Posts

Nerd-Code Snippets 3: Bash Minecraft Install Scripts

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Nerd-Code Snippets 3: Bash Minecraft Install Scripts TL;DR - I haven’t posted in a while. I like scripting and I try to script my Ubuntu 20.04 setup whenever I can. While a bit silly, Minecraft, and a few other 3rd party programs that work with Minecraft, find their download/installation/upgrade scripts among my bash-scripted setup files. Yes, this old blog still exists, despite how sparse my contributions. However, now it is mid-2020, I’ve been at Synap for over 4 years, I’m married, have had back surgery, have a 1-year-old daughter, and – most importantly – I have recently upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04. As a part of upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04, I’ve decided to script as much of my setup and preferences as possible. While not a staple of my day-job at all, I do always have Minecraft installed on the Linux-side of my computer. The latest release, Minecraft 1.16, sees a huge update to the nether dimension. As a result, certain 3rd party programs are updating as well.

Nerd-Code Snippets 2: Writing Pretty Bash Scripts

Automating one's life using bash scripts can be fun. But sometimes really long scripts in bash may benefit from some prettier logging messages lest our eyes bleed. I wrote a snippet for that, check it out .

Nerd-Code Snippets 1: Mercurial alias and bash crash-course

Disclaimer Most of you aren’t going to have a clue what I’m talking about. I sincerely apologize ahead of time. I’ll attempt a layman’s explanation, but I make no promises. I’ll try to link to unfamiliar terms. Backstory Even before my new job - oh yea, by the way, I’m a web developer now, fancy that - I was practicing with DVCS as a hobby. A Distributed Version Control System is just a way of tracking the history of source code files throughout the life of a project. There are two major DVCS’s out there, Git and Mercurial . It seems Git is more widely used and more widely accepted for projects with multiple developers (and I’m learning it for work), but I like to use Mercurial for my personal projects because that’s what I taught myself.

TinkerTech 2: CNC Notify Part 1

I'm slowly becoming a machinist for an incredibly tiny part production company ( Inspire Products, Inc. ). Not a manual machinist, mind you. A better title might be a machine programmer, though my official title is manufacturing engineer. Whatever you call it, my position sometimes requires me to run CNC machines overnight or over the weekend, especially when cutting molds. These machines can sometime fail and require maintenance. We have a camera set up so we can check the status of the machine lights, but that doesn't always tell us a lot (especially in the dark when color is indistinguishable) and I don't intend to nervously watch the shop camera on my time off. However, if I were notified of a status change, then it would be a lot easier to enjoy one's time off and simply go in to solve the problem as needed.

TinkerTech 1: Smart-Oven

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I'm a bachelor. I live in an apartment. With my cat (who never helps me cook). And I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is having such an old oven that I can't set it to bake a Costco meal to be ready when I get home! If you aren't there, you aren't baking. I suppose I am a tad spoiled after renting from my manager before he and his family arrived in Reno. Now that oven was nice. So I'm contemplating an outfit to my apartment oven to provide room for programmability.

Foodie 11: Revisiting Potstickers

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One might ponder: "Senpai Weber, do you ever tire of potstickers?" Without hesitation, I would respond: "Do you ever tire of breathing, student? Potstickers are the breath of one's culinary being..." I suppose that can be literal, as well. No, I cannot tire of those delicately wrapped morsels of meat, steamed and crisped on their bottoms in the likes of any pan. I never will. But the sauce... With that I can experiment. Today I whipped up a sauce made of sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper flakes, honey, and lemon juice. Do not ask me for quantities, I did not write any down. Trust your stomach, pupil.

Normalized Gas Prices

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I was curious about gas prices in Reno and whether it is worth it to travel any distance for gasoline, or merely use the nearest gas station. Maybe you already know the answer, or know someone else who knows the answer, but I felt like doing a bit of math to prove it to myself. Here is what I found out.