My previous gaming mouse (also Logitech) lasted about 11 years before the left mouse button finally gave out.  Loved that thing.

Anyhoo – like many things in life, you shouldn’t whack it so hard that you end up breaking it.

Repair Procedure Number One is often the answer.

Long story short, I finally got it to work by setting the MOTHERBOARD variable in my Configuration.h file to BOARD_RAMPS_14_EFB.  It was previously set to be a Ramps 1.3 EFB.

My printer uses an MPX .3 board, and it uses pin 11 for the servo.  So the config line is:
#define SERVO0_PIN 11

Other than that, I just used the instructions on ANTCLAB’s page.

I’m using this mount from Thingiverse.

Lately I’ve gone through the process of finding a new jobby-job.  (Spoiler alert:  I found one.)  During the process I noticed that I kept forgetting contact names or mixing-up the details between gigs, so I crafted a handy template for quickly and concisely keeping track of the important bits of information about each potential employer.

I’m a software developer, so my first point of contact about any given job is usually a recruiter.  It’s important for me that I keep track of which headhunter I’m working with for a given job.  That way, nobody’s toes are stepped on.  Relationships are important!

I used Evernote.com to store this list so that I could access it from any device.  You could use that, or Google Drive, MS Office online, etc.  Just make sure you can access it anywhere.

Modify this template as required for your particular needs, of course.  And if you find this template useful, let me know what line of work you’re in and what modifications you’ve made to make your job search less chaotic.

• Company Name
  • My overall thoughts about the job…
  • Recruiter
    • Name
    • Company
    • Phone
    • Email
    • Any notes about this person that are pertinent
  • Location
    • Address
    • Drive time/complexity
  • Compensation:
  • What is their line of business?
  • Interviewer/Supervisor:
    • Name
    • Title and/or their place in the food chain
    •  Pertinent notes – what do I think of this person?
  • Corporate URL
  • Glassdoor Info (FYI: glassdoor.com is a site that has reviews from employees about their employers.  Take with a grain of salt, of course.  And use a throw-away email account to sign up.)
    • URL:
    • Notes:
  • Employment Type and Length (permanent? contract?)
  • Tech Stack (what technologies/frameworks are they using?)
  • Project Info
    •  What would I be working on?
    • What would my primary responsibilities be?
  • Culture
    • Dress Code
    • General Attitude (laid-back, stuffy, all-business, goofy, etc)
    • Hours (do they work a lot of overtime?)
  • Do I know anybody that works there?
    • If so, what do they think about the job?
    • Do I want to work with them again?
  • Pros:
  • Cons:
  • Misc intelligence/gossip from my network about this gig:
  • Benefits
    • Health:
    • Dental:
    • Vision:
    • 401k:

I recently purchased a sweet-ass 2006 Toyota Avalon Limited, and everything on it was smooth as silk for a couple of weeks but then we had a major thunderstorm blow through. The next morning, neither of my key fobs would unlock the car and the keyless starter proximity thingy couldn’t find them.  I had to unlock the car with the little emergency key that slides out of the fob, and to start it I had to hold the fob up against the start button (another emergency feature).

Long story short, rainwater was pouring down from the sunroof’s passenger side drain hole, down the headliner and down the A-pillar behind the interior trim, and onto a big-ass cluster of wires at the bottom of the passenger-side front fender/footwell area.  Once I dried these areas out, the fobs started working normally.

I was able to correctly diagnose the issue because about a week after the issue started, my son and I were driving around in another big-ass thunderstorm and he felt a drop of water hit his arm.

The most frustrating thing about this issue was that about 25% of the time, I’d go out to my car and the fobs would work. I took it to the dealership and wasted a pretty big chunk of change since they just threw parts at the problem instead of diagnosing anything.  Never going back to that place again.

The hilarious thing is that I bought a Toyota specifically for their legendary reliability.  I was tired of working on my own car all the time.  Lesson learned.  I’m still workin’ on my own car, and I’m still doing it better and cheaper than the stealership.

So here are some keywords and phrases that I came across while going bonkers trying to figure out WTF the deal was:

• DCR (Door Control Receiver)
• RKE (Remote Keyless Entry)
• Smart Key System
• ECU
• “key fob won’t unlock car”
• “key fob not recognized”

First, check all of your Page Template cshtml files (in /App_Data/PageTemplates/ ) for the following:

<f:function name=”Composite.Web.Html.Template.CommonMetaTags” />

…and get rid of that.

Also, go to the Layout perspective and pop open the Page Template Features, and look for a node called “Descriptive HTML head elements”.  Open that up and get rid of the call to the common meta tags.

As always, your mileage may vary and what works in one browser today might not work tomorrow.

We’ve all been there:  You smuggle a few thousand guns to rebel fighters in a country where you’d like to topple a dictator.  Next thing you know, the dictator’s gone but now you have all those guns floating around.  Most of them end up in the hands of insurgents (who were your buddies a couple of weeks ago but are now definitely anti-you), and some of them make their way to the black market and end up getting used against your drug enforcement agents and/or the drug cartels that are propping up your government.

Not anymore!  With our exclusive line of DisposArms time-limited weaponry, not only do you minimize the risk of your own weapons being used against you but you can also prevent flooding the lucrative secondary arms markets with spare weapons.

Design and Features

• Critical components of the weapons are built to fail due to corrosion or use after a predetermined time period or a given number of rounds have been fired.  Special composite materials cause the components to fuse together upon failure, rendering the weapon inoperable.  The components fuse in such a way as to make re-manufacturing/cannibalization of the weapon highly impractical.
• Non-critical components, such as grips, stocks and other furniture, are made from biodegradable plastics with a predetermined lifespan.
• The usable lifespan of the weapons can be custom-tailored to your specific revolutionary or counter-revolutionary timetable.
• Failsafe explosive devices can be implanted in the weapons and remotely detonated should the need arise.  The size, composition and lethality of the explosive can be customized according to your needs.
• GPS tracking devices are also available to ensure that your guns stay on-task and in-country.
• We also offer an extra-special feature that ties the self-destruct system into the GPS locator.  If a weapon leaves a boundary area that you have defined, the weapon automatically detonates.  You can even modify the boundary from our convenient phone app!
• DisposArms can be crafted to use a variety of locally-available calibers or you can choose from our line of proprietary, time-sensitive ammunition for even better control of your arsenal.

http://www.100yss.org/faq.html

Why Is DARPA making this investment?
“…The technologies we create can have very direct impacts here on earth, including benefitting the warfighter-DARPA’s principal customer. ”

OK, count me (and a lot of actual scientists) out.  I ain’t workin’ on no spaceship ideas if you’re just going to use them to blow shit up.  Get your Heartbreak Ridge out of my Apollo 13.  Why isn’t there a SARPA ?(replace the D in DARPA with an S for Space).  I know we already have NASA, but I think we need a more DARPA-like organization dedicated to the next generation of human space travel.

Is it a starship? Where do I sign up?
“Neither DARPA nor NASA are actually building a 100 Year Starship.”  Why not?  Just gonna sit around and talk, huh?
“Consequently we are not taking starship crew applications at the present time.”  Why not?  They don’t have to be applications for an actual crew, but it might be a revelatory exercise to actually review applications for a hypothetical starship crew.  You’re going to need cooks and janitors, and who knows what else.  What qualities and skills will you actually need in order to send a crew on such a long mission?