I’ve been trying to find a graceful way to widen the content in Obsidian when I
give it more space. I’d previously tried using a custom CSS class that I could
apply to pages and it would set a larger value for --file-line-width, but
when I shrunk the pane size, I was still stuck with this larger size. I also
didn’t like that I had to manual set this class on each page I wanted larger.
I guess I’ve left this site dormant for quite a while. I did a tiny styling update back towards the beginning of 2023 and then added the full page color comparison applet towards the beginning of 2024 — after a hiatus since essentially 2016 — but I didn’t really have a vision for what I was doing with the site anymore.
I have a few tables in Obsidian for which I’d like to specify certain columns to
be no-wrap. I’d solved it initially by wrapping long text in those columns with
<nobr><\nobr>. Technically I suppose that works, but
between nobr being deprecated and that approach requiring wrapping
each spot of long text manually, I’ve added the following CSS to my
general.css file:
This year I read 44 books. My favorite books from this year were:
This year I read 20 books. My favorite books from this year were:
This year I read 27 books. My favorite books from this year were:
A few years ago I ran into the allRGB contest. The gist of allRGB is to design a procedure for producing images with every single RGB color used exactly once. Since then I’ve had ideas simmering on the backburner as I thought about how I would approach the problem.
I settled on populating my images using a modified 2D random walk in which I can move in any of the cardinal directions to any unvisited neighbor. At each step of the walk, I select the next color in sequence for placement. If the random walk ever gets trapped (all four cardinal neighbors have already been visited), then I search for the closest unvisited pixel. This approach, as I had it implemented, produces images that pretty consistantly look like this
I’ve been looking for a way to take digital notes for a while. I started out with an Asus Transformer TF101 and planned to use a capacitive stylus. I quickly realized that stylus/tablet combo didn’t have the necessary precision and there really wasn’t any good software on android to handle something as precise as note taking. Later, I moved on to the Nvidia Shield Tablet. It suffered from the same problem as the Transformer: not enough precision and no useful software.
Anyhow, I was going to get a Thinkpad X1 Yoga until a friend suggested I check out the SP4 and I was blown away. In particular, the precision, accuracy, and speed of the stylus was astounding. I ended up getting the Core i5 / 8gb ram 256gb ssd variant.
Your best bet is probably the Philips 455955 bulb. It’s 60w equivalent, uses 8w, has a daylight color temperature (5000k), and is about the best price I’ve run into so far. If you want a more orange bulb, there’s a similar model that’s cheaper and runs at 2700k (I haven’t tried that model but I assume they’re essentially identical). Amazon and Home Depot both sell the 455955 but Amazon seems to price it at about double what Home Depot does. You can probably find it elsewhere too.
I’ve pretty much finished migrating my blog posts from RagingRoosevelt.com to here. I decided to make the move when I realized that I didn’t like the level of control over my site that I was able to achieve when using wordpress and I was worried about backing up my content if I ever decided to leave wordpress, especially if I got more stuff posted.
(part 1) (part 2) I actually managed to finish this project surprisingly quickly. I think I only spent about 10 hours total building it.
Anyhow, I decided to abandon the vertical plywood since I liked how the desk looked without it and it turned out to not need any additional support that the plywood would have offered.
I also decided that, in the interest of cable management, I wanted a few holes that went through the surface of the desk (where, eventually, cables will land in wire cable racks). I settled on linseed oil over tung oil since it was cheaper ($9 for an 8oz bottle of tung vs $9 for a quart of linseed) and I didn’t want to get too little and have to get more in the middle of the project.
And, here’s the finished product:
(part 1). Since I last worked on the desk, I realized I had to figure out how to attach the horizontal braces to the legs. I hadn’t really done much carpentry before so the obvious choice – lap joints – didn’t occur to me and it too my sister suggesting them before I realized it was the obvious choice. Anyhow, here’s how that looks in CAD:
I’ve been meaning to build myself a computer desk to replace the one I currently use. The features I need it to have are:
So far I’ve just been planning it out in a 3D model (partly to practice my CAD skills and partly so that I can tally up how much lumber I’ll need). Here’s what I have so far:
Mariah’s multicolor pen broke. I didn’t have any prior experience doing 3D modeling so I figured I’d take the opportunity to start learning CAD (I needed to anyhow if I ever hope to get any use out of a 3D printer). My goal was to get a new pen machined in aluminum but it seems like that might be prohibitively expensive given that it’s a one-off design with some fiddly parts.
Here’s the original pen:
I was curious if there were any perceptible benefits of shooting in raw. I know it’s a pretty well covered topic but I had some time on my hands and wanted an excuse to play with lightroom. Here’s the rundown of the experiment I did to test the question. I shot a photo in raw. I made sure it started out with an over-exposed portion. I cropped it to just the part I wanted to observe. I exported it from lightroom so that I would have an jpeg copy. I then preformed the same operations on the raw copy and the jpeg copy:
I’d played Coup before, so this wasn’t entirely new. I hadn’t seen the kickstarter edition of Coup or Reformation yet, though. The kickstarter editions includes alternative art for each of the characters. I think when I get my copy of Coup, I’ll need to make sure that I get one with the alternative art since they did such a good job. I’d play with it mixed in so that there is one of each of the three illustrations for each class.
I like the rather quick nature of the game, and I suspect that the Reformation expansion continues with that trend. It seems like a mix of the best components of Love Letter and the Resistance.
My goal with this project is to build a timelapse system. When I’m done, I hope to have a camera control module (to automatically take photos on a specified interval), a motorized rail system that will allow my camera to perform pedestal (up/down), truck (forward/backward), and dolly(side to side) movements.
It’s been a while since I last worked on my visual alarm clock project. Since I haven’t mentioned it before, here’s the gist: I’m working on an alarm clock that will turn on this very bright 85w compact fluorescent bulb (note: not 85w equivalent) in an attempt to abandon an audible alarm (on my phone). I’m hoping that this will be a much gentler wakeup experience. When I get this finished, I’ll have an outlet that the arduino controls with a large 3-380vac relay. I’ll then plug the CFL into that outlet. Additionally, I’ll have a 4-digit 7-segment display to show the time and allow for easily setting the alarm.
Still using QWERTY. I previously had a pretty different thumb cluster. I used to have enter, bksp on the large 2x left thumb buttons and del and then space on the large 2x right thumb buttons. I also had vol+ and vol- on the small 1x right thumb buttons. Here’s the new layout.
