I decided to merge these blog posts like I did with Week 36-38, 2024. As result, this post would be quite long.
Projects
InfoSite, ctclsite successor
On November 23, 2024, I started working on what is effectively yet another rewrite of the website in Python but now under a different name: "InfoSite".
With the initial success of developing NetWiki with Python, I have considered writing the website in Python once again. With my limited skillset with the Rust programming language, I determined the significant improvement with using Rust does not outweigh the amount of extra effort of writing the backend in Rust since the website is intended to be hosted on a VPS where it is expected that the host CPU would be at least an AMD EPYC or equivalent from Intel or Ampere.
With projects such as ToDoKiosk and NetPrint, which are designed for use on embedded or otherwise resource-limited systems such as Raspberry Pi Zero, SP7021-based hardware and VIA C7-based hardware, I plan to use Rust as the performance benefit is crucial.
I noticed that NetWiki's structure would be quite similar to this website, notably hierarchical pages. I may complete InfoSite before beginning work on NetWiki where I can reuse code. There is the possibility that NetWiki's name would be changed to InfoWiki due to this similarity and to disassociate it with the unrelated project, NetKart.
MonitorCow
I decided to sign up for Build, RVA once again to be able to access equipment required to fabricate the case parts for MonitorCow-N156KME-GNA.
This was the first time I was at Build RVA since presumably May 2022. To my surprise, the CNC certifcation signs me and my father made in May 2022 were still displayed, mine above the CNC machine, my father's on a plaque at the front of the building. When we first attended Build, I did not have any reasonable projects that I could build there and I did not have my own method of transportation.
I went to Build, RVA again to work on MonitorCow. On November 20, 2024, I decided to wait until the next CNC certification class as I am not familiar enough the equipment to trust myself to work safely and to be able to commit to the US$15/hour rate. This, unfortunately, would likely not occur until after the annual trip to Syracuse, New York so I would have to find alternatives to bring with me.
MediaCow Touch 2
Recently, I have started to consider simplifying MediaCow Touch 2's design. I may have to redo a lot of MediaCow Touch 2, including documentation, circuit designs and case designs.
The main issue that arised in the development of MediaCow Touch 2 is that I started hardware design before features were established where I often end up remembering to add something halfway through the design process.
NetWiki
The Python implementation of NetWiki has went better than I expected.
I decided to remove the generation of SQL from a JSON file defining tables as support for multiple database types is not needed. NetWiki would support only MySQL/MariaDB for the time being. The idea of generating tables from a JSON configuration file was taken from MediaWiki that is designed to support multiple database types.
ToDoKiosk
On Sunday, November 17, I switched the browser on the dedicated computer used to display ToDoKiosk from Ungoogled Chromium to surf to explore software from the suckless team after gaining interest in their design philosophies.
Resource usage was much lower with surf while loading times were significantly faster. There are instructions provided on how to set up surf as a kiosk though what I did was different since the system does not use the i3 window manager.
Other
Other projects that are either not mine or made for video games.
Madness Interactive Reloaded
On November 18, 2024, I made my first ever Pull Request on GitHub, for the game Madness Interactive Reloaded. It was very small and was done to understand how to make a Pull Request and how the process of one being accepted and merged into a branch.
I plan to help more on the project though my understanding of C# and 2D art skills are limited.
CCPDA
CCPDA, formerly known as "base", is an application written for Pocket Computers from the Minecraft mod, ComputerCraft. It consists of a menu that launches "apps".
Currently, the only functional "app" is the To-Do list where the user can add, edit and remove items. At the moment, To-Do list items are stored in a file named todo.txt.
This project, if one would call it that, mainly exists to teach myself about UI design on embedded devices to practice for firmware development for other projects such as MediaCow Touch 2 and the MediaCow Micro series.
Personal
Week 47 came with a not-too-great start, mostly relating to college where I made a bad decision. Damage mitigation was successful, however.
Technology Club PC Builds
On Tuesday, November 19, myself along with other club members set up a couple of PC build lists that the college would pay for. The college gave a US$2200 budget to work with, where we split into a US$1100 budget for each PC.
Build 1: AMD Ryzen + ECC
One of the PC builds, uses (Unbuffered) ECC memory with a Ryzen 5 7600. I picked out two Micron MTC10C1084S1EC56BR. The build is quite similar to the PC that I use now, "Polybutylene Terephthalate", where it could be seen as an upgraded version of it. All of the parts listed ended up being ones I chose.
To be honest, I took advantage of the situation to be able to try building a PC with DDR5 ECC memory.
The part list for the first build is: - Motherboard: ASRock B650M-H/M.2+ - CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 - CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black - Memory: 2x Micron MTC10C1084S1EC56BR Unbuffered ECC DDR5-5600 - Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 7600 XFX Speedster SWFT210 - Storage: Crucial T700 1TB - Case: Cooler Master N200 - Power Supply: Corsair RM750x (2021)
Build 2: Intel
The other build, uses an Intel CPU. This build is more gaming-oriented.
I wanted to be able to have other members have a say in what parts were chosen but the list ended up having incompatible, overpriced or overly cheap parts. In this list, I chose everything but the graphics card.
I do not have much experience with modern Intel builds so I just picked the first Core i7 and motherboard that I could find that seemed to check out.
For RAM, I chose the first KLEVV kit that I could find with relatively tight CAS Latency (CL) at DDR5-6400 since KLEVV is a brand of ESSENCORE which is under SK Group that SK hynix is part of[1]. I haven't stayed up on computer hardware ever since the discontinuation of RAMList in August 2023 so I did not look too deeply into RAM selection.
The part list for the first build: - Motherboard: ASRock B760M PG Riptide - CPU: Intel Core i7-12700KF - CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H100 RGB - Memory: 2x KLEVV Bolt V 16GB DDR5-6400 CL32 - Graphics: Nvidia GALAX RTX 4060 - Storage: SK hynix Platinum P41 1TB - Case: Cooler Master N200 - Power Supply: XPG Core Reactor II 650W