bavatuesdays: Recent Episodes
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Since finishing up The Shining diorama I’ve thrown myself into a new project, this one involving AI. It’s a stupid project—which is why I love it—promising neither revolutions nor solutions, just grist for the insatiable tech mill fueled by capital. I’ll post more about the project shortly, but for now I just wanted to document some of my early experiences with ChatGPT.
Game stats for the great Curtis Martin from Madden 2001 that ChatgPT transcribed no problem
I’ve been using AI to read screenshots of stats and game results from Madden 2001 (a 25 year old video game) and then have it structure the data so it could be easily moved to a spreadsheet. That spreadsheet will then be the fodder for blog posts, radio shows, highlight reels, etc. I was really impressed with how accurate the OCR readings of the screenshots I uploaded a week or so ago were, not to mention how quick and easy it was to structure the data from the image into tables.
Getting excited, the other day I tried importing a 16 second video to see if it could identify and transcode similar data. ChatGPT crashed hard. Knowing video was a long shot, I followed the bot’s advice and broke the video down into about 64 screenshots featuring win-loss data of 31 NFL teams over 16 weeks, the results were a shit show. For context, I wanted get a table containing the following information:*
- Overall Wins and Losses for the season (should be easy given it’s already on the screenshots)
- Divisional Wins and Losses (record of games within the same division)
- Conference Wins and Losses (record for each team against another AFC team)
- Also, tracking results of head-to-head games between any of the following teams: Jets, Dolphins, Patriots, Ravens, Titans, Steelers, Raiders
Here was my prompt:
I have screenshots of 16 weeks of games played on Madden 2001 and I need to know the overall records, divisional records, conference records for all AFC teams. Additionally, the outcomes of any head-to-head games between the following teams: the Jets, Broncos, Raiders, Dolphins, Patriots, Ravens, Titans, and Steelers.
I initially thought everything was going fine. I was feeding it screenshots from the first 10 weeks of the season and it was chugging along after a few missteps and re-directions. Believing I had adequately finessed my prompt parameters and avoided what would surely be an arduous manual transcription project, I was ready to join the AI cult and sell my children for more GPU credits.
1 of 64 screenshots uploaded to ChatGPT for transcription
Unfortunately I mistakenly pressed the stop button thinking I could upload my next set of images, and all the data it was amassing was lost. That’s on me—and who knows, it could have been perfect. I asked ChatGPT to try and recover that data and continue the process, and it could not do that successfully. So I asked it to try rebuilding the data based on the points above, and I got the following when I checked in at week 11:
Stats of the 2000-01 season through week 11, notice anything glaring?
Turns out it was registering widely divergent data on games played that was just flat wrong. I asked how it could only have 4 games overall for a NFL team in week 11, and it said, happily, “You’re right, my mistake, let me fix that.” This went on for a number of back-and-forths, and then I just started from scratch because everything was a mess. When I re-did the process, I was checking week-by-week and realized all the overall win-loss record data was still off, so the conference and divisional records were totally unreliable. I tried providing updated records for certain teams, but within a week or two they were off again.
In short, it quickly became too much given I had to constantly check the data and what was supposed to save time was becoming just as laborious. No biggie, I’m sure my prompt had its limits and I may be using this tool for things it doesn’t do well, but the thing that annoyed me was how cocksure it was of any and all of its results. Everything was fine until I questioned it, and then it was like “you’re right, that’s a problem, we should have, blah blah blah” like some sycophantic poser who doesn’t want to be found out for not really understanding anything. It was even making simple factual mistakes like saying the Miami Dolphins played the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2000-01 regular season (even making up a fake score):
Basic factual errors were rampant when asking ChatGPT about the 2000-01 NFL schedule. Turns out I was right to question everything
Anyway, I transcribed all the data manually into a spreadsheet given I was so skeptical after two hours of this that I couldn’t really trust any involved data spanning multiple weeks without checking everything, and by that point it was easier to do it myself. I mean the potential line-up for the 2000-01 NFL playoffs were in the balance, so the stakes were high!
Alas, I spent several hours manually going through each game for each week figuring out every squad’s division and conference records, as well as checking on any head-to-head games that might impact the playoff picture. Why didn’t you include this data Madden 2001!
Asking AI for a breakdown of how Common Games are handled if two teams have same overall, divisional or conference schedule and the decision comes down to common games to get a playoff berth.
I did appreciate the breakdown ChatGPT provided of the NFL rules that determine how two teams that are tied for overall, divisional, and conference wins and losses calculate common game win percentage (that is on the table for two teams in the NFC this season). But whether or not I can rely on its reading of the rules is a definite question at this point.
After playing like this I can easily see how seductive AI is as a tool you simply ask questions and it breaks things down for you neatly, sparing you any messy web search. That said, after this experience I have a hard time justifying using it for data as important as the results of a simulated 25 year old NFL season randomly generated by an emulated Playstation game.
Here’s another question I asked while trying to figure out if the Steelers have a better conference win-loss percentage than the Dolphins. Trying to confirm the Steelers played 13 conference games, not 12, I asked ChatGPT:
How many AFC conference games did the Steelers play in the 2000-01 season?
Really? I double-checked each game through 16 weeks and I was sure it was 13 games, so I prompted it to check again:
After questioning the certainty of its answer about the Steelers playing 12 conference games in 2000-01, they finally caved!
Sometimes it’s good to be right! Apart from that, it’s interesting how being wrong is never really an issue. The ChatGPT bot takes on a chipper, annoying persona filled with a sense of “self”-assurance that belies just how wrong it often is. I would much prefer that it grovel at my feet, or offer me bonus credits for wasting my time. Even better, apologize profusely while looking down at its imagined feet. And for a total coup d’état, I would love if it started mulling whether or not it should be doing any of this at all, or even taking pot shots at me for doing something so stupid as trying to track data from a 25 year old imagined football season no one, save me, will even care about. I’m not mad it’s wrong, I’m mad how wrong it is.
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*Madden 2001 does not track conference or divisional records, only overall records. With an extremely close season in terms of overall records, I needed more details to get a sense of the playoff picture as we head into week 17.
While it’s been two months since I’ve blogged about our weekly episodes of the Family Pictures Podcast, don’t you think we haven’t been continually putting out the hits. In fact, just yesterday we wrapped up episode number 22 and it continues to be a total blast. So now it’s time to catch up on my posts, otherwise it never happened …
Episode 14 was all about Michael Roemer’s 1984 Vengeance is Mine (alternatively titled Haunted) which was made for public television and came and went without much fanfare. In fact, that’s a theme for the select films that Roemer made. His 1964 film Nothing but a Man, focusing on the struggles of a working class black man, gets rediscovered 30 years later after being designated by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Interestingly enough, this coincides and is very much embedded within the 1990s independent film renaissance. I first discovered Nothing But a Man in my local VHS store, and at first was thinking it was a new release from a black indy voice from the 90s such as Carl Franklin, John Singleton, or Ernest Dickerson, but turns out it was made by two Jewish guys during the early 60s.
The same thing happens with his next film The Plot Against Harry (1971), a mob comedy that Roemer describes as not getting a single laugh. As a result it was never theatrically released, but found a cult following and critical acclaim nevertheless. As a result it finally received a theatrical release in 1989. This guys’ films are late bloomers for sure!
In the 1970s he made the documentary Dying for PBS.* The film follows three terminally ill people during the last months of their lives, highlighting his connections with the cutting-edge documentary filmmakers of the 60s, namely Frederick Wisemen and the Maysles Brothers. What’s clear is that Roemer (who died a few weeks ago just 3 years shy of a centenarian) was a maverick of independent filmmaking who continually refused the idea of telling the kinds of stories Hollywood wanted. While his topics were eclectic, his films remained grounded in a cinema vérité that makes them both refreshing and compelling decades later.
So all that is a round about way to bring us back to Vengeance is Mine, which was one of two features he made for PBS’s American Playhouse in the early 80s. Originally titled Haunted when aired on TV, Vengeance is Mine is the title it was theatrically released with in 2022 at the Film Forum in New York City. Are there any other filmmakers that have had almost every one of their films re-released decades later to new found critical acclaim?
Criterion Channel page for Vengeance is Mine
I discovered this film while browsing the Criterion Channel after a long day of work. I saw the title Vengeance is Mine starring Brooke Adams from 1984, which was the same year Brooke Adams was in David Cronenberg’s Dead Zone. I was immediately intrigued because seeing Brooke Adams in what the title promised to be a Charles Bronson-esque vigilante flick was what the doctor ordered. What I got was something all together different, but turns out an equally intense drama that Roemer was dishing out. I was re-listening to the podcast episode while writing this post, and I have to say it’s probably my favorite to date. Not only because it was a new discovery for both of us, but also because so little has been written about the film. My co-host Michael Branson Smith (MBS) has a brilliant reading of the film which is fleshed out in the episode. In short, MBS argues that one of the main characters of the film, Donna, is actually a ghost haunting her family. And we go through several moments that reinforce this reading. I joked that we had a “Roemer Reveal” while preparing this episode and the sense of uncovering a potentially novel reading of the film made the discussion that much more exciting.
Is Donna a ghost haunting her family from beyond as MBS argues?
What took me so long to post about it was the feeling I needed to do more to capture some of that magic. For example, I wanted to get started on the non-existent Wikipedia page for this movie, as well as write a more coherent article with MBS that we could try and pitch to the Criterion Collection—an organization instrumental in getting Roemer’s films back on the map. I let my excitement and aspirations get in the way of just pushing this post out, but thankfully I woke up this morning remembering it’s just a blog and I can do whatever I want. Plus, the other episodes were piling up and the sooner I blog about the discussions the better.
But the other part of why it’s taken a bit is because there’s a moment in this film that touches on some of my own psychic baggage when it comes to family. There was a particular scene wherein the character Donna (who might be a ghost, but is definitely struggling with mental illness) has a moment of disassociation from reality, and her daughter is calling out to her while she sits staring blankly in the driver’s seat of her car. Disassociation is a mental condition in which a person literally breaks from reality, the Mayo Clinic describes it as “conditions that involve experiencing a loss of connection between thoughts, memories, feelings, surroundings, behavior and identity.” My mom suffered from this and witnessing her have an “attack” (as we called it) at random moments when we were shopping in a super market or browsing a department store was no joke. She would literally become unmoored from any sense of self, language, or identity, and as a result stare blankly into space and often articulate words like “wanna saya” that had no meaning. It’s as if the person I knew had regressed instantly to that of a toddler, the adult consciousness had instantaneously left her body without warning. What was left was a confused soul that found themselves abruptly thrown into an alien world. It was pretty nuts.
Scene of Donna’s Disassociation in the car from Vengeance is Mine
I had a pretty big family so often one of my other siblings was with me when this happened. We figured out early on that the best way to manage this was to joke to deflect any attention and then immediately get her out of the public’s eye (where it often happened) because explaining what was happening was almost impossible. The easiest and best solution was waiting it out. Every so often some do-gooder got involved which often meant calling the cops and/or an ambulance, something to be avoided at all costs. Once the authorities arrived it would not only make her condition worse, but there was a good chance she would land in 3K (our family metonym for the psychiatric ward at our local hospital). The easiest way to deal with it was to retreat to our car and wait it out. The attack could last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, but inevitably it passed. She would slowly come to, and the nagging fear she might not come out of it would finally retreat.
Roemer’s depiction of Donna’s dissociative attack transported me to the back seat of our big blue Suburban stranded in a strip mall parking lot somewhere on the south shore of Long Island. I would be sitting anxiously alongside my mom, and probably a sister or two, hunkering down and waiting it out. I like how Roemer never exploits Donna’s condition, as it would be most filmmakers wont to do, but compassionately draws her as a troubled mother who is trying to cope with a debilitating mental illness. I also like how Jackie, her daughter, is not sheltered from this reality given that’s part of who she is and what she’ll have to make sense of in terms of the family baggage this film is all about. Who we are and what we have to deal with is what makes us special.
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Like Vengeance is Mine, Dying was restored and re-released in January of this year at the Film Forum. Crazy how everyone of his works seem to get a second life.
I mentioned already that after The Shining diorama I was planning on re-creating a scene from yet another Stephen King film adaptation, this time David Cronenberg’s Dead Zone (1984). I was wavering between Johnny’s vision of the young hockey players breaking through the ice and aspiring politician Greg Stillson using a baby as a human shield. One of the struggles with the pond vision for a diorama (my preference) is how to frame it to provide context (a similar struggle to the Creepshow diorama).
Tommy’s sketch for The Dead Zone diorama ideas
But after watching the scene Tommy suggested we cut the frame in half horizontally: on top we have Johnny (Christopher Walken) exclaiming “the ice is gonna break” and below the vision of the hockey players sinking to the bottom of the pond.
Close up on kids floating to bottom of pond
I think it’s pretty brilliant, and it takes the bav-o-rama in new directions, this will be akin to a larger-scale Richard Scarry cross-section of moments from the scene. I also love how Tommy has the floor between the figures melting into the pond, essentially having the boys break through and drown right in the living room—inline with how Cronenberg places Johnny within the physical spaces where his visions happen.*
Close-up of Johnny breaking the vase and yelling “The ice is gonna break!” to be more emphatic about his premonition
Gotta say Tommy’s working through various perspectives to get to this one was impressive. Viewing the conversation and Johnny breaking the vase more or less straight-on didn’t work for the diorama, even though that’s how we see it in the film. Tommy’s re-positioning the viewer for a side-view of the conversation (a shot not in the movie) adds another element to the diorama, offering a fresh look that builds upon Cronenberg’s brilliance for a medium that is not film, but a brick and mortar diorama. Next step is making a small scale version of this and see how it goes, in the interim all hail Tommy!
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*I’m thinking of the one where he is lying in the child’s room when the room goes on fire.
Yesterday we broadcast the ninth episode of the nascent “On Writing” series featuring the great Kate Bowles. When I reached out to Kate about discussing writing, she immediately suggested she’d be even more interested in talking about not writing, and thinking through what took our voices away over the last several years. The wish to “tell all the truth but to tell it slant —“ beautifully illustrates the poetic way Kate approaches the world. Any assumptions brought to topic are sure to be subverted with generous and generative language that can’t help but leave one inspired. During this conversation I found myself being taken on a journey both through and beyond topics like writing, edtech, or AI and right into the plane of existential wonder.
To steal from Kate’s description of her Federated Wiki experience, the conversation was the closest I’ve come to feeling ecstatic while talking about the power of writing (or not writing, as it were). The way in which Kate finds a deep sense of camaraderie in our shared moment on this mortal coil struck me deeply. After re-listening to the final 5 or 10 minutes of this episode as I was cleaning-up some substandard audio, I was reminded of a similar spirit of hope and togetherness in the opening pages of Melville’s Moby Dick: “the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other’s shoulder-blades, and be content.” While I’m not always the most reliable narrator, this conversation is not to be missed if you’re looking to be filled with a sense of wonder about the act of writing that’s beautifully anchored in a searching sense of compassionate criticism.
I’ve heard Alan Levine mention the feeling of having to blog something. The idea that until you get that post out you can’t focus on anything else, and that’s certainly been the case for me as of late. When this happens to me there’s a concomitant feeling of elation, the sense I’ve gotten an idea (however half-baked) out of my head and onto the blog.
An interesting and welcome development with the cross-over to a shared, physical object of desire—namely bav-o-rama—is that I’m getting my family more directly involved in these projects (The Shining diorama sold them!). Just this morning we were imagining possibilities for the next diorama that’ll feature a scene from Cronenberg’s Dead Zone (the third of four dioramas dedicated to the King!), and Tommy had a brilliant idea for its presentation that made the whole thing click. That’s definitely a moment because I’ve been spending a fair amount of the Family Pictures Podcast reflecting on what a selfish, bad-tempered, and absent parent I’ve been (somewhat tongue in cheek). Then it hit me, what if the call of the blog (the root of many of my attention-related problems) ultimately was a source of redemption? We could all use a little redemption once in a while, am I right? REDEMPTION!
I’ve said it already on this blog, but the “Come and Play with Us” diorama was inspired by something I saw 15 years ago in a pizza parlor in Springfield, Virginia. Namely a print out of the Grady sisters stuck on a wall that caught you by surprise as you took the corner for the bathroom. I took a little video of a six or seven year old Miles encountering the sisters and then mashed it up with the soundtrack from the film, it was fun.
Fifteen years later, i.e. today, I’ve taken the soundtrack from that video and laid it on top of some footage I took of the diorama, and I remain entertained. The first one was a vertical video, which I imagine is all the rage for Instagram and TikTok, but that’s not where I live. Nonetheless, the effect was kind of cool and the cuts are a bit more seamless, but I may be wrong there.
The second version uses horizontal orientation, and I added a few more shots of the diorama window zoomed out to give a sense of its scale, which can be hard to gauge from photos.
Maybe the funnest bits are the titles at the end of the 30 second clip, but my self-indulgence knows no bounds on this one so don’t trust me. Also, I’ve really been getting my money’s worth in terms of blog posts out of this diorama, reason enough to build your own.
I’ve been running this blog on WordPress for near on twenty years, and it’s always been a bit of a laboratory. When we were exploring Digital Ocean or Reclaim Cloud for hosting this site often served as the avant garde to get a sense of how things worked. When we started to get deep into the weeds of hosting WordPress Multiregion (WPMR) setups, bavatuesdays took the plunge. This site currently runs from a west coast data center in the US as well as a “hot copy” of the site in a Canadian data center in Montreal. If the west coast data center goes down for any reason, the site seamlessly fails over to a live sync of a writable and readable version in Canada, and no one’s any the wiser. Very slick, if I must say so myself. What’s more, it’s lightning fast! I have become a bit obsessed with checking the load times on GTmetrix just to see if it ever falls under an A grade at 100% performance: it’s a fairly rare occurrence.
Bava Vitals: GTmetrix Grade of A with a performance percentage of 100%. bavalightning!
This setup entails a few things beyond two WordPress instances across two data centers instantaneously syncing files and databases back and forth; there’s a DNS-driven load balancer running through Cloudflare that checks the health of each server and immediately fails over at the first sign of concern. Beyond that, Cloudflare has a robust global CDN that caches files making delivery of content much more efficient. If that wasn’t enough, all files in the wp-content/uploads directory are offloaded to an S3 bucket that provides further separation between the app and uploaded media making content delivery of any non-cached objects that much quicker. The other piece that is key for media heavy sites is that any potential migration becomes that much easier given media never needs to be moved (often the timeliest part of any migration).
The final result is what was traditionally a dog of a WordPress site, namely this old bava blog, has become as fast as any static site I’ve encountered. And this is a PHP driven database with 4,000 posts, 4x as many comments, un-optimized images, embeds galore, and all kinds of other debilitating issues that come with time. I won’t lie, I love having bavatuesdays running on a souped-up setup that’s more appropriate for much larger, traffic heavy sites, but that’s one of the advantages of having an awesome hosting company and being part of the WPMR avant garde!
Did you like my cheap pun in the title? Good, because being cheap is what this post is all about. I mentioned trying to keep costs down in my “Making of The Shining Diorama” post, and I wanted to spell out the costs of creating a gorgeous, otherworldly beautiful diorama like this one!
The Shining Diorama: the Finished Product
The biggest reason I’m doing this is to hold myself accountable so the diorama costs don’t get out of control. I made an initial investment in building out the window space, and I need to be conscious of ongoing costs given I’m pretty certain this space will never generate income, and that’s probably for the best.
Also, I did spend a fair bit on the Creepshow diorama, and while I was happy to do it cause it meant bringing in and paying good people, it also meant I was potentially creating an unsustainable hobby monster. All-in the Creepshow diorama cost me about 1350€ ($1,500 US), and most of that was dedicated to custom art, high-end prints, and modifications to the actual diorama stage. On the up-side, it went to good people doing awesome stuff very affordably, so it is also worth noting art ain’t cheap
Spreedsheet of costs for Creepshow diorama (items highlighted in pink were not used)
Until bavastudio gets a rich patron an average price tag of 1,350€ ($1,500) per diorama is a bit rich for bava’s blood, especially if I hit my goal of doing as many as four per year. It could be argued any amount spent on this vanity project is too much and I hear that. So, for The Shining diorama I wanted to get closer to a 500€ all-in budget. Such a limitation forces me to take on more of the work, which is nice for my creative muscles. At the same time, I greatly enjoy bringing people’s ideas and skills into the process and being able to pay them for their contributions (they always make it better!). So, in the end, it’s a mixed bag at best.
Spreadsheet of costs for The Shining diorama (items highlighted in pink were not used)
The Shining diorama cost almost half as much as the Creepshow installation, even though I still exceeded my 500€ goal. Entries highlighted in pink are things I didn’t need to buy, or were excess and can be re-purposed.* That means the costs could’ve been closer to 630€, and when the exchange rate is good that’s a tad closer to 500€. Part of what helped me save on this one were printing costs were cheaper (even if I made some mistakes) and I was able to include a bunch of people who donated their time (thanks Wren, Kamille, Tommy, and Anto). Exploiting friends, family, and family of friends in this context is new for me and I love it. Maybe I can turn this whole diorama making thing into an Italian family business if you know what I mean. Next diorama is Sonny at the toll booth
Anyway, not sure this will be of interest to anyone but me, but trying to keep these projects affordable pretty much means I can keep doing them at will, and that’s the goal.
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*Part of what I spent money on for The Shining diorama were straight edges, t-squares, and other tools and supplies that can be used for future dioramas, so there are some one-time costs that might save me money on future projects
The previous, extremely long post on this blog was taken entirely from a Flickr album created to document the process of building out The Shining diorama. The project features an iconic scene wherein Danny encounters the Grady sisters in a hallway of the Overlook Hotel. This post is simply to embed that album for anyone who might want to take a pictorial jaunt through the process.
I had the concept for featuring the “Come and Play with Us” scene from The Shining in the Bav-O-Rama before it was even built out. Originally I wanted to include Danny on the “big wheel” (it’s not actually a big wheel) as well as rig a camera so that folks could have their picture taken with the Grady sisters, something that made absolutely no sense. As it happens, part of learning how to create a decent diorama is figuring out what to abandon and/or leave out. For this scene that meant cutting out Danny all together and just having his POV assumed. The other piece was to eliminate any photo/video technology, but more on that later.
Original sketch for The Shining diorama
MBS gave me the inspiration for trying to dial-in a sense of perspective for this diorama, something the Creepshow installation lacked a bit of. He also floated the idea of having the Grady sisters projected on plexiglass, but that meant more serious overhead, i.e. buying a projector that can deal with the intense light the space gets throughout the day, I wasn’t convinced a more affordable projector would be bright enough.
Sketch idea for video projecting the Grady sisters
I wanted to do this one on a stricter budget, so I ultimately kyboshed the projector and focused on the lofi fundamentals, and I’m glad I did. These sketches came before Miles and I dismantled the Creepshow diorama in mid-January with the expectation The Shining* diorama would be up within a few weeks at most (wishful thinking). I thought we needed to take apart the the previous diorama to begin calculating angles and measurements for the hallway perspective, but if I knew how long it would take I would have let “Something to Tide You Over” run longer.
Miles Making Way in the Bav-O-Rama
Early on I bought a Big Wheel from the US along with a cheap carpet with the classic pattern everyone connects with The Shining, but as I started studying this particular scene I realized neither of these elements would work. There was not enough room in the diorama for the Big Wheel (not to mention Danny rides a Hedstrom Trail Cycle) and this carpet pattern was not in the hallway scene when the sisters ask Danny to come and play with them forever and ever. So if either were to be included it would be deviating from the film. That was something I toyed with for effect, but opted to remain true to the original. What’s more, it made accounting for perspective with that rug pattern much, much easier.
Big Wheel and carpet left on cutting room floor
After dismantling the Creepshow diorama I hung the geometrically patterned carpet as a not-so-subtle “coming soon” sign. But what I was hoping would hang for a few short weeks became months.
The Shining Diorama: Coming Soon
When trying to start The Shining diorama I got hung up on a number of things, in particular what would be the correct angles for the ceiling and floor to capture the illusion of space. On top of that my dad got sick and passed away, so the end of January and all of February was lost.
Tommaso and I came up with 1:4 scale model
In March Tommaso and I created a scaled version of the hallway, and when I turned it on its side it was pretty damn accurate, but the project still lingered because I was not entirely confident. On top of that my day job was taking over my time, not to mention a malfunctioning Cheyenne video game that will not be spoken of lest I lose my mind.
The Shining Diorama: a Visit from the Professionals
As I wrote about already, it was not until mid-May when bavastudio hosted two theatre production students from Canada, Wren and Kamille, that real progress was made.
No Ceiling on Inspiration
Wren and Kamille built out the ceiling of the diorama using foamcore and that was just the spark I needed to get back in the game and knock the diorama out. They figured out the ceiling works best at an angle of 20° incline, and having a specific angle made everything easier (an important lesson).
Using foamcore to cobble together the hallway floor
Soon after Wren and Kamille left, I had renewed inspiration and confidence to try creating the floor of the hallway. The floor was at a roughly 18 degree angle, and given it was going to be painted blue and gray, I used a red Sharpee to designate the locations of the panels I cut out, but admittedly I should’ve used pencil.
The Shining Diorama: Hallway Floor Installed
With both the ceiling and floor installed and the side-walls angled accordingly you get a pretty good sense of how the hallway perspective might actually work, and that was a very exciting moment. I started to glimpse the project as a achievable reality.
The hallway perspective becomes visible
Putting the hallway at 1:4 scale inside the actual hallway was probably not as impressive as I thought it waswhen I took the picture, but it does highlight that Tommaso and I winged it pretty well that first time.
The Diorama within the Diorama
To get the floor to sit at an 18° angle (a bit less than the ceiling) we used stacks of VHS tapes, one of which is [Stephen] King on Screen—a VHS phantom thread.
The Shining Diorama: VHS Floor Reinforcements
I took a photo of the hallway with the iconic carpet for fun, but I had already decided it was not going to be on the floor. That said, I have alternative plans for that rug pattern that I’m still working on.
The Shining Diorama: The Wrong Carpet
Once the floor and ceiling were installed, the next piece I turned to was the baseboard. For the floor trim I used the 18° angle to make the strips out of foamcore, and that worked fairly well. Also, turns out that glueing two pieces of foamcore cut at different heights provides a more convincing base board effect, although not as ornate as the original. I painted the baseboard with the peach-ish color left over from the Elevator Action stencil job from a couple of years ago. That color worked out really well in the end. In the image below you can also see the masking tape in preparation for painting the floor to resemble the blue and gray carpet.
The Shining Diorama: Baseboard
One of the crazy things about this diorama is the Grady sisters print-out was done on my cheap Epson 220 printer using a screenshot I took from a Youtube video clip. I could have (and probably should have) gotten a higher quality image to work from, but I wanted to get this thing done, and trying to to figure out how to rip a 4K disc would have killed my TCB vibe. Pro tip: I used the Rasterbator site to break the image up into 8 different 8″ x 11″ pages for printing.
The Shining Diorama: Grady Sisters print-out
As demonstrated in the image below, once the 8 separate sheets were printed you could cut and glue them together on a 5 mm foamcore board. The Rasterbator site leaves a couple of centimaters of white at the bottom and the right side to makes attaching the sheets easier.
Grady Sisters print-Out assembled
One assembled, the effect is pretty good from a certain distance. I could’ve gotten more hifi, as I already said, but perfection is the enemy of good enough and done.
The Shining Diorama: Positioning the Grady Sisters
Tommaso helped me position the Grady sisters in the hallway to get a sense of where they should be placed to make the overall effect work. We finally ended on about 57.5 cm from the back of the hallway as the ideal spot. We then cut the Grady sisters out of the foamcore to get the desired effect.
The Grady sisters appear
Tommaso also helped me carve out the frame for the H.W, Bartlett painting that hangs in the hallway. This came in handy to further lock-in where to place the twins for a sense of their height and, again, to capture the ideal sense of depth in the hallway.
The Shining Diorama; Sisters and Painting
Would I paint the foamcore floor with water-based paint again? Not sure, it definitely warped the floor, but interestingly enough that helped with the effect. That said, I think I would probably do spray paint to see the difference, I just think water-based acrylic paint provides a bit more texture and is not as smooth. If given the choice and I had the time I would just source the blue and gray carpets and cut them in. It would not have been hard at all.
The Shining Diorama: Painting the Floor
The Shining Diorama: Gray Carpet
One of the hacks Antonella and I figured out to make the sisters stand-up straight without a perceivable trace was to use two long screws (6-8″) encased in hose-like tubing. The tubing worked well to support long, lightweight aluminum piping that held up the Grady sisters quite inconspicuously.
The Shining Diorama: Long Screws with Tubing
These two pipes were placed over the screws with the see-through tubing, and they fit quite snuggly.
The Shining Diorama: Aluminum Piping
Once the two aluminum pipes were inserted over the screws they ran through holes in the foamcore floor. After that, makeshift duct tape holders on the back of the cut-out held the sisters up cleanly with no trace of the support system—allowing them to freely haunt the hallway.
The Shining Diorama: Supporting the Grady Sisters
I was really happy with how well the screw/tubing hack worked to keep the Grady sisters standing on their own four feet.
The Shining Diorama: The Grady Sisters in the Hallway
Initially I was using the cord hiding strips along the ceiling line of the diorama to ensure the incline of the ceiling is consistent given its removed constantly while working. But once it was added and the work continued I realized how well the strips could double as the top part of the hallway’s crown molding.
The Shining Diorama: Cord Hiders/Holders
I struggled a bit with the blue patch of carpet because the crappy Italian DIY home repair box store Obi would only mix satinato (or semi-gloss) blue, which didn’t work given how reflective it was. So I needed to go to a good paint store, in this case Frisanco, to get a matte dark blue mix that actually worked. The issue this created was I must have put on four coats of blue to hide the satinato that started to warp the foamcore considerably.
The Shining Diorama: True Blue?
With the gray and blue carpet painted, it was now time to think through how to build out the columns on either side of the diorama. They’ll be placed (roughly) where the white trapezoids are on each side wall.
The Shining Diorama: A finished floor
I also started figuring out the back wall using a piece of 5mm foamcore and by lightly tracing the window.
The Shining Diorama: Testing the Back Wall
For the back wall, I was surprised how easy it was to find a good sample of the wallpaper pattern and just tile that in Gimp to create the desired effect for the back wall. I tried printing the the wall paper pattern for the back wall using the Rasterbator site again, but this pattern was much trickier to glue together.
The Shining Diorama: Wall paper for back wall
Rather than trying to glue things I decided to simply tape together the various sheets of paper with masking tape. Despite the tape lines, this helped me get a sense of how big the window and trim should be.
The Shining Diorama: Back wall paper, trim and window
It was at the point I got the floor painted, wallpaper on the back wall, and the baseboard working that I got a glimpse of what could be. And from here on out it just keeps getting better and better.
The Shining Diorama: Starting to Come Together
Tommy used some of his new Oahu alcohol markers to color a brown, wood-like frame on the W.H. Bartlett painting.
The Shining Diorama: Coloring the Frame
The columns behind the Grady sisters further dialed-in the sense of depth and perspective. And seeing the first of two columns in place was yet another satisfying moment.
The Shining Diorama: Framed Picture and Column
At this point I also started working on another element that was crucial for a sense of depth, the hanging ceiling light. Placed just a few centimeters in front of the sisters, it provides a crucial elements that really makes the window come out in three dimensions. In the movie the light has a brass fixture with an articulated glass shade. I didn’t want to buy a full blown fixture given scale issues, so I found a cheap $2 white plastic fixture and spray painted it metallic gold.
The Shining Diorama: Hanging Light
Turns out the actual fixture was not working with the glass shade I bought, so I needed to swap. But the gold painted canopy that comes out of the ceiling worked well.
The Shining Diorama: Light Canopy
Probably the trickiest part of the whole diorama was getting the baseboard and crown moulding around the columns right. I don’t think I did a great job, but I did enough with the foamcore pieces to fool the casual observer.
The Shining Diorama: Baseboard
Preparing the side walls with the wallpaper was something I was putting off because I was afraid my Gimp skills were not up to the task. But in the end the perspective and measure tools in Gimp take most of the pain out of the process. Here’s the trapezoid representation of the side walls with all the measurements (which are more or less the same for both walls).
The Shining Diorama: Measuring the Side Walls
Possibly the most important piece of the entire diorama was the wallpaper on the side walls. I was hesitant to jump into this, but I finally mustered up the will and used the wall angles and respective measurements to get a test print for the left wall (left and right are always relative to the back of the diorama, never looking in from the window). My test was pretty decent, and seeing the paper on the sidewall was yet another moment (there were a lot of moments).
The Shining Diorama: Wallpaper on sidewalls
You also get a good shot of the light fixture in this shot. I bought a glass frosted shade for $14 online and spent about as much on the power cable, light socket, and 60W lightbulb. There’s also a little gold chain along the insulated wire for effect. Once the wallpaper test made sense, it was time to commit and print both walls.
The Shining Diorama: Mounting the side-wall wallpaper on foamcore
The local printer could only print 90 cm x 70 cm, and given the side-walls are 120 cm x 167 cm (at its widest and tallest) we had to break the print up across two sheets. The print included overlapping pieces that could then be cut and used to paper the columns. The columns come at about 90 cm from the street window, so the measurements were just about perfect. If I’d known better, I might have placed the columns at 85 cm from the window to hide any possible wallpaper seams behind the columns.
The Shining Diorama: 3M Mounting Glue
The more forgiving, repositionable mounting glue was crucial for getting the wallpaper right. It allows you to gently nudge the paper to make sure you can salvage any mistakes—and there are always mistakes.
The Shining Diorama: Wallpaper Mounted
Above you can see the wallpaper for one of the side-walls mounted on a piece of 3 mm foamcore. After that it’s just a matter of cutting it out and applying it to the wall.
The Shining Diorama: Papering the Columns
With the wallpaper applied to both walls, it was time to paper and install the columns.
The Shining Diorama: Applying Wallpaper to the Columns
Taping the wallpaper to the backside of the column and then pulling it around the visible side was crucial to making it seamless. I learned this after the second try
The Shining Diorama: Taped Column
Above is a good look at taping one part of the wallpaper to the inside of the column. The second part gets taped down after the paper is affixed to the outside of the column with glue.
The Shining Diorama: Crown Moulding
The crown molding was a combination of the cord covering strip on top and 5mm foamcore cut to perspective underneath. As mentioned before, the cord covering strip was initially used to preserve the angle of the ceiling, turns out it doubles beautifully as the upper part of the trim, despite its size remains consistent throughout.
The Shining Diorama: Wallpaper and Columns Installed
It’s really pretty awesome how much everything came together once the wallpaper and columns were finished.
The Shining Diorama: Back Wall Window Frame
Now it was time to finish off the back wall window. The gray construction paper serves as the base of the window on the back wall. I used the window cut out to make sure you can’t see any of the gray, essentially hiding the wallpaper and offering a neutral color so no undue attention is drawn to the window.
The Shining Diorama: Securing the Back Wall Window
Another cool hack was getting some light gray construction paper and laying that down as the base of the window. Once positioned correctly, I cut four elongated pieces of 3 mm foamcore and attached them directly to the foamcore with super glue (Super Attak in Italy), which means cutting away the construction paper and wall paper and gluing directly to foamcore. There was no need to super glue the construction paper to the wallpaper, I simply used regular strength glue. I did, however, use super glue on the strips of foamcore board because they will be the basis of a loose frame that secures the plexiglass.
The Shining Diorama: Window Installed
You can’t see it here, but the plexiglass is now underneath the window frame. After gluing the frame to the foamcore strips and you have a solid window with plexiglass doubling as a glass window.
The Shining Diorama: Plexiglass reflection
The cool thing here is that the window will now reflect light from the fixture in the hallway, which adds a nice effect.
The Shining Diorama: Window Curtains
One of the last pieces was dressing the window with curtains and a curtain rod. I had a cheap small curtain rod hanging around I could cut down and Antonella picked up some fabric at the local market and made custom curtains, and they look amazing.
The Shining Diorama: Curtains in action
While the above picture is not great, it does give you a sense of the back wall installed and the curtains in action.
The Shining Diorama: Behind the Scenes of the Bav-O-Rama
Here is a rare look behind the scenes at the back wall of the diorama, as you can see it is presently held together with duct tape, a Dewalt screw gun box, and a dream.
The Shining Diorama: Up Close and personal
If you get too close you can see the cracks in the system, like the low-res print of the Grady sisters, but sometimes lofi can be just as good.
The Shining Diorama: the Finished Product
The final product is quite a thrill. It’s really cool to have something in your head become a reality like this, even if it’s a copy of an amalgam of other peoples’ visions—thank you Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, and untold folks on the set of the 1980 film!
There are still a couple of things I need to do, like finish the fire extinguisher alcove and create the hallway in the rear that disappears into the left side of the scene, but for now I will just enjoy good enough.
Update: Taylor Jadin let me know it is hard to get a sense of the size of this diorama, so I found an image someone took of it the other day to give a better sense of the scale of the diorama in relationship to the sidewalk. The size of the window is about 167 cm (or ~5 feet high) by about 100 cm wide (or ~3 feet). It’s fairly big as dioramas go.
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*That said, I do want to re-visit a video projector enriched diorama for the space in the winter. I think the less intense light and a scene that can encompass video seamlessly would be a lot of fun.
“Come and Play with Us” Diorama all but done
In the two weeks since being visited by Canadian angels I was able to finish up the “Come and Play with Us” Bav-O-Rama featuring the scene where Danny encournters the Grady sisters in the hallway. It was a tour de force to put it together so quickly and I’m glad it’s done because I can now get back to my regular life. I could feel part of me transforming into a timeless, psychotic resort caretaker. That said, besides obsessing over every detail, it was a blast to create it and I learned a ton along the way. I’ve got a lot to share from the process, but right now I’m exhausted so I’m just going to put this post on my blog as proof I met a self-imposed end of May deadline. YEAH!
The Bloggers Anonymous series “On Writing” continues to win hearts and minds as the reclaim blogging underground “movement” increasingly gains steam. Few can better articulate the importance of inhabiting your own space online than Chris Long, Provost of the University of Oregon, and long-time blogger. His The Long Road Blog and Digital Dialogue podcast emerged from the faculty development work happening at Penn State University’s Teaching and Learning Technologies in the mid-2000s. We spend some time talking about the optimism and promise these digital publishing tools represented only twenty short years ago and how the subsequent break down in civil discourse represents an existential crisis to the values that undergird the noblest ideals of higher ed.
Chris’s commitment to diverse communities defined much of his work in his previous role as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters and the Honors College at Michigan State University. His authenticity (a word that comes up again and again in multiple discussions about blogging) as an administrator and willingness to not only be vulnerable, but also openly work through his ideas with the broader community makes for a truly unique campus leader. At the center of his attempts to build a sense of community and trust during this moment of deep political uncertainty is a bold return to the blog for “Finding New Modes of Communicating as Provost”:
For more than a decade, this blog has been a third space of essaying for me, situated between the private reflections of my daily writing practice and the polished prose of the public messages, statements, and other publications expected of me first as a scholar, then as a Dean, and now as Provost.
Perhaps in this difficult time, when the very purpose of higher education as a sacred place of inquiry and learning is under threat, this blog might continue to be a place of public reflection for me as Provost. Perhaps too, these practices of public writing might open us to new possibilities of connection that make university life so vibrant.
I have to admit it’s sometimes hard to hold onto a broader sense of optimism in these dark days when the vestiges of US democracy are being dismantled at a breakneck pace, but talking with Chris provides a ray of hope. His belief in dialogue, reflection, and intercultural connections as an antidote to the closing of the American mind is chicken soup for the bava blog soul. I come away from this conversation hopeful that all is not lost and the power of connection to reinforce the hopes of a purposeful life can very much be rooted in a faith in the seed of an authentic, reflective, and searching post on one’s blog.
Back in October Meredith Fierro was part of a 10 year anniversary celebration of UMW’s Hurley Convergence Center (originally the Information Technology Convergence Center). She shared some photos from the event, and it provides me the welcome occasion to reflect on my time at UMW with all those awesome folks and projects.
2004 to 2014 to 2024: Cartland explaining the life of the mind and the buildings that contain them (poor kid in the front row)
Cartland Berge is narrating part of that history in the image above, noting the 2004 birthdate of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technology, with the core of Andy Rush, Martha Burtis, and Jerry Slezak already being on the ground. I would join that crew, along with Patrick Murray-John, in December of 2005.
Far slide from Cartland’s talk featuring the “dream team” re-united in 2022 at UMW for Reclaim Open
I could speak endlessly about how much I love those folks featured in the image above, but just know it’s the case and we can move along. After sharing these images, Meredith all share a couple from the celebration that featured highlights from the building’s 10-year history, one of which was the UMW Console Living Room Zach Whalen and I had built in the Spring of 2015.
A label detailing the magic that was the UMW Console exhibit
I love how the title of this write-up highlights how this little DIY, guerilla exhibit featuring a living room from 1984 embodied the vision of the building as a space where media converges, which was absolutely Zach’s vision.* The exhibit was my last project at UMW before heading out for the frontier of self-employment that fall. The console living room was absolutely rad, and Michael Branson Smith’s vision for broadcasting TV in a local, over-the-air network of 1984 shows and commercials was in many ways the piece that brought it all together. This project also created an itch that I have been scratching for the subsequent decade. Tim and I re-created that living room almost one-for-one in Reclaim Arcade, and it’s awesome! We also re-created a 1980s video store (Reclaim Video) in that same location, once again a huge hit. More recently, I’ve re-created both the video store, the arcade, and a new-fangled diorama in Trento, Italy, so this project has very much followed me. In fact, it has pretty much defined my “work” since 2015.
A mini UMW Console with the great Shannon Hauser, who (along with Zach Whalen) may have been behind the inclusion in the retrospective <3
I’m really proud of that little exhibit, and thrilled it got a mention. I have to admit it has kept on giving me so much to create and explore since.
That said, I think the real vision of that building was the reason why Meredith was there in the first place, to join her fellow tutors at the Digital Knowledge Center and its current director Cartland Berge to celebrate the amazing work that outfit has done for the last decade. One of the things I figured out when I left UMW was that having the vision, as Martha Burtis did, to focus on scaling support and building a culture of digital literacy is fundamental to the success of just about any digital project you want to launch, and arguably that’s never been more important than now.
So while our little exhibit was cute, I think the retrospective provided the occasion to reflect on just how right the DKC model proved to be for UMW, and for those beyond who were smart enough to take that lead.
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*I remember more than a few faculty discussed the exhibit as if it was challenge to the $40 million dollar building at the time, once again not at all the case, but fun to imagine.
Last Friday Taylor and I got lucky enough to chat with Corinne Guimont and Alex Kinnaman of Virginia Tech’s Libraries to discuss the multi-headed hydra that is archiving in today’s diverse and uneven ecosystems of media. As was a theme with Dr. Amanda Licastro in an earlier episode, the questions around archiving everything from bespoke applications to physical collections to virtual reality and emulation was on the table for discussion.
It was really awesome to have such generous and knowledgable guests, and they were even tolerant—possibly compelled?—of my steering the discussion towards the fate of university technical infrastructures in the age of AWS. Like Kathleen Fitzpatrick and others, I’ve been trying to imagine potential alternatives to the major tech providers and even the most unlikely idea that some of that infrastructure might somehow move back into the hands of universities in some sort of co-located utopia. Part of this means re-investment, and there’s a big question around the austerity plague ever subsiding; it being more likely the only unicorns that’ll ever appear will be billionaire type.
All that said, the video does nothing if not highlight how committed both Alex and Corinne are to a vision of open scholarship and a web premised on sharing and caring—giving me all sorts of much needed inspiration.
I was doing a little checking on the bavablog, and I have three blog posts titled “Something to Tide You Over,” which is probably not very good for delineation and discovery. Then again, bavatuesdays has always been a b blog. The oldest of the three posts dates back to 2009 when I joyfully shared the following clip from the 1982 horror comedy Creepshow. The scene is from the episode “Something to Tide You Over” wherein Richard (Leslie Nielsen) buries Harry (Ted Danson) up to his neck in the sand and then explains his watery fate.
The second post was from 2011 during the heady days of ds106 while I was on my GIF making tear. I tried to capture the moment in that episode when the TV on the beach shorts out as the tide rises and the ocean claims its bounty.
Creepshow: Lost Reception
The final of the three posts was this past June, making it a much more recent intervention. This post is an update on my progress with the diorama I’m building that features a scene from this very episode of Creepshow. It’s pretty safe to say this segment has haunted my imagination for decades, and the diorama is my most recent attempt to exorcise those buried alive demons.
Something to Tide You Over
Progress on the diorama over the past 4 months since that post was written has been significant. In fact, I’m happy to say that it’s finished.* You can get a sense of the result from the video below:
The scene really pops at night, but here’s a bit longer clip of the window scene taken earlier that day:
There’s a certain sense of relief and joy having this thing finally done. The beginning of this year was difficult and the bava.studio and diorama space helped tide me over some rough waters. I’ll spend the end of this post with more details of the design/building and requisite shout outs to all the awesome folks who helped make it happen.
Diorama with original idea for sand in Creepshow diorama which had a tan wool blanket on top of mesh wire with various sized boxes beneath to catch contours of sand
But before I spread the bava love, I just wanted to reflect for a moment on the diorama. It’s been fun seeing folks stroll by and try to figure it out. The dialogue taken from the graphic novel on the walls is in English, so often there’s a fair bit of translation happening amongst the Italians—but that may have even amplified the mystery/interest. I hope this is something that a few people see in a specific time and place and are just like “WTF?” If the window scene engenders a sense of bewildered wonder in at least one person, I think it did its job.
Bav-o-Rama finally live with Creepshow scene from “Something to Tide You Over”
The idea that someone might think back 5, 10, or 15 years and say to someone, “Remember that weird window in Trento with the head buried in the sand watching his illicit lover drown on a 1971 Motorola black & white TV?” Aspirational, I understand, but at the same time that’s the only metric. Truly untraceable, not linked to traffic, reputation, money, or any of it. A number of folks have asked if I have a website, by which they really mean Instagram, and in the end I was glad I could succinctly reply “no.” I’ve struggled a bit early on with the idea of bridging the diorama to the web (beyond this humble blog) and in the end I decided against promoting it online. More and more I think the bava.studio/diorama experiment is about being there—a project to anchor me to where I am. It’s tempting to use the web to erase borders and cultural particularity, while at the same time the built environment I live in often belies my own cultural beginnings and imagination (a huge part of who I am). So this little window in the center of the Italian alpine city of Trento is a meager attempt to bridge those sensibilities somehow, a way of reaching out in an alternative space to the increasingly dominant virtual realm.
An early, quite accurate sketch of the Creepshow diorama
Anyway, I’m not sure all that is fully fleshed out, but the diorama sure does feel right. And that’s only thanks to the many folks who helped build it. First and foremost, Tim Owens was the one who encouraged me to get the space and treat it like a lab/workshop over a year ago, and that’s been a saving grace. This is a strange case of role reversal between Tim and I, usually I’m the idea guy and Tim builds the hell out of it. I can now see what I’ve been missing out on—see Reclaim Arcade for details Maren Deepwell has been an early fan of the concept, and has been someone I’ve talked through the various concepts while trying to re-think the blog in terms of local space in a post-pandemic world. She also recommended I bring the diorama up to window-level rather than starting at the floor. This was a great suggestion, and really changed the way I imagined the diorama from then on.
The good folks at Domus in the process of building out the custom diorama for bava.studio
It’s worth noting that if it were not for Riccardo, Alberto, and the whole Domus team here in Trento, the diorama would not even exist. They built it out back in April, and that has made all the difference!
The diorama in-process with a look at the paneled wall coming along
In the following image you get a view from the street and can see both the positioning of the TV and the head as well as an idea of how the panels enclose the diorama:
With the diorama built it was about building it out with various pieces, such as the mannequin head which is actually a test head for training future hair dressers. This allowed me to have Mike of Mike’s Salon here in Trento style the hair so it looks like Ted Danson’s mane in the episode. Mike is the hippest of the hip, if only I were so cool!
Mike styling the mannequin’s head before it is planted in the sand of an imaginary beach
I already had the 1971 black and white Motorola TV left over from the Living Room Console exhibit at UMW in 2015 (which is in many ways the centerpiece).
I also had a copy of the Creepshow graphic novel that I would lay on the sand so folks have some clue of what they’re looking at. After that I just needed a tripod, a camera (I used a Sony ZV-1 that was hanging around), a blue claw crab (found an amazing one on Amazon), and then a few bags of sand—that was pretty much it.
I think the crucial piece of the exhibit was working with long-time collaborator Michael Branson Smith (MBS), who is an absolute fount of amazing ideas. Not only did he edit together the video of Vicky drowning that’s playing on the TV in the exhibit, but he also had the idea of filling the beach background with actual panels from the graphic novel to give the diorama context.
MBS is amazing, he chose the various scenes from the graphic novel and worked with graphic artist Bea Kotuk to make it all a reality. Here is Bea’s sketched mockup of the window:
Sketched Creepshow Mockup by Bea
In fact, Bea’s work on the actual design of the panels was nothing short of amazing, here is another mock-up of the construction followed by near complete versions of each of the panels:
Bea’s mock-up of Panel Construction with ceiling panel featuring Harry’s head underwater.
Left panel introducing the scene and highlighting the reality we see with Harry buried in the sand watching TV—also the 80s Jeep!
Center panel with dialogue between Richard and Harry that will be ultimately be re-arranged to distinguish speakers
Right panel featuring Richard relaxing with a drink while watching Harry and Vicky drown.
In many ways these panels make the entire diorama work seamlessly as a full blown scene with context and a condensed storyline. As usual MBS shows the way with his ridiculous talent, and Bea took my rough ideas and made them beautiful—the head in the ceiling is simply amazing! Their contribution is hard to over-estimate here, in many ways it’s a co-production, as it should be!
Ceiling panel with harry’s head underwater gasping for that last breath.
Once I had the final versions of all the panels with proper font and sizing, I turned to my son’s friend Ricci to have them printed out. He helped me get the art by Bryan Mathers for my custom Yie-Ar Kung-Fu cabinet printed, so he was the logical go to. Once we had the art printed on heavy duty 3M adhesive paper, we opted to use thumb tacks to apply the art to the panels rather than apply it with adhesive given these panels will be re-used for new scenes. Ricci did an awesome job on the prints, and even helped me get the panels applied.
Ricci give the A-OK signal as the panels are being applied
It was at this point that the diorama felt like it was quickly coming together. The project was so close to done I could taste it. But there was one issue still outstanding, how would I manage the sand. My original idea of using wire mesh, boxes, and a wool blanket was impractical because the sand would get everywhere and the actual construction would allow for no post facto adjustments within the diorama.
Original idea for creating contoured foundation to lay sand upon.
So it was back to the drawing board, but this time I had a better idea that included a self-contained, inclined sand box that fit the window space. What’s more, it had a perimeter of plexiglass to keep the sand from getting all over the place, which turned out to be crucial.
Sketch of the inclined sandbox that would allow for a contained space for the sand.
From concept to concrete reality, I can’t say enough great things about Italian carpenters!
A look at the sandbox in the window space; the penultimate piece of the diorama puzzle.
After the sandbox was in place I added 3 bags, 5 KG each, of sand and placed the head, blue claw crab, TV, and tripod. Soon after I added the graphic novel and the diorama elements were all in place.
The Creepshow diorama with everything in its place
The final piece was placing a strip of warm LED lights around the inside of the window frame to ensure the panels can be seen and read cleanly. The lights make the window space really pop at night, and it looks awesome. The LED strips were pretty easy to install, although I probably need a better long-term solution than the electric tape and double-side tape I’ve hanged them with at the moment.
I would be remiss if I did not give a special shout-out to my partner, Justin Webb, at Reclaim for seeing the value and joy that comes out of a space of your own to practice what we preach. Fellow eighties kids rule!
As you can see, this was an international co-production including various Americans, German-Brits, and glorious Italians, which speaks more broadly to how every project I’ve been part of over the years has been an amalgam of great people.
In fact, none greater than Antonella who has not only been a huge supporter of the idea of the space and encouraged me to create a self-indulgent and arguably superfluous installation in the center of town, but went out of her way to secure the lease, figure out the utilities, and generally help my illiterate ass manage a reality outside my monolingual bubble. What’s more, she has listened to endless riffs and concepts for the design of the studio and the diorama and provided real, honest feedback every step of the way—not sure one can have a greater partner than that. I mean she guided me up and until the final placement of the TV on the sand to avoid making the beach space seem too empty. This would not have happened without her help and for her and that I’m rich as kings.
Sorry the later part of this post devolves into a victory lap, but for some reason it feels like just that. Today I’m happy to know and work with all these people, and sometimes that’s enough.
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- I did have an idea for making the camera live and being activated to switch the image on the TV when someone stays in front of the diorama for 20+ seconds. Turns out this was aspirational, and I also wanted to avoid having being filmed live on the street for all sorts of privacy reasons.
Last year I wrote a bit about the WP Offload Media plugin when we were offloading more than 700 GB of files from Macaulay’s Eportfolios to S3. The plugin did the job, but one of the struggles with this plugin was loading the GUI interface for the plugin in the network panel for larger WPMS instances. Macaulay’s Eportfolios has almost 10,000 sites on and when trying to access the plugin’s panel in the network screen it seldom loaded. What’s more, there was no command line interface (CLI) to route around that interference which caused some real frustration.
For another project we’re preparing to offload more than a terabyte of data to S3 for an even larger multisite, so it seemed expedient to explore other plugin options. One of those is the S3 Uploads plugin, which Taylor shared with me a while ago and it seemed high time to give it a go.
Luckily this post is going to be short and sweet because swapping out WP Offload Media with S3 Uploads was dead simple. I just added a few lines to my wp-config.php file:
define( 'S3\_UPLOADS\_BUCKET', 'files.bavatuesdays.com/wp-content' );define( 'S3\_UPLOADS\_REGION', 'us-east-1' ); // the s3 bucket region// You can set key and secret directly:define( 'S3\_UPLOADS\_KEY', 'yourkeygoeshere' );define( 'S3\_UPLOADS\_SECRET', 'yoursecretkeygoeshere' );
I also added the custom URL for my offloaded files I had previously setup using this additional line in wp-config (you can read more about setting up the custom domain for files in Cloudflare in this post):
// Define the base bucket URL (without trailing slash)define( 'S3\_UPLOADS\_BUCKET\_URL', 'https://files.bavatuesdays.com/wp-content' );
After that, I deactivated the WP Offload Media plugin and activated the S3 Uploads plugin. I made sure to verify that my S3 settings are working with this CLI command:
wp s3-uploads verify
Once verified, I was good to go; it really doesn’t get much easier than that. Truly a one-to-one replacement for the WP Upload Media plugin.
Now to be fair, I had all my media offloaded to an S3 bucket already, so I could skip that step which can take some time. But if you do need to move your media from your WP instance to S3, the S3 Uploads plugin has a command for that:
wp s3-uploads upload-directory /path/to/uploads/ uploads
Or for my blog it would be:
wp s3-uploads upload-directory /var/www/webroot/ROOT/wp-content/uploads/ uploads
The plugin contains several useful options for managing permissions, cache control, offline development, and token sessions. Additionally, it supports various S3 endpoints beyond AWS, such as Minio, Digital Ocean’s Spaces, and Scaleway to name a few. The S3 Uploads plugin has much of the flexibility and power of WP Media Uploads without the interface loading issues that bogged us down with Macaulay’s instance. Part of the reason for this is everything is done via CLI or defined in the wp-content.php file, so there’s no GUI interface to speak of for this plugin. That could be a deal breaker for some, but given the plugin is actively developed and as of now free to use it certainly makes for a compelling drop-in replacement for our current and future S3 offloading setups.
Last week Pilot and I spoke with Dr. Amanda Licastro, Digital Scholarship Librarian at Swarthmore College, about everything from the limits and possibilities of virtual reality in higher ed to the challenges of archiving protest signs from Swarthmore’s Peace Collection. Licastro astutely navigates the importance of exploring augmented and virtual reality in the classroom while both acknowledging and pushing back on the current ecosystem dominated by big tech, which often ignores issues of preservation, interoperability, and open formats in the push for platform lock-in and accelerated obsolescence.
You can see more of the work that Licastro discusses at Swarthmore College’s Immersive Realities Initiative LibLab. One of the projects mentioned during the discussion was the history of land appropriation in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, a brilliant example of student work attempting to augment urban history using multidimensional technologies. It highlights a truly compelling bit of community-focused scholarship using cutting edge ed tech. In fact, the possibilities of storytelling in this brave new world is still very much nascent, and the concern that the technology is increasingly enclosed by just a few companies like Meta and Apple highlights the importance of a broader discussion around alternatives.
As referred to in my previous post, I’ve been struggling to figure out what specific Z80 processor I need to get my spare Scramble PCB working. I had the main processor for the board, which was a Zilog Z80 chip, socketed so I could add a daughter board with not only high score save and free play functionality, but also the ability to add multiple games.
A look at the Zilog Z80 Main 40-pin CPU Chip on my spare Scramble PCB
I’ll save you from the gory details, but suffice to say not just any Z80 chip will work with my Scramble board (it’s the Z80A that works), which led me down a rabbit hole of researching the various types of Z80 chips. There are many variations to be sure, but what I learned while on this deep dive is that the Z80 chip played a crucial role in the “evolution of early computing”:
Initially intended for use in embedded systems like the 8080, the Z80’s combination of compatibility, affordability, and superior performance propelled it to widespread adoption in video game systems and home computers during the late 1970s and early 1980s, fueling the personal computing revolution.
So here’s a piece of personal computing history that I’m still trying to figure out so that I can get my Scramble video game board to work. Turns out the past isn’t dead, in fact it’s not even the past. The Zilog chip, until 6 months ago, had been in constant production for almost 50 years, and if you’re trying to keep old electronics from the 70s and 80s running you’ll likely run into this chip family sooner or later. So here’s a shout-out to the Gen X chip Z80 for a very impressive run! Now I just hope these chips don’t triple in price as a result of this retirement.
…they’ll take the penis every time!
Wait, maybe I should backup here for some context. With the realization of bava.studio I now get outside of the house on a daily basis for a commute of 10 minutes on foot each way. I’m a creature of habit, so I pretty much always take the same path, and for almost a year now I’ve seen this graffiti of a penis in front of some new construction:
Random penis graffiti in Trento
It wasn’t particularly remarkable, just another in an endless line of phallic representations of the power structure that everywhere oppresses us. Amen. But it got particularly interesting when just a few days ago a new piece of graffiti was added to the construction fence quickly becoming a street art gallery:
“COMPOST THE RICH” graffiti
Unlike its forebear, this new graffiti captured me in a way that a ho-hum graffiti penis just can’t. The bold font and flower embellish of this statement belied the deeply dark and revolutionary sentiment at the heart of this little missive. It’s a brilliant piece of anti-capitalist, eco-savagery masked as a palatable slogan that just might stick. In fact, while the penis has remained almost a full year unmolested, the “COMPOST THE RICH” graffiti was removed within days.
No More Composting in this gallery, but long live the penis!
The above image was taken this afternoon as I was heading to the studio to try and figure out why the newly socketed Z80 chip on my Scramble board was not working (see next post). It struck me that there was something uneasy about the new addition, it wasn’t just another random scribbling of genitalia hiding in plain site as an incongruous logo. This was a statement that seemed somehow dangerous in its playful humor. And I imagine the owners of this new villa felt that unease even more acutely given how quickly it was “composted.” How do you know art between a penis and the composting of the rich? While I’m no art critic, my money is on the one that needs to be removed posthaste.
This post is long and full of images and text narrating the development of bava.studio over the last six months or so. It’s A LOT, so a quick tour in the video below might work for all you TV babies out there that just don’t have the attention span for an actual full blown post
I haven’t really posted a substantive update on the bava.studio since last December, which was soon after I secured the space. Most of the winter and early spring were lost to the old disturbance, so it wasn’t until late spring and summer before things started moving. There were a few phases of moving stuff over and building out various elements, so it might be helpful to narrate with some images and a bit of context to bring the progress of the space up-to-date.
But before that, it might also be useful (at least to me!) to explain the name for the overall space: RGB. While preparing for construction I covered the windows with construction paper and added the message “Coming Soon RGB” on a whim, but it has since grown on me. It’s short, simple and the acronym’s projection to Red Green Blue, the primary colours in the composite layering used by the CRT monitors in the 80s cabinets and tube TVs, captures the spirit of the space beautifully. As a name it highlights the archaic media inside, and will also make the neon sign outside very easy to color code And even if it doesn’t translate to Italian all that well, it’s still three easily identifiable letters.
After getting settled in with first eight games in December there wasn’t much action until April when I setup the large green table (pictured above) as a temporary desk for my Windows 98 explorations.
In mid-April I brought another 10 games to the space from my basement:
Games in basement lined up to be moved to bava.studio
Games out of the basement and into the foyer on their way to bava.studio
By the end of April I started moving the games around the space and imagining possible designs.
There was a lot of input from Tess, Miles, Antonella, and my friend Andrea, and this was the time period I was endlessly mapping and re-mapping what possible layouts could look like—both the hardest and funnest part of this process. Below is the space with no walls; it’s fairly narrow but goes pretty deep.
I tried moving the small couch/TV area around in various spots:
But the following minimalistic sketch from late April was pretty close to what the final plan would ultimately be—it even features the secret door! One difference is the wall separating the arcade from the video store is straight, not angled like in the drawing. Additionally, where the couch is drawn in the lower-left there are, instead, two video games.
Early sketch of space
The early sketch of the space was then translated into this by Domus:
The more official sketch of the space above is close, but the couch and chairs would be reversed and the nook would have two video games.
Work started in late May and that’s when we started covering up the windows with paper.
The team at the design studio Domus started with building out the exposition space in front of the window, or what I’ve referred to in this blog already as bav-o-rama.
Starting to collect the platform pieces for the table-like structure that will reach to the window, but also have storage beneath.
Here is an almost finished version of the diorama, only things missing in the image below are the sides, back, and top that enclose the platform to be a veritable stage.
After the diorama was finished, it was then time to build an angled, wood-paneled wall around it to hide it from view.
A look inside the paneled wall alcove:
The paneled wall is in the spirit of my basement from the 1970s, and includes a hidden door that leads into the diorama space so you can access that area cleanly.
After the enclosure was finished, the wall dividing the video store from the arcade was built using the same wood paneling design—a testament to how awesome the original came out.
The dividing wall is straight across, rather than angled as originally imagined in my first drawings. That said, it did retain the secret door leading to the arcade, which you can make-out on the left-side of the wall if you look closely at the image above.
Once all the walls were up and I returned from an August lost to work travel and some vacation, I spent almost a week of September staining the panelling to give the space a warmer feeling.
Stained diorama enclosure
Partially stained wall that divides the space between video store and arcade
These images also document that the video shelves for the entertainment wall were installed at about the same time I was staining. As a result, I was under pressure to finish the staining job because the shelves had arrived and were ready to be installed. As you can see in the image below, the blue video shelves go right up against the front wall.
I also stained the dividing wall, and in the image below you can see the hidden door cracked open just a tad.
We are at about mid-September by this point, and things really started to come together quickly. The shelf intentionally has an open space in the center for two blue pieces of steel, rolling furniture that hold the 27″ Sony Trinitron and the 27″ JVC tube TVs.
The Blue USM furniture re-purposed from Tommy’s room to hold the TVs.
The arcade side of the central dividing wall was also stained, and I have to admit I got pretty high off the fumes.
You can see the shelves coming together in the video store through the secret door.
After the shelves were installed, Alberto helped me re-combine a bunch of our existing USM furniture to create a kind of greeting stand-up desk. I have a higher chair that I can sit on to work, but I am not sure it is high enough.
I love the way the USM furniture could be so easily re-purposed for the new office, and also how seamlessly the blue USM TV stands fit into the shelving. The two pieces of furniture are made by two different companies, yet they match perfectly. You can get a pretty good sense of how well they work together in the image below:
Now that the desk and shelves were installed, the idea of covering the paneled wall behind the desk with a wallpaper of laserdiscs and vinyl was yet another ask I made of Domus, and I have to say this one came out amazingly:
Here you can see how well the entrance to the arcade is hidden when the door is closed.
What’s awesome about this design is the both laserdiscs and vinyl slip seamlessly in and out of the slats within the wooded railings. As a result, it is not only a pretty cool design highlighting film and music art, but also a very practical and easily accessible storage solution for over 90+ titles.
The front video store space is really coming together
That brings us pretty well up-to-date with the progress thus far. The lighting in the video store/diorama space still needs to be re-worked. As of now it is pretty obnoxious fluorescents, but Riccardo of Domus found some cool LED lights that outline the perimeter of those ugly ceiling tiles and actually make the light warmer and almost salvages an otherwise horrific ceiling.
With the video store all but done, I have to turn my attention to finishing the speak easy arcade portion of the space as well as getting that Creepshow diorama finished, but those topics are perfect fodder for subsequent bava.studio posts.
The game that started the arcade project craze in Italy for me was Scramble. And I took it apart and put it back together for a second time this past weekend after getting it on wheels. Love this cabinet, and it has now been officially transported over to the new bavacade in the bava.studio.
The rear-view of a disassembled Scramble cabinet
The monitor is in
Getting closer to finished with some coin door and marquee light love
A re-constructed Scramble in the new bavacade
Original post on Mastodon.
It has been a while since a full blown repair log, but that is the upside of having an all but perfect arcade But as Chinua Achebe notes, “things fall apart.” So on with the show…
When I was back in the US last month I picked up a few boards that were in for repair with East Coast Arcade, namely Phoenix, an extra Stargate board set, Super Cobra, and a Crush Roller.*
The Phoenix board was having graphical issues that were probably related to my hacky install of the high score save kit, but Mike remedied that so all is good, and free play and high scores are back on the menu. The last thing with this game is a possible monitor swap give this tube is a bit dim, and I think the Centuri Challenger tube would work well here.
Make Trax in the bavacade getting ready for a Crush Roller board
As for the Crush Roller board, it was still upside down and inverted, so I had to swap both the horizontal and vertical yoke wires to get it to work. This meant breaking up the yoke wires, which means I do need to clean those back up. You can read more about flipping vertical and horizontal yoke wires, because it’s important not to cross the vertical and horizontal streams.
The yoke wires normally go brown, white, grey, and red to the far right, but here the white and red are flipped as are the brown and grey. Also, note that you can not swap these randomly, read this guide for more.
My spare Super Cobra board was throwing garbage after it came back from repair, but then started working when the edge connector was adjusted. The high score had two blocks instead of numbers, and the game was having sound issues. I think the high score save kit that was added years ago never really worked, and as a result the board has always been glitchy. I’m going to get rid of the high score save kit and replace the missing ROMs on the main board in locations 2C, 2E, 2F, 2H, 2J, and 2L After that I’ll try a re-cap on the main board to fix some dying sound issues, but that should at least make this board a solid backup.
The cursed spare Super Cobra board
In terms of finally getting free play and high scores working on Super Cobra, I’m going to approach this in a different way. I have a working Scramble backup board that tested fine in Super Cobra. So, I’m going to get the multi-game high score save kit for Scramble, and then just have it default to Super Cobra, and as a bonus I’ll also be able to play Amidar and Frogger on this machine.
Multi-game Scramble High Score Save Kit
The extra Stargate boards were a non-working set I acquired cheap online. I figured it’s always good to have an extra set given how many of those Williams boards are interchangeable. The widget (or interconnect) board from the extra Stargate set was having an issue. More specifically, the reverse button was not working, it would randomly turn the ship in the opposite direction whether or not I was pressing reverse. I just happened to have an extra Joust board set and that widget board is interchangeable with Stargate. YEAH! So I swapped out the widget board from Joust and now the extra Stargate set is working perfectly. I sent the Stargate widget board in for repair, just so I’m keeping on top of the whack-a-mole that is board repair.
Williams’ widget or interchange board
Speaking of Joust, when I turned that game on last week I got a 128 Error on the digital display that you can find on the ROM board. I believe this error is essentially saying main board (1) second bank (2) eighth chip (8). As a first test, I swapped out the ROM board with the extra I had at hand, but got the same error. So, I figured it must be the main RAM board, so I went in search for my extra main board. I found what I believed to be the right board, but I got a new error: black and yellow vertical lines on the monitor. After a bit I remembered this was similar to an issue I had with Stargate years ago, so I was wondering if this wasn’t my working Joust board after all (the downside of these Williams boards being interchangeable). I kept looking through my PCBs and found the main Joust board and that fixed it, so the issue is definitely with a RAM chip on the main board, now whether I can fix it or not is another issue. Both a win and an invite to try my hand at board work.
While I was in Joust, I also tired an FPGA board that was previously in Stargate, and that worked perfectly.
Galaxian was briefly acting up with some discoloration of the graphics, but I left that one on for a few hours this weekend and the issue did not return—to be continued?
Also last week, the Dig Dug spare board went down. There was a loud, consistent beep and when I checked the screen it was throwing garbage. I swapped in the older board I had and everything worked fine, so looks to be a board issue, but we’ll see. Only thing was I had to reset the high scores, and I did that following this forum post. Also, wheels on Dig Dug are unstable given that game is just too heavy for smaller wheels, so will be talking to Alberto about swapping those out.
Millipede side dent
Finally, while trying to move Dig Dug, the wheel issue mentioned above made me force the game and it dented the side of Millipede— which I had just refinished. I was holding off on the T-molding because some of the white paint on the sides needs to be better matched. For that procrastination I paid, but Alberto noted it was a quick fix, so we’re golden, and this time I paint and add back the T-molding right away.
The T-molding channel looking ugly on Millipede after dent
Well, I think that is enough for this repair log; I’m not sure I could handle anymore. The big takeaway for me is that if I want to avoid going crazy with this hobby, I’m going to need to learn how to fix boards. That is a goal for the next year, but we’ll see how that fares.
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I also tried to fix a non-working Williams FPGA board, but it was dead and could not be saved–bad video. Additionally, I bought a Crush Roller* bootleg board that seems to have no apparent logic in regards to the actual board–so still a mystery.
Last week I was invited by the great Maren Deepwell to chat about my experiences with remote working at Reclaim over the last decade, and it was a total blast. As it happens both Maren and I went remote around the same time, so there was no shortage of topics to discuss. What I learned from Maren over the years is how fundamental regular and intentional communication and community building is to a healthy online organization, in fact it may just be that elusive magic dust we were in search of during our conversation. I really enjoyed having the ability to work out so many of the finer details that make remote work work, and even better that it comes in the form of a free and open therapy session masquerading as a podcast episode!
Thanks again to Maren for having me, and if musings about remote work are of interest you might find this an enjoyable listen, but no promises.
It’s more than a week since the ds106radio Summer Camp wrapped up, and the good vibes are still bouncing around the atmosphere of my little corner of the world wide web. The free and open lofi conference that Maren Deepwell pulled together alongside Taylor Jadin was a pretty remarkable feat. My only regret is how little I had to do with how awesome it was! Thanks to the impeccable planning of Maren and seamless integration of tech by Taylor all I had to do was show up after two weeks of traveling and jump on the air. The vision and execution for this conference was all Maren and Taylor, so major kudos to a brilliant re-imagining of what a summer conference can and should be. It was truly a “summer of love” event, and highlights how warm and magical community events can be!
As for my part, I had the pleasure and privilege of getting the camp started four of the five days, which I approached as part playing music and part reflecting on what happened the day before, while preparing the listeners for what was on tap for that day. It was a pretty easy format for me to structure a show around and made planning dead simple. I would just dip into recordings that happened the day before and then extrapolate on the list of sessions for the day to come. For the record, here are the four 1-hour recordings from my Summer Camp morning show:
https://files.bavatuesdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240813-1500-Recording.mp3“ds106radio Summer Camp Day 1 Morning Show” by Jim Groom.
https://files.bavatuesdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240814-1500-Recording.mp3“ds106radio Summer Camp Day 2 Morning Show” by Jim Groom.
https://files.bavatuesdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240815-1500-Recording.mp3“ds106radio Summer Camp Day 3 Morning Show” by Jim Groom.
https://files.bavatuesdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20240816-1500-Recording.mp3“ds106radio Summer Camp Day 4 Morning Show” by Jim Groom.
Beyond that, I had a hand in a few other sessions as either participant, moderator, or hanger-on. In fact, you can find any of the official sessions—20 in all!—over at the ds106radio Summer Camp audio archive. There are so many riches to explore in the wake of summer camp, and as always Maren and Taylor have prioritized both sharing and caring. All hail summer Camp on the mighty ds106radio!
After a month of on-again, off-again attempts to get my RetroPie upgraded to the latest version—which included not only changing the Raspbian OS from Raspbian Stretch to Buster, but also migrating hardware from Raspberry Pi 3B to 4B—I’m now running RetroPie 4.8 on a RaspberryPie 4B. Huzzah!
For this week’s stream on Reclaim TV I wanted to document installing RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 4B from scratch.* After that, I went through getting the Atari 5200 console running correctly. All of that was done in less than 30 minutes, which surprised me. The next part of the stream was showing off how I was able to pull in a feed of not only the Raspberry Pi 4B, but also feeds of both Atari 5200 and Atari 7800 consoles I have setup in my office.
Finally, I ended the stream comparing various console versions of a particular game like Pac-man, and demonstrating how some of the gameplay experience can be compromised in emulation. All in all it was a very fun stream and I was pretty fired-up the various complexities of getting the old technology plugged into the stream worked fairly seamlessly.
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*After hours of lost time, upgrading from Raspbian Stretch to Raspbian Buster OS is not worth the hassle. Just be sure to backup all your ROMs, configs, and BIOS files, and start fresh. Must emulator work out of the box, and the more complex setups like Atari 5200 are easier on the latest version.
†The two small issues were the fan I had in my office to cool things down was making noise on my wireless mic, and the Elgato HN60X capture card that was grabbing the Raspberry Pi went in and out a few times—I need to see why that was. But if that is the worst of it for this setup, I’ll take it!
Turns out a few days ago was Reclaim Hosting‘s 11th anniversary, crazy how time flies when you are providing a range of infrastructure options for higher ed and beyond. Recently Meredith Huffman and I sat down with Bryan Mathers to try and map all the different products and services we offer. The beauty of these sessions is that they often lead to new ways of framing Reclaim Hosting, and this meeting did not disappoint. We came up with the overarching theme of visiting various products as if they were places, and the postcards become the key element for visually capturing their essence:
Visual map of places you can visit in the land of Reclaim Hosting
Back of each postcard: Greetings from Reclaim Hosting
Each card has the same background, and these postcards become physical elements we can give out at events like WP Campus and DH2024, both of which Meredith and I will be attending this week and next, respectively. So, anyway, here are the various postcards with each of the products, so awesome!
Domain of one’s Own
Domain of One’s Own
The industrial strength of WordPress Multisite hosting
Managed cPanel Hosting – pick your source
cPanel hosting, more generic remote
Some old gold Reclaim Cloud visuals
ReclaimEDU and Managed Hosting “Offload your dread…”
ReclaimEDU – a visualization of how our failover system works
ReclaimPress – the very bold label
ReclaimPress- because your WordPress site is your baby
A more abstract Andy Warhol-inspired record that came out of RclaimPress but can really be used across products like WPMS, ReclaimCloud, ReclaimPress, etc.
Bryan Mathers is at it again with his Remixer
While the Learning Management System may not be dead, I certainly feel better when it’s not around. In fact, the ds106radio Summer Camp from August 12th through the 16th is embedded in the idea that doing edtech is anything but isolating and depressing. The schedule highlights just that fact, with sessions about everything from the Austerity Blues to Dream Teams and Apollo 13s. And the platform? The open and free airwaves of the mighty ds106radio. I’ll get things going each morning with some impromptu radio with musings about such topics as “What is art?” and “Why you can’t kill what’s already dead.” This format allows for folks to tune in as they like and enjoy a frictionless experience all the while. Major kudos to Maren Deepwell for organizing the summer camp so seamlessly, and creating a free and accessible event that is open and available to anyone interested—my favorite kind of open! If you’re interested in playing along you can register here for reminders and updates or just listen in when the time comes.
As part of the Creepshow bav-o-rama installation for the bavastudio, I’m trying to get a motion detector hooked up to an HDMI switcher that will change inputs based on motion on the other side of the diorama window. It’s what Michael Branson Smith has termed an “aspirational goal” for this installation, and he may be right, but hope springs eternal in the bava’s breast. If nothing else, it’s given me an excuse to play with the Arduino Uno Rev3, which is a pretty amazing little gadget.
So, for the last week much of my free time has been dedicated to testing out a variety of scripts folks have shared to create a simple motion detector using the Arduino. My favorite so far is “How to Setup an Arduino Motion Sensor” from PiMyLifeUp. I like this one because it has the motion detector connected to both an LED light and a tiny piezo speaker, so whenever motion is detected the light and speaker are activated. I used the above video and linked guide to create it, but left the resistors out of the circuit because I knew this was just a test and wouldn’t be running for any significant amount of time.
The above video is my test of the motion detector, and it’s amazing how something seemingly so complex as a motion detector can be made so simple and entertaining. That’s the magic of the Arduino.
Some notes on were I’m so far on my quest. The above build is using a PIR motion sensor, or a passive infrared motion detector, which picks up on change of radiation levels based on a person’s movement. These sensors are quite cheap; I was able to get a 5 pack for 10 euros. The tiny piezo speaker and LED light were taken from the Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit George Meadows so generously donated to Reclaim many years ago. I bought a breadboard separately because the one that came with the Inventor’s Kit was long gone. I now understand just how useful a breadboard is for experimenting with all these circuits, it allows for quick connections without ever having to solder a thing.
I figured out almost immediately that the PIR motion sensor will not work for my project because they are activated by energy displacement. Given my diorama will be trying to detect motion on the other side of an insulated window, this means energy/heat detection will be difficult, if not impossible, to pickup. In other words, this is a no-go for my use case.
The SHARP GP2Y0A21YK0F is an easy to use IR distance sensor with a range of 10 – 80 cm
But this led me down a rabbit hole of other options for motion activation using the Arduino. Another sensor I had hanging around that might work is the SHARP GP2Y0A21 proximity sensor. This sensor has a range of 10-80 cm, and according to this thread might work at a distance of 30 cm from the window and angled at greater than 30 degrees from the glass surface:
I have had good luck using sharp gp2 series proximity sensors behind glass in museum display cases for triggering exhibits. Typically incline them at greater then thirty degrees to the glass surface to avoid measuring the reflection. Range from 30 cm in.
The proximity sensor measures distance, and when an object breaks the pre-defined distance it creates a reading that can then become an input that triggers an action, so if an object gets closer than X do Y. For example, if someone approaches beyond the distance X the diorama window the action Y can be triggered, such as the TV they’re looking at switches to a shot of them looking at the exhibit. Once again, aspirational, but it could work.
“Laser.”
The other kind of sensor that might work is a laser. Laser’s should be able to pass more easily through an insulated window, so when someone walks by and breaks the path of the laser the switch can be triggered. That’s Mission Impossible shit right there, but I’m a little hesitant to have a laser shooting out of the window across the street given the red dot might seem like a European hitman is stationed in the diorama—creating a bit more attention than necessary. What’s more, not sure if you look directly into the laser there could be any undesirable side effects, but this is where I am probably showing my ignorance—so more research needs to be done on this option.
Yet another option I have read about is video-based motion detection that depends on a establishing shot of the window environs without anyone in the frame. At the point someone passes by the window, or stands in front of it, the difference is detected which then triggers an action. I tried something like this with OBS when I started researching motion detection, and some folks have got this working. But I’d prefer an option that doesn’t depend on something as CPU-dependent as OBS, so I would need to explore what other options are out there for video-based motion detection.
Anyway, the quest continues, and at least now I know there are several options. What’s more, they’re all pretty cost effective, which brings me back to how amazing the Arduino is for such projects.
While preparing for one of my retrocomputing streams for Reclaim TV I was searching for some of the major differences between Windows 95 and Windows 98. One of the first hits I got in Google was an archived help document from Indiana University:
Archived Indiana University Website discussing the difference between Windows 95 and Windows 98
It was a quite useful document for providing a point-by-point breakdown of the difference during my stream. It also had the added advantage of being in the moment, so it was addressing an audience that was preparing for the various changes in 1998 or 1999, helping to capture the ways in which Windows 98 was designed to make it easier for tens of millions more people to get online. Between 1996 and 1999 the amount of people online went from 45 to 150 million, and by 2000 it was 400 million.* Most of those folks would be using the Windows 98 Second Edition—which packaged so many of the necessary drivers for plug and play peripherals like ethernet cards right into the OS, making it that much easier for folks to get online. At the same time, this also meant packaging Internet Explorer 4 and 5 as the default browser for this OS which led to an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.
Anyway, I digress. The point I’m trying to make is how refreshing it is to see Indiana University take the time and resources to preserve something as ostensibly disposable as IT documentation. The archaeology of knowledge on the web over the last 25 years is dominated by the gravitational darkness of broken link errors created by individuals and organizations that fail to understand, or care about, the cultural importance a link might represent. I understand it is easy to go Catholic here and argue every sperm is sacred, which can be dangerous ground for all kinds of reasons.
So let’s look at it from another perspective, the way so many organizations deal with their own web history and archive is akin to clear cutting forests, leaving nothing behind for folks to understand the ecosystem that once was—not to mention the damage to the health of the existing environment over all. Beyond the AI pollution, without the Internet Archive† we would have such an immense web amnesia that we would arguably be living in a present devoid of huge swaths of the cultural content that has helped define our world view for more than two decades. Collectively we owe an enormous debt to the Internet Archive for all the great work they’ve done to preserve our pasts, but depending on endless good will after their coming under continual attack for simply trying to carry out their mission seems dicey at best. It’s high time every organization, and dare I say individual, take ownership of their online presence and make deliberate and responsible decisions about what stays and goes. But even writing that last sentence I am not sure it would solve the issue or be nearly enough, so maybe a third party crawler like the Wayback Machine is the best solution, but what happens if and when that is undermined by those who would have us forget?
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*Stats taken from this Elon University History of the Internet article “Imagining the Internet’s Quick Look at the Early History of the Internet.”
†It is telling that the easiest and most reliable place to get a copy of Windows 98 Second Edition to do this kind of research is the Internet Archive, they are truly amazing, but it does beg the question if they can continue to do it all alone.
Reclaim Hosting has been streaming every Friday at 10 AM for a while now. We use Reclaim TV as the channel, and Taylor Jadin and Pilot Irwin did a recent stream breaking down the details of that process. A stream about streams…
One of the fun Reclaim TV developments has been the retrocomputing episodes I’ve been part of over the last month or two. It started with Taylor and I doing a stream about Protoweb, a proxy web service that’s designed to let you browse the web of yesteryear. Taylor demonstrated this brilliantly in that episode using his MiSTer running Windows 95.
That stream inspired me to fill some empty Friday streaming slots with some of my trials and tribulations of re-visiting Windows 98. I have at least two machines running this operating system, and it’s been quite eye-opening just how difficult relatively simple elements of computing were twenty-five years ago. So, I followed-up the Protoweb stream with another about the “Pain and Pleasure of Retrocomputing with Windows 98.” This one dives into running virtual ISO images using Daemon Tools to create a virtual CD-ROM drive. This allows you access to an unlimited treasure trove of old programs and games via the Internet Archive, which harbors a vast collection of software from this era. I demoed games that you can easily run off ISO images from the archive, such as Moto Racer (1997) and NHL 97, two of my favorites back in the day.
And just last Friday I did yet another retro computing episode, this time focusing on getting a 3COM Etherlink PCI ethernet card installed in my Windows 98 desktop machine so that I could get online and access Protoweb. I was able to get the card installed ahead of time and talked through the process, but the real gold was using Protoweb to surf old websites archived on the Wayback Machine. I visited UCLA’s website from 1996, and it was truly amazing. The main page was a very 90s image map, that had a pizza pie-like effect highlighting all the different “slices” of the university.
UCLA’s website in 1996 was an image map
The Explore button in the top-right corner leads you to another image map of the campus, this time with everything from an Arcade to a Coffee House.
Image map of UCLA campus from 1996 “Explore” website add-on
The arcade leads you to a Shockwave game that actually loaded for me in the video, and I could play it cleanly on the stream, which was amazing!
The Arcade has an interactive Shockwave video game called Labryinth wherein you control the marble in a maze with the number lock arrow keys
After that I went to the Coffee House which had a wide open public chatroom—can you imagine?
The Coffee House on UCLA’s 1996 website had a public chat room
Anyway, I fell down a rabbit hole of the 90s web using Protoweb, and it was really fun, and that marks the third video in what might be considered a retrocomputing strain of Reclaim TV, and I have a feeling there will be more to come.
The build-out of the bav-o-rama exhibit space is finished, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. The plan was to have a window space to recreate movie scenes: think of it like NYC’s Museum of Natural History, just with dioramas of select 80s films. To realize this Antonella and I have been working with Riccardo and Alberto of Domus to figure out a plan that works. The space is about 4′ deep by 4′ wide.
The sides and back walls are made of movable pressboard that can be re-fashioned depending on the scene being created. The subfloor is made of 3/4″ OBS board, useful base for handling the various floors/terrain each scene will require.
One of the things that we also created around this window was a wood paneled wall with a nearly invisible door. This encloses the window diorama so that it’s neatly hidden when you enter the space, making sure the man behind the curtain is never exposed. The walls came out amazing, I’ll have to take care of the final step of staining them appropriately here soon:
Now that the window space is complete, I’ve been working further on the first exhibit. I’m hopeful to have it ready in the next week or two. You can get a sense of what Harry Wentworth’s head in the sand facing the TV in the window might look like:
Prototyping Harry Wentworth’s Head Watching Television
Also, I got the Creepshow episode “Something to Tide You Over” looping on the Zero Pi, which has me excited.
Finally, my friend Andrea and I started assessing the best placement of the head and TV while trying to account for the contours we will be created using a malleable wire base and various sized boxes to reproduce a sense of the undulating terrain of the beach.
Finishing the beach contours and adding sand is my project for next week, as well as digging in on the Arduino motion detector for switching to live camera (OBS seems a dead end). Beyond that, I have to get the background panels from the MBS Design studio and have them printed for the 3 wall panels and the ceiling panel (more on that in the next few days); reproducing the old school CCTV camera using cardboard, while leaving room to house both a motion sensor and a Sony ZV-E10 camera; and , finally, trimming the hair of the mannequin head to more closely align with Harry Wentworth’s cut in the episode.
Outside of that, I want to talk to Bryan Mathers about creating cartoon comments section using his Remixer Machine that folks can access via QR code when experiencing the installation. That same code will also allow them to read the comics on each wall in Italian, ensuring that the Trentini do not feel linguistically shunned—it is Italy after all!
After some frustration with the motion detection bit of the Creepshow diorama, I took solace in getting a $10 Zero Pi W (version 1.1) up and running with Raspberry Pi Video Looper. Essentially this project turns the Pi into a machine that loops images or video—playing a single file (or a playlist) over and over gain. This can be useful for digital signage, art projects, trade shows, etc. We’ve used it previously at OER19 to show off our art and videos, as well as Domains19 to get Ryan Seslow’s art streaming on a tower of CRT televisions.*
A look at the $10 Zero Pi W model, with two micro USB ports and a HDMI mini port
This time around the project is being used to loop a video of edited clips of Becky Vickers drowning from the “Something to Tide You Over” episode of Creepshow. The Zero Pi will be feeding this video into a 50 year old black and white TV (with some cable/signal conversion magic). I like the Zero Pi for this because it’s cheap, non-intrusive, and more energy efficient than a laptop—which is important given it will be running almost non-stop. †
Underside of the Zero Pi W model, this is a 2016 version 1.1
In terms of getting this setup, this guide from Suzanne Borders reinforced that the Video Looper can be run on a Zero Pi. And to be honest, her post might be all you need to get things up and running—so check it out. She keeps things simple, and I believe the guide is geared towards folks getting the Raspberry Pi OS setup using Windows. Given I’m using a Mac I changed the OS customization so that I could easily access the Zero Pi via ssh. So, let’s get going, and I will quote the first four steps of Suzanne Borders post below—no reason to re-invent the wheel:
Preparing the SD Card
- Download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager
- Download the pre-built custom video looper OS image from videolooper.de which is still being actively maintained
- Run the Raspberry Pi Imager, click “Choose OS”, select “Use custom”, and pick the video_looper_v2.8.zip or whatever version you downloaded. You do not need to unzip this file.
- Click “Choose Storage” and select the MicroSD card you are going to use
At the point where you finish selecting all the options in the Raspberry Pi Imager it should looks like this (though your Raspberry Pi Device may be different), but the custom OS should be VIDEO_LOOPER_2.8.ZIP (latest version as of the writing of this) and the storage will be whatever Micro SD card is being used:
Clean Raspberry Pi OS Imager
Click on the Raspberry Pi Device being used, mine was the Pi Zero
For operating system click on “Use Custom” and select the VIDEO_LOOPER_2.X.ZIP download
The micro SD storage device should be listed here
A screenshot of my selections before clicking “Next”
Once you click “Next” you will be given the option to customize the OS, click “Yes”:
Click “Yes” to customize your OS configuration
This will give you the options to set your Raspberry Pi’s local hostname, which will make it easier to SFTP or SSH in if you don’t know the IP address. That said, at boot up my Zero Pi does give me the local IP address. You can also change the default OS username (pi) and password (raspberry) to something you can remember and is a bit safer. You also have the option to have the wireless connect to the network automatically at boot up.
The other piece, and arguably most important, is making sure that you have SSH enabled under the Services tab of OS Customisation. This will allow you to remote into the Pi using terminal (or your SSH/SFTP app of choice). I opted for password authentication because password keys still trip me up:
After that I apply the customizations by answering “Yes”:
Click “Yes” to apply customizations
The next dialogue box will warn you about losing all existing data on Micro SD disk,‡ which you can answer yes given it’s assumed the disk is empty. If you have data on the disk you will need to back it up because everything will be erased when the OS is installed.
SD Card to be erased warning that can be ignored
After that the disk will both be written and verified:
Raspberry Pi Imager writing disk
Raspberry Pi Imager verifying disk
Once finished, you will be prompted to remove the SD card from your computer and insert it in the Raspberry Pi.
You can now remove SD Card from your computer and insert it in the Pi
After booting§ the Raspberry Pi you should see a screen like this after boot, which suggests the setup went swimmingly:
“Insert USB with compatible movies” means the Pi Video Looper was setup correctly, and you are now ready to edit the video_looper.ini file
At this point you are ready to either SSH or SFTP in using the details setup when customizing the OS. For example, the above specified localhost, username and password will allow me to access my Pi Zero via SSH as follows:
ssh jimgroom@raspberrypi.local
After which a password prompt appears, and once you enter it the screen should look something like the following:
SSH access to raspberry pi using raspberrypi.local hostname
If you changed none of the settings save enabling SSH, the default username is pi and the hostname would be an IP address—with the caveat that the IP address will probably not be what’s shown below (the IP appears at boot up of the program, so be sure to note it):
ssh pi@192.168.86.30
The default password is raspberry —that should get you command line access. After that you would need to update the permissions of the /home/pi/video folder if you did not change the username, and /home/jimgroom/video if you changed it to a unique name like jimgroom. The jimgroom directory would be reflective of whatever you named your raspberry pi user in the customization settings—so this will vary. You can navigate into the user directory and then run the following command to update ownership of the video directory, replacing jimgroom with whatever your new username is:
sudo chown -R jimgroom:jimgroom video
Changing ownership of video directory if you changed the pi’s username, and remember to use sudo
Once the video directory ownership is changed you should be able to upload files to the video directory. Now that that’s done, edit the video_looper.ini file in the boot directory:
sudo nano /boot/video_looper.ini
Here you need to change two things:
- Assuming you are loading video and image files directly from the pi, rather than a USB drive, comment out the
file_reader = usb_driveand then remove the hashtag in front offile_reader = directoryEditingvideo_looper.inito default tovideo directory rather than USB drive - If you changed your username, change the directory videos are stored from
/home/pi/videoto/home/[username]/videousing the username you created:Update directory path of where videos are stored locally on pi
After that, you can copy files to the directory from your computer by accessing the terminal on your non-Pi computer and running a scp command like the following:
scp /path/to/video/file.mp4 jimgroom@raspberrypi.local:/home/jimgroom/video
Command to copy local files to your video directory on the Raspberry Pi
Now if command line is not your game, then you can do most of the above via your FTP client using the following details:
- hostname: IP address or hostname you specified in customization options
- username: pi (default) or whatever you specified, in my case jimgroom
- password: raspberry (default) or whatever you specified in customization options
- port: 22
SFTP gives you a more familiar file structure to work with, and will log you into the /home/[username] directory. If you changed your username in the customizations options you will still need to change ownership of the video directory via command line before you can start uploading files. Also, accessing the /boot directory to edit the video_looper.ini file should be pretty straightforward via FTP—the boot directory is at the same level as the home directory, for reference.
That should at least get you started with accessing the file system of the Raspberry Pi via a Mac, just keep in mind that Raspberry Pi’s OS is a Linux operating system, so directory and file structures of a more robust Linux machine—along with the commands—will directly apply. This also means that some of my slow, but fairly steady, understanding of Linux servers is finally paying off on these side projects, which makes me very happy.
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*As it so happens, we learned about this cool use of a Raspberry Pi back in 2015 from Michael Branson Smith (MBS). He used this software and setup it to create his awesome day of 1980s programming for the UMW Console Living Room project. All hail MBS!
†That said, I’ve been playing with the possibility of having a motion detector switch the video on the TV, but that might be a “stretch goal,” as MBS has told me
‡The recommended Micro SD card is 8GB-32GB for the Zero Pi, but a 64GB card I had hanging around worked fine, so larger is not an issue, but it might be a waste.
§One of the quirks of the Zero Pi is that there is no power indication led until the SD card is inserted—this confused me given after plugging just the micro USB into a power source there was no indicator so I thought it was dead, but turns out it just needed a bootable micro SD card, who knew?
As the window area of the bav-o-rama is being finished, I’m trying to get the final pieces of the diorama figured out. If all goes according to plan, the inaugural Creepshow (1982) installation should be ready to go by mid-July. Very exciting! Here’s a look at what the space will look like, it’s pretty cool.
Alberto has once again worked his magic: the two side walls for the background are hinged to the wall and on wheels so it will be dead simple to adjust the angle they meet the back wall as needed.
All three are made of pressboard, and I have to figure out the best way to apply the comic strip background to these walls without creating a long term mess. Maybe I apply the background scenery to lauan first, so that it remains rigid while at the same time is easily attached and removed from the pressboard walls—any advice there is greatly appreciated, dear reader.
All three walls are 120 cm wide by 167 cm high, although the two side walls can change angles effectively changing the back wall width as needed.
Earlier this week I had a conversation with Michael Branson Smith (MBS) to get some advice on the looping video of Becky Vickers drowning, as well as the best way to handle the background. At first I was imagining breaking up the beach scene into three parts, ocean and shoreline creeping in on Harry Vickers’ head as the centerpiece, and the two bookends of that triptych creating a sense of space and dimension by adding in sand dunes you might find in the Hamptons or Montauk. That said, if the license plate on the Jeep driven by Richard Vickers is any indicator, the scene is set in New Jersey which has a very similar shoreline to those I grew up with on Long Island.
Creepshow Jeep with Jersey Plates
Anyway, MBS suggested we take scenes from the original graphic novel that accompanied the release of the film in 1982 in order to make a custom series of panels to give the viewer some context—just the first of MBS’s many brilliant ideas. So he and his wunderkind illustrator daughter are working up some possibilities, and I’m very excited about that, you can get a rough idea of what they’re thinking here:
Something to Tide You Over Design background design concept
I have a meeting with that elite NYC design team tomorrow, so there’s definitely more to come on the background front–so good!
Another thing we got to discussing is how to contour the sand so it doesn’t look flat and relatively fake. MBS suggested chicken wire and paper mache to create an uneven surface that I can then glue the sand too, while at the same time affixing the head. He also suggested having the diorama floor of sand slope down a bit to reinforce a sense of scale and the normal incline of any beach at the shoreline. This seemed like an excellent idea, and after some youtube scouring I have a few ideas. I also realized it’s going to be important to mark-up the sand with various debris like dried seaweed, wood pieces, etc. to make it look somewhat convincing. Also, once again, I’m wide open to the experience and knowledge of anyone reading this given it’s all quite new to me. I’ve not done paper mache since third grade art class when we were tasked with wrapping and then painting a wine bottle to look like an bottom-heavy humanoid—a memorable project for sure.
Moving on, we got to talking about what might prove to be the most challenging piece of the diorama, a real-time switching of the video input from the looping video of Becky drowning to a live feed from a camera trained on anyone who stops and looks at the exhibit for more than a 5-10 seconds. MBS suggested that a proximity sensor attached to an Arduino might do the trick, so I’ve been looking for resources on this and have found at least a similar project someone has articulated using PIR motion detectors to switch between different videos. I don’t want to switch between videos as much as switch between video inputs, but it might be the same thing. This is yet another area I could use some help with if anyone has some expertise in this area, or even knows someone who knows someone else I can reach out to Getting this bit to work would be pretty rad, but we will see—world enough and time and all that.
Finally, another topic we touched upon was lighting, and the idea of two stand-up LED strips hidden on either side of the window. They should provide more than enough light and be easy to manage, while remaining outside the viewer’s field of vision—unlike my original idea for hanging lights. Then MBS floated the idea of the strips subtly changing color depending on the time of day so that the diorama reflects the actual time of day, so a brighter, sun-baked yellow during the day, much like the beach.At night the diorama has a bluish tinge, and I wonder if we can even have a redish/orange glow at sunrise and sunset. Luckily LED strips are pretty easy to find, but programming them to change color with the time of day might be another project for the Arduino, our Twang experiment many years ago might offer some insight there.
Anyway, that’s an update as to how the diorama is moving from a bizarre idea to an honest to god reality! There’s nothing better than watching a plan come together.
As Reclaim continues to morph, I ‘ve been thinking a bit about working teams. One of the real joys—and possibly under appreciated privileges—I’ve had professionally is being part of really amazing teams, which often translates to working with great people. I was living in New York City in the late 90s, just in time to witness (many times first-hand) the NY Yankees 3-peat World Series championships in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Now it might be easy to dismiss this team given they were chock-full of money and talent (they’re the Yankees, after all), but turns out the Orioles had an even higher payroll with arguably as much talent in 1998. And also, remember the Mets!!!*
Beyond the money and individual stars there was something more at play—a sense of joyful commitment to the work married with talent made them something else all together. Even the leagues of folks who hate the Yankees would crack a little with that particular team—they were hard not to respect because they played as a team and the greatness transcended any one player. What’s not to love about an impossible infield play by hall of famer Derek Jeter to rob the opposition of a hit followed by an equally impressive stop from everyman utility player Scott Brosius. It was greatness all around; they made each other better and as a result were unstoppable for 3 straight years—a herculean feat in any sport. To boot, they seemed to be having fun all the while.
Now edtech is not Major League Baseball, and this comparison is flimsy at best, but the NY Yankees of that era were emblematic of a great team, and one I witnessed first hand.† And for me the key seemed to be joy, having both a shared purpose as well as a lot of fun with your teammates. I think that translates very well for me with the work I did as an instructional technologist at University of Mary Washington alongside many amazing folks, but in particular Martha Burtis, Andy Rush, Shannon Hauser, and Jerry Slezak. They’re folks I miss being around regularly, but when we were together in the bullpen (maybe the baseball metaphor does work) exploring the magic of the mid-2000s web for higher ed was undergirded by a lot of laughter, and thankfully not spoiled by the years of ~~million dollar~~ state salaries. I’ve talked about the magic of working at the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT) on this blog extensively, so I will try and keep things moving along.
DTLT Reunion at Reclaim Open
My next team was in many ways taken from DTLT, as Tim Owens and I started Reclaim while working together there. We both eventually left the university, taking the newly minted graduate Lauren Hanks (Brumfield at that time) with us as we ventured into the unknown territory of Reclaim Hosting. We were a super small team for many years, it wasn’t until 2017 that we brought on Meredith Huffman (another fresh UMW alum). And with the addition of Chris Blankenship a couple of years after that (yet another UMW faithful!), we had the core of a team that would define the first 10 years of Reclaim Hosting.
Tim and Lauren in a recently Completed CoWork
This was quite an intense period as we stayed lean and grew quick, but at the same time it carried over a lot of the fun and experimentation of our time at UMW, only with a fraction of the meetings. On top of growing our shared hosting, Domain of One’s Own, and managed hosting significantly, we also had time to open up a CoWork space, a VHS store, and eventually Tim took over the arcade we built and spun it off into his own career—leaving the now civilized terrain of Reclaim. And not too long after Tim became the pinball wizard, Lauren left just this past September after realizing the previous eight years Reclaim was all she had known professionally. It was time for both to strike out for new territory, leaving old man bava to his devices. The contributions both Tim and Lauren made are too immense to list here, and in many ways I’ve not written either a proper goodbye on this blog for fear of letting either go—but I’ll save that discussion for my next appointment with Dr. Freud.‡
I’m not going to lie, I was a bit concerned this past fall and winter as I was saying goodbye to Lauren and buying out Tim’s remaining share of Reclaim Hosting, and my mental stated reflected that transition. At the same time, one of the things I underestimated was just how resilient and awesome the team we’ve been building over the last several years has become. Meredith and Chris are the pillars of both support and infrastructure this new city on the hill is built upon, and in addition to that, bringing on Goutam Vijay Narang, Pilot Irwin, and Taylor Jadin almost three years ago ensured a solid base from which we could continue to provide the service our community is accustomed to, while at the same to building community through avenues like Reclaim TV, Discord, the Roundup Newsletter, and Reclaim the Blog—all of which we’ve never done to the same extent previously. In many ways we’re getting the word out better than ever before, and it’s still retains the tone and humor Reclaim always represented. Just 18 months ago we brought on Noah Dorsett who has done a phenomenal job shoring up security, which helps us all sleep that much better at night. But when Tim and Lauren were coming to the end of their reign, Meredith stepped up to play and all around manager; Pilot stepped up to manage support like a star; and Chris remained Chris keeping everything online.
Team Reclaim at Reclaim Open
It’s also worth noting, eight months after Noah came, we hired on Amanda Schmidt to buttress our growing Edtech group, which Taylor and Pilot were already helping us define. It has been truly rewarding to watch Edtech find its legs, part of which has been the push for community building, and we’ve been able to support Reclaim Cloud that much more effectively, as well as introduce new offerings such as ReclaimEDU and ReclaimPress, we’ve done anything but sit on our hands.
But when Lauren left there was a serious HR and operations gap that we got ridiculously lucky to be able to fill with Maren Deepwell, her impact was immediate and she was able to keep the team focused, while generously sharing her vast expertise—the mentoring has been invaluable. When I had to take more extensive time off during the winter of my discontent, she worked with Meredith and the entire Reclaim team to make sure everything remained on track, and we scarce missed a beat—that fact alone speaks volumes to how much we have grown with our current incarnation of Reclaim.
I think part of my musings here might be that I just finished up annual reviews, and it was both a relief and rewarding to see how happy folks are at Reclaim—that for me is the number one indicator of success. By that metric, we are by and large killing it. And our team is still growing, with a brilliant hire of superstar Jason Teitelman, whose has been an remarkably good fit to further reinforce out focus on all things support. And just this month we’ve added Cass le Fay into a hybrid support/infrastructure role to provide Chris some relief with all things sysadmin—long overdue.
I would be remiss if I did not end with one of the most impactful changes that has happened in just the last two months, bringing on Justin Webb as managing partner, to manage finances and bring some of his long-honed expertise in all matters IT to bear on Reclaim’s future. We’ve worked with Justin for more than 7 years as a consultant, after being colleagues at UMW for almost 7 more—so the ability to partner with a know entity who has seen the inner-workings of Reclaim for so many years was a true relief. As the reality of not being entirely alone takes hold, I can feel the pressure and dread turn once again to joy and possibility.
As Tim stepped away the infrastructure team felt that hit, just as Lauren’s departure had us scrambling organizationally, so bringing on both Maren and, six months later, Justin marks the beginning of yet another era of Reclaim that has me excited all over again. Managing growth and valuing our services appropriately has it’s real challenges, and given Reclaim was never the work of one person, the fact that we’ve built a team that’s as good, and arguably deeper, than the one we had out first ten years really has me excited for what’s to come. It’s all about the people, and Reclaim has made all the right moves!
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*If you look at MLB payrolls since 1998, the Yankees have consistently been amongst the biggest spenders, but that has led to only 1 championship in 23 years—although arguably 2 given the Astros cheated. So while money always matters, there was also something else at play with this group.
†It was also hard not to be drawn in by the Chicago Bulls of the mid-90s and the god-like talent of Jordan even if you were not a basketball fan. But that team seemed to struggle with the cult of Jordan—whereas the Yankees championships were not as predicated on the one superstar (in fact, the one superstar often is an albatross in baseball, A-Rod anyone?). Now this could be a difference of sports, granted, but Jordan’s persona and talent were so ridiculously great that it was hard for any other player on that team to get much of the glory, which is unfortunately still playing out between Pippen and Jordan. What’s more, Jordan and the Bulls made Basketball a global phenomenon, which no team or player has been able to do for baseball. In fact, I’m seeing the impact of Jordan’s footprint 30 years later with basketball’s immense popularity here in Italy.
‡I think the same was true of Shannon Hauser when she graduated and “left” UMW
I’ve been making some progress collecting the various elements needed for the Creepshow (1982) episode “Something to Tide You Over” diorama. This will be the first diorama in the bavastudio space, and I’m pretty excited. I guess the first thing to note is that the window proscenium is being built out presently, and it’s coming along nicely:
It’ll be hemmed in by an angled perimeter of three walls (eventually with paneling finish) to enclose the window diorama cleanly. I like this design because there’s both enough storage and enough space to work within. The last two pieces will be adding the third wall with a door for easy access.
After that, we’ll need to figure out whether to design the background panels with something like 1/2? to 3/4? plywood that provides thicker, more stable material (but also heavier and harder to work with) versus a cardboard-like material so the panels are easier to handle. I guess the question will be whether or not we’ll eventually be hanging things off the background walls for various effects—something I imagine happening very easily in the near future. Perhaps we can move between both materials depending on the scene’s specific needs. We’ll see, all the same we will have to figure out a way to secure them cleanly.
In terms of the outside enclosure, the cocktail-style video game Rally-X will fit nicely up against the angled wall, giving ample space for stools for game players to sit and enjoy the play—always a challenge with cocktail machines. Beyond that, we are rethinking where the coach and chairs for the living room area go based on space, but I’m thinking the diorama will be finished well before the rest of the space (perhaps in just a few short weeks), which means I had to start collecting items for our first scene.
To give some context, the scene will be taken from the third episode of Creepshow (1982), namely “Something to Tide You Over.” In this scene Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson) is buried up to his neck in the sand on the shoreline by Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen) to torture him for having an affair with his wife Becky Vickers. As part of this elaborate and twisted revenge love triangle, Richard has placed a black and white television in front of Harry so that he is forced to watch his lover drown live, while at the same time preparing to meet a similar fate as the tide comes in. It’s a psychotic scenario straight from the mind of the master of horror himself, Stephen King, and adapted to screen brilliantly by the great George Romero.
My idea is to capture the scene from behind, where you see the back of Harry’s head, but can watch the wife drowning on the TV in some kind of loop. What’s more that image will switch to a camera above the TV that captures anyone who comes by the diorama on the street and stops to look. The switching between inputs for the TV is something I’m working on now, but it would be amazing if it were automatic versus manual. So, to build this out there were a few things I needed, noting I already have the black and white TV and camera. In fact, I did get the Sony ZV-E10 to push a live image to the 52 year old Motorola TV just yesterday, which was a blast!
Apart from that, I went shopping yesterday and got the other pieces I’ll need for the diorama, which are listed below, alongside the price.
- A table top, low-quality aluminum camera tripod for the live camera: $30
- Blue Metal Beach Pail (scaled at 2? to make the 9? TV seem bigger): $10
- Mannequin head with real human hair that will need to be styled: $30
- Life-size blue crab to reinforce accurate scale of mannequin head: $11
- RF convertor for RCA signal for the old 1972 Motorola black and white TV: $10
- 10 foot Micro HDMi cable to get live video out of Sony ZV-E10 camera: $11
- A multi-HDMI Selector to seamlessly choose between live camera footage and looping video of Becky drowning: $12
- 50-100 pounds of beach sand for the base of the diorama: $10
So, as of now I spent a grand total of $124.00 on this specific diorama. I’m hoping to keep the costs for each new diorama relatively low given I want this to be fast, cheap, and out of control rather than an obsessive struggle with verisimilitude. What’s more, I’ve been accumulating a lot of stuff over the years, and that should finally pay some dividends with this kind of project.
A couple of other pieces to figure out are how to get the footage of Becky Vickers drowning cleanly into a watchable, believable sequence with a GIF or short, looping movie. I know we worked with the video pi looper for OER19, and I can play with that and see if it still works. But I also have an extra mac mini hanging around that I can just run HDMI out and convert for the Motorola TV. On the mini we can use either a GIF in a browser window or looping video in something like quicktime without much overhead. So that piece is absolutely doable, I just have to study the various moments of Becky drowning and get some advice from the GIF/video king Michael Branson Smith on the best way to capture and edit them. I must say, the window diorama is really pulling the bavastudio together.
I’ve been making some progress collecting the various elements needed for the Creepshow episode “Something to Tide You Over” diorama. This will be the first diorama in the bavastudio space, and I’m pretty excited. I guess the first thing to note is that the window proscenium is being built out presently, and it’s coming along nicely:
It’ll be hemmed in by an angled perimeter of three walls (eventually with paneling finish) to enclose the window diorama cleanly. I like this design because there’s both enough storage and enough space to work within. The last two pieces will be adding the third wall with a door for easy access.
After that, we’ll need to figure out whether to design the background panels with something like 1/2″ to 3/3″ plywood that provides thicker, more stable material (but also heavier and harder to work with) versus a cardboard-like material so the panels are easier to work. I guess the question will be whether or not we’ll eventually be hanging things off the background walls for various effects—something I imagine happening very easily in the near future. Perhaps we can move between both materials depending on the scene’s specific needs. We’ll see, all the same we will have to figure out a way to secure them cleanly.
In terms of the outside enclosure, the cocktail-style videogame Rally-X will fit nicely up against the angled wall, giving ample space for stools for game players to sit and enjoy the play—always a challenge with cocktail machines. Beyond that, we are rethinking where the coach and chairs for the living room area goes based on space, but I’m thinking the diorama will be finished well before the rest of the space (perhaps in just a few short weeks), which means I had to start collecting items for our first scene.
To give some context, the scene will be taken from the third episode of Creepshow (1982), namely “Something to Tide You Over.” In this scene Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson) is buried up to his neck in the sand on the shoreline by Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen) to torture him for having an affair with his wife Becky Vickers. As part of this elaborate and twisted revenge triangle, Richard has placed a black and white television in front of Harry so that he is forced to watch his lover drown live, while at the same time preparing to meet a similar fate as the tide comes in. It’s a psychotic scenario straight from the mind of the master of horror himself, Stephen King, and adapted to screen brilliantly by the great George Romero.
My idea is to capture the scene from behind, where you see the back of Harry’s head, but can watch the wife drowning on the TV in some kind of loop. What’s more that image will switch to a camera above the TV that captures anyone who comes by the diorama on the street and stops to look. The switching between inputs for the TV is something I’m working on now, but it would be amazing if it were automatic versus manual. So, to build this out there were a few things I needed, noting I already have the black and white TV and camera. In fact, I did get the Sony ZV-E10 to push a live image to the 52 year old Motorola TV just yesterday, which was a blast!
Apart from that, I went shopping yesterday and got the other pieces I’ll need for the diorama, which are listed below, alongside with their prices.
- A table top, low-quality aluminum camera tripod for the live camera: $30
- Blue Metal Beach Pail (scaled at 2″ to make the 9″ TV seem bigger): $10
- Mannequin head with real human hair that will need to be styled: $30
- Life-size blue crab to reinforce accurate scale of mannequin head: $11
- RF convertor for RCA signal for the old 1972 Motorola black and white TV: $10
- 10 foot Micro HDMi cable to get live video out of Sony ZV-E10 camera: $11
- A multi-HDMI Selector to seamlessly choose between live camera footage and looping video of Becky drowning: $12
- 50-100 pounds of beach sand for the base of the diorama: $10
So, as of now I spent a grand total of $124.00 on this specific diorama. I’m hoping to keep the costs for each new diorama relatively low given I want this to be fast, cheap, and out of control rather than an obsessive struggle with verisimilitude. What’s more, I’ve been accumulating a lot of stuff over the years, and that should finally pay some dividends with this kind of project.
A couple of other pieces to figure out are how I get the footage of Becky Vickers drowning cleanly into a watchable, believable sequence as wither a GIF or short, looping movie. I know we with the video pi looper for OER19, and I can play with that and see if it still works. But I also have an extra mac mini hanging around that I can just got HDMI out of and converted into the Motorola TV using either a GIF or a looping video in quicktime. So that piece is absolutely doable, I just have to study the various moments of Becky drowning and get some advice from the GIF/video king Michael Branson Smith.
It’s an anthem in a vacuum on a hyperstation
Daydreaming days in a daydream nation
Not sure exactly what hyperstation means in the Sonic Youth song “Trilogy” quoted above, but I do love the way it sounds. Maybe it’s alluding to the future fact that Reclaim Hosting will create a “hyperstation” on Reclaim.tv: a regularly streaming daydream pushed through a make-believe vacuum tube out to a glowing web. I’m not sure that even makes any sense, but that’s what I hear and see in my mind’s eye.
All this nonsense to say that Reclaim has been streaming pretty regularly for a while now to Reclaim TV, and I wanted to highlight a few of the recent streams, as a way to celebrate this development.
In order to embrace the anachronistic web of vacuum tubes, I want to first point out the stream Taylor and I did featuring Protoweb:
a free public service that hosts historical Internet websites to demonstrate the Internet in it’s early days. It is also a community driven project consisting of volunteers with the goal of rebuilding and restoring early Internet services to offer a seamless browsing experience.
We were going to use it on the Windows 98 machine I’ve been playing around with, but I bricked that machine right before the stream, so Taylor used his MiSTer multi-system unit to reproduce a Windows 95 machine, and it really is an impressive toy. It can re-create a wide-range of old consoles and computing systems, and it’s not so much emulation as an engineering/programming feat to run many of those older systems in their native form on a more compact, shared hardware. Now that I have a new Windows 98 machine running, it’s time to get it connected to the web to try Protoweb out, it really does get at the heart of what surfing the web used to be like.
Speaking of the retro web I also streamed last week about the “pain and pleasure” of returning to an old operating systems like Windows 98. It brings back a whole slew of prior knowledge, and reminds me how difficult even simple tasks could be with a bug-ridden system like Windows. Although, truth be told, I’m loving returning to this late 90s operating system, and have a few more streams to share on this experience for sure.
We also caught up with Stephen Downes a couple of weeks ago to get his take on cloud computing, and what his process has been as he moves more and more of his cPanel and/or VPS based sites to various cloud providers. Turns out he is a regular “consumer digest investigator” on the various cloud platforms,* and his ability to keep pace with the changes and use his own code, domains, and tools as his laboratory is remarkable. An edtech is many things, to be sure, but the ability to dig in on the infrastructure and make open source tools do your bidding is one definition I’m biased towards—Downes truly walks that walk with his own fleet of sites.
And coming in just a over an hour will be a discussion with “tell me again about my eyes” Tim Owens about how he is approaching marketing for the inimitable Reclaim Arcade—reconnecting with the OG Reclaimer.
And those are just the streams I’ve been involved with over the last month, there are many, many more accessible at archive.reclaim.tv that you can browse at your convenience, but here are a few highlights:
Taylor and Pilot caught up with special guest Quinn Dombroski (of whom Reclaim is a big fan) to talk about “Modeling Project Planning in DH through Games.” Quinn is just too cool and obviously loves what they do, and the passion for teaching and learning is infectious.
Maren and Meredith catch up with another very special guest, namely Bryan M. Mathers, to talk about his early adoption of Reclaim’s newest product: ReclaimPress. As it so happens, Bryan was not only an early adopter based on his needs for visualthinkery.com and his personal website, but also he created the Reclaim aesthetic—up to and including the art for ReclaimPress. In fact, the visual “From Passion Project to Web Empire” is in many ways the metaphor we needed to explain what this service does differently than cPanel hosting in one, elegant graphic. As usual Bryan takes our thought chaos and turns it into a compelling and elucidating communique that folks can wrap their head around.
And if you’re wondering if the Reclaim Support team can have some fun, Taylor’s creation of “The Best Support on the Internet” game show highlights Reclaim’s deep comradery, playfulness, and, of course, hosting knowledge. And while a bit indulgent, streams like this are most fun because we’ve given ourselves the freedom to explore and share whatever we’re working on at the time in a creative format.
In fact, I am most excited about our ability to stream regularly on Reclaim TV because it is akin to a multimedia-rich, often communal, blogging process. I’ve long had the dream of Reclaim creating a “TV Station,” and over the last 6-12 months that vision has become a reality. I could not be more thrilled with the collective effort that has made it possible. YEAH!!!
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*This is a paraphrasing of an Eric Likness comment during the live stream that was too good not to re-purpose here, so thanks again Eric, for being there!
The big win for the bavacade this week was swapping out the existing Matsushita 19″ chassis in Millipede with a like-new replacement I got from Mike of East Coast Arcade Repair while in Virginia recently. It was kind of a fluke I should find another Matsushita chassis in such good working order given many folks consider this the worst chassis of the era. In various repair videos I have heard folks recommend just tossing the chassis and starting over, but as Mike was noting, this stuff is rare enough to begin with that throwing out anything seems like a total waste. I agree. Additionally, each tube is fit for a specific chassis, so swapping chassis often means reconfiguring the tube fitting, which is definitely not trivial.
The Matsushita often came shipped with Atari cabinets like Millipede as the service manual suggests, and I’m pretty sure the one I took out was original. The issue began when I moved it out of my basement in preparation for it going to the studio, the game powered on, board worked, but the screen was showing black. The monitor was getting power, so it had to be something on the chassis board(s), and given the sense that it’s extremely difficult to repair, I balked at the cap kit.
So, as luck would have it, Mike had a working chassis and I got that to swap it out, but when I did the screen was once again black…WTF! I dug in around the monitor adjustments, and it turns out the brightness was all the way down;* I also had to dial in the various red, green, and blue colors to get the game looking good—I am almost there, but not yet perfect.
The other bit was that the horizontal position pot on the deflector board was not really adjusting the position all that much, and as a result, half of the high score and player 1 and player 2 scores where being cut off at the top of the screen. I have a hunch the horizontal position pot is bad, so it might need to be replaced, but I opted for the quick fix of simply pushing the black, cardboard monitor shield that surrounds the CRT up about a 1/2″ to solve the issue. A bit of a hack, and in the image above you can still see the player two score to the right gets clipped a bit, but much better than taking the soldering gun to the deflector shield.
So, with that fix, the first in the new studio, I only have Centuri Challenger down, and that is definitely a K4600 chassis issue, but no rush there.
It’s worth noting as well that I grabbed a backup Phoenix PCB board from Reclaim Arcade while in Virginia (so that game is back online), given mine was still with Mike before I left. Mike also fixed a few other boards for me, namely a Stargate backup board set I got online, two Crush Roller boards, a Williams FPGA board, and a Moon Cresta board. I’ll pick all these up the next time I’m in Virginia save the Moon Cresta board which was shipped to Portland, Oregon, and by all accounts is working beautifully with the newly installed high score save kit. YEAH! So, the bavacade maintenance continues, but at this point I’m definitely feeling ahead of the game.
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*This does beg the question of whether or not the brightness was all the way down on the original chassis to begin with? If not that, perhaps some related soldering joint was broken during the move—a common issue. Not sure, but for right now I have a working chassis, and another that I can test out my theories if anything happens to the working one. It’s my opinion that having backup chassis is never a bad thing.
I started running both social.ds106.us and reclaim.rocks Mastodon instances back in November 2022. The ds106 server has about 40 active users, whereas the Reclaim Rocks server is pretty much Reclaim Hosting‘s own server, and we have 3 or 4 users tops. I saw Tom Watson was asking other Mastodon admins what it costs to run a server, so I thought it was a good occasion to take a look and see what our monthly costs are for social.ds106.us. Turns out Tom is looking for information on servers with thousands of users, which is not the case here, so really this breakdown is limited to smaller servers like ours which will probably work for 40-100 active users pretty easily, much beyond that I’m not sure.
Another reason to post this is to alleviate some of D’Arcy Norman‘s concerns around the costs of running the ds106 Mastodon server As of now it’s running comfortably on Reclaim Cloud and is entirely covered by Reclaim Hosting, and we’re happy to do it for as long as we remain a viable company. But in the event that changes, I think the costs would be pretty manageable for 30-40 people at well under $2 per month. Anyway, here are the costs over the last 5 months for a 4GB containerized server and a dedicated IP address:
Monthly costs for social.ds106.us server
The only thing missing here is the media, which is offloaded to Digital Ocean Spaces at $5 per month for up to 250GB. Although, as a result of doing this analysis I discovered I let the bucket get up to a 1 terabyte given the cron job to remove cached media was broken. Running regular cleanup tasks will save you significantly on storage space, and offloading to an S3 compatible storage solution is a must. So, if you take the above sampling, that averages out to $51.26 per month, and another $5 for S3 storage a month, you end up with $56.26 per month to run a small Mastodon server on Reclaim Cloud. Given there are 40 active users, that would be $1.60 per person, per month, and much of this assumes that someone is interested in taking on admin tasks—which right now I’m happy to do—but there is definitely a human cost there long-term. Which reminds me, make sure you run your Mastodon in a Docker container to make updates as easy as possible, moving our Mastodon from a VPS to a Docker container was the best thing we did for making things quite easy on the management side.
Anyway, I hope this helps anyone who is trying to figure out these details, but I’m not sure how well these numbers scale, but I would love to hear about how folks at the hcommons manage their community of thousands on Mastodon.
Those stickers tell a story, the above Macbook Pro is a 13″ retina display I bought in 2015. It was my first Reclaim Hosting company computer, and almost 9 years later has continued to prove to be the best computer I’ve yet to own. Things started out rocky between us, for sure. Just a week or so after purchasing the computer, I dropped it on a trip out to BYU and the screen cracked. Sad Panda!
I waited about 6 months to get it fixed, talk about the challenges of computing with increasingly vanishing screen real estate. But after I finally bit the bullet and got a new screen, this computer has been rock solid ever since. The only reason I replaced it in 2020 was because it was struggling with all the video streaming requirements the pandemic thrusted upon us. It has 8GB of RAM and a 2.7 GHz dual core processor, but when I started playing with OBS it was definitely feeling the resource crunch.
I had the unfortunate timing in 2020 of buying the last 16″ Macbook Pro with an Intel chip, that had four times the RAM (32GB) and an 8 core 2.7 GHz chip, but because of a poor design the machine would continually overheat and the internal fan was like a plane taking off, definitely not ideal for streaming. So in many ways that machine was a total lemon, which led me to buy a M1 Mac Mini with 8GB of memory as my main computer in 2021 at a fraction of the cost of the Intel Macbook Pro. And to be fair, the M1 chip was as fast as promised. In fact, I wrote a bit about the transition from the lemon Macbook Pro to the M1 already. The Mac Mini has proven to be quite a workhorse in and of itself, but the 2015 Macbook Pro continues to blow my mind, and let me tell you why.
Last week I was heading out of town, and for trips I usually resort to the lowly 16″ intel-based MBP lemon I bought in 2020. But this time that computer was incorporated into a strange streaming setup I am working on at bavastudio, so I needed a substitute. No problem, I can use the 13″ Macbook Air I picked up in New Orleans last Summer in a crunch given my Intel Macbook Pro got fried.*
However, turns out my soon needed that Macbook Air for a school project given it’s that time of year, so I was considering traveling with just my phone—which is doable, but a bit dicey if things go really wrong. At this point it was late evening before a very early flight, so I was almost resigned to the phone until I thought why not try and setup a new user on the 13″ Macbook Pro that Anto uses. I wouldn’t need much app wise, just some basics in the event of a Reclaim emergency, such as 1Password, Slack, Asana, and, oddly enough, Skype. So, I set the machine up in about 30 minutes, and I had the old workhorse ready to go again in no time. It felt good to be reconnected with this “old friend,” and the only issue I ran into was that Slack would only run in the browser, not as a desktop app (which i think is related to it running on an older OS version, namely Catalina).
For anyone interested, the ports on each side give you an idea of how old this thing is. The left side has the magnetic power cable, two fire wire ports, a USB 2 port, and a headphone jack.
The right side has another USB 2 port, an HDMI port, and a large SD card port. Turns out I didn’t need access for any server issues that arose given my phone is pretty well equipped for server access, but I did use my dear old 13″ Macbook Pro for some banking and other tasks that are easier done on a laptop.
I imagine everyone working as long as I have with these machines has that one computer that has proven the workhorse you need to get things done, and has lasted well beyond its supposed relevance. That’s this computer for me, not to mention the 13″ form factor is much better for traveling, and when I’m at the home/studio office I have a multi-monitor setup hooked into the Mac mini, so the laptop goes in the drawer.
In fact, I should take a moment and write about my current M1 Mac Mini setup given I did get three screens running off it thanks to an NDI device Taylor shared with me, but that’s fodder for another post. This one is about my all-time favorite personal computer: the 13″ Macbook Pro from 2015, what a crunch chewy bar you are!
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*Another story there about how much the 2020 MBP sucks, it got exposed to a touch of water and the whole board fried, and I lost data and everything, luckily it was not my primary machine, but what a cluster. And this forced me to try and use my son’s Macbook Air from 2012 for the trip, but it proved tway too slow for even the basics.
One of the ReclaimPress discussions Taylor and I had recently was with Chris Long, who will soon be taking on the role of provost at University of Oregon, leaving behind some absolutely amazing work and colleagues at Michigan State University. Chris has been an early supporter of Reclaim Hosting, and for that we’re very grateful, but it wasn’t so much because he liked our logos or thought we were cool (though secretly I think he did : ).
Rather, it was because he was part of a group of faculty at Penn State University almost 20 years ago that saw blogging as a way of narrating their work and capturing the life of the mind over the course of their academic career. Chris stayed that course on his Long Road blog, and while we were discussing the option of moving his site, it became clear just how important it was to him that this move be seamless and his site run under the best of conditions. The discussion was going to start as an argument for him to move from cPanel to ReclaimPress (see my last post about a post-cPanel toolkit), but it turns out there was no argument to be had. Chris immediately saw the value of running his blog in ReclaimPress given it would be faster, backups allow for multi-region restores, and he has access via SFTP and SSH should he need it elsewhere easily.
Another brilliant image from Visual Thinkery to capture the preciousness of our blogs
In fact, this is a theme that’s been in the air as we work to bring old gold bloggers over to ReclaimPress. Maren’s “20 years of blogging… now on ReclaimPress” discusses just this very thing, highlighting just how crucial her blog has become to her sense of self online. As a result, the moment of moving it elsewhere brought the importance of this space into sharp focus:
My blog, which I mostly take for granted, and which, thanks to the super solid shared hosting experience I have had ever since 2016 I never really had to worry about, ever, suddenly became my most precious of domains.
Years of chronicling your work, commenting with colleagues, and generally prospecting your small bit of the web is something that has been deeply valuable to a whole generation of web denizens, and as the center cannot hold, perhaps that small blog at the edge of the web, tied to many, many others, can keep both hope alive and some freak flags flying.
I can’t really speak too much about returning to the blog given I never left, but I’m ready for the vinylesque revolution of blogging, in fact I know a place where you can press your own blog vinyl fresh on the web.
WordPress Vinyl Cutter on reclaimPress
I spend less and less time in cPanel managing my online presence. I’ve moved bavatuesdays off cPanel 10+ years ago given my blog demanded a bit more juice than shared hosting could provide resource-wise. But once my go-to site went off cPanel, all the other projects I’d created with WordPress over the years were beginning to break due to major version updates and plugin/theme incompatibilities. It’s a trail of web tears if you let it go too far, so I’ve been converting as many of those sites as possible to static HTML over the years.
So I started thinking about what tools I regularly use while running my sites off cPanel. The first, and most important for me, is moving DNS management to something like Cloudflare. You can get a free account, and once you’ve pointed your domain’s nameservers at Cloudflare, you can manage DNS for the apex domain and all subdomains from their interface. Making that jump was the biggest for me, but I’ve never looked back in terms of returning to cPanel for DNS management. Also, if you still have subdomains on a cPanel account, you can use an A record in Cloudflare to point back to the cPanel server IP address.
After DNS, one of the features folks might need is email. But email on shared hosting has always been a bad choice, and that is increasingly becoming the case, so much so that Reclaim is strongly considering discontinuing shared e-mail support for all shared hosting accounts. Why is hosting email on shared hosting a bad? Well, because there are tons of spam houses out there that monitor and block servers that send out what they consider spam (which is not always the case), which leaves small hosting companies like us playing whack-a-mole on the regular just to keep basic email working. And being a small company we have none of the leverage of a Office 365 or Gmail, so it’s truly a losing battle to ensure email running well on shared hosting. In short: don’t run email on your shared hosting cPanel server. And if you are anathema to the free services like Gmail and want to get serious out security and taking ownership then take a look at Proton Email.
With DNS and Email out of the way, the other feature I would miss is file management. This is tougher, given it will depend where you’re managing your actual site. Here’s a for example, on Reclaim Cloud each environment has a file manager built in where you can traverse directories, as well as upload, open, edit, and delete files, so there is a built-in solution there.* So ReclaimCloud has its own file manager.
File management in Reclaim Cloud
File management in Reclaim Cloud
But for ReclaimPress things are a bit different on this front, you can open, edit, and delete static files in your WordPress instance, but you would still need to practice some FTP kung-fu to upload new files to the server outside the aegis of the Media, plugin, and theme uploader built into WordPress.
More limited File Management in ReclaimPress (no file uploads)
What else? Domain redirects? Handled in Cloudflare. SSL certificates? Handled in Cloudflare. And I really think that’s about it for cPanel core functionality, although I am sure I am missing a few things, so let me know.
The one piece that might get you thrown off as you start to use other applications in other stacks is that transactional emails for things like password resets, welcome emails, etc. are not taken care of by the server automatically. This is why transactional email services like Mailgun become necessary for blog applications like Ghost.†
In fact, most of the other self-hosted tools I’m using these days like Ghost, Peertube, and Mastodon can often be run as one-click, stand alone containers on a service like ReclaimCloud. Which means, for me, managing the DNS through Cloudflare and the transactional emails through Mailgun. I’m finding my dependence on cPanel more around preservation than active publishing at this point, and I think a small, secure apache server on ReclaimCloud for archiving most of those sites would break that tether, but that might be fodder for another post.
Another big reason why I have been exploring these alternatives over the years is not only because more and more apps are created outside the PHP mold, but also because cPanel’s pricing model continues to become unwieldy, with 20% jump after 20% jump in license costs. A post-cPanel plan is as much about online survival as anything else.
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*What’s more, if you’re running a WordPress site on ReclaimCloud, you can create subdomain-based directories in the ROOT folder where the WordPress site lives and host your archived, static sites by pointing the DNS for that directory subdomain in Cloudflare to the site’s IP. Alternatively, those directories can just be subdirectories off the main domain and work just as well.
†In fact, Ghost has built many of the basic email functions into the app, but the email newsletter features that have made it so popular still require a transactional email service like Mailgun.
There’s been some discussion around the impact of the decline of centralized networks, such as Twitter, on individual and organizational communications. I’m not sure of the broader impact, but I do know it’s led Reclaim Hosting to take a wide range of approaches that have freed us from the impulse to centralize. More than two years ago we decided to focus on creating a monthly newsletter, as well as starting monthly community chats. More recently we moved away from irregular, syndicated posts from our own personal blogs and created a company-specific blog “Reclaim the Blog.” Two of the three (the Roundup newsletter and Reclaim the Blog) are run on the open source blog software Ghost.* The community chat is usually held at meet.reclaimhosting.com/community-chat using the video conferencing software Jitsi, recorded for posterity and archived on ReclaimTV. We like open source.
Reclaim the Blog
ReclaimTV is another facet of our social approach, we run regular video-based workshops and weekly streams that represent an ever-growing archive of the work we do. The forward facing site of ReclaimTV is built-out with OwnCast (Taylor documents the process here), and we usually use YouTube (and sometimes PeerTube) for the live streaming, which is often managed through StreamYard (but occasionally OBS). What’s more, we have an archive of all our videos in both YouTube and PeerTube that can be readily accessed after they premiere.† The videos you see on the OwnCast front page at Reclaim.tv are all pulled from PeerTube:
ReclaimTV
In terms of announcing events, we do as much as we can to announce upcoming events in the monthly Roundup newsletter, and then use Mastodon to regularly remind folks and make announcements for upcoming streams, blog posts, case studies, etc. A lot of our comms are still driven by email, but we’re hoping more and more they become part of an activity pub network with apps like PeerTube, OwnCast, and Ghost that are, or will soon be, part of the federated network.
Reclaim Hosting’s Community page
In terms of an active community for conversation, Ghost has comments but they’re pretty dead thus far. We’ve been long-time users of Discourse for our forums, but that’s been a pretty quiet space. We decided to use Discord for integrating chat into workshops and live streams, and that has been working pretty well thus far for conversations (thanks to awesome folks like Erik Likness), but I think we could still do better on the broader conversations and pulling in new voices. You can get a sense of the broad range of activities at the community.reclaimhosting.com page, but the cool thing, at least for me, is that we’re relying on a fair amount of open source tools to create a fairly decentralized social presence. The return to a more heterogeneous web for publishing and connecting can be a bit more work, but at the same time I feel like we are returning to a web of building and connecting the tools to create that unique experience on the web we want, and that’s what I signed up for when I became an edtech—dammit.
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*The engagement numbers for both Reclaim’s newsletter and blog are staggering, anywhere from 40%-60% of the 800 users signed up open the email and click through links.
†The PeerTube mirror is based on the not-so paranoid fear of YouTube shutting down our account without notice
I’m starting to get deeper into designing the space for bavastudio, which feels very good. The centerpiece of this space is going to be the street window that will feature a regularly changing diorama that provides a tableau of different 80s movies. The idea is that this space changes regularly, and in many ways the space can be experienced as much from the outside as the inside in this regard. I’m calling this exposition space bava-o-rama, and it’s the first thing to be built.
I’ve been working with Riccardo of Domus to figure out the best way to do this, and after that I think Alberto is going to help build it out. The diorama will try and take as much inspiration from the American Museum of Natural History as possible, but instead of animals of the world, it will be movie scenes of a decade (which is a little lighter on the taxidermy and arguably more humane). That museum’s scenes of wildlife in action has had a spell on my imagination since I first saw them during a visit in elementary school, and the fact that they translated so well for Tommaso when we visited recently was quite encouraging.
Sperm Whale and Giant Squid diorama from AMNH
Often times the dioramas in the museum use a more conventional sense of space/framing to depict a scene, but the sperm whale and the giant squid is a brilliant instance of a part representing the whole, which for many of my scenes may be important given the limited window space. I was watching The Thing yesterday thinking about just this space restriction, and I think the crawling head might be a really good instance of a scalable scene that captures the spirit of the film. For example, what if you had an eye-level look at the Thing (in this case Norris’s head with various spider-like legs and two protruding, stalk-like eyes) under the desk. YOu focus on the thing, and use a part of the industrial desk and rolling chair as atmosphere props, and some green goo on the floor and a little blue lighting from above for effect. On closer look, it is a pretty basic VCT tile floor, so I do think it would be possible to capture this iconic scene from one of my all-time favorite films. There is no way I could have the thing actually move, but maybe an animation of the eye-stalk, or something simple like that? Also, I hope someone has already reproduced this monster, because that might be a feat.
Image from the Thing of Norris’s head hiding under a desk
But I have some time on that one, because the first film scene I plan on baptizing the bava-o-rama with is from the third episode of Creepshow (1982), namely “Something to Tide You Over.” This is the story were the character played by Leslie Nielsen buries the character played by Ted Danson up to his neck, and waits for the tide to come in in order to drown him.
Scene from Creepshow’s “Something to Tide You Over”
To be extra sinister, he uses a live camera setup to to stream his own wife in a similar predicament (who had an affair with the Danson fellow, explaining the elaborate revenge story) who is already fighting a losing battle against the tide a few miles down the shore. It’s a twisted episode for sure, and definitely my favorite from that anthology, but I also think I have enough of the pieces to make it work convincingly. What’s more, on the background of the diorama there will not only be a print or hand-painted rendition of the sky, beach, dunes, and ocean, but also a large exclamation, quoting what Leslie Nielsen’s character screams at the very end when he undergoes a similar fate, “I CAN HOLD MY BREATH FOR A LONG TIME!”
I can Hold my breath for a long time!
I’m mixing and matching a bit given Ted Danson never screams this, and the back of his head will be featured in the diorama, but this is very much inline with how I always mis-remember movie quotes and scenes, so kind of appropriate. Plus, the “holding my breath for a long time” quote is a bit of a dig given how long and difficult it has been to get a simple space like this setup in Italy for all sorts of reasons. I’ll have a cut of the wife drowning from the film on the TV in the bava-o-rama. Based on past work with Michael Branson Smith I’m thinking about using video looper on a raspberry pi hooked up to a this small black and white Motorola TV I have (that is perfect for the job). That Motorola stopped working a few years back so I’ll have to take a look at that, otherwise I might find/build a facade roughly matching the film’s TV and put another CRT to ensure the effect is perfect. After that, the ingredients are pretty simple, just some sand, a tripod and camera, and a mannequin head with Ted Danson’s hair looking away from the window.
Anyway, I imagine you’re getting a sense of the full power of the ever amazing bava-o-rama. It’s been undergoing a few iterations given the difficulty of my communicating with the folks who will actually build this out, but the following drawings should give you a sense.
Below is a full drawing of the space. The rectangular grey things on the rights are video game cabinets, and that is not the exact setup, but I’m figuring on fitting 17-18 in that space. The right of the drawing (which is what we will be focusing on) is the bavavideo, featuring a wall of videos (blue) at the top, my desk (green), a small couching/watching setup, and to the far top-left the bava exposition window
Below is a close-up of the video store, to give you a better sense of the layout.
I made a rough sketch of the window area, which was the basis for this idea. It will basically be at angles so that we have room to put the RallyX (grey rectangle) cocktail cabinet up against the outside wall, which will be covered with wood paneling. Inside the exposition space we have both storage and the stage, the the dead space being important for removing the sides of the stage to re-decorate them for each new scene. We have also since come up with some pull-out drawers beneath the stage to make sure we have ample storage space. Originally I though the access point would be above the cocktail video game, but that was stupid. There will be a door to the upper-left hand side.
From the following drawing you get a sense of this original idea in play, and the dotted lines are the removable walls of the stage that will be painted or printed with each new diorama. The floor will be a thick, 3/4″ plywood acting as a base for all the other materials we ultimately use.
To be extra clear, below is an annotated version of the above drawing to give you a sense of what’s what:
So, I think this idea is at a space where we can start building, which is pretty exciting. The angled wall may represent some issues for stability, so we are working through that, but the work has to start with the bava-o-rama, in for me that is very appropriate given it is what got me motivated once it was clear running an 80s arcade in Italy will be dicey to say the least
As you can tell from my last post, I tend to use this blog as a testing ground for many other things. Such as the role of avant garde when switching back and forth between services like Edgeport and Cloudflare. I was able to put both bavatuesdays and reclaimhosting.com back on Cloudflare’s load balancing setup fairly easily this afternoon, but I did run into one issue when reverting www.reclaimhosting.com back to Cloudflare that we ran into when bringing www.macalester.edu onto this multi-region, load-balanced setup in Cloudflare.
After switching DNS back to Cloudflare we got a SSL related Cipher Mismatch error, which according to Chris Blankenship (our sysadmin godhead) is caused by Cloudflare having SSL between the origins and the load balancer, but not between you and the load balancer. I got this error when moving www.reclaimhosting.com back onto Cloudflare’s load balancer. It ultimately resolved in about 5 or 6 minutes, but if this is for a client you probably want to spend the $10 for the advanced certificate to avoid any downtime at all. Luckily this was not our first rodeo so we knew it would resolve, but wanted to make a note here of this error given I will forget as soon as I click publish. So anyway, www.reclaimhosting.com is back to a ,multi-region setup load balanced through Cloudflare, and now I want to see if we continue to have any editing issues as we have over the last couple of weeks.
I was experiencing some weirdness with the editor of my blog this weekend. In particular, the link option was gone from the classic editor and I was unable to access the media library. Two pretty large obstacles to writing a post on this blog. I pretty quickly figured out the Edgeport plugin was causing an issue with the wp-link element in the classic editor, so deactivating Edgeport fixed that, but the media library was still not showing up no matter what plugins I deactivated.
I was at a loss, but given the Edgeport plugin was causing those issues, I began wondering if there was some wonkiness with Edgeport more generally, so I decided to quickly switch my blog back to Cloudflare for load balancing and the CDN. Luckily I still had the load balancing settings for the multi-region saved, so the process was pretty simple. Interestingly enough, we’ve been having some similar wonkiness on www.reclaimhosting.com, so I’m going to switch that back from Edgeport to Cloudflare for the time being and see if that takes care of some of the issues we’ve been having with editing, particularly in Elementor—which is a beast all by itself, and I rue the day we ever got in bed with that plugin.
It’s been a while since I’ve graced the bava with a few keystrokes, but between travel and my retro-computing mishaps, it’s been a hard road back. The travel was awesome, the building out my Windows 98 computer not so much. I’ve been knocking away at this for quite a few months, and after traveling I’ve forgotten more than I remember, so here’s an attempt to capture some of it because as of now the machine is not loading outside safe mode, so I’m in for some Windows pain in the coming days, weeks, months.
OK, a little context here, back in 2018 I picked up a Windows 98 tower as I was preparing for the 90s computer workstation installation at the OWLTEH Conference in Coventry back in the Fall of 2018. I also bought another 90s era computer in Coventry, England for the actual installation, but traveling with a tower was prohibitive, so someone at that conference must have taken that home. Anyway, as I started moving stuff out of the bava basement and into the bavastudio, the Windows 98 machine was one of the first things I wanted to play with. It’s a fun computer with tons of dos games, and a host of ROMs for both MAME and Genesis emulators (the Paperboy port for Genesis is amazing), and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Whoever sold it was basically thinking of this as a retro gaming machine, and it definitely fits that bill.
But I wanted to do more, I wanted to hook this computer up to the internet, update the CD-Rom drive, get my external iOmega drives working, etc. If I only had left well enough alone!
The motherboard for this machine is a MSI MS 6195 ir3, and it has an AMD 750 chipset with 200 MHz. So relatively fast for the time, and from what I can tell without checking the details I believe it has a fair amount of RAM, but will need to confirm just how much when I take this board apart, because as of now I can’t get it to load outside of safe mode
Here is the tale of the tape:
- First major intervention was to add a 3Com ethernet PCI card to the machine to connect the computer to the internet. I wanted to play around with some of the Protoweb stuff Taylor Jadin turned me on to. The Internet Archive proved invaluable for finding copies of old installation software.* This installation was definitely not straightforward (nothing on these old Windows machines is), but after some head banging I got this working using a combination of UltraISO file burning and Daemon Tools to virtualize a CD drive with a copy of the Windows 98 2nd Edition ISO—which seems to be mandatory for just about everything you do on Windows 98. NB: I found the Windows 98 2nd Edition disc on the Internet Archive as well!
- On boot-up there were a few errors with .vxd extensions after getting the 3COM etherlink card installed, such as dfx.vxd. The computer still loaded fine, but I had to enter through those warnings. After a quick search I found this post that helped to get rid of most of them by reinstalling the Client for Microsoft Networks—how satisfying to find a relatively easy fix.
- The next bit was trying to get my iOmega drives working. I bought a new male–>femal serial cable and power adapter given mine were long gone. Initially I thought all was good given the disk drive powered on, but when I tried plugging both my old iOmega drives into the serial port neither were recognized. I even bought a third online that was working to confirm, but there is something amiss with the serial port on this motherboard for sure, so I need to figure that out, or not given the next issue.
- Moving on, for a bit now the installed CD-ROM has been acting strangely, recognizing some discs immediately, but then later on balking for those same discs that previously worked. Also, it would sometimes freeze the computer forcing a hard restart. But yesterday things got even worse after I inserted Blondie’s Parallel Lines CD into the drive, the CD-ROM just stopped responding altogether. It was a fairly cheap CD-ROM as I could tell, and there was no way to manually force open the door, so I removed the existing CD-ROM and replaced it with an ASUS model I’d been carting around with me since 2003 or so. I was pretty fired up when I saw the CD light went on (it was powering up) and the trap door opened, but that was all that worked. Turns out the CD-ROM drive was not being properly read and somehow the boot-up process was borked, and the computer only loads in safe mode. When loading the computer it quickly notes “Pri Master ..Not Detected” and “Sec Slave…Not Detected.” I think this means the primary master disk and the secondary slave disk are not being found, whereas the “Pri Slave…IDE Hard Disk” and “Sec Master..ATAPI CDROM” are being detected. So, something with the boot process got all messed up when I added the new CD-ROM, which is not discoverable in Safe Mode, so I have no clean way of running the panacea that is the Windows 98 2nd Edition disc. I think next step is exploring the BIOS or just deleting the IDE controller and rebooting…who knows?
And that is where I stand right now. I know this is more than anyone wanted to know, but I have to get this stuff recorded if I’m ever going to find my way back out of this Windows hell. The irony of all this is I have a stream at 10 AM today to show off my setup and get my computer on the Protoweb browser with Taylor, but at this rate that is just not gonna happen as planned. Woe is Windows 98.
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*It’s worth noting here that in order to get the 3Com Ethernet Link working I had to wrap my head around ISO disks, and the best tools I found were UltraISO to burn the disk and then the Daemon Toolset to create/mount a virtual CD drive. I am trying to remember what version I installed, or what forum I got this from, but I am blanking, that said the following video was what got me started with UltraISO:
Back in 1997 I took out a personal loan from the UCLA Credit Union to acquire my first computer: a glorious Quantex Intel Pentium II with 64 MB of RAM. Playing games on Windows 95 had become part of my day job at Audio Visual Services, and when I finally left to attend grad school in New York City, I knew I needed to have my own PC. It cost over $3500 (7x the quarterly tuition at UCLA the time—or almost two years ), and I think I paid about $39 per month for five years. The future ain’t cheap, but at the time it was pretty much the best you could do spec-wise in terms of a home computer at the time, and Quantex was know for their solid machines and amazing customer support. They eventually folded in 1999 when a key supplier supplier went under (the crazy days of the dot.com bubble).
The “legendary” Altec lansing 45.1 speakers and subwoofer
I loved that computer, I had my own little nook for it in my apartment in Kensington, Brooklyn, and the only thing left of that machine is the sound system. The computer included an Altec Lansing ACS 45.1, which consisted of two cube speakers and a subwoofer that may have been the best thing of this pretty bitchin’ machine. I always thought I had an inflated sense of how good the speakers sounded, but apparently I’m far from alone. The product reviews on ebay are even more hyperbolic than I tend to be:
5 stars: by morrisoninventions Aug 14, 2019Small size, big accurate clean sound.Absolutely love the sound and convenience of these speakers + amp + subwoofer. I own 3, and am planning to buy a 4th. (Unfortunately, they are obsolete I think, so I have to track ’em down on Ebay.
5 Stars: by mad_d8n Sep 27, 2022PC Speaker.The best computer speakers that I have ever experienced through PC game play, streaming and music.
5 stars by crafty457 Oct 27, 2015Great sounding old speakersThese things rock!!! I just bought them to replace the ACS45 that I’ve been using for the about past 20 years. I’m a musician, so these speakers see daily use, mostly for listening and learning music. Nice clean and clear sound… subwoofer is tight sounding without any annoying boominess. I have them on a shelf at ear level just above my desk. Very musical sounding
5 stars: by itaduc Dec 28, 2016Great SoundBest computer speakers ever made along with Altec’s model ASC 48 that are basically the same.
In fact, when searching for them online now you often find adjectives like “legendary” or “classic” to emphasize just how amazing these speakers, were, are, and will continue to be if you are lucky enough to have them working, which I was when I started this post (more on that in a bit).
Power and Volume control buttons on Altec Lansing ACS 45.1 Speaker
The speakers and subwoofer worked just fine, but the connection between one of the speakers and the subwoofer—which also houses the circuit board and power—seemed to come lose and it effected turning the system off and changing volume. You see on this system one of the speakers is used to both turn on/off power (press both buttons simultaneously) as well as for controlling the volume levels by using each of the buttons separately.
Back of Altec Lansing ACS 45.1 subwoofer
So I figured I would just open up the subwoofer and look for any glaring issue on the circuit board, and maybe re-solder the pin connecting the speaker to the subwoofer. Best laid plans of bava and men! I opened up the subwoofer and poked around, but everything looked really clean, what’s more, the contact points for the speaker’s remote volume and power controls were further protected by another layer of plastic that made it hard to get at. I should have stopped while I was ahead, no doubt. But I proceeded to take the entire thing apart, and that’s were I went very wrong. After re-assembling the subwoofer the speakers still worked, but the subwoofer was not subwoofing. “Leave well enough alone, Jimmy!”
Removing circuit board from Altec Lansing ACS 45.1 subwoofer
So, I took it apart yet again and took off the black protective casing around the inputs for the subwoofer, and after re-assembling nothing worked, so I was 2 for 2 in the fixless department. Another example of where I need a logic probe and new a set of tools so I can actually work on these electronics rather than randomly breaking them. I have another set of the speakers already on order from Ebay in the US, and will be doing some comparative analysis given there are very few videos about fixing this subwoofer, and I’ll also use the subwoofer card as a test for my new logic probe (assuming I can find the proper schematic).
What annoys me the most is that I didn’t even solder anything, or getting particularly invasive. I am pretty sure the fix is quite simple, but alas the limits of my knowledge are really starting to bug me, time to go search for what an affordable logic probe tool to atone for my sins of ignorance.
Nothing gold can stay.
Those good old days of arcade perfection are long behind me now, and that became readily apparent as I prepared another 11 games for the move over to bavastudio.
Wave two of games to be moved to bavastudio
The most concerning issue is what seems to be the death of Millipede‘s Matsushita TM-202 monitor chassis. I had read that this is considered to be the worst chassis ever made, but for a good couple of years Millipede was looking solid. That said, after moving it up from the basement to the foyer on Thursday, the game only plays blind.
Millipede Black Screen
There is power to the chassis (often apparent if the neck tube glows), and oddly the image did come back once or twice intermittently, but definitely more dead than alive. Many folks on the arcade forums just recommend throwing the chassis away, or parting it out. But I happen to have a cap kit lying around, so I may try to repair this monitor—-making it the first project for the bavastudio location. I have even read some who have said the picture quality gets even worse after a cap kit on this chassis, and all logic suggests this is a colossal waste of time. Nonetheless, hope springs eternal and my soldering skills are still basic, so if nothing else they will get some much needed practice.
Matsushita Chassis Parts List
Plus, the even scarier alternative of scrapping the chassis means I will have to refit the tube for another chassis (I have an extra G07 and K4900 hanging around), but from what I understand that process requires an entirely different level of skill. We’ll see….
On top of that, I was experimenting with doing an entire monitor swap between my Centuri Challenger and a Centuri Phoenix given the latter’s monitor is a bit dull, and I wanted that game to pop in bavastudio—it being a personal favorite. My exuberant initiative, as is often the case, led to more issues than solutions and the Challenger‘s K4600 monitor started acting up when I tested it on Phoenix (thankfully I did not do a full monitor swap before testing). I’m going to have to look at that chassis more closely, but luckily that game is not slated for the bavastudio just yet, so I have time.
Finally, I spent much of yesterday trying to figure out why my Phoenix game board is starting to occasionally throw garbage, and even when it’s working there are specific audio issues when firing at the those fierce alien birds, as well as when they destroy your ship. The shots are too bass-like, and the explosion sound is partially interrupted. I tried to highlight the sound issues in the video below:
This post on KLOV pointed to a similar issue and recommended a possible fix on Mike’s Arcade site.* He soldered cold joints at cap 34 and resistor 67 on the game board, and then replaced chip IC 45 (a 4006) altogether, but I’m a bit confused given IC 45 seems to be a ROM chip, which is not a 4006 version? Anyway, I re-soldered the resistor and capacitor, but I did not feel comfortable replacing the ROM chip. I need to get a logic probe and up my game for tracking these issues down, because I’m pretty much shooting in the dark with these forum posts at this point. They can been helpful, but like anything as complex as these boards, you really need to begin by tracing the issue yourself, otherwise you’re flying blind.
Centuri Phoenix Logic Board
Another thing I struggled with on the Phoenix board was getting a sense of whether the issue might be related to the high score save kit I installed a while back. I had a similar throwing of garbage back then, and my hacky fix to a broken chip legs may have been coming back to haunt me. Turns out, in the exploratory process, I broke two more legs on IC 48, so I decided to call it a day, and settled for the game working normally with some sound issues, and the high score names and numbers having stranger characters. I’m going to see if I can get a logic probe soon, and learn how to use it on this board to figure out what happened. I have a rough idea of the issues at hand, and I just need to learn how to literally trace the problems on the board, so I am going to setup a full blown arcade repair corner in the bavastudio for sure.
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*I love the way he organizes all his fixes for each of his games. I have much of this buried in this blog, but a more methodical approach is most useful for others looking on the web.
A couple of weeks ago Paul Bond and I caught up with Martha “Sinclair” Burtis to do a playful skit around the fictional company Aggressive Technologies that the students in ds106.ai not only created, but have also been running with. The idea was that Paul and I would be chatting about the class and some of the undergirding financials of Aggressive Technologies, calling into question their valuation, arguing they are essentially riding on the irresponsible AI hype of this bull market bubble in order to manipulate their share prices.
It is at this point the company’s very aggressive legal representative, Martha Sinclair, barges in on our chat to essentially issue the most colorful cease and desist order you may ever hear. It is so fun to do this stupid stuff, and I love that Martha and Paul are still up for the insanity. It has been a very on and off semester for me given my own issues, but this kinda fun reminds me what I am missing. #4life.
I was more than a little envious of all the great folks enjoying the OER24 conference on the ground in Cork last week. It looked like an absolutely smashing event, and as I blogged last year, it’s definitely my favorite non-Reclaim event—how about that qualifier! Meredith Huffman and Maren Deepwell were doing Reclaim proud on the ground, and it seems like Alan Levine got Gasta-ed, a 5-minute baptism by fire. By all accounts both keynotes were brilliant, and I got a pretty good sense of things following along on Mastodon (this bava got federated).
But possibly the single biggest element of this year’s event was the celebration of Martin Weller’s 30 years in edtech. He’s written the books; he has blogged the posts; alongside Maren he was instrumental making the OER conference what it is today; and he’s been steering GOGN for over a decade alongside all the other penguins.
GOGN Penguins saving pedagogy during the PandemicIn many ways this event marks the closing of a chapter in Martin’s role in edtech as he retires from the Open University, steps down as lead of the GOGN research group, discontinues his lucrative and wildly popular 25/30 years of Edtech franchise, and even let’s his blog….nope, he is not allowed to stop blogging. Martin has been a huge inspiration and influence on many folks over the last 30 years, and I come in around the 20 year mark of his journey when we both started blogging in order to link pop culture to edtech in sometimes a fairly shoe-horned manner—he has since become the king of the edtech metaphor.
Martin Weller’s Metaphors of Ed TechMartin’s post “Follow the Biscuits” bemoaning his less than ceremonious institutional send-off struck me as all too familiar, and his noting how damaging that is to an already fragile higher ed morale hits the nail on the head. In fact, so much of his blogging has done just that over the last twenty years, and his work has helped me understand the limits and possibilities of our field with a playful, human, and always intelligent take on the challenges we face.
When Brian Lamb and I were driving up the West coast of the United States last year, he noted just how unique a space Martin has been able to carve out in our field through his blog, books, and various other endeavors. It’s not too often you get so many volunteers lining up to read and comment on chapters of your latest book (see the 25 Years of EdTech franchise referenced above). I joke about Martin’s work, but that’s only because I am jealous of how well he has been able to both see and communicate the unique struggles facing the field of open education—he’s a believer, but he is also very practical about what that means to the wider world which makes him an amazing translator and ambassador.
Martin Weller’s The Battle for Open —documenting the MOOC years and moreI’m not sure what the next 75 years of edtech will bring, but I think that part of it will be driven by the open, playful spirit of Weller’s stand-out work. Maybe he’ll just write pulp horror novels from here on out (which is probably necessary after the work he has put in), but I do know that his commitment over the last 30 years has resulted in one of the few voices that was able to so succinctly articulate a moment. The fact that the OER24 conference ended with a standing ovation for his contributions was probably the thing I missed most; I really wanted to stand up alongside a group of fellow travelers and clap for everything he has given us over the years. Thanks Martin, you’re the metaphor maker that keeps on giving!
The great Maren Deepwell (who Reclaim Hosting has been lucky enough to work with after her long stint as ALTs brilliant CEO) has created a visual anthology celebrating 10 years of Reclaim’s art. It’s a very cool video, and I highly recommend you partake in the celebration
I’m really proud of the brand we’ve been able to forge over the last decade. Trying to make a relatively boring product like web hosting compelling has been one of the funnest elements of the job. What’s more, getting to partner with the entire Reclaim team and the likes of Bryan Mathers to do it has been the real gold.
Gold Record plan for the newly launched Reclaim.Press
Bryan will quickly deflect any praise or compliment right back at you taking little to no credit for how much his own visual storytelling shapes our identity by capturing a raucous sense of cultural play without sacrificing a deep, company-wide commitment to an open and independent web.
Bryan Mathers early vision for the indie edtech record store with snide proprietor and all
There’s a fine line to walk between tongue and cheek references and an underlying commitment to what can be referred to as indie edtech or trailing edge technology. A belief that the new and shiny can often obfuscate the long history of edtech, but also erase any sense of its embedded cultural history that impacts ours daily lives.
The iconic, industrial visual label of Reclaim Cloud
The link between edtech and vinyl or edtech and an independent record store is not only playful, but also an argument for the production of online culture and the value of an independent space to do it. Reclaim understands itself outside the homogenizing box-store mentality of massive social media sites and hosting services, much like independent record labels such as Dischord that are anathema to the mainstream business of music. It’s about community, it’s about focus, and it’s about controlled, responsible growth. These are so many of the understated, subliminal messages in the Mathers Aesthetic that are directly linked to an ethos of indie edtech.
The ds106 album cover where Giulia Forsythe remixes Raymond Pettibon that in many ways pre-figures Bryan Mathers remixing
I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that Bryan, however inadvertently, has become the Raymond Pettibon of indie edtech, and his aesthetic permeates far beyond the confines of Reclaim Hosting’s “album covers.” If I was being selfish I would refer to all the great work he has created for us over the years as the “Reclaim aesthetic,” but if I were to be honest it’s more appropriate to say “that Mathers aesthetic!”—and we have just been lucky enough to be early to the party. Go ahead, try and create your online identity with an AI prompt, we’ll be over here working with the artists.
“I have fallen and I can’t get up”
I had the good fortune to do a stream last week with Pilot and Maren about ReclaimEDU, something we’ve been doing for clients for well over a year now, but have not pushed more broadly until just recently. “What is ReclaimEDU?” you ask. Well, it is high-availability WordPress hosting that ensures your site remains up. This depends upon your site being duplicated across different data centers in different regions to allow for instant fail over. What’s more, speed and security are crucial thanks to global caching, DdoS protection, and bot management. In other words, if you have a site that just can’t go down, then ReclaimEDU is for you. Also, I am using the “I have fallen and I can’t get up” GIF because Paul Bond referred to my spiel in the following video as my “infomercial” -which I take as a compliment!
In the latest episode of Reclaim Today, Paul Bond and I catch up with Michael Branson Smith (MBS) in order to break down how he created the Dr. Oblivion bot running at Oblivion.University. Paul has been integrating the bot into his ds106 course quite impressively over the last several weeks by introducing students to how to build such a Frankenstein creation.
As it so happens, MBS is a repeat offender on Reclaim Today, we chatted a few years ago about his CSS-generated animated movie posters—that are amazing—and it seems his creativity has no limits. He’s not afraid of AI or CSS!
I cannot say how many days passed. The old disturbance had returned and in that state of blackness one can no more tell the days than a blind man notice the changes of light.
From Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair
I’ve been silent on the bava for quite some time as I’ve been struggling over the last several months with an uncharacteristically deep depression. It started in the fall, but finally consumed me for most of December and January. I’ve been fighting my way back out throughout February, and I’m definitely starting to feel better as the “old disturbance” retreats to the shadows.
One of the things I started doing once I could reclaim a bit of focus from the steely grips of anxiety and dread was read books, and I read a bunch—it felt pretty damn good. The quote above is from one of them, and it speaks directly to my situation in ways I was not ready for, but also deeply struck by. Turns out Graham Greene struggled with what is believed to be bipolar, and reading this novel was like looking into a mental mirror at various moments. Difficult, but also amazing, given how well he captures the emotional turmoil invisible to the onlooker, yet deeply anchored in the mind of anyone navigating a misaligned orbit of tormented thought. Great narrative allows for that intimate relation with the reader, and while it was hard to manage at times, I was also strangely comforted by this frank confession from a fictional character in depressed, post-war England.
Antonella calls it bibliotherapy, and I think she got that term from Schopenhauer’s notes on aging with dignity, so I think I’m in pretty good company all around. It feels good to be back on the blog.
I’m in the midst of preparing for AI106, and I wanted to finally dig in a bit on ChatGPT using some of the advice proffered by Middlebury’s prompting poetry exercise “It’s Not Magic, It’s Math.” I wanted to start with a very basic review of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983), and then try and ask the machine to get more topical and eventually theoretical by invoking Marshall McLuhan. The prompting is increasingly more biased by my own sense of the film (or things that I’ve read elsewhere), so the responses were not necessarily revelatory—I was in many ways asking it to give me what I wanted. That said, it is able to bring together a bunch of cogent ideas around the film quite quickly, and holds up as a basic summary review/reading, which does make you wonder if math and magic don’t overlap a little bit
GIF of Dr Oblivion as an 80s AI chatbot
My final question was more of a fact-finding mission to see if there is any evidence that Cronenberg studied with McLuhan at the University of Toronto, something I believe I heard, but may have hallucinated. Turns out McLuhan was teaching there while Cronenberg attended the university, but Cronenberg never took a course with him, which a quick Google search also confirms. I’m not sure exactly what this establishes, maybe that the machines can compile and regurgitate a lot of summary information very quickly. Or perhaps that I am obsessed with Cronenberg and Videodrome? Maybe both, but the fact that Videodrome was about a shifting sense of consciousness due to the rise of mass media and the resulting hallucinations certainly tracks on what a lot of people are talking about with AI. The idea of Dr. Oblivion as the VHS-based AI from the 1980s is fascinating to me in this regard, and gives the genius that Michael Branson Smith created with Oblivion University yet another layer of metaphorical richness. Once you give the chatbot a voice and a bit of a persona/attitude, the power of those responses enters new territory of Uncanny Valley.
Can you write a short review of David Cronenberg’s 1983 Videodrome?
Certainly! “Videodrome,” directed by David Cronenberg and released in 1983, is a mind-bending exploration of the intersection between technology, media, and the human psyche. James Woods stars as Max Renn, the CEO of a small television station searching for edgy and provocative content. His quest leads him to “Videodrome,” a mysterious and disturbing broadcast that blurs the lines between reality and hallucination.
Cronenberg’s film is a surreal journey into the dark recesses of the human mind, where the boundaries between the real and the imagined become increasingly blurred. The narrative is filled with surreal and grotesque imagery, embodying the director’s trademark body horror aesthetic. The film’s prophetic take on the dehumanizing effects of media and technology feels even more relevant in today’s hyper-connected world.
The performances, particularly James Woods and Debbie Harry, are compelling, adding a layer of authenticity to the unsettling narrative. The practical effects used to bring the bizarre and nightmarish visions to life are a testament to Cronenberg’s mastery in creating visceral and disturbing cinematic experiences.
“Videodrome” is not a film for everyone, as it delves into challenging and thought-provoking themes. It’s a cult classic that has gained a reputation for its bold and unconventional approach to storytelling, pushing the boundaries of both horror and science fiction genres. If you appreciate films that challenge conventions and explore the darker corners of the human psyche, “Videodrome” is a must-watch that continues to resonate with audiences for its daring and visionary storytelling.
Can you ay more about the use of television and VHS in this film as a kind os substance abuse?
Certainly! In “Videodrome,” David Cronenberg uses television and VHS technology as a metaphor for a kind of substance abuse, exploring the addictive and mind-altering effects of media consumption. Max Renn, the protagonist played by James Woods, becomes increasingly obsessed with the mysterious and disturbing content he discovers on Videodrome, a pirate television broadcast. The film presents a narrative where exposure to this extreme and provocative media has a transformative impact on the viewer, akin to a drug.
Much like substance abuse, the characters in the film experience a loss of control over their own perceptions and realities. Max Renn’s descent into the dark world of Videodrome is marked by hallucinations, blurring the lines between what is real and what is a product of his altered mental state. The film suggests that the constant exposure to graphic and violent imagery has a profound and deleterious effect on the human psyche, akin to the destructive consequences of substance addiction.
The use of VHS technology, a popular medium for home video consumption in the 1980s, adds another layer to this metaphor. The accessibility and ease of replicating and distributing VHS tapes parallel the idea of a dangerous and contagious influence spreading rapidly, much like a drug epidemic. The film reflects concerns about the potential harm that unregulated and extreme media content can inflict on individuals and society as a whole.
Cronenberg’s exploration of the addictive nature of media and its potential to reshape human consciousness is a central theme in “Videodrome.” The film serves as a cautionary tale about the power of mass media and the psychological toll it can take on those who immerse themselves in its most extreme and distorted forms.
Can you use Marshall Mcluhan’s theories of media to offer an analysis of Videodrome?
Certainly! Marshall McLuhan’s theories of media, particularly his famous phrase “the medium is the message,” can be applied to analyze David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome” in a thought-provoking way.
In “Videodrome,” McLuhan’s ideas about the impact of media on society are mirrored in the film’s exploration of the symbiotic relationship between technology and human consciousness. The concept that the medium itself shapes and influences the message is evident in the film’s narrative, where the Videodrome signal becomes a transformative force, altering the perceptions and realities of those exposed to it.
McLuhan also discussed the idea of media as an extension of the human senses. In the case of “Videodrome,” the television and VHS technology act as extensions of the characters’ sensory experiences, blurring the boundaries between the virtual and the real. McLuhan’s emphasis on the immersive and participatory nature of media finds resonance in the film as characters become not just passive consumers but active participants in the dark, hallucinatory world of Videodrome.
Moreover, McLuhan’s exploration of the global village, where communication technologies shrink the world into a more interconnected and immediate space, can be seen in how the Videodrome signal spreads and connects individuals on a mass scale. The film suggests that the media, in this case, has the power to create a shared, albeit disturbing, experience that transcends traditional boundaries.
Additionally, McLuhan’s ideas about the numbing and desensitizing effects of media are reflected in the film’s portrayal of the characters’ gradual acceptance and normalization of extreme and violent content. The medium of Videodrome becomes a kind of drug that desensitizes its users to the moral and ethical implications of their actions.
In conclusion, “Videodrome” serves as a cinematic exploration and critique of McLuhan’s theories, particularly regarding the transformative and participatory nature of media. The film engages with the idea that the medium itself, in this case, the Videodrome signal, is a powerful force that not only communicates a message but fundamentally shapes the consciousness and behaviors of those who engage with it.
Can you find any research to establish Cronenberg was a student of Marshall Mcluhan?
There is no credible evidence or research to suggest that David Cronenberg was a student of Marshall McLuhan. Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker and director known for his work in the horror and science fiction genres. While both Cronenberg and McLuhan are prominent figures in Canadian cultural history, there is no indication that Cronenberg studied under McLuhan or had a direct academic connection with him.
Marshall McLuhan was a media theorist and professor, best known for his influential work on media studies, particularly his ideas about the medium being the message and the global village. His academic career was centered around his work at the University of Toronto, where he taught from 1946 until his death in 1980.
David Cronenberg, on the other hand, attended the University of Toronto but pursued a degree in literature. He later shifted his focus to filmmaking and gained recognition for his unique approach to the horror genre, incorporating elements of body horror and psychological tension into his films.
While both Cronenberg and McLuhan have made significant contributions to Canadian culture, there is no evidence to suggest a direct mentorship or academic relationship between them. Cronenberg’s filmmaking style and thematic choices may have been influenced by cultural and intellectual currents of the time, but any connection between Cronenberg and McLuhan appears to be more indirect and contextual rather than academic.
As Paul Bond and I try to get the bones of AI106 together for the coming semester-long ds106 course focused on AI, I’m appreciating the amazing work the good folks at Middlebury College have done to frame an engaging, hands-on introduction to Artificial Intelligence. Their Digital Detox course focused on Demystifying AI is really off to a quite impressive start. Paul and I will be borrowing heavily from their work and looping it in to the weekly roundup of resources given how well they balance explanation with focused action. I love the idea of creating a space for the broader Middlebury community (and beyond) to explore the emergent phenomenon of AI. What’s more, the site looks so beautiful!
Screenshot of Middlebury College’s Demystifying AI site
This Christmas holiday I decided to return to playing with some peripheral hardware I bought for the Commodore 128D machine I discovered here in Italy 8 years ago. I have already written extensively about both the Zoomfloppy Drive (the subject of this post) as well as the uIEC SD card drive that provides a SD-card enabled drive, which is pretty slick. In fact, I went so far as doing a 5-minute video comparing what each does and does not do. I was good, and thorough.
But 7 and a half years have past and things have changed on the computer front. I erased my portion of the Macbook Pro that I originally setup for the Zoomfloppy that was acting as the bridge with the c128D. OpenCBM is the software/driver that the Zoomfloppy depends on to access the drive, and thanks to this brilliant post by Christian Vogelgsang I was able to get OpenCBM running on my Mac back in 2016. But, not surprisingly, a lot has changed since and when I returned to the process recently I have been hitting some snags.
So, this post is a “message in the bottle” approach to a solution, and I’ll be throwing it out into the vast ocean of the internet (being sure to comment on Christian’s blog) with hopes someone might know a way I can get the drivers working on my Mac again so I can use the Zoomfloppy.
My Zoomfloppy board is running Firmware v7, so I tried to install version 2 of the code Christian provides to install with MacPorts, but I get the following error message:
Can't map the URL 'file://.' to a port description file
("can't set "revision": revision must be an integer").
Please verify that the directory and portfile syntax are correct.
To use the current port, you must be in a port's directory.
The main log error code reads as follows:
:debug:build Environment:
:debug:build CC_PRINT_OPTIONS='YES'
:debug:build CC_PRINT_OPTIONS_FILE='/opt/local/var/macports/build/_Users_miles_opencbm/opencbm/work/.CC_PRINT_OPTIONS'
:debug:build CPATH='/opt/local/include'
:debug:build DEVELOPER_DIR='/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools'
:debug:build LIBRARY_PATH='/opt/local/lib'
:debug:build MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET='10.14'
:debug:build SDKROOT='/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX10.14.sdk'
:info:build Executing: cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_Users_miles_opencbm/opencbm/work/code" && cd opencbm && make -f LINUX/Makefile PREFIX=/opt/local MANDIR=/opt/local/share/man/man$
:debug:build system: cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_Users_miles_opencbm/opencbm/work/code" && cd opencbm && make -f LINUX/Makefile PREFIX=/opt/local MANDIR=/opt/local/share/man/man1 $
:info:build make: LINUX/Makefile: No such file or directory
:info:build make: *** No rule to make targetLINUX/Makefile'. Stop.
:info:build Command failed: cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_Users_miles_opencbm/opencbm/work/code" && cd opencbm && make -f LINUX/Makefile PREFIX=/opt/local MANDIR=/opt/local/share/ma$
:info:build Exit code: 2
:error:build Failed to build opencbm: command execution failed
:debug:build Error code: CHILDSTATUS 25255 2
:debug:build Backtrace: command execution failed
:debug:build while executing
:debug:build "system {}$notty {}$callback {*}$nice $fullcmdstring"
:debug:build invoked from within
:debug:build "command_exec -callback portprogress::target_progress_callback build"
:debug:build (procedure "portbuild::build_main" line 8)
:debug:build invoked from within
:debug:build "$procedure $targetname"
:error:build See /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_Users_miles_opencbm/opencbm/main.log for details.`
When I try and install the bleeding edge version of the code I get the following errors:
Miless-Air:opencbm miles$ sudo port install
---> Computing dependencies for opencbm
---> Fetching distfiles for opencbm
---> Verifying checksums for opencbm
---> Extracting opencbm
---> Configuring opencbm
---> Building opencbm
Error: Failed to build opencbm: command execution failed
Error: See /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_Users_miles_opencbm/opencbm/main.log for details.
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets if you believe there is a bug.
Error: Processing of port opencbm failed
The main log error code reads almost identical to the one got for version 2, so the same issue seems to be happening.
All that said, I can get version 1 of the code that Christian provided up and running, but whenIi try and detect the xum1541 drive (or the Zoomfloppy) I get a no xum1541 device found
Miless-Air:opencbm miles$ cbmctrl detecterror: no xum1541 device found
I’m running this on an old Macbook Air running Mac OS Mojave, and it rarely sees the light of the day, but I figured to try an older machine with an outdated OS and still running Intel chip to reproduce the situation I had when the Zoomfloopy driers actually worked.
Anyway, I’m not sure anyone out there is running into similar issues, but if so and you have any ideas and/or just want to commiserate, feel free in the comments. That said, solutions are always most welcome
Yesterday was a big moment for this blog: the bava.blog finally moved into a physical storefront of its own: bava.studio (click that link ans subscribe now!)
I’m not sure what exactly bava.studio is, or will be, but I do know it’s a direct, physical outgrowth of everything I’ve done on this blog for almost two decades. I can try to wax poetic about virtual versus physical space, or even theorize shifting notions of community as traditional brick and mortar commercial enterprises give way to virtual businesses, that are beginning to change our understanding of online communities (Facebook, Instagram, anyone?).*
With the rise of vacant storefronts in Trento after the pandemic was in full swing, I started thinking about finding a space given how much fun and generative that was in Fredericksburg, and the resulting Reclaim Arcade. But I also knew this time I wanted to do what Lloyd Dobbler would do (WWLDD?) and not “sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed…”
In other words, how to create a space not focused on buying and selling, but building a sense of community around media elements of our past, present, and future. In Italy you can create something akin to a cultural organization, which is what I am currently looking into, so more details to follow on that point.
But as of now we do have a space, and as of yesterday it went from entirely empty to half-full:
Which was really exciting, and as a few people have already commented, the floor is absolutely amazing: it really ties the room together. In fact, I brought over the eight cabinets that were in my foyer, and while that cleaned out my house, it filled up half the space pretty quickly!
The first game in was Donkey Kong Jr., which made it seem like there would be plenty of room:
But once we got the remaining 7 cabinets in, as well as a work table, about one-third to half the space was already accounted for.
I still have more space to play with, and today I’m going to see how many games I can get in comfortably, leaving room for moving things around and workshopping the exhibit window (more on the proscenium shortly), but given this is not necessarily going to be an arcade, I won’t need to worry about making room for all of them anyway.
As you can see from the image above, the front part of the space is somewhat cordoned off by the games, and I have the work table with the Windows 98 machine up against one wall. I am thinking the Windows 98 setup might be one of the next months exhibits as I play around with it during a hopefully slower end of December.
The front part of the studio has a corner of five games, two on the right wall, Joust and Defender, and three cutting across the center of the space: Dig Dug, Super Cobra, and Elevator Action.
Finally, I have Pac-man, Donkey Kong Jr., and Galaxian as the first proto-exhibit in front of the proscenium window. This is kind of a happy marriage between bavacade and bava.studio, and the thing that was convenient is putting three mint, authentic late 70s, early 80s arcade cabinets in front of the store window is enough of a display all by itself.
In fact, yesterday bava.studio had its first visitor, Giulia, who saw the space and couldn’t resist entering—which is a good sign. Giulia asked me a very difficult question yesterday, namely, “What is this space?” To which I retorted, “Well, it’s kind of a website, but physical….think of it as a laboratory, a studio, a creative space, a community space, blah blah blah.” Fact is, I’m not entirely sure yet, and I want to see it come into its own somewhat organically.
I had Guilia pose looking at the games in the window to get a sense of the scale of the proscenium, and it will work pretty well, I just need to create a kind of fake wall that stands behind it that I can decorate, and re-decorate depending on what’s “showing.”
The rough idea is to try and change out the window every month or so with a different peek inside some piece of bavatuesdays’s cultural media brain. So, in the end, I guess we’ll see what comes of it, but so far it feels pretty right—I guess I just needed some space!
_______________________________________________
- The conflation of social networks and commerce has been happening for a long while, but it seems to have gotten to a tipping point wherein online social spaces are far more commercial than communal, leaving the social evermore dictated by buying and selling—-so like cities, fewer community centers and far more chain storefronts.
I was recently reading John Johnston’s blog, and I noticed he had an “On this day” tab that led to a page that lists all the posts he had written on that day over the life of his blog. He then went on to note:
This page uses Alan’s wp-posted-today: WordPress plugin provides shortcode for displaying posts published on current day. I find it fascinating, it also allows me to do some digital gardening, mending broken images and links as I wander through my past.
So cool, after seeing it on John’s blog I vaguely remember Alan programmed this bit of magic, but in my rush to the next thing I never stopped to install it. What’s more, John’s notion of using this plugin to help weed his blog garden and keep his archive in order seemed like an eminently practical way to keep things from degenerating entirely. One of the things that haunts me about this blog is the thought of all the broken images, defunct links, and Youtube videos long since taken down. The significant toll of not-that-much time on the web is a stark reminder of its fragility. So, I decided to install the plugin and use it not only to be reminded of ideas past (that very well could have been written by someone or something else), as well as to use it as a daily reminder to clean-up the archive. I’m hoping the little-by-little, day-after-day approach over the next year is less intimidating than trying to do it all in a few weeks.
The ‘on this day” page linking to post from the bava archive written on this day, plugin thanks to Alan Levine
So after installing the plugin this morning I went to the “On this day” page and saw the following:
There are 13 posts previously published on September 4th
- 2021
- Robot Tour of Reclaim Arcade This morning I streamed and recorded a tour of Reclaim Arcade via the robot. It’s always fun to do this kind of thing, and hopefully this video gives you some sense of the space.
- A Quick Tour of Owncast I spent some of yesterday and this morning playing with an open source streaming software called Owncast. Mo Pezel told me about it last month, and when I saw Digital Ocean had a marketplace app I decided to try and … Continue reading ?
- 2017
- Multiple Hosting Accounts made easy for Domains One of the things Tim has been working on lately that has me excited is deeper API integration between WordPress and cPanel. This Spring we migrated and are now hosting Princeton’s cPanel offerings. Additionally, Tim has been working on some … Continue reading ?
- 2014
- Creating GIFs with Text in GIMP Here is a quick screencast showing you how to add text to GIFs in GIMP. And keep in mind, GIFs don’t necessarily need text for the summary assignment. And here’s a GIF with text ?
- Wire 106: S01E11 “The Hunt” Meredith Fierro, Jessica Reingold, Paul Bond and I discussed Episode 11 of Season 1 of The Wire: “The Hunt.” This was special for me because it’s the first time we had UMW students enrolled in ds106 join the discussions about the … Continue reading ?
- 2013
- What I’m up to…. Think of this as a placeholder post until I can get around blogging each one of the points below in some detail. We’re already midway through week 2 of the semester and I’m desparately trying to keep my head above … Continue reading ?
- 2011
- “EdTech transmissions: We Control the Vertical and the Horizontal” at Maricopa College Back in May I was lucky enough to be invited by the good folks of the Maricopa College System (the largest community college district in the US) to talk about edtech as a change agent in higher education at their … Continue reading ?
- 2010
- Child Bride (1938) So, I recently got the latest issue of Filmfax (my favorite magazine in the world) and it was a good one. As soon as a I got it I was heading directly for the article on Peter Hyams’s NASA conspiracy … Continue reading ?
- Rosemary’s Baby: A Retrospective This is a quick and fascinating retrospective on one of the great horror films of the late twentieth-century: Rosemary’s Baby (1967). It’s interesting to hear what Polanski thought of as the best scenes and shots, and even wilder to realize … Continue reading ?
- Blood Meridian: Some Quotes 224:”…the bull had planted its feet and lifted the animal rider and all clear off the ground…” Image source: “Six versions of Blood Meridian” I’ve been reading and re-reading Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian most of the Summer, and I don’t think … Continue reading ?
- 2009
- Broadway Danny Rose – “You’re living like a loser” While I recognize Crimes and Misdemeanors may be Woody Allen’s most profound film, I have to say Broadway Danny Rose is my favorite Woody Allen of all time. It has some of his sharpest jokes and philosophical writing, he’s also … Continue reading ?
- 2008
- Mildred Pierce Double Feature
- Bad Boys (1983) I liked Sean Penn in Fast Times a Ridgemont High, Jeff Spicoli was possibly one of the single most beloved and influential film characters of the 80s. But it wasn’t until seeing him in Bad Boys that I became a … Continue reading ?
Crazy, I wrote 13 posts on September 4th since 2008, and this one will make 14. It’s interesting to see some of the trends of this blog, there’s a fair amount of earlier blogging about movies, such as Bad Boys, Mildred Pierce, Broadway Danny Rose, and Rosemary’s Baby. Most of those early film posts are relatively brief, and some just have links to videos (long gone now). There is a real sense of the blogosphere before Twitter took over given the short posts that could garner 4 or 5 long, thoughtful comments. Or even folks using one of my posts as inspiration to write their own, such as Antonio Vantaggiato does in response to the Broadway Danny Rose post. And then there’s a post like Child Bride (1938) which is a throw away reflection on an article in Filmfax that has become one of my most regularly commented upon and regularly read posts over the last ten years. It’s a post I cringe about in retrospect given the subject matter, and then the comments have turned into a strange genealogical fishing expedition that’s taken on a life of its own.
Several of those posts housed long-broken links to videos that I’m not entirely certain were from my terminated Youtube account or not. I took the liberty to update them with videos I believe I originally posted, but then again I really can’t remember. Did the original Bad Boys scene I included feature Sean Penn using a pillowcase full of soda cans to defend himself? Or was it the opening robbery scene? I have no idea, and that is one of the strangest things of having a blog for so long that you poured endless hours laboring over, 15 years later you have little to no idea what you were thinking.
After the movie posts, there are some ds106 posts, which is not a huge surprise One was an instructional screencast for making GIFs with text, and the other a wire106 video conversation with ds106 students—including Reclaim’s Meredith Fierro!—reflecting on a specific episode of the HBO series The Wire. Unfortunately, both the screencast and the discussion video were uploaded to UMW’s short-lived Mediacore service, which was not renewed and many of those videos seem to have been lost.* Appears linked video is the most fragile piece of my archive, and I’ve been trying to rectify that by preserving as many videos as I can on bava.tv for posterity.
“EdTech transmissions: We Control the Vertical and the Horizontal” at Maricopa College
There is also a reflection post on my presentation at Maricopa Community College in 2011, which brings back amazing memories of Northern Voice 2011 and the legendary Sanctuary jam session, as well as the subsequent trip to Phoenix with Cogdog to not only present on the magic of ds106, but also to head to Strawberry and spend some downtime with blog king himself.
What I’m up to….
Possibly the most informative snapshot post from this list is the “What I’m Up to…” written in 2013 (ten years ago to the day!) that highlights a series of projects, including the then newly formed Reclaim Hosting. After that, there’s a couple of Reclaim-related posts, such as this one about accessing multiple hosting accounts in cPanel via the WHMCS API or this one about playing with Owncast on Reclaim Cloud.
Robot Tour of Reclaim Arcade
And to top it all off, there is the robot tour of Reclaim Arcade in 2021 (long before the renovations), how crazy is that?
It’s hard to fully express all the different feelings going through my mind browsing this list of 13 posts. I think there is something to this attempt to document one’s work on a blog, if for nothing else than to remember it Thanks for the inspiration, John, and thanks for the plugin, Alan, it made my Labor Day! And hopefully it will prove to be the fitness program this blog’s archive has long needed.
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*I am currently downloading backups from S3 of my computer from around that time to see if I can salvage anything, but I am not hopeful.
I’ve been preparing ELS Blogs to be flattened and archived, and I’m working on another, much longer post that both reflects on and documents the process. Part of that post became unruly, so I figured I would break it out … Continue reading →
I’ve been pretty resistant to the idea of AI in edtech and beyond, and part of why was epitomized in a recent email I received from a self-acclaimed “cyberpunk anti-hero from the future” that underlines the cash-in zeitgeist that repels … Continue reading →
No, the other mail suppression! You see, if I was a better blogger and a funnier person I would write extended similes like Martin Weller in his “Your social media choices, as 70s disco tracks,” making him the undisputed John … Continue reading →
I just used 10up’s MU Migration plugin to pull the Daily Create (daily.ds106.us) out of the ds106.us multisite, and it was really impressive. You can install MU Migration as a plugin, but also as a package that uses the WP-CLI … Continue reading →
I’m pretty excited because one of the things I’ve been looking forward to for several months now, is testing and documenting ReclaimPress, which will be Reclaim Hosting’s latest product. In short, ReclaimPress offers performant, high-available WordPress hosting for when you … Continue reading →
For Reclaim Hosting’s August Community Chat we had the good fortune of being joined by Bonnie Russell of Michigan State University’s MESH Research Lab to talk with us about the work she is part of to think more broadly about … Continue reading →
I think the worst of the ds106 hack is behind me, and thanks to Wordfence managing most of the heavy lifting it was not all that bad in the end. Now I’m just going through and pretty ruthlessly removing plugins … Continue reading →
If you have used WordPress for any length of time, chances are you’ve gotten hacked at least once or twice. That certainly has been my experience, and it never helps when you let old plugins and themes sit around for … Continue reading →
At Reclaim Hosting we’ve been exploring plugins for offloading media from larger WordPress instances to object storage such as AWS’s S3 or Digital Ocean’s Spaces. There are a lot of good reasons to do this: First and foremost, we want … Continue reading →
I have a longer post I want to write about Reclaim Hosting at what seems an inflection point for the company. I’ll use that to get a bit more indulgent about the where we’ve been, where we are, and where … Continue reading →
In our most recent episode of Reclaim Today, Taylor Jadin and I talked with Paul Hibbitts about his work to create Docsify This. This tool is in many ways part of a longer trajectory of Hibbitts’s work, which I first … Continue reading →
Don’t worry if you missed today’s Reclaim Open session featuring Ian Linkletter speaking out against surveillance in education technology because we have all 24 minutes of this call to action recorded so you can share it far and wide: As … Continue reading →
It’s official, as of today we now have an active European Union (EU) region in Reclaim Cloud, located in the partynacht central of Berlin, Germany. This has been a long-time coming and we’re thrilled to expand the geographical scope and … Continue reading →
I don’t really know how to write this post. Saying goodbye is never easy, and sunsetting a duct-taped platform that gave life to thousands of voices for over 16 years is not trivial. Out of curiosity I peeked at the … Continue reading →
On Monday we premiered Olia Lialina‘s keynote as part of Reclaim Open’s virtual event, which has been—and will continue to be—happening throughout July. Lialina’s talk is very much a highlight given her ongoing work to preserve and curate the work … Continue reading →
One of the things I love about the bava blog is that it contains multitudes, I’m realizing I’ve posted well over 40 times about the bavacade in the last two years, and that’s a beautiful thing! So, let’s put another … Continue reading →
I’ve been traveling in both Rome, Italy and New Orleans, Louisianna over the last week—I like my summer destinations hot!—so I’ve been a bit remiss on the dear old bava blog. But today is a travel day back to Italy, … Continue reading →
I spent much of this weekend digging in on some Electrohome G07 monitor chassis repair. I have a bunch of games in the bavacade that use this monitor chassis to power the glorious CRT tubes for these 1980s miracles. All … Continue reading →
We’re honored to have edtech’s patron saint of resisting student surveillance, Ian Linkletter, join us on July 24th at 12 PM Eastern (9 AM Pacific) to discuss the crucial role of ethical edtech in our current moment. As many of … Continue reading →
This is just a quick update to document some of the work happening recently in the bavacade. It has a been a bit of catch as catch can given how busy the last month has been with the Reclaim open … Continue reading →
As part of our Reclaim Open online program we will be hosting scholar and artist Olia Lialina. From her early interactive hypertext My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996) to her archival work to resurrect Geocities in the One … Continue reading →
It’s been 12 or 13 years since its inception and I must say it’s kind of wild that ds106 won’t die. That’s gotta say something about how awesome it was/is/will be, right? I guess it really is #4life! Few people … Continue reading →
This is the first time I have written about the AI craze that has swept the web over the past 6 months or so. I’ve been intentionally resisting the urge given so many of the hot takes, hysteria, and complaints … Continue reading →
YAPARO! or, yet another post about Reclaim Open 🙂 I’ve been inspired by so many great posts about Reclaim Open, and I’d spend more time summarizing them here, but that’s in the works for Reclaim Roundup, so I’ll try not … Continue reading →
I’m embarking on a new-to-me bavacade adventure, namely working with Bryan Mathers to create custom side art for the 1985 fighter Yie-Ar Kung-Fu. This game was the most popular arcade conversion kit of 1985. What’s a conversion kit? It often … Continue reading →
Creating a couple of videos highlighting Taylor’s 1-click Mastodon installer for Reclaim Cloud has been on my to-do for too long, so this week I knocked it out. I did two quick videos, the first takes you through the basic … Continue reading →
To be clear, it was Taylor Jadin who upgraded my PeerTube instance running at bava.tv from PostgreSQL 10 to PostgreSQL 13. I did watch and learn as he worked through the process, so I’m some the wiser, but I’m still … Continue reading →
I pretty much knew that my first post about Reclaim Open would be about scale. That was definitely one of the big takeaways from me over that re-invigorating, celebratory 3 day event. Keep in mind I helped organize the event, … Continue reading →
I’m back from a trip back to both Fredericksburg, Virginia for Reclaim Open and after that Long Island, New York for some extended family time. All of that coming off several days in Lisbon, Portugal, so I was feeling the … Continue reading →
I’m sitting in Zurich airport preparing to return to the motherland for Reclaim Open after celebrating 20 years of marriage to my special lady friend. Lisbon was amazing, and life continues to be a gift with Antonella, I’m a very lucky man. It was our first time visiting Lisbon, and that city’s attractions are like something out of an amazing Dungeons and Dragons map, I really loved it.
But that is just one of the many anniversaries—albeit by far the most important—that are happening this year. I celebrated 10 years off the sauce, WordPress turned 20 years old last month, the world wide web went open 30 years ago in April, and next month Reclaim Hosting gets its double-digit wings by turning 10 years old in July—which is insane. Next week we kick off the celebration with our bi-annual conference re-framed as Reclaim Open, which will find many of the original DTLT crew back at the University of Mary Washington.
Reclaim Open at UMW from June 5-7, 2023
I’m really excited for this event, especially given this conference is going to be fairly small and focused. We’ll be lucky if we get 50 people all told. And all those attending represent a community of folks that still believe in the possibilities of the open web for education, and I count myself a proud member of this shrinking club. In fact, that was the take-away for me from OER23 in April, that re-connecting and re-committing to the work open ed techs do is crucial. It’s work I love, work I believe in, and work that has never been more important. We’re a motley crew strewn across the globe here and there, but for a few days Reclaim Open will bring together a handful of those mutants for a celebratory meeting to help us remember what it is we do and why—especially in the wake of the pandemic.
What’s more, while we’ve tried to keep it on the down-low given Reclaim hates to over-promise and under-deliver, the the official event (everything but the un-confernece) will be accessible remotely. We’re using our watch site setup discussed in my last post about karaoke to play with a hybrid conference delivery setup, and we plan on streaming all sessions and managing the online conversations through Reclaim Hosting’s Discord server. We can even stream out the Tuesday night karaoke from Reclaim Arcade! So in many ways the conference will be an exploration of how we can deliver an effective hybrid event, and it will be freely accessibly during the conference as well as throughout the month of July when we transition the sessions from the in-person conference to a fully online, month long 10-year anniversary celebration.
So yeah, I am definitely getting fired up for Reclaim Open, and given it is accessible from anywhere you should be too!
It’s been a little while since I blogged, and that’s due to a combination of factors, including visitors, conference preparation, and a little bit of karaoke experimentation. The last of those will be the focus of this post, cause I’d rather just ….SING!
There have been a bunch of different iterations of karaoke over many years, dating back to the heady days of ds106 in 2011. It started with the idea of Karaoke Friday’s on ds106radio in March 2011, and Tim soon figured out how to bring the magic to ds106.tv. The push for online karaoke re-surfaced during the pandemic, in particular as OER20 was forced online and Reclaim wanted to help figure out how to do online karaoke. Tim’s awesome because he’s never satisfied with good enough, and in the following video he talks through the KaraOERke setup for the great OER online conference pivot of 2020.
That KaraOERke session for OER20 was really a lot of fun, and in many ways was the impetus for more karaoke experimentation, not to mention joining forces with ALT for OERxDomains21 (a high watermark of online fun) and ultimately the birth of the “Watch” platform Chahira and I are using for Reclaim Karaoke at the Rockaway Club. It’s a good reminder that all these little fun, seemingly throwaway experiments can lead to amazing things when you have the right people working together for a given time. And it’s always about the people working together, whether Tim, Lauren Hanks, Maren Deepwell, Michael Branson Smith (MBS), Tom Woodward, or Bryan Mathers, magic can happen when folks believe and time and focus allow.
Summer Summit 2020 KaraOERke Setup Update
Anyway, the experimenting with online karaoke continued in 2020 with ALT’s Summer Summit, in which I was seeing if I could substitute Jitsi for Zoom, but at the time Zoom proved more capable when it came to audio. In the Fall of 2020 we did a session on Streamyard for Digital Ocean’s Deploy conference, and that started us thinking through a pretty slick, fully online setup using Streamyard, YouTube, and Discord for OERxDomains21. That’s when we teamed up with ALT and brought in MBS, Tom Woodward, and Bryan Mathers to make the design, code, and art happen.
OERxDomains TV Guide
In my mind the success of that conference was directly linked to all the small, half-baked experiments and experiences that led up to it. In fact, the night before the conference officially started we had an OERxDomains21 karaoke session that keynote Rajiv Jhangiani joined, amongst others, and really set the tone for what would prove an amazing two days. It always goes back to the karaoke!
I got another shot at Friday Night Karaoke for the OEGlobal online event in December of 2021. For that setup I used a combination of Zoom and OBS to stream to Owncast, which was the the first non-ds106.tv based karaoke event.† This setup worked quite well given the chat and stream are combined for an integrated homepage. I had them map the URL karaoke.oercamp.global (now dead) to the container, which in retrospect was overkill, but at the same time I was excited by the possibilities of Owncast. In this iteration the goal was to minimize the window complications of Zoom in OBS, to that end singers joined Zoom and everyone else can watch and chat on Owncast. Having everyone in Zoom can create issues with feedback and open mic problems, but the biggest issue for me on the streaming side was how confusing windows in Zoom prove to be, making it hard to focus on just the singer and their shared karaoke video.
Reclaim Edtech watch site with Discord channel integration
That pretty much gets us caught up to the latest (and greatest!) karaoke setup we’ve been playing with these days. Not surprisingly, the work we’ve done with the watch site for Reclaim EdTech, which was born of OERxDomains21, significantly informed this most recent setup. Chahira and I ran a final test using Zoom, but have since decided we are all-in on Streamyard given it handles the screen sharing with audio just as well. It also removes the need for OBS, which is huge. Another thing I love about Streamyard is when folks enter they’re immediately placed in a waiting room to prevent potential bad actors. And then there’s the way Streamyard uses video templates to make it easy to move between shots while still being able to participate in the fun.
Streamyard interface with shot templates and participants list below the video
Different template layout for Streamyard with two participants and video sharing
With the Zoom and OBS setup I often felt like I needed an additional person just to help manage the video production and streaming—I could never have enough screens. With Streamyard it’s all in one browser tab, which also makes the audio setup simpler than with Zoom.* In short, Streamyard is the bomb.com because it does just enough of what both Zoom and OBS, making it a more cohesive, streamlined solution.
Another shot layout in Streamyard that allows all additional participants to be placed around the central screen share
For the current setup we have been pushing the karaoke stream directly to YouTube live, which I’ll talk about more shortly. From there, the live YouTube URL is added to a headless WordPress instance that Tom Woodward created as part of OERxDomains21. We have used that same setup for subsequent online workshops like the Domains 101/201 workshop a year ago, as well as all of Reclaim EdTech’s flex courses thereafter. So Reclaim karaoke is yet another page on reclaimed.tech that the domains reclaimkaraoke.com and rockaway.club re-direct to. This also allows me to pull in the chat from the Reclaim EdTech Discord channel that is designated for Rockaway Club (I decided on Rockaway so I could repurpose Bryan Mathers’ amazing Rockaway Hosting art).
The club metaphor obviously jives with this idea of going to an intentional space to experience something, whether music, film, some fun with friends, etc. This whole two or three year exploration around this setup has focused on “integrating” with tools like Discord, Streamyard, Youtube, or their open source counterparts like Mattermost, OBS, or PeerTube as a mashed-up prototype. The model can be reproduced in all kinds of ways, but I like the idea of trying to tie it all together with a headless WordPress backend that folks can use to quickly generate and schedule sessions that can stream seamlessly to and from a variety of tools. What’s more, we can further design out the TV Guide metaphor MBS already created, which is pure magic. I feel like the pieces are all there to move to some next attempt at integration, but in the interim I’ll karaoke!
The karaoke setup at https://watch.reclaimed.tech/karaoke
As you can see in the Watch site above, the scheduled karaoke sessions are above the video embed, the Discord channel to the right, and the stream from Streamyard to the left, it is quite tight. When I add a new date with the appropriate YouTube link pre-scheduled, it will automatically go live when the stream starts in Streamyard, it is pretty cool, and live stream comments come through Discord. But this extends beyond karaoke because I was testing this setup out with Olia Lialina for her online keynote for the virtual conference in July, and we both agreed that this setup is good enough for the multimedia she’ll be sharing to discuss 30 years of the web. See, it’s never just playing, the fun matters.
Stream suspended for copyright violations notice from YouTube live
The last piece to discuss here—and it’s pretty important—is the live streaming to YouTube piece. I’ve been down the slippery slope of copyright controls with video in the past, so I know how that ends. In fact, during our first and second sessions using YouTube live they interrupted the stream based on copyright claims. That means the stream goes off-air until the song is over, and if we were being serious about this for academic sessions where we may need to study culture, an alternative to mid-stream copyright claims is crucial. While right now Streamyard can stream just about anywhere, including PeerTube, the Watch site only embeds YouTube videos, so we would have to re-visit that because PeerTube is a solid substitute. In fact, my whole streaming setup for Antonio Vantagiatto’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much class session was run seamlessly through that platform.
That session worked in large part because of some variation of this setup to share clips, talk over them, and then stream the film for all to watch from OBS and PeerTube. No copyright-driven interruptions from Youtube. The hybrid piece of the class was difficult given I could not see them without cameras in the room, but if it was all setup right—it could be magic. My only regret is using Zoom, but we can fix (or rise above) that Blackboard of the 2020s. In that spirit, the first piece of development would be to get PeerTube to work in the current Watch site, and even abstract that out so any link/embed could work when you schedule something, but that’s another post that Taylor Jadin could write better than me.
Anyway, I guess this post was supposed to be about Reclaim Karaoke, but it turns out to really be about the possibility of integrating the Reclaim Watch site to work with various streaming and discussion platforms to make it less custom. But I’m happy to report that Karaoke (save some YouTube interruptions) works swimmingly with the current setup, but it would be even better with PeerTube for so many reasons.
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*Given Zoom is a different application you need to ensure audio is pulled into OBS for streaming, suffice to say it quickly gets complicated—but Streamyard simplifies so much of that.
†ds106.tv used the Ant Media setup which was part of the Reclaim Video stream experiments—so much playing.
Sorry for the oblique Jaws reference in the title, but I really couldn’t resist given I’m talking about Martin Weller‘s podcast about Metaphors in Edtech—captain Quint himself In fact, one of the many joys of OER23 was not only seeing Martin, but that re-connection resulting in an invitation to discuss metaphors of edtech with him.
Martin and I immediately connected over our love of 80s horror films when the edtech blogosphere was still a thing, and I think of him as a kindred blog spirit in so many ways. His crisp, concise writing (that might be where we diverge), his understated wit (again, not a similarity), and his deep love of a good pop culture metaphor (bingo!) all resonate deeply with me. In fact, I think so many of those elements are what make a great teacher, and reading—and now listening to—Martin’s blog reinforces that connection in spades.
So, I figured talking with him about metaphors would be a lot of fun, and that proved true. It’s my inclination to ruin the punchline by over explaining the joke, so for the sake of Martin’s podcast stats I’m going to resist the urge to give a play-by-play and simply say if you like good edtech metaphors and have an inkling for 80s horror films, this might be right up your niche alley
So after digging in on the streaming for Reclaim Karaoke Tuesday night, I turned to preparing a discussion about Mario Bava’s seminal giallo film The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963). That discussion happened last night, and it was streamed all the way from a basement in Trento, Italy to a classroom in San Juan, Puerto Rico—the internet still amazes me! Paul Bond and I have collaborated on a couple of sessions for Antonio Vantaggiato‘s Italian Cinema and Culture class back in May of 2020 and 2021. In May of 2020 the Pandemic was still relatively young, and I had just started experimenting with streaming in earnest, so doing that session with Paul for Antonio’s class was a bit of a trainwreck.
Discussion of Bava’s Evil Eye with Paul Bond back in May of 2020
Despite quite a few issues, I think we got our point across. In that session we discussed the U.S. cut of Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much titled Evil Eye, and you can read all about that session in both mine and Paul’s follow-up posts.
Diabolik: a Cultural Revolution Comic on Film
In 2021 we changed it up for the course visit and discussed Mario Bava’s adaptation of the comic Diabolik in his 1968 film Danger: Diabolik. Again, there’s a blog re-cap of that session, but the real break-through for me with that session was upping my streaming game from the previous year’s disaster.
In fact, that’s a good segue into last night’s session because there were a few things different from 2021, most noticeably Paul Bond’s absence. That was entirely on me given I didn’t allow enough time to prepare given relatively short notice, but I’ll fix that next time as he was sorely missed. Another new element is that I used PeerTube to provide a livestream of the introduction, that immediately after the class ended became an instant archive for the talk. I was able to stream both my introduction as well as the entire film for the class in Puerto Rico from my Italian basement, it’s like they were really watching an Italian film from Italy probably the best news was that the stream proved quite solid throughout, there was a glitch on the Puerto Rico side a few minutes before the end of the film, but they were able to wait until the stream ended and then published to go back and finish it, which is pretty awesome.
And finally, I think my ability to produce the stream on-the-fly was lightyears beyond my attempt in 2020. And while the 2021 iteration went pretty well overall—especially the addition of OBS Ninja to bring Paul in—I had yet to really play with OBS Studio’s features, which allows for previewing scenes before switching them, which made a huge difference. I really just have to dial-in my green screen and get the Streamdeck programmed in time and I’ll be off to the races given I could have removed myself from the video clips sooner than I did with my current setup, but again it all worked remarkably well considering who was running it!
It still blows my mind that I was simultaneously producing and live streaming an hour-long intro to Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much to a classroom halfway around the world, and then was able to stream the entire film for them seconds later. It was almost quicker than inserting a DVD. All of this made possible by a personal video platform, bava.tv (powered by PeerTube running on Reclaim Cloud). It’s pretty amazing how far all this tech has come, and I really love playing with it for something like this, so thank you Antonio for letting me experiment so wildly and being so cool year after year. You rule!
Film streaming on Peertube with live chat!
And while we did use Zoom to connect, in the end it was somewhat unnecessary given there was no camera on the students and there was no easy way to read the room or interact. The other part of this experience that would make it even better would ensuring the room had a camera on the audience with its own IP address that I could feed into something like OBS Ninja or an ATEM Mini or VLC in order to provide a real sense of interaction. In fact, from my point-of-view having people remotely join Zoom in previous years’ sessions was better than me talking to a room full of people I couldn’t see. That’s the real trick of doing a hybrid presentations/events like this, having a visual of the room and the attendees for remote presenters so there’s a mutual feeling of connection.
Some other streaming notes, I used VLC to create a playlist of clips to talk about during the introduction. I had to remember to pull the audio feed from VLC into OBS through Loopback. Once I resolved that it all worked a treat. I also had Zoom as a source in Loopback to pick up Antonio and the class for the stream. Having separate video and audio for Antonio and the students would have been the cherry on top.
I did finally get Handbrake to make the english subtitles available on the ripped DVD, but it was unnecessarily frustrating. So to avoid future struggles, I’m going to record my solution. I found that selecting a .mkv formatted video with the subtitles track having only “Default” selected was the only combination that worked.
Subtitle interface in Handbrake
All in all I’m happy with how the production came together technically. There is still more to do, but this signaled progress for me. As for my introduction to the film, well that might be worth another blog post, but suffice to say I’m pretty good at getting excited about Mario Bava then parroting what others smarter than me have said to back some of those emotions up adequately I mean this is a “b” blog after all.
I’m starting to get back into the stream of things after a month of seemingly non-stop blogging. This week I returned to both Reclaim Karaoke and playing a docent on the internet. Doing karaoke on the internet is something I’ve been returning to on-and-off for over a decade now. When I ~~find~~ make some time to do it, it’s really a joy. Luckily Chahira Nouira shares that passion, and we also share a time zone, so she’s been a go-to for karaoke. What’s more, we have finally decided to try and make these sessions a bit more regularly on Wednesday night’s at 9:00 PM CET.
Jim Carey doing karaoke in film Cable Guy
We had our first test of things earlier this week, and as usual with me it was a bit of a mess. But hope springs eternal, and I believe we’re zeroing in on a workable solution. The issue this go around was that we did not have a paid Zoom account, so just as we started getting going around 30 minutes in we had to change gears. The upside of Zoom for Karaoke is they have audio options to turn-off any sound cancellation or automatic adjustments, which is a requirement for doing karaoke online. Once we got kicked out of Zoom for over-extending our 40 minute welcome, we tested karaoke in Whereby—which we do have subscription for. Unfortunately Whereby seems to automatically adjust for competing noises (the karaoke video shared from from YouTube and the singer’s voice), which makes for a less than ideal experience. Given I am doing the streaming I can bypass that compression through the video conferencing app, but anyone who joins to sing will not have that luxury.
So, what did I figure out? That Zoom is still the best bet and I may have to bite the bullet there, but before I do I want to re-visit trying Karaoke in both Streamyard and Jitsi one more time. We have a Streamyard subscription that we use extensively for Reclaim EdTech, and I love how that app manages pre-defined templates; offers a muted waiting area; integrates YouTube live streams; and provides behind-the-scenes chat. It really would be ideal if it could manage sound for musicians like Zoom. And after testing while mid blog post I can confirm it does work quite well! The YouTube videos come in strong, so you have to manage the audio there, but other than that there’s no automatic level adjustments!
Now the other test will be Jitsi, which I can spin up on Reclaim Cloud to test the latest version. When Jitsi works, it works well, but we’ve seen issues with it being a bit demanding for folks with under-powered computers, given it can be a resource hog—we’ll see.
PeerTube Waiting for Live Screenshot
The other piece worth noting in the Karaoke saga is that streaming on PeerTube has been working seamlessly. I like this because I’m worried YouTube will ding us for streaming copyrighted music, even if the karaoke videos we use is from YouTube—they all always are. So knowing we have a more than viable alternative for streaming with PeerTube that offers a constant live URL, integrated chat, an instant archive, etc. is pretty exciting.
Reclaim Edtech Watch Site for live streams
I’m currently working out how to setup the Reclaim Karaoke PeerTube instance in relationship to the main domain. Leaning towards making the reclaimkaraoke.com a clone of the Reclaim EdTech watch site, which is itself a reprisal of the OERxDomains21 Discord/YouTube integration. I just need to see how/if we can embed a PeerTube live stream instead of YouTube live streams just as easily.
Streamyard dashboard in action
The other piece will be creating a Reclaim Karaoke channel in Reclaim Hosting’s Discord server where live chat for these sessions can happen. While I like that PeerTube and YouTube have chat built-in, a pre-vetted chat for a streaming karaoke session seems more sensible. What’s more, we can share the video conferencing link in that channel for folks to jump in and sing without the same concern of sharing it on other networks.
https://bavaradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/20230502-2121-Recording-1.mp3ds106radio stream of Reclaim Karaoke testing
Oh yeah, and by the way the entire Reclaim Karaoke testing session was also x-cast to ds106radio, and there were no interruptions by pesky apps that cut you off after 40 minutes. So the whole session was both streamed and archive in its entirety there.
This was a test performed on 5/2/2023 to see if Chahira and I could figure out how to get Reclaim karaoke to work seamlessly through Zoom and/or Whereby streaming into PeerTube. The PeerTube side was seamless, but we learned a bit about the limits of both Zoom and Whereby, and more recent tests of Streamyard have proved illuminating in regards to that being a solid alternative.There are also videos capturing the exploits that I will include here for posterity by obscurity?First test of Reclaim Karaoke in Zoom cut shortSecond test of Reclaim Karaoke in Whereby
This is the last OER23 blog post on my to-do list, there may be more, but this is the last one I’ve planned. Long live OER23 blogging!
The Industrial Reclaim Cloud Logo from Bryan Mathers
Lauren Hanks and I presented about Reclaim Cloud on the final day of the conference. This was in the afternoon after my “Web 2.0 and Web3 Walk into a Bar…” talk, and I think the two work together quite nicely. Whereas in the morning I discussed the loose federation of blogging that characterized early Web 2.0 and how much of that spirit was present in Web3 tools like Mastodon, this talk focused on how Reclaim Cloud enables folks to more easily install and host many of these next generation tools.
Retro-future art of a container by Bryan mathers
I’ll try and give a basic walk-through of the presentation in a bit, but it’s worth noting here that the break-through for us with this presentation were the following two sketches by Bryan Mathers: “Reclaim Containers” and “Reclaim Container Cranes.” These were images that were part of the original Reclaim Cloud concept artwork. We never did had these fully fleshed out and colored given we wanted to focus on the retro space-age vision inspired by the Jetsons. That said, when putting this presentation together Lauren and I realized that these visual/conceptual aides allowed us to describe clearly and concisely how containerization works.
“Reclaim Containers” by the ever amazing Bryan Mathers
With the ship you can think of that as analogous to the server that delivers a series of containers. In this example those containers are brilliantly visualized as VHS tapes, not only to remain on brand, but also to communicate each is its own product, such as WordPress, PeerTube, Mastodon, Ghost, etc. And I think that provides a visual metaphor you can wrap your head around quickly and easily, something Martin Weller and I discuss at length with the Milton-esque extended nautical simile that is Docker in a forthcoming episode of his indispensable edtech podcast series on metaphors.
“Reclaim Container Crane” by the indubitably wonderful Bryan Mathers
The illustrative power of the “Container Crane” image was not immediately clear to me until talking with Lauren when she noted that this is Reclaim’s role in helping folks understand and manage this new environment. So the cranes in the shipyard help manage and orchestrate these containers, becoming the metaphor for how Reclaim can help with the “heavy lifting” of the next generation of server infrastructure. It all starts to work, and this is something I’ve been banging my head on since 2015 or so. I’ve not been able to adequately communicate the brilliance of this metaphor. Lo and behold, it only took two images from Bryan Mathers for that breakthrough. If nothing else, folks listening to us might now have an apt visual metaphor to make sense of containerization and how it differs from more traditional web hosting. Long live Mathers art!
In terms of the presentation, we started with a Demo of the Reclaim Cloud interface and the one-click Marketplace installer.
Levine’s Law: Start with the Demo
What’s interesting about the above image, is it’s really similar to the image Martha Burtis made for our presentation in 2006 when talking about Fantastico and one-click apps for cPanel hosting in Bluehost:
Derivative slide of the Bluehost experiment
This is not the exact slide from the Bluehost experiment talk, but it’s some derivative version of it that I continued to change and use for years afterwards, and funny how it makes the point, at least to me, that Reclaim Cloud is essentially the next iteration of what we started doing at UMW 18 years ago.
NGDLE: “For users, it will be cloud-like spaces”
Lauren then discussed the idea floated by EDUCAUSE back in 2015 called the Next Generation Digital Learning Environment (NGDLE). It was the promise of a Lego-like structure of applications and components that would be built around the LMS to provide more “personalized” learning and broader access to data, resources, and, most importantly, tool integration. It was also predicated on a cloud-like space for users that define the apps they use for learning. Obviously we felt Domain of One’s Own, just gaining some traction in 2015, was an excellent example of one instance of this vision—just without all the LMS nonsense
In this regard, the NGDLE white paper was appealing, but the follow-up essays in a special issue in 2017 were a bit more disconcerting. At first the calls for open standards and a general sense of the limitlessness of transparency seemed promising, but it was troubling when these words were written by then Chief Digital Officer for McGraw-Hill Publishing. Stephen Laster‘s call for radical openness when it comes to the “free flow of identity, rostering, and learning data,” which seems more like a free-for-all for student data collection than a thoughtful integration of open tools.
Quote from Stephen Laster’s “Tearing Down Walls to Deliver on the Promise of Edtech”
One of the travesties of the term open has been its seemingly uncontested goodness when it comes to edtech. I’ve certainly contributed to that problem, but when we’re talking about openness of identity and learning data in relationship to students within systems—this sounds more like a plan to make sure those various interested parties gain unbridled access to personal data within the NGDLE. That approach is very much the opposite of vision we have for Reclaim Cloud. While the NGDLE proved an acronym only a mother could love, the idea of collecting student data en masse and ensuring a more invasive and surveillance-ready series of tool integrations did come to bear. And I would argue none of these free-flowing efficiencies have resulted in anything resembling better experiences for students, not to say anything about laughable metric of “success” in this context. Beware the wolf in open sheep’s clothing.
But as all the scheming and posturing of companies large and small was vying for student data, an open standard around containerization for the web was congealing and the vision of a cloud-based space for students to explore various applications was on the horizon. Docker was a huge piece of this shift. I talked a bit about the shipping metaphor at more length, this time using examples from Marc Levinson’s book The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger.
Marc Levinson’s book The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger.
I also re-used part of the script I wrote for my small piece in the “Understanding Containers” flex-course Taylor Jadin and I ran back in July, and I do think it holds up:
From there we pulled out the container ship images Bryan Mathers created and we could finally hear the “AHA” moment everyone was having
“Reclaim Containers” by the ever amazing Bryan Mathers
“Reclaim Container Crane” by the indubitably wonderful Bryan Mathers
After that we returned to the Reclaim Cloud interface, and hit what I think is another huge point of this presentation. The difference, arguably, between what was happening with Web 2.0 software in 2006 and what is happening with containers in 2023 is that not only can it be a sandbox for edtechs to explore a wide-range of tools that were heretofore unimaginable to run without major infrastructure investments from IT. But, even crazier, any of those sandbox products that hit and gain traction can be seamlessly scaled to enterprise for a fraction of the costs. We used our recent WordPress Multiregion work in Reclaim Cloud to demonstrate this, and I believe this is the other piece of the evolution of this infrastructure over the last 20 years. You not only get a next generation sandbox, but that can seamlessly transition to an enterprise solution that fails over to multiple data centers across multiple regions with automated backups all with a few clicks in GUI interface.
Brave New Worlds of WordPress MultiRegion
I have much more to say about our forthcoming cloud-based WordPress hosting interface, which is quite exciting, but I think this same logic extends more broadly to cloud-based apps well beyond Reclaim Cloud. We’re in a brave new world of infrastructure that allows us to run our own federated social networks akin to Twitter or Facebook with the click of a button, there is some degree of magic to that—at least it would be for 2006 me trying to figure out how to keep WordPress up and running on shared hosting. AVANTI!
Since November I’ve been toying around with Mastodon on Reclaim Cloud. At first it was to take up the gauntlet thrown, and see if I could create a space for the ds106 community. I did a bunch of work for a month or so spinning up a few instances, and Taylor even got an installer built, which is awesome. We have partnered with ALT since January to run Mission Mastodon, a sandbox Mastodon server so folks could test out this tool and begin to wrap their heads around how it works in practice. We had three sessions, the server will “explode” next month, but one of the things we came away with is that the tech is eminently manageable for a fledgling sysadmin like myself (I speak from my social.ds106.us experience) and costs to run it are not crazy. The question that looms is should organizations feel compelled to stand-up their own servers, or does it make more sense for folks to sign-up where ever, and then just use the magic of federation inherent to the system to glue together that community.
I think we leaned towards the latter given the overhead of managing a community for most orgs in our last discussion “The Final Countdown,” but I can still see tremendous value in creating intentional community servers—like our little ds106 Mastodon experiment—that provides a more localized space outside the maddening crowd. What’s more, I’m really excited about the much grander work Kathleen Fitzpatrick and company are spearheading with hcommons.social to build a full blown scholarly community that is built around an open source, federated infrastructure that is only beholden to its own community rules and policies. The key here is it stands intentionally apart from the corporate overlords that everywhere dominate Social Media presently—which is why new services like Bluesky for me are a non-starter at this late stage of my metastasizing Web 2.0 growth-cycle.
And that for me, right now, is the allure of Mastodon, and other federated tools I’ve been playing with like PeerTube. The network effects may be less, but personally I’m fine with that. It’s a re-calibration to a more human scale I desperately needed. My tweets were getting lost in all the noise for many years, but on Mastodon I’m finding connection again, folks are actually responding, conversations are happening, and there’s a growing sense of community. That’s what I signed-on to Twitter for 16+ years ago, and I’m realizing I missed it.
But there’s another piece that’s re-kindled something in me that I’m appreciating these days. It allows me to tinker in service of that community. Just like with WordPress Multiuser back in the day, I really enjoy trying to support a community using a tool to share and connect. I’m digging figuring out how to run Mastodon; what’s the best storage option; how to map domains; how to integrate Azuracast; some basic tweaks and maintenance; etc. It’s that old idea of narrating your work openly, with hopes it could benefit others. And look who else is blogging their exciting experiments with Mastodon. Lead with the work, it’s how you learn what you’re doing and give others a peek into how you’re doing it.
“I’m doing the work! I’m baby-stepping! I’m not a slacker!”
That might be what allures me the most, the idea of having a shared object of attention (other than the AI goldrush) to gather around and learn from one another. It helps me understand what we’re building with Reclaim Cloud, it provides a real-world example, and it’s the open infrastructure I want to see in this virtual world to help support healthy online communities.
As promised in my last missive, this post will take you through creating a custom domain alias for the files being served by a DigitalOcean Spaces bucket. What does that mean? Well, DigitalOcean Spaces is a cloud-based file storage that serves media like images, video, etc. This media can take-up a lot of storage, especially for an application like Mastodon, so it makes sense to offload it to a service is relatively inexpensive and prevents you from running into storage caps. Another benefit is that you can move your application more easily between hosting services without worrying about moving all the files, which often is the biggest time suck for migrations.
So that’s why one might use an S3-compatible storage service like Spaces for an application like Mastodon which I discussed in my last post, but why do you need a custom domain for serving those files? There are a few reasons:
- It makes moving between S3-cloud-based storage providers easier. For example, say I want to move between Spaces and my own, self-hosted Minio S-3 object storage server eventually, that would be possible without breaking links by keeping the domain consistent regardless of storage provider.
- When using a custom domain with Spaces you can actually access their content delivery network (CDN) which means the files are cached around their global network and files will be served faster.
- Finally, custom domains are awesome, how much better is a domain like custom domain like https://ds106.social versus https://ds106social.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com …. no contest, right?
Ok, so now that you know the what and the why, let’s get into the how-to for DigitalOcean Spaces. The first piece is making sure you can point the domain you want to map on a Spaces bucket to DigitalOcean’s nameservers. DNS can be confusing, but the piece here to keep in mind that for this to work is the entire domain needs to be pointed at DO’s nameservers, and this means you would control the DNS zones and pointing from their networking interface.This is not necessarily bad, it’s essentially the same thing you do with Cloudflare, but an issue could arise if you already have this domain managed elsewhere and changing the DNS records to a new service could mean overhead and downtime.
I just happened to have the ds106.social domain I was thinking about running Mastodon on, but having already setup the server on social.ds106.us, it was a simply redirecting traffic. So, I decided to point ds106.social to DigitalOcean’s custom nameservers, which are ns1.digitalocean.com, ns2.digitalocean.com, and ns3.digitalocean.com. The nameservers are usually changed where ever you registered the domain. After that, you go to the Networking area of Digital ocean and add the domain, which will then allow you to manage and add new DNS records:
DNS management panel on DigitalOcean for ds106.social
Once the domain is added, return to the Spaces bucket and enable the CDN option in settings:
Enable CDN option in Spaces bucket settings
Once the CDN option is enabled you will be asked to select a subdomain to load the files over, and now that you have pointed your domain’s nameservers to DigitalOcean you can do this. You can choose the domain ds106.social and define the subdomain.
Creating subdomain and issuing certificate for Spaces CDN
I used files.ds106.social, and this will automatically create a CNAME (or alias) that will make all the files served over ds106social.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com also work over ds106social.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com for the CDN, but most importantly served over files.ds106.social. Below are three examples of the same file resolving over all three domain names:
https://ds106social.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/accounts/avatars/109/309/621/412/056/867/original/f758838c34a58ad2.jpg
https://ds106social.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/accounts/avatars/109/309/621/412/056/867/original/f758838c34a58ad2.jpg
https://files.ds106.social/accounts/avatars/109/309/621/412/056/867/original/f758838c34a58ad2.jpg
And that is the magic of alias domain mapping! Digital Ocean provides the Let’s Encrypt certificate that works for all the above domains, and now the ds106 Mastodon instance defaults to the files.ds106.social domain for all media, which is quite slick. The subdomain, files.ds106.social for this example, is a CNAME hostname, pointed to the value ds106social.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com. —this makes files.ds106.social an alias of ds106social.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com.
CNAME for subdomain files.ds106.social in DigitalOcean DNS panel
I learned this the hard way given I was initially confused about whether I could point a subdomain from another service like Cloudflare to the Spaces bucket (you can do this on AWS I’m pretty sure), and the short answer is you can’t. You have to point nameservers and then use DigitalOcean’s networking option to manage the domain, subdomain and SSL certificate.
Final step would be to add the environmental variable for the new alias to your .env.production file in Mastodon:
S3_ALIAS_HOST=files.ds106.social
So my .env.production configuration for the object storage now looks like this, which is just the additional of the S3_ALIAS_HOST variable:
S3_ENABLED=true
S3_PROTOCOL=https
S3_BUCKET=ds106social
S3_REGION=fra1
S3_HOSTNAME=fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com
S3_ENDPOINT=https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com
S3_ALIAS_HOST=files.ds106.social
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=yourspacesaccesskey
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=yoursupersecretspacesaccesskey
And that’s all folks! If everything is working as it should be your domain alias is working and you can test that by inspecting any image or avatar and checking the domain file URL.
NB: If I were a better guide writer I would re-do adding this subdomain to Spaces given I can’t remember the exact steps of how the subdomain was created (complicated by the fact I uploaded a certificate from Cloudflare while I was trying the old method) and how it creates the certificate, but I believe it is automatic and you can create a new subdomain such as files, but I really don’t want to delete this subdomain and do it again for the sake of this post given it will create a bit of havoc on the server
These days I’ve been in a Mastodon maintenance state-of-mind, as my last post highlights. Early this week I tried to shore up some security issues linked with listing files publicly in our AWS S3 bucket. This encouraged me to explore additional options for object storage (the fancy name for cloud-based file storage) and I decided to try and move all the files for social.ds106.us from the AWS bucket to DigitalOcean’s Spaces, which is their S3-compatible cloud storage offering.
“Why are you doing this?”
Why am I doing this? Firstly, to see if I could, and secondly because AWS is unnecessarily difficult. What annoys me about AWS is the interface remains a nightmare and a simple permissions policy like preventing listing files in a bucket becomes overly complex, which then results in potential security risks. I eventually figured out how to restrict file listing on AWS, but seeing how easy it was with my other Mastodon instance using Spaces— literally a check box—I decided to jump.
DigitalOcean’s Spaces provides option for disabling File Listing
To be clear, I didn’t take this lightly. The ds106 Mastodon server has over 30 active users, and I’m loving that small, tight community. In fact, I’m loving the work of administering Mastodon more generally, it transports me back to the joyful process of discovery when figuring out how to run WordPress Multiuser.
“Back when I had hair”
Anyway, moving people’s stuff means you can also lose their stuff, and that is not fun. So I did take a snapshot of the server before embarking on this expedition, but the service does not stop with a snapshot. Folks keep posting and the federated feed keeps pulling in new posts, so that was something I had to keep in mind along the way.
So, in order to get started I had to setup a Spaces bucket on DigitalOcean where I would move all the files from the AWS S3 bucket. Doing this is really quite simple, and you can follow DigitalOcean’s guide for “How to Create Spaces Bucket.” Keep in mind you want to restrict file listing in the settings for this bucket.
After that, we need to move the files over, and after reading another DigitalOcean guide on “How to Migrate from Amazon S3 to DigitalOcean Spaces with rclone” the best tool for the job seems to be rclone utility—but that guide is from 2017 so would love to hear if anyone has something else they prefer. You download rclone locally and setup the configuration file with the details for both AWS and Spaces.
My config file looked something like what follows, but keep in mind it is highly recommended if you’re doing this for Mastodon that you make the acl (access control list) public, not private as the rclone guide linked previously suggests. Leaving this setting as private led to a huge headache for me given I was not reading the fine print, and with over 400,000 objects being moved to Spaces, all of which were private, I had to do another pass using the s3cmd utility to make them all public—which took many hours and added an unnecessary step given these files are designed to be public.
Anyway, here is template for your rclone.conf file, keep in mind you’ll need your own access keys for each service.
[s3]
type = s3
env_auth = false
access_key_id = yourawsbucketaccesskey
secret_access_key = yourawsbucketsecretaccesskey
region = us-east-1
location_constraint = us-east-1
acl = public
[spaces]
type = s3
env_auth = false
access_key_id = yourspacesaccesskey
secret_access_key = yourspacessecretacccesskey
endpoint = fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com
acl = public
After that’s set up correctly, you can run the following command to clone all files in the AWS S3 bucket that is specified over to the DigitalOcean’s Spaces bucket specified:
rclone sync s3:reclaimsocialdev spaces:ds106social
Given the sheer amount of files this took hours. And one of the things I learned when doing this is most of those files are in the cache folder given that is where all the federated posts are stored, and this is what can quickly get your Mastodon instance storage out of control. In fact, our local user files are all stored in media_attachments:
Mastodon Bucket file storage directories
The cache folder is by far the largest for the ds106 server, and knowing this allowed me to do a final clone of every other directory before switching to Spaces to make sure everything was up to date. Some of the federated media may be lost in the transition given the sheer volume, and that proved to be true for about an hour’s worth of media on this server.* Luckily it is still all on the original source, and this only effected images and thumbnails, but I do what to figure out if there is a way of re-pulling in specific federated feeds, given I tried to tun the commands for accounts refresh:
RAILS_ENV=production /home/mastodon/live/bin/tootctl accounts refresh account@mastodon.server
As well as rebuilding all feeds, but that didn’t help either:
RAILS_ENV=production /home/mastodon/live/bin/tootctl feeds build --all
That said, it was not too big an issue given just a few images were lost in the transition from federated posts, so I was willing to swallow that loss and move on. After the cloning was finished and I made the switch I realized all the media on Spaces was private given that errant acl setting referenced above. I was chasing my tail for a bit until I figured that issue out. I had to use the s3cmd tool for the Spaces bucket to update the permissions for each directory. Rather than trying to change permissions for all 400,000 files at once, which would take too long, I just updated permissions for every directory but cache (which has the lion’s share of files on this server) and this was done in under an hour. Here are the s3cmd commands I used, and here is a useful guide for getting the s3cmd utility installed on your machine.
s3cmd setacl s3://ds106social/accounts --acl-public --recursive
s3cmd setacl s3://ds106social/media_attachments --acl-public --recursive
s3cmd setacl s3://ds106social/site_uploads --acl-public --recursive
Once these were done, I then went into each sub-directory of the cache folder and did the same for them, which will 400,000 files took forever.
s3cmd setacl s3://ds106social/cache/preview_cards --acl-public --recursive
s3cmd setacl s3://ds106social/cache/custom_emojis --acl-public --recursive
s3cmd setacl s3://ds106social/cache/accounts/avatars --acl-public --recursive
s3cmd setacl s3://ds106social/cache/accounts/headers --acl-public --recursive
Once I updated all the file permissions for every directory except cache, I could switch to Spaces and let the permissions update for the cache directory run in the background for several hours. That did mean that media for older federated posts were not resolving on the ds106 instance in the interim which was not ideal, but at the same time nothing was lost and that issue would be resolved. Moreover, all newly federated post media coming in after the switch was resolving cleanly, so there was at least a patina of normalcy.
In terms of switching, you update the .env.production file in /home/mastodon/live with the new credentials, so after updating the file my Spaces details look like the following:
S3_ENABLED=true
S3_PROTOCOL=https
S3_BUCKET=ds106social
S3_REGION=fra1
S3_HOSTNAME=fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com
S3_ENDPOINT=https://fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=yourspacesacccesskey
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=yourspacessecretacccesskey
After you make these changes and save the file you can restart the web service:
systemctl restart mastodon-web
You’ll notice the region is now in Frankfurt, Germany for the ds106 Spaces bucket versus US-East in AWS, this makes it a bit more GDPR compliant given the ds106 Mastodon server is in Canada. And with that, if you don’t make the same permissions mistakes as me, your media will now be on Spaces which means you have simplified your Mastodon sysadmin life tremendously.
With that done and the files being successfully served from Spaces I started to get cocky. So, I decided to load all the files over a custom domain like https://ds106.social versus versus https://ds106social.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com, but I’ll save that story for my next post….
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*It seems, though I’m not certain, that when trying to clone specific directories within the cached directory of media that were not synced overnight, the re-cloning of specific directories removed the existing directories/files in the cloned directory. I was hoping it would act more like rsync in that regard, but not sure it does that, which may also be a limitation of my knowledge here.
This post provides a place for me to capture some of the maintenance work I’ve been doing on social.ds106.us and reclaim.rocks; the two Mastodon instances of note I’m currently administering. Keep in mind these two instances are running on a Debian VPS, so they’re not Docker images like our one-click Mastodon installs through Reclaim Cloud, so updates and management will be a bit different for those—and hopefully even easier.
Updating Mastodon to Latest Versions
I’ve been really pleased with how easy it’s been to update Mastodon to the latest version. In fact, it would have been seamless if I actually read the directions. The Upgrading to the latest version doc will get you in the right directory and have you pull the recent release. You then go to the notes for the release you upgrading to, for me it was version 4.1.2, and follow the update notes which will tell you if there have been any core dependency changes you need to account for:
Non-Docker only:
- The recommended Ruby version has been bumped to 3.0.6. If you are using
rbenv, you will be require to install it withRUBY_CONFIGURE_OPTS=--with-jemalloc rbenv install 3.0.6. You may need to updaterbenvitself withgit -C /home/mastodon/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build pull.- Install dependencies:
bundle installandyarn installBoth Docker and non-Docker:
- Restart all Mastodon processes
Following these instructions ensured the upgrades worked cleanly. I did notice on both instances in the Administration panel there was a notice that “there are pending database migrations. please run them …” which led me down a Google rabbit hole that ended at this post which helped me push through the database migrations with the following command run from the /home/mastodon/live directory:
RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rails db:migrate
After that the warning went away and was good.
Preventing Object Files from Being Listed Publicly
One of the things I realized was the way I had setup the AWS S3 bucket for the ds106 server was not secure given anyone could list all files in the bucket. This is an issue because this could give access to someone’s takeout downloads should they want to migrate elsewhere. Luckily ee did not have that scenario on the ds106 server, but I still wanted to fix this. I was not having luck until I came across this Stack Exchange post that Chris Blankenship shared with a Reclaimer using S3. Lo and behold, it worked perfectly. Essentially it’s a S3 bucket policy that allows anyone to see files, but not list them at social.ds106.us/system/ —which is exactly what I needed. Here it is, just replace Bucket-Name with your S3 bucket name:
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "PublicReadGetObject", "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": "*", "Action": [ "s3:GetObject" ], "Resource": [ "arn:aws:s3:::Bucket-Name/*" ] } ]}
From AWS’s S3 to Digital Ocean Spaces
The other thing I’m currently working on is transferring all the media for the social.ds106.us Mastodon instance from AWS’s S3 to Digital Ocean’s Spaces because Spaces is 1,000,000x easier than S3. The S3 bucket policy feature is, to be sure, powerful for those in the know, but the AWS interface remains a nightmare to navigate for the rest of us. The above permissions policy gives you a taste of that, compare the above code block with doing the same thing in Digital Ocean’s Spaces. It is a radio box selection in the setup screen, and even provides some understandable guidance.
Digital Ocean’s Spaces provides option for disabling File Listing
Anyway, I’m cloning the S3 bucket over to spaces using the rclone tool that Digital Ocean has a good tutorial. Once everything is moved over I’ll need to update the environment variables for object storage and see if the move is that simple, not sure if the database stores full URLs for media that need to be overwritten, but assuming not given that would be a lot of overhead and somewhat counterintuitive.
Adding Certbot Renewal as Cronjob
Another bit that Tim Owens tipped us off on that I wanted to get documented is that when we installed Mastodon on Reclaim Cloud using the Debian VPS, we setup the SSL certificate using certbot, but forgot to setup a cronjob to check to see if we need to renew daily, so I manually renewed the certbot with the following command:
certbot renew
After that, be sure restart nginx:
systemctl reload nginx
That being done, I updated the crontab on this server to check for certbot updates daily using crontab -e to edit the file, and then added the following line to the bottom of that file:
43 6 * * * certbot renew --renew-hook "systemctl reload nginx"
I found this StackExchnage thread that suggested adding --renew-hook "systemctl reload nginx" to the daily certbot renewal check, so that if the certificate renews nginx will be restarted. We’ll see how that works out in a few months.
A few weeks ago I wrote about preparing for this presentation for OER23. I had no idea how fitting the title would be given the previous day left me with a hangover from exhilaration that I was nursing much of the day. But it worked pretty well for this talk because while I was super excited to start describing the karaoke scene at Johnny Foxes the night before….
OER23, Inverness, 5th and 6th April 2023.
Here, another barnstorming performance from Jim Groom
…much of the rest of the talk was a much calmer meditation on the federation of blogs in the heady Web 2.0 days thanks to RSS and trackbacks to suggest how that overlaps with the sense of excitement and promise of a federated web experience using Web3 tools like Mastodon driven by ActivityPub. I think there may be a recording of the session with slides available at some point, and if so I will grab a copy and link it here. I do have the slide deck with links, and even without the audio it gives a pretty good sense of the talk given it was pretty straightforward.
It was a session that provided an occasion to reflect on blogging and the technology that undergirds that practice as an ongoing force of open education. It’s an idea that’s still near and dear to the work I do and the raison d’être of this site, and being in a room with people who have blogged, still blog, or may even start blogging is always a thrill. I also tried to pay homage to Jon Udell, whose work continues to be crucial for my understanding of the the web, given he helped the talk take shape via interactions on Mastodon—in many ways making my point for me.
But let me break down the highlights and include links here so they are not locked away in a Google Slide deck. I should really be using SplotPoint!
You Looked Hotter Online…
The first slide was basically the punchline to the talk title, and is an assignment created by ds106 alum Sarah of I’m Like So Blonde fame. The question is who looked hotter online? And who is Web 2.0? And who is Web3?
Web 2.0 = Social Web; Web3 = Federated Web
Web 2.0 Boy
The above slides are basic one-liner definitions and proof I was there when Web 2.0 started
Web 2.0 Meme Map
Web 1.0 services versus Web 2.0 services
I talked a bit about Web 2.0 and Tim O’Reilly’s framing of the shift away from Web 1.0, to a more user-driven, social web. I then talk a bit about how Jon Udell’s feedback on Mastodon helped me frame the talk around RSS, trackbacks, permalinks, and some of the Web 2.0 technologies that made blogging much more about participation, interaction, and sharing rather than Publishing with that intentional capital “P.”*
I then do the contractual shout-out to ds106 and the assignment bank, which is driven by participation using tagged RSS feeds, which stands as a brilliant DIY example of a Web 2.0 teaching and learning application built on top of WordPress.
“Twitter has developed into brands talking to brands.” Paraphrasing Jon Udell
I then paraphrase Udell’s note that Twitter has devolved into “Brands talking to brands,” which rings so true, and how Web3 and the open protocols such as ActivityPub are reminiscent of the OG days of blogging.
Web3 = Federated Web (not crypto web)
Web3 Foundation Definitions
I also provide some very cursory definitions of Web3, and I believe the web3.foundation is a legit organization, but I am nervous Mike Caulfield is going to tell me it is a Russian front website for the overthrow of Western ideals. But I think it was founded by Gavin Wood who is the CTO of Ethereum, and while a bit Dick Blockchainy flirting with the whole liberterian ethos—which scares me—I think the basic definitions hold-up. But I will acknowledge this is a place I could have done more research and waiting until after karaoke-palooza the night before the talk was not good planning
“Of Course the Attention Economy is Threatened by the Fediverse”
I then talked about Jon Udell’s discussion of Twitter and the attention economy and why I’m shifting my attention to Mastodon given there’s a sense of possibility and excitement that has long been gone for me on Twitter. I skipped a few slides in this summary, but that’s a general jist of the talk.
But I’m no longer employed in the attention economy. I just want to hang out online with people whose words and pictures and ideas intrigue and inspire and delight me, and who might feel similarly about my words and pictures and ideas. There are thousands of such people in the world, not millions. We want to congregate in different online spaces for different reasons. Now we can and I couldn’t be happier. When people say it can’t work, consider why, and who benefits from it not working.
One of the salient points made in the follow-up Q&A by Anne-Marie Scott, discussing the above quote from Jon Udell’s aforementioned post, was beyond hanging out with people you like in these new spaces, communal servers like social.ds106.us offer the potential for shared management to ensure they remain troll-free and folks adhere to the server’s stated policies. The invisible work of managing social media comes back to the community in Web3, and that represents a form of labor and connection with the spaces that suggest a powerful shift that needs to be recognized and negotiated. In fact, Anne-Marie was full of insightful comments like this throughout OER23, and I would like to thank her for bringing that brilliance to this talk. Anyway, it was a fun talk in a warm, welcoming room at a brilliant conference. Thanks OER23!
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*There was a time during the early blogosphere days when the MSM, or main stream media, was the enemy. Blogs were an alternative press that had the reach and possibility to challenge the dominant narrative, whereas Web 2.0’s consolidation into a few popular social networks would eventually make it just another commodified publishing outlet.
I am still blogging about OER23 because it was the best 1-star conference I have been to yet.
Shot taken featuring some Visual Thinkery T-shirt Art at the Bluffer’s Workshop
I have to be careful how much I publicly praise Bryan Mathers given we currently have him doing some new art for Reclaim and I would hate for any more demand to jack up the costs But as anyone who has worked with him knows, his work is pure gold and a deal at any price! Bryan Mathers’s pre-conference workshop “A bluffer’s guide to Visual Thinking,” was wonderful to start off the OER23 experience, who’s warmer and more welcoming than Bryan? Not to mention a host of amazing folks like Catherine Cronin, Frances Bell, and LC at the same table thinking through and drawing the values of Open.
Frances Bell and Catherine Cronin after Bryan Mather’s workshop at OER23
Bryan’s workshop not only got Lauren and I thinking about how we can use zines for Reclaim Hosting, but it also opened my eyes to. the possibilities of visual note-taking. And like any good learning experience, I was inspired to take visual notes at the following morning’s opening keynote “Hyper-Hybrid Futures?” by Rikke Toft Nørgård.
Visual Notes from Rikke Toft Nørgård Plenary
Rather than tweeting or taking photos, I listened and took visual notes based on the ideas in the talk. And this talk was chock full of visually rich ideas. I see so many threads from the notes above that take me back to the talk, whether its a hybrid tiger-owl, or Towel, or the what an atmosphere for OER would look like? I loved that question, and it immediately made me think of containers, and then VR, and then brains in glass jars, which was weird—The Man with Two Brains anyone? There is also the femedtech quilt, a fediverse diagram, an “open” heart, and an effigy of Bryan Mathers. I spy a polaroid camera, GO-GN penguins, and much more. It gives you a sense of all the things mentioned leading up to Rikke’s talk. Her talk coincides with the chimerical Towel, which then made me think of the Owlbear from AD&D, only to see Honor Among Thieves the following week and learning about the Owlbear kerfluffle. In fact, looking at my notes Rikke’s hybrid monster images really sent me down a Dungeons & Dragons rabbit hole. I spent a good part of the talk drawing a full-page Beholder, which is an interesting way to think about her talk given it was such a fresh, monstrous vision of the world of OER we have been trapped in.
Visual Notes from Rikke Toft Nørgård Plenary
And the talk also dug into some really powerful and resonant topic like hoping in the face of the apocalypse, what gets framed as Hopepunk. A concept I both love and truly believe in, and that made be draw narwhals and unicorns, because the tone of the whole talk was somehow magical, as if Rikke had cast a spell on us all!
Visual Notes from Rikke Toft Nørgård Plenary
There was then talk of glaciers and giving the Ganges River personhood, as well as what OER for Bees would look like, WTF?
Visual Notes from Rikke Toft Nørgård Plenary
It was a brave, beautifully outlandish talk that really resonated with the OER23 crowd, and as you can see from my rudimentary visual notes, it helped me remember so many moments that might have otherwise been lost in the oblivion of my mind. It was a really fun process, and giving myself the permission to doodle throughout thanks to Bryan’s workshop made both the experience and the re-living of it while writing this that much more pleasurable. YEAH!
Where did I leave off in part 1 of this post? Oh yeah, that’s right I stopped after narrating the magic that was the Gasta session because in many ways it represents a natural break because the energy was so intense that immediately afterwards my head was spinning. It was ostensibly an impossible session to follow, but the programming committee knew what they were doing when the put Anna Wendy Stevenson in that spot, because her keynote was brilliant. In many ways it was a practical counter-part to Rikke Toft Norgard’s speculative vision of hyper hybrid futures that got us started that morning.
OER23, Inverness, 5th and 6th April 2023.
Here, Anna-Wendy Stevenson (UHI) gives the Plenary. Image Credit: Tim Winterburn
Stevenson’s talk grounded everyone in the room by discussing the completely online, distributed music degree offered through the University of the Highlands. This program highlights an alternative to ways online has been imagined for more than a decade (i.e. MOOCs) that often trump-up efficiency and scale, but to echo Martin Weller’s point in his OER23 reflection post, Anna-Wendy’s talk highlighted how distance ed “allows people to stay embedded in their local culture.” This has particular resonance for the music, culture, and language of the islands off Scotland, but it’s also a vision of distance ed that travels well beyond that context, and her keynote really made me think of the culture around ds106 (all great things do) and the fact she followed up this brilliant talk with an reception concert consisting of her playing traditional songs from that region alongside three of the program’s graduates, it powerfully tied it all together.
OER23, Inverness, 5th and 6th April 2023
Drinks and dinner reception at An Lochran. Image Credit: Tim Winterburn
And that marked the official close of the program for Day 1 of OER23, but that was by no means the end of the day! The energy was pretty amazing as you can imagine, and upon returning to downtown Inverness from campus, some of the participants met up at the Black Isle Brewery, that just happens to serve some amazing pizza. We ate there the night before in the “pizza huts” on the roof, as Lauren has documented on her fine “Mini-Moments at OER23” post.
Great pizza and conversation on the rooftop of Black Isle (alternate caption: dinner in a Pizza Hut). Image and caption credit: Lauren Hanks
The nice thing about the social events at OER23 was that they were not over-engineered. It was come as you please, stay as you like, and feel free to avoid them all together. I do think while it was awesome to be face-to-face again, it could also be both awkward and exhausting given it’s been a minute. After a full day I was tempted to have a quick pizza and soda and then quietly tap out to work on the following day’s presentation. But, the company at Back Isle was amazing (no surprise there), so when Joe Wilson (who has a great post about the event—as so many have now) mentioned karaoke at nearby Johnny Foxes I knew my presentation prep would have to wait. I love me some karaoke, and a crew from the Black Isle merrily made their way over, which means a built-in audience What happened after that? Well, let me tell you….
OER23, Inverness, 5th and 6th April 2023.
“Another barnstorming performance from Jim Groom.” Image Credit: Tim Winterburn
As the images above from the ridiculously talented Tim Winterburn might suggest, it’s a story I tried to tell before. In fact, this is me relating what happened at Johnny Foxes that night. I look pretty animated, don’t I? That’s because I was, Johnny Foxes was awesome, but not because my karaoke was any good, but because the place—like Inverness more generally—was yet another character in the story of OER23, and this pub just happened to host Wednesday night karaoke, and folks just happened to come to sing and dance and have fun. OER23 attendee Antonio Arboleda brought his A-game with a brilliant rendition of La Bamba. After seeing that I wanted in, so I requested a spot knowing it would be as much as an hour wait. But I was having fun and chatting about conferences past and present so no worries. After about 30 minutes or so Tom Farrelly was called for his song, which was AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top,” but the crowd had changed since Antonio sang. Before it was a small, fairly subdued crowd, but in the ensuing 30 minutes the bar had filled up with a squadron of 20-somethings and the energy was dialed up several notches. I was beginning to regret requesting to sing given this was not my Gen-X bretheren anymore, and my Pixies song was not likely to resonate.
I’m not sure if Tom had these same misgivings, but that did not stop him from getting up an absolutely killing his song. It was really something to behold. The crowd was in it, and he was grooving, and I heard there may even be video or two out there, but I can neither confirm nor deny such things. But even after Tom sang the place got even more intense, someone pulled out “Hotel California” and it was a full-on stadium-like sing-along. I was beginning to shake in my boots, a couple of songs followed and I was debating ducking out, but folks like Kate Molloy, Joe Wilson, Tanya Elias, and Bonnie Stewart kept me accountable. So, they called my name and I sang “Debaser” and it was a blast. I don’t remember much given I was in outer-body mode. But I do know I lost my voice from the raucous screaming, and it just so happens Kate Molloy caught it for posterity—probably for worse than better. I still can’t watch it given I know it will never be as good as I thought it sounded in my head, and I have enough disappointment already looking in the mirror, so I don’t need an interactive version that yells at me
It was an absolute blast, but that was not even the highlight. Soon after a twenty-something got on the stage and did the Rocky Horror Picture Show tune “Time Warp” and the entire place was on its feet doing the dance. The place blew up! It was absolutely off-the-hook amazing, and as I was leaving the bar soon after Bonnie and I compared notes and it was clear that what we just experienced in Johnny Foxes was truly special, and that was the way day one of OER23 ended for me. Walking back to my hotel room without a voice, an under-prepared presentation, and a sense of absolute bliss I have felt few other times in my life. That is what I was trying to communicate in the polyptych above, and this two part post, but it may also just might be true you had to be there.
Reclaim Hosting’s new Community page which aggregates all our various community spaces online
It’s been live for a bit now, but I am finally getting around to writing a bit about Reclaim Hosting’s new micro-site that essentially aggregates all the different channels that we use to communicate the work we do more broadly. Lauren Hanks spear-headed this project, and worked with Taylor Jadin and Tom Woodward to build out the site using Bryan Mathers’ TV set art to communicate those channels with pizzazz!
There isn’t an individual thing that automatically makes a ‘Capital C’ Community, but rather a bunch of small, intentional moments that, when combined, is rather special.
The above quote from Lauren Hanks’s post about her working designing the community site really captures the spirit of how Reclaim Hosting has been community building over the last decade. Small, intentional interactions across our various platforms to connect with others in authentic ways. So this project was an attempt to take stock of the various places we do this, not only so we have a clearer sense of our community but also as an opportunity to clean up our namespaces a bit. Since almost the beginning the community.reclaimhosting.com subdomain has been home to our Discourse forum, but as we’ve added additional elements like our Reclaim Roundup newsletter, Discord server, more consistent video production as part of the Reclaim EdTech push (much of which came to be as recently as last year). We quickly realized the forums were just one slice of the broader Reclaim community, so to that end we created a broader umbrella to try and capture the various channels we’re currently using to communicate and interact.
Reclaim EdTech’s Watch site, inspired by the YouTube/Discord mashup that drove OERxDOmains21
The fine-tuning of those channels is still a work-in-progress. Reclaim EdTech’s Watch site, based on the YouTube/Discord mashup that drove OERxDomains21, is a thing of beauty for the way it integrates those two technologies so seamlessly, but I would like for us to do more with PeerTube in the coming months to make that an equally viable alternative to YouTube. Building out these environments is not simply marketing, although it is that, it’s also us doing the work of edtech’s to experiment with spaces that bring people together to connect and encourage them to share the work they’re doing. It’s not easy work, and if you are lucky you’ll have as many wins as losses. But it’s the work I enjoy most, playing with these environments to see what sticks, and sharing how we did it along the way. It’s the best kind of open, iterative practice, and it fits well with my penchant to try and blog everything
Things have been moving pretty fast between travel, amazing conferences, Reclaim awesomeness, etc., that I’m bound to fall behind or even miss a few things on the old bava.blog. But one video I wanted to post was a conversation Lauren and I had about building out Reclaim Hosting’s Discord server. It was the first installment of our 3-part flex-course focused on “Building Community with Discord.” This episode aired on Tuesday, April 5th, and the flex-course is finishing up tomorrow with the final installment, “The Future of Discord at Reclaim,” which airs at 12 Pm ET.
Lauren did all the heavy lifting on building the various iterations of our Discord servers, and in this session she walks-through her work and even shares a template for others to build off. My role is simply to narrate some of Reclaim’s history with Discord, as well as add some color commentary. The bits that are fun in terms of that history is how the OERxDomains21 conferences experience, which used Discord as its backbone, was inspired by various influences such as Cloudflare.tv, exptv.org, and the Digital Ocean Deploy conference in 2020. These three examples helped us frame what we wanted for OERxDomains21, which was also the moment where we realized Discord will be crucial for just about everything we wanted to do for that conference when it came to creating a sense of community.
On Friday Lauren and I sat down to reflect on some of the highlights from OER23, which took place in Inverness, Scotland from April 4th until the 6th. It also provided a welcome excuse to re-visit all the good energy from that event, which was an absolute treat. This video is also doubling as episode 37 of Reclaim Today, given we have a history of reflecting on all the great OER events we’ve attended over the years. I twas an awesome conference, and great to try and bottle a bit of that spirit as we head into Reclaim Open in just under two moneth!
I’m sitting in Schipol Airport jotting this down before I catch another flight to London, so this will be brief. I know I said in a previous post I would try and blog small, more regular burst from the conference, but I got fully swept away with its undertow of awesome. I’m just coming up for air now, but a part of me could have stayed in Inverness.
I think Day 2—or the first official day of the conference, Wednesday April 5th—may have been the best single day of any conference I’ve ever attended. Putting it up there with NorthernVoice 2007 and OpenEd 2009, it was simply magic! I know I’m not to be trusted because I speak in hyperbole fairly often, but I will say I deeply needed to be in Inverness with the rest of the amazing folks who made the trek to feel truly alive again. I fed off the energy, maybe too much, but it fed something deep in my soul that had been starving. As Brian Lamb joked on our trip up the West Coast in February, “You’re a seeker.” And I’m beginning to think that he’s right, I’m seeking something as amazing as Day 2 of OER23 on a more regular basis!
Why day 2? Well, it is unfair because the whole event was amazing, Bryan Mathers workshop of thinking visually was brilliant, and hanging out with Lauren as we got settled into Inverness was about as pleasant as could be. Inverness played a gigantic role in how great this experience was, and I think just about everyone who was there would agree. In fact, I was up quite late Day 1 given I had forgotten I was on the hook for a Gasta session, and I started to panic a bit, and that might have been the start of the manic energy that helped shape my experience of the next day…DAY 2!
One Does not simply Gasta!
Day 2 had me up early trying to finish my presentation after writing an SOS email to Brian Lamb and Grant Potter for ideas for my Gasta session. I like working under pressure, and one of the things about in-person conferences like this is how generative they can be with all the discussions, chats, interplay, and joking feeding one’s creativity and sense of connection. I think that all fed into not only my Gasta session, but my other talks the following day. When you’re in a place committed to a thing with other people, there’s a different sense of being there—and for me it let me step away from my usual routine at the keyboard and dig in on what’s right there in front of me in a new context with a self-selected group of people who made a similar sojourn.
Anyway, after working on my Gasta early morning Lauren and I got some coffee and then headed to the University of the Highlands, Inverness, which was an awesome venue for the event. I was chatting with Anne-Marie Scott (I did a lot of that at this event), and she commented that bringing it back to a campus setting and grounding the event in a university environment was welcome, and I have to agree.
First up was Rikke Toft Norgard keynote, which started the official event off with what Bryan Mathers noted was “definitely his kind of crazy”:
It was a wild talk filled with chimerical beasts right out of the AD&D Monster Manual, and she threw out provocations like what would “an atmosphere for OER look like,” which is something I am fascinated by not only because of Bryan Mathers’ art for Reclaim Cloud, but it pushes the idea of open education off the two dimensional textbook page into three dimensions. I took visual notes for the talk, nothing as awesome as Bryan’s featured above, but I will blog this talk separately because I think the theme of #hopepunk is huge, and a really powerful way forward.
Rikke and her mom were an amazing presence at OER23—and a brilliant way to kick off the day.
Image thanks to Tim Winterburn (click image for more)
After that, I attended a session with Beck Pitt and Fereshte Goshtasbpour discussing their work with OER in Kenya followed by a session wherein Kate Molloy discusses how she liberated the open content at University of Galway from the VLE with H5P and Hypothesis. It was an awesome start to what what prove a constant throughout the conference: top-level sessions. Kate definition of her work as a pragmatic open edtech appeals to me on some truly foundational levels of what we do as edtechs, and the fact a small, scrappy group (or was it just Kate?) can push adoption at the scale of the university is amazing. That is open for me! Moreover, I had the good fortune of catching up with Kate extensively, and her humor and candor about the work of open really exemplifies the warm spirit of OER23. The idea of “doing the work” remains a mantra at Reclaim, so the following image really appealed to me!
After that, I took an hour out of the schedule to catch-up with Anne-Marie Scott and discuss her recent life changes as well as dig in a bit on what it might look like to congeal the work already happening in the edtech sphere around open infrastructure. It was great catching-up with Anne-Marie, the radio had kept us connected for years now—but being able to hang-out in-person was even that much better.
Image thanks to Tim Winterburn (click image for more)
After that it was lunch, and I was beginning to worry about the Gasta session happening later that day. I tried to get in a few polaroids and enjoy a quick bite, and then Lauren and I stole away to rehearse our talk for the next day. The afternoon session I attended featured the state-wide OER program in Colorado followed by Tanya Elias talking about OER and scale—both of which worked together beautifully in terms of practical applications and larger, conceptual musing on the costs and affordances of small versus scaled open. It was an absolutely brilliant pairing of two really great presentations—and that was a theme. And Tanya was yet another amazing presence at this conference, the Canadians always bring their A-game!
The vibe across the conference was generally like that, the rooms were cozy and warm, and when we all re-convened in the main hall for plenaries in was packed and crackling with energy. Knowing this, I took the hour dedicated to workshops on day 1 to finish my ill-prepared Gasta session. Did I mention that…
One Does not simply Gasta
You see, Maren Deepwell and Tom Farrelly had reached out in early March about doing a session, and knowing the history I happily agreed. But I also did not fully understand the expectation and pressure around Gasta, and had some odd assumption Tom and I would follow-up. But life took over and I went into work mode, and by the time I lifted my head again I was looking at the program at the hotel in Inverness the day before the conference kicked off only to be reminded by the Gasta session was on Day 2 by seeing my name on the list. I’m not going to lie, there was a certain amount of panic given I was ill-prepared, but I also work well under pressure in these contexts, as mentioned earlier, given how much I feed off the good energy emanating everywhere. The value of being embedded in your community for a couple of days with a shared focus is impossible to fully capture here. Anyway, as I already said I sent a SOS email to Grant Potter and Brian Lamb for two of the main jokes I would use in the Gasta that first evening, and some ideas started to coalesce, and I pushed on it the next night so that by the afternoon of day 2 I could just try and memorize some of the jokes, add some of the polaroids I had taken, and see if I could make sure the timing was right. It was my first attempt at an open ed stand-up routine. Far from perfect, but absolutely a blast. You only have five minutes, so timing is everything and everyone presenting before me seemed to understand that brilliantly. It was A-game city, a conference constant—did I mention that already?
Someone is happy to be back at it! @TomFarrelly @magsamond #OER23 pic.twitter.com/J5z27zMybn
— Kate Molloy (@hey_km) April 5, 2023
Anyway, the session happened, and I’ve never felt that kind of energy in any room I’ve ever been in for a conference session—it was really hard to describe. It was like all of us were locked into an amusement park ride for the following 20-25 minutes, and we had no choice but to just fully be all-in and go along for the ride together. It was truly a magical moment for me, and I think after it was done there were at least a few other folks who felt similarly. Everyone was amazing, Tom Farrelly’s work as the host of Gasta was truly phenomenal, a performance for the ages, and that was only made better by each and every brilliantly delivered Gasta session by Eamon Costello, Maggs Amond, and Lou Mycroft—truly a crescendo of awesome that all came shattering down when I got up there, but I’ll save that story for another post
But the audience was in it, every person was there and the eyes and smiles and surprises looking back at us was what enabled this moment to happen as it did—and to have been there and partook of that moment is something I now have and will be forever grateful. OER23 was the thing memories are made of through true and meaningful personal connections, and in some ways every Gasta session was about just that.
What’s “Big Tech” got to do with Gasta? Image courtesy of Anne-Marie Scott
And to be clear, at this point I am just about half-way through the day, and in order to finish this post before talking about the final plenary, after-party and karaoke, let me just leave you with this bit of wisdom to arbitrarily close part one of day 2: “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock like Tom Farrelly!”
Today marks ten years since I’ve had a drink,* and that is a very important moment in my mind. This 10 year anniversary has become something of a magical number that, if ever achieved, would mark an almost irrefutable victory over my struggle with alcohol. That said, I know it’s not, and the struggle will continue until I am dead. But, when I stopped drinking on April 10, 2023 it was because I was at risk of losing everything that mattered to me: my wife and kids.
10 years later I am still married and I’m not an estranged dad. What’s more, I even added a few awesome pets along the way It’s funny because at OER23 there was a lot of talk of 10 year anniversaries: GO-GN turns 10; Rikke Toft Nørgård, finished her PH.D 10 years ago; Reclaim Hosting turns ten this July; and now I, also, have been off the sauce for a solid decade.
My life remains far from perfect. I still have a temper; I still piss the people closest to me off regularly; I’m still a royal pain in the ass at times; but if I hadn’t stopped drinking it would have all been that much worse. I owe so much of my happiness over the last 10 years to finally making the decision to quit drinking, and all the inner peace that followed stems from that decision. It has resulted to a level of personal and professional success I might have only dreamed of otherwise. I had more than a few people to thank that help me get sober, and two who helped me almost immediately were Tim Owens and Andy Rush, they where there for me when I was at my absolute lowest, and I will never forget how much their support during those dark days meant. My dad, who also struggled with alcohol, was also a surprising source of support. But more than anyone, I would not be writing this or even doing a ten year victory lap if Antonella had not forgiven me and let me continue on the road of life with her
Here is to 10 years on the wagon, and all the irreparable joy and redemption it has given me.
_________________________________
*Although that is not entirely true because I did have one beer in Barcelona given there were historical conditions beyond my control, ask me about that story if wee ever sit down and have “a drink.”
Collection of polaroids taken during the first day of OER23. This was more of a mellow onboarding, pre-confernece workshop day. Bryan Mathers ran an awesome workshop that I will be blogging in-depth tomorrow, but for now let the images of the awesome people I crossed paths with today suffice.
I did something I haven’t done in a while, I actually posted images to Flickr I took within a few hours and write titles and descriptions, and even tagged them. I know, crazy, right?
In many ways this seemingly moribund practice was resurrected by this discussion with Jon Udell on Mastodon. Jon was generously responding to my post about comparing Web 2.0 and Web3 for a presentation at OER23 this week, and his contributions were insightful (no surprise there) and started me thinking about the way many folks used to blog before the centralized social media sites. It was often for more often, a mix of long and short form, and not nearly as much psychological overhead at the idea of “writing a post.” You were just posting, it could be an image, a quick thought, or an essay, but long and short forms of writing lived together more comfortably, a practice Udell points to mico.blog as helping to preserve. More fodder for the presentation, thanks Jon!
Now, pair this with my recent post remembering the magic of the blogging conference NorthernVoice, and you might think I am heading for a web nostalgia tailspin. Fair enough, it might be the case, but one thing that was so cool about my looking back on NorthernVoice was the tags in Flickr that allowed me to see and remember the people, spaces, and general sense of that important moment. Many people caught it, and looking back visually was magic. I was like, damn, that’s a cool way to remember.
Scott Beale’s “Northern Voice 2007”
In fact, the founder of Laughing Squid, Scott Beale, wrote a post that included the mage above (forgive the Laughing Squid ads if you click through), providing a textbook example of just this kind of short-form blogging back in the day. He threw up some links to Flickr, quickly let folks know he was in Vancouver at a groovy blog conference hobnobbing with Anil Dash in less than a full paragraph. Not bad for a few minutes work
So, in that spirit, just wanted to let everyone know I arrived in Inverness, Scotland for the OER23 conference that will kick off with workshops and pre-conference events tomorrow, and then get going Wednesday and Thursday for two full days of re-connecting with some amazing people. I’m not sure what it is, but I am in the conference spirit right now and I am blogging like it is 2007! I will be uploading my pictures from the conference to Flickr with the tag OER23 and will also be posting here on the regular. I might event try and live blog a session or two, can you imagine that! What did Faulkner say? The past isn’t dead, it’s not even the past! Or something like that, that crazy southener!
Inverness was pretty glorious this afternoon.
I want to get this out of my head and on to the blog because I had this idea while in conversation with Reclaim’s Pilot Irwin and Occidental College’s Jacob Alden Sargent yesterday, and after sitting on it for more than 12 hours I think it could be interesting. The idea is pretty simple: channel my best Terry Greene and talk to folks about their edtech pandemic stories, and the subsequent fallout. This is a topic that came up again and again while traveling with Brian in February, and it’s no secret the sector was hit particularly hard, and seems many are still shell-shocked professionally (not to mention the broader personal toll). This was already one of the themes I planned on writing about from the road trip given there was a tentative sense of trying to move on.
And yesterday while talking with Pilot and Jacob, the impact COVID had on Jacob’s edtech group came up once again and the stories are powerful and important. Sounds very much to me like folks are still trying to make sense of what happened. So, in that spirit, I would be interested in just talking to people about the the impact of COVID on their edtech affiliated group(s). How did it play out? What was the aftermath?
In other words, “Jim Groom, what happened?” said in my best Dr. Oblivion voice. I understand folks may want to avoid this topic like the plague (pun intended). I also understand this may be a terrible idea. What’s more, someone may already be doing it, or want to do it, and in that case go for it. But if not, and folks are interested, I would love to have some conversations with any interested parties about their edtech group’s institutional story during COVID, as well as get a sense of where they are now. Maybe I’ll have a couple of folks interested from OER23, and I would love to put together a bit of an archive to capture these stories before they get lost in oblivion.
I was wracking my brain before starting this post to ensure I was not wrong before proclaiming that OER23 will be the first face-to-face conference I’ve attended since Domains 2019 —is that possible? Has it really been almost four years since I was at event like this in-person? I’m not entirely certain because my mind cannot be fully trusted, but I think it’s true. We did a Reclaim Roadshow in Los Angeles in November 2019, and I think the next conference on the list after that was OER20, but by April 2020 that conference was forced to pivot fully online in just a couple of weeks. Oh the good old, early days of the global pandemic. Now to be clear I travelled a quite a bit during COVID to help build an arcade in Fredericksburg, VA, but in terms of the professional development and relationship building that conferences like OER23 afford, it’s been all online for nearly 48 months. Crazy!
Reclaim Cloud is made up of a bunch of containers that look like VHS tapes, true story
But next week that all changes because Lauren and I will be heading to Inverness, Scotland to present about the “ACTUAL” Next Generation Digital Learning Environment (spoiler: its containers!) and how Reclaim Cloud provides a powerful space for sandboxing the apps and infrastructure undergirding the present/future web.
I’ll also be doing another presentation focused on what happens when “Web 2.0 and Web3 Walk into a Bar…” or how these two moments of the web might be understood in relationship to one another. Having come up as a blogger during the hey day of Web 2.0 and sticking around long enough to watch the space shift towards more populated, centralized networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., it’s been interesting to see the fediverse emerge as an alternative that’s intentionally resists platform centralization; questions the logic of amassing followers; and sneers at the seemingly inexorable logic of becoming a brand on social media.
That said, I struggle with these generalizations a bit because my introduction to Web 2.0 had much of the same liberatory rhetoric around moving the conversation away from mass media networks and creating independent nodes to publish and syndicate as one pleases with fairly easy to manage tools. It’s these unevenly reported parallels that fascinate me, so I’ll be trying to work through some of the early tenets of Web 2.0 (the social web) and Web3 (the federated web) to understand where there’s crossover and consider some of the realities that served to jettison the early optimism of Web 2.0. I figure it’s worth considering if and how any new instantiation of the web can resist the creep of capital.
Anyway, it’s a work in progress that I’ll continue to plug away at for the next several days. And then, if all goes well, I’ll get to share it on Thursday in a room with other colleagues at OER23 who might have similar questions. I relish the idea of connecting at OER23, it’s been way too long!
Next Tuesday is the start of the free Reclaim EdTech Flex Course focused on building community on the social platform Discord. In the first episode airing next week on April 4th at 12 PM Eastern Lauren Hanks and I will discuss some of the inspirations that led us to using the social platform Discord in combination with the live streaming service Streamyard to run our sessions for OERxDomains21.
MBS’s TV Guide-inspired design for theOERxDomains21 Schedule
That experience was so amazing on so many levels, and it led us to use that same combination soon after to run our Domains Workshop for admins in June of 2021 (still referred to as the Reclaim Roadshow). Lauren built out a template for the work she did during OERxDomains21 in Discord, as she will do, and over the course of the next year we used that for our workshops.
Our first full blown virtual workshop after OERxDomains21 integrating Discord and Streamyard to great effect
But we felt like we missing out on some of the potential for more sustained interactions and connections Discord offered, so we started imagining what it might be like to hold more regular events for our community in an always-on Discord server to start getting more intentional about outreach and community building. And in April 2022 a whole new division of EdTech at Reclaim Hosting was born using Discord and Streamyard as our primary means for running regular workshops and flex courses. We learned a lot in our first year and we’re planning on unveiling what’s in store for year two of Reclaim EdTech at Reclaim Open, but in the interim you should really join our Discord server next week to see how you, too, can build community in Discord!
Darren Barefoot’s “Art for 2007 Northern Voice poster”
With just a little over two months before Reclaim Open happens I’m thankful we had the forethought to add a day before the official event to host an unconference. My first event of this kind was back in 2007 at Northern Voice’s MooseCamp, and I have to say it was transformative. If you follow the previous link you’ll see the sessions that were run that day,* and I have to say many of them seem quite relevant 15 years on.
But the thing about MooseCamp that was so special were the souls who showed up and worked together for the first hour or so to pitch topics they wanted to discuss, and as a result a schedule for the day emerged that was for and by the people. It allowed for an informal space for folks who may not have had the time or inclination to submit a formal presentation to share, which made room for all kinds of serendipitous connections, different voices, and impromptu discussions that were timely and relevant.
Image of the wall of sessions pitched the morning of MooseCamp
Image credit: Cyprien Lomas’s “Northern Voice 07 – MooseCamp”
What’s more, it was foundational for my own sense of an edtech blogging community that was thinking more broadly about how these new publishing forms would impact our culture—in many ways MooseCamp was far more memorable that the official event the following day, and part of that was because it took on the shape of those present in that moment in some truly powerful ways. Also, while only remotely connected to him as a result of the NorthVoice events I had participated in, I was really sorry to hear of the recent passing of one of the organizers of that amazing conference, namely Darren Barefoot—his final post in this world tells the tale of a life worth living.
I’ve since participated in other unconferences, mot recently the University API at BYU, and again found this sense of connection, generosity, and community generative for a memorable event, so I figured it was high time to try it for a Reclaim Hosting conference. And, as often happens, the need for is becoming increasingly more apparent. Just yesterday Shannon Hauser asked about whether we might be able to fit in another panel to our already full programme about web archiving. And while previously we might have had to politely turn it down, as of now we have an entire day wherein anyone can propose and run sessions about anything from web archiving to Geocities to photography to the fediverse to privacy and security, or whatever else folks with a shared interest care to come together and think through. It’s in many ways a huge attraction of Reclaim Open, the ability to show up for a full day where you can share your interests in the moment if you like, as well as support and learn from others who want to do the same. And who knows, you might even find some magic like I did back in 2007.
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*Getting to run a session about using WordPress for “More Than Just a Blog” alongside Candace Nast and D’Arcy Norman remains one of my all-time favorite conference moments. People were truly in it.
I’ve been pretty busy knocking out my to-do list for the bavacade. I created a long one after returning from the US, and I’ve gotten through most of it, so might be a good time to create a log with work done over the past month or so.
Back of pac-man painted
- Touched up Pac-man paint with new glossy yellow as discussed in this post, and finally painted the back door and finished that cabinet once and for all—although I may find myself doing one more round of touch-up
- Added the multi-game, high score save kit to the Pac-man board, so now this cabinet has both a modded board that plays Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man, Pengo, Pacman Plus (as well as fast version of those games save Pengo) in addition to the BitKit2 I already installed. I think that puts a fork in Pac-man for now.
Pac-man Multi-game HSS Kit
- Added a high score save kit to the Venture board, so that game is also all but done. I am debating adding another coat of glossy white paint to truly finish it off, but we’ll see.
High Score Save Kit for Venture
- Sent the Cheyenne ROMs out so that the 440 Exidy Mod kit that plays several games can be fixed. Turns out the issue with the Cheyenne board was related to the mod kit I bought, which is kinda lame, but Mike now has the ROMs and should be able to fix that, which would be awesome.
- Extra Condor board that Mike fixed is ready to go, will hopefully have that and the Cheyenne board shipped to Italy together if they’re ready to go here soon.
Cheyenne original ROMs
- There’s a graphical issue at the top of my Joust game, and it turns out it is pretty common and there is no much you can do about it, so was able to cross that off the list, although a Williams FPGA may fix this, but had trouble with that board in this machine.
- Replaced the Big Blue capacitor on the Dig Dug power brick, but that did not solve the loud hum, so this issue is still outstanding, but I did swap the Dig Dug power brick with the one that is in Millipede, and that solved the hum in Dig Dug by transferring the noise to Millipede
Big Blue Capacitor (Atari Power Brick)
- Replaced one of the leaf switches in the 8-way joystick for Venture, and that seems to work well. But I have some extras should I need to to replace the rest.
- Followed-up with Buffett about the Hanterex Polo chassis from Cheyenne he’s working on, that will hopefully be finished up shortly.
- Tried to look at the florescent light in Dig Dug that was blowing tube after tube, but decided to take a shortcut for now and add a 12V LED tube in its stead. It works so well I may need to get some window tint to obscure the brightness a bit, I am using masking tape at the moment, but I can find a better solution.
12V Power Switch for LED Marquee Light in Dig Dug
- Disassembled Millipede, and Alberto is presently adding wheels to that game and doing some minor cosmetic work.
Still to do:
- Got a few varistors from the US that I need to add to the Joust power brick, but this goes in the to-do list
- Need to look at Moon Patrol bootleg sound board I picked up in US. Everything is working except for the sound, so need to figure this out.
- Need to do the cap kit for the K4600 chassis that came out of Venture
- Need to do the cap kit for the G07 chassis that came out of Condor
- Tried to find two additional bolts/screws for the Venture joystick, but the US vs. EU sizes stumping me there, still need to sort this
- Tried doing a remote procedure with Zach Davis to add a high score save kit to the Moon Cresta cocktail cabinet in Portland, but that went sideways. Have no idea why it stopped working when we reverted everything before the surgery, frustrating. Anyway, may need to have that board shipped to Mike to get a second opinion.
- Need to buy an assortment of screw, bolts, wire ties, and more.
While I did happen to set a personal best on the Galaxian cabinet in the bavacade as my account was being migrated to our newest shared hosting server named after that 1979 classic alien space shooter, that’s not what this post is about. This post is about the amazing work Reclaim’s sysadmin Chris Blankenship has been doing behind the scenes to get our cPanel servers running on Ubuntu. It’s a long story and Chris does an amazing job narrating why we have to move our infrastructure from Centos7 to alternative Linux distros on his blog, but the short version is they killed Centos7 and Kenny, so we have come up with alternatives over the next 18-24 months. Read Chris’s post for the bigger, longer, and uncut version of the story.
via GIPHY
The milestone the post title refers to is running a cPanel server on top of Ubuntu rather than CentOS, the shared hosting server Galaxian located in Frankfurt, Germany is doing just that, and I believe we’ll have another, Galaga, running on the West Coast of the USA. It’s a big deal because we wanted to ensure in 2023 that all new shared hosting servers were were running on Ubuntu in order to future-proof our server fleet. The upgrading of our existing infrastructure will be a big job and we will be doing it over the course of at least two years, but this moment highlights the beginning of that shift, and that is really exciting. Sometimes the work of infrastructure can be not only invisible but thankless given the only time folks are knocking on their door is when something goes wrong. So join me in celebrating the awesome work happening, as hidden as it might be, when something not only goes right, but marks a path for moving our entire fleet of servers into the future. Avanti sysadmins of the world, and avanti Reclaim!
One of the smartest things Reclaim Hosting has ever done was to partner with Bryan Mathers for our art. The prospect of sitting down with Bryan to collaboratively brainstorm how to communicate what we do visually is an absolute joy, I cannot recommend the experience highly enough. Our brand was in many ways grounded in his first Reclaim Hosting vinyl logo Bryan doodled while we were chatting in Barcelona back in April of 2015. It was love at first sight. And that has since been the basis of an entire Reclaim brand that has been consistently fun and fetching.
Original Reclaim Hosting visual Bryan Mathers doodled
We have used him innumerable times since then to prepare our various products as well as teaming with ALT to build out an entire conference theme for OERxDomains21—which may be a high-water mark for our collaborations. Anyway, Bryan is amazing and few months ago we worked with him to not come up with an aesthetic for our upcoming conference Reclaim Open (which we have yet to unveil in its entirety) as well as try and upgrade our main site header image to subtly suggest the changing nature of our business thanks to the advent of Reclaim Cloud—which is now almost 3 years old, which is insane to even think about.
A sneak peek of some of the Reclaim open art in technicolor
As you can see from the header old reclaimhosting.com header image that we had on our site for close to 8 or 9 years, the VHS tapes were applications that could be easily run within cPanel, such as Drupal, WordPress, MediaWiki, Scalar, Omeka, etc. All supporting the “Zombies” home recorded tape All of this not only assumes the coming of the copyright zombies and the learning undead, but also that you would be “playing” these tapes within cPanel.
Old Reclaim Hosting Header image
Our new header image sticks with the VHS metaphor (although it might be begging for a laserdisc or DVD makeover here soon) but cPanel is now just one of the tapes you can play. What’s more, several of these tapes (namely Scalar, WordPress, Omeka, and WordPress) can be played in either cPanel or Reclaim Cloud, while others (like PeerTube, Ghost, and Docker) are exclusive to the new Reclaim Cloud containers. It begs all kinds of format and backward compatibility parallels that the old media metaphors real map on our shift from an exclusively cPanel shop to a much broader library of applications for folks to choose from.
Reclaim Hosting’s New Site Header
Again, Bryan works on so many levels that are both inviting and soothing while at the same time epitomizing these subtle, yet crucial, changes we are trying to communicate to our community. What’s more, all of these tapes on the Reclaim shelf fall under the aegis of a new element of Reclaim Hosting rolled almost a year ago now: Reclaim EdTech. And that tapes sits horizontally above the other to highlight an umbrella of support for both cPanel and Reclaim Cloud. It’s so beautiful!
You’ll also notice nothing changed with the “My Blog” tape, that one is sacred
As with the Dig Dug and Venture post, most of this was originally published as part of the bavacade repair log from February 9, 2023. But in service of celebrating the greatest video game of all time, a dedicated permalink to share the Pac-man overhaul love was not too much to ask.
After fitting Pac-man with the BitKit2, I decided that cabinet needed to be on wheels and the bottom looked over closely given the floor was feeling tenuous under any kind of pressure. There were early signs of wood rot that may have been a result of water damage, although it was definitely not extensive.
Pac-man without underpants
Pac-man‘s old floor was feeling its age
I stripped the cabinet down to its bones and sent it out to Alberto, who worked his magic. He replaced the floor entirely, while leaving everything else in tact, and added a base pedestal to hide the new wheels. Once I got it back I taped around the original artwork and painted the cabinet with the Scramble yellow I had left-over from that project, and did some touch-up on the black paint, but otherwise left the original artwork untouched. The yellow from Scramble was matte, which meant the color was a bit muted compared to the original Pac-man yellow.
This was probably the fastest I ever completed a strip down, re-build, and re-paint. It was all done in less than a week, including Alberto’s work—which was crazy fast. I took a ton of photos, and you can find them in this Flickr album. I was also racing against time given I had planned travel back to the US, so it was nice to get it done.
That said, once I returned from the US the matte yellow from Scramble I used for touch-ups was bothering me. So, I got that yellow mixed as glossy, and then re-painted the sides, front, and back of the cabinet with the new glossy paint, and now the difference between the yellow around the original artwork and the yellow I added to clean things up is much harder to notice.
It’s looking good! I still need to paint the back of this cabinet, which was also yellow. I’ll take care of that once I return. This dot gobbler is the crown of my collection, so it needs to be beautiful! In fact, you can get a better sense of the before and after effect with the two side-by-side images below.
Pac-man after the work
Pac-man before the work
Like the Venture post before it, most of this was originally published as part of the bavacade repair log from February 9, 2023. But in service of searchability and documenting these cabinet overhauls more individually, I’m breaking this out into its own post.
Broken corner in Dig Dug cabinet
There was a big gouge in the bottom rear corner of the Dig Dug cabinet that was bothering me to no end. The cabinet was otherwise quite solid, and I have to say the seller ensured everything in it was original, which is always nice. One thing that struck me when taking this apart was how well designed the Atari cabinets are. This was the first one I disassembled, and it was the easiest yet by far. I love the way the light and speaker are combined onto one piece of plywood for easy removal.
Light and speaker mounted unit for Dig Dug cabinet
The coin door setup is also super easy to remove with a genius design that allows you to attach and detach the coin box easily and tighten the door with all bolts seated using attached, movable nuts. When you disassemble enough of these machines you begin to appreciate good design choices.
Bolt system for coin doors for the Atari Dig Dug cabinet
The cabinet work for this game was a bit more straightforward. Epoxy for the gouged lower corner and for the various imperfections along the trim. I have new t-molding on order, so this game should be mint very soon.
Some taping of Dig Dug for touch-up paint
There were a few places the cracks in the sides meant I needed to do some touch-up paint work, and the base color of his cabinet is closer to off-white than pure white, so I found myself adding yellow to pure white paint to get a better match, and that was fun. It’s not perfect, but you would need to know what you are looking for in just a few spots to see the difference. It’s approaching perfection for me, so more than passable for most I hope. Also, none of the original artwork was touched, so this was already a pretty impressive cabinet, that just got awesomer!
Dig Dug After touch-up paint and before light sanding
There are a couple of things I still needed to attend to, and I got around to them after returning from travel. The first task was fixing the marquee light that blows every florescent tube I’ve put in there. I believe it’s the ballast on the light fixture, but I decided to go the easy route for the time being and just attach a 12V switching power supply to convert 120V power line to 12V in order to attach a 12V LED light strip.
12 volt switching power supply in Dig Dug cabinet to enable LED marquee to work
That worked well, although the light is a bit bright, so I am looking to find some opaque tinted tape to dial down the lumens. Right now I have masking tape as a work-around, but that might not be the best idea
LED strip in Dig Dug marquee masked to dim light was some masking tape
That said, the marquee is now working quite well, and it is an original glass, not pasltic, marquee, which is extra special:
Dig Dug marquee lit up
Next up, the power brick was pretty noisy, so I thought it might be a big blue cap that needed to be replaced. It’s an easy job, so I brought a couple back from America and swapped out the existing one. Unfortunately the noise persisted, so in the interim I switched the power prick from Millipede, which is dead quiet, with the one from Dig Dug. I did this not only because Dig Dug is in the foyer and the noise can get annoying, but also because Millipede is next game up for a quick refurbish and wheels. While Alberto is working on Millipede, I’ll see if I can figure out what is making the loud humming noise on the Dig Dug brick.
Wiring for a Big Blue cap on an Atari power brick for Dig Dug
Finally, the smooth, black t-molding is on order, and should arrive soon. But apart from that, this is another mint cabinet that sits alongside Donkey Kong Jr, Galaxian, and Pac-man in the bavamanse foyer!
Dig Dug is re-assembled and looking groovy
This post is a bit of a cheat because I originally posted most of the following text as part of the bavacade repair log from February 9, 2023. That noted, I want to break it out as its own post given getting Venture up and running has been an ordeal, and it deserves its own permalink and tags The bavacade Exidy Venture cabinet fully operational
I was beginning to think I would never see this game running. When we bought it for $400 over two years ago, I knew it was going to be a project. It’s a game that doesn’t really come available all too often, and a good condition working cabinet is not only hard to find, but also fairly expensive. The only working example I’ve seen since my childhood was at the Terminal in Nashville, and it was in pretty rough shape and played terribly.
Broken upper-back corner of Exidy Venture cabinet that was fixed by Alberto
The first thing we needed to do was get the cabinet in good condition. The top-back corner of the cabinet was broken, and the back door and lower portion were falling apart—old, deteriorating wood glue was the only material holding this thing together. It was in pretty rough shape; it had been neglected for probably 30+ years, and it showed with dead leaves staining the cabinet floor. Alberto took this one and worked his magic, he sent me a bunch of images of the work as he did it, and I really love to see the process visually….
Once I had it back from Alberto I had to paint the cabinet white. I did the first couple of coats with a matte white, and I still want to do a final coat with glossy, but before I did that I needed to re-assemble the cabinet because the power supply guru Roberto was coming by to bring the re-built (for the second time) original power supply that can’t be easily replaced with a switching power supply given it uses hi and lo +12V and -12V for the sound board, which also helps power the video. This power supply has been a beast, so given Roberto was coming with a fixed unit I was thrilled, but when he arrived he noted that the -5V was not working, so we (royal) added a rectifier bridge for -5V that was pretty cool:
-5V Rectifier for Venture
-5V Rectifier for Venture connected to Ground and -5V from power supply
-5v from rectifier to board
We tried that and the board was now getting -5V, which was a win. But, but, but, for some reason the +5V was not getting to the board cleanly anymore. I was depressed, I really thought we were going to finally cut through this Gordian knot of a game. But despair is not an option, so we re-grouped and re-traced everything again, ensuring the edge connectors were attached correctly (they were), and still no dice for the +5V, although every other voltage was arriving to the boards as expected, so it was at least isolated to +5V.
Venture‘s edge connectors connected correctly
As a last ditch effort we decided to install a switching power supply to get the +5V to the board to see if that will work….and it did, dear reader! It was a moment that had been a long time coming, but bringing a game back from the dead that I’d not seen working since we got it was amazingly rewarding.
Venture Switching Power Supply for +5V
I can now take the -5V rectifier and use the switching power supply for that, but it is pretty cool to see how the rectifier works, that is yet another thing that enthralls me about electricity, all these gadgets to control and temper the flow of energy are truly amazing, and I’m reminded once again it’s always power with these games.
The Venture board I bought worked perfectly and the monitor is gorgeous. I do need to try a cap kit on the K4600 monitor chassis for Venture given it’s not working, so the current chassis is on loan from Galaxian. The other bit is I need to clean-up and possibly re-build the the 8-way joystick. It is a bit of a rat’s nest right now, and it could use some new leafs and general TLC. But, the good news is Venture is on wheels, cleaned-up beautifully, and working a treat!
In Italy Father’s Day is recognized on St.Joseph’s saint day, which is today. And I have to say given Joseph’s role in Jesus’s birth, there’s a strange subtext to the day here Anyway, I spend much of both the Italian and American Father’s Day quoting from the first episode of the horror omnibus Creepshow (1982), which is appropriately called “Father’s Day.” It’s a story of a wealthy, homicidal patriarch that is murdered by his daughter after having her lover killed in his ongoing campaign to control her love life. It’s an awesome episode, and everything is narrated by the bored, dissolute heirs of this fortune while they’re waiting for their great aunt Bediliah to arrive to celebrate Father’s Day, which happens to be 7 years after she murdered the pater familia.
Creepshow: “I want my Cake, Bediliah”
The line repeated throughout the episode is by the tyrannical patriarch, who belligerently cries, “I want my cake!” while banging the table with his cane. And that’s what I find myself saying again and again on this hallowed day. I often preface this demand with some context, “It’s Father’s Day, and I want my cake!” And once I get it I say, “It’s Father’s day, and I got my cake,” the latter being a reference to the end of that episode, but no spoilers here. Anyway, I’m not sure why Creepshow continues to be a huge touchstone for me on a regular basis 40+ years later, but it is. The other thing I find myself exclaiming histrionically when the occasion calls for it is “I can hold my breath for a long time!” which is a quote from the third episode of Creepshow called “Something to Tide You Over.” You just have to see that one, which is my all-time favorite.
Creepshow: Lost Reception
Also, while we’re on the subject of Creepshow, it’s worth noting the “Father’s Day” episode also features a young Ed Harris doing an impressive series of disco dance moves:
A Young Ed Harris doing the sprinkler move
I love Creepshow, and all these GIFs were actually taken from the bava archive during the heady days of the Summer of Oblivion. I went on a little Creepshow tear in June 2011, and the tale of the blog confirms that. Speaking of GIFs, I’ve been watching a bunch of Yasujiro Ozu‘s films recently, and I got an idea for an interesting GIF project for my house. I ordered the Blu-ray and will be trying to make really high quality GIFs from Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon (1962) because I think that film is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and like the first episode of Creepshow, it is all about fatherhood I’ll try and write about my Ozu GIF project once a figure a few things out, but until then 2011 is a little something to tide you over
This statue in front of the Milan stock exchange is the last photo taken before my phone was stolen 10 minutes later—foreshadowing?
It all happened pretty fast. Antonella and I were eating ice cream in a gelatteria not far from the Duomo in Milan when a woman came up to our table with an infant on her hip asking for money while laying an 8×11 map on the table. I should’ve known right then and there. My colleague Lauren Hanks related a similar scenario where someone in Madrid tried to take her phone after laying a map on the table, and grabbing the phone while lifting the map. Lauren was quicker and smarter than me, she caught on and saved her phone. I didn’t. I was too transfixed by the infant child and the discomfort of being on the receiving end of the ask. I also had no cash so callously tried to avoid eye contact, and bam, the mother, child, and my iphone were gone in an instant.
It took me about 10 minutes to realize my phone was gone, we had moved along to a nearby bookseller’s stand, and I reached for the phone to take a picture of one of the covers and I knew what had happened almost immediately. The map on the table, my recollection of the phone there as well, my avoidance of the discomfort by turning a blind eye, it all clicked and I knew it was gone. The immediate emptiness of being robbed hit me and I did a pro forma, half-hearted trek back to the gelatteria to confirm what I already knew. How stupid? I replayed the moment of her laying the map on the table and me avoiding her at all costs over and over in my mind. Further confirmation came after recalling the moment she removed the map and the shopkeeper offered her something to eat and drink—in striking contrast to my reluctance to help—which was met with a quick dart out of the store. “I should have know then too,” I lamented, “that was the telltale sign.” But in some ways I’m happy to have been oblivious because realizing at that moment and actually chasing and confronting her would probably have been far worse.
Antonella had her phone, and given we share a family iCloud account with tools to track our devices—surveillance tech #4life—I checked to see if could find it. It was reporting as being located back in Trento, which is about 200 miles away, so that’s not right. I soon after called my tech support, namely Tommaso, who suggested that they may have turned on AirPlay from the home screen as a tactic to report a different location and trick the Find My app. This is still unclear to me, and I need to confirm, but Antonella’s phone was definitely not tracking mine, so any hope of mounting a real-time sting operation was not in the cards—again probably for the best.
So, at this point the phone is long gone and I’m still pretty bummed at my stupidity, but I also saw this as an unfortunate opportunity to give iCloud’s lost phone and backup features a live test. First, remotely lock the phone and provide a number for anyone who “finds” it to call. I did this, but after thinking on it for a bit—like 5 minutes after confirming I had a full backup from the day before in iCloud—I decided to go nuclear and set the phone to delete all data as soon as it came back online given at this point there was no doubt in my mind it was stolen.
The other things pending were calling my cell provider to block the number via the SIM card as well as making a report to the police. I called TIM and blocked the SIM and that was quick and painless. I entertained going to the police station in Milan, but I know that would mean the day was a complete loss, and we had tickets to see the “Bosch and Another Renaissance” exhibit at the Palazzo Reale Milano, so I canned the police visit. The exhibit was underwhelming, and I’m not sure that’s because my phone was stolen, or that Bosch is kind of a mess of an artist. His stuff is weird, granted, but it is also kinda flat and un-compelling once the shock and awe effect wears off, much like a lot of David Lynch’s work. I think if they framed his art as a kind of b-movie, splatter/exploitation take on the Renaissance I would be a lot more interested. But what do I know, I am just a lowly blogger who lost his phone in Milan….those bastards!
After the exhibit we were shot and decided to head back to Trento, although we did catch an amazing show on the Radio Popolare station that turned us onto the Beta Band—I’ve been listening to them pretty regularly since. Anyway, once home I decided to check the Find My app on my computer and to my surprise the phone was located on the outskirts of Milan.
Find My map of Milan with image of my phone
Once I zoomed in I could pinpoint it near near the river Lambrato and one of those navigli (canals) that often make an appearance in the Milan polizieschi films of the 1970s I love so much. The seedy underbelly of the city playing out in the margins then and now.
Zoomed-in to Find My map of Milan with a near exact location of my phone
Then I checked in Google’s Streetview to see what I was looking at on the ground:
Streetview image of where my phone was located after being stolen earlier that day
Crazy, it was located near the canal, or even in the canal, which is what I was thinking. They must have realized I locked the phone and erased the data, so they tossed it in the canal. RIP phone.
Message via email the day after the my stolen phone was being deleted
But not so fast, early Monday morning I got the above email informing me the phone was being deleted. So it was not at the bottom of the canal after all. What’s more, according to Find My app the phone had moved to a new, close-by location. In fact, according to the Find My app it is still there as I write this, although at this point erased. A shell of its former self.
Find My app reporting my phone in a new location and deleted
As of Monday I had still not reported the phone lost, and it is recommended you do that within 48 hours. I was wondering if I needed to report it or not, but a few things happened that assured me I did. Antonella started receiving messages on her phone given that was the number I initially gave in the hopeful phase I still imagined it might be found and returned. They must have recorded the number, and started sending phishing messages telling us the phone’s been found. The first was in English from a New Orleans area code and that tricky URL that is begging for a click for more details:
Phishing Message in English trying to get us to click, but that URL is not right—also it is from a New Orleans area code, which is odd.
The next message was in Italian, and basically said the same thing, but with a different link:
Phishing message in Italian
At this point these people were starting to piss me off. So the next morning I went to the police station and filed a formal report, which was pretty easy, and for that I’m kinda glad I waited to do it in Trento. Small can be beautiful, or at least easier. The other reason reporting the phone as lost with the police was important is that’s the only way to keep my old number. I had to take a copy of the police report to the local TIM store in order to re-activate the old number. So, that’s something to keep in mind—you can’t reclaim your number, at least in Italy, without a formal police report.
The next and final step at this point was restoring all my almost 40,000 images and videos and countless apps to a new phone. And, as the big middle finger that started this post suggests, every single file, image, video, app, note, contact, etc. were restored seamlessly to the new phone in minutes. That, my friends, was both awesome and a huge relief. I understand the closed, app-store ecosystem driving Apple has its definite issues, and their hardware is ridiculously expensive, but having everything restored almost immediately to a new phone and picking up where I left off after some deep angst around losing my memories certainly highlights one beautiful element of the Cloud, and while no means unique to Apple, this experience did not suck when it came to being able to pull up the image I took 10 minutes before my phone was stolen.
I was stupid. It was stolen. But all is well that ends well, at least for me, but I am still a bit haunted by the Find My map pointing to my lifeless phone on the outskirts of Milan on the banks of a series of interlocking canals that track another world where all may not always end so well.
Well, the only good thing about being away from the bava.blog for more than a month is the tried and true joy of blogging about not blogging. Or blogging about the will to blog. Or blogging about how no one blogs. In the end, any blogging about blogging is good blogging. And so it goes….cue the “I’ve been busy” clip from 48 Hours featuring Luther’s indignation at being questioned while retrieving his car from a parking garage after several years “away”:
Some tropes never get old, just like blogging. And what’s more germane to the form than a list of things to do? There are so many….
- The West Coast Walkabout in February is a full blown series I will write about, but in the meantime Brian Lamb has already alluded to how powerful that trip was on some deep levels in his post. And I have so much more to say about everything from the need for human connection, friendship, edtech polyamory, and what’s next for this geezer. “Throw it hard, Fink!”
- But before that I need to document the aftermath of getting my phone stolen in Milan on Sunday
- Reclaim Hosting, Reclaim Hosting, Reclaim Hosting. My blog delinquency has impacted the chronicle of so much of the magic happening at the best damn edtech hosting company from Timbuktu to Portland Maine, or Portland, Oregon for that matter. So much to say about everything from the team trip in San Diego which kicked off the West Coast Walkabout to work with .edu multi-region hosting to the ongoing workshops and flex courses all leading up to what promises to be an epic Reclaim Open conference in June. So much awesome…
- Another neglected part of the bava.blog story has been all the work on the bavacade. Just one game away—which is Cheyenne—from the mythical 100% operational status, but that road is paved with endless labor that has gone undocumented, such as refurbishing Pac-man, Dig Dug, and Venture; installing high-score, multi-game kits for Venture and Pac-man; various monitor chassis repairs; as well as the new PDX sattellite addition of Moon Cresta.
So I guess all of this (and more) is gonna keep the bava busy for the weeks and months to come. That’s the work, and I love it. Long live the blog!
It’s been a while since I emerged from the bavacrypt. No work travel for me since May of 2022, and I won’t lie, I was getting into a groove at home with the nest full again and my blood levels finally normalized. Life has been small and good, but there is a world out there, and to finally cross paths in the flesh with folks I work with daily and other friends I have not seen for many years is a special opportunity that I’m ready to partake. I have a crazy Canadian comrade meeting me in Los Angeles tomorrow—which is its own special gift—but there are also commies from grad school, and a dear friend from my days at UCLA that I had not seen for 23 years.
Old Gold AVS Reunion with Thom Arredondo
That was my first evening in San Diego, catching up with Thom Arredendo who I now know is one of those rare human beings that you can simply walk back into their life after more than two decades and pick up from where you left off. California was my home during the early and mid-1990s, filled with post-punk bands, Long Beach City Community College, Parker’s Lighthouse, UCLA, AVS, movies, music, literature and poetry. It was the beginning of my love affair with the world wide web, and the moment I realized gaming—thanks to PCs—was going to be an entirely new phenomena after playing Doom and Duke Nuke’Em, not to mention MAME, Warez sites, and CD-ROM games like The Residents’ Bad Day at the Midway. Thom is a part of me, and seeing him again was a welcome reminder of a time that was special. Hell, a focal point of the next leg of this trip is seeing Unwound live on their reunion tour at the Wiltern Theater—a band that defined my time in LA and underscored a strain of manic, disaffection that framed a sensibility of the time.
https://bavatuesdays.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/329475335_5583212961805589_2574381387259072941_n.mp4Thom is a huge film, music, and literature lover, and stands as an early influence for AV Geekery. He started me off on my love for laserdiscs, turning me on to the above clip of Michael McClure talking about Jack Kerouac describing what the ocean is saying in his novel Big Sur. I believe the clip is from the 1986 documentary What Happened to Kerouac (1986) featuring an inspired clip with a description and reading that borders on the magical. In preparation for this adventure I finished Ham on Rye (1881) on the flight over, and just cracked On the Road for the next piece of my journey. I wanted to be more regularly reminded of a moment when words and ideas created a vital and radical lens on the experience of living. I tend to smooth the poetic edge of things with age, and wonder if that’s what makes me the who I am looking back on the who I was. Who am I here? Ah Jerry, Jerry Blake.
It’s been busy in the bavacade the last several weeks as I prepared for a trip
back to the US of A. I’ve been racing against the clock to figure out what I need to bring back for the various games, which means a lot of testing to try and get things working, or establish they’re beyond my repair capabilities, which means shipping them out.
Troubleshooting Cheyenne Monitor
The process of trying to diagnose has become more and more fun for me as I gain a modicum of insight. I have finally found a hobby I can really sink my teeth into, which is quite rewarding. I’m still in the process of re-organizing the bavacrypt so that my old, open area office space is transformed into a full blown workspace for the games, which also means a lot of storage for parts, chassis, and other sundries. I also got some shelving to start storing my toys, VHS tapes, parts, and much more.
Glimpse of shelving behind Asterock
What’s more, I’ve moved my Reclaim Hosting office into what was the basement guest room, and it’s working much better for calls, video recording, streaming, etc., thanks to better acoustics—not to mention much less doorbell interference. Once I get back from America I should be able to put the final touches on the office transition. I’ll also be sure to document that in more detail, because I really have built a dream space that is an all-in-one office/workshop/80s arcade. Have I mentioned on this blog already that creating spaces might be my other hobby passion these days? — it’s what I might miss most about Reclaim Arcade, imagining that space with Tim was an absolute joy.
Anyway, on to the repair log, and there is a lot to mention here.
Dig Dug on wheels!Broken corner in Dig Dug cabinet
There was a big gouge in the bottom rear corner of the Dig Dug cabinet that was bothering me to no end. The cabinet was otherwise quite solid, and I have to say the seller ensured everything in it was original, which is always nice. One thing that struck me when taking this apart was how well designed the Atari cabinets are. This was the first one I disassembled, and it was the easiest yet by far. I love the way the light and speaker are combined onto one piece of plywood for easy remove.
Light and speaker mounted unit for Dig Dug cabinet
The coin door setup is also super easy to remove with a genius design that allows you to attach and detach the coin box easily and tighten the door with all bolts seated using attached, movable nuts. When you disassemble enough of these machines you begin to appreciate good design choices.
Bolt system for coin doors of Dig Dug cabinet
The cabinet work was a bit more straightforward. Epoxy for the gouged lower corner and for the various imperfections along the trim. I have new t-molding on order, so this should be golden.
Some taping of Dig Dug for touch-up paint
There were a few places the cracks in the sides meant I needed to do some touch-up paint work, and the base color of his cabinet is closer to off-white than pure white, so I found myself adding yellow to pure white paint to get a closer match, and that was fun. It’s not perfect, but you would need to know what you are looking for in just a few spots to see the difference. It is near perfect, so more than passable. Also, none of the original artwork was touched, so this was already a pretty impressive cabinet, we just made it awesomer!
Dig Dug After touch-up paint and before light sanding
There are a couple of things I still need to attend to, including fixing the marquee light that blows every florescent tube I put in there—I believe it’s the ballast, but need to test this. Also, the power brick is pretty noisy, and I think that might be a big blue cap that needs to be replaced, so ordering that. Finally, the smooth, black t-molding is on order, and should be ready once I get back. But apart from that, this is another mint cabinet that sits alongside Donkey Kong Jr, Galaxian, and Pac-man in the bavamanse foyer!
Dig Dug is re-assembled and looking groovy
Venture is up and running!I was beginning to think I would never see this game running. When we bought it for $400 over two years ago, I knew it was going to be a project. It’s a game that doesn’t really come available all that often, and a good condition working cabinet is not only hard to find, but also relatively expensive. The only one I ever saw since my childhood was at the Terminal in Nashville, and it was in pretty rough shape and played terribly.
The first thing we needed to do was get the cabinet in good condition. The top-back corner of the cabinet was broken, and the back door and lower portion were falling apart—old, deteriorating wood glue was holding this thing together. It was in pretty rough shape; it had been neglected for probably 30+ years, and it showed. Alberto took this one and worked his magic, he sent me a bunch of images of the work, and I really love to see the process visually….
Once I had it back from Alberto I had to paint the cabinet white. I did the first couple of coats with a matte white, and I still want to do a final coat with glossy, but before I did that I needed to rebuild the cabinet because the power supply guru Roberto was coming by to bring the re-built (for the second time) power supply that cannot be fully replaced by a switching power supply given it uses hi and lo +12V and -12V for the sound board, which also helps power the video. The power supply has been a beast, so given Roberto was coming with a fixed unit I was thrilled, but when he arrived he noted that the -5V was not working, so we created a little rectifier bring for -5V that was pretty cool:
-5V Rectifier for Venture
-5V Rectifier for Venture connected to Ground and -5V from power supply
-5v from rectifier to board
We tried that and the board was getting -5V now, which is a win. But, but, but for some reason the +5V was not getting to the board cleanly. I was depressed, I really thought we were going to finally cut through this Gordian knot of a game. But we re-grouped and re-traced everything again, ensuring the edge connectors were attached correctly (they were), but still no dice for the +5V, although every other voltage was arriving to the boards as expected, so it was really only the +5V.
Venture‘s edge connectors connected correctly
So, we decided to install a switching power supply to get the +5V to the board to see if that will work….and it did, dear reader! It was a moment that had been a long time coming, but bringing a game back from the dead that I had never seen working since we got it was amazing.
Venture Switching Power Supply for +5V
I can now take the -5V rectifier and use the switching power supply for that, but it is pretty cool to see how the rectifier works, that is yet another thing that enthralls me about electricity, all these gadgets to control and temper the flow of energy is truly amazing, and I now know it is always power with these games, that is almost always the issue.
The Venture board I bought worked perfectly, and the monitor is gorgeous, I do need to try a capkit on the K4600 monitor chassis for Venture given it is not working, so the current chassis is on loan from Galaxian. The other bit is I need to clean-up and possible re-build the the 8-way joystick. It is a bit of a mess right now, and it could use some new leafs and some general TLC. But, the good news is Venture is on wheels, cleaned-up beautifully, and working a treat!
Bello Yellow Pac-manAfter fitting Pac-man with the BitKit2, I decided that cabinet needs to be on wheels and the bottom needs to be looked over closely given the floor was feeling tenuous under any kind of pressure. There were early signs of wood rot that may have been a result of water damage, although it was definitely not extensive.
Pac-man without underpants
Pac-man‘s old floor was feeling its age
I stripped it down and sent it out to Alberto and he is a genius. He replaced the floor entirely, while leaving everything else in tact, and added base pedestal to hide the new wheels. Once I got it back I taped around the original artwork and painted the cabinet with the Scramble yellow I had left-over from that project, and did some touch-up on the black paint, but otherwise left the original artwork untouched. The yellow from Scramble is a tad more subdued then the original Pac-man yellow, but you would really need to be in-the-know to realize the subtle difference. That said, I may re-paint it at some point
This was probably the fastest I ever completed a strip down, re-build, and re-paint. It was all done in less than a week, including Alberto’s work—which was crazy fast. I took a ton of photos, and you can find them in this Flickr album.
It’s looking good, and I still have to paint the back of this cabinet, which was also yellow—will take care of that once I return. This dot gobbler is the crown of my collection, so it needs to be beautiful!
YUNOWORKCHEYENNEThose are the major notes, but there continues to be ongoing weirdness with Williams’ transformers. I got back the “blown” Joust transformer that turns out was not blown after all, the surge of 220V was not detrimental because the varistor prevented it doing any harm. Once the varistor was cut off the transformer started working again, I just need a new varistor now. Anyway, When I put the Joust transformer into Stargate it was having issues with the Williams JROK board, it kept randomly resetting the board whenever I would touch the smart bomb button. After realizing the JROk worked fine in another cabinet (Defender), I figured it most be a power issue and the switching power supply values were all reading fine. So, I decided to put all of transformers back in their original games (I had them labeled).*
Hanterex Polo 20″ chassis are my bane, and Cheyenne is now the only game not working. I am sending that one out given I do not have a capkit, and hopefully that will be up and running soon.
Still To do:I have the chassis removed and ready, just haven’t had time to try the K4600 CapKit. This chassis was originally in Venture, but if all goes well will be in Galaxian.
Condor G07 Capkit -not sure when i will do it, but on the list.
Cable for monitor and coin door light in Asterock acting up, this has been an odd issue, and it just seems like cables in Asterock power supply are lose, and the monitor loses power, but will need to dig deeper.
Need to install high score save kits for Venture and Pac-man.
Whew, that as a lot, but I am happy cause the Reclaim retreat is about to start and now I can start my West Coast tour diary on the venerable bava.blog
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I had put the Stargate transformer in Moon Patrol, the Moon Patrol transformer in Joust, and left Stargate empty until the Joust* transformer one was fixed.
Yesterday I started playing around with a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) board I bought a couple of months back called BitKit2. What is FPGA? It’s a circuit board technology that has been around since the 80s that is pre-assembled and allows for the programming of the hardware to happen after the fact. This technology is fairly new to me, so follow the Wikipedia link for actual informative details.
BitKit2, the latest version is white versus older red and green models
The BitKit2 is a FPGA board that has been programmed to play 50 classic video games such as Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man, Pengo, Scramble, Super Cobra, Dig Dug, Nibbler, Moon Cresta, Galaxian, Galaga, Crazy Kong, and many, many more. The board comes pre-programmed to play these games, but the ROM images (or game files) have to be sourced separately then uploaded to the board. The ROM community has been thriving for decades online thanks to emulator projects like MAME, so finding the ROMs you need to upload will not be hard. Two logical questions at this point might be: 1) why buy a BitKit2 when you already have a cabinet with the original game board?; 2) if you’re just downloading and playing ROMs from the web, isn’t it just emulation?
The answer to the first is a practical one: 40 year-old boards go bad all the time, and can be an expensive and/or time-consuming fix, so having a board that can stand-in for one of several games can be a relatively quick, cheap fix, not to mention the ability to turn any one cabinet into an instant multi-cade.
Original Pac-man game board, it is oh so beautiful
The second question is a bit more complicated. Folks who fix the original game boards also download ROMs from the web and load them on an original board’s ROM chips, so that is not necessarily the emulation piece. The difference between playing those ROMs on your computer versus a FPGA board is the ROMs are not using a dedicated, programmed board on your computer, the game hardware is virtualized. On an FPGA board the ROMs are loaded on a dedicated circuit board that is programmed hardware intended to run them as such. The FPGA boards are comparable in terms of speed and performance to the original boards (which is not the case with MAME emulators on your PC). So the real question becomes is it “as good” which can quickly become both overly technical and subjective all at once. I personally prefer the original board given I’m drawn to the illusion of a vanishing point that ends in an “original,” but I recognize the limits of that logic. When a 40 year old board is not working, I would rather have the game be up and running then refusing to change for fear of a micosecond delay in the FPGA board.*
Ok, enough of that, now let’s get to how to install the BitKit2, as well as look at how it works. The above image shows the BitKit2 (the bottom, white board) plugged into a Pac-man Jamma adapter (the top green board). Jamma adapters are purchased separately, and I picked up the one pictured from the Arcadeshop (there are others sold from Mike’s Arcade and beyond, so be sure to check which one you have). Jamma is a widely used wiring standard for arcade games that allows you to bridge the original game’s wiring with a multi-purpose board like the BitKit. You’ll notice on the Pac-man Jamma board there is an additional connector coming off of it with two +12V orange wires , four +5V red wires, and four ground black wires. This connects the Pac-man Jamma board to a switching power supply,
Why does this particular Jamma adapter need a switching power supply hook-up? This is because the Pac-man board converts the AC power coming in to DC power on the board, which is not common. Most boards do this well before that using a separate transformer and power supply board.
You can see the red connectors going into +5V, orange into +12V, and black to ground on the switching power supply in the image above. I was confused that there was no -5V connectors, but I confirmed that is the case and this setup for the Pac-man Jamma board from the Arcadeshop worked perfectly for me. So, in short:
- Plug BitKit2 into Jamma board (in my instance the Jamma adapter is for Pac-man, but keep in mind different Jamma boards may not have the power supply requirement)
- Hook up Pac-man‘s power connector to switching power supply
- Plugin Jamma board into Pac-man‘s. wiring harness
After that the BitKit2 should power on and you’ll see two green lights, one to signal power is on, and the other to signal Bluetooth is working. At this point you can now interface with that board wirelessly using your computer.† There’s a dropdown to find and connect to your Bluetooth device, it’ll be something like BK-#### (such as BK-1077) and you should be able to connect to it—if not move closer and restart the BitKit board.
You can download and install the software for the BitKit Manager which will allow you to interface with the board to update the firmware, upload and manage game ROMs, and also upload high scores to a leader board.
The Manage Games interface is akin to FTPing files to a different machine, you select the game ROM zip files, click on the arrows sending them to the BitKit, and then below that there is a “Sync Game(s)” button that will then upload them to the board over Bluetooth.
You can also remove and/or erase all games. The manage Games tabs also provide ROM details for the games you are syncing:
And the Remixes tab provide links to special edition ROMs for Scramble, Ms. Pacman, and Eyes99, which is new to me:
There is also a section to submit high scores to the leader board:
This board contains quite a few features, and begins to marry the physical, offline tech of an arcade cabinet with the web in some fun ways. The idea of accessing the board wirelessly while inside the cabinet at will (no need to move and open the 200 pound machine) is pretty awesome.
With the BitKit2 installed and ROMs uploaded, you’ll need to access the board’s menu from the actual game cabinet. You can do this by depressing the player 1 button while powering on the game.
This main menu allows you to manage the BitKit2 settings, which includes system settings, game settings, video settings, and configuring controls.
System
In System you can enable the game orientation, credit cheat, attract mode, hide options, mode, etc. The credit cheat is pretty cool, with that on whenever you press the player 2 button twice quickly you add a credit. The attract setting initiates a slide show after two minutes of idleness that highlights games available and settings.
When the Hide Options setting is off you can press the player one and two buttons to reset the board, and thereafter quickly depress the player 1 button to enter the game menu to choose a different game.
Games
The games menu gives you access to all games settings for the ROMs you uploaded:
From this menu that lists all the game ROMs uploaded you can select a specific game and change settings like number of lives, bonus lives, turbo (if an option), etc. And these are granular, so they only work on a game-by-game basis, which is a nice feature.
I am using Turbo on Pac-man and made it the game the machine boots up (there can only be one), otherwise the settings are the default. And the 40 games I have loaded all contain their own settings which is pretty impressive.
Controls
The Controls menu allows you to test your buttons to ensure they work as intended. You can also define what your reset combination is, as well as what buttons you would use to pause a game—something I appreciate given I’m often interrupted during one of my epic games that will break all the recordz.
Video
There is also a Video setting that allows you to configure the monitor to test crosshatch patterns, colors, etc. An amazing feature I discovered was the ability adjust the vertical and horizontal positioning of your game so you should not have to touch anything on the actual monitor chassis, which was a huge relief for me.
Overall, it’s a really impressive interface with a ton of options. Also look like there are regular firmware updates—as recent as last month—which gives you bug fixes, new features, etc. I wonder if there is also the capability to program and load new games going forward? Not sure given my limited understanding of the FPGA boards, but that would definitely be a cool feature.
The CraftyMech site has a manual that will take you through all the different settings I not-so-briefly described above in greater detail, so be sure to check that out. I also recorded a 10 minute video wherein I work through how mine works (there are a few corrections that I have rectified in the notes of the video):
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*That said, some games are probably harder to port to an FPGA board than others, and then there are other physical limitations like vector versus raster graphics. So not all ports are equal, but it’s possible there will be no perceivable difference between Pac-man gameplay on the original board and that on a FPGA board.
†I personally would prefer if they had a non-wireless option way as well given the Bluetooth was finicky on my newer Macbook Pro running Monterey. I did get it working with a backup Macbook Pro running Catalina.
Yesterday Maren Deepwell, Kerry Pinny, Taylor Jadin and I ran the first of three sessions introducing Mission Mastodon. “What is that?” you wisely ask. Well, it’s a collaboration between ALT and Reclaim Edtech to provide a temporary server for folks interested in exploring the federated social networking platform Mastodon. It’s a sandbox space to experiment with signing-up, finding people you follow elsewhere, wrapping your head around content search, as well as re-programming ourselves to think beyond the large, monolithic sites that have come to dominate online social spaces.
Of course the attention economy is threatened by the Fediverse
Jon Udell’s recent post “Of course the attention economy is threatened by the Fediverse” discusses how a federated tool like Mastodon subverts the underlying attention economy driving the influencer culture most of the corporate social media giants have embraced. What if some of us aspire to something other than broadcast celebrity, what if we actually want to be social in the most generative sense of that word. To quote Udell:
I just want to hang out online with people whose words and pictures and ideas intrigue and inspire and delight me, and who might feel similarly about my words and pictures and ideas.
Hope springs eternal in this digital optimist, and those netizens like Udell who have worked hard for several decades to underline the myriad issues with networked culture while remaining focused on trying to build and promote a better, healthier web are my heroes. And I can even follow and talk to them on these miraculous networks. To misquote the Bard: “Sign me up for this brave new web, that has such people in it!”
But I digress, I just wanted to link to our first session, and thanks those who showed up in the chat and made it that much better. It was a lot of fun to talk about how Mastodon feels different (in many of the ways quoted above), but also to chat and share useful tips and tricks that might come in useful as you’re getting started.
You can watch the video here, as well as the future episodes in February and March. Also, be sure to check out the chat happening on Reclaim’s Discord, which you can access from the linked watch. I highly recommend the conversation given there some great resources shared by folks, including this list of annotated Mastodon resources Chris Aldrich has been collecting. Finally, if nothing else, watch the video above for Kerry Pinny’s 55 second intro that is absolutely brilliant! I love that my nickname is now “the Joker!”
Anyway, if you are at all intrigued by any of this, join us in this expendable Mastodon server that will explode in ~~90~~ 89 days….
https://thismastodonwillexplo.de
This is one of those posts that documents something I’ll forget as soon as it’s done. I’ve already written about fixing the power supply and skipping discs on my Pioneer DVL-909 combination Laserdisc/DVD player, both fixes will allow me to enjoy this player’s super power, namely the ability to play DVDs from multiple regions. I have a decent collection of US (region 1) and European (region 2) DVDs at this point, and these instructions I found for hacking the DVL-909 for multiregion works a treat.* Here are the instructions:
- Take the player apart.
- Find the solder pads on the board next to IC602 (taking the player apart is a bit time-consuming, but keep careful track of how you did it…).
Solder a wire between the two connections shown in the picture. Easy, huh?
Put the player back together.
- Next, pick a disc that’s of a different region than your player. Open the tray, but don’t close it yet.
- Bring up the DVD Menu with the remote.
- Select ‘Initial’.
- Press the ‘Display’ button on the remote. The OSD should show what region the player is currently set to.
- Press the ‘Condition’ button on the remote, and then the number of the desired region (1-6). The OSD display should change.
- Press the ‘Menu’ button and you’re golden. Pop in the disc and enjoy.
I didn’t need to take the player apart or solder any pads on the integrated chip IC602, which hopefully is the case for anyone reading this. I needed to do was use the remote control to select Menu–>Initial–>Display–>Condition–>enter region # from number pad–>menu again.
Doing that series of selections on the remote while the DVD disc tray is open opened up the world of DVD-media multiregion to me. You can see a quick video of walking through this process above, and I recommend testing this before even thinking about opening the unit and soldering anything
Also, it is worth noting the laserdisc player needs no special hack to play either region in my experience. I may need to test this more with different discs, but region 1 and 2 discs play regardless of what the player region is set to.
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*This is an HTML page created back in 2001, which is not that long after the player came out—pretty cool the resource is still online!
Reclaim Hosting is thrilled to partner with ALT over the next several months—starting next week!—to offer 3 fun, informative sessions over as many months focused on Mastodon. Hope to see you in the self-destructing Mastodon server soon!
It might be best to read this post with the following theme music playing….
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join our Mastodon server and have some fun! As always, should you or any member misbehave, the Server will disavow any knowledge of your actions (and ban you). Good luck!
ALT and Reclaim EdTech are a group of rogue nerds who have hi-jacked a Mastodon server and are opening it up to other interested folks. They will be running live online sessions which you are tasked to intersect. The sessions are open to all and free to attend so you should have no issues accessing them here. The sessions will offer interested parties valuable intelligence around how the federated social media software Mastodon works, with everything from joining a server, to helping them find their way around, as well as providing a peek behind the scenes of the moderating and hosting process. We need you to join the sessions, participate and report back.
- Session 1: Mission briefing: 19 January 2023 at 16:00 GMT (Watch Live)
- Session 2: Verifying your progress: 23 February 2023 at 16:00 GMT (Watch Live)
- Session 3: 30 days until self-destruct: 23 March 2023 at 16:00 GMT (Watch Live)
For any of the above sessions you can join the Reclaim Discord server to intercept any messages during the live broadcasts: https://reclaimed.tech/discord
The server will self-destruct 90 days from the first session, so you have a limited time to gather as much information as possible. The successful outcome of the mission—and the potential salvation of the social web—is in your hands. Don’t mess it up like some others who will remain nameless for reasons of international security.
As always, if you are discovered we will deny any knowledge of this mission. This message will self-destruct in….
It’s been a while since I blogged about the goings on at University of Mary Washington (UMW). This past September marked seven years since I last worked there, which is crazy to even think about. I very much thought I was UMW edtech #4life, but then I met Tim Owens and everything changed. This June Reclaim Hosting will host its 4th bi-annual conference, Reclaim Open, at UMW, which is just in time for our 10th birthday celebration. It’s a welcome return to where it all began, and where my roots still run very deep.
UMW homepage during the heady days of ds106!
And those roots are deeply personal, the thing about the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT) at UMW was we were fortunate enough to have a core that stuck together for over a decade. And I miss their company almost daily. We were colleagues, of course, but we also liked each other a lot. And like any close relations cultivated over time, it wasn’t always easy and far from perfect, but DTLT was family to me and together we did things I’m still ridiculously proud of. There was a grittiness and idealism to that work that remains a gold standard for me. And the DTLT core not only had full-time employees like Jerry Slezak, Martha Burtis, Andy Rush, and Patrick Murray-John—assembled and inspired by Gardner Campbell—but there were student aides that had a big impact on the group’s work: Serena Epstein, Joe McMahon, Joe Calpin, Leigh Ellis (pictured above!), and, of course, Shannon Hauser.
Shannon in Italy
Forgive me, I am tearing up over here, but Shannon came to DTLT still a teenager seemingly determined to think differently about teaching and learning. She was not their to party for 4 years, she was on an intellectual and personal journey that highlights the best side of a 4-year degree. I think she saw something in DTLT that we couldn’t fully see given how close we were to it, a tight, fun team using the available technology to irreverently push back against the prevailing assumptions around teaching and learning, and she was there for that! In fact, Shannon quickly became a fixture in our ramshackle outpost of an office. She was there so much I never knew if she was on or off the clock as a student worker. One of the things I quickly learned about her is she is as reliable as they come—and here commitment to the work and the group was absolute. In many ways she brought us together in ways that are hard to fully articulate, but we all came to rely on her for different things in our own lives, and she was always there for us. She was a mensch in the truest sense of that word. Shannon—unlike self-congratulating jack-asses like myself—was not interested in promoting the crucial role she played, she just wanted to be a good colleague and teammate—and that she was and no doubt still is for those lucky enough to work with her at UMW.
A house or apartment? Each has their benefits and drawbacks
But 15 years later (at least 10 of those as a full-time employee at UMW between the library and more recently DTLT), Shannon’s rise as an edtech in the tradition of the very best (cue self-congratulating jack-ass :)) hit me like a diamond through the forehead when Lauren showed me the work Shannon has done to integrate UMW’s Domain of One’s Own with a new WPMS instance UMW Sites. This new design gives folks a choice of where they create their online spaces, and brilliantly articulates the benefits and drawbacks in a clean, concise one-sheeter site. More over, this project allows her group to gracefully retire and archive UMW Blogs, a publishing platform she very much helped to build and promote since 2007. I am really excited about the work Shannon continues to do as an edtech at UMW, and it’s a beautiful thing to witness her stepping out of the shadows to claim her UMW Edtech #4life mantle! The real question for me now is, what would Shannon Hauser do? (WWSHD). I am a big fan, shauser, and there ain’t no love like the bava blog love!*
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*I know it has a different acronym now, but it’s always DTLT to me.
Soon after the shipping container arrived delivering a variety of personal treasures from the USA, I realized Moon Patrol was not working. I wasn’t overly concerned given this was one of the cabinets to be refurbished due to extensive water damage during a prior life. That said, it was working when it went into the container, so what went wrong? That question has cost me more time then I care to admit….
bavacade Repair Log 10-24-2022
After a couple of weeks and having already disassembled the entire cabinet, I figured out why Moon Patrol wasn’t working. I got a wild hunch one Sunday in October that it wasn’t the game board that was causing the issues, but rather the power supply. To test this theory I had to put the cabinet back together, but thankfully I was right. It was playable for a few more weeks, but in late November Alberto took the cabinet and got to work on rebuilding the coin box housing, cleaning up the water damage, and generally reinforcing the supports around the back doors. He always documents his work, so those photos are part of the documentary series below.
The last piece of the work before re-assembling (for the second time!) was to paint the cabinet, in particular the side art was in overall decent shape, but the colors had faded and there were several areas in rough shape. I decided against going the clean slate stencil route I took with Scramble given I would need to order them and it could take months to arrive. Instead I opted for hand painting over the existing art. This was ridiculously time consuming, but also ridiculously therapeutic and rewarding. I took a bunch of photos and they were fodder for several Mastodon posts the last month or so.
Hand painting the side art probably added a couple of weeks to the timeline, not to mention I took a much-needed break over the holiday. But last week I finished it all up and re-assembled the machine and I’m thrilled with the result. Like Galaxian before it, it’s another mint machine in the collection, and having it now on wheels makes moving it around the basement that much easier. I spent much of today (another cold and rainy day) organizing all the photos the work in a Flickr album. And I now remember why I’m not as organized in Flickr as I would like, it takes sooooo much time to edit, title, describe, etc. But I put in the work today, and there is a 90 photo album narrating the entire project. So enjoy the following photo documentary of Moon Patrol being brought back from a watery grave to near-on perfection!
And given I was already spending much of the day in Flickr, I created a second album for Moon Patrol to document the various connectors on the machine so I could re-assemble it cleanly without messing anything up.
When I think about it I’m very much a multiregion kinda guy. I hail from humble NTSC Long Island roots (region 1) but find myself in the Italian Alps living a very PAL (region 2) existence. I mean even this beautiful bava.blog has servers in two regions thanks to Reclaim’s multiregion prowess. So, given my ability to contain multiple regions, it would only follow that I’d acquire a multiregion Pioneer DVD/Laserdisc player in October to take make sure I can enjoy my multiregion media collection that arrived via a multiregion container from the US of A. Multiregion Man!
So, I got a gold player (literally) from Pioneer that was the earliest dual DVD/LD player (it also plays CDs) that came out in 1998, and this review from Home Cinema Choice back in the day sets the context nicely:
Only those living on the MIR space station have an excuse for not knowing about the DVL-909. It’s unique in being the only DVD player that also handles laser discs. As such, it’s an aspirational machine for home cinema enthusiasts from Hong Kong to Hounslow – especially as it can now be made to easily play all Regional Codes. More on this later.
The livery (in champagne gold) and styling are superb. Up front we see large and small loading trays (for CDs/DVDs and LDs) plus basic transport controls and a key for switching off the display.
State-of-the-art media in 1998 and I do love the way it is a kind of hybrid media that captures the shift from LD to DVD that would be an after thought in just a few short years given laserdisc collectors were already a small niche given the expense. VHS was still king in 1998 given DVD was only introduced market-wide in 1996. DVDs would not overtake VHS for market dominance until 2003, so this player sits firmly at the beginning of the rise of DVDs. Now if only it had a VHS multiregion player built into the unit somehow as well
The European champagne edition of the Pioneer DVL-909
Inputs for the European champagne edition of the Pioneer DVL-909
And while a unique unit, as the review above notes later on, there were some sacrifices to make the combo possible:
With so much on offer, surely this player is the best to grace our lab? Curiously not. In this comparison it measures second worst for inherent noise, worst for averaged colour quality and worst for video jitter. As for chroma crosstalk, it’s almost on an equally low footing as the same-brand DVD-only DV-505.
Clearly, compromises have been made in accommodating both laser disc and DVD formats. However, DVD delivers such a giant step in image quality, even a machine with poor technical traits, subjectively looks good. Considering its positive points (the crisp resolution cannot be ignored) we see a player that is much sought-after.
If you’re a laser disc fan looking to embrace DVD, the DVL- 909 is the business – even though technically, it’s not the last word in DVD performance.
Perfect for me given I’m a laserdisc fan ready to finally embrace DVDs 30 years later, not to mention my 27″ PAL Sony Trinitron TV hides all imperfections! So I got the European champagne gold player shipped by a German seller on ebay. But I’m learning the issue with shipping a laserdisc player is even if it was working when you bought it, that will probably not be the case by the time it’s delivered—or soon after. And sadly, dear reader, that was true for me with another Sony laserdisc player I bought in October, as well as this one. The Pioneer was a bit more resistant in this case, it did last long enough for me to test at least one laserdisc and DVD before the power supply went, whereas the Sony has yet to play anything, but that’s fodder for another post.
Bad power supply you say? Am I bold enough to actually open up a DVD/Laserdisc player for repair surgery to take out the power supply and start looking for issues? Well, I have to admit, I was not looking forward to the prospect. Tim and I had a couple of laserdiscs for Reclaim Arcade’s living room and Tim, who is far better at repair than I am, was having no luck. In fact, we brought a unit that needed repair to a recommended person who took it apart, did nothing for months, and then returned it with a “sorry” still in pieces. That incident still pisses me off, completely unreliable assholes!
What’s more, I have the Sony laserdisc player that never worked in with the only person who does repairs like this on old units in Trento, and my wait time has literally been 4 months, so I decided I would open up the unit and try to figure out what’s what. This is where the arcade repair work has not only emboldened me a bit, but it has also helped me understand there are some basic troubleshooting skills that begin to work across electronics. Like, for example, does it won’t power on? If not, that’s a power issue. Sounds stupid and basic, I know, but when you come from the black box consumerism mentality where it won’t turn on means it’s broken, which translates into all is lost, you inherent a sense of helplessness. The arcade repair community has changed that for me with physical media, and I have begun to break things down like what causes a DVL-909 not to power on, and then I search the Laserdisc Database community forums, and lo and behold I find this response by framal to a post on the thread by yaffle2345 who was having the same issue back in 2019:
Ic311 which supplies 5v and Ic411 which supplies 3.3v each have a CT pin which require a 2v switching signal to switch from STANDBY to ON. That signal is controlled from the remote and is only operational when the power supply board is installed in the laser disc player.
The darkening, on the pc board, around R105,R106 & R109 is not uncommon. These resistors, all 68k, form a voltage divider across the rectified mains DC. They, along with C116, provide the KICK START for the SMPS. Please check C116, 1mfd/400v, for both ESR and capacitance. The ESR reading should be a low value, approximately 7-8, and the capacitance should be approximately 1mfd. If in doubt change it.
I recommend that you also check the filtering capacitors, C211, C611, C311, C312, C511 & C512 on the power supply secondary. If any are faulty they can affect the supply’s operation. Q101, Q150 & Q151 are all N channel mosfets, Shin Dengen 2SK2333.
Two or three years ago this would have been Greek to me. And there is still a lot of Greek to be fair, but I have a better sense of how circuit boards work, in particular resistors and capacitors, which are denoted as C### for capacitor or R### for resistor, and often the board labels them so you can start to orientate. The next trick would be finding a schematic for the power supply, but I’m still a fish out of water with testing traces and values for resistors and capacitors, not to mention chips. But that is something I really want to work on this year given it is the gateway to more sophisticated arcade board repair, which remains an aspiration.
The key in the post above that helped me figure it out was framal’s ability to encourage yaffle2345 to think through the diagnosis logically. Ruling out integrated chips IC311 and IC411 given they will not function without adequate power regardless. Then rule out the assumption that the resistors blew given the darkness is normal for shielding resistors (I love how much experience plays into knowing what to look for), and finally the breakthrough for me was framal’s linking C116 to kick starting the power supply. That seemed logical to me, and I know how to replace a bad capacitor, so if this was it, then I was golden. I was further encouraged to try it when yaffle2345 came back and noted they did as much and it worked:
Just to follow up, I removed C116 and replaced it (not having the equipment to check it as indicated), and that fixed the problem – thanks, very happy
That was enough to at least try, but turns out the hardest part of this repair was not replacing the capacitor with some basic soldering, but actually getting the power supply board out of the unit to do the work. This is when I had flashbacks of the laserdisc we brought in for repair coming back in pieces. There were some nerves, but documenting with images and being deliberate solves a lot of those issues, not to mention more forum posts and Youtube videos
Laserdisc with casing off, at the bottom of this image you can just make out the power supply board beneath the power arm shaft.
As a result of the power not working, the tray needed to be manually opened. There is a mechanism within the unit you can access after the cover is removed that allows for doing this pretty easily. The rub in this instance was that the last piece of media I had in the player before it powered down was a DVD and the player mechanically adjusts to open only the DVD door to unload media. This means the larger lasersdisc tray was blocking access to remove the power supply, annoying. So, back to the forums to figure how to make the unit open the entire tray, not just the DVD slot. Turns out my friend yaffle2345 had the same exact conundrum as me–their problems are my problems!—and not only articulated the issue better than me, but also found the solution which I used in this thread:
I’ve tried winding the laser (I think it’s the DVD one) both half way back, and right back into its ‘cage’, but this doesn’t seem to affect anything – turning the belt pulley at the front still only moves the DVD tray.
I’m wondering if it’s the position of the yellowy-white plastic piece in this picture (not my picture):
Piece that controls which tray door opens in DVL-909
Mine seems to be in the opposite position to this picture – ie to the left – but I cannot work out what else needs to be pushed, pulled, or turned in order to allow it to move to the right.
Any help would be gratefully received
That post got no responses, so Yaffle2345 took matters into their own hands:
For what it’s worth, I did find out how to slide out the big tray on a powerless machine, which I’ll share here for posterity…
Wind in the small tray using your finger on the white pulley with the belt around it, then keep on winding.
Very slowly this will start raising up the whole laser assembly. Keep going and when this is fully raised, the white plastic item pictured in my previous post is then free to move from side to side. Push it towards the centre of the player (actually the spring may pull it that way, I can’t recall now), then begin winding the pulley back in the other direction.
The laser assembly will drop, and after that keep on winding and the big tray will come sliding out.
Hey presto, I have access to the power supply board. I might be asking a question or two about that later once I’ve done some tests
Thank you Yaffle2345 for thinking of posterity, because in this case it was me and it bailed me out majorly.
Image of the laserdisc with power supply, arm shaft and sundry other pieces out of the machine so work cna be done
People sharing how they figured out how something worked for others to benefit from is my favorite face of the web. I found pushing the white piece referenced a bit harder than suggested, and I was afraid I would break it, but thanks to the following video from Multiwizard I got a couple of additional tips for not only opening the tray but also removing the power supply:
That video was a break through, and I was able to get the board out, desolder the capacitor at C116 and replace it with a new 1mfd/400v capacitor I bought off ebay. One of the Youtubers I exchanged comments with recommended I change all the capacitors on the board while I had it out, and he was probably right, but I only had the one, so waiting for all the others to arrive was a non-starter. I finally did the work after the holidays because I didn’t want a failure to cast a cloud on the break (that’s how personally I take this work) and on Wednesday I re-assembled the unit and tested power and wouldn’t you know it, IT POWERS ON!!!
Narrating the fix in a short-ish videoI was fired up. My first successful laserdisc fix, and it was getting late so I waited until the next morning before slipping in the laserdisc Night Hawks (1981) to celebrate the victory. It played beautifully until the disc automatically switched from side A -> B upon reaching the end of side A. It made the switch cleanly, but after about a minute the disc was consistently skipping. It was weird because after taking the disc out and cleaning it it still skipped, but in a different place just a few seconds later. That made me suspicious that it was a disc issue, so I put in the Warriors (1979) and the same thing happened after a minute into side B. You can see the issue in the video below:That is more than a coincidence, looks like a bigger problem with the player, so back to the forums. And once again the Laserdisc Database forums giveth in this thread on “Issues with first minute of side b,” turns out this is a common issue with this series of Pioneer players. And while time consuming, fortunately the fix was pretty easy with minimal dismantling of the unit. There are two screws on the laser casing (one black and metal, the other white and plastic) and one (or both?) control the centering, and many folks suggested adjust these very finely (small turns that you test while running the disc and restarting side B again and again).
The white and black screw used to adjust centering to avoid side B skipping
I fiddled with both, and for me it was the slight adjustment to the metal screw that seemed to do the trick after an hour of trying various combinations. I started with the white screw that seemed to be moved in transit, but after nothing happened I tried the metal screw and got almost immediate results. After testing it worked on several discs I cemented the positions of both screws with some nail polish, a method several on the forum thread recommended. This issue will only effect laserdiscs given DVDs do not switch sides in the same way, so unless you watch a laserdisc through side A it might be a hard issue to detect.
And with that I have the DVL-909 multiregion player back up and running. It’s hard to fully communicate how good this fix made me feel. It’s super cool to be able to apply some of what I learned with the video game work over the last several years to other vintage technology, and it makes me want to do a lot more of this. Multiregion Man!
For the 35th episode of Reclaim Today, I had the distinct pleasure to sit down with professor Riv-Ellen Prell and artist Livia Foldes to discuss their collaborative project A Campus Divided: Progressives, Anticommunists, Racism, and Antisemitism at the University of Minnesota, 1930-1942. This website was born alongside a physical exhibit highlighting a history of surveillance and segregation at the university that spanned more than a decade, which was un-earthed by the research of Sarah Atwood—then a Ph.D. candidate in American Studies. The physical exhibit was immensely popular, while at the same time underscoring ongoing struggles and tensions not only at UMN, but across the US political landscape more generally.
The exhibit coincided with the early days of the Trump presidency’s racist and anti-Semitic dog whistling, in particular the “Unite the Right” rally on the University of Virginia’s campus in August 2017. That is the context for this historical deep-dive into campus-specific racist, anti-semitic, and ~~antifa~~ anticommunist rhetoric in the 1930s, a powerful moment wherein the struggle between the university administration and student activists in the 1930s might provide one way of understanding the contemporary national political stage as the exhibit opened.
Given the broader national situation, Prell and Foldes did not want to stop at a limited-run physical exhibit, so they decided to digitize these documents and design a home for them online that would not only make this archive readily available, but through a powerful design highlight the urgency and importance of activism when faced with the abuse of power. Watch the entire interview to get a sense of this truly important academic and design work that these scholar/artist/activists have made openly available to not only understand the past, but help put our present moment into that much sharper focus.
Every so often my blog hits a random milestone, and this one happened to come at the start of my 18th year of blogging, and the very end of 2022. Given that, I figured I would use it as an excuse to blog about blogging. This post is lucky number 3700, and if you divide that by the 204 months I have been blogging that is just over 18 blog posts a month since December 2005. That averages out to a new blog every other day. That’s amore!
This year that pace was more along the lines of every 3 days with a total of 126 posts overall, but my streak of blogging at least once a month every month since 2005 is still going strong. The iron man of blogging, if nothing else! The topics I have blogged about this year are telling, with the biggest percentage of posts being Reclaim and/or Reclaim Cloud, coming in at 81. There were 18 posts about bavacade and 11 posts highlighting the bavaweekly, that I hope to resurrect next year. There were 6 posts syndicated in from bavaradio (I was not great at keeping that site updated with latest radio shows), and another random 10 posts about various topics.
This year has been all Reclaim Hosting all the time and my blog reflects as much. I’ve had a lot of fun with Reclaim Cloud, and we continue to imagine new horizons for the future which keeps it exciting. And while for many a year I felt I was the last of a dying tribe writing into the blog void or navel gazing with every new post, it seems like the idea of regularly attending to your online plot and cultivating the soil is entering a new day. I see that most clearly with the uptick of blogging by the folks I work with at Reclaim Hosting. It has been an absolute joy to see Lauren, Meredith, Taylor, Chris, Pilot, Amanda, and now Noah all blogging this year. As a collective we had well over 200 blog posts, and something tells me we’re just getting started!
In fact, the work Pilot has done with Reclaim Roundup is in many ways the company meta-blog/newsletter that brings together all the work we do as a team and shares it monthly. Rather than one voice, it captures the work of an emergent team that is finding its rhythm and coming together in some truly magical ways. This many Reclaimers blogging and sharing their work is a powerful portent for the great things to come in 2023. Reclaim Hosting was in many ways built on the back of the blog, so it only makes sense we carry that torch and share where we are, how we got there, and where we are going. #4life!
Back in July of 2020, and again in September of 2020, I wrote about tracking costs in Reclaim Cloud.
Costs in the Cloud
A Follow-up on Costs in the Cloud
Two years later things have developed a fair amount with my personal use of Reclaim Cloud, and I think it’s worth sharing because as I move more and more of my web properties to the cloud, the costs have changed quite a bit from the $87.96 I was spending monthly in September of 2020. In fact, I’m now spending close to $400 per month for my Reclaim Cloud environments alone, not to mention my Cloudflare bill and my terrible domain habit Anyway, below is the billing breakdown by environment for the first 30 days of December 2022:
December 2022 costs by environment for my personal Reclaim Cloud
I went from 12 environments in 2020 to 21 environments in 2022. My monthly bill went from $87.96 in September of 2020 to $397.45 for the first 30 days of December. That is a significant jump, and it’s worth looking at how those costs break down. I have roughly two main groups of servers I manage. The first is the bava fleet of servers, which includes the bava.blog (in stereo), bava.tv (PeerTube), bavaghost (Ghost), bavacast (Owncast), bavameet (Jitsi), bavasocial (Mastodon), and two WordPress backup environments with three days of on-demand backups of the blog across two different regions. Let’s look at the numbers:
- bavacast $8.51 (Owncast instance I should probably keep off unless in use)
- bavacast-clone $0.02 (temp environment while moving bavacast to 1-click installer)
- bavaghost $19.61 (Instance of Ghost I am running alongside my blog)
- bavameet $2.93 (Jitsi instance I only turn on when needed)
- bavamulti-1 $24.52 (WordPress Multiregion primary site for the bava.blog)
- bavamulti-2 $24.49 (WordPress Multiregion secondary site for the bava.blog)
- bavasocial $25.18 (Test Mastodon instance for bava.blog I’m still playing with)
- bavatube $33.81 (PeerTube instance that hosts over 1000 videos)
- bavatube-clone $14.21 (Clone of PeerTube to test version 5 upgrade)
- env-7614939 $5.21 (Regular nightly backups of bava.blog on UK environment)
- env-9758267 $1.12 (Regular nightly backups of bava.blog on WC environment)
This comes to a subtotal of $159.61. If I was a bit more frugal I could probably eliminate $60-$70 by turning bavacast off more regularly, getting rid of the bavatube-clone, abandon the multiregion setup, and deciding not to run a separate mastodon instance for bavatuesdays. By eliminating those environments I can easily keep the personal hosting bill for the bava properties well below $100 per month. Not necessarily cheap by shared hosting standards, but the difference is what you can do. I’m running a pretty ridiculous multiregion setup that is overkill for my blog, but a testing ground for what is possible for sites that need to stay up no matter what. This is that space where my personal sites overlap with my professional research and development, so being able to spend the money to be able to run a lot of these next-generation apps that would never run in cPanel is crucial.
Also, I think the elephant in the room is owning your own media and managing it comes at a steep cost. Using YouTube or wordpress.com or Zoom or Twitch would be arguably cheaper, but not only would I feel dirty, but the cost is their terms and my data. Freedom ain’t free! So it is worth it for me to have the route around those options when possible to explore alternatives at a manageable cost.
The other properties I have been consolidating in Reclaim Cloud are the various ds106 sites. Namely ds106.us, the WordPress multisite that was a beast on shared hosting, but purrs like a kitten on Reclaim Cloud. Then there is the mighty ds106radio running on Azuracast in the cloud; the newly christened Mastodon server social.ds106.us; the old gold tilde space ds106.club; and finally the listen.ds106rad.io Apache server I just spun up last month to move it off cPanel. There is also the old ds106.tv environment running an Ant Media server I just shut down. That has been replaced with the ds106.tv server running on PeerTube, and I’m not deleting it until I know everything is synced to the new instance. So, let’s do the math on the monthly costs to host the ds106 empire:
- ds106.us $34.82 (This is an active WordPress Multisite with years of archives, the daily create, assignment bank and much more)
- ds106radio $50.54 (Instance of Azuracast running ds106radio)
- ds106social $57.98 (Mastodon instance running social.ds106.us)
- ds106.club $5.72 (Fun old school tilde server that’s still running purely for the joy it brings me)
- ds106.tv $34.68 (The old Ant Media server we are running, the new Peertube instance is running at $12 per month)
- listen2ds106radio $5.71 (an apache server I am testing to run archived HTML sites from)
And that’s the ds106 breakdown at a subtotal of $189.45 per month. You’ll notice that Mastodon and Azuracast are the most expensive environments, but once I retire the Ant Media Server, the cost could go down another $15-$20 monthly. But I might actually increase costs for ds106.us given I want to see if a multiregion setup works for that WordPress setup. Would love to get it running through Cloudflare and have failover, CDN action and DDoS protection, not to mention image compression on the fly. We’ll see, enough folks still use that server that I do not want to get cavalier with it, but it would be nice to treat ds106.us as mission critical infrastructure, even if it’s not in the eyes of many
So, with $159.61 for the bavaproperties and $189.45 per month for ds106, where is the unaccounted $50? That would be a couple of personal projects outside bavatuesdays I am playing with, namely No Copyright Intended which is a Peertube instance with all my archived VHS tapes, that runs $28.18 per month. Then there is Antonella’s Ghost blog that runs $14.34 per month, and finally a couple of sites I use to track my domains so I remember to renew the growing horde of online addresses I’m regularly accumulating (that’s another post). And with that you have just about $400 per month, sounds crazy, but then think about all the sites it is powering, and how damn well they work
The other cost, besides domains, is running the DNS for these sites through Cloudflare. I have the Cloudflare Pro Plan at $20 per month (mainly for bavatuesdays, the other domains are free) and I pay an additional $5.00 per month for the Argo smart routing of traffic for the bava. On top of that I pay another $8.80 for the 80 GB of accelerated traffic through Argo monthly (the first GB is free), which acts as a kind of speed boost. Finally, I pay another $15.50 for the load balancing feature through Cloudflare that I use to manage the bava multiregion setup. That breaks down to $5 for basic load balancing, another $10 for geo-routing traffic to the closest server, and $0.50 for DNS queries beyond the initial 500,000. Is it overkill? Definitely. Am I learning a ton about how amazing Cloudflare is and what it enables for sites that need to be constantly online? Absolutely.
So, at the end of the day, excluding domains, I am paying just about $450 for hosting my various bavatuesdays sites and all the ds106 instances. To be clear, I can be so extravagant with these resources cause I help run a hosting service—that fact is not lost on me. At the same time it is helping me put costs in the cloud in some perspective in an attempt to understand what the real costs of hosting your own data are, not to mention running larger community sites. I can afford to do this for ds106.us because it is Dr. Oblivion’s illegitimate love child, and bava is my bread and butter, but not everyone is in the same boat. But the more I put into the cloud the more I start to frame this exchange in terms of the cost of peace of mind and performance for the pain and suffering I went through when trying to run bavatuesdays and ds106.us on a shared server. Perhaps this whole post is more an argument for minimal computing than shedding the weight of the past, but that is not how I roll. I’m a web hoarder and I’m just gonna need to move to Cloud City!
I have to document some of what we have been working on for WordPress Multiregion (WPMR) given I’ll need to reference some of these commands and scripts in the future. One of the issues that can occur with our WPMR setups is that the database on the primary site can get out of sync with the secondary site, which means posts or comments to the primary database are not copied over cleanly to the secondary database. This is an issue for obvious reasons, but it can be hard to identify given both sites will still be running cleanly (the database does not break), it’s just that the secondary site will not have any of the latest content after the sync was broken.
This is an issue I have run into sporadically while playing with WPMR, and over the last month we have come up with a clean way to both identify when the databases aren’t replicating cleanly as well as a command to run that puts them back in sync.
Excerpt from script to identify with WordPress Multiregion instances are out of sync
The first bit I’ll share is a script Chris Blankenship wrote that is executed regularly using a cron job to ensure the JSON output from each WordPress instance of a WPMR setup match for latest posts or comments (and we may even want to add pages to that).
```
!/usr/bin/rubyrequire 'json'# Constants$jelastic_api_host = "https://app.my.reclaim.cloud"$jelastic_api_command = "JElastic/marketplace/installation/rest/executeaction"$jelastic_api_action = "diagnostic"$jelastic_username = "username"$jelastic_password = "password"# Session token for Jelastic API$jelastic_api_session = ""# List of targets to check$target_dictionary = {"environment.url.reclaim.cloud" => "container_id",}# List of targets that report errors with DB replication$list_to_email = []$email_template = <root@ansible.reclaimhosting.comTo: monitoring-notice send95to@reclaimhosting.slack.comEOM# Get a Jelastic API session tokendef signin# AUTHENTICATE AGAINST THE API#$jelastic\_api\_session = "****************************"$jelastic\_api\_session = JSON.load(~/jelastic/users/authentication/signin --platformUrl #{$jelastic\_api\_host} --login #{$jelastic\_username} --password #{$jelastic\_password} --silent true)['response']['session']end# Run diagnostic of DB replicationdef run\_diagnostic(target\_application)api\_json\_output = JSON.load(curl '#{$jelastic\_api\_host}/#{$jelastic\_api\_command}' -X POST --data 'appUniqueName=#{target\_application}&action=#{$jelastic\_api\_action}&session=#{$jelastic\_api\_session}')return api\_json\_outputend# Send notification emaildef send\_emailif $list\_to\_email.length() > 0email_to_send = $email_template + $list_to_email.join("\n")/usr/bin/echo "#{email\_to\_send}" | /usr/sbin/sendmail send\_to@reclaimhosting.slack.comendend# Sign out of generated sessiondef signout~/jelastic/users/authentication/signoutend# Main/entry functiondef mainsigninfor this_host in $target_dictionary.keysdiagnostic_output = run_diagnostic($target_dictionary[this_host])if (diagnostic_output['result'] != "0") and (diagnostic_output['result'] != 0)$list_to_email.push(this_host)endendsend_emailsignoutendmain
~/jelastic/users/authentication/signin --platformUrl #{$jelastic\_api\_host} --login #{$jelastic\_username} --password #{$jelastic\_password} --silent true)['response']['session']end# Run diagnostic of DB replicationdef run\_diagnostic(target\_application)api\_json\_output = JSON.load(curl '#{$jelastic\_api\_host}/#{$jelastic\_api\_command}' -X POST --data 'appUniqueName=#{target\_application}&action=#{$jelastic\_api\_action}&session=#{$jelastic\_api\_session}')return api\_json\_outputend# Send notification emaildef send\_emailif $list\_to\_email.length() > 0email_to_send = $email_template + $list_to_email.join("\n")/usr/bin/echo "#{email\_to\_send}" | /usr/sbin/sendmail send\_to@reclaimhosting.slack.comendend# Sign out of generated sessiondef signout~/jelastic/users/authentication/signoutend# Main/entry functiondef mainsigninfor this_host in $target_dictionary.keysdiagnostic_output = run_diagnostic($target_dictionary[this_host])if (diagnostic_output['result'] != "0") and (diagnostic_output['result'] != 0)$list_to_email.push(this_host)endendsend_emailsignoutendmain``
This lives on Reclaim’s Ansible server at/root/cron_scripts/multiregion_db_replication/multiregion_db_replication_check-bava.rb` and if I add my Reclaim Cloud username and password as well as our Jelastic API key I will be notified both via email whenever the two databases are out of sync. You can also integrate with Slack notifications, but I changed those emails given they’re particular to Reclaim Hosting’s Slack, much like the Reclaim Cloud credentials, Jelastic API key, etc.
So, now that we know when the sync is not working we need to fix it. And do that you need to run the following command on the secondary WordPress instance as root for the environment. To switch to root you need this command:
sudo su -root
After that, run the database recovery command below in screen given it can take 15-20 minutes:
screen
Once in screen, make sure the donor-ip value is the IP address of the primary WordPress instance in the multiregion setup. and then run the database recovery script:
/tmp/db-recovery.sh --donor-ip 'primary.wpmr.ip.address' --scenario restore_primary_from_primary
For example, the command for my setup looks like this:
/tmp/db-recovery.sh --donor-ip '198.244.162.213' --scenario restore_primary_from_primary
After that, the script will re-sync the databases.
What follows might be considered a wishlist. What would make sense based on this workflow is that any time the sync breaks the following three things happen:
- The Cloudflare load balancer is immediately switched from dynamic or geo-targeted steering of traffic to failover mode. This means that the traffic for the secondary server will automatically redirect all traffic to the primary environment until the two databases are re-synced.
- The database recovery script is immediately run once the out-of-sync notification is received.
- After the database recovery is finished and the script no longer shows the two databases out of sync the Cloudflare load balancer is told to resume dynamic or geo-targeted traffic steering
And with that the multi-region setup would not always need to route pools in failover order, this will happen only if there is an issue with database syncing, or any of the server instances goes down.
Following-up on yesterday’s post about our Owncast session for the Open Media Ecosystem series, I wanted to quickly highlight that we now have a 1-click installer for Owncast in Reclaim Cloud. I tried it out yesterday, and it is yet another slick installer from Taylor Jadin, he is en fuego!
First things first, what is Owncast? It’s free and open source live streaming software that integrates cleanly with production tools like Open Broadcaster Software to stream video to the web. [NB: Reclaim Edtech will host a three session flex course on OBS in the second half of January.] Owncast frames itself as an open source alternative to tools like Twitch, and with more social integrations (including the fediverse) it may be a nice fit for announcing streams across your social spaces. Keep in mind it’s first and foremost a streaming tool, no recording video, no production suite, or anything like that—live streaming and live chat is all. Much of its strength lies in its laser focus on streaming and a simple, elegant interface.
In terms of the installation on Reclaim Cloud, it is really quite simple, as a 1-click installer should be. You search for Owncast in the Marketplace:
Search for Owncast in the Reclaim Cloud Marketplace
After that you select to install Owncast and you will see a dialog box asking for the Environment name, display name, and region for installation:
Owncast installer dialog box
Once you fill this out and click “Install” the app will start installing.
The Package is being installed please wait dialog box
After about a minute Owncast will be installed and you will get an email with the environment IP address for pointing an A record to if you want a custom domain like cast.bava.tv. The email will also have the default username and password for Owncast, which is admin and abc123 respectively.
Owncast email you receive after installation
Needless to say you should change your password once you logic, and it just so happens it is the same as your secret stream key, which I find convenient. Also, you will notice the email says that if you what a custom domain domain and A record to the listed IP address, what’s more, there is an Add-on in the environment that allows you to add the custom domain and once you do it will automatically issue an SSL certificate, which is very slick!
Owncast domain configuration Add-on
And the next step is super clear, enter the domain name and click change:
Owncast Domain configuration Add-on for changing the domain
The other piece which is quite nice is an Add-on for updating the environment to the latest version, which saves folks a lot of futzing in Docker, which can be a bear if its new to you:
Update Owncast Add-on
And with that you have the entire installation, and it was so fast for me I almost thought I did something wrong
In terms of managing Owncast, that is quite simple, you login with admin and abc123 at yourowncastinstall.com/admin URL and the dashboard will have the RTMP and Stream key front and center.
Owncast dashboard with the RTMP and Stream key front and center
The stream key is also your password for logging in, so I recommend changing that immediately at Configuration–>Server Setup:
Change your stream key/password in the Configuration–>Server Setup window
After that plug your streaming URL and stream key into your OBS software stream settings and you are ready to stream live to the web. There are other features like web hooks for integrating with social sites, live chat that just works, and streaming from S3 buckets, so get in there and play around.
What’s cool about this installer is now we have working 1-click installers for every application we are featuring in the Open Media Ecosystem series: Azuracast, Jitsi, Owncast, and PeerTube. That is pretty awesome, and I think I heard/saw something about a 1-click installer for Mastodon as well, WHAT?!
I spy with my little eye a 1-click Mastodon installer in Reclaim Cloud
In another installation of the Open Media Ecosystem series run through Reclaim Edtech, Pilot Irwin and I did a stream last week highlighting the virtues of Owncast, a free, open source application for live streaming video. We used the Who, What, When, Where, How and Why approach to providing an overview of Owncast, just like Azuracast, and the verdict was there’s much to love about a small, open tool with a singleness of purpose. Owncast aims to provide a free alternative to Twitch for streaming, and that it does very well. And with momentum around the fediverse growing it may provide a good alternative for live streaming to a distributed community, potentially making monolithic tools like Twitch with restrictive copyright that much less appealing. What’s I love about Owncast is it’s simple interface and straightforward approach to live streaming, but if you watch the short overview session below you’ll hear Pilot and I say as much a lot.
The other cool thing worth noting here is that during this stream Pilot and I mention the possibility of a 1-click installer for Owncast in Reclaim Cloud, and soon after that Taylor Jadin went ahead and created it. So good!
I’ll have a separate post about the Owncast installer on Reclaim Cloud here shortly given I just tested it out, but if you are looking for an elegant and easy tool for live streaming to the web—no recordings, no media production, just streaming—then look no further, Owncast fits the bill quite nicely.
We’ll see how much I can reflect on 2022 in the next few days, I still feel like I have to blog about what’s happening now so thinking about 12 months of time might have to happen after the new year, which may save me from publicly committing to resolutions that will become quickly marooned on the bava island of hopes and dreams.
But 2022 was a good year on several fronts, and one I don’t blog about too much here is health. Sometime in early 2019 I got a scare after some routine blood tests showed crazy levels of iron proteins in my blood along with high readings for liver enzymes. I was still going to the doctor in the US when this happened, and driving back from the visit with a prescription for an abdominal scan as well as gastroenterologist visit I remember thinking this this may be the beginning of something else. The levels were high enough that it was impossible for the physician’s assistant to hide their concern, and that concern was contagious. I got to thinking, “Really? The kids are still young. Never been happier at home. Reclaim is getting to a really good place. WTF?!” You can just imagine the mental dramatics of someone caught in traffic on the I95 trying to process what turned out to be a not-so-routine visit. I even started imagining I could feel my liver revolting within me like a grotesque scene from some crazy Cronenberg film. I could swear I felt something above my stomach, which was probably just the expected dread of a moment like this.
Turns out the liver scan was normal and their was no immediate cause for alarm there, so I could hang-up my Walter White plans for a bit. Nonetheless there was something behind these ridiculously high iron levels, but I’m pretty good at burying these concerns if not immediately in danger. In fact, on a visit back to the US a few months later I was telling my sister Kissy, who happens to be a nurse, and after hearing my blood levels she immediately said, “It’s probably hemochromatosis.” I had no idea what she was talking about, but damn if she wasn’t right on the mark. She even told me exactly how it would be treated (phlebotomy) and that if my heart hadn’t been damaged and/or my liver wasn’t shot already, I should be alright. In that short 10 minute conversation in her living room on Long Island I had a blueprint for what was to come—I am still quite impressed by her for that. She was better than any doctor I had seen—and funnier!
And while Kissy’s diagnosis was not yet confirmed, I was still between two health care systems, and had yet to make an appointment with a gastroenterolgist in the remaining six months of 2019. As life took over that never happened and by the time I returned to dealing with it in 2020 the pandemic hit—and I was not going back to the US any time soon. I did finally return in October 2020, but that was a Reclaim Arcade trip and I never did make the time for a doctor’s visit (maybe I was in denial?), but it was still in the back of my head and would occasionally fill me with thoughts of biological dread. 2020 was also the time Antonella and I decided not to return to the US anytime soon, so it would mean I was officially switching to the Italian healthcare system in 2021, and boy was that an awesome choice.
So, at this point it is early 2021, the pandemic was still raging with the Omega strain and things were not opening up on the medical front. I did manage to get my iron and liver enzyme levels tested again in mid 2021, and by this time the iron protein ferritin had doubled to over 2000, so I was now almost 7x over normal limits, which meant the biological dread returned more frequently in 2021. And while the pandemic was still overloading the healthcare system, by the end of that year I managed to get an appointment at a local blood bank to start giving blood given I was still feeling absolutely no symptoms of any kind (sometimes it is linked to fatigue, discolored skin, impotence, etc.). In fact, hemochromatosis can often be asymptomatic, which means if I didn’t get a comprehensive blood test in 2019 that looked at my liver enzymes and ferritin levels I might still be in the dark on this condition.
Once they saw my levels at the blood bank they referred me to a specialist in Verona, and it was at that point in January of 2022 that my sister’s diagnosis was corroborated. They prescribed a test to see if I had the gene given hemochromatosis is often genetic passed on by the parents, and once the gene’s presence was confirmed all my treatment thereafter was 100% free. Socialized healthcare means paying far less than in the barbaric US system, but full blown, idealized communist health care is when you have a rare blood disease and you don’t even pay the 10 euro visit fees. There are some in Trento who bemoan their healthcare system, but I try and assure them that if they had the US model it would only get 1000x more expensive, and as a result that much worse. Civilized health care is reason enough not to go back home. The horror the average American experiences as a result of health care costs and the uncertainty of insurance coverage is evidence of how deeply deleterious the revered practice of profits before people can be to a nation’s soul.
So, for all of 2022 I have given anywhere from 350-500 ml of blood a grand total of 21 times. That averages out to once every 2 and a half weeks for an entire year. My ferritin levels have dropped from 2000 in December of 2021 to 540 in early December 2022. Here’s to hoping by mid-January my ferritin and liver enzyme levels will be normal for the first time in at least 3 years.
One of the fun facts about hemochromatosis is it usually occurs in Northern European men, and based on some internet research Antonella did there is a hypothesis that this genetic mutation was common amongst Celtic warriors anywhere from 1000 to 3000 years ago. This condition might have developed over many generations to help deal with the large amounts of blood loss suffered in battle. I’m sure there are some finer points to this genetic history I’m missing here, but this does kinda mean I’m a Highlander, and I can lose a lot of blood*. For example, I gave blood on average every 2.6 weeks and never got dizzy once. I am a super hero—the true heir apparent to Iron Man! So 2022 was pretty good in that regard, the whole confirming my superhero status and getting me carte blanche access to the Italian health system #4life!
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*The scandanavians are arguing it is actually a Viking gene, but given I am of Irish origins I hold with the Celts
Earlier this month I did a session for Reclaim Edtech’s Open Media Ecosystem series on the open source web radio software Azuracast. I also posted about Azuracast’s web hooks that sent notifications to both Twitter and Mastodon when a live broadcast is happening. It’s been an open source media software kinda month for us at Reclaim, so the bava abides.
On the way to documenting changes made to listen.ds106rad.io, I ending up thinking more broadly about how my approach to hosting personal sites has undergone a major shift. I no longer default to cPanel, rather I am pretty much cloud-first all the way!
The listen.ds106rad.io site now hosted on a micro-Apache server on Reclaim Cloud
Until two weeks ago the domain listen.ds106rad.io was pointing to a catch-all cPanel account, and I setup a subdomain for listen.ds106rad.io which hosted the HTML file with the embedded player and an image or two. As I continue to push as many applications from cPanel into Reclaim Cloud as possible,* I wanted to see how easy it would be to spin up an Apache server environment hosting the webpage. It’s probably overkill, but at 1 cloudlet (128MB RAM and 400MHz CPU) it’s also not too crazy.†
The listen2ds106radio apache server in Reclaim Cloud
The process was as easy as installing an Apache container, adding the HTML file and images to /var/www/webroot/ROOT opening up port 80 and 443 in the environment firewall and finally getting an SSL certificate (no load balancer necessary). And it worked cleanly, I want to see if I can start playing with virtualhost configuration to figure out how Apache servers manage mapping domains, but this is pretty awesome. It is the early stages of a server to host all my archived HTML sites over the years (there are many now), and if I am trying to go cPanel-less this year so figuring this out will be crucial.
Once I move a site/app into Reclaim Cloud I often find it easier to run DNS through Cloudflare rather than cPanel. I do this not only because I love the Cloudflare interface, but also because it provides everything from proxied SSL certificates to DDoS protection to load balancing to object storage to a global CDN and that’s just a few of the features.‡ In fact, the migration to the Cloud over the last two years has helped me understand that Cloudflare could stand-in for large swathes of what cPanel does currently.
Cloudflare’s DNS interface is so beautiful!
In fact, take the case of ds106radio. The main application Azuracast is hosted in a Docker container on Reclaim Cloud; the DNS runs through Cloudflare; the transactional email through Mailgun, and we’re currently setting up S3 storage for hosting backups and recordings of live broadcasts. The more I play in Reclaim Cloud, the more I begin to understand how the future of Reclaim Hosting could look. While long overdue for my slow brain, it’s still exciting to start finally seeing the outlines of the future.
Reclaim Cloud Add-ons can be thought of as packages of functionality from cPanel on an app-by-app basis
The various pieces, i.e.server (Reclaim Cloud), DNS (Cloudflare), email (Mailgun), and storage (S3), are currently distributed across various services given each does their own bit best—what’s more rather than the kitchen sink approach of cPanel, you can have addons for specific features that you can choose to activate (and pay for) on any givenenvironment as needed. So also should have the ability to manage email, DNS, or storage settings as Addons for any given server environment in Reclaim Cloud, and then go one step further and integrate them to make it possible to select which tool you will use for DNS management, storage, transactional email, etc. (this could also be cPanel, but no longer assumed and defaulted to).
So, for example, you want to install Azuracast on Reclaim Cloud, and then manage the DNS through a Cloudflare addon. After that you can setup email through a Mailgun addon, and then choose whatever S3 provider you use to integrate storage—that’s another addon. All of these pieces are managed using Addons, and keeping them linked to a specific environment helps you remember what service you used for which server/application.
I think a hosting company at this moment—not unlike an edtech—needs to be thinking through how to integrate the best of breed cloud tools into a simple, elegant interface using APIs that will essentially stitch together a next-generation hosting interface. And for the next-gen apps this goes beyond just a one-click installer for the application, it also has to make sure DNS, email, and storage all work. And this is where the one-click Ghost installer Taylor Jadin built really helped me see it all in one place tied to the Reclaim Cloud environment. It is a blueprint for making these traditionally difficult-to-install next-gen Cloud apps far more accessible, and the addons at the environment level is where you can naturally integrate all the other pieces traditionally offloaded to cPanel, DNS, Email, version updates, and storage quotas to name just a few.
Addons for a Ghost 1-click isntaller in Reclaim Cloud that helps you manage Mailgun, DOmain configuration, and an easy container update.
We have talked about this at length with the idea of Domains 2.0 and trying to abstract out the hosting process to try and understand what people need rather than defaulting to registering a domain and then immediately driving folks into cPanel. What if the interface was more contextual (tied together by APIs from other services) that can communicate with your DNS records, have bucket keys for storing files, and see what mail records exist for a given domain. I understand that what I am saying here and what Taylor has done for Ghost is not the same thing, but for me it represents a path forward to explore what Domains 2.0 might look like if Reclaim Cloud were the default, not cPanel.
I think the other piece worth discussing at length, and I will save it for my next post, is how this shift to the cloud effects hosting costs. It has been my experience that this approach can get expensive quickly, but the other side of that is that process becomes that much better and what’s possible that much greater that it seems worth it, at least for me given my day job.
White board with the early blueprint for a container-driven Domains API
All of which reminds me of when Tim and I met Kin and Audrey at Emory University in 2014 or so. We were chatting at the hotel, and Kin recounted his early server admin days when he discovered AWS (and soon after understood the power of the API) and the hook was that it is scalable infrastructure that you would only pay for what you use. But as he noted, it was so flexible and so much was possible in terms of replication, increased uptime, and generally tinkering with how the next generation of server infrastructure works that it ended up costing more, but everyone was happy because there was no downtime, while more and more infrastructure could be automated and managed remotely. In 2014 I was just trying to wrap my head around something Kin had been working on for years, and as always he was graceful and generous with everything he knew. In fact, later that year Tim and I asked Kin to help us map out the long road towards a container-driven hosting service managed using APIs, and I think that vision is aging well, and with Reclaim Cloud as robust as ever I know one thing I’ll be thinking a lot about in 2023: defaulting to the Cloud!
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- It’s been two years since I moved the bava.blog and the main ds106.us sites to Reclaim Cloud, and the experience has been great in terms of performance and management.
† Especially once I figure out how to automate virtual hosts so I can map domains and host numerous flat HTML sites from this one server, or basically reproduce the tilde space approach for my archived sites.
‡In many ways Cloudflare represents various pieces of the hosting panel for the next-generation of web applications, and it would be smart to figure out how to integrate, rather than try and reproduce, their features through Reclaim Cloud. An integration between Virtuozzo and Cloudflare for Reclaim Cloud driven by a series of API calls that would allow folks to use it seamlessly with Reclaim Cloud would be a worthy goal. I have much more to say about Cloudflare in the coming posts and beyond, but suffice it to say in this long footnote that there will be a day as soon as next year where all my web properties will be hosted in Reclaim Cloud with the DNS managed in Cloudflare and the email running through Mailgun.
…and all the irreparable joy it has brought me!
We were chatting about blogging in the Reclaim Edtech meeting on Wednesday when it occurred to me that I missed bavatuesdays’ 17th orbit around the web. December 13th is this blog’s birthday. Seventeen gott damned years! I’m not sure I’ve done t0o many other things as consistently and for as long as I’ve blogged. There has been a post at least once a month, every month since December 2005. By year’s end I’ll hit my 3700th blog post, and have over 16,000 comments.
There’s some serious mileage on this site, and I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I pretty much owe any pathetic semblance of a career I have mustered in the last 20 years to this space. That’s why I remain a true believer in the open web; I have experienced its power in my own work. Continually sowing ideas like seeds on this site, working tirelessly to help them germinate, and then sharing the fruit with those who would bite from the bava apple.
The bava.blog continues to be a happy home for sharing thoughts, championing the work of others, and documenting all the things I would otherwise forget. In many ways blogging is a quotidian affair: they’re often not big ideas and many are arguably forgettable, but the habit of reflecting regularly by writing has been transformative. And for me the blog has always represented a liberation from academic writing—a prison house of language I had been stuck in for almost a decade during grad school. If you think my writing is bad now, you should have read my grad school papers
I still struggle with some of the basics of writing, and I think part of what attracts me to it is that it’s always been so damn hard for me. I’ve learned that if I continue to try and cobble together a sentence that captures an experience or idea sooner or later one will hit. There are certainly more pricks than kicks, but it’s all worth it when I am able to bring forth one cogent thought that resonates with a couple of other people, it’s a deep reminder of how hard we have to psychically work to try and connect with one another—and I’m not interested in trading that for the tempting convenience of offloading the work. In many ways it’s all we have.
But there I go philosophizing again. The simple point is this blog has been very, very good to me. The least I can do is write a post every twelve months to remind myself that the scribblings in this virtual notebook are a kind of small life’s work that is prosaic enough to be easily forgotten, but remarkable enough to potentially intersect—however briefly—with another life’s vector. There’s a magic in that banality that I don’t ever want to take for granted.
Why blog? Because there is faith in a seed. #4life
Reclaim Open Art
I don’t think I have posted yet about Reclaim Open, so let me fix that now and forever! Reclaim Hosting‘s 4th bi-annual conference will take place next year on June 5th, 6th, and 7th in Fredericksburg, VA. As luck and planning would have it, the event coincides with our 10th anniversary as a company, so we decided to go back to where it all started: UMW! To make the deal that much sweeter, there will also be an anniversary/birthday bash at Reclaim Arcade to celebrate this momentous occasion.
But if you are still not convinced to make the journey, my final plea will be to join us not only for a 3-day event (1 for the un-conference, two for the show, three for the celebration let’s go, go, go), but also be part of a micro-history in the making as we’ll be coordinating a DIY documentary to try and capture the past/present/future of the open web as lived and witnessed by many of the folks on the ground. For example, it would be a lot of fun to bring together a panel of folks from UMW’s Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (DTLT) during the Web 2.0 years to help anchor that moment of the web and acknowledge its importance for the very existence of Reclaim Hosting, right?
Andy Rush may or may not be involved
I’m absolutely thrilled for this, not only is it akin to a homecoming, but the prospect of re-connecting with so many amazing people that we’ve collaborated with over the years is truly exciting. In the new year we t will also begin announcing three brilliant keynotes speakers, each of whom will be focusing on one of the three temporal conditions of our event, namely past, present, and future of the open web. It’s going to be an event for the ages, even accounting for my bias. If you have attended any of our previous events you know there is a there there, and we will bring our A-game x10 because this represents the culmination of a decade of Reclaiming. And if the Fediverse is any indicator, we’re all just getting started on yet another reclaiming journey, if I may be so bold, sir. I hope to see you there, and you can read more about it and submit a session through our absolutely stunning conference website–the combination of a Lauren Hanks design with Bryan Mathers art is formidable!
WordPress Back-up Addon Interface
I recently wrote up a support guide that outlines how to backup a WordPress environment in Reclaim Cloud. We already take regular nightly backups of all environments that are kept for 14 days, but those can only be restored upon request.
Reclaim Cloud backup server setup dialogue box
With this approach you can manage backups based on your specific needs. Whether it’s hourly, weekly (or even a specific day of the week), monthly, etc., it is all possible. Add to that on-demand backups if, for example, you need to test something in the moment and want a quick and easy method to restore if things go south. And there is no two-week limit as with the automatic backups, you can control how long they stay around. This tool comes is really useful for folks who want to manage their own backups, and the additional insurance is never a bad thing.
Reclaim Cloud WordPress backup server options
Having working backups has been one of the essential elements of keeping Reclaim Hosting running as smoothly as it does. And while not always the sexiest topic, I always feel better knowing they’re around. We can also use Jetbackup in Reclaim Cloud environments for an additional licensing and storage cost which also allows for on-demand backups, what’s more they would happen in a completely different data center to ensure even further redundancy. That would be a nice addition to the current feature in Reclaim Cloud, allowing folks to backup and restore from (and possibly to) a different region in the unlikely event the entire data center is offline. This does overlap a bit with some of the WordPress multiregion hosting we have been doing at Reclaim Hosting this year, and while we can setup region-by-region backup servers for a multi-region environments, they’re still tied to the region the instance lives it—to have these backup environments be region-agnostic across our cloud servers would be pretty badass.
While I have been moving house to Mastodon over the past month, I knew I would be missing the ds106radio tweets announcing someone going live. That bot was created by UMW student Aaron Clemmer in Sping of 2011, and has been doing its thing for more than 10 years with 134,000 tweets since.
ds106radio twitter profile
In 2020 when we moved ds106radio to Azuracast, Tim did some surgery on the bot to keep it working with the new application (we were previously using Airtime). The bot notifies Twitter whenever someone goes live or plays a new track is played, but the trick is it only needs to send notifications when someone is broadcasting live. When no one is live the station falls back to WFMU and none of that is sent as a notification—if it did it would be a very loud account. Yet another functional relic from the most awesome course ever!
To be clear about the details of Tim’s intervention mentioned above, the web hooks available in Azuracast integrate with Twitter and post whenever a new song is played or a new DJ goes live. The issue for us with that is it posts everything, not only when a DJ goes live on ds106radio, but also all songs and DJs when the stream defaults back to WFMU. As mentioned before, that would be way too noisy. So Tim wrote a script that bypasses the Twitter web hook and call a PHP file that has code that only posts to Twitter when someone goes live and when a new song plays—everything else is muted. That works great for Twitter, but what about Mastodon?
Webhook interface in Azuracast
I looked at Tim’s code, but not only was that for Twitter, but I am not a programmer so even if it did translate there’s no way I could do anything with it. At the same time I noticed the lead developer of Azuracast, Buster Neece, announced they built-in web hook support for Mastodon. I checked that new feature out by upgrading to the latest release candidate, but it was not full featured yet. So, given this is an open source app and Azuracast has a Discord community I reached out to see if this was in development and if the ds106radio community could help fund it, literally within days the web hook for Mastodon not only had all the features we needed (namely posting only when a DJ goes live and the metadata changes for a live stream). But even cooler, the Twitter web hook that existed for Azuracast also got these new features, making Tim’s script to no longer necessary. So good!
“Live only” option for both Mastodon and Twitter web hook in Azuracast
The Azuracast web interface makes it easy to integrate with Mastodon, and you can customize the messages that go out pretty seamlessly.
Web Hook for Mastodon
So now I integrate Azuracast with the Mastodon account for @ds106radio on the social.ds106.us server and I am once again in tune with the mighty ds106radio!
Open Media Ecosystem blitz hosted by Reclaim Edtech kicked off last week. Amanda Schmidt and I got the series started by highlighting the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and Hows of the free and open source software Azuracast. You can watch this session that not only features how to install Azuracast on Reclaim Cloud, but also the impressive interface for radio broadcasting from the browser using WebDJ. The series is meant as an overview of several open source software projects dealing with media, and Azuracast is near and dear to my heart given it has been powering ds106radio since 2020.
What’s more, we just worked with the Azuracast’s creator and primary developer, Buster Neece, to further develop the webhook for Mastodon so that we could integrate ds106radio more cleanly with yet with another open source media ecosystem! More on the Mastodon in January, February, and March…but no spoilers just yet!
I have a couple of video games that are undergoing full cabinet restoration work, namely Moon Patrol and Venture, and they should be finished up before Christmas. But being the paragon of efficiency that I am, I squeezed in a third quick refurbishing project of the Galaxian cabinet. This was not nearly extensive as the other two projects, and was born of my trying to quickly remove the pale blue T-molding in order to replace it with lime green, which is what I remember as the original trim finish.*
Galaxian cabinet with glued in T-molding
When I started to remove the T-molding I learned it was glued in, and what was previosuly a presentable game quick became rough around the edges, literally.
Now I understand why you never want to glue T-molding, taking it out was becoming next to impossible without chewing up the edges, which would only make things worse. So I stopped and brought in the professionals, namely Alberto!
Alberto took a look and told me he has a router tool with a saw-like blade he can adjust to cut out the old T-molding and replace it with the lime green beauty. I was more than happy to let him work his magic, and he did!
And with that the new T-molding was installed:
And while he had it in his workshop I asked him to put in on wheels (they’re proving to be absolutely clutch in the bavacade) that can be hidden behind an added base made of 2x4s:
He also did a nice job cleaning-up on the cabinet overall, in addition to repairing the side of the coin box:
This Galaxian was already in good shape, but now it’s just about mint. I have the original feet should someone want to remove the added base and replace the wheels in the future, but I plan on getting every game I have on wheels at some point, it just makes moving these things around that much easier.
And after putting it all back together in a couple of hours, I now have it in the foyer alongside Dig Dug, Pac-man, and Donkey Kong Jr. Quite a classic line-up!
_______________________________________
*Although I imagine it may have had more than one color given the immense popularity of the game.
Yesterday was a good day for the bavacade, I got the Elevator Action Multi-Kit from High Score Saves up and running. This kit not only saves up to 10 high scores, and enables free play that allows attract sounds, but … Continue reading →
Welcome to Running a Newsletter with Ghost! As we hit the last day of November I wanted to quickly compile the Reclaim Edtech sessions we did this month focused on getting up and running with Ghost, an open source platform … Continue reading →
It was only a matter of time at the pace I’ve been going with setting up Mastodon instances that Reclaim Hosting would get its own snazzy server, and that day was Wednesday. I streamed the setup so that I would … Continue reading →
Now that I have a few instances of Mastodon running in Reclaim Cloud, I figured it was time to start optimizing them for resource usage, storage, and security. This post is an attempt to capture what I’ve done thus far—which … Continue reading →
Thanks to this post on the OL Daily, and this subsequent toot from Grant Potter reminding me to do it, I spent time converting my recently acquired Twitter archive into markdown. “Why?” you ask. Well, Mattias Ott covers that beautifully: … Continue reading →
I’ve been pretty obsessed with figuring out how to run a Mastodon server on Reclaim Cloud the last couple of weeks, and it’s been a lot of fun. I do dig challenges like this, and I moved almost immediately from … Continue reading →
The following video guide shows you how to install Mastodon on a Reclaim Cloud virtual private server (VPS). This guide assumes you have your VPS spun up in Reclaim Cloud, a domain for your server chosen, a transactional email account … Continue reading →
The following video tutorial takes you through the process of preparing to install Mastodon on a virtual private server (VPS) in Reclaim Cloud. I’ve installed a few servers now, and based on that experience it makes sense to break things … Continue reading →
I just posted about the Ghost Flex Course currently running at Reclaim Edtech this month, and it occurred to me that is just one of two! Lauren Hanks and Maren Deepwell are deep into week three of their four-week session … Continue reading →
This week saw the release of the second installment of the Ghost Flex Course we’re running at Reclaim Edtech. This session featured Pilot Irwin taking us through their process of putting together Reclaim Hosting’s monthly newsletter Reclaim Roundup. There is … Continue reading →
Rhyming post titles will cost you extra! 🙂 @ReclaimHosting Y'all don't happen to help clients start up Mastodon servers, do you? — Derek Bruff (@derekbruff) November 6, 2022 I got sucked down an elephant-sized rabbit hole the last couple of … Continue reading →
Last week Lauren Hanks, Chris Blankenship, and I recorded a session for Reclaim Today, “Oh What Brave New Worlds of WordPress Multiregion Hosting!” wherein we discuss the process of getting Reclaim Hosting’s main site running in in a WordPress mutliregion … Continue reading →
This month at Reclaim Edtech Pilot, Taylor and I will be running a flex course focused on getting up and running with the open source publishing tool Ghost. It will take place every Wednesday over the next three weeks at … Continue reading →
I feel like I could write a book about just last week at Reclaim Hosting, so many awesome things happening and the work we’re doing to build a sense of team internally and community more generally is really starting to … Continue reading →
It’s been more than a decade since Grant Potter introduced me to the wonderful world of self-hosted web radio, yet another lasting legacy of that heady ds106 trip. During the pandemic the radio presented an occasion to return to micro-communities. … Continue reading →
This was a two-part #vinylcast on ds106radio x-cast to Reclaim Radio, while streaming to bava.tv. The vertical and the horizontal. The vinyl was a compilation of artists on... Continue reading →
This was another couple of weeks of fits and starts when it came to arcade repairs given day-job demands. That said, I actually made some significant progress on Moon Patrol. Like, it works now progress! 🙂 What started as a … Continue reading →
It’s been a quite busy fall at Reclaim Hosting, kinda crazy to think October is almost over. I really haven’t looked up from my desk for the last month, so it was nice to get out yesterday with Anto and … Continue reading →
Since our all-team meeting in November of last year I have been chasing the White Whale of WordPress multiregion hosting on Reclaim Cloud. I’ve been experimenting with it on and off since January. You can find the tale of the … Continue reading →
This post is heavily influenced by the goings-on at Reclaim Edtech this October, namely a month-long dive into all things WordPress Multisite for admins with Tom Woodward. It’s similar to the Domain of One’s Own workshop we have run for … Continue reading →
Not sure why, and god only knows how long it will last, but I’ve been feeling pretty happy as of late. Fall in Parco di Gocciadoro Maybe it’s the change in season? The crisp fall chill of Trento reminds me … Continue reading →
I was pleasantly surprised to realize I’ve worked my way through all of bavacade To-Do List, Part 1, so I guess it’s time to start on Part 2. In fact, I’ve already knocked a few items off this list over … Continue reading →
The repairs continue at the bavacade, and this week they came in fits and starts given it was a busy one at Reclaim Hosting. That said, I definitely made a bit of progress and continue to fine-tune the collection, even … Continue reading →
After every new Reclaim Roundup monthly newsletter I usually do three things: 1) read it, 2) remark on how awesome it is, and 3) tell myself I need to blog about it! I regularly do the first two of those … Continue reading →
For #vinylcast 54 it is another appearance from the Pogues‘s, this time their first studio album Red Roses for Me from 1984. I picked this vinyl up 10... Continue reading →
I have been hard at work on the bavacade this weekend going through part 1 of the to-do list. I would like to make each game’s repairs a post of its own, but if I don’t capture this stuff in … Continue reading →
It’s been about 3 weeks since the container arrived and my basement is starting to get back into livable shape. I’m gonna need to get some perimeter shelving for the walls to manage all the VHS tapes, laserdiscs, excess vinyl … Continue reading →
Early last week Ed Beck asked if I would be willing to talk with him (and by extension his class) about some advantages (and limits) of open source applications in education. I think Ed has been following my recent championing … Continue reading →
Lauren Hanks has been working on a really cool space that will highlight the various channels through which we are building community at Reclaim Hosting. It’s still under construction, but I’m sure Lauren will share the magic, as well as … Continue reading →
The container came in…. Everything arrived safe and sound, but I have spent much of the last week unpacking, playing with retro game consoles, and doing repairs like I still run an arcade 🙂 Elevator Action‘s working fine but the … Continue reading →
I’ll be submitting this guide to Reclaim Hosting’s support documentation to illustrate how to move files between environments using the Reclaim Cloud GUI. I discovered this trick while migrating a Ghost instance in Reclaim Cloud from one environment to another … Continue reading →
As I already mentioned in my last post, I spent some time this week moving my bavaGhost install over to a new environment in Reclaim Cloud to take advantage of Taylor Jadin’s snazzy new Ghost one-click installer. Taylor and I … Continue reading →
It’s been quiet on the bava for a bit after an awesome mountain getaway to Val di Rabbi in early August, followed by some digging-in on work and entertaining guests over the last week or so. What’s more, the blog … Continue reading →
Happy 9th birthday to our dear @ReclaimHosting! ? — Lauren Hanks (@brumface) July 23, 2022 On Saturday Lauren Hanks reminded me that Reclaim Hosting celebrated its 9th birthday. I get confused on the official formation date, I oscillate between the … Continue reading →
I have been working on and off on the bavacade, and I am pretty close to having every game working perfectly, that said actual perfection continues to allude me. But we need lofty goals and standards, right? -so the hunt … Continue reading →
Hope springs eternal in the bava breast. This is the third attempt since November of 2021 to try and get a WordPress Multi-Region setup working on Reclaim Cloud, I blogged attempts one and two in some detail. And I’m glad … Continue reading →
We are into week 3 of our Reclaim Edtech flex course “Understanding Containers,” and I have to say Taylor Jadin is doing a bang-up job taking folks through the basics. Yesterday was the premiere of week 3’s video that covers … Continue reading →
Last week I had the privilege of writing a recommendation for Michael Branson Smith to gain admission to the masters program in Interactive Data Visualization at the CUNY Graduate Center. And while I’m confident he will get into the program … Continue reading →
I was going through my vinyl the other day and after listening to Built to Spill‘s 1997 masterpiece Perfect from Now On I knew it wanted to make... Continue reading →
I have been marrying my recent experimenting with Peertube live streaming to karaoke; two great tastes that taste great together 🙂
The above video has been the source of an ongoing joke at Reclaim Hosting for many years now. I’ve been carrying the blogging torch and this has been my referent point for a time when blogging was so popular and … Continue reading →
Have I mentioned it’s container month at Reclaim Edtech recently? Well, it is and that means I’m playing with installing apps, or even re-visiting apps we’ve already gotten running, which is the case here. Tim Owens already documented the process … Continue reading →
Just over two years ago I wrote about spinning up a work experiment called Reclaim Radio using Azuracast. We used it irregularly and eventually it died on the vine a bit, especially given I was so used to broadcasting through … Continue reading →
It’s container month at Reclaim Edtech, so I’ve been pushing myself to revisit todo list items that might give me a reason to play with containers, and lo and behold I found another Ghost. This time it was a project … Continue reading →
It’s been a while, but I finally returned to the #vinylcast on the mighty ds106radio featuring Yo La Tengo‘s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (2000). This... Continue reading →
I have been moving some stuff around in my basement in preparation for the container (an actual 40′ shipping container, not a Docker one) to land on Italian shores from the US. It will be the first time in almost … Continue reading →
After yesterday’s Gravity Forms session led by Tom Woodward for Reclaim Edtech’s June Flex Course things started to click for me. I am starting to wrap my head around the basics of Gravity Forms. As mentioned in my last post … Continue reading →
In fact, I’m always thinking about edtech in some fashion, but these days I’m thinking about the term itself. There are more than a few reasons for this, not least of which Reclaim Hosting was essentially born as an edtech … Continue reading →
This was a fun show stitching together a bunch of songs via Youtube that I had been feeding off all morning. There’s a lot of Ty Segall, Courtney... Continue reading →
Funny, sometimes the end appears closer in the rearview mirror than it actually is, and that’s been a lesson for me the last couple days. I hate to see good folks leave a field I have invested deeply in for … Continue reading →
I spent the morning playing with Gravity Forms to figure out how to create a form to start cataloging my personal media collection. I can now understand why folks get addicted to creating forms for everything, once you can a … Continue reading →
Peertube 4.2.0 has been out for just over a week, and I finally got some time this morning to play around with it a bit. I have to say this is software I remain super excited about, and part of … Continue reading →
In 2012 (more than 10 years ago!) I wrote a post about how Cathy Derecki‘s vision for transitioning the Faculty Notes newsletter, Eagle Eye, from a bi-annual print publication to a website and weekly email. We worked on that starting … Continue reading →
Yesterday I had the opportunity to realize a long-time dream of reflecting on ds106 with one of the many awesome internauts that traveled where no student had gone before. Linda McKenna was just the internaut I was looking for, and … Continue reading →
I mean Chump’s getting one, right? What are they going to stock the shelves with, gold-plated nudie mags? I’ve been thinking a bit about what I want to try and build as part of Tom Woodward‘s Form of Awesome Flex … Continue reading →
After Pac-man, Gyruss might be my favorite golden age arcade game. I picked one up last Summer for the bavacade, and I have not looked back. I recorded a couple of high scores wherein I finally broke 400K last August, … Continue reading →
Whenever I have some downtime I inevitably end up playing with one of the several silly sites I have accumulated over time. One of those is the throwback Apache server ds106.club. If the logs are correct, I return to it … Continue reading →
I am getting ready to map out my goals for this month’s Reclaim EdTech’s Flex Course on Gravity Forms, and after reading Tom Woodward’s post about using Gravity Forms to pull RSS feeds into FeedWordPress I was reminded how much … Continue reading →
I’m glad we had the foresight to record a reflection of our recent Domains 101 & 201 workshop the day after running it because it’s already fading into memory. We set aside a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon to … Continue reading →
When sending out the April installment of Reclaim Roundup we ran into a glitch wherein the instance was faltering sending an email to all subscribers once that number topped 500. I assumed it was an issue with our third party … Continue reading →
In this installment of “Form of Awesome” Wonder Twins are cornered by evil Crypto Bros in a dark alley. The Crypto Bros are trying to sell them NFTs and will not take no for an answer. Zan and Jayna need … Continue reading →
I’m on a bit of a bavacade blog roll to document some of the work done on a few cabinets, namely Condor, Bagman, and finally—for now—Donkey Kong Junior. Funny enough I thought Donkey Kong Junior was the least beat up … Continue reading →
Moving on from “Saving the Condor,” the next restoration project was for the 1982 arcade cabinet Bagman. This golden-age game was created by the French arcade company Valadon Automation, and licensed to Stern in the US and Taito in Japan. … Continue reading →
Sometimes the blog post titles just write themselves…but on with the show. Over the past month or so I’ve been fixing up several cabinets in the bavacade that have cosmetic issues. I’ve been pushing hard on this because I want … Continue reading →
In preparation of Reclaim Edtech‘s first Flex Course on Gravity Forms next month, the great Tom Woodward has created a fun Superfriends Triva Quiz using, you guessed it, Gravity Forms 🙂 You can take the quiz by clicking the image … Continue reading →
Tim Clarke is helping a faculty member get Ghost up and running on Reclaim Cloud, and has used Reclaim’s EdTech Discord channel to ask for clarification around Mailgun settings and environmental variables. Both of which I did not document fully … Continue reading →
I recently welcomed a new game into bavacade, namely Pleiades. The acquisition of which reminded me of a scene from a childhood favorite b-movie horror omnibus called Nightmares (1983). I just posted about this film and its relationship—at least in my … Continue reading →
I recently picked up Scream Factory’s 2015 blu-ray release of Nightmares (1983), a low-budget urban legends/horror omnibus in the vein of Creepshow (1982) and Cat’s Eye (1985)—the latter of which my brother loved. I’ve been watching and re-watching “The Bishop … Continue reading →
Trying to play a bit of catch-up on my bavacade given I have made some significant strides towards getting fully operational. One of the recent highlights was finally getting the Gyruss multigame mod-kit installed so that it can also allow … Continue reading →
Below is a quick video showing off the LED strip setup for lighting my Condor marquee. Most of the tube marquees I have work, but for those that do not I am installing a simple LED solution because it will … Continue reading →
It has been a pretty amazing start of 2022 at Reclaim Hosting, with the creation of an Instructional Technology group, the building of an edtech professional development community, and then all things Reclaim Cloud, there has been no shortage of … Continue reading →
This week (Wednesday) I went to pick up a mint Pleiades stand-up cabinet for the bavacade. Seeing it next to its older cousin Phoenix is really something special: It’s something to see these two side-by-side in the bavacade pic.twitter.com/b8RtqZrlgg — … Continue reading →
It is with distinct pleasure that I get to announce that Tom Woodward will be running a month-long flex course on Gravity Forms throughout the month of June. Gravity Forms is a powerful form-building tool that works with WordPress, and … Continue reading →
One of the things I have been doing a lot of over the last few months is talking to folks about running WordPress in Reclaim Cloud. In particular, why would you want/need to? -and how to migrate an existing instance … Continue reading →
Been a while bava,blog, how are you? -you beautiful piece of green web. Me, like Luther, I’ve been busy! Bit of travel to New York City, some family reunions, and sundry other obligations that have kept me away, but now … Continue reading →
Highlight of trip was witnessing C.H.U.D. Sunday tradition @reclaimvideo: all C.H.U.D. all day on the VCR every Sunday. Shane and Connor are the architects whose obsession with C.H.U.D. underscores the magic of crossing intentional spaces like @ReclaimArcade with amazing people. pic.twitter.com/QJzuLwNhzo
— Jim Groom (@jimgroom) March 28, 2022
I’m decompressing in Frankfurt Airport after an intense trip back to the ‘Burg to prepare to ship my life overseas for good, but more on that anon. What I did want to do quickly here before time and exhaustion does me in was to note the birth of a tradition at Reclaim Video that may be one of the coolest things to emerge from building a space like Reclaim Arcade. Two of the arcade’s employees, Shane and Connor, got curious about the different VHS versions of the 1984 b-movie classic C.H.U.D. that filled the shelves of Reclaim Video. Rather than killing the ~~cat~~ dog, their curiosity gave birth to a cannibalistic humanoid underground dwelling obsession-cum-ritual in honor of this 1980s VHS classic.
C.H.U.D. VIP Membership
Since early November every Sunday at Reclaim Video is a C.H.U.D. Sunday, which means a C.H.U.D. VHS marathon from opening until close. It is a newly christened tradition that is going strong, and as you can see from the images both above and below it is accompanied by movie posters, t-shirts, and newly minted VIP membership card that I’m proud user #00.
Expiry? NEVER!!!
I’m no stranger to un-bridled C.H.U.D. love. One of my favorite grad school papers was an analysis of C.H.U.D.—along with several other NYC-based b-movies from the 80s—to examine the rhetoric of the revanchist city and the rise of gentrification that would become the norm in the 1990s. But what struck me most about C.H.U.D. Sundays was that it was born of creating of an intentional space like an 1980s video store that is not a museum, but a cultural laboratory run by cool, young kids that can and will explore the physical history of VHS that has a lot to teach us about our own moment, much like my belabored academic readings of C.H.U.D.
A younger Homer Simpon on the run from pimps and CHUDs
This tradition of 80s curiosity very much starts with our very first Reclaim Video employee, the great Xander! Roughly 3 or 4 years ago this teenager wrote us an email asking if he could work at Reclaim Video (well before there was even an arcade) simply because he loved 80s culture. It was a space for him to explore that moment and by extension his identity in a fun, relatively authentic framework. And it was equally awesome for us to get to interact with him, talk movies, and generally hang out with a new generation of film lovers. The sickest thing about Reclaim Arcade, I am learning, is that it’s a cultural kiln that forges experience of all who partake, both employees and guests alike. Like record stores, book stores, or movie theaters of yore, the retro-arcade is an entertainment Twilight Zone where those who enter willingly embrace an alternative dimension and are changed by it, but at the same time fuel its magic and shape it—just as Shane and Connor have so beautifully done with C.H.U.D. Sundays. It underscores the thrilling possibility that commerce-driven entertainment can be truly transformative when it’s not relegated to a cookie-cutter model that is always already about efficiency and scale. It’s where the young and old employees and guests shape the experience together in an ongoing dance of thoughtful cultural studies that is half-disguised as entertainment given how joyous it all is. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Reclaim Arcade is art!
Last week’s bavaweekly was a bit delayed given how jam-packed last week was. Between heading to Vicenza to pick up a few video game cabinets and then catching up from taking Tuesday off things snowballed and I was not able to record the weekly until Sunday—5 days after originally planned. Given that, this one has a bit more packed in it that usual, and I spent much of this week blogging everything a reported on in this video, so I waited on pushing this out until I had blogged the various projects I mention, such as experimenting with WordPress Multi-Region, updating ds106radio, a talk on “What was Eduglu,” as well as some bavacade new acquistions and a couple of successful game repairs.
Link to video on bava.tv
It was also cool to see Chris Lott blogging again—did he ever stop? I shouted him out in this weekly given he attended the “What was Eduglu” session organized by the awesome Todd Conaway as part of his push to get small with Unviersity of Washington faculty and reinforce the power of focused, community driven teaching and learning. The wisdom in that approach is real!
6×6-0 Back On the Horse?
Epiphanies and Jim Groom’s EDUGLU
I could do a full re-cap, but I am gonna keep this write-up a bit lean given I blogged the highlights at length over the past week, so if you are glutton for punishment you can find more in the various links above. I travel to Fred Vegas tomorrow, so going to try and do another bavaweekly to catch up a bit and get try and return to a weekly schedule.
Last week Taylor let me tag along while he upgraded ds106radio’s woefully outdated version of Azuracast. Taylor and I did some prep work behind the scenes earlier in the week, and then streamed the upgrade process live which resulted in a 55 minute document of the process. I’m not sure it is Oscar worthy, but I really love these stream sessions wherein we work through tech setups, figure stuff out, and joke around as well.
The long and short of the upgrade is that you need to take a backup from the old instance. After that, install a new instance of Azuracast (which is now all within one docker container) and then copy the backup to the new Azuracast server. Lastly, restore the backup.
As it turned out for us, this backup may not include all shows recorded, so be sure to rsync over any old shows and the mother lode of Bono playlists uploaded from New Zealand to the old server while upgrading
In fact, we did another stream (royal we, all Taylor) about copying files between Docker containers (rsyncing) in order to get the recordings we missed sorted (about 75 GBs worth). The following embedded link skips the first 21 minutes wherein we talk about PeerTube’s streaming resolutions to get to the container to container rsyncing action.
So we got all the files moved over and all is good there. The mighty ds106radio has been playing around a bit and there are a few things we need to still fix:
- Seems like the listener IP mapping is not taking, still showing internal IP addresses. I believe this can be fixed with a container restart, but need to consult Taylor on that.
- There is some wonkiness with metadata when using Audio Hijack at least. I did notice Brian Lamb has been able to get the metadata to come through cleanly, so this one has me a bit stumped, and I have not been able to troubleshoot it yet
A couple of minor concerns I want to address:
- The ds106rad.io/listen URL is no longer redirecting to listen.ds106rad.io which means a few links on this blog are breaking
- the ds106minibumper.mp3 file in /var/azuracast was mounted at one point to automatically play when the station started with the classic “Can you dig it?” -but that hasn’t worked for a long while and I am hoping to return to it here soon, but my recent attempt last week failed given the Customizing Docker Instances guides have changed quite a bit over the last two years. I documented my work back in 2020 when I initially migrated ds106radio to Azuracast, but the redirect and intro bumper setup may need a bit more tinkering to get working
Last week I was boasting about “Bava Multi-Region Cause I Can”, but that didn’t last. I ran into issues with comments not syncing across database instances in the different regions. I originally blamed caching, but after checking the secondary databases the comments in the primary UK database were not being written over. This led me to reverting the site back to a stand-alone instance, which buys me some time.
I need to document a bit of what I did given I have not deleted the the multi-region environments, only stopped them for now with hopes of circling back.
First things first, getting Reclaim Cloud containers to communicate via ssh can be a pain in the ass. After setting up the multi-region instance using the one-click installer in Reclaim Cloud I needed to migrate content from the stand alone bavatuesdays to the new multi-region bava. I’m almost getting this down; the process is some version of the following.
Generate a SSH key using something like the following command (thank Chris Blankenship!):
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 200 -C "jim_at_reclaimhosting.com" -f ~/.ssh/bava_ssh_key
Then add the contents of the file at ~/.ssh/bava_ssh_key.pub to the ~/.ssh/authorized keys file on the “remote” server, which in this case is the multi-region primary app server. I would also recommend clearing out any other shared keys and make sure you have granted root access to both the local and remote application containers using this guide. After that, change to root user and run the following rsync command to push files from the stand alone WordPress to the multi-region instances.
rsync --dry-run -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/bava_ssh_key" -avzh /var/www/webroot/ROOT root@multi.region.ip.address:/var/www/webroot/ROOT
Notice the --dry-run command to ensure it worked without pushing or pulling files in the wrong direction. After confirming it is right I remove the --dry-run and run the command again—this time for real.
The other step is exporting and importing the database, which is accomplished using phpMyAdmin if the database is small enough, or dropping the multi-region’s database in the Primary site and importing the stand-alone database.*
The migration was actually quite seamless after I got the containers communicating, the only issue I ran into was getting my embeds to work on this new setup given the Content Security Policy through Litespeed was set quite strict. It took me some time to hunt all that down, and I’m not sure I have it set ideally yet, but I was able to find the vhconf.xml file in /var/www/conf and modify it to specify what URLs are allowed to be embedded. I imagine this is safer, but also wondering how many embeds that must have broken.
Here is the bit for the content-security-policy in virtualhost conf file that I added for frame-ancestors and frame-src:
Content-Security-Policy "frame-ancestors data:;frame-src https://bava.tv https://youtube.com https://twitter.com https://platform.twitter.com https://www.youtube.com https://bavatuesdays.com;";
That solved the issue for Youtube, Twitter and bava.tv embeds, but there are a ton of broken Vimeo and assorted other embeds for sure. When talking about my discoveries with the Reclaim team Chris mentioned it might be related to the brute force protection option I selected at install, so I’ll have to try that again and see if the settings in the Content Security Policy are set to self when that option is unchecked. The Content Security Policy was set to ‘self’ which basically forbids any embeds that are not from the site’s URL, or no third-party app embeds to prevent any possible cross-posting exploits.
I feel like I am getting closer, but a few issues remain:
- not able to access wp-admin area from secondary sites when primary site is offline
- comments not syncing across databases, posts seem to sync
- content security policy too strict issue, see if it happens when brute force attack protection is turned off
So that’s it for my notes for now, going to take a few of these questions to Jelastic and re-group for round three, that’s always a charm right?
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*I wonder if my dropping all tables and importing the stand-alone WordPress database might be causing an issue with comment syncing across databases, wondering if I trashed some specific settings, etc.
For this month’s community chat we were joined by John Stewart of the University of Oklahoma and Noah Mitchell from Coventry University. Both Noah and John have been doing inspiring work re-imagining how to integrate their existing Domain of One’s Own platforms with new WordPress Multisite instances, which has been inspiring us at Reclaim, and others around the community, to re-think how schools might provide a more diversified set of web offerings to their community. This multi-pronged is something Lauren and I were struck by when visiting Vanderbilt University in November—particularly in relationship to Reclaim Cloud—but in many ways reinforces the idea that Domains and WordPress Multisite are complementary offerings that go hand-in-hand for any community exploring either or both. This talk covers a lot of this ground and lasts over an hour (as most of the chats do).
I have to say the community chats have been amazing. For quickly and fairly informally connecting with the broader community, as well as hearing about the cool work the various schools are doing. I really appreciate folks showing up, willingly participating, and generally making these monthly meet-ups a joy.
One of the cool things Taylor Jadin discovered recently is is easy it is to stream a Jitsi web video call through PeerTube. After creating a live stream in PeerTube, you would crab the stream URL and the stream key from the Live Settings tab:
Live Settings tab in PeerTube where you can find the stream URL and private key
After that, head over to your Jitsi meet video call and look for the settings that are accessed by the ellipsis at the bottom of the screen:
Settings for starting a live stream in Jitsi
Once you select “Start live stream” you will see a dialog box that you will paste in the stream url and stream key, that should be separate by a slash “/” -so something like the following: rtmp://your.tv:1935/live/your-private-stream-key
Jitsi dialog box for adding stream URL and key, which are separate by a slash “/”
After that you will hear a voice telling you the stream is live and you should be able to see the call streaming through PeerTube within a few seconds.
I’ve been struggling a bit on the arcade repair front for a while now. The Sidam Explorer (Italian Scramble bootleg) pictured above has not worked right since I got it over the Summer, and the Asterock (Italian Asteroids bootleg) went down in September or October and has been out of commission since. Add to that the board issues with Stargate and I could feel the arcade walls closing in.
Two classic Italian bootlegs back in action
The two Sidam cabinets were moved down to the basement office, and I look at them forlornly daily. That said, I’ve not been sitting idly by; both power supplies have been rebuilt as well the Explorer‘s Hanterex 9000 MTC chassis inspected, but all to no avail. This led me to the conclusion these cabinets were both having board issues, so I was prepared to take them back to the US for confirmation. Luckily I had the idea to test one of them, namely Asterock, with a working board Antonio of Arcade Story had in his warehouse. When I tried his boards it was having the same issues, which confirmed this was not a board issue after all. So back to the drawing board. The last possible cause was the heat sync for the audio board—so Roberto and I tested this by tracing wires for the +5V, +12V, -5V and ground wires from the power supply and running them through a switching power supply and the game worked perfectly! It’s always electric in the end…
Asterock back in action!
It’s like the heavens opened up!
Close-up of the Asteroids bootleg Asterock
This win was on Saturday, so one less board to bring to America. As I was basking in the victory of not only getting Asterock back online, but also getting the color red back in Condor last week I got to thinking the ongoing issues with the vertical sync for the monitor in Explorer may not be board related after all. After looking at the Condor edge connector schematic I noticed there were connection points for vertical and horizontal sync to the monitor. It got me thinking that chances are Explorer has the same thing, and if I can find a manual I can confirm as much and trace back those wires.
Explorer game board schematic-notice the composite/horizontal and vertical sync connections at 17A and 17B at the edge connector on the left, these were reversed which caused my ongoing issues
I searched high and low and found the above image of the Explorer game board schematic on a UK game forum, only to realize soon after I had the entire manual in the bottom of the cabinet You can find a full version of the manual in Italian at this link: Sidam Explorer Manual. Anyway, after tracing the voltage wires in Asterock I had the confidence to try as much with Explorer and I traced all the way back to an area between the board and monitor where the wires were cut and reconnected and it turns out that vertical and composite wires were mistakenly switched. This was the reason the screen would not hold. Not a board issue at all, rather a faulty wiring issue that was easily fixed by switching the vertical and horizontal/composite connectors.
Diagram of the connection between a board and a monitor for a Hanterex MTC 9000
The above digram might provide a better sense of what happened. The Vertical sync (VS) and horizontal sync (HS) wires were swapped after the wiring harness from the game board to the monitor had been cut. The colors—black for ground, gray for composite, and blue/orange for vertical— did not match what was going into the monitor, and that was the clue I needed. I have heard about folks splicing and re-wiring randomly that leads to all sorts of confusion, and this was my first experience diagnosing that and fixing it. It felt amazing!
Sidam Explorer with no more vertical sync issues
So, this past weekend was an awesome one for bavacade. I only have one game down at the moment, Stargate, and getting that board fixed shortly, as well as future proofing my Williams games with some JROK action. It’s a good day in the bavacade, just in time for the mother load shipment from America
A full frontal of Robotron: 2084
The bavaweekly was delayed a bit last week because I was busy adding a few more games to the home arcade, the post title says it all! I’ve been pretty restrained the last few months, but that couldn’t last. I’ve been looking for a nice Robotron cabinet in the US for a while now, and as with most things the prices are getting ridiculous. I saw a beautiful Robotron cabinet at Arcade Story in Vicenza last year when I picked up Scramble, so I decided to take the plunge—and was hoping for a better deal if I bought in bulk
This Robotron cabinet’s side art was re-stenciled, and it looks like new
I am taking the Robotron boards back to the US this weekend (along with the Stargate boards—that’s another post) to get the once over, and I already got a couple of Williams switching power supplies, as well as Jamma adapters for Robotron, Stargate, and Joust that allow you to use a FPGA Williams multi-board (also known as a JROK) for several classic Williams games. At the end of the day the original Williams board sets are complex and expensive to fix (and even more expensive to get a spare), and after seeing Tim convert QBert at Reclaim Arcade—which was regularly having board issues that got costly—I became a believer. The games will still have all the original hardware, but for regular use swapping the boards and original power supply for a JROK board and switching power supply will allow me to move on with my life Stargate and Robotron are the first two candidates, and when I get another two multi-game Williams JROK kits I’ll convert Joust and Defender* as well.
Stern Bagman arcade cabinet
While seeing what Arcade Story had beyond the Robotron I came across a Bagman cabinet from 1982 that was also in really good shape (save for some slight water damage at the bottom and it was missing the original bezel). Bagman is actually a game I played only once or twice, but I am intrigued by the cabinet art and design and it would be yet another Stern game in the collection—that makes 4. I decided to get it and I plan on seeing if I can have the original bezel art reproduced on the new glass and also have someone here clean up the slight water damage and this thing will be mint. And as you can see from the image above the monitor is super crisp (all 3 games I got have G07 CBO monitors, which is a bonus), and the marquee absolutely pops!
Bagman arcade cabinet marquee all lit up
I am also intrigued by the dimensions and design of this cabinet, it is fairly narrow at 22 inches, but also deep and has a strange design in the back a single support but mostly negative space. I haven’t seen one like it:
Strange design of the back top of Bagman cabinet
The final addition completed a trinity of Italian bootlegs of US video games that I am quite excited about. Last Summer I picked up Sidam’s Explorer (a Scramble bootleg) and soon after Sidam’s Asterock (an Atari Asteroids bootleg). The last piece of the puzzle (at least for now) was a Sidam Condor, which is a bootleg of Centuri’s Phoenix—an all-time favorite of mine. So, this near extinct Condor now has a new nest in the bavacade
Sidam Condor arcade cabinet
There is a bit of clean-up to do on the back of the cabinet where it was damaged, but other than that the actual cabinet is in excellent shape—much like the other two Sidam cabinets in the collection. I really do love these cabinets, they are a tiny bit smaller than their US counterparts, but the art is awesome and the whole idea of 80s Italian bootlegging of American video game culture fascinates me to no end.
Color a bit off and F in Fuel got off
One of the things I read about Condor is that it was the first video game to have a fuel gauge. I’m not entirely sure that’s true given Rally-X had a fuel gauge and that was released in 1980, not 1981—so don’t believe everything you read. That said, adding a fuel gauge to Phoenix made an already difficult game 1000x harder, which is pretty crazy. One of the things I did as soon as I got this game is try out the extra board I had bought a few months back (I guess I knew I was getting this game eventually) only to find it was throwing garbage:
Condor game board throwing garbage
While re-connecting the old game board the edge connector that plugs into the game (pictured below) had one of the wires come off, although I did not realize this at the time.
Condor edge-connector to game board
When the original board was replaced there was no red color:
Condor attract screen with no red color
I played with the monitor colors a bit, but nothing worked. While re-seating the board I noticed one of the wires from the edge-connector harness had come off—the harness is a mess and needs to be re-done entirely. So, I went online looking for the Sidam Condor Manual (they are so useful!) and once I found it I tried studying the schematic for the edge-connector to see if there is a wire that connects the red color from the board to the monitor, and there was!
Condor edge-connector schematic
At 16A you see “video rosso” followed by “RO” which indicates the color of the wire. So a red wire at 16A is what sends the boards creation of red graphics to the monitor, and that was just the wire that had disconnected. So I soldered it back on, and the red was back in the game and I was freaking pumped! Every arcade fix is like Christmas morning. I say all this because it would be the basis of another fix over the weekend that I am still basking in the joy of, but more on that in the next post.
It was great to visit Arcade Story (Italy’s import/export mecca for golden age arcade games from the US), secure a few games for the bavacade, and spend some time with Miles, bavacade’s designated game mover. In fact, you can see him above enjoying the classic laser disc game Space Ace which, interestingly enough, is a joint venture between Atari and Sidam to release Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair in Italy a couple of years after Atari sued Sidam for bootlegging Asterock.
Atari’s Red Baron video game from 1980
There was also a mint Warlords cabinet that is something to behold, and a Red Baron that I had never seen before, but after playing it can honestly say it is Battlezone, but better.
And with that, the bavacade slouches towards Bethlehem!
This is a test to see if I can post after having migrated this blog to a WordPress multi-region setup on Reclaim Cloud, which means the primary blog hosted in the UK is being replicated to Toronto, Canada and the West Coast of the USA. If there should be an issue in the primary data center in the UK the site will fail over to Canada or the US. I have not configured that entirely yet, but I did want to see if posting works before I get too excited (last time I tried this I could not post, hence I retreated to the stand-alone instance).
Is this overkill for my purposes? Absolutely. Is it a blast to play with? Absolutely.
I had some issues getting my embeds to work on this new setup given the Content Security Policy through Litespeed was set quite strict. It took me some time to hunt all that down, and I am not sure I have it set ideally yet, but I was able to find the vhconf.xml file in /var/www/conf and modify it to specify what URLs are allowed to be embedded. I imagine this is safer, but also wondering how many embeds are now broken on this blog of just one post shy of 3600!
Here is the bit for the content-security-policy in virtualhost conf file that I added for frame-ancestors and frame-src:
Content-Security-Policy "frame-ancestors data:;frame-src https://bava.tv https://youtube.com https://twitter.com https://platform.twitter.com https://www.youtube.com https://bavatuesdays.com;"
I am going to be playing more with this until Wednesday when I present my findings to the rest of the Reclaim Hosting team, but in the interim let’s just see if this post works….
On Friday I got the chance to sit down with a few folks at University of Washington, Bothell who are exploring ways to build community online while working on the open web. Todd Conaway—who is working with this group to “scale to small”—has been reaching out to folks in his network to see if they would share their epiphanies in and around open education. Todd and I met through ds106 so it was a logical starting point for a shared epiphany, but as I was thinking through what led me to ds106 I went deeper down the rabbit hole of RSS and syndication, which in many ways was the true epiphany.
An extra special surprise was seeing Chris Lott amongst the participants in this session. Chris has played a gigantic role in my own education around the web and edtech over the last 15 years, so in many ways the experience I was recounting was at least partially shared. His amazing Motley Reads, early understanding of microblogging (hence the rise of Twitter and Tumblr), the many brilliant, lost blog posts (oh to be his blog’s Edwin Muir), and brilliant newsletters, etc. The list goes on and on. Chris is a true hero of edtech for me even if he might cringe at the very idea.
So, having him there was amazing, but the only problem was no one asks me to speak anymore, so when they do I can’t seem to stop But I did try and recount the lore around Eduglu and some of the ideas that I was working towards that resulted in the collaborative projects like UMW Blogs, ds106, and Domain of One’s Own, but there were also many more smaller projects along the way like Reading Capital. It’s all of a piece in my mind, and so much of it was born from the promise of syndication, even well after those feed-shaped embers were smoldering. In fact, centrality of RSS and the lore of Eduglu hit me the morning before my chat, so I reached out to Brian Lamb for a more precise history of Eduglu, which he provided in DM, but not in time for my talk cause he seems to value his sleep, which was disappointing But Brian is my favorite historian of edtech’s secret histories, and he did share some specifics that are much better than what I suggest in my chat:
EduGlu was a riff off of a tool called SuprGlu – which would mesh a blog, Flickr and delicious feed into a portal, and an aggregated feed. Downes had something called Edu_RSS – which was an aggregator of a bunch of RSS feeds. For the MERLOT conference he created a site that filtered “MERLOT” references and then he embedded the output into a pirated MERLOT page. EduGlu was the effort to take these sorts of things to create integration for courses – loosely joining the small pieces.
The small pieces loosely joined was a huge part of that push, and the idea of syndicating folks into a sense of community was the epiphany I needed, and it was in Vancouver, Canada that I finally saw that light at Northern Voice 2007. But there were many people thinking through this well before then, Brian Lamb has a post from 2005 where he talks about an aggRSSive feed cocktail of technologies to get at the Eduglu formula. And D’Arcy Norman wrote quite a bit about Eduglu on his blog, particularly this “Clarification on Eduglu” that is really useful for sussing out what it was and where some of the ideas had come from. I dare say it sucked more than a few rattled edtech’s down the syndication drain, The promise of RSS truly felt like a radical alternative when I started to find my legs in the field, and it was the route I would travel because I had some amazing Canadian mentors—I’ve never regretted that choice.*
So, this chat was my attempt to communicate some of the excitement of that moment—warts and all—as well as touch on the fact that something similar is kind of happening with video for me right now (hence the reference to Jitsi and PeerTube at the very beginning and end). But the best minute or two of the whole session was when Chris Lott talked a bit about third spaces and the morphing nature of media literacy towards the end of the chat, which I have clipped and highlighted below because it is awesome:
It is also worth noting that Jane Van Galen, an original Bothel band of merry pranksters, came to this session and shared some of the amazing work she did with here Media Literacies course after attending a Connected Courses event with Alan Levine at UC Irvine several years ago. It is quite cool to see these ideas still percolating, and the underlying vision of syndication and aggregation is still very much at the heart of what we are trying to imagine when it comes to community at Domains schools, so in many ways it has never left—and I’m still excited to see what we can dream up with TV and radio to create small, localized communities much like Todd is doing at Bothell. Avanti!
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*Special thanks to Brian Lamb for providing so many of these links and providing the back story I failed to mention with any detail in this chat, so think of this blog post as an attempt to set the record straight a bit for the folks who were part of this chat.
First bavaweekly of March, happy to see the weekly streams and reflections still going strong. My follow-up blog posts are a bit slower to materialize, but that’s what happens when you get addicted to streaming
Last week marked the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine and the world got even crazier than it was during COVID, if that’s even possible. I’ve been in a bit of a fog swallowing the harsh reality of the state of Europe while mulling the return to a 1980s Cold War mentality. That said, I have been encouraged by the outpouring of support here locally for the Ukranians. Forza ucraina!
Reclaim Hosting
- We had the monthly Domains API meeting with Tim, Taylor, Lauren, and I and I have to say it is super cool to have Taylor involved in this and brining a Domain of One’s Own admin perspective to what are some small pieces we can start with to imagine the setup without WHMCS. Really cool to see a very practical, bite-sized approach, like, for example, how can we automate creating a cPanel account without WHMCS using a direct call from WordPress using the WHM API.
- We continue to hone in on what a Reclaim EdTech offering might consist of, and I think we are starting to see that vision take shape. We are moving towards professional development and networking for educational technologists, and I think our work designing the OERxDomains21 experience will play a role here.
- We met with Taylor’s former employer, St Norbert College, to explore the idea of a shared curriculum around domain that can be both localized and shared as a kind of “Domains Summit” over the summer where various schools might converge. There is a lot to think through there, but the idea is exciting.
- Pilot killed it with another installment of the Reclaim Roundup, our monthly newsletter, recapping the work that happened around Reclaim in February.
- The Reclaim Hosting office has officially closed as of March 1. Meredith was the last person working from that space regularly, and she is now remote so we’re shuttering the office. The end of the office era at Reclaim.
bavacade
- My Stargate woes continue given replacing the 7474 flip flop chips on the game board with 74HC74 chips gave me a green screen of death. I was hopeful it was just the wrong chips, so when the 7474 came I put them in and got a yellow screen of death I’ll try a Hail Mary post on KLOV, but it’s looking like a fail and I’ll be bringing this back to the US for repair.
Stargate Yellow Screen of Death
- Also did a little bookkeeping of games in Fredericksburg I’ll be shipping to Italy, here is the the list: Defender, Dig Dug, Elevator Action, Galaxian, Joust, Make Trax, Moon Patrol, Pac-man, Pleiades (cocktail), Pole Position, Rally X (cocktail), Super Cobra, Venture, and Yie-Ar Kung-fu (with another Galaxian cocktail cabinet on Long island). Added to the 14 I have in Italy, it puts me right about 30, which means I might revisit the idea of a bavacade in Trento in the next year or two
Streaming
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- Chahira and I joined forces on ds106radio last Thursday to celebrate the great Grant Potter’s 50th. It was a blast, and I wrote all about it and linked to the various goings on as well as the two-hour ds106radio show in the following post:
Grant’s 50th on ds106radio
- I also wrote about building ReclaimTV on peerTube, which has been a lot of fun.
Dreaming of an Open Source ReclaimTV
Watching
Antonella’s been reading both Nabokov’s Lectures on literature at Cornell as well as Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, you can quickly see the real intellectual of the family. This has meant watching various period dramas like Scorcese’s Age of Innocence (pretty but boring), Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (brilliant!), and Emma (Gweneth Paltrow is as putridly saccharine as ever—I couldn’t last 15 minutes). Period pieces are a mixed bag and not necessarily my genre, although Remains of the Day (a recent passion) is working its way into the pantheon.
After abandoning Emma we watched Richard Linklater’s What happened to Bernadette? starring the always amazing Cate Blanchett and it was quite enjoyable. After that Miles and I watched Batman Begins, which I associate with a day time film in Mikhail while still living in NYC during the early 2000s. I love the Batman universe Nolan created, and I am loathe to engage another, but I might have to here soon…
Personal
I’ve been pretty much heads down, haven’t left the house for anything but walking the dog in a week or two, save the random market visit. It has been all work and no play, but right now I am fine with that. I did get a ridiculous amount of joy from Tressie’s tweets about Red Dawn essentially being a niche film for white people. The way she does Twitter is so entertaining, it’s like its own sitcom, but real.
Black people, do you know what Red Dawn is? Because white people are lighting my ass up about it. You’d think it was John Hughes the way they’re carrying on…
— Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) February 28, 2022
Happy birthday, Grant #justthewayyouare @grantpotter @jimgroom #ds106radio pic.twitter.com/3o3njSKgdq
— Chahira Nouira (@CosmoCat) February 24, 2022
Chahira and I continue to slay with all things karaoke, and Grant Potter’s 50th birthday celebration on ds106radio gave us just the excuse we needed to point our talents at this station’s benevolent pater familias. It was pretty awesome with folks jumping in to wish Grant a happy 50th, and there were even ballads created for this Canadian legend.
The Ballad of Grant Potter https://t.co/EaBVnTwFM8 from @sleslie #ds106radio
— paul bond (@phb256) February 24, 2022
I also love that Grant played visual DJ to his own party providing Flickr evidence to many of the stories we shared along the way of this two-hour broadcast.
https://t.co/rpcRklnGwm #ds106radio photo from @DrGarcia
— Grant Potter (@grantpotter) February 24, 2022
ds106radio @jimgroom ContactCon https://t.co/v8jluy9Mwo
— Grant Potter (@grantpotter) February 24, 2022
Chillin’ w/ DD https://t.co/aJmnAfn1FL #ds106radio @jimgroom
— Grant Potter (@grantpotter) February 24, 2022
That week in 2009 at Open Ed was fantastic (except my moderation of the Downes v Wiley match). Practically everyone was there. #ds106radio
— Chris Lott (@clottuw) February 24, 2022
ds106radio @mbransons & @jimgroom broadcasting from payphones in the NYC subways https://t.co/wEWbVDOzw6
— Grant Potter (@grantpotter) February 24, 2022
It was a total blast to be on the radio celebrating Grant, and Chahira and I are really a good team on air and have tons of fun, so more of this is in order. I mean Grant made us, it is only right we continue to celebrate him with all the joy he has brought with the little web radio station that could.
Happy Birthday @grantpotter #ds106radio pic.twitter.com/LuHrNMyONL
— Chris L (@fncll) February 24, 2022
And I do think the mission was accomplished in terms of the whole lotta love we wanted to rain down on the man of the hour.
Feeling alotta love @CosmoCat @jimgroom – thank you so much for hosting this #ds106radio session – so many wonderful memories & stories
— Grant Potter (@grantpotter) February 24, 2022
So anyway, here is the two-hour Grant Potter celebration as heard live on #ds106radio on Thursday, February 24th, 2022.
A Karaoke Ode to Grant Potter on ds106radio
After my chat with Taylor about open source media ecosystems I was inspired return to the work we did around the TV metaphor for OERxDomains21 in terms of community programming. But rather than relaying on YouTube for both streaming and archiving the video I am interested in exploring PeerTube as an open source substitute.
Documentation taking you through installing peerTube on Reclaim Cloud
I’ve already documented how to install PeerTube on Reclaim Cloud, so nothing new there. What may be of interest is that PeerTube allows you to import entire YouTube channels (along with all the videos’ metadata) using the PeerTube CLI tools. Reclaim Hosting currently has most of our various videos from OERxDomains21, 30 episodes of Reclaim Today, 28 Domains19 sessions, and sundry support guides on our Youtube channel. It’s well over 100 videos, and given previous experimenting with bava.tv I had a good idea how to go about importing them after installing Peertube at archive.reclaim.tv (the reclaim.tv domain is pretty awesome, no?).
CLI interface importing YouTube channel
I had to install the CLI Tools for PeerTube, which unfortunately is not as easy as it could be. It can be done from the existing PeerTube server, a separate server, or locally on your computer. Previously I used both my computer as well as a separate server, so I tried both of these avenues and eventually got them working, but the ins-and-outs demand a separate post, so stay tuned for that. Once you have the CLI tools working you can authenticate to your PeerTube instance and start bulk importing playlists from your channel with the following command:
peertube import --target-url 'https://youtube.com/playlisturl'
This command will download and import the entire playlist along with all the videos’ metadata into your PeerTube instance. I prefer to set up a separate server for this rather than have it run off my laptop cause to import over a hundred videos (many of which run at least an hour) can take a couple of days. But, after a weekend of playing I had almost every video in Reclaim Hosting’s YouTube channel imported to archive.reclaim.tv with all metadata. Works beautifully as a backup if nothing else, but hopefully it is the beginning of a larger dream to have this content being pulled into an active, programmed community-based TV station, but we’ll see how that goes.
archive.reclaim.tv
To achieve the dream of a more localized, independent “TV station” the next step will be figuring out PeerTube’s API, which will be a brave new world for me, but I’m looking forward to it. I believe that will allow me to implement Tom Woodward‘s headless WordPress instance then copy MBS’s code/thinking for building the OERxDomains21 program on top of PeerTube to see if we can’t start playing with a kind of homepage for Reclaim.tv.
For the State of Reclaim community chat Taylor opted for Jitsi rather than Zoom, and the live recording is impressive
What’s more, I loved Taylor’s idea that while PeerTube can be both the archive and streaming platform, Jitsi can integrate into that ecosystem to provide a simple solution for a video conferencing scenario that anyone can manage. In fact, Taylor opted for Jitsi rather than Zoom to host and record the State of Reclaim community chat, and it worked quite well. So, programmatic integration of Jitsi with PeerTube that can be scheduled for live streams on the community TV station is the dream, and it provides a way of not only creatively linking this open source suite of tools, but also makes for a potentially interesting package in Reclaim Cloud wherein you can get up and running with your own TV broadcasting station of sorts. You know, the vertical and the horizontal! Also, did I mention we radio and Azuracast yet?
Well, this week’s stream was a train wreck. Luckily I could do some post-production to excise close to 25 minutes of mistakes. Audio continues to be my bane, but luckily the bava has always been a “b” blog. Special thanks to Meredith, Lauren and Taylor joining the live stream for letting me know my audio was not working so I could salvage a fairly decent 26 minutes of the show post facto.
But now for some show notes for those of you who will—intelligently I might add—avoid the carnage above
Reclaim Hosting
- The Reclaim EdTech team did its first formal presentation around Domains for the folks at UT Austin who are getting the Domains project up and running thanks to Heather Pleasants and Adam Rabonowitz. I love the way they are framing the session around digital presence and identity, and using the platform as a way of thinking through this across various departments. I wanted to show the following video by Tressie McMillan Cottom riffing on not being a brand when it comes digital identity, but time got away from me in the session, so sharing it on the bavaweekly cause I love it:
The benefits of marketing yourself as a brand has been explained from every possible angle. Tressie McMillan Cottom offers another idea in the 5th #BigHomieTips: “Don’t.” pic.twitter.com/UpyQc0KNIL
— Rap Portraits (@RapPortraits) January 30, 2022
- Lauren and I caught up with Jerry Slezak and Shannon Hauser at UMW to see how things are going, and that was really enjoyable. That makes Andy Rush, Shannon, and Jerry in one week, I might have to call Martha Burtis and Patrick Murray-John just to complete the circle
- Taylor and I caught up on Friday for a ds106radio chat about some of the awesome work he has been doing fixed the one-click Azuracast installer in Reclaim Cloud, as well as more expansive thinking around an open source media ecosystem that could be imagined through some of the next generation tools available in the Cloud. I blogged and linked to audio archive of the conversation, and if web-based radio, video, and streaming get you excited, this might be a fun one for you.
Talking Open Source Media Ecosystems on #ds106radio
- The chat with Taylor inspired me to spend the weekend installing PeerTube on a domain I have been squatting on for a while, namely reclaim.tv. That led me down a rabbit whole of using the PeerTube CLI tool to import all the Reclaim Hosting videos on Youtube over to reclaim.tv—it was fun and returned me to a few other projects I’ll blog about more here shortly.
bavacade
- I spent some time in this video pointing out some of my terrible soldering on the Stargate circuit board. I have replaced 4 chips at this point on the board, and I think I might have done more harm than good on the last soldering sojourn, but I won’t know for sure until I get the 7474 chips from Germany. I also took the leap and posted on the KLOV forum for help, so I am not flying totally blind, but it also a good reminder how far out of my element I am. Here is to hoping the 74HC74 chips I substituted for the 7474 are the cause of the green screen, but I am not optimistic. The bavacade pain continues
Stargate Arcade Machine with Green Screen of Death
Watching
Tess and I watched True Grit (2010) — my second time, Tess’s first—and we loved it. The writing in this film is just amazing, and Hailee Steinfield puts on a career performance in her first first film. Here is a clip from Mattie Ross negotiating with a horse trader, it is amazing!
We also watched the first two episodes of Severance, which I enjoyed, but had the strange feeling I had seen it before. It is very much like a self-conscious Black Mirror, but not sure it can sustain on just the one conceit—that said the acting is on point and I remain compelled. Also, the fact the tech company that the story centers around is called Lumon Industries was not lost on me, I wonder if Wiley can sue over one letter
I also watched an hour-long Untold documentary on Netflix recounting the Malice in the Palace incident back in 2004 when a full blown brawl cum riot took place at a Pistons Pacers game in the palace stadium in Auburn Hills. I had heard about this in passing, but not being a huge basketball fan it was just surface, but watching the documentary and seeing it was crazy. A lot of interesting ideas about thugs in sports and the racialized condemnation of the media weaved into the career altering fight for players like Jermaine O’Neal. Also the insanity of fandom and the ridiculous expectations for these young players, it does reinforce a growing inclination to avoid professional sports more generally given it can bring out the worst in everyone and is all too often the bastion of a pernicious nationalism.
Anto and I tried to watch Bigbug (2022) on Netflix, a film about futuristic house with android servants and smart appliances that attempt to protect their masters from the cyborg revolution. Maybe I had a hard time with the comic translation of this scifi dystopia, but the two registers didn’t work for me and I abandoned it after 30 minutes or so. We then tried to watch Tammy (2014), which was equally as bad—although I do like Melissa McCarthy at times a lot. Netflix can really suck you into some horrible choices, I am increasingly hating that service.
Finally, whenever I have those frustrating Netflix experiences I go back to the vault and pull out a old and arguably equally bad film like Continental Divide (1981)—but at least it wasn’t on Netflix This was John Belushi’s penultimate role, which has him auditioning for the romantic comedy genre. Not sure it is really his strength, and the remarkable thing about this film is how unfunny he is throughout most of it. The other remarkable thing is Tony Ganios (Perry from The Wanderers or, “leave the kid alone”) playing a Brooklyn football star come pre-historic mountain man. The above scene has Blair Brown, the ornithologist Belushi comes to interview, have a play-acting attack/love scene in the woods while Belushi watches. It’s all so bizarre, but I loved it.
Personal
- It is confirmed, I have the genetic blood disease hemochromatosis—that and $4.50 will get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Gaelic warrior literally runs in my blood. Kind of a relief to know what it is that has been driving the iron carrying protein levels so high in my blood.
- Additionally, got some good news on the health front, my liver scan for damage from those consistently high ferritin levels came back clean, so looks like it is bloodletting and management of those levels from here on out, or so I hope.
Dante presiding over the Saturday market in Trento pic.twitter.com/RwdiWElkhE
— Jim Groom (@jimgroom) February 19, 2022
- Other than that just work and walks with Duke. I have been preoccupied with the health related stuff and trying to remain constant, but not always as easy as I hope it will be, but that’s life!
This week there were two bavaweekly streams because I failed to record the one I did yesterday, which did have some issues for sure. That said, folks like Geoff Cain and Todd Conaway joined the chat fun, and that was a blast! I had an issue with the desktop not sharing videos off YouTube cleanly in both streams, so I might revisit that workflow. Switching scenes in OBS solved the glitch, do I’m thinking I might need to run each of those videos through a dedicated scene. Also, you might want to go to 3:30 to avoid the intro music and GIF to get to the actual start of the video (too lazy to edit ).
Link on Peertube
I talked a bit about the Reclaim Roundup Newsletter, which I love, movies I watched, upcoming arcade work, Reclaim Arcade’s birthday, and more. It’s a bit longer because I play several 2-3 minute clips from films I have watched this week, which is always a blast. I’m going to forego the long write-up for this one right now, but if I have the time later today I will fill the post out with more links and details. The coolest element of this edition of bavaweekly was the inclusion of a 30 second weather update Antonella did in the park while we took Duke for a walk. The weather has been gorgeous here and Antonella tells the tale of the tape for the week!
Link on Peertube
After my very rough workshop on Reclaim Cloud at last year’s NYC Digital Humanities (NYCDH) Week event, I was surprised the good folks reached out again this year. That said, I jumped at the opportunity to sit on a panel on February 7th to kickoff the theme of the week centered around supporting Digital Humanities. I’ll be roundtabling alongside Jennifer Serventi and Moacir de Sá Pereira at this year’s event next week, and I’m very much looking forward to it because support is what Reclaim Hosting’s entire enterprise is built upon.
And for the NYCDH’s sins, I went ahead and submitted a demonstration/workshop featuring Reclaim Cloud once again. It’s Tuesday morning, February 8, at 8 AM EST, and as you might be able to tell from the title I’m doubling down on Docker!
Containing DH: How to Use Docker to Run Just About Anything
This session with be a demonstration of how to use Docker in Reclaim Cloud to run just about any application on the web. It will be interactive in that after the initial demonstration we will be taking requests from the audience to install those hard to run applications in order to model the process. Come to this session if you want to get your Digital Humanities project up and running without the need of an IT department.
There is only one person signed-up so far, so I probably missed the mark entirely with my title and description, but if you are interested it is free as in puppies, and I’d love to talk Docker with you next week.
I am pretty stoked with how the preparations for Reclaim Hosting’s monthly newsletter “The Reclaim Roundup” have been coming along. Last Wednesday was a “deadline” for including anything new, and Pilot and I spent Thursday and Friday providing context to the various posts and getting a structure in a place.
After that, we tested the newsletter’s emailing feature built into Ghost (the self-hosted open source platform we are using for our newsletter) that integrates with Mailgun. We emailed a test of the issue to several folks at Reclaim and it worked perfectly—the images and media came through seamlessly and the messages were not getting flagged as spam or junk. That was a relief.
Next up was getting our list of almost school admins and contacts added to to the subscription list, which I was afraid was going to be a bear.
| email | name | subscribed_to_emails | | jim@reclaimhosting.com | Jim Groom | TRUE | | jimgroom@gmail.com | Jim Groom | FALSE |
But turns out it is really simple, you just need a CSV file with three columns (though you can add more if you like) titled email, name, and subscribed_to_emails —as illustrated above.
Notification that an import of almost 400 recipients was successful.
Pretty simple, I was able to import 397 subscribers in a matter of seconds with no more personal info that a name and email. The fact that Ghost has become so geared towards newsletters has really made this easy. Along with the ability to unsubscribe from the newsletter baked-into at the bottom of the email.
What’s more, if you want to re-subscribe an email with a one-time link to access and manage your subscription is sent.
One time email with link to access account and manage subscriptions
Then you just access your account, which is quite sparse, and toggle the Email newsletter button:
Account pop-up in Ghost to unsubscribe or subscribe to emails
While we were testing Friday, Taylor noticed that the Ghost theme Digest talks about “paying for premium content” etc., which is not our game. So I went into the theme files changed some of the language in default.hbs so there is no mention of paying for anything.
Re-wording the subscribe portal in Ghost
Re-branding the message when folks are signed-in to get rid of premium content verbiage
I think the newsletter is just about ready to go out tomorrow, and I love it already, if for nothing else as a testament to how much we accomplished in January. Reclaim Roundup will tell the tale!
It has been a pretty intense week, and given the semester is well underway that should come as no surprise, but it always does for some strange reason. I had fun with the stream this week, and was thrilled to see old friends like the great Chris Lott dropping by, as well as “regulars” like Gordon Hawley, Taylor Jadin, and Anne-Marie Scott. This was my fourth bavaweekly episode, and so far I’m really enjoying the whole process. It forces me to stop for a brief daily reflection and then use those notes to create a mini-event once a week where I can mess around with streaming. So, the next stream will be Tuesday, February 1st, and if that happens then this little experiment has made it out of January.
I played with the format this week a bit. Rather than sharing by category, I reported by day—playing off my Shining reference to start the episode. I also played around with starting the stream a bit earlier and using a GIF and some waiting room music so folks know the streaming will start shortly. I did the same with a closing scene to thanks participants as well, both of which were inspired by an OBS chat Taylor, Pilot, and I had a couple of hours before the show. The world of OBS is starting to open up to me, and it’s amazing.
Reclaim Hosting
- Edtech/Instructional Technology meeting on Wednesday, discussed the topic of the community chat for February 9th, which will be centered around the “State of Reclaim” and Taylor already posted an announcement for it in the Community forums.
- We also chatted about the idea of a professional development series for the broader community around containers, Docker, and Reclaim Cloud, which might be fun, and my recent submissions of a workshop on February 8th for NYCDH is in the spirit of exploring that possibility, we’ll see if that gets accepted.
Just submitted a fun demonstration/workshop event showing offer Docker in Reclaim Cloud @nycdh https://t.co/camYQMij5Z Here is the catchy title: "Containing DH: How to Use Docker to Run Just About Anything" And now the description 1/3
— Jim Groom (@jimgroom) January 24, 2022
- Watched Taylor Jadin’s livestream about setting up Foundry on Reclaim Cloud and mapping storage containers for Docker instances that don’t give you an easy way to access file system while the instance is running. Awesome stuff, the Cloud learning continues.
- I wrote a post about upgrading my Peertube Docker instance running on Reclaim Cloud. That was cool because it further reinforced my understanding of how and why Docker and containers more broadly can make managing infrastructure that much easier.
- We had a Domains API meeting and that was inspiring, Tim posted his thoughts on the status of that project, and it is one of the yet unrealized projects that has been with us since almost the beginning. I love that the light still shines there!
- It’s been a week of strange infrastructure issues, like the one where the Robotron server appended the port :2082 to all accounts, which then defaulted to 2083 causing some confusion. Appears to have been a networking rather than a cPanel snafu, but that was a head scratcher.
- We also met with a few members of Wake Forest University’s IT team supporting their instructional technologists, and they shared some great tips and scripts for securing cPanel servers against WordPress hacks. I really enjoy collaborating with smart folks in IT, and the fact they are so willing to share their insights is really generous and valuable.
bavacade
-
Tess and I took a trip to Carpi to visit a 1980s arcade in a mall, and unfortunately it was underwhelming. There were about 25 games total, 4 pinball and 20 video game cabinets, and there were no real classic besides Ghosts and Goblins, Marble Madness, and Bubble Bobble, but there were in decent shape at best. The Indiana Jones pinball was fun and easy, and they did have my favorite pinball Stranger Things, but all-in-all I was left wanting. Fair enough, I have been spoiled by the awesomeness that is Reclaim Arcade, but I do know the proprietor of this mall arcade has hundreds of games in his warehouse—the sheer number is impressive. But the mall arcade was a let down, although from what I can gather the warehouse in Veneto is being converted into an full blown arcade with hundreds of games, and he has a ton of good ones. Maybe that will be the arcade of record, we shall see
-
While I was there I did pick up a couple of marquees for the bavacade, one of a game I own (Asterock) and the other of an old school car racing game call Long Beach that is a glass marquee and has personal resonance given my roots in both Long Beach, Long Island and California.
Streaming
- I woke up Thursday to Brian Lamb on the #ds106radio, which was a blast. And I also jumped on for a bit. I missed the 11th anniversary of the mightiest radio around, but it was in very good hands with some fun, fun programming, like Tim Clarke’s Cover to Cover Show, which is a brilliant idea:
To celebrate ds106radio's birthday, how about we play a game? At 1:30 pm EST, I'll attempt a "Cover to Cover" interactive show. Please listen and play along! I'll need your votes. #ds106radio @joefromkenyon @CosmoCat @LaurenHeywood @alexmasters @jimgroom @RadioEUG @phb256
— Tim C (@floatingtim) January 23, 2022
- I did some Karaoke practice with Chahira last week in preparation for our Karaoke event Friday afternoon as part of the LiveSciences3 social events, and it was a total blast. It was the first session I ever did where folks sang more songs in French than English, I loved it!
Karaoke Night? was a lot of fun, thanks to our hosts @CosmoCat and @jimgroom. We sang, danced and refilled our dopamine – perfect for the gloomy German winter days!
In typical liveSciences³ fashion, it was quite international (we sang in English, German, French, and even Hindi). pic.twitter.com/dzbRP5eqGP— liveSciences3 (@LSciences3) January 24, 2022
- I also picked up a new Sony mirrorless Alpha 7 II, and I am loving it. I played with it most of Saturday morning before heading to the arcade to play. Also used it for this week’s bavaweekly, needed to get a Dummy battery, but it does charge in my OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock, which is the best thing I ever bought for my computer. My setup does need a blog post.
- Yesterday, before the bavaweekly stream, Pilot, Taylor and I got on a call and chatted OBS, which was a blast. Taylor shared his setup, which is impressive, and I tried to copy a few of his ideas for this stream, like the intro and outro scenes. I need to up my picture-in-picture game for sure. I hoet to do more of these regularly, and see if we can loop in Andy Rush.
Watching
-
A lot of Twilight Zones this week, in fact I reflected in this week’s stream how this series was effectively mass communication/educating the public around the intersection of modern literature and existentialism in a fresh, revolutionary format know as the TV series. Pretty amazing, that show is the summit of creativity in my mind. Notables episodes watched: “The Lonely” (Jack Ward is John C. Reilly for the 50s), “Time Enough at Last” (Modern Poetry meets Sartre’s “Hell is Other People” in one episode), and “Judgement Night” —the existential horror by way of Nietszche’s” eternal recurrence” mixed with some some Heideggerian “facticity”-it’s all there!
-
Also watched the re-make of The Magnificent 7, which reminded my why The Wild Bunch is one of the best films ever made. This film missed any and all of its low hanging fruit references. Also watched High Noon, and Helen Ramirez steals the show. What a great movie!
- After a long hike Anto and I watched What about Bob? because that is out go to, but it led me down a rabbit hole of alleged on-set abuse that Dreyfus accused Bill Murray of, I was bummed to hear it cause those two were awesome together in this one. This film just keeps getting better for me.
- After watching the Twilight Zone episode “Judgement Night” (discussed above) Antonella wanted to watch a submarine movie (I married up!) so we landed on Crimson Tide (1995) and the film ages quite well. Whereas Denzel Washington was the veteran giving The Magnificent 7 any sense of gravity it could muster, Gene Hackman is the heavy in this one and he is on top of his game. He crushes the role and you really feel all the younger actors responding to him, it is pretty amazing. Even crazier is the framing of the moment in post-Soviet Russia and the world on the brink of war, which was way too close to home these days for my tastes. Here is Gene Hackman’s awesome speech for those special, sadistic readers who made it this far
Personal
Not going to lie, it’s been mostly work and little play, which makes Jimmy a dull boy…
But Antonella and I did check out entirely on Sunday for a 7-hour hike in the “Canada of Trentino” which is an area in the Lagorai area of the region. It is pretty wild there. We entered near a town called Borgo in Valsugana, which is about an hour drive from Trento. As you can see below, the nature is stunning.
It was a fairly grueling hike at 7 miles and a 600 meter ascent, made worse by the two or three feet of snow we would fall into at various points. But the view we got made it all worthwhile (see photographic evidence above).
Duke came along for the walk, and it was really a magical day, sometimes it is good to check-out into the wilds of Trentino for some of the rejuvenating power of play with my favorites!
Peace and love until the next bavaweekly you beautiful hippies!
The images were taken with the new Sony Alpha 7 II I picked up, and I am totally loving that camera.
A quick video guide for upgrading Peertube running in Docker Engine on Reclaim Cloud
Peertube 4.0 was recently released, and I was excited to see what’s new and improved in what is becoming one of my favorite pieces of open source software. Feeling emboldened by some recent experimenting in Reclaim Cloud, I decided to upgrade bava.tv running on Peertube version 3.0. I have Peertube running via a Docker container spun up within Docker Engine, or a container within a container—turtles all the way down. I was a bit nervous to upgrade versions given I have over 500 videos hosted there at this point.* Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised just how easy upgrading a Docker image of Peertube proved to be, which reinforces that Docker can be a much easier and more efficient process for managing your infrastructure once you wrap your head around it. So, below are the steps I followed using this guide for upgrading Peertube Docker images. You change into your Peertube directory in the Docker Engine container (mine is /home/peertube/ but yours may be different):
cd /your/peertube/directory
Then pull the version you want, I wanted the latest release which is called bullseye:
docker pull chocobozzz/peertube:v4.0.0-bullseye
After that you want to delete the containers and internal volumes:
docker-compose down -v
Re-run the container, but before you do make sure the new version you want to pull is specified in the docker-compose.yml file (located in /your/peertube/directory which for me is /home/peertube). In the docker-compose file look for the section titled peertube and the following lines:
`peertube:
If you don't want to use the official image and build one from sources
build:
context: .
dockerfile: ./support/docker/production/Dockerfile.buster
image: chocobozzz/peertube:v4.0.0-bullseye
env_file:
- .env`
Note the line specifying the image the bullseye 4.0.0 release needs to be for the image you want to install, which for me is chocobozzz/peertube:v4.0.0-bullseye
Save the docker-compose.yml file and the run the following command:
docker-compose up -d
And that worked swimmingly, I could load the latest version of Peertube and lost none of my existing videos, data, metadata, etc.
While reading about new features/updates within the software I noticed that they’re funding the development of a Livechat plugin I tried unsuccessfully to get working several months ago. As a result that plugin has now been regularly updated, so I decided to test it out. After reading around I realized it still needs the chat server Prosody installed, which can be tricky on Docker Engine given it is a pared down version of Linux that often makes installing dependencies hard, if not impossible.
Turns out the ease of upgrading and swapping infrastructure became readily apparent when I realized I could simply redefine a new Docker image in the docker-compose file and spin down the old one and spin up the new one with Prosody pre-installed. I got the heads up from the Livechat plugin documentation that has a copy of the Peertube 3.4 version with prosody installed, so after running the docker-compose down -v command I swapped out the image in the docker-compose file to be johnxlivingston/peertubelivechat:production-buster:
`peertube:
If you don't want to use the official image and build one from sources
build:
context: .
dockerfile: ./support/docker/production/Dockerfile.buster
image: johnxlivingston/peertubelivechat:production-buster
env_file:
- .env`
Then saved the file and ran docker-compose up -d which had Peertube 3.4 with Prosody pre-installed, with that working I could then install the Livechat plugin from the Peertube Administration –> Plugins/Themes:
Peertube Plugins Screen
Once you have installed the Livechat plugin you might need to add the API URL to get the Livechat plugin to work, for me that URL was http://localhost:9000. The fix of adding localhost:9000 was a result of the plugin author responding to my issue right away with a fix, so that was pretty awesome of John Livingston!
Peertube API Settings to be added
After that I was able to incorporate Livechat into my Peertube live streaming videos which was pretty awesome!
bava.tv with live stream chat working in Peertube
I wonder if doing this with the straight-up Docker image versus Docker Engine would make for a different experience? I am not sure, but worth experimenting on that front with another instance, but for now bava.tv is running cleanly with the livechat plugin working, and I am very, very happy.
______________________________________________
*Although I had managed to convert from traefik to nginx for the reverse proxy a little while ago (with help from Chris Blankenship), so I was not entirely clueless about what I was getting into.
Another week, another bavaweekly, that’s three so far for those keeping track at home. They ‘re admittedly self-indulgent and silly, but they are a welcome diversion that keeps me experimenting with the streaming stuff, which I enjoy tremendously. But let’s get to it….
Reclaim Hosting
- New semester has officially started at Reclaim, and it is getting busy. I can feel the stress creeping in, so those long mid-day walks are more important than ever.
- Wrote a couple of posts on configuring Ghost variables for the URL and email in a Docker container on Reclaim Cloud:
Setting Environmental Variables for a Ghost Docker Container in Reclaim Cloud
Configuring Email for a Ghost Docker Container on Reclaim Cloud
- Taylor, Meredith, Goutam and I also had a great impromptu professional development session migrating a Mattermost instance in Reclaim Cloud that led to a somewhat righteous rant post about edtech.
Professional Development in the Cloud
- In the Instructional technology meeting this week we floated the idea of a Reclaim Roadshow tour for a couple of weeks in US and Canada. Hopefully this virus calms down at some point so we can do that because I think it would be an amazing, fun team building experience, not to mention community outreach and visiting awesome people. One can dream!
- Pilot, Taylor and I trained Alyssa at Wesleyan on managing the Living a Good Life Mini Course in Reclaim Cloud. The take away for us after that meeting was that there is a space for us helping folks at edtech groups and beyond to manage and support their needs in the Cloud, something AWS, Digital Ocean, etc. are not really setup for in the same way. It’s always the interstices of support that we will thrive and grow, and I appreciate that.
- Reclaim Round-up newsletter is coming along, and the inaugural edition is still on schedule for the end of January. We had a fun meeting Friday setting down some timelines and making sure everything is in order, and I am kinda happy our first newsletter will be about creating a newsletter to some degree
- The one thing I missed in the weekly reflection video above was Taylor Jadin’s amazing community chat showing folks how to setup their own, DIY community site to feature work at their Domain of One’s Own and 50 people showed up and it went 20 minutes over given the interest and engagement. I can’t imagine Taylor is anything short of thrilled with the results, I know I was over the moon! If you missed it, he captured it all for posterity, very much looking forward to another one of these next week.
bavacade
- Things were very quiet on the repair front, though Tim did an amazing video on how to substitute the OG hardware in Reclaim Arcade’s Q*Bert with an FPGA board, switching power supply, and a Jamma adapter. I’m interested in this approach because you can preserve the older hardware—which is hard and expensive to continually repair. The updated hardware should provide more consistent play and hopefully last longer without the fear of regular, costly repairs. He hasn’t posted the video yet on Reclaim Arcade’s Youtube channel, but when he does I will copy it below.
- On the home arcade front, I just played a lot. I am getting better at Donkey Kong Jr and worse at Millipede. Basically remaining the same at Scramble, with some minor advancements in Phoenix.
Watching/Reading/Playing
-
- Dug into some Criterion this week starting with Jean-Pierre Melville’s Magnet of Doom (1963)
- Watched documentary Brother’s Keeper (1992) -part of a broader retrospective at Criterion focusing on the films at Sundance in 1992, most of which are kinda bad, as much as I want to like them. We tried watching In the Soup, but it was not good, we opted for Life is Sweet by Mike Leigh. Brother’s Keeper is the stand-out for me.
- Finished The Shrink Next Door miniseries, and I appreciated Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd in this, but it took a few episodes to get into and it ended within a reasonable time, so for that I was a fan. Also was playing on all my Long Island wardrobe memories from the 1980s, Ralph Lipschitz indeed!
- Got out on Saturday night as a result of my daughter wanting the parents out so she could have people over, that meant a good pizza and a movie. The King’s Man was sold out (the movies were packed) so we chose Matrix Resurrected against Anto’s better judgement, and it was terrible. As much as I love Keanu, it was bad, bad, bad, a re-heated original Matrix with overtones of JJ Abrams further ruining the Star Wars franchise, but this was self-inflicted by Lana Wachowski. Also, I think my assessment is accurate not withstanding my terrible Italian comprehension, and if nothing else the lackluster effects were a testament to how impressive the original was.
- Watched a lot of Last of Us (the original) given Tommaso is now played through that one, inspired by his brother. I have to replay that one soon.
- I watched the first 8 episodes of Twilight Zone season 1. AWESOME! Just what a I needed, and got to see my all-time favorite episode “Walking Distance.” Pure magic!
I spent an inordinate amount of time watching Downes’ “Stephen Follows Directions” videos, they are compelling and really instructive for me about documentation and watching folks do their edtech work. I love these videos!
- Listening to a lot of Silver Jews thanks to the good DJs of ds106radio, and that inspired a karaoke section of the above bavaweekly video, you’ve been warned.
Personal
-
Getting my regular walks in with Duke, and that has been awesome. I have been all work the last two weeks, so the exercise in the middle of the day is welcome. pus, it has been cold but clear and crisp, my weather for sure!
-
Sleeping in a bit these days, which is very welcome. I am usually up at 6:30 or 7, but finding I am sleeping until 8 or 8:30, and it feel luxurious!
- Appreciating the work rhythm right now, but that means I am basically a hermit that works, walks, and watches movies, will be happy to stretch a bit here soon.
Well that’s it, and special thanks to the folks who showed up during the live stream to chat and offer support, thrilled I got the livechat plugin working with Peertube live streaming option, but more on that in my next post.
I am just coming off a couple of hours of watching Stephen Downes work his way through some of my Ghost tutorials.
It’s not only quite useful for me to watch someone make heads or tails of my tutorials, but I also find it oddly compelling viewing. I wanna know if he figures things out after all the obstacles I placed in his way, a strange cliffhanger that provides me clues along the way for how I can be clearer and better. Maybe I have found my Youtube genre after all!
But beyond these videos and tutorials, which will have a very limited appeal, the broader push right now for professional development in Reclaim Cloud has been quite rewarding. Just this past Friday Meredith, Taylor, Goutam, and myself jumped on a Slack huddle and tried to figure out how to migrate an outdated Mattermost instance to an updated version in a new environment.* It took us an hour and a half, and we were new to PostgreSQL which was a learning curve, but against my wildest expectations the migration was successful in large part thanks to Taylor and Meredith’s experimenting and riffing off one another, which was so awesome to see.
A 90 minute call figuring out how to migrate Mattermost containers between upgraded versions with @meredithfierro and @TaylorJadin some of the best professional development I've had at @ReclaimHosting yet. We've only just begun!
— Jim Groom (@jimgroom) January 14, 2022
It reminded me of why I like this forgotten corner of edtech so much. I deeply enjoy continuing to try and wrap my head around the tech, which has never been easy for me, much like the writing I struggle with to explain it. Having folks traveling that road, like Downes in his “Stephen Follows Instructions” series, reminds me how valuable it is for folks to share the work they do to help you grow. That was always the core of blogging for me, professional development with a sense of generosity and hopefully a reciprocating audience. As opposed to all the whining and complaining that has dominated the platform posturing that’s taken over most other spaces like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, all of which leaves me wanting—most especially when I engage in it.
Configuring Email for a Ghost Docker Container on Reclaim Cloud
I think the joy of exploring Ghost as Reclaim’s newsletter over the past two weeks has been the meetings with Taylor, Pilot, and Lauren to chat about what’s possible, while interrogating the tech, and sharing what we we know and what we’ve learned. That’s always been the sweet spot for instructional technology for me, and the idea of doing it afresh for the Cloud with a crew at Reclaim and beyond makes me quite happy. My recent flood of blog posts sharing what I figured out is a testament to that, and I know I’m in the zone when the blog is flowing forth with disposable pearls like this one.
BavaGhost over the years
In fact, looking at the Ghost site I’ve been experimenting with since 2014 in many ways tells the tale of this work. Not only in the details, but in the amount of time and energy it takes to try and dig in and understand something beyond empty terminology and speculative conference presentations. Instructional Technologists need to be more than gatekeepers (or even worse apologists) for the campus learning management system; they need to dig in and understand what drives the tech and how it more broadly shapes the work we do—it’s why the wholesale dismissal of Web3 by so many with pithy tweets about it’s emptiness strikes me as hypocritical, especially when coming from recovering Web 2.0 evangelists. I have my deep doubts for sure, but if Web 2.0 has morphed into the concentration of the web into corporate silos like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google then I’m absolutely ready for alternatives. Nothing replaces doing the work.
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*The reason for doing this migration is pretty instructive in how we might want to approach containers in Reclaim Cloud more generally. The Mattermost instance was a one-click installer through Jelastic (our Cloud software provider) that had not been updated for several versions, and when they did update it the existing instances could not be updated that that later version. Hence, we had to do a manual migration. This points to a discussion around trying to limit the marketplace apps to official Docker images rather than custom stack installations via Jelastic given they don’t seem to age well, and the straight-up Docker installs through Docker Hub require fewer Cloudlets, which means they are usually cheaper. In other words, the jumping in and playing has led to some more focused attention to what is going to work in this space for us and our clients.
Simaron’s Phentland Ghost 1979 on Flickr
When I first installed Ghost many a year ago the most difficult element of setting it up was getting mail working. I used Mailgun for the first time during that process, and since then API-driven mail services have become pretty standard. The way mail works in Ghost now, as I understand it, is it has direct mail services baked into the app using NodeMailer for transactional emails like new subscriptions, password changes, etc. That was not the case back in 2016, and that definitely makes things easier.
The other piece regarding email for Ghost is the setup for sending a newsletter, which purposefully does not use the NodeMailer setup. To send out a newsletter—which is increasingly the functionality Ghost aligns itself with—you integrate with Mailgun to send the one-to-many emails to avoid getting the server IP address blacklisted for spam. This is an element of the software I very much appreciate as the proprietor of a hosting company
Anyway, setting up email in Ghost was actually far easier for me this time around. Once I got my instances url variable set correctly (see this post for setting the url variable for a Ghost container on Reclaim Cloud) setting up email was simple. To be clear, however, if you do not have a Mailgun account you will need to set one up given that’s the only service Ghost integrates with out of the box. Also, Mailgun no longer has a free tier so this will definitely have an associated cost depending on the number of emails you send.*
Below is a quick how-to for getting up and running with Mailgun to send email from a specific domain taken from this post:
Mailgun Config
1. Create a Mailgun account and log in.
2. Under the Domains section click Add New Domain. (Hint: copy the password, you will need it later)
3. Enter the domain from where you want to send the emails.
4. Update your DNS records to verify that you are an authorized for the domain.
5. Verify your domain in Mailgun (when DNS changes propagate).
Also, the post Creating a Newsletter Using Ghost goes through all the details of setting up Mailgun for Ghost in great detail, so I would check that out. The long and the short of it is once Mailgun is setup the integration with Ghost is jut a API key away.
You can also set the email addresses where Newsletter recipients can reply or seek support in the Settings–>Newsletter section of Ghost, just above where you set the API:
The last piece is setting up the SMTP variables in your Docker container to use Mailgun. I believe by adding the Mailgun variables to the container you will also be pushing transactional email through Mailgun rather than using NodeMailer, but I may be wrong on this. Below are the environmental variables I added the container on Reclaim Cloud using the Additional Options–>Variables area:
Below are the names and value (which will be unique for you) that you would need to add to your container on Reclaim Cloud.
name: mail__transport value: SMTP
name: mail__from value:
name: mail__options__service value: SMTP
name: mail__options__host value: smtp.eu.mailgun.org
name: mail__options__port value: 587
name: mail__options__auth__user value: postmaster@
name: mail__options__auth__pass value:
Having added these variables to BavaGhost has not done any damage to the instance yet, and I can confirm that transactional emails are now being sent via Mailgun. So, if I am right, these variables are now using Mailgun for transactional emails as well, and it probably makes sense to change them and then restart your container so the changes take effect. Also, remember to be patient given you might get a nginx error for a bit until the Ghost instance fully restarts.
Also, if I am wrong about Mailgun handling transactional emails I am all ears, and have no problem editing my post to herald the real truth behind Mailgun and Ghost!
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*I appreciate the Ghost crews’ obvious impatience with folks who are railing against the machine for having to pay for email, and their response to that criticism is spot on:
Some people seem to experience a bizarre amount of anger about email configuration for reasons which are very difficult to decypher.
Fortunately, Ghost is open source — so if our many years of tireless work to make a great product don’t meet your exacting standards for free software — you can always fork the codebase and modify it to work however you would prefer.
Yeah, it can be a slog sometimes, but I appreciate the simplicity of the software and the fact that, unlike WordPress, it does not feel the need to be everything to everyone.
If the title hasn’t scared you away, then welcome!
Rainy Dark Tree from PxHere
Over the weekend I was struggling to get a mapped URL for a Ghost container on Reclaim Cloud resolving consistently to the main URL. While the home page worked, several subpages were defaulting to localhost:2386, which is hardcoded in the config.production.json file.* This is where that URL is normally defined, but Docker environmental variables are not actually read through this file, which is a bit of abstraction you have to wrap your head around when working with Docker. That file will work consistently if it’s hosted on a stack, but in a Docker container you need an environmental variable file (or .env file). Another detail discovered on my journey towards understanding Docker. Thankfully I have Taylor Jadin to think this stuff through with now given he’s a bit further ahead in his grasp of containers and has played with Reclaim Cloud a fair bit.
So, the proper way to deal with this issue in Reclaim Cloud is to add the url variable to the container environment. In the Ghost application container go to Additional Settings –> Variables:
Accessing Variables menu on a Reclaim Cloud container
From there click on the green Add button:
Add button and pre-existing Ghost container variables
After that you need to add the url variable as illustrated below (keep in mind url needs to be lowercase):
Adding Ghost url variable in application container
This will ensure your environment loads cleanly over a mapped domain, and all references to the domain url are updated throughout the container. Be sure to restart the application container (not the load balancer) and give it a minute or so and the site will come back up.
This solution helped me stop using the hack of cloning the site with an edited url field in the config.production.json file to fix the issue, while also solving my adjacent issue with setting the Newsletter/Support emails. I’ll write more on that in my next post about Setting Up Email for a Ghost Newsletter.
Adding Ghost’s mail__from variable in Reclaim Cloud
Another variable I added to my Ghost container was mail__from -you can see an example of this above for the address ghost_at_bavatuesdays.com.
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*This file is found in the var/lib/ghost/ directory of the official Ghost Docker image.
My first bavaweekly stream of 2022 is in the can, and you can watch it here. It’s a bit of a comedy of errors with my dog, Duke, trying to get his bone out from under the green screen. So it goes with my b-blog projects. I kept this recording simple with just my chroma-key camera super-imposed on my browser as I take you through some pre-populated browser tabs. If I tried producing it the way I would have liked it would have consumed more time than I have right now. I’ll always opt for getting stuff out quickly over perfectly, which is why I get shit out at all. I find pushing on despite all the warts means the growth and brilliance is always just around the corner
Reclaim Hosting
A spent much of the last week blogging about various work related projects at the mighty Reclaim Hosting. In fact, I published 6 posts over the last week (including the bavaweekly), which is pretty impressive. The blog posts focused on a few things: experimenting with getting Ghost running on Reclaim Cloud (with more coming on that topic); watching Downes watching me was a trip; the rise of instructional technology at Reclaim Hosting; notes for a case study of scaling WordPress in Reclaim Cloud for Wesleyan University; and a shout-out to announce Taylor Jadin’s community chat happening today.
Spinning Up a Ghost Docker Container in Reclaim Cloud
Updating a Ghost Docker Container on Reclaim Cloud
Watching You Watching Me
Living a Good Life in Reclaim Cloud
Building a Community Showcase for Domains and Beyond
It felt like a productive week on the blog front for sure. On top of that, early last week a snowstorm raged through central Virginia knocking out power for a few of the Reclaim Hosting folks working support, so I was answering quite a few tickets as well. It was a busy week for sure. Crazy how the I-95 became like the Sierra Nevadas in the 19th century with a strangely Donner Party vibe….what the hell is happening in America?
The first group meeting of the Instructional Technology division at Reclaim Hosting was a blast, looking forward to more of that. Also super excited for the Reclaim Roundup monthly newsletter we are working on, which is a big reason behind all the experimenting with Ghost. Things are good at Reclaim, I’m really feeling a work rhythm right now, and that is always nice. Need to ride that wave for a bit and get more folks blogging at Reclaim, it takes an edtech village
bavacade
Frankly I was a bit surprised I got anything done on this front given how deep I was into exploring Ghost, Reclaim Cloud, and doing general support, but a technician that repaired the power supply for Asterock reached out Friday after I noted the power was still not working on that game. Turns out there is a second power supply unit on the sound card that was sending 13 volts to the game board, which is about 8 volts too many. Game boards usually prefer 5 volts, so I’m not sure if the game board is fried or not, but we’ll see. The upside is we are chasing down the issues on this game, so I have to believe it will be working here soon. It is really the last of the eleven games located in Italy that fills me with dread. The Sidam Explorer game is also down for the moment, but that is a vertical hold issue on the monitor chassis, and it can be fixed. I’m excited for the day all eleven games here are in working order, but I’ll take 9 out of 11, and I do think a perfect 11 for 11 is just around the corner.
Sidam’s Asterock, an Italian bootleg of Asteroids.
Also, the marquee for Astro Invader is finally working. It was a 220 volt unit, and that confuses me as an American, but the technician helped me on that one and it was quite simple, so that was a small win. All the games in the foyer now have the marquee light working, it looks awesome.
Astro Invader marquee all lit up
Donkey Kong Jr. Screenshot without the shakes
The final thing was taking a look at Donkey Kong Jr‘s switching power supply. It was sending out fairly low voltage, 4.8 volts, and I had read on the KLOV forums that it could be one reason why the monitor is slightly shaky. We tried swapping the power supply out with a couple of extras I had lying round, but that did not work. The units smoked, so the technician took the original switching power supply home and fixed that one, and we tried it the day after (Saturday afternoon) and it worked and we could adjust the voltage out to the board up to 5.1 or 5.2 volts but that did not fix the shakiness, which most likely means the issue is with the Sanyo monitor chassis. This is good news in terms of figuring out the issue, the bad news is my extra chassis for this game is in New York We’ll get there….
Reading/Watching/Playing
In terms of actually playing in the bavacade, I played a fair bit of Donkey Kong and Centipede, setting personal high scores in both, 55,000 and 44,000 respectively. I checked with Tim and I still have a ways to go on both to match the Reclaim Arcade high scores for those games, but I am a patient man.
It's been a good Sunday. New personal bests on both Donkey Kong and Centipede this evening. This morning/afternoon was spent figuring out email settings for a Ghost Docker while playing New Wave on #ds106radio. I'm always so close to actually understanding how containers work.
— Jim Groom (@jimgroom) January 9, 2022
I also watched some Sterling Hayden films thanks to the Criterion showcase, including The Killing (1956), Crime Wave (1954), and Pharos of Chaos (1983), the last of which is quite a trip to hear Hayden’s contempt for Hollywood as well as his self-loathing regarding his cooperation with the House of Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. It’s also fun to watch him talk about working with Stanley Kubrick, and just his way of talking is wild. I really enjoyed this one, you can see a bit below:
I guess watching my son play The Last of Us Part II qualifies as watching, right? That game is simply amazing. I loved the first one, and watching him play Part 2 on the most difficult level is fascinating, it is purely a game of stealth. I love it. I want to carve out some time to play it, cause watching him work his way through it on a ridiculous difficulty level has been inspiring.
The Last of Us Part II
I was also able to get a book in this week, Emmanuel Carrère‘s The Advesary, a true crime account of a man who lived a lie for decades that finally imploded in murder. It is a quick, compelling read, and Carrère can write, even in translation it was hard to put down. I do love the true crime genre—which is a disturbing realization—and this story really delves into the almost unimaginable reality wherein someone can live an absolute lie in solitude for more than 20 years. To the point that when it starts to unravel his whole world falls apart overnight, it’s crazy. I also like the fact the author doesn’t moralize, but simply tries to understand, something that he is not really able to do in my opinion, which makes the whole thing that much more authentic. If I taught a True Crime class again, this would make the syllabus, especially given the murderer’s attempt to find religion in prison is reminiscent of the early American execution narratives, this vision of redemption and God’s love just falls flat in the world of this story which is fascinating when read as another chapter in the genre of true crime.
Personal
I took my regular walk with Duke, but I have been all work the last week. I probably need to start balancing that out a bit here, but I can be streaky when it comes to inspiration and work, so I tend to ride it out. Just got to be careful of the mania, cause that is always lurking behind any bout of productivity
That said, for the New Year Antonio Vantaggiato and his wonderful family were visiting Alto Adige, so we joined them for a hike in Val di Funes, which is always magic.
After that they joined us in Trento for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and we ate, drank, talked, and laughed a lot, a wonderful way to usher in 2022. I’m forever thankful for the awesome people I have met on my journey on this blog and beyond.
Well, I did get my first weekly video update for 2022 done, and I’m sharing it now with the understanding that the full “show notes” with a more fully fleshed-out post will follow tomorrow morning.
In this week’s bavaweekly I discuss a couple of blog posts I wrote in an attempt to narrate the process of setting up the open source publishing platform Ghost on Reclaim Cloud. There was also a post about getting Wesleyan University’s Minicourse MOOC in Reclaim Cloud as well as a promo post for Taylor Jadin’s Community Chat tomorrow. I also got to dream a bit with a post about the vision of Reclaim Edtech, which was fun.
My time was running short, but I did share some game updates from bavacade, as well as a clip of Sterling Hayden chatting about Kubrick. And I did read a book this week, namely Emmanuel Carrère‘s The Adversary, which was some top-notch true crime. All the while I had to wrestle Duke away from the green screen, only to realize too late it was sitting on top of his bone. Fun, fun, fun.
On Wednesday, January 12th from 12-1pm EST, Reclaim’s latest edition of awesome, Taylor Jadin, will be sharing a site template he created in WordPress—something of a SPLOT—that will help folks quickly and easily build a website for showcasing work. It comes complete with a simple submission form for non-logged-in users that all SPLOT admirers have come to know and love. It’s aimed at folks trying to open up the blackbox that is cPanel for their Domains projects, but it’s an idea/technology that can be used for a wide range of use-cases well beyond that.
Below is the form to sign-up, and it is free and open for anyone to attend: https://forms.gle/dkHo8ZzwvQJNHXnC6