Posts

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Ultimaker Cura 5.5 Flatpak Launching in the background on ElementaryOS

If you’re having an issue with Ultimaker Cura 5.5 Flatpak launching in the background and you’re unable to bring it to the foreground, I found that rolling it back to Cura 5.4 fixed the issue. To do so you’ll need to follow the directions I found at StackExchange.

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Building My Second Brain - Part 2

Previously I had mentioned these 4 tools as being essential for My Second Brain: Google Keep, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Tasks. Since writing Part 1, I have tinkered with and used those tools in my “Production” Second Brain and discovered I don’t need one of the tools. I have also been reading more of Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte and learned about Progressive Summarization. After reading about and using Progressive Summarization that solidified the removal of the tool in question

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Building My Second Brain - Part 1

Over the years I’ve read a lot of productivity books, self help guides, and “must-read” business books. From Getting Things Done by David Allan, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People By Stephen Covey, The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll, and many more. I’ve read about techniques like Zettelkasten and the Pomodro Technique. Each of these books and methods influences how I do work and how I influence others in my career. Recently I’ve picked up Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte. I’ve read his blog in the past and even put the P.A.R.A method into action in some version or another. I’ve been pretty organized and able to pull various sources of information, but I also recently promoted to a new position that has me taking in vast amounts of information at a rate far higher than previous positions. So it’s time for a change.

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Google Stadia Shutting Down

Google Stadia is Google’s cloud-gaming service started in 2019. It allows a user to stream games instead of downloading, much like Netflix or Youtube for video. There is even a special Stadia Controller that did not connect to your device through bluetooth like most controllers, but instead connected via Wifi to the Stadia service to reduce latency. For a while Google had a Chromecast bundle that included a Chromecast Ultra and the Stadia controller. Stadia also has a “Pro” subscription service for $9.99 USD a month that gives you access to select titles for the length of your subscription, and new titles are added monthly. Well, they were anyway. On September 29, 2022 Google announced it would be shutting down Google Stadia on January 18th, 2023.

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Use an External Drive for Saving Scripts

For a while I’ve been using a second drive in my personal laptop (it supports 2 NVMe drives) to save any scripts, ISOs, Learning resources, etc. It’s handy because if I need to re-image my Windows C: drive I still have all those resources there. Recently my main workstation at work ended up under a pipe that leaked heavily, ruining a lot of equipment. Luckily I tend to upload and commit most of my stuff to Github or the work repo, so no major data was lost, but it took a lot longer to setup my laptop and pull down all the things I’d been working on.

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Why I Base Tech on Parental Controls

TL;DR

Because I’m a parent.

What do I mean by “Tech”

Okay, so the TL;DR probably didn’t really satisfy the nuances of my statement. I choose “tech” based on parental control features. When I say “tech” that is the ambigous blob that encompasses computers, mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, networking gear, and TVs. Basically, it’s anything consumer technology.

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Why You Should Learn Markdown

What is Markdown

Markdown was released in December of 2004 by John Gruber. His website Daring Fireball gives the following as the introduction for Markdown:

Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

That sounds simple enough, and it really is. Markdown is a set of rules and syntax.

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Setup Kobo Sync in Calibre-Web

Calibre-Web

This guide assumes you’ve already setup Calibre-Web on a server of your choice.

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Why I Converted to Unraid

What is UnRAID

UnRAID is a GNU/Linux-based server solution. UnRAID is based on Slackware Linux as of this writing and implements data redundancy and parity in a slick way. It’s similar to using MergerFS and SnapRAID, but with a slight difference. It also supports Docker and KVM through a nice and easy-to-use web-ui. Oh, and it runs off of a flash drive and RAM.

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A History of My Gaming Habits

8-Bit and older

My first game console that I can remember was mom and dad’s old Atari. I think it was the 2600 but I can’t quite remember. I do remember the crazy Joysticks with the one red button and the games were extremely basic. It was fun, but the games were limited. Then mom brought home a defective NES from work. Where she worked at was a small retailer that allowed devices returned as defective to be sold to the employees at a reduced cost if the device couldn’t be sent back for credit. It apparently just need to be cleaned with compressed air because it was perfectly functional. Even now it still works! It requires some magic incantations and placing the cartridges juuuuust right, but a new ZIF connector would fix that.

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Indivisible (Xbox One)

Indivisible Logo

Likes

Hand-Drawn visuals
Fresh battle system
Quirky Characters

Dislikes

Disjointed Story
Tropey
Created by Lab Zero Games

Review

Indivisible is a quirky Turn-based RPG Developed by Lab Zero Games and published by 505 Games. The Visuals are amazing and appear to be hand-drawn, the art style is interesting and unique, the battle system is a great blend of traditional RPG systems and hack-and-slash adventure controls, along with some platforming elements thrown in. The characters are well thought out, and the writing for many of them are top notch. They help mask the fact that the game has some very disjointed story moments, and there are still plenty of tropes abound, and of course the game has some extra baggage because it was created by Lab Zero Games.

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Likes

Simple Pricing structure
Includes Xbox Gold
Includes EA Play
Great Selection of Games
Includes Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC
Xcloud (Beta)
New Games Added Monthly
Discount on Digital Games

Dislikes

Download only for Console and PC
Smaller collection of games
Feels like large chunk of games are Xbox 360 Games

Review

Much like PS Now for PlayStation, Microsoft has their own game subscription service for the Xbox One/Series X|S, and PC. It features a formidable list of AAA titles from the last decade, including new titles and many of Microsoft’s own studios. Sea of Thieves, Halo: Master Chief Collection, Gears of War, and Battlefront 1 and 2 (the new ones, not the originals) are just some of the highlights. There are also games to satisfy younger age ranges, including Lego games, platformers like Banjo-Kazooie, Minecraft, and even Fusion Frenzy from the original Xbox. Game Pass ultimate also includes Xbox Live Gold for multiplayer, which means you also get the “free” games included with Xbox Live Gold. Is this enough to make the Game Pass Ultimate a compelling option?

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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Xbox One)

Likes

“Feels” like Star Wars
Combat is well balanced
Good Story
Characters have depth

Dislikes

I still suck at timing
Graphical glitches
Sometimes feels too much like a movie

Review

Imagine if you took the “Return of the Jedi” and smashed it together with a “Tomb Raider” game, and a little bit of “Jedi Academy” sprinkled in for flavor. You’d have “Jedi: Fallen Order.” One of the newest Star Wars games in the franchise, Jedi: Fallen Order really hits a homerun. I haven’t had this much fun playing a Star Wars game or been this invested since Knights of the Old Republic (1 and 2).

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Script - Restart-UptimeComputers

TL:DR

The script checks to see if a computer’s uptime is greater-than-or-equal-to a variable of days you specify. If it is, then it schedules a time (in 24-hour time) to restart the next day.

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Game Review - PlayStation Now

Likes

Streaming for PS3 and PS4 Games
PS4 Games Downloadable
New Content every month
Works on PC
Integrates with PS Plus Subscription

Dislikes

PS3 Games ONLY streamable
Limited PS2 games
No PS1 titles
Games seem to rotate quickly
PS Plus Integration is janky

Review

I’ve had Playstation Now (PSNow) for almost 6 months. It’s Sony’s answer to Microsoft’s Xbox Games Pass (which I haven’t used so no in-depth comparisons there). I picked it up when it was on sale for $42 instead of it’s normal $60 for 12 months. Quick math says that’s $5 a month regularly, and less than $4 on sale. So what are you getting for the price of a “medium” coffee from an international coffee chain?

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Homelab - Terramaster F4-220 NAS

Years ago I purchased a Terramaster F4-220 NAS from Newegg.com when it was super-cheap. Terramaster products are usually price competitive anyway, but this was a deal too good to pass up. It’s 2GB of RAM onboard, and an Intel J1800 CPU, with 4 drive bays. I bought it, some 1TB drives, and BAM little storage NAS. After using the “TOS” or “Terramaster Operating System” that comes with the device, I was not impressed. Apparently it’s much better now, but I can’t test that, as you’ll read below.

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Wii U External Storage with an SSD

Recently my Wii U has been running out of space. A couple of modern games and the paltry 32GB of storage is filled. The Wii U does allow you add more storage via USB, and I had a 32GB Flash Drive dedicated to that task, however that was also running out of room. Being a tech nerd I had a few random 2.5″ external HDDs lying around, but the Wii U was unable to supply enough power over one USB to get the drives to work. The Wii U only has USB 2.0, so it’s less power than a 3.0 port.

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SSH Keygen in Windows

TL;DR

ssh-keygen -t rsa | ecdsa | ed25519

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McAfee to Bitlocker Conversion

Recently at work we were tasked with migrating over 2500 endpoints from McAfee Encryption to Bitlocker. The challenge was that we have multiple sites with varying levels of bandwidth and some users working remotely. We also needed to back up the key not only to AD, but also to a .CSV on a network share that only our desk side team has access to. And we had until the End of March to do it while being informed of the change over in January.

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McAfee Corrupted EFI Partition

The Problem

We just migrated from McAfee Endpoint Encryption to Bitlocker at work, and a few of our devices had the following error popup and failed to boot:

Failed to deactivate [0xEE00000C] Failed to remove EPE bootloader, 0xEE00000C   Unexpected exception in EpeUefiBootcode.cpp: [0xEE12000F] Failed to find EE Partition.

What we discovered is that McAfee corrupted the EFI partition. So we booted in to WinPE to fix the issue.

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Game Review - Untitled Goose Game (Switch)

Untitled Goose Game

Untitled Goose game by House House studios is a ridiculous game, and I mean that in the most endearing and wonderful way. You start the game out in the middle of the forest. It begins with a tutorial on how to walk, run, grab things, duck, and honk. Yes, you are a goose in Untitled Goose Game, and yes, it’s as funny as you think it is.

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IoT - Raspberry Pi AirPlay

Raspberry Pi Logo

The Story

The Raspberry Pi is one of my favorite little pieces of tech in recent years. I run two Pi Zeros with an OTG-to-USB A with a USB-to-Ethernet adapter as my PiHole DNS Servers, a Pi 3 B as my OpenVPN server using PiVPN, and I’m building a backup solution for my virtual servers using a Pi and an external HDD. So today I was trying to listen to music in the kitchen while the Apple Homepod is in the living room. Usually it’s not a problem, but when my two kids are yelling at each other and playing it gets loud and hard to hear.

Enter the Pi with AirPlay. I have an old Kenwood stereo receiver that’s been in the garage for a year or so collecting dust. I’ve also got to Klipsch bookshelf speakers with the same problem. These were both Goodwill finds and couldn’t be passed up for their price. I didn’t want to buy a bluetooth speaker for the kitchen, and I’m sure as hell not going to buy another Homepod just for the kitchen. But, I had a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ lying around without a current purpose.

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IoT - Raspberry Pi Basic Setup

Raspberry Pi Logo

Localization Options

$ sudo raspi-config

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Game Review - Talos Principle (PS4)

Talos Principle Logo

The Talos Principle is a unique blend of Puzzles, Platforming, and Philosophy with gorgeous visuals, and cinematic audio.

Recommend: Yes

The Talos Principle starts you off in an ancient Greek/Roman ruin. Crumbling red brick walls with columns that have collapsed and stones lying all over the ground. Your “bed” is a large white stone slab and is directly behind you. Then “BOOM” a voice from out of nowhere scares the crap out of you and gives you the basic story and task to start with. He says his name is Elohim, you are his creation, and you are in his garden. Hmmmm, this all sounds super familiar. Like, on a biblical level. Then he tasks you with finding his “sigils” and that is your purpose.

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Game Review - Unravel (PS4)

Unravel is a story about a little yarn…demon…thing exploring the world and memories of a little old woman. *spoilers to follow*

Unravel starts off with the little Yarn Demon (or Yarn Cat as my daughter likes to call him) called Yarny in what looks like an older house in one of the European nations. There’s a little hand-embroidered pillow with definitely not-English on it, and as you play the game you figure out it’s not in the English speaking countries. In front of Yarny is a small photo album, but there are no pictures in it. The player then navigates the house of an older person (it’s got that Grandma’s house vibe to it). Yarny is tethered to the yarn basket he woke up in, so you’ve got this little yarn “tail” behind you.

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Wii U Bundles at GameStop

Wii U Console

Today is Black Friday, and we all know that means there are Deals to be had!

GameStop isn’t usually the most economical choice for picking up systems and video games, but they are brick-and-mortar, which is nice when things go wrong. Today I was looking through their deals and noticed that there’s a few Wii U bundles out there, starting at $89!

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Is the Wii U worth it in 2019

Wii U Console

The Wii U was released all the way back in 2012. The Nintendo Switch was released in 2017. Does it make sense, now in 2019, to get a Nintendo Wii U?

I have a launch Nintendo Switch, one of the first ones, with the worse battery life and the hardware/firmware issue that makes them easier to homebrew. Years ago the wife and I had a Wii, but we eventually ended up selling our Wii and moving to PC games. The main motivator was the frustration of “Adult” games, or games that appealed to more than the “casual” gamer. That was of course before I had kids and I had time to actually delve deep into some games. We have a Wii again, this time it sits in my daughter’s room, and the whole family has Nintendo 2DS XLs, so we’re not strangers to Nintendo hardware and games.