Introduction
I have not been adding blog posts as I have worked on the new website backend as seen in the "Website" section below. I decided to merge all three of these weeks into one blog post instead of the usual method putting everything into separate blog posts with false post dates.
This blog post would cover events between September 2, 2024 and September 23, 2024.
Projects
I am trying to get many projects done within a short, unrealistic amount of time.
MediaCow Touch 2
I mentioned in the last blog post that I would not use the SP7021 as the embedded controller in MediaCow Touch 2, that has changed.
MediaCow Touch 2 will now use the SP7021 as the embedded controller. This may seem like a terrible idea, especially so close to the deadline, but the benefits outweigh the potential setback of using the SP7021.
More about the project's progress can be seen here: MediaCow Touch 2
SP7021-Block
During a discussion about the SP7021 on Discord, someone had the idea for me to design a single-board computer using the SP7021 that is in a smaller and lower cost format.
I decided to the series of general-purpose single board computers that I design "Block" as the boards could be seen as "building blocks".
Due to the SP7021's use in MediaCow Touch 2, a quick design for SP7021-Block may be done and then copied into the schematic for MediaCow Touch 2. Due to the expectation that so much of what I put into SP7021-Block would be used in MediaCow Touch 2, I plan to do SP7021-Block first.
SLAG and ContactList
Recently, I have been learning more about databases and how they are used.
I discovered that CouchDB would not be an effective solution for SLAG though it may be useful for ContactList. I may go back to using a relational database for SLAG.
At first, I thought of CouchDB as a way to store data in a hierarchical format. Within CouchDB databases, the entire "Document" is loaded by the client, updated then uploaded back to the database. This may be perfect for ContactList and possibly CAMS but may not be an effective solution for SLAG.
Website
Since September 5, 2024, I have been working on a new version of the website. I know I have done this so many times but this time, there is a good reason for it.
The website no longer has hard-coded pages and now all of the pages, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, fonts and static files defined in a separate repository, "ctclsite-config". Due to this, the website backend can now be useful to others as it no longer has a hard-coded layout intended for this website. Because of this, I may consider changing the name of the backend from "ctclsite-rust" to something like "LiteFolio" or similar.
The rewrite took much longer than I wanted it to, resulting in me neglecting MediaCow Touch 2's development. In order to get this new website backend ready by September 23, 2024, I have tempoarily disabled the logging feature as it is not finished and not critical to the function of the website backend.
vsc-black-theme
I have been making some changes to the custom VSCode/VSCodium theme that I have made about a year ago. The changes were mostly changing text colors to appear higher contrast which helps with my relatively poor vision.
Along with theme updates, I recently decided to try out using the Terminus font in VSCodium. The font appears to have much better visibility than regular TTF fonts like Hack with the 96 DPI monitors that I currently use with "PBT". The font needed to be converted to TTF which I used my bdf2ttf.py script to do. I noticed that I did not really need as much contrast that is provided by the theme; the theme's contrast was to compensate for the use of TTF fonts.
MWDL "PMMA"
For this college semester, I decided I am going to use the HP ZBook Studio G3 15 for the time being as it is the most powerful and reliable laptop that I have at the moment.
Recently, I have went into the BIOS setup menu and disabled Intel Turbo Boost and the dedicated GPU; the Nvidia Quadro M1000M. This has shown a noticeable and great improvement in battery life and temperatures. The latter has been a concern ever since I started using the system in 2021. I believe that the laptop was designed to be too thin for the CPU and dGPU that it uses, both having a TDP of 45W (by comparison, the Ryzen 5 5600 in "Polybutylene Terephthalate" has a TDP of 65W). I found the vast improvement in battery life surprising. Due to battery health, given that the laptop is now about seven years old with the original battery, it is still required for me to have the power supply on hand at all times.
Personal
Week 37 was... emotional, nonetheless. I had my second "romantic" relationship that went way too fast for comfort. We went back to being friends after.
From Week 36 to Week 38, I have been learning a lot of things from my college classes that have ended up being quite useful. The Writing Comprehension class has already taught me valuable aspects of grammar that I have already been applying to recent writing such as this blog post.