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09/04/2026

4 Things You NEED to Do Before Starting Your Next Raspberry Pi Project…

The easiest way to waste money on a Raspberry Pi project is to start buying parts before you actually know what you’re building.

First, define the purpose. Decide exactly what problem the project solves or what you want to learn from building it.

Then figure out your hardware before ordering anything. Check which Raspberry Pi you actually need, what accessories are required and whether your display, storage, power supply, HATs and other components are compatible.

Next, check the software. A tutorial from three years ago might use an outdated operating system, library or driver that no longer works the same way. Look for recent documentation and understand what software your build depends on.

Finally, define your minimum finished version. Decide what the project absolutely needs to do before you start adding extra features.

Planning for ten minutes before you build can save you hours of troubleshooting and a pile of parts you never needed.

09/03/2026

You Don’t Need a PLAN B If It Distracts You From Plan A

There’s a point where constantly preparing for everything that could go wrong starts taking energy away from making the thing you actually want work.

Whether you’re trying to become an engineer, build something, start a business or learn a difficult skill, meaningful progress usually requires committing enough time to get through the part where it stops being exciting and starts getting difficult.

That doesn’t mean ignoring reality or refusing to change direction.

It means giving your main goal a real chance before assuming it won’t work.

Build the project. Apply for the opportunity. Learn the skill. Fix what fails. Keep improving the plan instead of immediately replacing it.

Sometimes the best backup plan is becoming better at Plan A.

09/03/2026

The TOP 10 Engineering Majors Ranked by How Difficult They Actually Are

Every engineering student thinks their major deserves the number one spot.

But engineering majors can be difficult for completely different reasons.

Electrical engineering can involve circuits, signals, electromagnetics and heavy math. Chemical engineering combines chemistry, physics, thermodynamics and complex processes. Mechanical engineering covers everything from materials and mechanics to fluids and heat transfer.

Then you have aerospace, computer, civil, biomedical, industrial and other engineering disciplines with completely different workloads and technical challenges.

There isn’t a perfectly objective way to rank them because difficulty depends heavily on the university, curriculum and the individual student.

Someone who loves programming might struggle with chemistry while someone who loves physics might hate debugging code.

So this ranking isn’t scientific, but that probably won’t stop engineering students from arguing about it anyway.

09/02/2026

5 Reasons Your RASPBERRY PI Projects Never Actually Get Finished

Starting a Raspberry Pi project is easy. Finishing one is where things usually get complicated.

A lot of projects start with an exciting idea, but quickly expand into something much bigger. Suddenly you need another sensor, a different display, a custom enclosure, five new software packages and three features that weren’t even part of the original idea.

Hardware compatibility can slow things down too. Displays need drivers, power requirements get overlooked and components that should work together don’t always cooperate immediately.

Then comes troubleshooting.

One error can turn into hours of reading documentation, checking wiring, changing configurations and trying to figure out whether the problem is your code, hardware or operating system.

The best way to actually finish more projects is to define what the first working version needs to do before you start building. Get that simple version working first, document your progress and add the extra features afterward.

A smaller project that actually works will teach you more than an ambitious project that stays half finished forever.

Here are five reasons your Raspberry Pi projects might never be making it across the finish line.

09/01/2026

3 Reasons Your RASPBERRY PI Projects Never Actually Get Finished

Everyone has that Raspberry Pi project that started as a simple weekend build and somehow ended up sitting unfinished for the next six months.

Usually, the Raspberry Pi isn’t the problem.

Projects become difficult to finish when you start without a clear purpose, underestimate everything you’ll actually need or keep adding features before getting the basic version working.

A project that originally needed a Pi and a few components can quickly turn into buying adapters, cables, storage, power supplies and parts you didn’t realize were necessary.

Then feature creep takes over. Instead of finishing one useful function, you start adding displays, sensors, remote access, automation and five other ideas.

The easiest way to finish more Raspberry Pi projects is to decide exactly what the first working version needs to accomplish before you build anything.

Build that first.

Then make it better.

09/01/2026

Ranking ENGINEERING Majors Based on Who’s Actually the Smartest

Every engineering major thinks their major is the hardest, so I figured it was time to settle the argument.

Electrical and computer engineers deal with circuits, signals, electronics and systems you can’t even see. Mechanical engineers somehow have to understand everything that moves. Civil engineers design things that thousands of people trust with their lives. Chemical engineers combine chemistry, physics and math into one degree for some reason.

And then there’s aerospace, biomedical, industrial, software and every other engineering major with their own completely different set of problems.

Obviously, your major doesn’t actually determine how smart you are. This ranking is mostly for fun because every engineering discipline requires a different type of problem solving.

But that isn’t going to stop engineering students from arguing about the ranking.

09/01/2026

5 CYBERDECK Problems Nobody Warns You About Before You Build One

Cyberdecks look simple until you actually try building one.

It seems like you just need a Raspberry Pi, display, keyboard and battery, but getting all of those components to work together inside one portable system creates problems you probably won’t think about at first.

Power is one of the biggest challenges. Your Pi, display and accessories all need stable power, and adding a battery makes charging, runtime and power management even more complicated.

Then you have heat, cable management, component placement and actually designing an enclosure that fits everything without becoming massive.

Software can create another layer of problems when displays, GPIO hardware, drivers or peripherals don’t work exactly how you expected.

That’s also what makes cyberdecks such good projects.

You’re not just putting a Raspberry Pi in a cool case. You’re solving mechanical, electrical and software problems while designing an entire computer around your own requirements.

Here are five problems worth knowing before you start your first cyberdeck.

08/31/2026

Ranking Engineering Majors by How LIKELY AI Is to Replace Their Jobs

AI is going to affect almost every engineering field, but that doesn’t mean engineers are simply going to disappear.

Engineering jobs involve much more than producing calculations or writing code. Engineers design physical systems, work with real hardware, test prototypes, make safety decisions and take responsibility for systems that have to work outside of a computer.

Some fields may see more individual tasks automated than others, particularly work involving repetitive analysis, documentation or software.

But there’s an important difference between AI automating part of an engineer’s job and replacing the engineer entirely.

So this ranking is based on how exposed different engineering majors could be to AI automation, not whether the entire profession is going away.

08/31/2026

Why You Should NEVER Stop Learning If You Want to Work in Tech

Technology moves too fast to ever really be finished learning.

The programming language you know today will change. New hardware will replace old hardware. Tools will improve, standards will evolve and entirely new fields will appear.

That’s why one of the most valuable skills in engineering and technology isn’t memorizing everything. It’s becoming good at learning something you’ve never seen before.

Build projects. Read documentation. Take things apart. Make mistakes. Ask questions. Learn why something failed instead of immediately moving on.

You don’t have to know everything.

You just have to keep learning.

08/30/2026

The ONLY 2 Things You Need to Build a WiFi Controlled LED Strip

You can build a surprisingly capable WiFi controlled lighting system with essentially two main components: an ESP32 and a compatible LED strip.

The ESP32 is a small microcontroller with built in WiFi. Instead of needing a separate computer connected to the project, it can run the code controlling the LEDs while also communicating with your phone or computer over your network.

Pair it with an addressable LED strip and you can control individual LEDs, create animations, change brightness and build custom lighting effects entirely through software.

You can take the project further by adding a web interface, buttons, sensors or automation, but the basic concept stays incredibly simple.

One ESP32.

One LED strip.

And you have the foundation for a customizable WiFi controlled lighting system you programmed yourself.

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