nuxx.net

DreamHost… Again…

August 3, 2006

So, I’m in a bit of a tough spot. I’m trying to figure out what to do about DreamHost. I haven’t heard anything back from my support ticket with them, so I’m pricing out options to get my server back in colocation with Waveform.

My current thought is to replace the likely-to-fail-soon 5x 120GB ATA-6 drive assembly (running software RAID1 and RAID 0+1 via GEOM) with a 3ware 8006-2LP and a pair of fairly commodity (probably WD or Seagate) SATA drives.

Total cost for this will be around US$300, plus resumption of US$50/mo colocation payments.

Gur. I don’t know what to do. I want to stick it out and see if DH gets better, but if I need to build an entire server and move things back to it, I need to get going soon.

DreamHost’s MySQL

August 3, 2006

What the hell?

jawbreaker:~> mysql -uc0nsumer -hmysql.nuxx.net -p nuxx_net Enter password: Reading table information for completion of table and column names You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 1125434 to server version: 5.0.18-standard-log Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer. mysql> select * from mw_user; ... 1 row in set (18.07 sec)
mysql>

computers moved from livejournal

Front Panel Express

August 2, 2006

Whoops. Someone from Front Panel Express just called to tell me that my design for the MIDIbox SID-NUXX rear panel I had drawn the slots in a manner which caused some problems with the milling. One of their engineers fixed the drawing and re-cut a new end panel, but they wanted to tell me that in the future the drawing should be done a bit differently.

(The problem was that I drew the angled slots by taking a milled hole, slanting the sides 45°, and making the corner radius that of the tool. In the future I should draw a line and rotate it 45° instead.)

electronics making things moved from livejournal

Flux Removal (PCB Cleaning)

August 2, 2006

I just wrote up a quick article on how I remove flux from PCBs after assembling them.

If you’d like to read it and see some sample photos of a PCB before and after cleaning, take a look at the article here: http://www.nuxx.net/wiki_archive/A/Flux_Removal

electronics making things moved from livejournal

DreamHost

August 1, 2006

Anyone want to know what’s been going on with DreamHost?

Read this: http://blog.dreamhost.com/2006/08/01/anatomy-of-an-ongoing-disaster/

computers moved from livejournal

Let’s have a black celebration…

August 1, 2006

I just hooked the test MIDIbox SID-NUXX to my stereo for the first time, and I’m sitting here listening to a SID track which is a compilation of Depeche Mode songs. And it sounds great!

electronics moved from livejournal music

Tomorrow’s Lunch

July 31, 2006

Tomorrow’s Lunch, and a few other meals…

Yeah, I know, the photo is crap. Right there is where a daylight fluorescent, two halogen cans, and some normal incandescent converge. I think I should have turned off the incandescent, but I wanted to get them wrapped up and sort of forgot the importance of decent light. Then I stuck the grey card at the wrong angle… etc.

Anyway, that will hopefully be tomorrow’s lunch, and maybe a few other meals. It’s a baguette which I first brushed with olive oil sprinkled with freshly ground pepper. Then I added brie slices, basil chiffonade, and topped with seeded roma tomatoes.

Hopefully it’ll be good, and hopefully the oil will keep the bread from getting too soggy, even though the cheese and tomatoes aren’t especially moist.

UPDATE: I played with the white balance a bit… I think the food itself was lit more by the incandescent lights and reflections from the living room, so when it is colored appropriately the countertop looks off. Ah well.

food moved from livejournal

July 31, 2006

Crystalfontz CFAP2002A-Y-ECS PLED / OLED Module
(Click for full res view…)

Uhm… Wow. The Crystalfontz CFAP2002A-Y-ECS PLED / OLED Module looks absolutely amazing. The power draw from it is also amazingly minimal. It’s just… Wow. Yeah. I can’t wait to see this in the finished synths. :D

Oh, here’s another photo of the display from much closer if you’d like: Crystalfontz CFAP2002A-Y-ECS PLED / OLED Module

acquired things electronics moved from livejournal

dreamhost.com

July 31, 2006

So. DreamHost is disappointing me again. I’m within about a day of dropping $1300 (and 2.5x per month) on a 1U server and going back to colocation with Waveform.

This is pissing me off.

UPDATE: Yep, looks like MySQL problems.

computers moved from livejournal

MIDIbox SID-NUXX Boards Complete

July 30, 2006

There we go, the three MIDIbox SID-NUXXs which I’m assembling.

The top one is ‘s, and is fully setup and working using one of the SIDs which was nice enough to send me. I just have to drop ‘s SID into it and it’ll be ready to go. Oh, and maaaaybe change the resistors, depending on how the LEDs look with those. (The LEDs will generally be brightness matched to the LCD.)

The other two are mine, with the top one being a 12V version for a 6581 SID, and the bottom being 9V for an 8580. Neither of these have been fitted with their socketed ICs, and I also left out the resistors which control LED brightness. Of course, this means that neither of mine have been tested, but they should work.

With any luck I’ll have a pair of OLEDs to play with sometime within the next few days. Provided these work as expected, they are what I’ll be using to display things on my MIDIbox SID-NUXXs. ‘s will get the CFAH2002A-RMI-JP which can be seen here, not set right, and very overexposed.

< smile > This is finally all coming together.

electronics making things moved from livejournal