migrating more blogs!

content/posts/2015/making-things/making-things.md

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+---
+title: "Making things"
+date: "2015-10-17"
+template: "post"
+category: "IOT"
+tags:
+  - "maker"
+  - "making"
+  - "han"
+  - "raspberry"
+description: 'The creation process of a Raspberry PI based "game console" and its controllers'
+disqusId: "14"
+---
+
+Even though this week has been extremely busy I wanted to bring you guys a little blog because the things I've been doing are truly wicked.
+
+## Special assignment
+
+Let's start with the boring, non maker, stuff. Around 1 pm I received a frantic phone call and a couple of messages from different people about "something". When I finally got around to dealing with them I discovered something truly awesome.
+
+As some of you know, next semester I will be working on a (school issued) project. This usually involves a group of 4-5 students working on a single big task for about 8 weeks. This time however it will be slightly different, me and 4 other students have been asked to work on a different project than all the other students. Turns out we have been recommended by our teachers and this company, of which we do not know the name yet, has decided to give it a go.
+
+We do not yet know what this special assignment will entail but one thing we know for sure. WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT IT !
+
+## Maker thingies !
+
+Even though I love software development, deep down I am also still a maker. And a maker likes to "make" things (go figure...), so when I got asked to do a project involving a Raspberry Pi I couldn't refuse. Even though I had no idea what exactly the project was going to entail I enlisted anyways.
+
+Soon after I had my first meeting with the team and the supervisor, and before long the goal of the project became clear. We were responsible for designing a workshop involving the Raspberry Pi for kids between the age of 12 and 18 years(middle school basically). One of the things we have to do is compare the Raspberry Pi to several other educational boards. This is especially important because schools don't tend to get anywhere near sufficient resources to even teach programming / IT related stuff, let alone spend their money on fun stuff like a Raspberry pi.
+
+So we came up with "pong". We are going to create simple controllers (based on potentiometers) and some kind of Raspberry Pi hat to which we can connect them. Besides pong we also speculated about creating our own Raspberry Pi image. I quickly pointed out however that maintaining an image shouldn't be high on our priority lists and that we might have to think about a different way to solve this problem. What we eventually decided upon was an "Install" script which can be run by either the teacher or some kind of maintainer which will install all dependencies and some example sketches.
+
+## The code
+
+Throughout the entire project we will be using a [github repo](https://github.com/Mastermindzh/han4pi) to sync changes. One of the benefits of a github repo, apart from the actual git stuff, is that we automatically share all our code / designs. This means that anyone who is interested can either reproduce or follow along with us.
+
+## Enough talking, show us something!
+
+Well alright then, we've got a couple of things "ready" to show others. The first of which are the design schematics of our controllers and our "hubs".
+
+![example of wiring diagram](./media/fritzing_example.png "fritzing wiring diagram of the controller")
+
+We quickly decided upon changing the hub design to a more elegant "hat" (hat being a board you can attach to the Raspberry Pi, not the fedora kind). A render of one such hats can be found below.
+
+![rendering of the raspberry pi hat](./media/Front_thumb.png "render of the raspberry pi hat")
+
+We also started working on the controllers. The final design will be compromised of a few "boxes" between which telephone wires run to connect them together. My fantastic soldering / glueing job on the inner workings of a controller and the laser cutted wooden box can be found below.
+
+![back](./media/back.jpg "Back of the controller")
+![bottom](./media/bottom.jpg "bottom of the controller")
+![controller_pot](./media/controller_pot.jpg "potentiometer used inside the controller")
+![front](./media/Front_thumb.png "The front of the controller with the logo")
+![inside](./media/inside.jpg "the inside of an assembled controller")
+![left_side](./media/left_side.jpg "The left side of the controller")
+![right_side](./media/right_side.jpg "The right side of the controller")
+![top](./media/top.jpg "The top of the controller")
+
+## The laser cutting process
+
+For those interested in the laser cutting process I have also prepared a video:
+
+<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OO6UDl8CU4s?wmode=transparent" width="320" height="180"></iframe></div>
+
+## The end
+
+Well that's all for today folks, I'll keep you updated!

content/posts/2015/new-look-new-comments-new-everything/new-look-new-comments-new-everything.md

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+---
+title: "New look, new comments, new everything!"
+date: "2015-06-16"
+template: "post"
+category: "blog"
+tags:
+  - "new"
+  - "website"
+  - "webdev"
+description: "In this blog post I describe my plans for the upcoming vacation."
+disqusId: "11"
+---
+
+## Separating the personal stuff
+
+First off, it's been a while.... I know. ☺
+
+I'm trying to separate [mi-soft.nl](http://mi-soft.nl) and myself, yet keep them together somehow. I have removed almost all personal content from [mi-soft.nl](http://mi-soft.nl) and am currently busy moving it to this "personal website". The end goal is to have them completely separate apart from the "software" tab. Software that I want to reveal to the public (more so than some scripts I use myself) will still be uploaded to [mi-soft.nl](http://mi-soft.nl) and more personal projects (like [CSVtoDatabase](https://github.com/Mastermindzh/Scripts/blob/master/java/CSVtoDatabase.java)) on my [github](https://github.com/Mastermindzh/).
+
+In order to "keep the sites together" I have given this site the exact same look as [mi-soft.nl](http://mi-soft.nl) except for the colours. I have also made a little system that allows users to switch the website's language. Everything apart from the blog will be Multilingual. Doing all these upgrades however also means upgrading Disqus, which meant losing all my comments. While sad, I feel like it had to be done.
+
+## Replacing the "about me" page on [mi-soft.nl](http://mi-soft.nl)
+
+I will be replacing the about me page on [mi-soft.nl](http://mi-soft.nl) with a "Linux software review" (LSR for short) section. LSR will consist of short video's (in Dutch) promoting Linux software.
+
+## Another maker project
+
+I am currently gathering materials and setting up the software for another cool maker project. It is going to include both the arduino and the raspberry pi. But that is pretty much all the information I want to disclose right now.
+
+## School
+
+I have only 2 days of school left this year, (and maybe a ceremony) which means an increase in productivity (hopefully). There are a couple of things I want to do before school starts again:
+
+- Lose 20+ pounds
+- Finish separating my websites
+- Clean all my servers (both soft and hardware)
+- Finish my portfolio (in both Dutch and English)
+- Get started with LSR
+- Write at least 5 new tutorials on [mi-soft.nl](http://mi-soft.nl)
+- Write at least 2 new blogs. (not counting this one)
+
+Let's hope I can get all my planned projects done and then some.

content/posts/2015/raspberry-pi-screen/raspberry-pi-screen.md

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+---
+title: 'I got a new thing !!!! ~ Raspberry pi 7" official touchscreen'
+date: "2015-09-25"
+template: "post"
+category: "IOT"
+tags:
+  - "maker"
+  - "making"
+  - "han"
+  - "raspberry"
+  - "touchscreen"
+description: "A look at the new official raspberry pi touchscreen"
+disqusId: "13"
+---
+
+Hey guys, as some of you know I was really, and I mean **really**, excited when they announced the official raspberry pi screen. Now why is that might you ask? Everything the raspberry pi people have released so far has been really solid. The boards, the sd cards, the wifi-dongle, all of them work absolutely fantastic! So as soon as I saw that the official screen was available for pre-order in the UK I ordered myself one and started waiting.
+
+## What's in the box?
+
+First up is the box itself:
+
+![picture of the official Raspberry Pi 7" touchscreen display](./media/box.jpg 'picture of the official Raspberry Pi 7" touchscreen display')
+
+The box resembles the original packaging from a standalone raspberry pi which is a nice little touch. The picture on the box does not however resemble the pi screen at all which I personally kinda like but it could possibly be seen as false advertisement.
+
+As soon as I opened the box I found a little booklet which contained some health and safety regulations. I have not taken a picture of the booklet because.... well it's a booklet....
+
+Lifting the first bit of red foam reveals yet another piece of red foam in which several electronic bits are embedded. I did take a picture this time:
+
+![a picture of the box the screen is in. It has red foam with the components packed neatly inside](./media/pcb.jpg "neatly packed pcb and accessories")
+
+From top left to bottom right we've got:
+
+1. 4 silver stand-offs
+2. The logic board for both touch and display
+3. Flat ribbon cable to connect the logic board to the pi
+4. 4 cables to (optionally) connect the pi to the logic board. (more on this later)
+
+After carefully extracting all the components I yanked out the red foam and found what I was really looking for. The official pi screen nicely protected in bubble wrap (the **only** way a display should be packaged).
+
+![[picture of the screen in bubble wrap]](./media/screen.jpg "finally! A screen.")
+
+After emptying the box I laid out all the pieces and checked whether my set was complete. (it was) In the picture below you'll see all the contents of the original raspberry pi 7" touchscreen laying next to a raspberry pi B v2\. Looking good so far !
+
+![a picture of all the components layed out on a mat](./media/layedout.jpg "all components inside the box")
+
+Assembly was easy and straightforward. The only thing I struggled with was the stand-offs. The stand-offs connect the board directly to the metal back of the screen, something which would fry an ordinary pc motherboard. Instead of monkeying around (like usual) I decided to seek guidance and googled a bit. Being one of the early adopters comes at a price though. There was hardly any information on the screen, let alone assembly instructions. I'm sure that by the time I upload this post there is plenty of information about this particular subject but in case you are interested. Yes. You **do** screw the pi directly into the back of the screen with the included standoff screws.
+
+## My case
+
+I bought my pi at Pimoroni and I ordered the case/stand there as well. The exact case I ordered is [here](https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-7-touchscreen-display-frame). The case is a laser cut layer based case. This means the individual parts of the case are actually flimsy but all bolted together it forms a nice solid block. After applying the case to my screen it looked like this:
+
+!["picture of the previously described case"](./media/backcase.jpg "fully assembled and ready to hold the screen!")
+
+As you can see there is plenty of room for the logic board and the flat cable is dangling freely. One fun thing to note are those plastic screws (which over tighten and break easily, hence why they included a spare screw).
+
+## Attaching the pi
+
+The pi itself is connected to the logic board by screwing it onto the stand-offs. Quick tip: connect both ribbon cables before you connect the pi! After attaching the pi I ended up with the following result:
+
+!["A picture of the pi bolted to the screen assembly"](./media/backpi.jpg "don't mind the wires!")
+
+The red and black cables provide power (and ground) to the pi from the logic board. This means that you can power the entire thing (pi + screen) with a single micro USB cable. Neat for those that don't have a spare micro USB cable. You could also connect the pi with an ordinary micro USB cable to the logic board since it has a USB port. Connecting the pi separately might be required to use some high power GPIO peripherals.
+
+## Booting it up
+
+The moment had arrived, I plugged the pi into a battery pack (creating a makeshift tablet-like device) and waited. First boot wasn't all that promising... Touch didn't work and I had an annoying little square in the top right. This was however not my first rodeo with a pi and I quickly worked out that the little square indicates insufficient input power. I did a quick update and after rebooting touch worked wonders! The only thing my makeshift tablet test was missing was some sort of input method for the keyboard. For this I used a program called "matchbox", which was available in the default repository. After playing around with touch for a bit I switched to a solid 2 amp power supply and the little, coloured square disappeared, as suspected.
+
+## That's nice and all... But we want a video...
+
+Of course I prepared a little video, wouldn't be a showcase if I hadn't now would it. So here goes:
+
+<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tSR9aql7HCY?wmode=transparent" width="560" height="235"></iframe></div>
+
+## In closing
+
+So, conclusion time. I really like the pi screen, I have been using it for a while now (hence the delayed release of this blog.) and it hasn't failed me yet. The screen is solid and bright enough for my use case and the touch works wonders. The price point is a little high (88 euro's) but I suspect the price to go down quite a bit when it becomes available in stores in the Netherlands. That's it for today's blog and I'll see you all later !

content/posts/2015/what-ive-been-doing/what-ive-been-doing.md

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+---
+title: "What I've been doing"
+date: "2015-09-11"
+template: "post"
+category: "blog"
+tags:
+  - life
+description: "A brief update of what I've been up to lately "
+disqusId: "12"
+---
+
+## My goals....
+
+Last blog we talked about a couple of goals I set for myself. As usual, not all of these have been completed. But instead of focusing on the ones I didn't complete I'll focus on the ones I did.
+
+### Finish separating my websites
+
+I'm almost done with this goal. The content has been separated but the new portfolio isn't up yet. I hope to be uploading the new portfolio at the same time as this blog but I can't be sure of that. I can start uploading the portfolio as soon as I have finished updating a couple of "projects" under the school category. After that the portfolio will be filled with recent work and fully functional. (and quite possibly even pretty).
+
+### Clean all my servers (both soft and hardware)
+
+I went above and beyond on this one. I even cleaned my regular pc (soft + hard) and my laptop (soft only). Cleaning my regular (dev) pc wasn't by choice however. A lightning strike wiped out some electrical stuff and one of the things that got fried was my motherboard. While replacing my motherboard I decided to clean the entire pc since it was open already. After installing a new motherboard I had thought I would have to reinstall Windows. This however was not the case! Windows 8 and Windows 10 both successfully booted after changing my motherboard! This is the first time I have seen any Windows version do that and I was happy to see they've improved. I still decided to wipe the system however and replace the ssd Windows was on. A couple of days later I also wiped the linux sdd and replaced that with my old Windows ssd (which was purchased later and thus much faster).
+
+As far as servers go.... I have cleaned them too ! Not only have I cleaned all my servers I have also cleaned up both my Dropbox and my Google Drive folders.
+
+### Finish my portfolio
+
+I kinda made this goal.... kinda. Hear me out on this one ! When I wrote my last blog post I had an idea in mind for the portfolio. There was already a sorting mechanism in place and things didn't look half bad either. However.... I decided to change things around and use a different sorting mechanism (mixitup) and also revamped the look of the portfolio. /images/videos are now the first thing you'll get to see and they will be as wide as the page itself. (some videos , like app showcases, will have black borders though). Directly beneath the media content is the customer and designer information and below that you'll find a short detailed summary for each aspect of the project. So I decided to chalk this one up as a success because I've done more work than I had originally anticipated :).
+
+### The other goals
+
+Only a few of the goals I had set I haven't reached. I have given up on losing weight and because of the extra portfolio work I didn't really start LSR either. 5 new tutorials is a detable goal. I haven't exactly written 5 tutorials but I have done some work on mi-soft.nl (and still wrote 2 tutorials). And 1 blogpost.... well I'm trying !
+
+## Losing some of my stuff!
+
+As I mentioned before I have lost some of my hardware to a lightning strike. I didn't just lose my motherboard however. I also lost my microphone (blue snowball), my keyboard (razer blackwidow), my xbox controller receiver, 8gb's of ram and some random usb peripherals. Some of the stuff was insured and thus I have gotten some money for it. However I did not simply want to replace the lost stuff, I wanted to upgrade too.
+
+I upgraded my keyboard to a ducky shine with black cherry mx switches. I have to say I'm still getting used to the linear-ness of the switches but so far so good. The big upgrade however is my recording setup. I went from having a single blue snowball to a blue yeti with shock mount, pop filter and boom arm. Initial tests prove to be very promising and there is a definite upgrade in sound quality. Aside from sounding a bit better it looks A LOT better. It almost look's pro! Here, have a look:
+
+![picture of the new blue yeti on a mic arm](./media/mic1.jpg "Looking spiffy!")
+![picture of the new blue yeti on a mic arm](./media/mic2.jpg "Don't mind the mess, it's the mic we're looking at")
+
+## Youtube channel split + new intros and outros
+
+Mi-Soft.nl and Rick van Lieshout are now 2 separate Youtube channels. Mi-Soft.nl will only be used to host tutorials. Nothing else. My personal channel (Rick van Lieshout) will host all other things.
+
+I have designed a new outro for all of the Mi-Soft.nl video's. I made the outro with "Camtasia studio" and "Gimp". The outro can be found here:
+
+<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mysCUZzfeC4?wmode=transparent" width="320" height="180"></iframe></div>
+
+I also bought some intro's from Flixpress. Both of these can be found here:
+
+<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AZZ86IPX9QQ?wmode=transparent" width="320" height="180"></iframe></div>
+
+<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WT5EC6UKoHQ?wmode=transparent" width="320" height="180"></iframe></div>