2016 is the first full tax year where I’ve owned an investment (rental) house and for those of you interested in how this ends up applying to your US Federal taxes I thought I would share how this gets applied. Now I’ll…
Author: Erik Szewczyk


Free Learner is now fully encrypted!
On by Erik SzewczykHello friends, As traffic continues to grow on the site we wanted to ensure that everyone has a secure browsing experience. To that end we have moved to the entire site to SSL encryption for all traffic. This is similar to the…

Converting a generator to run on hydrogen
On by Erik SzewczykOldie but a goodie from when we were running the renewable energy non-profit – how to convert a generator to run on hydrogen presented by Leif Schneider. Enjoy! Erik SzewczykTechnology, science, building things and experiencing the world. What more could anyone ask…

Turning a downed tree into a live-edge coffee table
On by Erik SzewczykIn March of 2015 I had a ~90 year old maple tree in my front yard fall down during a storm. Rather than simply turning it into fire wood I figured I would something a bit more interesting…what I settled on was…
Do you really need that “www” in your website?
On by Erik SzewczykOne of the ideas we had for this site was that we wanted to get rid of the “old” web and the need to type the “www” before the “freelearner.how” name. Having been some years since I’ve done much web development I didn’t think much of…
What’s in a name?
On by Erik SzewczykWe want to create an online community where people can come and create and consume content for self-education/development, specifically in the arena of personal independence and empowerment (i.e. living independently, financial independence, building businesses, etc.). Think, a combination/aggregation of associated Forums, Social…