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I have a letter that needs a PDF thrown in the end. The PDFs change in their page count though, so that’s a bit of an issue. I used a control script to throw the pages in, and I can separate by the page count, but there’s a few issues. This is a presort mailing. I need the presorted data to break out into the different page count for inkjetting. This means I need the data I take in to have the final sequence numbering to push into the inserters for inkjetting. Curses.

The obvious solution, to me because I’m a brute and forcy and stuff, is to build the files, embed the full data record, group the file, dump out the new CSVs and spray on some sequence numbers. I don’t need to do this though. I’m just working on how to do it “right”.

I’ve gotten as far as reading the filename in, and grabbing a page count, but dumping the page count back into the data is being a bit of a hassle. Once I do that though, I can sequence by the page count, fix the sequence number, and dump out records all in one pass.

That’s what my life consists of now.

Well this is turning stupid.

• I need to have a variable signature for a letter
• I have most of the signatures, but I don’t know which ones I’m missing.
• For the signatures I don’t have, I need to create art for one, using a static font.

PReS Connect had the ability to check on the availability of a resource like an image, resource(). This works as part of an If…Then…Else, but now I need to pull in the available image. The image itself might be any crazy number of sizes which means the easy way to get what we want is with a div and it’s background. This will allow me to scale and push into the left middle of the gap for the signature. Throwing the variable image in though…

That was an hour, and still no dice. I ran out of time; unfortunately I ran out of time more than I planned so now I’m writing this over a beer. Soon I’ll have a second beer because some bus drivers think 5 minutes early is a good thing… On the other hand, beer. Still deciding what beer #2 will be, as I’m on the end of a niche bus route that only shows up at special people’s shift end.

What I’ll do is create a div. The div will be replaced via a snippet, dependent on the existence of the image. If the image doesn’t exist, we get the div with the text. Otherwise we get the div with the image. I just need to make the image div work now.

I should do that this weekend, maybe?

There was a deal so I bought more things. I have a low-resolution IR sensor, random parts, a high end IMU, and a couple of motor controllers showing up in a few days. I need to build.

Build.

BUILD.

Well that was dramatic. Really though, I have a stack of parts, not finished projects. I need to reverse this trend. If nothing else it’s way too effing hot to do so much gaming, seeing as how it doubles the temperature of the den. Not really, but really.

When our current guest heads home I’ll start with a bit of toilet repair. I hear we have a drip from the tank. This could be a lot of things, but ignorable ain’t one.

Next is get back on parts boxes, trays, containers, sacks, whether it takes.

I have more pickling cucumbers, as well as getting on some pickled green beans if they’re still okay.

But projects.

A broom faced to robot with IR, data logging, room mapping, and lasers and… well, maybe not lasers. This IS NOT a Roomba. Not unless Roomba’s are smart enough to hide from animals, only go out when there’s no foot traffic, won’t smear accidents, and doesn’t have an overflowing collection bucket. Thing is going to be great. Next step will be some linkage to make it staircase traversing.

A smart watch that fits on the Wif’s wrist. That also means my wrist, which is just as well as someone needs to test the beast. Bluetooth, wireless notifications and low power are a must.

The gutless wonder needs some pep. I like the screen, I’m indifferent to the keyboard, mildly dislike the pointer, and need to make the battery charge again on the Pi-Top. Overall, it needs some love. Hard love. Derp love. Wood case, get the battery to charge or replace it, strip down a system, add a drive. Hard, wild, derp love.

In other words, I’ve been so focused on starting game after game in Total Warhammer, that it’s about time I did anything else. I am a study in procrastination. A still life. A non-kinetic abilities sculpture.

I have work to do.

Well that should have worked easier. I’m setting something up to run a stack of custom stock with a separator between groupings. I finally got the groupings, and the separators looking right and… derp. The printer won’t play nice. “Easy” would be to break the file per the group and send each chunk over. Unfortunately today’s chunks are roughly 2000 sheets in 1400 chunks. That isn’t going to go well. The likelihood that they come out in the same order is close to zero. I could stream them over, but that means I’m tying up a printer for an hour or two (hard to estimate when you’re adding on the start and stop of each chunk, and it kills the repeatability. RPD might be able to do it, but I still need to dig into a lot of how, especially as events consider so that I still don’t have PDF to PS turned on. I can contact everyone’s help desks, but that’s an exercise in futility given my SFTP joys.

I need to look into how to hand manipulate what the Ricoh 9110 is actually getting. Or, what if I chunk and then combine. Would it respect the group breaks then? I tried PDF-VT, but no dice for me.

Why is PDF-VT not working?

More importantly, why is their website so my phone unfriendly?

I could try outputting individual chunks and then smashing then together. Maybe.

I didn’t get printing, in part because it was in the 80’s or something. First hot day like that of the year turns me into a living melting scoop of ice cream. I drank beer. Not all is lost though as I started the modeling. The lack of cloud collaboration, seeing as how I’m totally working with others on this, is already making me happier than I was with Fusion 360 for all of Fusion’s strengths.

I’ve been watching a lot of EEVBlog teardown and repair videos lately. Great stuff. Last night our portable AC was being a bit dodgy and today it’s just dead to the world. After an hour of finding all the screws I finally got into the meat and potatoes. Okay, I got to sheet metal covering the power supply, so more of the asparagus. But close.

I lever of the sheet metal and I’m digging into the power supply. Its unplugged of course, but I’m just doing a visual inspection. I look at the caps, the transformers, etc, and everything looks… ash. There are ash flakes. Either a wire burnt or the relay it was attached to burnt, taking the wire with it.

Sanyou SLI-S-112DM. Well that’s a part I could get from China in a month…

Whole board it is then.

• Design a small box in FreeCAD
  Print the boxHahaha. Let’s talk about this box. So we’re looking at a need for parts boxes, trays, drawers, whatever. If the to of my noggin, I’m thinking individual drawers that are 1″x3″. This will allow a good generic size for most purposes. I should think about a… Oh, I know. Print a slot that fits whatever the hell size of screw I have in spades from disassembling computers. These screws I could then mount, with a bit of threaf exposed of course, in a drawer box. Or, do I want to look at a dovetail like shape? I could also add grooves for dividers for the smaller parts. Handles? A lip for a drawer stop?

Hahaha. Let’s talk about this box. So we’re looking at a need for parts boxes, trays, drawers, whatever. If the to of my noggin, I’m thinking individual drawers that are 1″x3″. This will allow a good generic size for most purposes. I should think about a… Oh, I know. Print a slot that fits whatever the hell size of screw I have in spades from disassembling computers. These screws I could then mount, with a bit of threaf exposed of course, in a drawer box. Or, do I want to look at a dovetail like shape? I could also add grooves for dividers for the smaller parts. Handles? A lip for a drawer stop?

Right. New design parameters.

• Drawers 1″x3″x1″
• Grooves for dividers
• Incorporated drawer pull
• Lip at the back for a stop
• Dovetail looking thing as a guide

Case should be inherently stackable. Flat plate with the other part of the dovetail. Mounting nubs for sides to mount. Front plates that tires it all together.

But for today. A drawer.

This weekend I’ll be rolling over to the Despot to get some PVC pipes and fittings. We have a tiny garden, but it’s a pain to water. The obvious solution would be find a way to keep it watered with minimal effort. So of course, that means overbuilding and overthinking something.

The garden consists of three height tiers, with varied planters and boxes at each tier. The plants are all roughly grouped by needs, but the needs of even any one tier are all over the place. So I’m thinking I’ll do a master line from one end of the garden to the other. Throughout the line I’ll throw T-junctions, with each one having it’s own ball valve. This way I can keep all the flows calibrated to a given plant group.

I have few soil moisture sensors now, that I’ll use for measuring moisture, as well as profiling some home brew ones, once I get them built. I want to go wireless, but that’s going to take a bit more doing. I’d need to design the enclosure(s), choose a battery or two, add some solar panels and charge circuitry for the box, tamper and water proof everything. You know, a lot of stuff. Which means I’m totally going to go wireless. Note to self, always go big.

Questions:

• Is cat5 weatherproof enough?
• How to make sure the battery in a sealed box doesn’t torch in the summer?
• How to seal PLA for this kind of use, or do I need to look at something like a metal junction box?
• Should I think about how to add over the air updates?
• Should I go with a directional antenna?
• How do I want to report data?
• When will I be rolling a pair big enough to have this on a relay (or something), so I can just set and verify?

I always liked the idea from (So Long and Thanks For All the Fish? Definitely from the late Douglas Adams, just not sure which book). There were sunglasses that would go from stylish to absolutely opaque when danger was sensed. They wouldn’t save you, but at least you didn’t have to see your own demise. I think they were from Mostly Harmless. I should find the exact quote.

Back to the serious. The Wif’s dog, bring a naughty create like he is, triggers into the fight of fight-or-flight whenever there is another dog. This would make digital blinders a potential miracle, assuming the blinders didn’t freak him out. LCDs could do the trick, see Naomi Wu’s LCD outfit. This then made me start thinking, kinda like a smart mirror build why not…

Build my own digital sunglasses. Just blackout would be easy, that’s just a change of voltage, but what if I did one better. Get some monochrome LCDs, the reflective type, remove the mirror back, and mount each one as eyepieces in a pair of sunglasses. I could have unique, shade shifting, polarized “smart” glasses.

I’ve been having a hard time looking for a decent size, until I found this which looks like it would fit the bill. Add in some biometric checks, and they could respond to my responses. I’ll have to keep looking though. I might also look into what a custom build would cost.

Other items to consider would be what to drive it with, power source, up time, what to display. I should start thinking about that all as well. I could go with the burley sides method, and I’m totally not against it, but something more elegant would be nice. Researching batteries is making me think I’ll want to power it with whatever I can find, and then custom order. I’ll probably need to start by determining the power needs, and go from there. The pain is the more exotic the shape, the more expensive.

I might think about doing a heads up difficult after gutting an OLED or two.