I was curious and wanted a list with no advertisements.

Apple’s M-series chips have moved fast in just a few generations. What started with the original M1 as a huge leap over Intel Macs has expanded into a full ladder of standard, Pro, Max, and Ultra chips that scale from everyday laptop performance to serious workstation-class compute. Looking at M1 through M4 side by side makes it easier to see where the biggest gains actually happened, especially in single-core speed, multi-core scaling, and how much extra performance each tier really gives you.

For a more detailed list check this out. https://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks.

The post M1 to M4: The Apple Silicon Performance Ladder first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

Same.

So I built a quick tool: Trip Radius Planner

Just type in how many hours you want to drive, and it shows you a map of how far you could get. That’s it. No logins, no planning spreadsheets, no long debates about “where to go” — just a radius and your imagination.

Built this in under an hour because I was thinking about summer roadtrips and wanted something simple to help brainstorm. Hope you find it useful (or at least fun to play with).

Give it a try, drop in your location, and start dreaming:
https://playground.scottpreston.com/radius-trip/

Happy wandering.

The post Trip Radius Planner – A Tiny Tool for Big Roadtrip first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

Right now I just a a few examples projects/experiments.

• D&D Character Creator (ultra simple for my kids character sheets)
• Angular Material 3 Color Viewer (Github Link: https://github.com/scottpreston/ng-m3-colors)

The post Created A Playground first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss is a self-help book that challenges traditional work and retirement paradigms. It provides a blueprint for achieving a lifestyle of freedom and flexibility by adopting the principles of automation, outsourcing, and mini-retirements. The book is divided into four key sections, summarized by the acronym DEAL:

1. Definition: Redefine success by focusing on what truly matters—time and freedom instead of money and long work hours. Ferriss introduces the concept of the “New Rich” (NR), individuals who design their lives to maximize experiences and enjoyment.
2. Elimination: Cut out unnecessary tasks using the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) and Parkinson’s Law, which argue that most results come from a small portion of effort, and work expands to fill the time available. Focus only on high-value tasks and learn to say no.
3. Automation: Delegate and automate tasks to free up your time. Ferriss recommends outsourcing repetitive work to virtual assistants and leveraging tools for passive income, such as e-commerce or investments.
4. Liberation: Escape the constraints of the traditional office. This includes negotiating remote work, taking “mini-retirements” throughout life instead of waiting for old age, and traveling while working only a few hours a week.

The book emphasizes designing your life around your passions and leveraging systems to maximize efficiency. It advocates for bold decision-making, challenging societal norms, and focusing on living more and working less.

The key takeaway: You don’t need a fortune or a complex plan to start a successful business. By identifying your passions, creating value, and starting small, you can build a business that provides both income and independence. The book serves as a motivational guide for anyone who dreams of becoming their own boss while making a positive impact.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is a motivational guide to overcoming creative resistance and achieving your goals. The book identifies Resistance—fear, procrastination, self-doubt—as the greatest obstacle to creative and personal growth. Pressfield emphasizes that Resistance will always be present but can be defeated through discipline and persistence.

The book divides into three parts:

1. Resistance: Recognize and understand it as a natural force that opposes progress.
2. Turning Pro: Commit to your craft like a professional, showing up consistently, regardless of inspiration or mood.
3. Higher Realm: Embrace creativity as a spiritual practice, allowing inspiration and ideas to flow.

Key takeaway: Success requires battling Resistance daily with focus, discipline, and faith in the creative process.

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin is a leadership guide based on lessons learned during their time as Navy SEALs. The book emphasizes that leaders must take full responsibility for everything in their sphere of influence, regardless of external factors. This mindset of “extreme ownership” fosters accountability and drives success.

Key principles include:

• Own Everything: Take responsibility for outcomes without blaming others.
• Simplify and Prioritize: Break down complex problems and focus on the most critical tasks.
• Decentralized Command: Empower teams by trusting them to make decisions within clear boundaries.
• Discipline Equals Freedom: Maintain structure and consistency to achieve goals.

Key takeaway: Leadership is about accountability, clear communication, and empowering teams to succeed. Taking ownership inspires trust and drives results in any organization.

Start With Why by Simon Sinek explores the concept that great leaders and organizations inspire by focusing on their “Why”—their purpose, cause, or belief—rather than just their products or services.

The book introduces the Golden Circle framework:

1. Why: The core purpose or belief that drives an organization.
2. How: The processes or values that support the Why.
3. What: The tangible products or services offered.

Sinek argues that starting with Why builds trust and loyalty, creating lasting connections with customers and teams. He uses examples like Apple and Martin Luther King Jr. to show how clarity of purpose drives success.

Key takeaway: People buy into your Why, not just your What. Inspire by communicating your purpose clearly and authentically.

The post Some of my Favorite Business Books first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

So in my spare time I’ve started working on my exoskeleton again. This time for the build I’ll start with the hand/gripper and will eventually move up to the arm and the full upper torso. I intend to capture enough footage over the next few weeks of the build out of the entire hand, then I’ll put together a long-form video of the process, electronics and a detailed blog post on the bill of materials, code, etc.

This is a short YouTube video of me testing the fitment from the wrist to forearm.

This next one is a SHORT of the electronics opening and closing the gripper.

In the next day or so I’ll get parts back from Send-Cut-Send, and might even break out the CNC for some customized parts. Stay Tuned!

The post YouTube – ScottPrestonTV & Exoskeletons first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

So why these items? Well the Leonardo has a friendlier USB connector, a Micro USB, and more digital, PWM and Analog inputs compared to the Uno. The ESP 8266 isn’t as powerful as the ESP 32, but the compile time is faster and I mostly work with WiFi vs. Bluetooth. The Raspberry Pi 3, also isn’t as powerful as the Pi 4 or Pi 5, but it also takes the Micro USB cable and the camera connector is more compatible with older less “Pure” cameras. Also because I do most of my work via API / Wi-Fi, it’s perfect for being a connector to all things on the Robot to the network.

Here’s a summary of all the stuff I’ve purchased over the years with some specs.

The post Goto Robot Brains first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

Remember you need a calorie deficit in order to lose weight: Deficit = Calories In – Calories Out.

First you need to calculate your RMR or Resting Metabolic Rate or Basal Metabolic Rate. For this use an online calculator. Next you will need to add your total daily energy expenditure. (remember to actually calculate it vs. using the number below, they are illustrative.)

• Sedentary (multiply by 1.2) ~2400 calories
• Lightly Active (multiply by 1.375) ~2750 calories
• Moderately Active (multiply by 1.55) ~3100 calories
• Very Active (multiply by 1.725) ~3450 calories
• Super Active (multiply by 1.9) ~ 3800 calories

Now while the numbers above are illustrative, there’s no exact way to know what your calories out are because your TDEE is based on the kinds of food you eat, how active you are and how much you fidget. The best way to figure this out is to do the following:

1. Track your meals daily for 1 week. Eat normally. Ensure hydration.
2. Weigh yourself the same time a day, preferably in the morning before you eat or drink and after you use the rest room.
3. Calculate your average weight and your average daily calories.

Now lets assume you’re around 2500 calories per day. If you want to lose a pound of fat or 3500 calories, you will need to eat 3500 less calories per week to create that deficit or 500 calories per day.

To avoid muscle loss, you will want to consume at least 1 gram per pound of lean body weight. So if you weigh 200 pounds and have a body fat percentage of 25%, your lean mass will be 150 pounds. Which means you’ll need to at least consume 150g of protein per day. 150 x 4 is 600 calories. Next you’ll need to divide the fat and carbohydrate calories amongst the remaining 1400 calories. If you pick 600 calories in carbs, thats 150g. Your remaining 800 calories can come from fat, 800/9 = 89g of fat.

Now that you know the amounts 150g protein, 150g carbohydrates, 89g of fat. You’ll need a meal planning system and maybe some supplementation to get enough protein. Typically I focus on protein first and let the rest fall in randomly, it works out if you eats lots of veggies. Additionally you’ll need a good food scale to ensure you’re calculating the right amounts of food.

Best of luck in your weight loss journey!

The post Data & Dieting – Your System (3 of 3) first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

The amount of food you eat that gets converted to useful energy, and is apart of the metabolic process of converting glucose to CO2, Water and ATP (Energy) or converting fatty acids to CO2, Water and ATP. You can see the chemical equation for glucose below:

Glucose Formula C₆ H₁₂ O₆ + 6O₂ →6CO₂ +6H₂O+ATP (energy)

The interesting part is the human body is only about 25-30% efficient in doing this conversion, the rest is lost to heat or other metabolic processes. Additionally based on what you eat, when you eat, wether you are dehydrated or well hydrated this number can fluctuate. This is really important as sometimes the less you eat, the more efficient you get at converting this energy and the less heat you produce. Think about it, if our ancestors were not able to get more efficient, humans wouldn’t have survived when there were food shortages or the hunts didn’t go as expected.

How many of you use a scale to measure the amount of food you are consuming? How many of you just use the serving size count on the box? While the serving size is fairly accurate, unless you’re measuring this to the gram it’s very hard to measure. Additionally if you use a recipe combining all the ingredients the amount of oil, and understanding the exact portions makes it very difficult. Bottom line it’s easy to go 10% over here 10% over there, before you know it that 500 calorie deficit is actually just 100 or even over your daily caloric maintenance goal.

While Apps do provide accurate measures in some cases, some entries are crowd sourced. Take for example type “chicken breast” into your favorite calorie app or book. In a very popular app I received 10+ results. Was this fried, raw, baked, measured by “medium or half of a breast” or ounces or grams? Was it natural or full of saline? The measurements of raw skinless boneless chicken breast by the USDA per 100g is: Protein 23g, Fat 1g, Carbs, 0g, Total calories 107. The measure for cooked chicken breast by the USDA 100g is: 31g of protein, 3.5g of fat, 0g of carbs for 165 calories total. This is a difference of 54%. If you’re trying to count calories and measure the wrong thing there’s a high chance of error, also, who eats 100g of chicken breast in the US?

In conclusion there’s a lot that go wrong even with technology and dedication.

The post Data & Dieting – Calories In (2 of 3) first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

There’s been a lot of books I’ve read over the years about losing weight and getting fitter. Low Carbs. No Meat. 10,000 Steps. Count Calories. But it wasn’t until I went to have my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) measured that I truly woke up to the real science of metabolism and weight loss.

A metabolic cart does something real simple, it measures Oxygen (O₂) In and Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Out. It does this for about 20 minutes and then it inputs the results into the Weir Equation and calculates your calories per minute. See Below:

Weir Equation is EE (kcal/min) = (3.941 x VO₂) + 1.106 X VCO₂)

To substitute my measured numbers (3.941 x .354L/min + 1.106 x .292 L/min) ~= 1.718 * 1440 = 2474 calories / day

Fascinating. Metabolism is really just about how much O₂ you breathe in and how much CO₂ you breathe out. But while I found this super helpful, what about all the folks that say steps per day or you must do cardio? Well this is a little more complicated but it still all comes back to Oxygen.

A MET or Metabolically Equivalent Task. This is defined as 3.5 milliliters of oxygen per kg of body weight per minute. Now this will vary per person and some people will burn more oxygen per minute some will burn less based on fitness level. Here are some sample MET values below.

So the equation for this is below:

Calories Burned = MET value x body weight in kg x duration in hours

Keeping Math Simple, walking 20min/mile pace yields, 3.5 Mets x 100 kg x 0.333 = 116.55 calories per 2000 steps.
Subtract your RMR from this number, so at rest a 100kg person burned 34.32 calories, for net gain of 82.335 calories per 2000 steps.

So the cardio crowd or the 10,000 steps crowd wasn’t wrong. A 100kg person will burn 82 more calories per 2000 steps walking than sitting on their butt. But if your fitness tracker or your treadmill typically has these numbers in the 150s or 200s per 20min it’s way off.

The post Data & Dieting – Calories Out (1 of 3) first appeared on SCOTT PRESTON.

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