http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress WARNING: This blog contains writings known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:15:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/12/20/tool-tray-for-roland-mdx-40a-milling-machine/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/12/20/tool-tray-for-roland-mdx-40a-milling-machine/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:31:48 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=610 A friend of mine bought himself a Roland MDX-40A desktop milling machine, with the optional ZCL-40A rotary axis.  It was from an E-bay seller.  It comes with a large assortment of tools and accessories.  But they all came in a bag.  Hard to find small items, and not very well protected. As one of our [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/12/20/tool-tray-for-roland-mdx-40a-milling-machine/feed/ 0 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/09/29/more-led-bulbs/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/09/29/more-led-bulbs/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:08:12 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=592 Today I tried out two new LED lights.  The first was a Philips AmbientLED in the MR16 form-factor, to work in my low-voltage tracklights.  The second was a Cree EcoSmart CR6 pot-light. Philips AmbientLED MR16 (10W) Philips makes MR16-form LED lights in various wattages.  I’m replacing 50W halogen bulbs, but their most powerful LED was [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/09/29/more-led-bulbs/feed/ 4 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/09/26/low-power-light-bulbs/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/09/26/low-power-light-bulbs/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:56:59 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=582 I’ve been experimenting with different low-power light options around the house.  CFLs, dimmable CFLs, and most recently some Philips LED bulbs. Since so many of my switches have been replaced with X-10 or Insteon dimmer switches, I need bulbs that can support dimming, or at least not be damaged by it.  The dream bulb would [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2011/09/26/low-power-light-bulbs/feed/ 1 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/12/15/cable-boxes-suck-rogers-sucks/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/12/15/cable-boxes-suck-rogers-sucks/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:53:40 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=548 Here’s something I don’t get… If I buy a cable box outright, with my own money, why is it that Rogers thinks they’re entitled to an opinion about what software options are enabled on it? For example, cable boxes have the ability to let you hide channels you don’t subscribe to. The manufacturers support this. [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/12/15/cable-boxes-suck-rogers-sucks/feed/ 1 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/27/electronics-for-old-people/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/27/electronics-for-old-people/#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:50:22 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=522 As our population ages, here’s one feature that consumer electronics makers really have to start thinking about: lock-down modes for old people. I need a way to set up my Mom’s TV, cable box and DVD player in such a way that she can’t possibly screw it up. Walking her through troubleshooting exercises over the [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/27/electronics-for-old-people/feed/ 3 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/25/expensive-watches/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/25/expensive-watches/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:48:16 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=184 The world of watches is a strange place. The best watches tend to be relatively inexpensive, while some rather poor watches are priced out of range of all but the very wealthy. By “best” and “poor”, I’m referring not to subjective things like aesthetics. I’m not even going to bother thinking about whether a Gucci [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2010/02/25/expensive-watches/feed/ 5 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/11/19/net-garbage-collector-making-me-batty-again/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/11/19/net-garbage-collector-making-me-batty-again/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:54:17 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=501 I wrote previously about two things I had learned, through great pain, about the .NET garbage collector. Now I have another lesson to add to that. It a common requirement to have only a single instance of an application running.  If the user tries to launch another instance, the new instance is supposed to detect [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/11/19/net-garbage-collector-making-me-batty-again/feed/ 3 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/07/17/delay-loading-assemblies-in-net/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/07/17/delay-loading-assemblies-in-net/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:02:03 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=477 I was trying to find a .NET equivalent to the “/delayload” option that the linker has for unmanaged code. For the uninitiated, “/delayload:someDLL.dll” changes the resulting .EXE/.DLL so that someDLL.dll will not be loaded until the first time a function in it is called. It’s a handy option you can use so that you do [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/07/17/delay-loading-assemblies-in-net/feed/ 0 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/06/11/net-garbage-collector-making-me-batty/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/06/11/net-garbage-collector-making-me-batty/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:54:20 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=471 I’ve spent a few days trying to track down a garbage collection problem in some code I’ve been working on.  I finally figured it out. Along the way, I’ve learned more about .NET garbage collection than I ever wanted to know, and discovered a useful tool to help with these kinds of problems. I have [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2009/06/11/net-garbage-collector-making-me-batty/feed/ 2 http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2008/09/09/large-hadron-collider/ http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2008/09/09/large-hadron-collider/#comments Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:16:17 +0000 piper http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/?p=321 The world’s most powerful particle-accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, is scheduled to be switched on for the first time tomorrow. There are assorted kooks who believe that the LHC will destroy the world in one or more of the following ways: Create a microscopic black hole which will devour the Earth. Trigger the hypothetical vacuum [...]]]> http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/posts/2008/09/09/large-hadron-collider/feed/ 0