Selenium for Automated Pool Signup Spent the last week debugging that script. Turns out the key to getting it to run in cron is to add export DISPLAY=:0 && before your command. That’s because Chrome will not launch without a display to send Chrome to. Python Morsels The most recent Python Morsels exercise was to […]
Author Archives: Eric Mesa
Spent a bunch of today trying to get SSL working correctly
And failed and left my site offline most of the day. So I’ll have to try some stuff on the side and give it another shot.
A little dust for the next few days (or weeks)
I just moved this blog to slightly different hosting infrastructure. Because of that I had some funky issues with character encoding yesterday. I believe that’s fixed now, but there may be other things that take me time to notice and fix up. Also, I still have a couple other things to set up so that […]
Last Few Days in Programming: Lots of Python
Been quite busy with Python, keeping me away from other pursuits, like video games. (Although the kids have been requesting Spelunky 2 whenever it’s time to hang out with them) Extra Life Donation Tracker (eldonationtracker) For my Extra Life Donation Tracker I pushed out a new release, v5.2.2. A user of my program (man, I […]
First 24 Hours with Podcast Republic
It took me a while to get the hang of the many, many options within Podcast Republic so that I could get it to work the way I wanted – automatically downloading episodes on WiFi. Unlike Doggcatcher, but more like other modern pod catchers, you can stream a podcast instead of always having to download […]
Evaluating moving from Doggcatcher to Podcast Republic
I’ve been using Doggcatcher for YEARS – ever since I first got a smartphone something like 8 or so years ago. I started using Doggcatcher on Dan’s recommendation. One of the best features it’s had is the ability to speed up podcasts without chipmunking the voice. (I think that came a year or so after […]
Brave on Windows Part 1
I’ve been using Vivaldi on Windows for about four months now. As I keep saying, my browser needs on Windows aren’t too huge. Mostly I access youtube, the Stardew Valley Farm uploaded, and Google Docs. But I want to keep checking out new browsers on Windows first precisely since they are so important on my […]
Switching up the hardware for the Garage IOT
Back in May, I set up my Raspberry Pi B as my garage door monitor. Unfortunately it stopped working, I haven’t investigated yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it got hit with the infamous SD card corruption that was a big problem with the early Raspberry Pi boards. (I think I read it’s much […]
All Journey and No Destination: Friday and Fast Times at Ridgemont High
By complete coincidence I ended up watching Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Friday (each for the first time) back to back this week. I watched Fast Times because it was being covered by Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson were covering it on Unspooled, their film podcast. As for Friday, well, that’s a slightly more […]
Last few weeks in Programming: Python, Ruby
You may notice it’s been a while since I last wrote about programming. Well, a lot of the programming I was doing with the kids was due to having more time on my hands thanks to COVID. With Scarlett back in school full-time, there’s a lot less time for that as we focus on making […]
Review: InvestiGators
InvestiGators by John Patrick Green My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read this to my four-year-olds and I found it to be a blast. Most of the word-play went over their heads. In fact, after finishing it with my four-year-olds, I recommended it to my 8-year-old. We’ll see what she thinks. This is definitely one […]
Review: Jumpstarting the Onion Omega2
Jumpstarting the Onion Omega2 by Wolfram Donat My rating: 3 of 5 stars A good intro to the Onion Omega2 and Omega2+ boards. Unfortunately, the Onion folks have changed their interface, making a large portion of the book no longer accurate. You can kind of work your way through it if you’re technical and have […]
Review: Getting Started with Soldering: A Hands-On Guide to Making Electrical and Mechanical Connections
Getting Started with Soldering: A Hands-On Guide to Making Electrical and Mechanical Connections by Marc de Vinck My rating: 4 of 5 stars I haven’t soldered in at least a good 15 years, if not more. I couldn’t remember the technique and I didn’t want to mess up my components for a new project I’m […]
Review: Jumpstarting the Raspberry Pi Zero W
Jumpstarting the Raspberry Pi Zero W by Akkana Peck My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is a great introduction to creating electronics projects with the smallest raspberry pi at this time. Seriously, it’s the same size as an Arduino MKR board – like a stick of gum. I wish I’d read it before […]
Review: Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 142
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 142 by Neil Clarke My rating: 4 of 5 stars An almost perfect issue (in terms of my tastes) in which I loved all but one of the stories. Here are my thoughts-per-story, which may have some more text than my status updates if I came up against character limits during updates: […]