Rob Reilly
Orlando
Technology Writer, Speaker, and Consultant
Articles by Rob Reilly
Twenty-Five Years After 9/11, Lower Manhattan Is Both a Tribute and a Promise
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I stood on Hudson Street watching in shock as WTC 1 fell. That image is seared into my brain. In the days and years that followed, the future of New York City’s Financial District seemed bleak. Nobody would want to go back there, the thinking went. The wound was too deep. There was an open scar in the middle of the city, a 16-acre void we called “the pit,” spanned by temporary pedestrian bridges. For a long time, it felt like nothing could rise from it.
Why Human Imperfection Fuels True Innovation
culture council Content created by members of Rolling Stone Culture Council, an invitation-only network of industry professionals who share their insights with our audience. What's This?
Wpp Launches Screaming Creativity Podcast Hosted By Rob Reilly
WPP premiered its new video podcast series, Screaming Creativity season one, hosted by WPP's chief creative officer, Rob Reilly, on 19 September.
WPP Launches 'Screaming Creativity' Podcast Series Hosted By Rob Reilly
WPP today announces the launch of a new video podcast series hosted by WPP's chief creative officer, Rob Reilly. Titled Screaming Creativity, the podcast will inform, entertain and inspire listeners through frank conversations on creativity in all its forms. Season one of Screaming Creativity will premiere on all leading podcast platforms on September 19th.
SCREAMING CREATIVITY
Rob Reilly is WPP's Global Chief Creative Officer. In this tell-all series of conversations, Rob sits with some of the most exciting people in the business of creativity. Whilst his producer tries hard to keep things on track, as is often the case, creativity and chaos reign supreme. Try it; you might like it. ROB REILLY | WPP Show more Show less
Small-Scale Fab: Embrace the CAD Mindset
We’ve done some renovating at the old Dr. Torq homestead over the last year, so I’ve talked to quite a few tradespeople. Invariably, people ask me what I do. I tell them I design and write about physical computing gadgets. The conversation often turns to 3D printing and several of the contractors, told me that they had 3D printers at home. Enthusiastically, they’d go on about printing all their cool Star Wars helmets and miniature Transformers figures.
Tutorial: Git an Arduino IDE Workflow
Dr. Torq Rob (drtorq) Reilly is an independent consultant, writer, and speaker specializing in Linux/OSS, physical computing, hardware hacking, the tech media, and the DIY/Maker movement. Even small microcontroller projects require multiple iterations of the code, as the project progresses. In the past, I’ve simply used consecutive numbers, attached to the file names to mark each latest version of Arduino code. While workable, it’s clunky and not so easy to manage.
Development: Introduction to Git Logging
The git distributed version control software is a software development tool that helps individuals and teams manage and maintain their source code. It is based on a snapshot model that bundles changes into commits and repositories. You can always go back and explore old configurations of code. As you might imagine, it’s definitely helpful to know when or who did a change for bug fixes, feature additions and so on.
Development: Git Clone a Project
Say you find a very interesting hack for an ESP32 microcontroller board on GitHub. You know there are thousands of repositories on GitHub covering the ESP32 module, right? The same goes for the Arduino platform, Python on the Raspberry Pi and various other languages/platforms. With so much cool code out there just waiting to be put to good use, why re-invent the wheel? Today, we’ll talk about how to grab GitHub content and put it on your local Linux notebook.
Development: Basic git Branching, Switching and Merging
Dr. Torq Rob (drtorq) Reilly is an independent consultant, writer, and speaker specializing in Linux/OSS, physical computing, hardware hacking, the tech media, and the DIY/Maker movement. He provides a variety of engineering, business and special project services to individual clients and companies. As a long-time veteran of the tech media, Dr. Torq has posted hundreds of feature-length articles for top-tier tech media and print outlets.
Development: Git for Small Physical Computing Projects
The first few articles of this git how-to series covered the basics of installing, populating and interacting with git repositories. Linux is a natural environment for git because the commands are easily entered from a regular text terminal at the command line. Although you initially use an internet-connected browser to create a GitHub account, for remote storage and sharing, pushing and pulling data with the command line is pretty straightforward.
Development: Connect git to GitLab for Small Projects
The git distributed version control system works with a variety of online services to provide storage and multiperson access to content. We recently covered the basics on how to set up and use the popular GitHub service. GitLab is another commonly used service. GitLab is the subject of today’s article. Using GitLab to house your content, from the command line, is fairly straightforward. New User Set up on GitLab Go to the GitLab main signup page as a new user.
Development: Connecting git to GitHub for Small Projects
In the last installment on how to use the open source git version control software, we talked about setting up git on a late-model Linux notebook. We went over creating the directory for the files, initializing the git environment to track the files and how to put the files in a repository. All of the work was done on the Linux command line, within a standard terminal window.
Git for Managing Small Projects
This post is the first in a series of tutorials on git, the world’s most widely used open source code management software. Check back periodically for future installments. I’m a technology writer, not a full-fledged software developer. Once-in-a-while-fledged is probably more accurate. Managing various CAD/CAM systems, writing application requirements, doing software/hardware integrations and such were my stock-in-trade during my Corporate America years.
Canadian National: Our merger with KCS will result in better service for Louisiana
Michael Olivier's June 3 opinion regarding the combination of Canadian National and Kansas City Southern makes numerous inaccurate assertions about the combination. It is evident that together, CN and KCS will create faster, more direct routes that will enhance competition and maximize choice for customers in Louisiana. Olivier contends that 109 shipper facilities are served jointly by CN and KCS between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but in reality, only 9 customers are served only by CN and KCS.
Canadian National-Kansas City Southern merger win for region | The Kansas City Star Original
Rob Reilly, chief operating officer of Canadian National Railway Pascale Simard The Kansas City Southern railroad has a long and distinguished history in this city. Now this nearly 135-year-old local institution, which was formed to connect Kansas City to the rest of the country, has announced plans to connect it to the rest of the continent by merging with Canadian National Railway.
CN’s proposal will reduce congestion, traffic and pollution in Chicago
It is disappointing that Canadian Pacific would suggest in Crain's Chicago Business that the proposed combination between Canadian National and Kansas City Southern would increase traffic in Chicago. I have worked in the area for a large portion of my 32-year railroad career, and I can assure you that the truth is the opposite. Canadian National uses a simple strategy to solve Chicago’s longstanding rail congestion problem: We go around the core of the city.
Install an AWS IoT Connect Kit on the Raspberry Pi
It’s nice to be able to say “Alexa, turn on the dining room light” and have the light come on. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to control Linux-powered projects? For example, I’d love to say something like “Alexa, make Barkley speak” and have my new skeletal robotic dog bark out a few “woofs”, in response. Barkley is the soon-to-be faithful companion of my ever-evolving robotic skull, Hedley and will use some type of Linux-powered “Pi” like a brain.
Linux Lesson: Copy Files Over Your Network with scp
I occasionally need to copy files between computers on my local network. It might be sound files for my robotic skull’s voice (on a Raspberry Pi), screenshot graphics captured for a tech article or any number of text configuration files. Since all my machines are Linux based, the easiest way to do it is with the scp command. scp stands for secure copy. scp is part of the SSH family of remote network access services, native to Linux/Unix operating systems.
WPP at Cannes Lions Live
X WPP at Cannes Lions Live Inspiring people, transformative ideas and extraordinary work. Join us 21-25 June for a programme of thought-provoking discussions on creativity. Illustration by Jonny Wan WPP is partnering with Cannes Lions to offer people who work for WPP complimentary access to the virtual event and Lions membership for the year. Work for WPP?
How CLI Redirection and Pipes Tie Together Linux Programs
Linux has a lot of built-in command-line capabilities that desktop users frequently overlook. Pop open a terminal and fire up a few standalone command-line programs to do things like finding files, monitoring system performance and automatically kick off system maintenance tasks at a certain time. Old-time gurus sometimes reflect on the “Unix philosophy.” Linux follows that ethos.
Tutorial: Linux Task Scheduling and Automation with cron
The Linux/Unix cron is a command line, table-based Linux scheduling program that runs jobs at specific times. System administrators use it to schedule maintenance jobs like backups, downloads, disk cleanups and other such periodic repetitive activities. Most Debian-based Linux versions allow normal users to run their own cron jobs by default. The root user can always use cron. We talked about archiving files in tar recently.
Engineer's Guide: Be Your Own Home IT Department
Engineers, coders and developers are scrambling to work from home right now. Back in my engineer/analyst days at Lockheed-Martin and AT&T I always had corporate IT support. For a problem, I’d call the help desk and somebody would come by, fix it and I’d be back up and running quickly. These days, you may be faced with having to set up your own infrastructure and learn how to get your “home” side of the job equation going, possibly with reduced help from the company.
Get to Know tar, Linux's Original Packaging Format
Back in the day, regular file backups were recorded on a magnetic tape. It made sense to gather all the files requiring backup into a single file and then dump it out to the tape drive, all at once. Tape drives didn’t like to start and stop so doing everything in one shot cut down on drive wear and tear and the time needed for getting the data onto the tape. Although tapes are long gone, backups are still important and consolidating an archive into a single large file is still effective.
Dr. Torq: Go Remote with ssh
In a networked cloud native world, we might have Linux machines operating in some far-flung location, miles away from our physical reach. Or, we could have a bunch of machines wired into our local network sitting in the same room. Either way, it’s great to be able to log into those networked devices to do upgrades, maintenance, diagnostics, run programs and so on. The ssh (Secure Shell) command-line utility has been around for a long time.
Dr. Torq: Data Processing at the Edge with Linux awk
Last June, data scientist and visualization expert Nick Strayer learned a valuable lesson in large scale data processing: Sometimes even the latest “Big Data”-oriented software doesn’t as well as what we already have in the Unix toolbox. Looking to parse 25TB of genetic data, he tried using tools such as Parquet and Spark, but in the end, he found the best solution was a combination of the R statistical programming language and the humble awk.
Dr. Torq: Timely Tips for the Linux History Command
Linux history is one of those very useful built-in functions that may not be entirely obvious to new Linux users. History saves mucho time and frustration when entering and executing commands in a Linux terminal window. I do a lot of hardware gadget testing and frequently have to run a collection of command lines over and over again, often changing options as I go. Re-typing each line is extremely tedious and error-prone.
Get to Know vi, a Text Editor for the Ages
The vi text editor is found on nearly every Unix or Linux systems in existence, usually by default. I first used it a freshman at Purdue, in 1981. My second programming class, ran Unix on one of the big-iron university mainframes. Those were the pre-GUI (graphical user interface) days and everything was done via the command line, while basking in the comforting (eerie?) green-text glow of the old-school CRT (cathode ray tube) terminals.
Dr. Torq: Basic Linux Application Management with APT
After installing a Debian or Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, it’s always a good idea to run a few commands that ensure you have the most up-to-date files and applications on your machine. If you are using one of the many desktops available you might just enlist an application manager, like synaptic to update everything.
Dr. Torq: Finding Things Under Linux
We humans always need to find things while computing. Maybe we want to know what machines are currently up and running on our local network. Linux can tell us that. Perhaps we need to sift through a bunch of files to find a certain keyword or tidbit of information. Linux can help in that situation, too. For that matter, we could simply be searching for a certain file, from a year ago on our Linux box. Punch in a handful of characters on the Linux command line and you’re in business.
Primer: Get to Know Linux Files and Directories
Files and directories are fundamental concepts in Linux. Files contain content and data, while directories organize those files into meaningful and standardized groups. Having a working knowledge, particularly on the Linux command line, of files and directories gives you latitude for configuring your system, automating processes, and easily manipulating data. Today, we’ll take a practical, real-world look at a few basics of Linux files and directories. I use this stuff all the time. What’s in a File?
Dr. Torq: 'rm -r *' and Other Linux Command Line Gotchas
It has been said that the Linux command line is cryptic and difficult to learn. But I’d call it comprehensive. Like anything else, you need to know a few fundamentals to get started putting the system to work doing important computing jobs. The Linux command line is very powerful. Of course, with that power comes user responsibility and the potential to do harm. Knowing what to do is important, but so is knowing maybe what not to do. Don’t let it intimidate you. That’s just the way it is.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Of Steampunk and Tech Time
The yellow paper signs led me up and down through the grassy lot above the open-air building full of booths. I parked the car, put on my pin-striped vest, top hat and Raspberry Pi-powered steampunk conference badge, then proceeded down the hill into the event. There, a couple dozen vendors displayed all manner of gauges, valves, gizmos and Victorian clothing for sale. People walked around in their knickers, kilts, corsets and leather having a fine time.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Mosquitto on the Bone
MQTT is a well-established way of distributing data between physical computing devices and machines. We explored using a CHIP single board computer to run the Mosquitto MQTT broker, back in 2017. While the gadget worked fine, it got pushed to the back of the desk due to other projects. Sad to say, the CHIP-based broker gave up the ghost about six months ago. The board no longer boots and the vendor has also since gone out of business. What to do with a few new MQTT projects on the horizon?
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: The Great Robot Servo Dilemma
My project, Hedley the Robotic Skull, has a servo that pans his head back and forth. I’ll soon add one that makes the old noggin tilt forward and back. Wouldn’t Hedley be a lot more interesting if he could roll his left eye and perhaps raise and lower an eyebrow? All the experts opine that robots should be appropriately expressive in order to work harmoniously next to their human overlords. I’m discovering that one big technical challenge is controlling “X” number of servos in a robot.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Portable Atmospheric Readings with a Sparkfun Breakout Board
The postman delivered a BME280 atmospheric breakout board, last week from Sparkfun. It measures local barometric pressure, humidity, altitude and temperature. This kind of sensor might measure outdoor weather conditions, help troubleshoot indoor environments or even act as a navigational sensor on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The board costs around $20.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: First Look at the Raspberry Pi 4
A shiny new Raspberry Pi 4 board arrived to the Dr. Torq headquarters last week, along with a Raspberry Pi Zero W, some Hall effect sensors and a 3.0-amp wall wart. Pi 4’s have been a little hard to come by and I was glad to finally have one sitting on my desk. I’ve been anxious to see how the thing works in a few projects. Reports on the web and the specs say that the Pi 4 is a significant jump in performance over older models. Ordering the 4GB memory version set me back $59 through Sparkfun.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Feel Force with a Load Sensor
When developing and building physical computing gadgets we frequently have the need to measure things. One past article discussed reading temperatures with a thermocouple. The “dial caliper” story, a few weeks back talked about capturing lengths so we could accurately model a part in a CAD program. We also introduced the beam-style load cell and its basic operation, last April. This time I’ll hack a load cell/amplifier combo onto a NodeMCU board, so I can do remote wireless force sensing.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Model Your Mechanisms with SolveSpace
We like our tools, here at Off-The-Shelf Hacker. Drill presses, screwdrivers, soldering irons and anything power or manual are all part of what it takes to bring one-off physical computing gadgets into our reality. We also use software tools like programming languages, Linux, interactive development environments (Arduino IDE) and various niche desktop applications. Then there are the more exotic engineering-centric computer-aided design tools, such as SolveSpace.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Power Hacks for Another Hurricane
“We have a generator, so the air conditioning will still work, right?,” my daughter asked. “No, we won’t have any A/C,” I said. “We’ll be able to run the fridge, a couple of fans, lights, the TV, the router/wifi and laptops. And, we only run it for an hour or two, then turn it off for a couple of hours, so we have fuel for the long haul. The generator isn’t big enough to run the air conditioner.” “Well, I’m going to a hotel, if the power goes out,” she replied. “I know, Honey.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: More Linux Command Line Commands
The Raspberry Pi was invented for learning how to program. You can load up nearly any language imaginable and the relatively low price of the board puts the technology within reach of everybody. Hook up a decent power supply, keyboard and mouse along with a cable going to an HDMI big screen and you are off and running. As off-the-shelf hackers we integrate mechanisms, hardware, software, techniques, processes, aesthetics and tools into physical computing prototypes and interesting projects.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: How to Use the Dial Caliper for Extra Precise Measurement
Off-the-Shelf hackers are certainly familiar with measuring parts using a common, everyday tape measure. If you’ve done any drafting or engineering design drawings, you also know how to use an Engineer’s Scale. These work great for measuring things down to a few tenths of an inch. What if you want to measure parts in the range of a couple of thousandths of an inch, say for fabbing up a few 3D printed parts?
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Embrace the Linux Command-Line
The Raspberry Pi is an awesome physical computing platform. Hook it up to an HDMI monitor, add a keyboard/mouse and you’ll have a nice, albeit-lightweight, desktop computing device. It has a handful of general-purpose (digital) input/output pins for gathering data and controlling output gizmos. With a little imagination, the Pi adds smarts to all kinds of physical computing projects. The Pi runs on Linux and uses the text-based command-line as the default user interface.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Online Updates from the Game Trail
It’s the beginning of August and hunting season is nearly upon us. I’m more of a fishing and “enjoy being out in the woods” type of guy. Regardless, as a devout omnivore, I never down turn a helping of venison burgers, wild hog, or gator when placed on a plate in front of me. How does hunting vector to off-the-shelf hacking? Imagine my surprise on finding a “game cam modem” in the hunting section of my monthly Bass Pro Shop flier.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Machine Vision Meets MQTT Messaging
In the past few weeks, we’ve covered recognizing objects with the JeVois sensor and sending the data to text-to-speech Processing scripts. I started thinking that passing the recognized object name and location data to other machines and systems, using the MQTT protocol, opens up a lot of additional automation possibilities. MQTT has become a common message-exchanging standard in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) worlds.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Power to the Project
Physical computing projects run on electricity. Of course, there are a few purely mechanical devices that do computing (like this cool four-bit calculator made from cardboard and marbles). Most of the time, off-the-shelf hackers need more than gravity to bring our projects to life. Today, we’ll cover the things to consider when deciding how to power a project. What, Exactly Are We Powering? Physical computing projects typically have two distinct requirements for power.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: 'I See a Machine Vision Sensor'
Last week we covered the basics of object recognition with voice synthesis. A JeVois smart machine vision sensor “sees” objects, the eSpeak command-line program “says” the name, the guvcview program interfaces to the sensor and a Processing script manages the whole works. I ran it on the old war-horse ASUS Linux notebook. This week, I’ve successfully ported everything over to run on Hedley, the robotic skull, with his built-in Raspberry Pi and gaggle of Arduino boards.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Tell Me What You See
“What is it?” my optometrist asked as I handed her the little blue JeVois camera. “It’s a machine vision sensor that uses neural networks to recognize about 1,000 different objects,” I replied. “It can also see faces and even correctly identified our dog as a Maltese,” I continued. She was suitably impressed and appreciated my showing her the $50 gadget. “This might be helpful for people with vision trouble,” she said. “Maybe with some kind of speech synthesis,” I said.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Open Source Video Production with Kdenlive
Trying to sell your ideas and projects to others requires promotion. Walking around events, I promote my tech talks using my custom steampunk conference badge as a forward-facing, portable billboard. The Generation-5 badge has a Raspberry Pi 2, a 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen and is capable of running short informational videos without freezes or flicker. It definitely attracts attention. I use kdenlive to create tech demo videos.
Off-The-Shelf Hacker: Hands-On Fast Prototyping
Producing a weekly Off-The-Shelf Hacker story is a bit of work. I write the pieces from scratch and have to shoot/edit the little video that goes with each article. There’s also uploading the copy to the content management system (CMS) with attendant edits and possibly scratch-built or heavily edited graphics. And, let’s not forget all the initial project development and trial builds that precede the actual article drafting. An OTSH story has a lot of moving parts and processes.
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