https://rickhallihan.com Trying to change the world, one thought at a time Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:04:25 +0000 Copyright 2026 Rick Hallihan. Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://rickhallihan.com/#2022/04/25/back-from-first-championship-2022 Random 2022-04-25 [](media/2022-04-01/img_0919.jpg) Over the past 8 years, my wife and I have coached youth robotics teams through the FIRST Robotics programs. This year, the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team we coach qualified to be one of two teams representing North Carolina at the FIRST Championship in Houston Texas, where the robot they designed, built, and programmed, competed with 79 other robots in their division. They also presented to volunteer judges on their sea https://rickhallihan.com/#2018/08/23/budget-birthday-gaming-pc-build Technology 2018-08-23 My son decided that he wanted to build a gaming PC for his 11th birthday earlier this month. It's been years since I have done a PC build, but I was pretty sure I could remember/figure out how to attach pieces together into a functional PC. We started the process with a shared (OneDrive) Word Doc. I wanted my son to do as much of the research as possible. He had a pretty good handle on all of the necessary components from endless gaming Youtubers explanations of their rigs. When he had to make a https://rickhallihan.com/#2018/07/12/project-card-skimmer-detector-via-make Technology 2018-07-12 It's summertime, which means the kids are on and off camp throughout the summer.  We've done a few projects in the past with Raspberry Pi and Arduino, and this project for a [Card Skimmer Detector](https://makezine.com/projects/gas-pump-skimmer-scanner/) came across my feed from Make. Not content with just following instructions, I ordered a [slightly different display](https://www.adafruit.com/product/3527) than the one used by Tyler Winegarner for the article.  I'm hopeful that it's similar en