lab notes: greymatter

sci-fi computer screens

notebooks

Research Papers - These are mostly intended to be evergreen documents - expect updates. They will include standalone articles but also research for hardware projects, software, and site development.

Blogs - Short form content on various topics.


topics



lab notes: greymatter

Stuff and Things

Well, I decided to start on a new case mod. This one is going to be a StarCraft themed old school gamer. I have some of the prelim cutting done, but that's about it. With a little effort, I will get the custom site working and post new pics. Meanwhile, you can grab pics of my old projects and some desktop images at ultrasciencelabs.com/images/.

The Dragon 2.0 project is on hold until I score a matching pair of old ATX cases- or at least a matching pair of ATX motherboard trays.

Oh yeah, colds blow.

End of an Era

Maybe not an era, probably more like a brief period, but either way, I have moved ultrasciencelabs.com to a new server. I just don't have the money for bandwidth and the time to maintain a server farm. Server managment is in the hands of paid specialists.

Migrating the site to a full-fledged CMS is the next challenge. Greymatter has been fun to play with and hack, but I am going to need a better system if I want to build a community site. I will retain a GM install somewhere on the server. I'll probably use it for my personal site. Greymatter is wonderful, flexible blogging system, and I'd like to continue using it for small scale sites.

Before I make this transition, I have to choose a CMS. I am currently debating e107, Mambo Open Source, and Ubersonic 1.6.

Lucky Bastard am I

We're currently hosting a number of folks chased from Welch by tear gas and pepper spray wielding cops. An amazing overreaction that has decended the situation into open violence from both sides. Events witnessed by those involved: 5 people standing in the open with "peace signs" held high- hosed with mace; a friend was asking for help from a cop and another ran up and sprayed him in the face with pepper spray.

Emergency Repairs

Frozen bearings in the server's power supply cooling fan forced emergency repairs earlier this evening. Swapping fans solved the problem. The server may go down for an extended period later this week for upgrades. On the docket: a new motherboard with RAID and DDR memory suport. I may upgrade the processor as well.

Read more…

Internet Explorer

Due to the current state of Internet Explorer's broken CSS implementation, broken iframe background transparency (unfortuneately this bug appears in Opera, as well), and missing PNG-24 support (available on most broswers since the late 90's), this site will not be displayed properly.

I recommend dowloading a Mozilla based browser, or Netscape for the Windows IBMPC. Safari is good choice for the MacPC. Linux user? There are a wealth of browsing options. Mozilla, Konquerer, and Galeon are a few. My personal current favorite is Mozilla Firefox.

By using a standards rigid browser and code checking sevices from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), I have a standards compliant site that requires a standards compliant browser. Netscape's Standards Challenge explains very well the benefits of pushng for standards compliance. There are better, free alternatives out there. Use them.