Hey, I'm Ben Eagan.
I'm a maker, tinkerer, and software engineer based in Toronto. By day, I work in Search and Retrieval and Natural Language Understanding; I started out in High Performance Computing before making that shift about a decade ago.
This blog is where I document my DIY projects and experiments: the stuff I build for fun, curiosity, or because I couldn't find one to buy. There's something satisfying about watching LEDs blink and seeing code actually move physical things.
What I Make
My projects tend to fall into a few categories:
Smart Home & Voice Assistants: I've built Alexa-powered devices including a Big Mouth Billy Bass that talks back, and various Raspberry Pi integrations that let voice commands control things around the house.
Raspberry Pi Projects: From smart mirrors to home servers, I love what you can do with a $35 computer. My Magic Mirror build got some attention when it hit Reddit's front page.
Coffee Nerdery: I roast my own beans using a modified hot air popcorn popper and pull shots on a Gaggia Classic Pro that I've repaired and tweaked over the years.
Astrophotography: After seeing incredible photos of the Milky Way, I built my own barn door tracker for under $50 to take long-exposure shots without star trails.
Vision Tech: One project I'm proud of is The All-Seeing Pi, a vision enhancement platform I built with my friend Dan, who is blind. It's a wearable video system designed to maximize limited sight.
Why "Cyber Omelette"?
You've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette, and that's basically how I build things. Trial and error, broken parts, learning as I go. And like an omelette, this blog is just a mix of whatever ingredients I'm working with at the moment: code, hardware, woodworking, coffee, whatever.
Get In Touch
If you want to chat about any of these projects or have questions, find me on GitHub or drop a comment on any post.