aesthetics, all out geekery, I.T., miscellaneous, web development

Very intense 2 months coding marathon to bring into the world the new version of Mandalagaba.

I completely rewrote the symmetry engine to be universal. When I coded the first version, I only wanted to scratch a specific radial symmetry itch and had to expand on narrowly conceived code to accommodate for features that came up from the tool’s success. With this new version, I instead gave myself a broad framework built for expansion, I can translate any penstroke at any angle in any location. Beyond mandalas, it makes possible tessellations and even the 2 combined.

I used the opportunity to add many features which were lacking: zooming, forking, lines, color picker, et cetera. With many more to come. The interface was rethought to be more accessible. Doing so took much more time than building the core engine.

There is an obscene amount of math that goes behind every pen stroke you draw in the tool. It was kind of fun to go through it again in my life, 20 years later. Even though I had forgotten about it all, it came back nicely. It’s amazing to have the internet as a tool to look up methods, to be able to describe the problem in plain English and have potential solutions thrown at you. It used to be that you needed to know what you needed precisely to find it in a book.

 

I love that Robin copies what I do no matter the understanding level, we’ve had lots of talks about what is going on.

It’s not just the math but also algorithms, languages & infrastructure. Not to toot my own horn but in my 30s, I’ve never felt so intimate with every aspect of an idea’s implementation. It’s extremely enabling to know exactly where to go to achieve X. Honestly though I’m a little burnt out at the moment, something that was supposed to take 10 days took more than 2 months of coding every single night.

My hope is that the new tool becomes a reference online for this type of work. And it’s all 100% free; well… we’ll talk about that in the next post.

Lower tech fun found in a thrift shop

self sustainability, solar power

I always wondered why the solar array never produced more than 30A, especially after I added 3 more panels to it. Well, I got my answer yesterday when the array took an unexpected dive.

 

I had forgotten that the amperage sensors I got back in 2015 are only rated for 30 Amps, way overkill at the time :). So it’s entirely possible the array was producing more and I simply wasn’t able to “see” it. Also, the extra panels pushed the sensor over the edge and fried it.

I put in the order for new sensors rated for 100A, it will be interesting to see what the graphs look like. Their design also makes it so if they fail, the production won’t be impacted because they aren’t part of the circuit.

It’s surprisingly difficult to find such sensors rated for high amperage. Phidgets are expensive but they pretty much have the only industrial IOT sensors. In my experience they are robust and easy to deploy thanks to great documentation & code samples.

self sustainability

We’ve been dealing with a brutal cold stretch which is most definitely testing our limits. The timing isn’t great, after a Summer of construction and an addition to the family in October, our wood reserves aren’t exactly plentyful.

A few days ago, I came to the realization that at the pace we are burning wood, we only had 10 days of reserves left.

I thus decided we would not use this pile any more, keeping it available for the unexpected; we will instead produce wood as we burn it. I had 2 ash trees picked out since the Summer, they didn’t look too good, and they’re close to the house, they’d be perfect to finish the Winter. I didn’t realize they’d only help us start it. And so I went after them in the best temperatures this cold stretch had to offer, which were still quite low and made for some very tough work. I also grabbed a couple of dead poples while I was out there but they don’t burn as good as ash when green.

The morning routine now consists of splitting 2 sleds worth of wood, which covers 24 about hours.

We folded back into the tiny house to make heating easier, it’s not too chaotic but we do miss the extra room.

The green house is incredible and turns a little bit of sunlight into non-freezing temperatures.

Building it around the well’s pitcher pump was an incredibly smart move.

 

The snow and the wind also take jabs at us, really it’s been one thing after another. Equipment is reaching its limit. I suspected that the tractor’s battery would be dead at some point, and so I thought I’d jump it with the ATV. What I wasn’t counting on was that the wind would push the snow back on the paths I had plowed, making it very difficult to get close to the tractor to do so. I had the unexpected planned for, not the doubly unexpected.

The cars also make funny noises and smells with such temperatures, anything mechanical is taking a beating. So is my body which does not get a single day without unforgiving chores outside.

The solar array batteries barely function as they are frozen, we’ll want them in a milder environment later on.

The porcupine is undeterred by the cold and still sets out every night for its routine. It picked a different tree this season and seems to like some of the paths I made.

 

A friend gave us an aloe plant a while back, and I never paid much attention to it. Today though, we opened it up and rubbed some of the magical goo on our hands. It felt amazing and it’s nice to feel something other than biting cold, logs and hot stoves every once in a while.

 

We reached the lowest temperature since we moved to the land on January 2nd.

 

So here we are, one tough stretch reaching extremes and pushing all our limits. It’s ok though, I enjoy getting tested by the elements, this is what drives me outside during a storm. Still, we’ll be very relieved in a few days when we get to catch our breaths. We’ve learned a few good lessons along the way.

aesthetics, all out geekery, I.T., web development

Between the brutal cold and children, I haven’t had as many untainted brain cycles as I’ve been wishing for; still, I just finished the core engine for a universal way to apply translations to pen strokes. It allowed me to rewrite the mandala engine better, and expand it to allow for tessellations, and really any kind of translations on any center at any orientation. It’s been a ton of ground work so it’s nice to finally get some eye candy :).

I can’t wait to see what the internet does with it. Here’s a preview:

[mejsvideo mp4=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/tessellation_preview.mov.mp4″ ogg=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/tessellation_preview.mov.ogv” webm=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/tessellation_preview.mov.webm” poster=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/tessellation_preview.mov.jpg” width=”640″ height=”360″]

self sustainability, wood

[mejsvideo mp4=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.mp4″ ogg=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.ogv” webm=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.webm” poster=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/2_ash_1_saw_short.mov.jpg” width=”640″ height=”360″]

Feels very good to chainsaw, it had been a while and I had been itching.

They went right where I wanted them.

 

And for your viewing pleasure here’s just the tree going down, notice the little pine way out in the back getting utterly whipped.

[mejsvideo mp4=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.mp4″ ogg=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.ogv” webm=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.webm” poster=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_01_going_down.mov.jpg” width=”640″ height=”360″]

Numero dos:

[mejsvideo mp4=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.mp4″ ogg=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.ogv” webm=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.webm” poster=”http://ben.akrin.com/videos/ash_02_going_down.mov.jpg” width=”640″ height=”360″]

self sustainability, solar power

Another Winter another solar upgrade. Short overcast days are good at exposing a lower limit. After having lost power a couple of days it was time for an upgrade. The house is growing and so it our consumption, especially on the Summer months when we get used to abundant electricity.

Bringing the panels on site, I always said my son would make a great draft horse.

I’m becoming good at building in the cold, my fingers are not thanking me though.

All I need to do now is prop it off the ground and anchor it for heavy winds.

 

I like this frame, it takes 6 2x4x8 and this is the only scrap lumber left.

I did some quick back of the envelope math and so far our setup costed about as much as what we would have paid for grid electricity these past 2 and a half years. Seems like it costs about as much to learn how to fish than it does to buy fish, at least at the beginning. We have now entered the gravy zone.

miscellaneous

We have had ice storms before but this one was particularly thorough in covering every nook in cranny of our land.

The sun shone through pine trees and it looked just like a Christmas tree decorated with lights so I updated the list of traditions I understood since moving to Vermont.

I almost plowed what snow we had before the ice came, but in talking to a friend, she brought up letting the ice accumulate on the snow rather than on the ground so it’s easier to kick out.  Duh, what kind of flatlander doesn’t know that.

The storms are rolling in one after another, the tractor has been invaluable in taking care of all this snow. We have great paths, a flat driveway, and all I had to do was push a button and joyride around.

With all this snow and ice, the trees are taking a beating.

On the less glamorous side of things, emptying the portable toilet is a full on arctic expedition these days. We lost access to the septic tank and really, I prefer it this way.

We started on an igloo 🙂 this is the closed I’ve gotten to building one. We’ll see if we can finish the critical top.

miscellaneous

I got to play with the snowblower implement today, super fun. Attaching it took some doing but I’m getting to know the tractor way. Putting chains on is always a giant pain.

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