Avalon Greene's Place

Info, reviews and fun stuff!

I am such a disaster with this blog, it is just totally OMG! Been so busy with work and everything thst I just forget to post and update this place. The only thing I actually update is my portfolio (which can be found at http://portfolio.pjlgroep.nl).

I should really get some time to make a complete makeover here and update my stuff. We will see how time will go for me to do so. In the mean time, please have some patient with me. I am doing my best!

Hello everyone, it has been a while since the last time that I updated my blog. So to make a long story short I will try to make a attempt to let you all know what I am up to and what have been happening lately. And most of all, my plans for the future!

First off all, I almost finished my study. About more then a week ago I had my end presentation at school. There was a total of 35 listeners and it took me 40 minutes for my presentation. The presentation went perfect and their were not a lot of questions which mean I put up a good story (I hope). So now it is time for me to wait two weeks until I know if I passed my study or not. Wish me luck!

Next week I got my second interview for a company which approached me for a job. This is a nice change cause as starters they contacted me, and second of all they offer me a job which I like to do.

A other great news is that my sister gave birth to a baby. It is a cute little boy and so cute to see. The mom is doing perfect, and so is the baby. A few tough times but he will be all good. It is lovely to see a new life get on this world.

Yet this world also has some downsides. This week I also lost my granddad. It is still a bit unclear to me how he died but it is better for me to only know he died in a peaceful way as far I know. He had a good and long life and he will surely be missed!

Now some more good news. Only a few weeks and I will be in Florida with a good friend of mine. It is Disney time then and I am sure we will have the time of our life. Of course we will take loads of pictures and this time I will do my best to also write a little blog (If I am not having too much fun!).

As I don’t have school work at the moment I am trying to do the things I wanted to do when I was studying. Except hanging out with friends, gaming and cleaning (which my mom wants me to do and not me) I also want to work on my website (this site yea). I want to change the layout of this blog. Make it more in different sections like Personal, Rambling, Gaming and some more. Also do I want to make some in-game movies of the game I am playing lately (Battlefield 2142) and do more with DIALux and my portfolio. But most important, even tho it sounds strange I want to get this job and start working a normal 5-days work week with the evenings off!!

Well, this is all for now. Will do my best to keep you all up to date from now on.

~ Avalon

So yea, I got this little Piggy Bank from a dear friend of mine. And you know the best part. It is a Doodle Piggy Bank. How cool is that? You can just write messages and pictures on it and decorate it all the way you want it.

Now to be honest. I am the kind of person when he gets something as a gift from someone he is afraid to use it. More like I am afraid to ruin it or damage it. But then again. If I dont use it. I think the one who gave it to me wouldnt like it. So I unpacked it, doodled a bit on it and made some pictures. The idea of this Piggy Bank is to save for my trip to florida. Just think it is to small to hold all that money, atleast it protects my small coins very well. Good Job Piggy!!!

Hannah had been petting her vicious looking kitten for the better part of 20 minutes now. She was on her bed, in a meditation position doing

what looked like some serious hacking. What she was actually doing was a bit different, she was managing her website that went by the name of

“Fortune.org”. This site, being the most massive user driven “Forum” website ever made, was the work of an 18 year old girl named Hannah

Potes. She had dabbled in web design before, but never really got into it until she put up Fortune.

There wasn’t much to manage, since pretty much anything went on the website, but something caught her eye. A post someone had put up. It was put up by /d/, just like every other post, since everyone had to use that name. The picture put up next to the post was a rotating earth that was on fire. But the interesting thing was the contents of the post itself.

“Dear /d/,
I have a friend, yes, a REAL friend, that says he’s going to do something that could hurt a lot of people, I can’t say exactly what it is he’s doing, but it sounds like it could be dangerous. I just had to get that off my chest,

Thanks /d/!”

Being the administrator of the website, she could see where the person lived. Mount Vernon, OH, 43050.

Never heard of Mount Vernon, Hannah thought to herself. She contemplated what it could be that could “hurt a lot of people”. She replied to the post with a smartalic response.

“I bet it won’t beat Cho’s highscore.” She typed, grinning to herself. Evil, but she thought it was rather witty. Her alarm started to ring, indicating that it was time to head out to school. So she got her books, and started heading out to her car, but not before giving a small chuckle at the post she had replied to…

A few months back I found this place called portableapps.com. This website offers a platform and various applications which can be run from a USB stick. Back in the day I was mostly interested in the XAMPP application. This application is a complete webserver containing Apache, mySQL, PHP and Perl (the AMPP in XAMPP) that all run from a removable drive. Everything is pre-configured and ready to go just by unzipping or installing it.

The full XAMPP package includes:

• Apache
• MySQL
• PHP + PEAR
• MiniPerl
• OpenSSL
• phpMyAdmin
• XAMPP Control Panel
• Webalizer
• Mercury Mail Transport System
• FileZilla FTP Server
• SQLite
• ADODB
• Zend Optimizer
• XAMPP Security

I specially liked this application as you can run and edit websites without the need of a public server with php and/or MySQL.

The Xampp userpanel is easy to use and looks slick. With one press on the button you are able to activate and deactivate a function, or enter the admin panel to change settings.

Now it is nice to run a webserver on your USB stick but thats not all I wanted. I installed the portableapps platform and modded it. This gave me the change to change the layout theme to something I like more. After that I went to install some other applications.

I installed the following applications to use while building websites, or atleast pretend that I can build websites.

• XAMPP, this is used to run the webservers.
• FileZilla Portable, this is used for a ftp connection. Not that this is needed but looked like fun
• GIMP Portable, for the graphic touches.
• Firefox Portable, I just enjoy using firefox so it had to be there.
• Thunderbird Portable, when testing mail scripts and such.
• Nvu Portable, a simple WYSIWYG html/php editor. A mix of Frontpage and Dreamweaver.

Here a little picture of the FileZilla Server window and FileZilla connected.

Well, this is my portable USB webserver. Reactions are welcome. Tips, ideas and what else can be left in comments.

In light of recent thoughts, I am making some modifications to my book, or rather, how I present my book. I will be taking away the last of what I wrote, when I am done with the next part of what I am writing, that way, no one will be able to copy my book very easily.

Thanks!
Bayne

Ever had problems with power for your projects? You just want to test it but no adaptar with the right voltage. Or using 9V batteries for testing, which aren’t cheap. Well, I have the same problem. And well as I don’t have the cash to buy myself a high-tech professional lab power supply I decided to make one myself.

Just to let you know. This power supply uses a old computer ATX power supply. I know these ain’t the most reliable power supply’s for PIC’s and such. But for my purposes it is just perfect. A nice part of a ATX power supply is that it already delivers certain outputs these are +3.3V, -5V, +5V, -12V and +12V. With these output’s I can even combine. By using the -12V together with the +12V I can get a 24V output. But wouldn’t it be nicer if we could actually control the 24 output and make it variable from min till max output?

But enough of the technical stuff for now. Let us focus on what I want this thing to actually do and list it down.

• A on and off switch with light indicator,
• A variable output from around the 0V till 24V,
• Several outputs from +3.3V, -5V, +5V, -12V and +12V,
• A 0V (GND) output,
• Several USB connectors (5V) for charging and testing.

These things are pretty easy to build and will be certain build in the power supply. But I also have a few options which are still floating in my head and thinking about giving that also a place in the power supply. Here a little list of those items.

• A testing unit for LED’s,
• A testing unit for fuse’s,
• Volt and Ampere display for the variable output (even possible to make this to be used as a simple Volt/Ampere meter for circuits),
• Circuit tester.

One thing I should also think about is the casing for the whole power supply. First I wanted to build it in the old PC case. But after thinking more about it I realised that the PC case is a bit of a overkill. Yes, it is big so it offers alot of space for all components. But I can’t say it is easy to transport around. Online I seen a few other people do the same but they build everything in the power supply. On one side this is a good idea, however the downside is when the power supply dies you got to pull out all of the components and stuff and build it into a new one. And I want to build it so that when the supply dies, I can swap it out with a new one. Also the powersupply itself doesn’t have enough room for me to build in everything I want to build in it.

I have found a nice housing for my power supply. Just this item also has a few downside’s. First of all and most important, THE PRICE. This piece of plastic costs around the 60 euro’s. Now, I am not a cheap ass. But to pay so much for a housing is to much. A other downside is that I am not sure if the supply will fit in it or the extra’s I want. I could make the power supply to fit in it. But then it wouldn’t be easy to change the supply if it is broke.

Now, while I know what I want I can start with harvisting the supply’s I need and keep my eye out for the perfect housing (or not!).

So, I got this little Wall-E from someone really nice. And she sent it to me so I could do some mad scientist work on it. Well, ofcourse I would like to improve it. Just have no idea how.

I have a few little idea’s.

• Wall-E USB charger: Adding USB sockets in his stomach to charge up USB powered devices.
• Wall-E Card reader: Use his stomach to fit in a card reader.
• Wall-E Digital clock: Try to find a nice small digital clock and build it in his stomach.
• Wall-E Default: He is cute anyway. Why fuck it up?
• Wall-E Wireless project: Dude, you got enough time (not). Build a Bluetooth storage device in it!
• Wall-E Webcam: Score a cheap webcam and build it in the stomach.
• Wall-E …………..: ……………………………………………………………… .

So yea, feedback is welcome

New Years Resolution: a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year.

A few common used New Year’s resolution are: get fit, get thin, get hot, get laid.

And mostly the common outcomes are: stay out of shape, stay fat, stay ugly, masturbate.

Still it is nice for people to have New Years Resolutions. Even tho most of the time these don’t work out. Or you don’t believe in them. Also hard to find any resolutions to work on.

Mostly is this a goal that you propose and then forget the next day.

A while back I was in the mood to make a layout for my blog. I never actually did a thing with it. And I think I will never do either. But still I wanted to share it with all you out there. My techie blog theme.