Tech Tidbits & More

Welcome to the Internet Home of John M. Wargo; I created this site back in 2009 so I could post articles about things that interested me. Herein you’ll find articles on a lot of different topic areas: Mobile development, Web development, Internet of Things (IoT), and a lot more. Every time I learn some new technology or complete some cool or interesting development or IoT project I publish an article here.

You’ll also find information about my books, source code projects on GitHub, and articles published in or on other sites or magazines, even videos of my many conference presentations or project demonstrations. I’m also especially fond of the series of Stupid Developer Tricks posts.

You can view all articles in reverse chronological order, or you can find articles by category. Of course, if you can’t find what you need in those views, use Search to find anything anywhere on the site.

Recent Posts

• Note: An AI Generated pill displayed in the list below indicates that the post description displayed on the page was generated from the post content using Generative AI (GenAI). The post content itself was written by a human (me).

• Spacing Slats Evenly

  Wednesday, July 16, 2025 at 07:24 AM  | Categories: Woodworking

  When I built the love seat I described in my previous post, one of the assembly tasks for the seat was to screw slats to the frame spaces a quarter inch apart. Since each slat was 46 inches wide, I had to come up with a unique approach to doing this consistently with only a single pair of hands.

• Drilling Holes Consistently Across Multiple Pieces

  Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 01:46 PM  | Categories: Woodworking

  For a woodworking project I completed recently, I had to drill 16 countersink holes in the same location across 8 boards. I created a jig to make this easy and consistent.

• Setting Windows File and Directory Timestamps to Now

  Sunday, June 29, 2025 at 06:18 AM  | Categories: Microsoft Windows, Delphi

  When working on a book and sometimes while writing software applications, I like to set my project files (Word documents or other files) to the same timestamp. I'm not sure why I started doing this, but it allows me to set a sort of release grouping on the files based on timestamp.

• Install Windows DLL Using Inno Setup

  Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 05:50 PM  | Categories: Delphi

  I recently wrote a Delphi application for Windows that implements a Windows Shell Extension which means I must distribute it as a DLL. I've used Inno Setup for a while now to create and publish Windows installers, but I'd never created one before for a DLL.

• Magnetic Dust Collection Port

  Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 03:19 PM  | Categories: Woodworking

  Dust collection is a pretty big problem in my workshop; I've ignored it for a long time, but I decided I had to do something about it. My router table has built-in dust collection under the table and in the fence, but if I'm not using the fence, I make quite a mess in my workshop.

• Delphi Single Instance App With Runtime Parameters

  Sunday, June 15, 2025 at 03:58 PM  | Categories: Delphi, Microsoft Windows

  AI Generated   In the article, I learned how to prevent multiple instances of a Delphi application from running simultaneously and published a complete sample application demonstrating it. By assigning a unique name to the application and implementing code to check for existing instances, I can ensure only one instance runs at a time. The article also covered passing command-line parameters between instances and activating the initial instance when a second one is launched.

• Published Subdirectory Copy v1.1

  Saturday, June 14, 2025 at 12:45 PM  | Categories: Delphi, Microsoft Windows

  When I created my Subdirectory Copy application, my use case was copying a single set of files to a flash drive. As I got closer to releasing the product, I started thinking more about how users would use it and I realized that the application had to be able to manage multiple filesets for copying.

• TechSmith Windows Snagit Stops Loading or Capturing

  Friday, June 13, 2025 at 07:45 PM  | Categories: Microsoft Windows

  A few weeks ago, Snagit stopped launching its capture window on startup (yes, I had automatic launch at startup configured) and stopped being able to capture accurately 90% of the time.

• Simplifying Copying Music Files to a Flash Drive

  Friday, June 6, 2025 at 02:56 PM  | Categories: Microsoft Windows, Automobiles

  AI Generated   I created a Windows application called Subdirectory Copy (SubCopy) to automate the process of copying music files from my computer to an external drive for my car's music player. By populating the root directory with my music files and selecting the artist folders to copy, I can easily update my music collection on the external drive.

• Acura MDX Play Music on USB Flash Drives

  Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 06:48 PM  | Categories: Automobiles

  In Audi Q7 Drive System Failure I described a problem I had with an Audi Q7 I owned. As soon as I got it back from the dealer (after waiting almost 6 months for them to fix it), I immediately traded it in for a 2025 Acura MDX. The replacement engine they installed in the car had 10,000 more miles than the one that broke, so I knew it was a ticking time bomb.