![]() | Going cheap: Looking inside the “Greenhouse 15 watt 126-led”A look inside (yet another) E27-based grow LED… this time, a mid-priced model that looked cheap from the get-go, and despite being advertised as 15W, only pulls 3W from the wall. |
![]() | Disassembling a generic 130W (132x1W) UFO grow LEDOpening up another UFO grow light. This time, a 130W grow LED that uses 132x1W leds (SMD5630). I take a look at the internals, measure the voltage, make comparisons to previous leds, etc. |
![]() | A Tale of Two “high watt” E27 grow LED’sA look at a couple grow LED’s that fit in a standard light socket, and are heavily over-rated. |
![]() | Galaxyhydro 135w UFO – an inside look at this grow LEDA look at the “guts” of the Galaxy Hydro 135W LED grow light. Here’s hoping for some tasty tomatoes! |
![]() | Quick Fix: Plastic Impact Sprinkler stickingIf you got one (or more!) of the low cost plastic spring-loaded impact sprinklers that tend to come in 2-packs, you may have found that one (or both) of them have a tendency to stop rotating. Whether it’s made by Orbit, Yardworks, Nelson, or another brand, the plastic models tend to be cheaply made and a … |
![]() | Serving up WebP to supported browsers: Nginx/cwebp/gif2webp & results!I decided to give WebP a shot on a Ubuntu 14.04LTS VPS running nginx. Here’s the process I followed, and the results! |
![]() | No JQuery Lightbox for WordPress (plugin)Trying to find a WordPress lightbox that didn’t require JQuery was nothing short of a nightmare. So I put together my own! |
Compressing only html/css/js/etc files for use with nginx’s “gzip static”Nginx has a great directive called “gzip_static” that will serve pre-gzipped content. Here’s how I set up a VPS to generate pre-gzipped versions automatically. |
![]() | Unity3D – A free script to convert a splatmap to a PNGWhile trying to convert from a Unity Terrain to static geometry, I ran into the issue of extracting and manipulating the splatmaps. I put together a tool to make it less painful. |
![]() | Desulfating a lead acid battery with the YIHUA 605D and Magnesium SulfateThinking about trying to desulfate lead-acid batteries with epsom salt? I’ve gone through some of the background behind it and the process here. |
![]() | Handbrake RF + slower speeds = crazinessWhen using RF (Constant Quality), setting slower speeds in Handbrake results in smaller files. Except when it doesn’t. Details on the confusing mess that ensues is in here. |
nginx 502 “Bad Gateway” errors when set as a proxy over SSL/HTTPSThere are many possible causes of 502 errors in Nginx and I look at one of them. If you recently set it up to proxy over HTTPS, the proxy_pass directive probably contains the issue. |
![]() | Flushing the nginx fastcgi cache via PHP (and/or WordPress)I wanted a way to quickly purge the Nginx fastcgi cache from within WordPress, and quickly threw together a plugin that does the job. |
![]() | In-depth look at de-noising in Handbrake 0.9.9 (with image/video examples)De-noising in Handbrake has historically been one of the tricker aspects to delve into. Here I delve away, giving examples of what different settings mean and do. |
![]() | Comparing x264 “RF” settings in Handbrake (examples)The concept of “RF” values can be tricky for a newcomer to wrap their head around. I break it down here with screenshots at various settings, a video, and a full explanation. |
![]() | A “best settings” guide for Handbrake 0.9.9 and 0.10Aimed at v0.9.9 but helpful for all versions of Handbrake, this guide is aimed at those who want to understand what each of the options actually do and when you might want to use them. |
![]() | Replacing an oxygen sensor in a 1998 Honda Civic (how-to with pictures)Fortunately, the Honda Civic’s oxygen sensor is located in an easily accessible location. A quick guide with pictures and a few options for removal follows. |
![]() | Sony HDR-CX220 Handycam review – not impressed with this camcorderI grabbed the Sony HDR-CX220 just after launch, and did a little testing. At a $250 launch price, I really expected a lot more. |
![]() | 9 marbles and a weight balance – which is the heaviest one?A short, fun riddle regarding 9 marbles, a balance, and a 2 measurement limit. Complete with pictures. |
![]() | How to remove a fulltext index in MySQL – switching from MyISAM to InnoDBI had to work around a “The used table type doesn’t support FULLTEXT indexes” message to accommodate installation of a plugin. Just a few commands in MySQL and I was up and running. |