Wild Turkeys

There are loads of wild turkeys around our house. Seems to be more of them this year than the last few years. Not sure why. It has been very dry so they might be attracted to the moisture from my wife watering gardens.

Solar VW

@AirCooled Volkswagen
@Sustainable Living

Finally saved enough to buy a solar-panel for my VW Camper Bus. The idea is that I can camp for a few days at a time without having to start the VW. I have a second battery installed, which is disconnected from the main starting battery when the engine is off. This prevents me from running my starter battery down and being stranded.
Second battery runs stereo, cabin-lights, and a few extra plugs for laptops, charging devices, fans, etc.

The solar panel will keep the second battery topped-up when parked for a few days. Also, in the event of prolonged power-outages at home, I can use this system as emergency power.

Total Cost: (around) $200 for panel, battery, diodes, fuse-blocks and charge-controller.

Panel is very inconspicuous in the luggage-space on top






Second Battery has plenty of fuses in case of a short. Also a diode to prevent an over-charge being sent to the engine voltage-regulator. A solenoid connects this battery to the main system when engine is running.

Dragonfli.de

@Building in Red

I decided to just start with a fresh domain for my Red experiments. For some reason .de domains are really cheap right now, so I have created dragonfli.de for this.

It is my understanding that we need an SSL cert for domains running red. Can anyone confirm this? I have one on order at the moment. Once it is working I will begin setting up the basics.

@Beardica
@Dreadica

VirtualBox + Transmission + SickBeard +VPN

@TV

For a while now I have been running a VirtualBox machine as my torrent-box (Ubuntu server with Transmission-Daemon installed).

This allows my torrents to tunnel through a VPN, while the rest of my internet traffic uses the regular connection.
So far so good. Works great and I have not received any more warnings from my ISP.

Last night I installed Sick Beard

Works great, but I do not have a NewsGroup account, and the torrent support was limited; however, a little digging and I found a fork of SickBeard that has much better torrent options: https://github.com/bricky/Sick-Beard

If you find yourself searching for torrents each week of your favorite shows, I recommend using SickBeard

Sick Beard is a PVR for newsgroup users (with limited torrent support). It watches for new episodes of your favorite shows and when they are posted it downloads them, sorts and renames them, and optionally generates metadata for them....

LightWorks

Lightworks for Linux beta was released today. I have only just now installed it, but have not had a chance to play with it.

If you do not know: Lightworks is a pro-quality video editor that can (now) run on Windows and Linux, and the OSX version is soon to be released.

It is nice to see some professional applications as well as so many games being released for Linux.

http://www.lwks.com

Elementary and Windows 8

@TV
Watching Elementary this evening..wondering why they had him sitting at this incredibly garish pink table:



Then, later, it dawned on me. It is to make the Windows 8 tablet look more at home:





I wonder how much MS pays for that to be in there.

Ubuntu Screenshots

@Linux
Found a screenshot of my desktop running Ubuntu back in 2006. That was when I first attempted to make the switch from Windows. It was fun, but I felt I had to switch back to Windows for school:





But it was not until 2010 when I really ditched Windows (no more dual-boots):



2011. used ElementaryOS for awhile:



and 2013, back to Ubuntu with dual-monitors. I really love Linux!

Designers Flow

Read an interesting little blurb about a designers mental state. Seems I have not quite reached Flow yet (the happiest place ) but I suppose it is good to know what to be working towards

The Pastry Box Project | 18 April 2013, baked by Samantha Warren on The-pastry-box-project







@Web Designers Guild

Grumpy Old Men

I have not read anything from @Thomas Willingham in a while. Anyone seen him around?

Virtual Boxes

@Web Designers Guild
@FriendicAdmin

Since I run my Friendica install on my local desktop, I have been toying with the idea of moving the entire website to a VirtualBox machine.
I have done something similar with my Torrentbox (created a virtualmachine, and used that to connect to a VPN for downloading torrents)

It seemed like a good idea for many reasons, but in particularly VirtualBox has "Snapshots" where you can create snapshots of your current virtualmachine and go back to that anytime you want.

Since my webserver goes bonky every time I do something out of the ordinary to my computer (which I am always doing), it seems like good practice to isolate my webserver.
So, if you are reading this, the move was successful, and Friendica@Burnt.blacktoast is now running happily on a VirtualBox machine.



Now if I can move my mail-server over, I will be a happy camper, but I have a feeling that will be slightly more work.

Responsive Design

@Web Designers Guild
Did my first project for a client building a repsonsive design (I have played around with the ideas on my own websites). It was an interesting project:
http://crfedrick.com/

Not too keen on the design, but that is what they wanted. I tested it for multiple screen-sizes here:
http://quirktools.com/screenfly/

Seems to flow pretty well. I did not go down so far as to fit perfectly on a vertical iPhone, simply because I ran out of time. It does, however, adjust well to tablet-sizes and horizontal smart-phones.
Lots of extra work, but I think every site I do from here on will have to have responsive-design implemented or I will end up like one of those web-designers who still use tables for layout.

Defiance

@TV
Defiance (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on Wikipedia

Defiance is an upcoming American science fiction television series...

Looks promising. Starts Monday. I have been craving a new scifi show to delve into.

Pomodoro Timer

@Web Designers Guild

Today I was looking for a timer so I could time my breaks ( I tend to get side-tracked easily).
In the Ubuntu Software Center I ran across Zeegaree, which cost $3.50. I was skeptical, but now that I am using it, I am finding it very nifty. It uses some work-flow called Pomodoro, where you take a 5-min break every half-hour or so:



Well, breaks over. Bye

Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting

@Web Designers Guild
I am currently working on a web-project where the site was hosted on Yahoo Small Business Web-hosting.
I can say, hands down, that Yahoo is the worst web-hosting I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

-No .htaccess files are allowed
-No SSH or SFTP
-Setting up MySQL is a puzzle of Permissions problems

I spent a few hours just trying to figure out how everything worked and what I was allowed and not allowed to do.

Finally, I was able to badger my client into moving hosting to a more reasonable company.
An hour later I had the website functioning smoothly, backup-schedule working and security in place.

Thanks for wasting hours of my time Yahoo! Inc.

Posting button seems to not work anymore

Hi. Can you read this? Over the last week, the submit-button to post a new thread has disappeared. I finally had a few minutes to investigate, and have found if I disable all CSS styles, I can see the button and press it.

WHen the button is not visible, there is no place holder or anything. just blank

Editing a post has the same results: no button unless I disable all styles.

I wonder what could have caused this? JS issue?

Hating Windows....again!! (rant)

I occasionally do some volunteer work (IT stuff) at my son's school. Currently having to install and activate Windows 7.

It is taking me, quite literally, hours. Just for activating.

Apparently the Windows 7 Pro key I have is invalid. So now I have to do a reinstall to try a Windows 7 home edition key.

But my thumb drive is not big enough to create an boot disc, because Windows ISO is 2.6GB

Now I have to find a blank DVD. Let me call the 90's and see if they have any.

Testing Images

@zottel mentioned he was unable to see some of the images I have posted, so I am doing a little trouble-shooting.

Can you see this image?:

the people's car

@Volkswagen
A few months ago someone gave me a 1977 VW Bus that had been sitting in their driveway for 5 years.
I spent this past month getting it running and removing all of the cracked fuel-lines and electrical wires.
Currently runs, but I have to pull one of the heads to fix a low-compression #4 cylinder before I can pass California Smog Inspection:

Never Tear Us Apart

Beck and friends doing a version of INX's "Never Tear Us Apart"

Nice acoustic version

Record Club: INXS "Never Tear Us Apart" by Beck Hansen on Vimeo

Contacts

@FriendicAdmin
For some reason I do not have Paul Taylor in my contacts, but when I try to add him as a contact it says I am already friends with Paul Taylor.

Do I need to delete some hidden record from my database?

Goodbye Fringe

@TV
I watched the final episode of Fringe last night. I will miss that show. It was really cool.

Virtual Boxes

@Linux Group

It used to be that VirtualBox was my sandbox for testing an OS or runnning Windows applications.
Recently I needed a small server with a different IP address for something, so I was able to add another network adapter into my computer, bridge it to a new VM, and now it is working happily as it should.

I am curious if anyone else out there uses VirtualBox for running small servers? Now that I have started thinking about it, I can see many advantages to doing this rather than using my main computer as an everything server:
isolates my web/mail/torrent servers from eachother
easy snapshot backups for restoration later if I do a reinstall of my main system

I have space for one or maybe two more adapters, so I am considering moving my web-server over to a virtual-machine next

Do simple scripts need to have END?

@Linux Group

Stupid question:
Should a simple backup script I have written have END at the end?
No loops or anything, but these will be run on a schedule so I am worried about the script not exiting properly

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season. I spent the time with my family at home, which was lovely.

Today we drove up the rode to explore an old ghost town. Old windmill and buildings with rock and clay walls. This town is from the late 1800's so it was really cool that these walls were still up.
Tomorrow is back to work and the normal flow.


Image exceeds size limit of 800000<br>

Houses

@Thomas Willingham
Thomas, did you ever move into your half-built house? I remember a month or so ago you were talking about rigging up a barn, but then you decided your house was good enough.

I am sitting in my workshop/shed and have no heat at the moment and it is really cold. This made me think of you working from a barn in the mountains

YAT (yet another test) Post

Hello. Hello. Can you hear me?

Evolve

Is it just me, or does this photo:



look strangely like this picture:

DD-WRT+AstrillVPN+BBC iPlayer=♥

@TV

Because of the more aggressive approach the media industry is taking against copyrighted content, I have been exploring ways to encrypt, mask, hide and otherwise confound anyone snooping on my web-traffic.

My favorite solution so far is using Astrill VPN, in conjunction with my DD-WRT router.

Set up was a snap, and the little plugin for my DDWRT router makes switching VPN servers an easy task.


And of course, I can now watch BBC iPlayer anytime I want.



Cost is around $7.00 a month.

just ignore this post

testing to see if vpn is blocking website

Tor boxes

Does anyone here have experience setting up a tor box?
As you may already know, several of the largest internet providers in the U.S. are soon going to be monitoring web-traffic for copyright infringement.

Already one of my regular clients is asking about ways to hide his web-traffic. I am thinking a tor server might be a good solution, from the little I have read so far.

I am interested in hearing how tor is being used in different scenarios, and how difficult or easy they are to maintain.

Mail Server Woes

Has anyone here been happily using their own mail-server? I mean have you been able to set up your own mail-server using Postfix or similar and have it run consistantly?
I have been dinkering around with it (after breaking my last one with a system upgrade) and have it working partly but wondering if it is a lost cause.
I am trying Postfix with Dovecot, and using Thunderbird to check emails.
It would be pretty cool

This is a test post

Just ignore this. I uploaded the recent changes and want to see how the comments work

Inkscape Label Design

@Web Designers Guild

Several people have recently asked me to sell them jars of my home-made kimchi.
I took a little time today to create a label to tie on to the jars, Using Inkscape. Although I am still new to Inkscape, it is really growing on me as a design tool: nice flow, easy to use, free and open source. I am enjoying the liberation from Adobe.

Updating a Yoga Website

@Web Designers Guild

I have been asked to re-work a website for the local Yoga Studio. I did some work a couple of years ago for the same studio (added a scheduler with linked classes). At any rate, Here is my idea:

Original Site



Any the updated HomePage idea




Much of the adjustment had been on the typography-level, so it is hard to see in the small screen-shots. I tried to give the text more breathing space, and removed some of the redundant links, and the annoying LIKE buttons.
I will probably add some subtle screen-adjusting for table-size screens.
I would also like to do something about the logo, but I am running out of time for working on this.

Feedback welcome

Links to Website

@Web Designers Guild
It appears that simply putting a link to your website on Friendica and then discussing it some generates a lot of "Links to Your Site" in Google(thereby increasing your SEO)
I guess that since everyone has their own domain, everyone involved in the discussion shows up as a unique link.
Possible secret SEO tool here?

Halloween Tic

My 4 yr old son, after seeing a big fat tic on our dog this summer, decided he wanted to be a tic for halloween.

This was what my wife came up with:

80's Aliens

Why is it, that no matter how far in the future they are supposed to be from, aliens always seem to dress like they are from the 80's?

Hunter

@TV
Started watching a show called Hunted. One of the writers from X-files has been working on this British show. Although some of the emotional flashbacks are a bit moogish (a word I made up that means overly moody or sentimental), the action and suspense are good enough so far to keep me interested.
Since I am a BBC and X-files fan, this is a good mix for me. The cinematography is really cool with a lot of dark scenes and shadowy suggestions.