environment Archives

Environment, defined as surroundings or the surrounding in which a animal, technology or plants lives or works. Domain, kernel, OS, codebase etc.

August 27, 2024September 28, 2024

Brown Widow Spiders

Introducing, The Brown Widow

Black Widow Competition. It’s the Cousin, Latrodectus Geometricus

Materials – Arachnids…

Not the usual subject, Brown Widow Spiders, but an interesting one.

How many of you know what a Black Widow Spider is? The Latrodectus Hesperus – the Black Widow variety or true widows of the wild. And now, how many of you knew there was a widow more potent than the Black Widow? More importantly, the Brown Widow Spider aka Latrodectus Geometricus.

Never in a million years would I have thought I’d run into one of these widows, count it; now 4 separate encounters. Color may vary, but the one’s I’ve had the pleasure to meet have the classic, RED hourglass markings and two-tone – brown and black leg bans. Four of four have had egg sacks, so we are dealing with arachnids protecting their own. Again, not something I’ve run into often, actually ever. More so over this past year (2023/2024), I would say summer to late summer months.

Those of you who have Arachnophobia be aware; great movie by the way. Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, Julian Sands… more, however, I can’t remember off the top of my head (which is beside the point here). Pick up the Arachnophobia DVD, Prime Video or Blu-ray. I don’t BETA there for those Sony fans, sorry, another great piece of tech lost to history.

For those of you who want facts on the widow species, check out the following link, it’s a UF IFAS Extension page on “brown widow spiders”. Click for more details on the Brown Widow Spiders here in Florida.

Highlights and Takeaways

Brown Widow, just as dangerous as it’s cousin, the Black Widow, along with three others – Souther, Northern and Red Widows.
Most commonly found in SRQ, the Brown Widow variety
Including South Florida, widows can be found in So. Cal, CO, Arkansas, MS, AL and GA.
More importantly, invasive
Venom, and Risk, while typically found in their dark corner (see picture), Brown Widow venom can be more potent than it’s cousin
The Widows like their corners, builtin protected areas, eaves etc., boxes, shutters and pool cages!

Let’s get to prevention and control, as I said, four sightings in the latest months.

- Clean Up, often
- Outside, inside, vacuum webbing and all.
- Don’t forget to clean out the vacuum!
- Clean up debris piles, look for ‘shelter in plain sight or shelter in place’, a good hiding spot for Brown Widows
- Call a professional, pre/post clean up

Find Other Stories of Interest – Electronics, Things-to-do and Other

Takeaway

Clean, clean and clean some more. High pressure washer, wet vac… create a cleaning routine and stick to it. Remove debris, seal up holes and cracks etc.

Be vigilant. Honestly, I had no idea, par for the course I guess. There are all kinds, to many to count sometimes, here in the southern swaths (maintained, cleared, or mowed parts) of Florida. Time to get a move on this cleaning. I’ll follow up with an update at some point, for now; I’ll leave you to it. Thanks for dropping by, don’t forget to leave a comment, follow us on X – @salleetech. I’ll post more pictures, this assumes more encounters… so, I’m hoping the subject lives on as reference material or good to know! Cheers.

Resources
Brown Widow Spiders – UF/IFAS Extension – Brown Widow Spiders

February 14, 2024September 27, 2024

Dolphin Nautilus

Nautilus CC Plus (Wired)

Pool Robots by Maytronics

Dolphin Nautilus CC

The Dolphin Nautilus CC pool vacuum, made by Maytronics Dolphin, is designed to remove debris, brush, vacuum, and maintain pool clarity.

Everyday, the Dolphin Nautilus activates, moves around the pool, cleans, and maintains buoyancy upon completion. It comes with a price tag, so choose wisely! We received a recommendation from our pool guy, which was great advice – try the Dolphin Nautilus robot vacuum. The goal is to reduce water evaporation, maintain water and chemical balance, minimize chemical corrections and keep the system clean.

Drone Accessories

Nautilus Back

Nautilus Cleaning

Wall Climb

Clean Filters

Nautilus Cart

Now, lawn equipment can spread dirt, grass clipping, environmental debris, pet fur, and screens with holes. Various types of debris can become spoilers when found in the pool. I assume that most, if not all, of this debris is kicked up by mowers and blowers as they are the main vehicles for debris getting into the pool. For us, sand from the brick pad seems to wreak havoc on our pools ‘clarity’. So, the sand, bugs and debris from lawn equipment…

More Maytronics Product Information

The Nautilus is a great product that is not terribly expensive when compared to other devices in the same space. We chose this specific product because it lacks excessive technology. We simply wanted a low-maintenance clean that could operate in the water, clean effectively, run various cleaning cycles and be easily stored on a cart when not in use. The cart allows for easy storage or movement, especially for pool usage. It can simply move the robot away when swimmings are in or around the pool. This means swimmers can splash around, stir up the water and not worry about damaging the robot. The universal cart works wonders, although it may be pricey for some. It makes tasks like bending down, lifting, and storing the robot a breeze.

Cost, cleaning time. The machine is easy to clean. Power down the machine, pull up the robot, open two doors, pull out the filters, unlock the filters with four clicks, and start the wash. Cleaning and maintaining the screens is much easier when considering the cost and cleaning time of the entire pool compared to a quick rinse under the faucet to remove debris. Moving back to the robot, snap the filters into the housing, replace them on the machine, submerge the robot, and power it on…

Quickly, I wanted to share some other Maytronics Dolphin content, newer content since the original Nautilus article in reverse order, so the fix is first (up), issue second(down): Dolphin On and Dolphin Down.

Moving on, no app for us, once again we opted for the Dolphin Nautilus robot in its manual version (corded, non-wifi enabled) to keep costs down. It suits us well since our pool remains uncovered year-round; the robot makes its way around the pool once or twice a day, providing low-maintenance, no-frills pool cleaning. Personally, I would prefer to cover the pool at night to retain heat and reduce water evaporation. But for now, we’re happy with our choice. This recommendation came from our pool service, not a paid advertisement, so a big thank you to them!

September 18, 2021September 27, 2024

Oracle VBox – Virtual Appliances

Virtual Appliances, VImages, VDI’s, ISO’s

Tech | Tools – Virtual Appliances

Virtual Box Oracle VBox – Virtual Appliance(s), get it now… assuming you haven’t encountered a situation where you needed a different system than the one you are using, are stuck with, or are having trouble running native apps.

Oracle Virtual Box – https://www.virtualbox.org is a great starting point. Be sure to explore the latest and best virtualized products. Ideally, it’s a useful ‘virtual’ appliance to have on hand in the shop, to run VDI’s – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure or ISO – Copy (of the) Optical Disc Image. I came across an article about this previously, as I have written about it before, while testing other OS, OS Variants, Solutions, Drone Flight sims, Flight Configs, etc. Trust me, the Virtual Box tool is very useful of testing almost any compute/browser combinations. In our case, we prefer the Oracle product for non Windows needs, while Boot Camp works well for Windows environments pretty well. We will cover those another time, but for now check out this handy post (https://www.virtualbox.org) to paste into your browser… Your choice – BSD, Fedora, Linux Varietals and more. Other image offering can be found here:These OS Boxes Linux Images.

Virtual Environments – VBOX or Parallels for mAC

REMEMBER TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Check what’s there. It may take many, many, many tries) to get this stuff to work in an optimal fashion, but you’ll get it soon enough. Testing is key. Donate where you can!

A few other notes, I’m sure you have your own process, but we use Virtual Box for lots of stuff*… testing, games, browser ‘wars’, IoT stuff* and more*. Below you will find a few screenshots of Virtual Box and MS Remote Desktop. The goal was to cover as many systems, device varieties, OS images and tools as possible Always remember, just have fun.

Good time to highlight premade, premier machines. Before we wrap up, have a look at Puget Systems, these machines are top of the line, premier computers, bar none; this one setup for Adobe software.

One last point, these virtual environments can be used for IoT testing. Note, that since the screenshots were taken/shared, we’ve added Virtual Box to MacOS, running a litany of ISOs. Those can be found here, included for your convenience! We certainly enjoy using this method for just about anything. Please see the posting on Debian Buster starting with the Ubuntu IoT ISOs.

As usual leave a comment below, let us know what you’re thinking?

April 19, 2021September 27, 2024

FAA Drone Safety Update

FAA Drone Safety Update, Flight Over People And Flight At Night

Flight Awareness, Times and Resources Now Available

Materials – Flight At Night

FAA Drone Safety Update – Notice Number: NOTC1758

FAA Drone Safety Update it’s time for some training for you Part 107 license holders. What about the waivers? The waiver deadline is April 21, 2021, so please make note of that date. Requirements for flight at night and/or over people, moving vehicles still require FAA waivers that date. Moving forward, waivers and requirements will need additional information, especially for flights over people and/or at night.

My assumption, after speaking with the FAA, is that the traditional licensing examination and process will change. It is likely that licensing for unmanned aircraft will be more similar to the boating license process in Florida. This may involve a classroom environment, quizzes, and tests on practical knowledge and safe flying. Let’ wait and see what updates and regs. are implemented. I am not comfortable speculating on the matter, how they will happen and when. You can be the judge!

Side note, FAA Drone Safety Updates are on going, so continue to use and test Airmaps for the latest updates. As described on Airmaps some forum responses were lost in the purge due to a spammer attack. It will help you stay informed about regulations and rule updates.

FAA Drone Update

B4UFly

DroneZone

Check out the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) B4UFLY App, FAA DroneZone or give the FAA a call or email for clarification. It’s pretty straight-forward. As always, feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what you’re thing! Fairly straight forward. As usual leave a comment below, let us know what you’re thinking?

October 1, 2017November 18, 2024

Business Services

Business and Creative Services

Let’s Partner Up, Transform & Simplify

Lab Work – Business Services, Transforming the holistic business and IT ecosystem

A partnership is being formed to accelerate business services, functions, strategy, and brand, transforming the holistic ecosystem. Let’s collaborate to streamline change. Below you will find business and IT channels, as well as past and present roles within the local community, global market and knowledge/expertise.

Strategic Scope, Transformation, Understanding, Throughput/Variation and Change

With over 24 years of experience in the various industries worldwide, including: Advertising, Business Administration, Business Services, Finance, Engineering, Healthcare, Insurance, Restaurant, Production, Investment, Marketing, Retail, Global Technology, Consulting, Defense, Utility, and more. I have honed my skills in finding the right fit. Whether it’s connecting with the right people, tackling complex problems, providing notch services, or maximizing the bottom line, I am dedicated to achieving success in every endeavor.

Current Leadership Roles:

Manatee Chamber of Commerce, and Better Business Council Member ’23 – present
Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, ’21 – ’23
UXPA – Member At Large, ’07 – ’12, ’23 – present
AIGA – Member At Large, ’07 – ’12, ’23 – present
Academy of Model Aeronautics – Member, ’18 – ’23
Certified Scrum Professional, Advanced Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Master – Scrum Alliance, ’19
Professional Scrum Master, Product Owner – Scrum.org, ’16

Previous Leadership and Business Services Roles:

IBM Blue Core Coach, Coach Supervisor, ’19
IBM Agile Achiever, ’19
IBM Social Ambassador, ’18 – ’19
HOA – Treasurer, ’16 – ’17
UXPA – Director Of Experience, ’10 – ’11
AIGA – Director Of Experience, ’10 – ’11
SHCC – Junior Board, Membership ‘7 – ‘8
Lacrosse Coach – Elementary, High School, Grad/Post Grad and University ’02 – ’18

Education:

iOS and MacOS Certified Technician, Apple, ’18
IT Support, Google, ’18
Agile Development Program, University of Virginia, Darden School, ’16
Master of Business Administration, University of Phoenix, ’07
Interactive Web Technologies, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, ’05
B.A. Graphic Design, Minor in Fine Arts, Marymount University, ’03

Creative Services

For more information, first delve into our work. If you have questions, please reach out. We are a full service design shop as well. Graphics, logos, desktop publishing and more. If you’re interested in seeing our latest sketches and art projects, see those on X @salleetech. Check those out, posts are shared two to 3 times per week; if you like what you see or want to join in give us a follow.

Other Services and Project Information

Looking for more information on Sallee Technology, interested in learning more about us and our services? Browse our servicing content, click to learn more: Comprehensive Services and Our Trusted Services.