Welcome to the Windy Weather Website.
These are musings from my vantage point on the Oregon South Coast.
A long-time software engineer and general geek, I continue my exploration with Photography, 3D Graphics, Linux and other nonsense. Come along for the ride.
What could possibly go wrong?
Back in March 2019 I completed modification of an Alienware Aurora R2 case for LED lighting that does not require OS drivers or support. Here is a link to that post from that time.
Recently this modification has developed an intermittent failure. The lights on the right side of the case aren’t working properly.
Here’s a video describing the problem and showing the fix.
Enjoy,
:ww
I finally started the repair of the RV Gate Casters.
The left side caster is tilted and looks like it will break off soon. As you can see the casters are held on with short pieces of 2 by 6 which are then screwed with lag screws into the bottom 2 by 4 of the gate. On the left side the 2 by 4 is twisting under the load of the caster.
The fix I’ll try is to use a long 2×6 rather than a short piece and extend the 2×6 under the the vertical piece at the center to prevent twisting. I’ll bolt the long 2×6 to the 2×4 so their held tightly together to stiffen them. I had some used treated 2 by 6 left over from tearing off a partially rotted deck.
The hardware is all stainless since I live on the coast of Oregon. Also the 3/8″ bolt heads holding the casters on are recessed and covered with silicon to slow down the rot of the 2 x 6 since the recess goes through the treatment.
The bolts all have small washers under the heads and large washers under the nylon lock nuts. Looks like that is working. The caster is held straight under the weight of the gate. No twist. I’ll fix the right side another day.
Cheers,
:ww
I finished the gate repair. Here are pictures of the process.
The gate should last for years to come.
Cheers,
:ww
In a few days we are going to get a new feature in Final Fantasy XIV – Island Sanctuaries. These are “Instanced Housing” in the form of a large island for every player. Here’s the FFXIV official page and here’s an article with some details.
How disappointing. I had assumed that they would be available at, oh say, 30 or 50. So I could take my friends who are new to the game and show them my Island Sanctuaries. Or as an alternative activity for my 2 dozen alts. But no. The Island Sanctuaries are locked behind a tall, tall ladder of level 90 and Endwalker. Current housing is locked behind scarcity and high cost in Gil and Island Sanctuaries are “End Game Content” at least now. In a couple of years it won’t seem like End Game any more.
And of course the other obvious question would be why can’t the whole account share the same Island? All the alts could work to progress the same island.
All of my Alts are 50+ and about half have completed Heavenward that’s 3.0. And my friend started more recently and of their half dozen alts they only have a couple beyond Heavensward and one at Endwalker which is 6.0. Are you seeing a theme here?
Continue reading “Island Sanctuary – End Game Only”I played FFXIV on 25 July 2022 from 4:30 – 5:30am in Praetorium Dungeon for Moogle Tomes as part of the event. Later on, shortly after playing, I tried to log into the forums and got the following screen.
I tried both Firefox latest of that date, and Chrome latest of that date and both failed the same way. I am running an updated Windows release. And clearly FFXIV was updated as I started to play.
Not sure what the problem is but I can’t access the forums.
: ww
This Moogle event is supposed to keep us busy while we get ready for the next patch. But it is so boring that I can’t stand doing it.
I’d like the gorilla mount for my Lalafel characters. Nothing is cuter than a Lalafel carried around by a gorilla. BUT.
It’s too boring to get these rewards. It requires 7 RUNS of Praetorium, which takes about 40 minutes each, and a run of something else. After running this dungeon dozens of times it is Soooooo Boring. I can’t stand it. I have several Lalafel characters, but I guess they will have to do without their mounts.
Continue reading “FFXIV Event is Boring”I saw a Youtube video talking about a new controller that solves the Joystick Stick Drift problem with game controllers. But then I got to searching around and found that Hall effect joysticks have been around for a dozen years.
So APEM was making Hall effect joysticks back before 2010. There’s a youtube video from Digikey showing that.
But at least someone has adapted this “Old Technology” to the modern problem of Controller Stick Drift. Great. I saw them for sale on Amazon, Aliexpress and elsewhere. We can only hope that the console manufacturers put this tech in their native controllers and finally solve the Stick Drift problem once and for all.
:ww
Oh, by the way, before we talk about the Hall Effect versions costing more, look at this:
So, yes there are cheap controllers that plug in for $30 or so. But the wireless ones are about the same price as the Hall Effect ones from Gulikit. No excuse for Microsoft and Sony to not use Hall Effect joysticks.
:ww
World of Warcraft has been accused of copying Guild Wars 2 mounts for the upcoming Dragonflight expansion. Let’s review Guild Wars 2 mounts for those who don’t know. Mounts were added to Guild Wars 2 in Path of Fire. Before that travel was limited to Teleporting to Waypoints, and Gliding. There were some other things like mushrooms and lava tubes in some limited zones.
There are a few mounts in Guild Wars 2 and they each have their special abilities that are increased with Masteries in the game. All mounts and mount skins are account wide in GW2, just like Wow.
Continue reading “What Wow Gets Wrong with Dragon Mounts”Logitech has released a new mouse. Basically the design is just rotated about 70 or 80 degrees to take pressure off of the wrist. Great Idea!. But they are charging over twice as much for this mouse, for no good reason, other than it’s novelty.
The new Lift mouse is $70 here and on Amazon. Compare that with the older normal mouse, with the same number of buttons and same wireless features for $40. And the one I use, which is a bit smaller, also with all the same buttons and wireless for just $20.
Over THREE TIMES THE COST for just novelty. Nothing new inside the mouse, just a different plastic case and Over TRIPLE the cost.
WTF Shame on you Logitech. What nonsense!?!
:ww
I just saw this on SlashDot.
Let us remember that Canada has for a long time been the purveyor of Oil from Tar Sands:
Tar Sands are arguably one of the most destructive and polluting ways to obtain oil. And “Tar sands extraction emits up to three times more global warming pollution than does producing the same quantity of conventional crude.” says the NRDC.
So what is Canada really doing with this far future bandaid over their use of ICE cars? I suggest that this is a case of Reputation Washing.
While the term “Reputation-Washing” usually refers to rich folks donating small amounts to charity to cover much larger messes, I suggest that it would seem to apply to this Canadian ICE car ban as well.
The Canadian ICE car ban is in the far future. Fifteen years in the future, we may primarily be driving electric cars anyway, so this is just in keeping with trends and not making any real commitment to a change.
Does this ban come with any statement about shutting down and cleaning up the Tar Sands Extraction in Alberta? I don’t see that mentioned.
A meaningless far future ban and meanwhile “Drill Baby Drill!”.
:ww
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