Love/Hate the Surface Pro 4 for Art
I've been stumbling around trying to get into making art recently using a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 I was assigned by work. This has been generally fun, but (I believe) a recent update has caused my pen input to be troublesome in more than one program. Below are the fixes I've found so far:
Krita - No fix so far, pen works fine for a few minutes and then SYSTEM STOPS NOTICING ANY PEN INPUT (not just in Krita). Reboot resets the driver, I'm guessing it's probably an N-trig vs wintab error.
Photoshop CS 6 - Brush stuck? input non-responsive after a single stroke, acting as if some key was still held. Other applications working fine, so this time it's just a photoshop issue. FIX: Create file "PSUserConfig.txt" with the text "UseSystemStylus 0" in "%Appdata%\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS 6\Adobe Photoshop CS6 Settings\". This will force photoshop to use the Wintab driver and "ignore Windows Pen and Ink". (found via Youtube)
I'm off to art some stuff, I wanted to document this in case it was found anywhere else. Note: The Photoshop fix above will also work for Creative Cloud edition according to the YouTube poster. YMMV.
Figuring it out
A friend of mine had posted about feeling like she was failing at adulting after a family gathering because her family "all own houses and have steady work and have their shit together" while she is "unemployed and trying to figure [her] life out."
I wrote this post, but didn't want to comment directly on her status, because after several completely deleted drafts it turned into a long rant.
Here's that rant.
Figuring your life out is the most important thing you can do, but it doesn't happen all at once and it never ends once you do. Self evolves over time. Just be the best version of YOU that YOU can be every day. Some days the best me that I can be means I woke up and took a shower before falling back into bed and questioning why I exist. Some days I go to work and appear to be productive while actually accomplishing nothing and feeling as if whatever is left of my soul is bleeding out through my eyes. Owning a house, having a steady job, these aren't my life. They're facets of my life. If I didn't have them I would still be an adult, and every time I see my self in the mirror I wonder how the hell anybody could consider me "responsible". I didn't get the manual, I don't know if other people did or if they're just better at faking than I am. Sometimes people tell me that I'm so lucky and so together and doing so well and I wonder what the hell they're looking at, because it doesn't feel that way. It feels like a godsdamn roller coaster. Every single day I'm just a tiny teeter away from falling and breaking into a billion pieces, or taking a duck to the face, or having the greatest adventure I'll ever know. There is infinite possibility before you. Don't give up, and never let anybody say you're not doing it right... because they're not you. They haven't lived your life. You did. Every single day, one day at a time. You took the long way, and you're still here. You woke up today. Congratulations!
smrshnode
Raspberry Pi Wireless host
[post to come eventually]
Linkdump:
- http://wiki.stocksy.co.uk/wiki/Multiple_SSIDs_with_hostapd
- http://wiki.stocksy.co.uk/wiki/Raspberry_Pi_Internet_in_a_box
- https://jenssegers.com/43/Realtek-RTL8188-based-access-point-on-Raspberry-Pi hostapd for my realtek wireless that doesn't support nl80211
Notes:
- Custom hostapd doesn't seem to install as on-boot service correctly, had to force installation
# update-rc.d hostapd enable
update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
update-rc.d: error: no runlevel symlinks to modify, aborting!
# insserv -v -r hostapd
# insserv -v -d hostapd
- RTL8188 or my device or whatever doesn't support multiple bssids. So sad.
- Next step: openvpn routing link to main smrshnet
Books 2015
I finished 2014 by reading through all of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (14 books in 2 months). This post is for a collection of things read this year. I plan to update it each chance I get.
Short Stories and Books
- Hello Moto by Nnedi Okorafor read 2015-01-02 recommended by jcamins
- Kabu Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor (collection of short stories) read 2015-01-02 to 2015-01-07 recommended by jcamins
- The Secret World Chronicles by Mercedes Lackey (Humble Bundle ed.) ISBN 9781939230140 finished 2015-01-13
- The God Engines by John Scalzi finished 2015-01-14
- Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw finished 2015-01-20
- Arcanum 101: Welcome New Students by Rosemary Edghill and Mercedes Lackey finished 2015-01-21
- Jumper by Steven Gould finished 2015-01-22
- Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Justine Larbalestier and Holly Black finished 2015-01-28
- Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves finished 2015-01-29
- Tithe by Holly Black finished 2015-01-30
- Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey finished 2015-02-02
- Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey finished 2015-02-03
- The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey finished 2015-02-04
- Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow finished 2015-02-05
- Dune by Frank Herbert finished 2015-02-10
- The State of the Art by Ian M. Banks finished 2015-02-18
- Descendant by Ian M. Banks finished 2015-02-19
- Use of Weapon by Ian M. Banks finished 2015-02-26
- Odd Attachment by Ian M. Banks finished 2015-02-26
Radio Plays and Audiobooks
- "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase" listened 2015-01-05
- "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Secondary Phase" listened 2015-01-06
A day in the life
Lets pretend my day is a 24hr comic for a second...
00:00 (sleep)
06:40 Wake up late, scramble wildly for clothing, drive to a train and then
07:20 train ride
08:30 Welcome to New York! (rushing hordes of people headed to the subway)
09:35 This is odd, I'm still waiting for the bus. Oh well, I'll get there eventually
10:00 [Film missing]
11:50 (int: elevator, trolley with large shipping boxes) YAY! things to unpack!
12:30 Finally done unpacking... Time to work on switch configs like a boss!
12:35 NOPE! Time to go work on some useless UI issue that is a convenience problem!
13:45 Saved from UI issue by... zomgholyshit virus is eating the shared drives wtfbbq!!1
14:20 Killed it once...
14:50 Twice....
15:20 Three times a virusssss... I loooooooooove youuuuuuu
14:45 Oh, now someone actually managed to get the fileserver to run it? Thats cool. I'll just connect and HERPDERP 100%CPU NOFIXLOL!
16:15 Finally killed the damn thing. Fuck that virus! Oh well... I might be able to write some configs at least
16:17 Oh, sure! I would love to go install that wireless access for you
16:20 We don't have any more WAPs!@? I guess I'll go through the junk pile and reprogram one.
17:10 *beep beep* "I'm in the car already!" *hurried packing and stumbling out the door*
18:23 on the train home (train was supposed to leave 10 minutes ago)
My day was useful fulfilling calm "interesting".
How was yours?
A Late Summer
In my last post I said I would post up the past WildFire audio recordings. Unbeknownst to all of you I DID! Why didn't anyone know? Because I totally forgot to post about it. In fact I neglected to post for so long that its nearly time for FALL WildFire.
Never fear though, prepare yourself for a MEGAPOST of _ALL_ the WildFire audio I have available! Thanks as always to the DJs for their amazing talents on and off the field.
Summer 2012 (links fixed Sep 14th)
- Friday - nope, we had recording problems. Sorry.
- Saturday - The Amazing Baz (Baz Simon)
- Sunday - DJ Recluse (Matt Weston)
- Perfomance Class (coming soon... I hope)
Spring 2012 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Never Gonna Bop) - Originally posted in "WildFire Spring 2012"
Fall 2011 (Friday, Saturday, Performance [wav]) - I'm not sure why I don't have sunday. I'll look around again.
Summer 2011 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Spring 2011 (Friday, Saturday) - Sunday didn't happen because I forgot a power adapter and was WAY too busy playing with my flowlights. Read more in "Burning Beats and a Shining Light of Craziness"
Fall 2010 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) - This was my first recording attempt. The quality is pretty mixed (meaning a bit awful). Original post "A Taste of Home"
Funny Guy
Sometimes I make stupid analogies that make me laugh. Here's a recent example:
dracoling: let me put it this way
dracoling: it's like building a car out of blenders
dracoling: sure, I guess if you add enough duct tape and chop the blenders into the right shape you might be able to get it to pretend to be a car... sorta
dracoling: but it's never going to be a good car
Real Life Radio
This past weekend I took and passed the HAM Technician test, which has been a vague life goal for years now. I say vague because it kept fading out of site under other things I was doing. While I wait for my ID to get processed by the FCC I decided to dig up information on the radio tower at work.
It's actually pretty interesting from a radio nerd and history perspective.
First some pictures with a little info: http://deakworld.weebly.com/ham-radio-odds--sods.html
Then a thread with some more info on QRZ: http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?217251-Antenna-Discoveries-in-NY&p=1694077#post1694077
I am going to try to get permission this week to go exploring and take my own pictures... for science.
An uncertain artist
I entered a piece in a 24 hour art show this weekend. Later this post may contain more information about it, but for now I'll just leave you with a picture.
Burning Beats and a Shining Light of Craziness
Last weekend was the Spring 2011 WildFire Retreat. I had the pleasure of traveling and camping with some of my dear friends from Consolidated Awesome, and it was amazing.
Lets get on with the good stuff? Okay, here it is!
- friday.mp3 - 374.1mb 3h10m - Even though I forgot my power adapter for my MacBook Pro at home, I was able to record all the way up to the final "goodnight"! I was so happy to find out that I had gotten it all.
- saturday.mp3 - 388.6mb 3h34m - I was fortunate enough to borrow a power adapter for Saturday night. Thanks again whoever you were (sorry, I'm awful with names).
- sunday... - Sorry, there's no recording of Sunday because I was only able to borrow the power adapter for Saturday. In addition I was having far too much fun playing with my INSANE FLOWTOYS OF INSANITY (more below).
On Sunday night, after the performance class I assembled and lit the series of tubes that was variably named "a big mistake", "a bad idea" and "awesomely stupid" (all labels applied by me). It consisted of 20 FlowLights in various sized tubes assembled into mega-sized toys.
Round 1: MEGA POI - 10 lights, 2 connectors, 3 tubes in each of 2 gigantic (approximately 6ft) poi. They were spun on benches, and on stilts and I even spun them (with little hops and jumps) while standing (long arm) on the ground. After everyone who wanted to had tried this craziness out, we moved on to...
Round 2: MONSTER STAFF - Remove flowpoi caps, insert contact staff handle. Result? 15 foot contact staff with about a foot of sag from center to ends. This thing was insane. In a show of complete badassery, Terry Fields was able to pull off both a cartwheel with the staff on his back and (what looked like) a full matrix. He and I then proceeded to harass the people standing around the fire pits into lighting up and getting the spinning started for real, by imitating a gigantic glowing bird screaming and chasing me across the field.
It was wonderful. It was hilarious. I didn't get any pictures of it! 🙁
If any of you have or know people who may have pictures or video of the epic flow madness from Sunday at 2011 Spring WildFire, please contact me to share.
Thanks for another great event, keep burning brightly, and spread the awesome!
~ Mike