2023-10-23 : (Another) New 3D Printer
After a few years with my Vertex Delta 3D Printer, and one too many failed print attempts, I splashed out on a new printer: a Creality K1.
This is a massive step up in performance over the Vertex Delta - it's a CoreXY printer that is incredibly fast and accurate... and more importantly, isn't connected with magnets which can cause the head to crash (and fall off the magnets) if there is a shock during printing. As cool as the Vertex Delta was to watch printing, this was it's biggest problem.
As usual, there is a plethora of printable upgrades that people have already designed for this - so time to start printing!
2021-12-29 : Website Template Updated : v2.23.2
Enhancements
None
New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)
None
Bug Fixes
- The permalinks for the news feed only worked if the website was in the document root. Now takes into account the path.
2021-10-23 : Website Template Updated : v2.23.1
Enhancements
None
New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)
None
Bug Fixes
- Not really a fix, but the W3C has recently deprecated the media "projection" for style sheets. This was in the XHTML header data that's generated from index.php
2021-07-03 : New Mountain Bike
After 3 years of fun on my Saracen Mantra Pro hard-tail, I decided to go to the next level in mountain biking and purchase an Orbea Occam H20 full-suspension, 29'r mountain bike.
This bike, with its bigger wheels, rolls over rocks easier; and with the rear shock, is less tiring on the downhills (saves my knees doing all of the work). However, it's slightly harder to get up them in the first place: since it's a bit heavier, got larger wheels and slightly higher gearing than my hard-tail.
Hopefully it'll serve me well for the years to come on the technical trails... and I'll save the Mantra Pro for the easier trails with the family!
2020-11-28 : New 3D Printer
This is one of these gadgets that I've been wanting for years - pretty much since they first came to market... but I've just never been able to fully justify it. Technically I can't now, but there was a good sale on at Pimoroni for a Vertex Delta 3D Printer that I just couldn't pass up on.
This is an open source hardware platform (with 3D models of all parts should I need to print any - which I've had to already after breaking a bracket that holds the print bed in place), that runs Marlin, open source embedded 3D printer software (no... it's not firmware!). There is also a freely available slicer: Ultimaker Cura which itself is composed of open source libraries etc. which (best of all) even has a native appImage for Linux!
There are thousands of 3D models of all sorts of things on the Thingyverse, and when it comes to having to design a model myself, then FreeCAD is also available for Linux!
Let's see what I can print :-)
2020-11-10 : New Raspberry Pi 400
Now some may think that having more than 10 Raspberry Pi computers is a bit excessive - I don't :-)
So, when a new one was announced, the Raspberry Pi 400, I felt that I really needed to add it to my collection (which takes this up to the 17th Pi that I've bought!).
It's basically a Pi 4 (bit a bit quicker - 1.8GHz compared to 1.5GHz) with a new board layout to allow all connectors to appear on the rear of the unit, and built into an official Raspberry Pi keyboard... just like the good old days of (in my case) the Acorn Electron and Atari ST where this was the case. However, the Pi 400 is way more powerful than any of the 1980s and 1990s computers, ovbisouly!
I'm initially playing with the 64-bit version of Ubuntu Server but since it's a "computer" as opposed to a headless server, I'm going to install Xubuntu desktop on it too.
2020-09-19 : New SOHO Router
Nothing too exciting - yet another network device, hopefully to improve Internet connectivity reliability and throughput.
A DrayTek Vigor 2762 (on the left) has replaced my Netgear D7000 Nighthawk... not that the D7000 was a bad bit of kit, but every few months it needs a power cycle as it locks up, and I've no idea what the firewall throughput is like.
The D7000 will go on ebay soon I think - as its still worth a bob or two!
It has VLAN capability, so if I reconfigure my gigabit network wiring slightly, then I should be able to re-introduce guest Wi-Fi access for Internet only (without them having access to my whole network).
2020-07-23 : New Laptop
At times I missed not having a wee laptop (like my old Eee PCs - 701 and 901), so I eventually bought another one.
Having read about All the major Intel vulnerabilities I opted for an AMD processor - a combined CPU and GPU as it turns out: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U, which together with the NVMe drive makes for quite a nippy wee laptop!
2020-06-07 : Website Template Updated : v2.23.0
Enhancements
-
Added ability to insert html pages from html pages with a special HTML
comment. Similarly, the ability to include PHP files and call PHP
functions from similar HTML comments.
For example:
<!-- insert user_includes/A_Common_File.html -->
<!-- php_file ./user_includes/a_php_file.php -->
<!-- php_function a_user_function(1,4) -->
New Setup Variables (see <setup-sample.php> for details)
None
Bug Fixes
None
2020-05-05 : New PC Speakers
Sweet... after having the same Desktop PC speakers for nigh on 25 years, the constant humming eventually started annoying me - spending all of my lock-down working day and most of the evening in front of my PC. So I treated myself to a new pair: Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II
They sound very nice :-D
Computing Power
- Acer Aspire R3700
- Acknowledgements
- BOINC
- Desktop PC
- Eee PC 4G (701)
- Eee PC 901
- Gigabit Network
- Inspiron 14 5485 Laptop
- Kids PC 1
- Kids PC 2
- Media PC
- Mini-ITX PC
- My Useful Scripts
- Nano ITX PC
- Nook Simple Touch
- Processing Power
- Raspberry Pi
- Sharp Zaurus SL-C3200
- Storage Capacity
- The Server
- What Is Firmware