Topics

Hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.

Crazy world out there these days.

The Yukon is in dire need of a new paint job. It kinda has been since I got it... but that is beside the point. There are places on the roof where it's down to the metal and starting to rust a little.

So not being very skilled or wanting to spend a couple hundred on proper automobile paint I figured I would use some good 'ol 'Rusto paint and put a UV rated clear over that for some longevity.

While I am at it I will hit the grill, both bumpers and the rocker-panels with spray-on-bedliner. Mostly just because. And I think it will look good. I might even do the wheels.

Courtney and I have been making some color mock-ups in photo-paint-gimp-shop.

Here they are for your consideration and criticism.

Discovered a strange bug in our scheduling software today. The webserver ran out of free space (Apache filled it all will PHP Notice: logs that it wasn't even supposed to be logging...) and that cause the scheduling system to delete all the entries for whatever you were editing.... Super strange... I don't know if it's a bug with the database or the schedule software.  Made lots of extra work pulling all the entries out of backups to restore them.

It's been out for a few months, most of the the people who (used) to frequent this corner of nowhere have played it.

I like it! It is different enough from TF2 that it stands on its own and doesn't step on any toes.

So far I suck, but there any plenty I have played against that suck more, so I don't feel too newbish.

We should all get together and build a communal forge. I have no idea what I would makes (knives probably) and I really don't need any more projects or hobbies but... why not.

Like this one!
Gallery of the build:
http://imgur.com/a/YylQc

Discussion:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Blacksmith/comments/38bj1d/my_step_by_step_propane_forge_build/

I stumbled across this today... and then wondered why I haden't already assumed it was a thing.

http://forum.modifiedpowerwheels.com/index.php

People will soup-up anything it seems. And now I know what I will be doing if I ever come into possession of a power-wheels.

I just read this and though I should share:

The Most Awesome Mayor of Ustomondul

Something strange this way comes.

http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/26pxol/truecrypt_is_dead/
Link at top to the SourceForge page.

A rather fishy ending to one of the most well-respected open-source cryptography programs available. Theories range from their account getting compromised to an NSA crack down. Currently there is no word on what really happened, other then a page telling people to use Microsofts "Bitlocker" (not considered very secure).

This is a scary event. I use truecrypt. Thousands of businesses use it. I would not be surprised that many government agencies use it. No word on the security of using old versions of TC. I will keep using it until more information is available. But I thought you should all be aware.

This would be a good time to get SSL keys/certs generated and working for randomland. Then we can encrypt all site traffic.

Good News! FTL update is scheduled for April 3rd! Just days away!

http://www.ftlgame.com/?page_id=106

I have decided to make a roof rack for my beast truck. So far I have $30 in metal and a sketchup drawing. The metal totals 40' each of 5/16 bar stock and 1.5 x 3/4 rectangular tube.  It will clamp to the side rails of the stock rack, removing the cross members of the stock rack.  So... | | rather then |=| ... Get the idea?

Any ideas? I want it useful for packing camping supplies/kayaks but also good for hauling around lengths of wood and metal up there.

Html5 "Canvas" tower defense game. Made using Java Script and 'Component-based' programing practices.

This project is currently in the initial design phase.   Please feel free to contribute any way you like.


This space reserved for actual information later.

I got Starbound. Set up a server and made a character. Got killed 14 times before I managed to dig a hole and kill some shield-headed dinosaur looking creature. Now it's night and I have a fire and meat.

Interesting looking game, even if it's in the beta stages.  I wonder how the multiplayer works.

Like it says, we should go offroading somewhere. I gots a new truck and it needs to prove its prowess.

I bought yet another vehicle. Yesterday I purchased a GMC Yukon for $800 off a Craigslist dude. He had it listed for $1000, but practically ask me to give him less when I mentioned the price. Cody can tell you, he was there.

So far I like it. The seats fold flat-ish and the back is big enough for a queen-sized air mattress to make it into a mini-camper. It smells like a 20 year old car, which is to say, not too bad but kinda musty. I will need to give it a good cleaning before adding my own stank to it.  Everything seems to work so far (4wd and even cruse control!) It needs painted. White just work work for me. Any color suggestions?

I was chasing frogs with my camera today when I though I might get back into the macro Monday thing (Posting macro shots according to a theme to a flicker pool.)

So, to make a short story longer then needed, I was later investigating the said group (there seems to be a G+ one to, but that system seems less useable for the purpose) and I noticed that flickr is now offering 1 FREAKING WHOLE TERABYTE in free space. And also that doubling that space costs the exorbitant amount of $499. 

Where do the people here keep their image backups? Online? Local only? Network store? An old harddrive in the shoebox? Sleek fancy portable drive?

I am personally thinking about abusing google+ and loading all my images to it in reduced size. But with a free terabyte I can store every picture I have ever taken on flickr. I already keep a copy locally and on an external drive. The external drive leaves the house with me most days.

Having offline map data is useful when you are lost in the woods. Or just trying to find a way around a washout. GPSs often have decent data, but that gets outdated and is often incomplete or just plain incorrect.

So, having some map data that can be loaded onto a phone and either used in Google maps or in the Garmin android app would be cool. Having up-to-date records of Forest Service roads and National Development roads would be even better.

My google-fo tells me there are ways of converting PDFs to Garmin format and are useable as overlays in google maps (Yuck) And that Oregon has an atrocious map download system. It used to be better, but then they organized it. Now you have to click though to get to a map, and by the time they let you download anything you get only a few miles worth. Kinda useless.

What I did find is this app: All In-One Offline Maps . It looks promising. But not ideal. You have to view areas first to cache the maps (but they are kept permanently) And is likely Android only.
But if that app can get that data, there must be some way to get the overlays and a topo basemap for use in google maps.

There is now a Xmpp (same as gchat) server running here on the r-land. TSL encryption is supported by default it seems. I don't think it stores the messages internally encrypted though. Not sure if that is a client requirement or what yet.
Not sure what to do with it yet. You all have accounts (well, most of you. Brad, Cody and Courtney do) Your passwords are the standard default password. Not sure how you can change them yet... supposedly you can use a xmpp client that supports the feature, xabber for android foolishly does not seem to. 

I will see if there is any web-interface for people to manage accounts, or just a web-based client to log into and chat/change password.

Then setup group chats.

Edit:
https://jwchat.org/ <- is a web-based client that can log in and set update passwords. I don't like it's multi-popup window interface though.

Official Pi-Sub thread.


Continued from RasPI Idea/Project thread.

Having the pi down that far would mean the wifi would defiantly need a floating antenna, or to be tethered to a wifi router via CAT5.  You get lots of signal attenuation from having a long cable reaching to the antenna, so floating WiFi with separate battery might be the way to go. I have a few that I got at various garage sales for $1 or less that could be donated to the project.

Not sure how one would mount motors for controlling props for locomotion. A few seconds on google suggests a greased shaft fitted through tight washers.
Another cool thread on waterproofing and RC subs.

Now we need a 3D printer and some injection molding equipment to make all this pretty

Please help me/us find ideas to use the awesome hardware that is the Raspberry pi.

The only things I can think of are robot controller and portable, retro-gaming box. That and a computer to run hard drives for off loading pictures while camping.

I just got Gran Turismo 5 for $10 on Amazon.

It looks absolutly lovely compared to the older GT games. Smooth lines and reflections. I can actually tell what I am looking at most of the time. Game play is nice on the PS3 controller wilt all its analog sticks, buttons and paddles, but I ordered a wheel anyway.

My only complaint is that two of the cars I tried to buy so far were unavailable when I hit the in-game purchase button as being DLC. This is really annoying as the car is just a spreadsheet of values and a model. Why not include them all? Anyway, the copy I bought came with a voucher for all the DLC up to mid-2012 so I used that. But rather then just making the cars available to buy it just gives them to you. So you can start the game with one of the best cars if you want. The fun before was struggling in your barely capable honda  prelude to get a few more thousand to buy an RX7 so you can move to the bigger races. Not coming in last and still making 5k after 10 races. Grumble. I think it might be too easy compared to older versions. Getting last place in races still gets you $2k (as opposed to just getting a few hundred or nothing)

BUT! It really shines in the special events categories. Those are actually challenging (and have much higher prizes) You get disqualified for hitting other card to hard or going off track. Imagine racing the Top Gear test track in a VW van against 11 other VW vans and starting in last place. No money unless you finish in the top 5. Now that is actually a little exciting.

Also, I am thinking of making a racing seat out of the wheel controller and a honda chair