Off Topic Chit Chat

[RandyDSok]

Because I'm overly OCD....


I thought it best to clearly state that while everyone is likely to know to not look directly into the Sun or it may result in blindness or serious eye damage.... The same is true for any telescope, lens or camera. You must ALWAYS use some type of filter that is sufficient to filter out the light BEFORE it goes into the telescope, lens or camera ( or similar optical device ). Otherwise excessive heat could build up within them not to mention the sensors would likely also burn out or be otherwise damaged.

The common less expensive filters specifically made for this type of work... are called ND100000 filters ( the ND stands for neutral density, in otherwords it's a gray filter that doesn't affect the color ). They only let 1/100000 of the light to pass through them. Typically a 58mm glass filter of this type a couple of years ago, would sell for around $35.... because of the solar eclipse event is drawing near... the price has tripled or more... so now they exceed over $100-$180 depending on where you can find them in stock... In short... the recent demand has outpaced the supply causing the price to increase.

 

[Tony]

Okay, I just noticed something a little weird that I have not seen in Windows in years if ever. I have this window open with Chrome, and I was looking at my task bar. I said to myself, man, that window is making it hard to read the time... Then it dawned on me, you can now cover up the task bar with a window rather than the window going behind the task bar.

@rdsok, when the hell did this happen? Was it a part of that last big update?

 

[Admiral]

You must have change a setting somewhere? My window 10 task bar still stays in front of Chrome and all other browsers and applications.

 

[Tony]

I have not changed anything related to the task bar. Default is always on top with large icons. Hell, maybe I did something without knowing. You never know what is happening to your stuff when you are bouncing around in a damn truck lmao.

 

[RandyDSok]

On my Windows 10 I don't see an option to have the taskbar behind a windowed program... on previous versions you could right click on the taskbar and select Properties and there is an option for that behavior. I suspect that on Win10 it can still do it but probably only with a registry edit now that the option isn't given on the Taskbar settings area

 

[Tony]

The funny thing is, now, the taskbar is over the windows. I think it's about time to get a new computer lmao. This one is quite old now so it's time.

 

[RandyDSok]

Last weekend I began moving my personal website over from my own server to a one owned by a friend that does hosting and provides internet access for the building my office is in. Now my website is currently just a place I put up some of my pictures and it doesn't have any other content than that... Here's the link...

RDSok.net – Attempts at Photography

The new website is setup using Wordpress... which is much better than what I was previously using as a CMS ( content management system ).

 

[RandyDSok]

Had to go to a funeral for a family member in Port Arthur TX over the weekend... After the services were done, myself and my folks took the time to do a little site seeing before coming back on Sunday...

These are a few of the shots I took while at the Sea Rim State Park just a little SW from Port Arthur...

 

[Tony]

Some great pictures once again.

 

[RandyDSok]

Another of my practice runs as getting a focus on the Sun before the big event on Monday...

300mm lens ( 35mm equiv is 450mm ) 1/8 sec at f29 ... The whole Sun shot is cropped in and the sunspots are the same shot but cropped in even further...

The Sun really does have sort of a granular look to it like in the pic... and the sunspots have lines ( which would show better if I had a better lens ) that emanate from the center of the spot outward to the edges, looks similar to the iris of an eye...

 

[RandyDSok]

My plans to try to drive to a good area to catch a total solar eclipse are starting to look poor. If I had the time and the money for the extra gas it'd take to go to Wyoming or Kentucky ... I could probably still make it... but I need to be back to work on Tuesday and almost doubling my gas by driving out 12+ hrs ( no traffic estimate ) instead of just a 6-7 hr drive is pretty much out of the question.

My two location end points I could possibly make... around the Grand Island, NE area over to the St. Clair, MO area. Nebraska's cloud forecast is really bad... and Missouri's location is currently showing a 46-60% cloud cover forecast. I'd rather stay home where I'd at least get to see a 84% eclipse than gamble on a 45-60% chance of even seeing anything. Oh... and those were estimates using the optimistic weather models...

I'll recheck the forecasts this evening around 6pm to see if they've improved... but I won't hold my breath...

 

[Tony]

be a man and do a 36 hour driving stint! It's only gas money!!! hahahah. But I feel ya.

 

[RandyDSok]

be a man and do a 36 hour driving stint! It's only gas money!!! hahahah. But I feel ya.

I'm a bigger woose than you are thinking... It's a 12+ hour up ( no traffic time est ) ... 3 hours for the eclipse and another 12+ back... lololol...

It's the double the gas budget that kills that even if I had that as an option time wise...

 

[Tony]

Man I miss being able to go out to the garage and work on things, sit at my computer and check up on the forums and being able to spend time with family. To all of the truckers out there, I have mad respect for you all, especially if you have a family waiting at home. Myself, being in a truck, turns me into a person that I would rather not be. And for this reason, I will never drive a truck again unless I absolutely have to.

So now, it's time to get caught up here on the site, clean the garage now that I have completely rewired it and have lights again lol, and get ready to R&R the transmission in my Camaro as well as the oil pump to try to get a little more life out of that engine. Pretty bad when I work harder at home than I did in that truck, but at the end of the day, I'm not on the verge of a murderous rampage...

 

[RandyDSok]

Sunspot Baby ....

 

[Tony]

Why does it take Debian 10x longer to install than CentOS 7?..... Wouldn't be installing debian but can't get a program to work on CentOS. Ugh lol.

 

[Tony]

Screw Debian! Finally got it installed, only tool FOREVER! and now it wants me to put in another disk just to install a LAMP stack... Screw this friggin os.

 

[murankar]

Dude just do a sudo apt-get install "add package name here".

Look through I think they have a lamp stack package that will install everything from the repository instead.

 

[Tony]

The thing was, the stack was already installed. It would not proceed until I put in this other disk. I ended up putting another distro in and got it working, kind of. It's still janky as hell as a lot of these linux things are. I have tried the dlna server, that failed, I tried pfsense, that failed, I tried something else, that failed so the common denominator here is me. So I give up. Simple as that.

 

[RandyDSok]

Tony...

When we were talking... I think you mentioned you were going for a NAS server setup primarily... If that's changed correct me of course... but if not... what else were you trying to have in the server? Was CentOS your prefered distro? ... etc... anything else I didn't think of asking as well.

I'm pretty sure my buddy ( with the servers etc ) setup CentOS for the NAS server he is using for backup, but I'll double check that. If so, he'll probably have a known setup for that portion of the equation.