simple piece of productivity software
reminder La...
There is nothing wrong with this photo
Last week, I drove t...
A most excellent book
bookcover S...
We are killing our artists
In the wake of Micha...
Adventures in Mixtapeland, Part II
So a few days ago, I talked about the mixtape I made for my friend ...
Adventures in Mixtapeland, Part I
So as you may recall, I take the task of creating mixtapes very ser...
Is this some sort of cruel joke?
The other day I got this email from the ol’ alma mater promoting a ...
“Music for Headaches” revisited
As I mentioned a few posts back, I had the opportunity to perform i...
Job posting of the day
Apologies for the lack of posting, I’ll have a more substantial pos...
Welcome to the Future, Part II
So previously, I’ve reported on Google’s bug that shows just-sent e...
Notes From Beerfest
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending The Wine and Cheese Place...
The Mixtape Exchange
Poster by Matt Str...
Using a Volume Pedal as a Controller in Max/MSP
So a few months back, I showed how to use a footswitch as a MIDI co...
Trivial Frustration of the Day
img_2404 I ...
The Greatest Little Show on Earth
One of the parts of being the production manager at the Gargoyle is...
…But What’s Wrong With a Keyboard and Mouse?
So I haven’t been posting all that often recently, but I’m going to...
Why I Love the Internet
urban-camouflage1 ...
What’s missing from this photo?
2009-01-21-21obama...
Introduction to Molecular Gastronomy…
…is not a required course for my pre-med friends. Molecular gastron...
Odds ‘n Ends (Experimental Music Edition)
Last week I attended a concert featuring my teacher, Rich O’Donn...
Music Appreciation Project of the Week
After a conversation with Zach, I’ve started listening to some of t...
On Collecting and Visualizing Personal Data Online
When going through my “to be read later” list recently, I came upon...
Speaking of Panoramic Photos…
Pano I don’...
A Wiggly and Sustainable Protien Source
Delicious... ...
Passive Footswitch to MIDI Using Your Soundcard
So a few months ago I scavenged some footswitches from the secret e...
Panorama-rama
A few panoramics I took in Israel. Click each image for a larger ve...
Information Graphic of the Day
energyflow ...
Notes on Birthright Israel
The city of Tsfat ...
2008
A Christmas miracle! Reduced fuel efficiency!
As my tires were spinning out in the snow for the dozenth time, I w...
USB charger hack
charger I b...
Band Names of the Year
The Onion AV Club has published its annual list of bad band names. ...
“It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn.”
On a recommendation from XKCD, I picked up a copy of The Visual Dis...
A Series of Bloglets
I know it’s been a while since I rapped at ya, but finals season wa...
The Singularity is Not Yet upon Us
A pop-up notification from Google Calendar:
Has Megabus Outgrown Its Business Model?
Megabus Chicago, N...
He Died for Our Sins
I’m sure that at this point everybody has heard about Jdimytai Damo...
Correlations of the Day
I just came across a fun little site called StateStats, which uses ...
The Ultimate Recession Diet (Bonus Edition)
Parts one and two can be found here and here, respectively.
On Tags
If you use the inter...
Fun Food Facts
In my quest for better data on food prices, I got sidetracked explo...
Currency events
In December, I will be going to Israel for ten days. I recently tho...
The Ultimate Recession Diet (Part II)
For part I, click here.
Anti-Branding
I just came across a story about McDonald’s opening a no-brand eate...
The Ultimate Recession Diet (Part I)
With all the news about the economy, I’ve been hearing a lot of new...
Mesh Labs Study: Colored Goldfish Crackers
Introduction
Excuse me while I geek out here for a second
Buried deep within the Department of Music lies one of Washington U...
Reflections on victory
I must confess, I am starting to write this entry Monday night with...
You may win the battleground, but you’ve lost the war
I just was poking ar...
Cautious optimism
I’d like to keep my personal political views out of this space as m...
The last word on Rama II
As I mentioned previously, I’m reading Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke ...
And now for something completely different
A few months ago I w...
New header graphic
After helping Leah work on her site last night, I decided that I’ve...
Correlation of the Day
According to the Guardian, every major economic recession in Englan...
Arthur C. Clarke’s economic premonition
I’ve been reading Arthur Clarke’s Rama II, the sequel to the awesom...
John Hodgeman on TED
I’m a big fan of the TED conference and am grateful that they post ...
Craigslist hits close to home
On Saturday, Broken Social Scene came to the Gargoyle for our secon...
Drudge v. HuffPo
I’ve had this hobby recently of visiting the Drudge Report and Huff...
Well, well, well
A few days ago, I discovered a great new way to talk to my friends ...