where does this go on davepedu.com

modernizing this blog

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My personal website has existed in some form since the late 2000s, and like many hobby projects, it has been rebuilt far more times than strictly necessary. My taste in tech stacks has changed over time, and each version reflects whatever I was experimenting with at the time.

These are some of thee iterations it has gone through over the years, and what is to come:

2011 - WordPress

Early 2012 - A single word to mark my existence on the Internet

Late 2012 - Cheesy wood paneling and filler text

Early 2013 - A fully custom Python blog engine

Late 2013 - Drupal 7 on a new .io domain

2014 - Design changes

2016 - More design changes

Aside - this list was actually a lot of fun to put together. I had forgotten entirely about some of these iterations.

Out of all of these, the Drupal 7 iteration lasted, by far, the longest. Which, itself, is amusing. Drupal is implemented in PHP, and there is a lot of writing on the internet about whether PHP is the greatest language or a terrible language. But either way, it is undeniable that PHP is like a cockroach that will not die.

But why Drupal, anyways? It bills itself as being for Enterprise, which usually means large and hulking codebases. And it is. When I set up this site using Drupal, I was working for the Rochester Institute of Technology, building the school’s own websites in Drupal. It was already familiar to me from this, so it was easy enough to use Drupal for my own purposes.

But, I eventually stopped working with Drupal and web development in general as I moved into other roles - which I wrote about here - and I didn’t keep up with Drupal or PHP’s evolution. Which, for Drupal, actually would have required some serious re-writes as the theme rendering layer was changed pretty drastically from version 7 to 8. But that’s probably more detail about Drupal than anyone needs.

PHP too, changed. My Drupal website was written to work with PHP 5, which hasn’t been supported for years. Server operating systems have long dropped support for it. Between it and Drupal’s age, it’s honestly a miracle the site never got hacked.

PHP evolved, Drupal evolved, became more complicated, and I did not keep up. So now it is time to build something new, and to keep it simple this time around.

This time, I’ve decided to use Hugo, which is a static website framework. In summary, you give it your content formatted in Markdown which it will organize and feed into a template, which then in turn outputs HTML.

This post, too, is a Markdown file that contains the text you see and some metadata at the top:

+++
title = "modernizing this blog"
date = "2026-03-14"
author = "Dave"
cover = "img/IMG_1053_cropped.jpg"
hideCoverInSingle = true
description = "This blog has been migrated to a static website, using Hugo!"
tags = ["Programming", "Meta"]
+++

I’ll lose a few things by switching to a simple static site. I could update the Drupal website from anywhere - just log in and write a new post, or save it as a draft. And the comment section - sorry, you’ll have to write to me directly now.

I’m also switching to my original davepedu.com domain, instead of dpedu.io. The .io domain was trendy at some point in the past, and I’ve come to think that a classic .com is better anyway. On top of that, it allows me to keep the old Drupal site online at dpedu.io while I manually extract content from Drupal and re-write it for Hugo. After a time, that domain will redirect here as well. The old site didn’t have terribly much content, but I’m also going through unpublished drafts and making them into real posts.

The new hosting stack will be similar, too. Before, I had a bare-metal dedicated server rented from OVH. I went with dedicated servers since at the time I was working on computer infrastructure. Another big complex thing I don’t want to take care of anymore, hah. I’ll be sticking with OVH, but I’ll be using a VPS instead. A VPS is a good middle ground - over something completely hands-off like static hosting on Cloudflare - because it still gives me a place to play sysadmin, which I enjoy. And everything configured on it will be installed with a simple form of configuration management - but more on that in a future post.

Of course, I couldn’t resist adding a bit of engineering fun.

I’ve written a Go-based application that acts like a toy version of AWS’s S3 static website hosting. It’s called s3static, and is meant to be used with S3-compatible storage systems such as Minio or RustFS. But more about that project in its own dedicated post.

Traefik will also be involved. It’s meant for Kubernetes but works great with a text config file too. It also automatically handles TLS certificates via Let’s Encrypt, for which I used an unusual and convoluted process, which is a whole other story.

Hopefully, keeping things simple will help this version stick around. Either way, rebuilding the site has been a fun excuse to revisit old memories, clean things up, and experiment with a few new tools.

davepedu.com chief technology officer

isle of man TT

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, I traveled from my home in California to the Isle of Man, which is a 35 mile long island in the Irish Sea, known for its motorsports events. The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, meaning they are effectively their own country, though they technically belong to the British monarchy.

The Isle of Man is most well known for the Isle Of Man Tourist Trophy - a 2-week motorcycle racing event held on the island’s public roads. For those two weeks, the public roads close down on weekdays, and are used instead as a roughly 38 mile long circuit raceway. In addition, many public events are held during the race weeks. It’s quite the spectacle.

The options for lodging on the island are actually pretty interesting - the local government runs a program called Homestay, which encourages residents to rent out extra bedrooms to tourists. It’s a pretty great experience - much more interesting than a hotel, and the rates can be lower too. This is what I did - I rented a bedroom in the town of Peel, the third-largest town on the island. More on Peel below.

This album covers sights from the island and along the way, so there is something for everyone.

A custom motorcycle parked on the streets of Douglas.

I live in California, and the Isle of Man is about 5,000 miles away from me. Its airport is small so there is no direct flight from here, so between my various connecting flights I traveled about 6,000 miles in total - one way. Fun fact - the “halfway around the world” idiom if taken literally is about 12,000 miles, and I traveled half of that. Halfway to halfway around the world!

A layover of about a day at London Gatwick Airport allowed me to spend the day in London. I took the classic double-decker bus tour, and a boat tour on the River Thames. I didn’t have a set agenda besides these items, and effectively wandered otherwise. I first found myself in Hyde Park, which features many historical monuments.

Australian War Memorial

From Wikipedia:

The Australian War Memorial in London is a memorial dedicated in 2003 to the 102,000 Australian dead of the First and Second World Wars.

New Zealand War Memorial

From Wikipedia:

The New Zealand War Memorial in London is a memorial to the war dead of New Zealand in the First and Second World Wars, unveiled in 2006. Officially named “Southern Stand”, the memorial was designed by architect John Hardwick-Smith and sculptor Paul Dibble, both from New Zealand.

Big Ben

Big Ben was undergoing some sort of construction work that required it to be nearly enclosed in scaffolding. Unfortunately, you couldn’t see most of it. The Palace of Westminster is on the left.

Close up of the clock face, behind which Big Ben - which is technically the name for the bell inside - sits.

Tower Bridge

We were going to cross it on the bus earlier, but the driver informed us we could not because some sort of protest was taking place on the bridge, blocking traffic. This is seen from the dock where the boat tours launched from.

classic London black cab

London Victoria Station

Having spent the morning and early afternoon exploring London, the time came to catch my flight to the Isle of Man. I took the Gatwick Express out of London back to Gatwick airport.

race day

This isn’t a bike competing in the day’s races, but it was race day on the island! The number of motorcycles that appeared on the island was impressive. Fields upon fields of parked bikes.

Douglas

The race was on! This is a racer speeding through Douglas, the largest town and capital of the Isle of Man. You can see that they literally do just use the island’s public streets for the race course - and the public comes out to watch.

It’s difficult to describe how fast these racers move. It’s nothing like standing next to a highway - these bikes move at more than double highway speed - on average! The record average speed for an entire lap is 136 MPH, held by Peter Hickman. Of course, this average speed includes slower parts of the course. On simpler portions of the course, such as straightaways, speeds over 200 MPH are frequently attained.

sidecar race

In addition to motorcycles, races with “sidecar” motorcycles are also run.

Really, they aren’t motorcycles under the hood at all. It’s not a motorcycle with a sidecar added. It’s a completely custom machine for this specific class of race.

During the race week, races happen Monday / Wednesday / Friday, with Tuesday and Thursday being break/prep days. This downtime in between race days gave me plenty of time to look at other sights on the Isle of Man.

cat

Cat.

Douglas Promenade

The island’s capital and largest city, Douglas, is situated on a small bay, and features a seafront walkway known as the Promenade. During TT week, many events and shops set up here. The race doesn’t come though here, but this can be considered the city’s downtown.

Tower of Refuge

The Tower of Refuge is a short distance out to sea in Douglas Bay, and can be seen from the Promenade. It was built as shelter for shipwrecked sailors. The coastline along Douglas forms a nice bay, but this island, St Mary’s Isle aka Conister Rock, is part of a submerged reef that posed significant risk to ships historically. So, in 1832, the Tower of Refuge was built as a miniature castle as a shelter for shipwrecked sailors.

Bench along the Promenade, displaying the Isle of Man’s National symbol, a triskelion.

Suzuki V-Strom

Seen parked along the Promenade. This is the same model of bike I own back home. I don’t see many of them in the wild, probably less than 10 instances since I’ve had it.

Town of Peel, evening

I had rented a room in the town of Peel as mentioned earlier, so I returned here once it became evening. During TT week, the island runs many and frequent bus routes, which made getting around the island really easy, and relatively inexpensive. Peel is on the opposite side of the island compared to Douglas, but it wasn’t a very long bus ride - about 10 miles.

I’m told that the word “peel” in the Manx language - a Gaelic Celtic language spoken by the island’s original inhabitants - means “castle”, and as such, Peel’s bay and coastline is dominated by the ruins of a castle, to the right side of the photo.

same spot overlooking Peel Beach, next morning

Peel Beach

Eurasian Oystercatchers on Peel’s beach.

Peel Lighthouse

A small lighthouse on the breakwater that protects Peel’s marina.

Peel Castle

Seen from Peel Beach. Nice sunlight this morning.

A wider shot.

Looking into the castle’s courtyards from a nearby hill.

Inside the castle.

Further inside the castle.

Another triskelion flying above the castle.

Coast Guard station

The island’s Coast Guard operates a station on Peel beach. Here, they have a lifeboat to assist ships in distress. On a moment’s notice, the boat is moved out of this enclosure and down a ramp into the sea. The tractor in the foreground is a Talus MB-H amphibious tractor.

Peel, from above

There is a large hill on the west side of Peel that gives a great vantage point to see the town from above. Looking northeast.

hiking from Peel

There is a hiking trail that encircles the island, known as the Coastal Path. I walked a portion of it departing from Peel. A large percentage of the island’s coastline is impassable rocky cliffs like this, which makes the land of little use beyond farming.

livestock gate

While the hiking trail is public, it passes through many different farms, each separated by short rock walls. These peculiar gates are installed along the wall to allow hikers to pass though. The gate is designed with an unlatched and movable swinging portion in the center. It’s shaped such that a livestock animals - sheep and goats were common - cannot pass through the gate, but humans can.

Ramsey, another race day

The next day, I found my way to the town of Ramsey, near the north end of the island. My impression of Ramsey is that it is more of a blue-collar working town, particularly around the fishing industry.

Conrod’s

I saw this cute and on-theme coffee shop, sign complete with engine parts and another triskelion.

action!

Ramsey was a great place to watch from, featuring several straightaways and hairpin corners.

One particular corner had a pub’s outdoor seating area situated in it. It was a great place to watch the bikers whiz by, mere inches away, while you were being served food and drink.

Isle of Man Motor Museum

Located relatively close to Ramsey is the Isle of Man Motor Museum. Its indoor showroom features countless rare - but also some common - cars, trucks, motorcycles, military equipment, and other vehicles. Active restoration work was going on within the museum’s workshops as well.

The Peel P50 - as seen on Top Gear - claimed the title of being the smallest production car in the world could also be seen here.

under the Queen’s Pier

The Queen’s Pier in Ramsey was built in the 1880s as a place for ships to pick up and drop off passengers. It was closed in the 1990s due to safety concerns and remained closed for about 25 years. At the time of my visit, restoration work was just getting started, and the pier has since reopened.

Towards the bottom of the photo, you can see how rusted out the metal supports are.

Another view of the Queen’s Pier, from a distance so that we may see its length.

electric rail

The island runs a historical electric railway, called the Manx Electric Railway. Again dating from the late 19th century, the railway runs on 550 volts DC and features roughly 25 electric trams. It holds the title of being the the oldest electric tram line in the world in the sense that most of its electric trams are original, some dating back over a century.

A close-up of the hand-painted insignia on the side of the electric tram.

The railway snakes along the eastern coast, providing excellent scenic views of some quieter parts of the island.

Laxey and Laxey Wheel

The electric rail eventually brought me to the village of Laxey, where there is a small station and junction. From here, one can take another train up Snaefell Mountain, the highest peak on the island, or view some attractions in Laxey. Pictured above is Laxey Wheel, and enormous waterwheel. It holds the title of being the largest surviving original working waterwheel in the world, built in 1854.

Laxey is a historic mining town. In the 19th and early 20th century, large amounts of lead and zinc were mined here. The ore was washed on various washing floors - basically wide open spaces with flowing water - that still exist today.

Laxey Wheel served as a water pump to deliver water to these floors and other mining operations. The wheel itself is about 72 feet in diameter, 6 feet wide, and spins at 3 rotations per minute.

The wheel is now a National Heritage site.

Snaefell Mountain Summit

From Laxey, I took the electric rail up to the summit of Snaefell Mountain. There is a small restaurant at the top, but it seemed to have been closed for some time. You could go inside in case of bad weather, but no food was available.

The railway takes you right to the top. No hiking required!

I’ll be honest - taking a century-old vehicle up a mountain did seem a little scary. The railway was steep and wound around the contours of the mountain, making working brakes absolutely critical. Looking back after some research, the railway does have an excellent safety record, which puts my mind at ease.

An electric tram, departing.

Scenic view from the summit.

Calf of Man

Later, I made my way down to the southernmost tip of the main island. Not far from shore is another island, known as the Calf of Man. The name comes from the island’s shape; it roughly looks like a lamb calf - distinct legs, a body, and a head section.

The Calf of Man is uninhabited, but there are a few historic structures on it.

Sea wildlife, near the Calf of Man, in an area known as Cow Harbour.

hiking to Port of Erin

From the shorelines near the Calf of Man, hiking trails depart allowing you to walk either towards the east side of the island, or the west side. I chose the west side, taking a trail that would eventually arrive at the Port of Erin.

Despite being only about 3 miles long, I found the hike somewhat difficult. As you can see in the image above, the coastline the trail follows slopes steeply towards the ocean. This made walking difficult as your ankles constantly wanted to roll sideways down the hillside.

Wildlife along the trail.

Trail signage. “Raad Ny Foillan” - Manx for “The Way of the Gull” is the same trail seen earlier near Peel that encircles the island. I believe this sign is marking the fork in the trail that takes you either on the trails along the west or east side of the island. The coastline of the island meanders enough that despite the entire island being only about 30 miles long, the trail’s length is nearly 100 miles.

Milner’s Tower

When approaching the Port of Erin, a picturesque stone tower can be seen on a hill overlooking the port’s bay. Milner’s Tower - built atop Bradda Head - was built to honor a local businessman, William Milner, in the mid 19th century, for his love and support for the town.

Closer view of Milner’s Tower tower. It’s tall towers and narrow footprint gives it an extremely fairytale-like appearance.

Port of Erin beach

Port of Erin is an adorable little town, seemingly a hot spot for beach-going tourists.

Isle of Man Railway

Separate from the electric railway in the north of the island, the southern half of the island is serviced by a historic steam railway. Today, the trains run from Port of Erin to Douglas. I took this train from Port of Erin, stopped in Castletown along the way, and eventually made it back to Douglas where I called it a day.

final race day

The next day was the final day of racing. On the final day, the main event - The Senior TT - is run. This is the event the island is known for.

Pictured here is a bike and crew participating in the race. Just like in other motorsports, the crews keep heaters on the bike’s tires right up until go time, as seen here. Hot tires grip the roads better, allowing racers to corner faster and make better time.

the end

This concludes my time on the Isle of Man. I stayed on the island for almost two weeks and had time to see many of the historic and cultural sites on the island, in addition to the motorsport races. The Tourist Trophy races have been run for over a century now, deeply intertwining the two. Learning about the island’s history and culture was horizon broadening. As someone who grew up in a small town, the layout and scale of the Isle of Man made me feel right at home.

I was very fortunate to have been visiting at a time when some of the best weather in years was rolling though. The British Isles are famously rainy and dreary, and the Isle of Man is no exception. However, we had clear weather nearly every single day during my stay. I recall about an hour of rain during one cloudy day, but no more.

Here, on the northernmost point of the island, stands a lighthouse called The Winkie. That’s me standing on it!

the author

The author of this blog, photographed at Jurby Junk, a sprawling “bric-a-brac” store.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip. I sure enjoyed the trip itself, and writing this post. The race was amazing to see, and staying with the locals rather than sleeping in a hotel made the trip a truly special experience I’ll never forget.

If you enjoyed my story and photos, or are planning a trip of your own, let me know!

on moving to the Bay Area and engaging with Startups

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area almost 3 years ago now. Having grown up in a small town (~2000 people) and gone to school in a small city (Rochester metropolitan area, New York ~1,000,000), it was not unexpectedly quite the shocking transition.

Most of my observations of difference are fairly mundane - traffic patterns are different, more timid in some ways, and more aggressive in others. Endless cool summer sun is easy to love. So many cultures and cuisines all in one place. A beautiful setting, and at the same time, it’s ground zero for the information technology revolution upending the world.

I saw what the Bay’s tech industry had to offer and found my niche over time. I came here to work for HP, an ancient giant in the hard and software industry, doing web development for marketing websites. I eventually found my way into the Startup Lottery, designing and operating critical core infrastructure for “big data” applications.

Startups are generally small companies that attempt to use computers and code to tackle challenges previously thought as too hard for such a small team. And the Lottery is the right term for how startups ebb and flow in the Bay.

Every so often, a “new thing” becomes the popular “new thing” and a thousand startups pop up around it. Doing “it” directly, supporting “it”, documenting “it”, consulting about “it”, defending from “it”, whatever “it” may be. The Dot-Com boom in the early 2000s, Web 2 and Social media in the later 2000s, early Apps in the 2010s, Big data in the mid 2010s, the list goes on. When it looks like there is not anyone left that wants to pay any more money for the old thing, a new thing pops up and the cycle begins anew. A handful of those startups may survive, and actually become profitable and valuable. And the few investors and few early employees in that company reap what is left of their particular thing, which is still substantially much, even though everyone is paying attention to the “new thing” now.

Once you understand that, you can see why working for a startup in Silicon Valley is like playing the lottery. You probably won’t, but there’s a slim chance you could pick the right company, stick with it, and be rewarded.

Even if that doesn’t happen, working for a startup is rewarding in other ways too. These companies understand they are inherently unstable, and as people generally prefer stable occupations over unstable ones, make up for it with anything from laid-back offices with free snacks to higher salaries. And as different types of perks appeal to different people, each startup tends to have a different personality.

As these companies are usually small, each employee is often in a greater position of responsibility. Large companies tend to let employees hyperfocus in specific areas and make slow changes involving a large number of people. Startups have fewer employees, which means each one must manage a larger slice of the company’s footprint.

In practice, this kind of environment pushes us engineers to think in terms of scale and leverage much earlier in their careers.

The only practical way to operate is to gain this leverage through automation. Tasks that might be handled manually in an older and larger organization quickly become unsustainable. You begin to look at systems not as one-off deployments or fixes, but as processes that must run reliably over and over again with minimal human involvement.

Automation is a force multiplier: the good decisions scale, but so do the bad ones. A poorly designed process that runs once might cause a small inconvenience. A poorly designed process that runs automatically across an entire fleet can cause a disaster in seconds. A process that works well in isolation may fail when invoked thousands of times simultaneously. Because of that, building automation forces a special kind of discipline. You have to research the tools you use, think through edge cases, make predictions with limited information and understand the systems you’re interacting with much more deeply than if you were just executing tasks by hand.

Over time, that kind of work develops a particular sort of experience. In larger organizations, thinking about systems at that scale is often the responsibility of architects or senior infrastructure teams. In a startup environment, those responsibilities fall much earlier in a person’s career. When a small group of engineers is responsible for keeping a large and complex system running, everyone ends up participating in the design decisions that shape how it works.

That puts you in an unusual position. You’re simultaneously operating the systems, building the automation around them, and deciding how they should evolve. The feedback loop between design and operation becomes very tight, or even nonexistent on a bad day. You feel the consequences of your decisions immediately, which encourages you to design things in ways that are easier to operate, monitor, repair, and repeat.

It also builds a habit of intentional experimentation. When your tools can affect large systems very quickly, you learn to test ideas in small steps. Changes get staged, rehearsed, and validated before they touch anywhere important. The process becomes less about heroics and more about methodical iteration.

In that sense, working in a startup environment isn’t just about “moving fast”. It’s about learning how to build systems that can move fast safely. And that combination of large responsibility, heavy reliance on automation, and constant experimentation creates a kind of practical architectural experience that would otherwise take many more years, and a much larger organization, to acquire.

And it’s fun to build and drive big toys using other people’s money.

In my current role, a large part of that philosophy shows up in the tools we create and use to operate our systems. I spend a lot of time working with tools like Ansible and SaltStack, both of which are designed to control and coordinate large groups of machines at once. Each brings its own model for turning a small amount of human effort into changes across an entire environment. Used well, they make it possible for our small team to operate infrastructure of surprising scale.

And honestly? All of this - the Lottery, the scale, the rewards - adds up to a whole lot of fun. The confident, but still nervous, satisfying feeling of seeing your change take effect on exponentially more systems is pretty addicting.

coast to coast

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In 2014, I graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and shortly moved to the Bay Area, California. I drove my car, filled with all of my possessions, from New York to California. These are some of the sights I saw along the way.

First stop!

Our first stop was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, where we saw the 1911 Marmon “Wasp”, winner of the first Indianapolis 500, as well as a few other classic race cars.

Kansas

…Is less flat than I was led to believe, but still pretty flat. And thousands of these windmills.

Castle Rock, CO

Our third stop. An adorable town south of Denver.

Climbing the rock

We climbed the ‘Castle Rock’. Great view of what was going on in town.

Looking west

From the top of castle rock, we could clearly see the Rockies looming in the distance, snow peaked in June. We’re going over that.

The peaks

We stopped in one of the mountain towns, along our approach to the summit, for gas, near the tipping point.

Nature in the Rockies

Can’t beat highway rest stops with a view like this.

Cliff

I think this was on the west side of the Rockies.

Utah

Made it into Utah. Amazing how much more dry it was. (And my awesome car!)

More Utah

Crazy rocks in Utah

Salt flats in Nevada

Flats isn’t an exaggeration. Hard to walk on, too. It’s difficult like beach sand, but slippery and sticky.

Honda

Another shot :-)

2 days later, in California

Emigrant Gap

Southwest of the bay

Looking directly at the area I’ll be living/working in!

Pacific Ocean

Finally ran out of road.

Beach Cave

Obligatory Golden Gate photo

You knew it was coming.

Learn2bridge

Downtown San Francisco

Shot from Coit tower

Lombard Street

You can bet I went and drove down it after.

Santa Cruz

South of the Bay

My new office!

Yeah buddy.

All in all, a wonderful drive that took about a week. I was lucky enough to have my father come along with my for the trip. It was a lot of fun, and it was great to see this beautiful country.

RIT Project Lead The Way Website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

A website Project Lead The Way Website, where the Rochester Institute of Technology serves as New York State’s National Affiliate.

This website has since been decommissioned and replaced with an updated design, but my work may still be viewed via archive.org.

RIT University Arenas Website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

A massive Drupal website, that took us nearly two months to design and develop! It’s fully responsive, has some great animation and attention to detail, and a good number of photos from previous events at RIT.

This website has since been decommissioned and replaced with an updated design, but my work may still be viewed via archive.org.

RIT Board of Trustees Intranet Portal

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The RIT Board of Trustees Intranet Portal is a CodeIgniter based web application that I designed and developed. It is an intranet website that is used to disseminate meeting materials for the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Board of Trustees meetings, as well as poll its members for attendance, feedback, etc.

Code from this project was re-used for another project, the RIT President’s Roundtable, an advisory committee for the President of RIT.

RIT Center for Urban Entrepreneurship Website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Another beautiful Drupal website, this time for RIT’s Center for Urban Entrepreneurship in downtown Rochester.

This one was designed in-house at RIT Production Services, with a nice Responsive theme for mobile phones and tablets as well.

This website has since been decommissioned and replaced with an updated design, but my work may still be viewed via archive.org.

kennedy space center, cape canaveral, florida

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Last November, I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while visiting relatives living in the area. I had never been there before, so I went for it!

I may be a tech geek, but these amazing machines fascinate me. The sheer amount of research, time, and trial-and-error fueling these machines is simply incredible. Staring at the results of the most advanced transportation machines made by mankind is mind boggling.

If you have any interested in space exploration or that sort of thing, check it out!

Entry

Right at the entrance, we were greeted by an array of rockets used over the years. The specific names of all the models escape me, but the largest one is the legendary Saturn 5 model - the most powerful machine ever built by man.

Motor Closeup

The business end of this rocket looks more like a tangled mess of tubes and wires, but its a very advanced and complicated machine.

Stone Ball Skymap

Instead of a boring fountain, the center had a map of the cosmos carved into a 2 ton granite sphere, suspended and slowly rotating on a water base. With enough force you could spin it a different direction!

Atlantis Base

The solid state rockets and liquid fuel tank for the Atlantis Space shuttle, The picture doesn’t do any justice to just how massive this is.

Facility Panorama (Click the full-size image for a better view)

A panorma with a view of several facilities. The location this was shot from was formerly a public viewing area for space launches, but has been deemed too dangerous since then.

Click the full-size image for a better view

TODO not clickable right now.

Crawler

One of NASA’s two land crawlers, currently being outfitted for SpaceX missions.

Vehicle Assembly Plant

This building is where every NASA space vehicle is assembled. Again, the picture does no justice to the height of this building.

Another Crawler

Another one of NASA’s land crawlers, hiding inside.

Seaside Bunker

Looking out into the Atlantic, one of the main launch platforms would have been behind me. According to our guide this little bunker was used to house sensitive equipment for detecting electricity in the air, as lightning is a grave threat to launches.

Lightning Towers

3 lightning towers designed to direct bolts away from the launch pad that they surround.

Saturn 5 Rocket Base

The business end of a decomissioned Saturn 5. Walking the length of this rocket takes minutes! 20 tons of fuel per minute would flow through here.

Saturn 5, second stage

Command Module

Apollo Guidelines

A list of mission status and abort codes from the Apollo era. View full size to read it.

TODO full size

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The retired Space Shuttle Atlantis. 🇺🇸 ‘Murica!

Birds!

That’s the last of the space pictures, I took a few quick shots of birds outside my hotel a few days later on the same trip.

A Pelican

“What you lookin’ at?”

Lucky Shot!

A gull dive-bombing to catch a fish, at the moment of impact. Took quite a few trys to capture this!

RIT KGCOE Website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This was actually a project I completed about a year prior, but we decided to revisit it to update the site and add responsive design features - try the site on a smartphone, it’s excellent!

The layout was designed in house and I did 100% of the development work. The old layout dated back to 2002, so it was obvious this site needed a refresh! It’s amazing how much different the web looks, now.

The KGCOE website was the first of a new family of websites - or a group of websites with a similar look and feel. The layout was adapted for several more Engineering websites at RIT, including Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. These sites also share some content - Staff and facility listings, for example - and that was interesting to put together.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how the site came out, and working with the school’s Engineering department was great!

Additionally, this website won a Silver Award, given by The w3 Awards in its Best of the Web competition.

The new College of Engineering website was honored for its homepage design, the structure and navigation of the site as well as its visual appeal. Undergoing a complete redesign in the past academic year, the site incorporates multiple carousel images and stories of student and faculty work, separate informational sections for prospective students and corporate partners, testimonials as well as in-depth information about majors and programs offered in the college. Contributors for the site include: Bhalla; Bastian; David Pedu, Web programmer; and Karen Ester, communications specialist in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

Two of our Web projects were recognized by W3 last year, so it is great to get continued recognition from them this year as well. It’s a testament to the immense talent that we have internally at RIT,” said Raman Bhalla, assistant director, Web/IT services.

- RIT News

This website has since been decommissioned and replaced with an updated design, but my work may still be viewed via archive.org.

RIT Innovative Learning Institute Website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The Innovative Learning Institute at RIT is a new department, under the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies branch. The layout is very similar to the CMS website, and was also designed by Dumbwaiter Design.

This website has since been decommissioned and replaced with an updated design, but my work may still be viewed via archive.org.

oktoberfest 2013

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Every October, the ski resort at Whiteface Mountain has a small Oktoberfest. Traditional German music, food, beer, and demonstrations are featured, and many local vendors come to show off their homemade crafts.

This is the first time I’ve gone in many years, and the first time I went being older than 21! It’s a ton of fun and is definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area during the skiing offseason.

The atmosphere at these events is always awesome, it’s friendly and inviting. And I’ll never forget the angry-sounding accordionist saying “Drink the beer, Now” in his thick accent.

Whiteface Lodge

Deck of the Whiteface Lodge, at the foot of Little Whiteface and Whiteface mountains

Grounds

Looking out over the grounds of the area, many local vendors set up tents to show off their homemade products every year.

Cloudsplitter Gondola

The quickest way to the top of Little Whiteface!

Yodelers

A group of 3 yodelers and their alphorns, these instruments were traditionally used for communicating mountaintop to mountaintop in the past.

Yodeler Show

Inside the Whiteface Lodge, the Yodelers teamed up with a traditional German band, DSB die Schlauberger.

Traditional Accordion Player

I really wish this photo came out better. Oh well!

Selfie!

This guy was awesome.

Up the cloudsplitter!

Can’t beat that view! This is why I love the Adirondacks.

Looking down

Halfway up the mountain, looking down.

Base camp

A better view of the festivities below. The line across the picture is the arm-size cable hauling our gondola to the summit.

Almost to the top!

Nearly there! And an amazing view of the surrounding mountains.

Yodeling

We met our yodeling friends from earlier, they were demonstrating how sound from their alphorns could be bounced off other mountains and heard echoing. Very neat demo!

Whiteface

Facing the opposite direction as the previous photo, the view of Whiteface from Little Whiteface.

Alphorns

The business end of some of these horns. Looking east.

Locking horns

Horn artwork

Very pretty!

Trails

Facing north, a good view of the ski trails connecting the two mountains.

Summit

A short distance from the gondola drop-off, the peak of Little Whiteface.

Tribute

A tribute to soldiers of a local division in WWII, a gift from Italy.

Olympic Ski Jumps

Not the best photo, but I think it came out alright considering the range was about 12 miles.

Olympic Bobsled Runs

Another long distance shot at about 8 miles, the Olympic Bobsled run at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.

Lake Placid

Facing west, the view of Lake Placid from the mountain.

Ticket

My “Cannon” and my ticket.

RIT Center for Multidisciplinary Studies Website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The CMS Website was created for RIT’s Center for Multidisciplenary Studies, and was graphically designed by Dumbwaiter Design and developed by myself. It’s based on Drupal to allow the CMS staff to easily create and post content to the website.

This project was a new challenge - typically, all of our designs were created in-house. Which is very convenient, if I need anything changed or clarification it’s a 10 second walk to talk to the designer. But, working with the CMS staff and Dumbwaiter Design went absolutely great!

This website has since been decommissioned and replaced with an updated design, but my work may still be viewed via archive.org.

exploring benson mines

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Benson Mines is a long-abandoned iron mine near Watertown, NY.

The mine was shut down in 1978 and the buildings and have been left to nature ever since. It’s a great visualization of nature slowly reclaiming it’s land.

I stopped by with a friend on a rainy day on my way back to Rochester from the Adirondacks. The rain was moderate at times and the buildings were alive with the sound of dripping water.

Without further ado, the album:

Entrance

Entrance to the facility - and my car!

Machine Shop

Judging from the abundance of 440 volt hookups in the building, this likely was some sort of machine shop.

Safety for All

No Entrance

Back door to the machine shop.

Ore Silos

Rusting silo between concrete silos for holding iron ore. It looked like there was more machinery on top of the silos that had rusted away and collapsed.

Overgrown

Tree blocking a doorway.

Garage Door

Outside view of another building showing the decay of the area.

Burned Steps

Even older looking stairs - the mine has history back to the 1800s, but this is probably not that old. The building on top of it appears to have burned, leaving behind electric wires and boxes.

Abandoned Excavator

…With no bucket. Likely a Massey Ferguson 450.

Abandoned Excavator’s Engine

Machine Shop Roof

Outdoor view of the first building, the roof on this side is nearly rotted through. Most of the buildings were built with cinderblock walls, metal trusses, and wooden roofing.

Workshop

Inside another building, some sort of workshop.

Worker’s Desk

Transformer Gauge

The guts of the transformer were missing, probably stolen by copper thieves.

Office Building

One of the few two-story buildings, with major fire damage inside.

Another office

Some sort of office area, completely rotted out.

Bathroom and Sink

Likely decimated by vandals.

Outside

The office/bathroom is inside this building, and the first building in the album is visible through the trees in the background.

Exit (Entrance)

2025 Update

Benson Mines has had a complete transformation over the last couple years. The site was sold to a new owner, who demolished almost every building, clearing the site. More recently, the site has been transferred to a new developer who plans to create a 12-megawatt solar energy generation facility! While it appears Benson Mines’ days as a mine are over, it will live on as a new and futuristic facility.

RIT Wildenhain Exhibition website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A website showcasing the work of mid century artist Frans Wildenhain, built on WordPress. Features a prominent art photo gallery, and a WordPress blog.

Additionally, this website won a Silver Award, given by The w3 Awards in its Best of the Web competition.

The Frans Wildenhain Exhibition website was designed to feature the fall 2012 exhibition of mid-century modern pottery by Bauhaus-trained ceramist Frans Wildenhain.

“The site had to be designed to attract and hold the diverse interests of an international audience,” says Bruce Austin, professor of communication. “The efforts of the Web/IT team led to a website every bit as innovative, exciting and dynamic as the art on exhibit."

“These awards are a testament to the talented staff we have here at RIT,”" says Raman Bhalla, assistant director for Web/IT services. In addition to Bhalla, the Web/IT team includes Megan Bastian, Harry Groover, Gage LaFleur, Elizabeth Lamark, David Pedu and Dan Roder.

- RIT News

This website has since been decommissioned and replaced with an updated design, but my work may still be viewed via archive.org.

about this website

dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

content

Unless otherwise noted, all text, images, and other media on this website are original works. Any third-party material is used with attribution.

No content on this website was produced using Artificial Intelligence.

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Site generated with Hugo.

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dave@davepedu.com (dave) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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