Week 1:  Principles & Practices, Project Management

1.28.2015 - 2.4.2015

Homework:

Videoconferencing:

Prior to the academy's first lecture I looked into a couple of the suggested videoconferencing platforms.  I opted for Cisco Jabber and found it easy to install and configure. 

Website Development:

At the suggestion of our instructors I reviewed student websites from Fab Academy 2014 to survey the appearance and structure of their pages.  I have little experience creating websites from scratch so my approach to both studying and my class website was to start simple and gradually get more sophisticated.

I began by looking into the basics of writing HTML.  The tutorials on Codecademy.com and W3Schools.com were very helpful for the beginner site builder to follow and a good introduction to the available HTML commands and command formats behind websites.  I returned to review a sample 2014 student sites to examine their source code and the results it  produced on their pages.

With an preliminary foundation in HTML basics I then looked into a GUI HTML editor to speed some of the website's construction.  I opted for SeaMonkey, downloaded it,  and found it's  interface very easy to use.  Keeping in mind the advice about cluttered HTML code, and using my tutorial instruction I can better navigate, manually edit, and clean up the SeaMonkey code myself in the HTML source tab. 

As the academy continues I plan to continue studying HTML and CSS in parallel with new weekly assignments and gradually adding some more features to my site to improve appearance, etc.  Shared documentation like Massimo Menichinelli's tutorial on HTML and CSS and his website template are extremely helpful. 

Archiving with Mercurial:

Mercurial seemed daunting at first given the advice about slow learning curves, inevitable minor mistakes archiving webpages, and potential problems installing it in MS Windows.
I began studying Mercurial through the fab academy Mecurial resources, installation, and troubleshooting tab through the fab academy website.  I am using a PC and 
I began by installing Mercurial first and then Cygwin according to the steps included academy's installation tutorial.  Sites that I found useful through the academy pages I have listed below:

After installation of Mercurial and Cygwin, downloading the proper keys, creating the proper directory structure, etc.  I investigated archiving the first week's homework. 

The recommended procedure for update an archive in Mercurial commands includes:

Final Project Proposal:

The inspiration for my final project was to address food waste due to spoilage and in a small way address broader issues surrounding agriculture, food distribution, energy consumption, and family economics.

As a final class project I considered developing a modular, evacuated bulk food storage compartment for domestic unrefrigerated food storage.  This compartment (or system of compartments) would be designed either to be incorporated into the structure of kitchen furniture, as a free-standing wall mounted cabinet, or possibly as a kit to retro-fit existing kitchen wall cabinetry systems.    Many present vacuum food storage systems rely on counter top or hand-operated vacuum pumps and containers such as disposable, resealable plastic bags or small, reusable, rigid containers with sealed, removable lids.  These systems require the use of specialized containers and the repackaging of food. 

The objective of this project would be to increase the shelf life of some types of unsealed food stuffs in the home with maximum convenience and reduce food waste due to spoilage. 

Key features of the proposed compartment would include:

final_project_proposal_w


Revised Final Project:

Over the course of Fab Academy I revised my final project from an evacuated cabinet described above and opted to design a fabricate a vacuum forming table.  The vacuum former's construction has elements (besides a vacuum) similar to the cabinet and uses a milled and sealed MDF structure to create a low pressure container.  Programming and electronic emphasis shifted from vacuum pump control to the heating system used to soften the plastic sheets.  The vacuum former has the potential for creation and use within a fab lab environment and as a tool the potential for wider application creating additional parts.