Ryumaou

Making the impossible merely improbable since 1968

Diary of a Network Geek

From the Holy Book of Documentation

"1The DOCUMENTATION is my guide; I shall not wonder.
2It maketh me to understand the necessary concepts;
It leadeth me through the installation process.
3It reassureth me;
It leadeth me on the happy path for my desired objectives.
4Yea, though I work through the advanced configuration menus,
I will fear no failures, for thou art with me
Thy FAQ and thy troubleshooting they comfort me.
5Thou providest examples to me in the context of mine use cases.
Thou explainest my expected outcomes.

5 Photo Exercises

Did you get a new camera at Christmas?

If you did, maybe you're still learning just how that camera works.  I know, when I got my first digital camera it took weeks of fiddling around to get comfortable with it.  Not only that, but, since I hadn't really been a photographer in the first place, there was a lot I didn't know.
I've upgraded since then, and even then, I'm sure my camera has features that I haven't even tried.  And, I have...
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Make a Planet

I've got nothing this week, so I'm offering a world.

My wife and I have been sick the past week or so, which has left me with not a lot of mental bandwidth for my regular posts and writing.  Also, my attention span is short, but at least I find that I'm more easily amused.  One thing that amused me probably a little too much this week was Oskar Stålberg's Polygonal Planet project.  It comes in two forms; downloadable, which you...
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"Hey Siri!"

Who's afraid of artificial intelligence?

So, the week before Christmas, my wife and I finally upgraded our sad, old iPhone 4 and 4s to shiny, new iPhone 6s.  (That's an iPhone 6 for her and me, not a single iPhone 6s, just to be clear!)  Ever since, we've been walking around shouting "Hey Siri!" at our respective phones.  It's actually kind of funny.  And, I'm glad that I found Siri after I married my blushing bride, or I'm afraid I'd end...
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Starting Your New Year

So, here we are, the first day of a brand, new year!

Honestly, it's a pretty arbitrary demarcation of time.  I mean, it doesn't even really sync up with any significant natural phenomena, like a solstice or anything.  So, really, the whole idea of a "new year's resolution" is pretty random.  What's so special about the "new year" and why make resolutions about it?  Still, you know most of us do it, to some degree or another, even me.  This year, I'm...
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Christmas Music for Free

Yes, free Christmas music.

Normally, I share this sort of thing well in advance of Christmas, but, well, time got away from me.  Still, I love Christmas music of almost any kind and everyone loves things that are free.  So, combining the two is my way of spreading some holiday cheer!
For a number of years, Stereogum would gather free MP3s from various indie bands that had a Christmas theme.  They stopped doing that in 2011, but the music is still up,...
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Star Wars Fun and Games

The new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, opens today, and, in honor of that, I thought I'd share some Star Wars related links.

The first, which I hope is fun for everyone with a website, and who remembers the original Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope, is the Star Wars Crawl Creator. Do you remember the giant, yellow text "crawling" through space at the start of that movie?  Well, it was the first time we'd seen anything quite like...
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It's My Birthday

Yeah, it's my birthday again.

I've survived another lap around the Sun, mostly in spite of myself and due to the grace of God.  I almost didn't bother with a birthday post, because I mostly think of my birthday as just another day, but, it's sort of gotten to be a tradition with me to make this post every year, so, here I am.  Honestly, it seems kind of impossible to me that I've survived this long, but, according to the...
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FanFic

No, I'm not writing it, but I'm not knocking it, either!

I know a lot of people do look down on fan fiction, mostly because it traditionally hasn't been the best quality.  In fact, back in the old days, when I first was trying my hand at writing, it was very much denigrated and no one really wanted to admit that they wrote "fan fic".  It was, after all, problematic in a number of ways.  For one thing, it was never...
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Manuscript Submission Tools

If you finished your NaNoWriMo novel last month, you may want to submit it for publication.

Here are tools that can help, via the Bookbaby blog.
First of all, know that these aren't all free and all require a bit of work!
The first tool is Submittable.  It is free for "submitters" (ie. writers), actually, and has tools for keeping track of not only what you've submitted and to whom, but any awards and accolades you may have achieved with your writing.  You do...
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