Category: Computers

  • My Programming Projects and Progress in 2020

    Back in 2019, when I did my programming retrospective I made a few predictions. How did those go? Work on my Extra Life Donation Tracker? Yup! See below! Write more C++ thanks to Arduino? Not so much.  C# thanks to Unity? Yes, but not in the way I thought. I only did minor work on…

  • The Right Programming Language can make a big difference

    Recently I came across this video where a programmer solves the same problem in 6 different programming languages: What’s incredibly beautiful are the Haskell and APL solutions. Whereas every other language requires multiple lines, Haskell solves the problem in just one line. And APL is just a few symbols. Here’s the same guy solving a…

  • First time soldering headers

    The last time I tried to solder something, it was just a few pins and it gave me so much trouble and took hours. So, when I was thinking about how how I was going to redo my BBQ thermostat with Adafruit Circuit Python and Stemma QT, I was afraid to get the FeatherS2 since…

  • Trying out zsh (again, maybe?)

    It’s been a very, very long time since I tried using a different shell than the bash shell. Back some 10-15 years ago I remember hearing about fish and trying it out. I think it broke some bash paradigms so I went back to bash. I could have sworn I tried zsh in the past,…

  • Programming Update

    C# Back when I was doing GameDev.Tv‘s Unity 2D class, I really wanted to know how to do multiplayer games (I also wanted some better support on using Xbox/PS3 remotes in games). Well, this year they released their Multiplayer class. So, naturally, I bought it up. I started working on it, resulting in two Github…

  • CentOS Changes

    On 8 Dec I saw the announcement that Red Hat (which had made CentOS an in-house distro a year or two ago) was changing CentOS from being a free clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, to focusing solely on CentOS Stream. (The CentOS press release; The Red Hat press release) This would make the progression…

  • Followup On Unity and JetBrains Rider on Fedora

    As you recall from the previous blog post, I’d installed Unity and JetBrains on my Fedora 32 computer via Flatpaks. I was going to use them for the Unity Multiplayer course I was taking on Udemy. Unfortunately it was an immediate fail and in lesson one after they have me install a new inputs library…

  • Unity and JetBrains Rider on Fedora via Flathub

    As I mentioned last year in my 2019 in Programming post, I created a bunch of 2D games in Unity by following along with the Gamedev.tv classes. I would watch the videos on Linux and jump over to my Windows computer for the programming, learning how to use SourceTree and Microsoft Video Studio in the…

  • PyGame 2.0 is out!

    I just found out today that PyGame 2.0 was released yesterday, on the 20th anniversary of the software. One of the first steps I took with Python was a series of games I made from tutorials in Linux Format Magazine. On Github I’ve got my shifter game and my Space Invaders clone. The shifter game…

  • Fedora 33 is out!

    It came out this Tuesday and last night I updated my laptop. The only thing I had to do for the upgrade was remove a python3-test package. Since I’m using virtual environments, for the most part I don’t care which Python packages the system has. So that was a nice, easy upgrade! Good job Fedora…

  • What I’ve been up to in Programming: Python

    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…

  • 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

    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

    Brave on Windows Part 1

    This post continues a series on exploring new browsers: Are Web Browsers getting exciting again? Vivaldi Part 1 Vivaldi Part 2 Vivaldi Part 3 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…