nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

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December 9, 2003

So, I did it. I just ordered the parts to rebuild my old PC.

No, I’m not switching away from Macs, it’s just been sort-of mandated that I get a Windows Server 2003 cert by the end of 1Q2004. So, I need a test machine.

It’s not a bad deal… From Newegg I was able to get a AMD Athlon XP2500+ CPU, Asus A7N8X-VM (nForce 2 IGP) Micro-ATX motherboard, 512MB of DDR400 RAM, and a (free) t-shirt for ~$268.

I figure I’ll assemble the machine into the Doggie Case which housed by old high-end PC. It’ll end up on the rack down in the basement, admin’d via Terminal Service / Remote Desktop. One nice thing, it’ll give me a chance to play with *nix / OS X / Windows integration at home.

Oh, I just realized I haven’t done much of an update lately. So, what’s been going on with me? Well, I had a really good time at ‘s birthday party on Saturday. I was initially hesitant to go, but I’m glad I did. Last night I had an issue where the lamp in my office burned out, and there are no replacement bulbs available. So, two CDs and two trips to Lowe’s later and I had it retrofitted to house an outdoor halogen spotlight. It seems to work well, and will now accept any standard base bulb. And it looks good. I would have just bought a new lamp, but it’s really, really hard to find silver and black torche lamps. They all seem to be nappy black/gold, straight out of 1985, or they have a pricetag upwards of $50. Too much for me.

Tonight I have to give a presentation in class as part of the final project. I’m kinda nervous, but I generally know the material. My biggest concern is running over time, because I have a lot of info. I’m off work tomorrow, so I’m going to try and get the paper for class done. It’s not due until the 18th, but the instructor asked that we get them in earlier so he has more time to read them. I’m going to try to stay in his good graces. I *think* I have the structure of the paper generally done, I just need to write the actual words now. And bibliography. Whee!

Hrm, yeah, that’s it for now. I’m going to go think about eating the indian food I brought for lunch. Mmm….spicy!

around the housecomputersmoved from livejournal

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December 2, 2003

Spent a bit of time today updating dingleberrypie.com. Most of the work was behind the scenes stuff. I’ve still got some more scheduled jobs to work on, including a problem with automated log rotation, where I want to be sure that the logs don’t rotate out before stats run against them, etc. Also, hopefully I’ll get around to adding properly done mail support so that I can transfer nuxx.net over as well. It’d be so much nicer… Although I do get a lot of spam… That could be kinda high traffic. MRTG should allow me to visualize this, though.

· Need to get MRTG running…

· Need to read Life with Qmail get qmail running…

· Need to lock down /admin in some fashion or another…

computersmoved from livejournalnuxx.net

Crossfading on Mac?

November 24, 2003

All,

I’ve been used to using Sonic Foundry’s Vegas for putting together cross-faded mix discs on my PC. However, since Vegas isn’t available on Mac, I’m looking for something else that will let you slide audio tracks on top of each other then adjust cross-fades easily. I’m thinking maybe Soundtrack, or just using Final Cut Express, exporting one big AIFF file, then breaking it into tracks.

Does anyone else have a better idea? I don’t want to go with something like Traktor as I’m not intending to do this realtime…

computersmoved from livejournalmusic

?

November 21, 2003

Does anyone know an EE, or know where I can find (at a reasonable price, or the plans to make) a 12v DC to 12v DC transformer? I want to electrically isolate my iPod from the rest of the car.

Oh, and no, the problem still isn’t solved. :(

automotiveelectronicsmoved from livejournal

!!!

November 20, 2003

So, yes. I finally got my iPod problem solved. It was, in fact, the Radio Shack noise filter. It seems that their idea of a noise filter just isn’t an isolating transformer, it also has a cap in it, which manages to keep a bit of juice going through the Key/Acc line. I noticed this manifesting itself in the radio, which would continue to play for .5 seconds after I’ve flipped the car off. I never remembered it happening, anyway…

But, I removed this filter and the problem is gone. Everything’s working great, just a little alternator whine at loud volumes when no music is playing. Perhaps I’ll investigate a better quality filter in the future. For now, I’m glad it’s done.

Anyway, there’s some pictures of my iPod hooked into the car at http://www.dingleberrypie.com/gallery/ipod_incar.
I just need to wait for the eBay person to ship my Belkin TuneDok, then I’ll have a proper holder that will allow viewing while driving…

automotiveelectronicsmoved from livejournal

:)

November 20, 2003

Ahh, iPod problem solved. It *was* the noise filter on the power line. Unfortunately, I’ve got a little more noise now, but it’s an acceptable amount until I can come up with a better solution.

automotiveelectronicsmoved from livejournal

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November 20, 2003

I *think* I may have found the source of the iPod troubles that I was having. It seems that when I have the power filter connected in with the Key/Acc line, it almost holds a charge of sorts, keeping Key/Acc high for a little while (maybe 1/2 second when the radio is on) after I flip the key to off. I’m thinking this bit of extra charge there is possibly keeping the iPod from properly thinking the power has been removed.

I tested this by:

1) Leaving the radio on and quickly switching the ignition from accessory to off. Radio stayed in for .5 sec extra.
2) Cut the line running to the filter (and thusly the iPod adapter).
3) Repeat step one, observe that radio does not stay on for .5 sec extra.

After dinner (and some King of the Hill) I’m going to throw some laundry in, then reconnect the iPod adapter, sans filter, and see if the problem still exists and if there is any additional noise. If no noise and problem is gone, I’ll be a happy Steve. If the noise is still there, it’s time to investigate 0:0 transformers for coupling purposes. I’m not sure how to set this up… I’m not sure why the Radio Shack filter seems to hold a charge. Maybe there’s a cap in there to prevent voltage drop? Not sure…

automotiveelectronicsmoved from livejournal

:)

November 17, 2003

Yes, cutting tenons into long oak pieces on a table saw without a dado blade isn’t the best idea. My hands are sore and cramped just from holding the pieces against the miter. But, the results are looking good… I’m going to try to work on these a bit more tomorrow before class, and then I should be set to do some sanding before the major assembly of the head- and footboards go.

Oh, in case you don’t know, I’ve been working on building a solid oak queen-sized bed for about two years now. I was constantly putting the project away in order to work on moving into my condo, the rooms upstairs, or various other things. Well, I finally have a table saw, and with that, most of the tools I needed to keep working. I just need to keep the motivation going… There’s still the finishing of the mortises, cutting of the large curve in the head and foot boards, sanding, assembling the head and foot boards, adding the spindles, finishing the side rails, then staining and applying urethane to everything.

Oh, here’s a picture of the bed I’m making: http://www.dingleberrypie.com/gallery/bed/aac
Here’s the tenons I cut tonight: http://www.dingleberrypie.com/gallery/bed/DCP_1294
Here’s the garage as it was left tonight: http://www.dingleberrypie.com/gallery/bed/DCP_1293
Here’s the whole bed project gallery. Not a lot of pics, as I’m lazy about this project: http://www.dingleberrypie.com/gallery/bed

making thingsmoved from livejournal

:)

October 16, 2003

Okay, iTunes for Windows kicks ass. It’s *just* like iTunes for Mac. This makes me really happy… Although, if this had come out a year ago, I may not own a Mac right now. heh.

So, yes, if you have *lots* of music around, especially if you wish the library features of Winamp 3 actually worked, give iTunes for Windows a chance. It’s slick…

Oh, and there’s all the iTunes Music Store stuff that lets you buy CDs online reasonably.

computersmoved from livejournalmusic

Office!

October 13, 2003

After finally getting my office back together for tomorrow’s arrival of the G5, I thought I’d take some pictures of my office in it’s current state. Click here or on the picture below if you’d like to see some more photos. After I get the G5 in place (it’ll go on the aluminum slab that’s on the rack, but be placed where the G4 cube is) I’ll likely take some more photos, complete with detail of the aluminum stand that I made for the G5.


Click for more…

UPDATE: Whoops… I just realized that this post went to the wrong journal. It was supposed to be in . Sorry about that…

around the housecomputersmoved from livejournal