StayGeo began on Blogger in 2010. In 2025 I moved the site to GitHub Pages for a cleaner writing and reading experience. The old posts remain at gischethans.blogspot.com.
Latest Posts
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Learning by Repairing: Inside a Simple Pump Control Panel
(Mar 31, 2026)
Yesterday, I opened the control panel for our borewell pump after its power plug started showing signs of melting. On closer inspection, the socket had developed minor cracks, so I decided to replace the socket and plug top. While doing that, I opened the control panel just to be safe and noticed heavy rusting on the terminal connectors. Connector status before repair - heavy rusting My first instinct was to either clean it thoroughly or replace the entire starter panel. Cleaning seemed tricky; AI suggested using a contact cleaner, which I didn’t have, and I wasn’t sure it would restore the terminals properly anyway. Read more →
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Facing the Board Exams - A Talk at my Alma Mater
(Mar 13, 2026)
Earlier this week, I visited my alma mater, JC International School (earlier known as Jaycees English Medium School, Karkala), to inquire about the school joining age for my daughter. In the course of our conversation, we went back to the year 2003, when I was in 10th Standard and had emerged as a district topper. Incidentally, this year’s 10th examinations were less than a week away and hall tickets were being distributed. The principal, Chittaranjan Sir, felt I would be a good fit to address the students and share my experiences as they prepared to face their own board exams. Read more →
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A Simple rsync Script that I use for Backups
(Nov 18, 2025)
Ever since I bought my first PC back in 2008, keeping my data backed up has been a priority. Those were the ThinkCentre desktop days - reliable machines, and thanks to IBM’s proprietary backup software, I felt safe, at least initially! But there was a catch. The backups were stored in a proprietary format, with the actual files buried deep under cryptic folder structures. To make matters worse, the backup would be split across multiple DVDs. Restoring anything manually felt like a small archaeology project. Read more →