Posts in English
Desk Photos 2024
- 24 July 2024
Repurposed my laundry room table as my desk after selling everything I own. You can see my travel NAS on top of my UPS in the corner on the floor.
Travel NAS 2024
- 04 May 2024
Last year I made up my mind to move away from Austin and sell all of my belongings, though I swear I’m not a minimalist. This included my homelab. However I still wanted to keep my data with me and ruled out cloud storage or a simple portable hard drive. I wanted a portable NAS for resilliency and I’ve grown to like TrueNAS.
Clutch Bleeder Block Replacement
- 11 December 2022
I opted to replace the stock plastic block with an all-metal block from ECS Tuning to get rid of the clutch delay valve. After doing this mod I definitely felt a difference when pressing the clutch pedal. It feels lighter and now I understand what people meant when they say the stock clutch feels mushy.
Jack Pads
- 27 October 2022
This modification makes it easier to put my car on jack stands in my garage. It adds a second set of jacking points to the car so I don’t have to jack up the car from the opposite side when rotating my tires. It was really easy to install too. In fact I installed this kit without needing to jack up the car at all and removing the old trim pieces was really effortless.
Snapmaker Enclosure Door Reversal
- 24 October 2022
I recently moved my Snapmaker 2.0 A350T printer to another part of my home. The official enclosure has a solid panel on the left side, a large door on the right, and a smaller door on the front. These panels are only designed to be installed in one specific order and orientation.
OEMTools 24938 Gauge Mod
- 23 August 2022
I change my own oil using the extraction method. Since my oil filter is accessible from the the top of the engine bay there’s no need for me to get under the car for oil changes. One of my gripes about this method was that I didn’t know how much pumping I had to do to keep the oil flowing.
Snapmaker 2.0 A350T Teflon Tube
- 15 July 2022
I recently upgraded from my cheap and finicky Monoprice 3D printer to an expensive and versatile one (it WAS the latest and greatest for a few weeks 😭). After using it a few times I already got the modding itch.
Custom Fabricated Rack 2022
- 30 June 2022
I got a couple of items that warranted rewiring my TV cabinet rack: StarTech extenders and P-Link server rails. I inverted the extenders so I could recess the patch panel and switch, making room for the SFP modules and fiber cables. I can’t believe I can’t find any right angle adapters for the LC/UPC fiber patch cables!
HomeLink Rearview Mirror
- 05 June 2022
My 2019 Golf Alltrack SE came with an auto-dimming mirror, but I wanted the one with garage door buttons integrated in it. Since my car had the rain sensor option installed I already had power available to my mirror, so this upgrade was super easy to do. No coding was required.
MIB2 Composition Media Hacking
- 04 January 2022
My US 2019 Golf Alltrack SE came with the MIB2 Composition Media infotainment system made by Delphi running QNX 6.5.0 (with firmware MST2_US_VW_P0890D release 0890). This unit has CarPlay/Android Auto but lacks navigation or maps of its own (though it has GPS). Lucky for me, it’s possible to gain root access to the unit.
MIB2 Developer Mode
- 02 January 2022
My Alltrack came with an MIB2 Composition Media infotainment system. These are the steps I took to enable development mode and get some information about it. Enabling development mode also lets me take screenshots by holding down the Media button for 3 seconds and have them saved to the SD card. You’ll need an OBD11/OBDeleven or VCDS.
Euro Tail Lights
- 23 December 2021
I’ve always preferred amber turn signals over flashing brake lights in my vehicles. My 2010 JSW had them but my 2019 Alltrack lacked the amber turn signals.
Install Windows 11 on an Intel Mac
- 11 December 2021
This guide lays out the steps I take to install Windows 11 on my Intel-based Apple computers using a custom ISO. This allows me to bypass the current TPM 2.0 requirement, since at this time Boot Camp does not provide TPM 2.0 to Windows.
T-Mobile Franklin T9 Hacking
- 11 November 2021
My goal for this project is to have an LTE hotspot in my car that shuts off automatically when I get home to avoid wasting data. I’m using it with Google Fi.
EcoHitch Install
- 25 October 2021
I decided to go with the EcoHitch x7315. Installing was straight forward, but it ended up taking my entire Sunday to complete. Overall I’m very happy with how it turned out.
Monoprice Maker Select v2
- 21 October 2021
I bought my first 3D printer from Amazon in 2018 for $300. It’s on the cheaper end but there’s a large community behind it.
Rear Dashcam Pair
- 08 September 2021
Installed a second pair of cameras to get a better view out of the rear of my car for read-end crashes as well as another IR camera pointed towards the front of the car. This way I have a sort of 360 view from both inside-pointing cameras. Like the front camera I also bought a tamper-proof case for the rear one. Similarly I also use BlackVue batteries to keep the camera powered overnight.
Golf Alltrack SE
- 27 August 2021
This page lists all the modifications I’ve done to my 2019 Alltrack.
P3 Vent Gauge
- 22 August 2021
Installed this to have a boost gauge in my air vent: P3 V3 OBD2 - VW Mk7 / Mk7.5 Gauge (2014-2020)
Fire Extinguisher
- 20 June 2021
Bought a rechargeable 2.5 lb fire extinguisher from Amazon: Amerex Dry Chemical Fire Extinguisher B417T
Custom Fabricated Rack 2020
- 06 June 2020
Having my equipment hidden in a TV cabinet was all fine and well but after a while I got the server rack itch. So during the pandemic I learned Fusion 360 and made my own custom 10u rack posts. It turned out nicer than I expected! 3D models are available here: Robpol86/TV-Cabinet-Rack-Posts
Front Dashcam Pair
- 21 February 2020
I installed a BlackVue dashcam along with multiple batteries to get about 2 days of recording time while my vehicle is parked. I live in San Francisco and while my car is parked overnight in a garage, I occasionally park my car in the street and after a year nobody has broken in to steal the camera.
Under-Seat Drawer
- 09 February 2020
Just like my old TDI I wanted the OEM drawer under the driver seat to store things. Unlike my old TDI there is no passenger seat drawer available for the Alltrack. While installing, I also lined the drawer and the dash cubby that came with the car with felt so things wouldn’t rattle. I’m using foil to eventually trace out the curve
Trashcan
- 27 January 2020
Bought this from Amazon: display4top Auto Car Trash Can Bin Waste Container
Desk Photo 2018
- 14 January 2018
New apartment to cut down on my commute and new computer to take advantage of my 10 GbE home network and server. Upgraded from a Mac Pro to the new iMac Pro! 10 core Xeon + 4 TiB SSD + 128 GiB RAM - $3,000 employee discount = still a lot of money.
TV Cabinet Rack 2017
- 12 July 2017
I replaced my super cool Dell rack recently with a more normal-looking setup in my living room. After countless weeks looking for the right TV cabinet I finally found one deep enough to house a couple of 2U rackmount cases and a rackmount switch. It turned out nicer than I had expected! Don’t ask me how much all this cost.
Raspberry Pi LUKS Root Encryption
- 12 February 2017
In this short guide I’ll go over how I implemented full disk encryption using LUKS on my Raspberry Pi’s root file system without needing a second Linux computer to run commands on. All you need is your Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and a USB flash drive.
Desk Photos 2017
- 14 January 2017
I’ve decided to get rid of my rack cabinet in my living room, so I started by moving my Mac Pro onto my desk and running ethernet cables through the wall. Also with my larger IKEA bed I had to rotate my desk 90 degrees to make everything fit.
Postfix and Gmail Forwarding
- 18 December 2016
You may be familiar with the local mail spool on your Linux system. Often error messages from failed cron jobs are sent there. However this isn’t much use if the server goes down or loses network connectivity. It would be nice to have it send those emails out to an external email inbox instead. That way you can be notified when disks fail in a RAID array or when applications/services fail or produce errors.
Raspberry Pi on Project Fi
- 03 December 2016
This guide will go over how to get a Raspberry Pi (or really any Linux system) on Google’s Project Fi cellular service. If you already use Project Fi as your main cellphone service provider then you can use their data only SIM cards to get your Raspberry Pi online for relatively cheap depending on your use case.
Dell Rack 2016
- 17 September 2016
My server rack cabinet at home. Built my own router and zip tied a keystone panel so pulling out my rack doesn’t involve disconnecting my speaker wire. Listen to https://youtu.be/WPDZoOKX8ag to hear how much noise this puts out (not really that much). For pix of the underside look at last year’s gallery.
Desk Photos 2016
- 01 June 2016
Right before I moved desks for the 6th time in 1.5 years. I lost my nice window desk, oh well.
Bareos Tape Backup on a 124T
- 23 August 2015
I use Bareos (a fork of Bacula) to backup my data at home from a Linux computer to tape. Backing up to tape is a lot more convenient that backing up to DVD-R/BD-R, though it’s probably debatable when compared to backing up to an external hard drive. But having a tape autoloader is so cool!
Setting Up a Home Root CA
- 11 August 2015
Tired of getting those SSL error pages when accessing your router’s admin interface? Sick of having to click three times to get to your IPMI web interface? Have I got a guide for you!
Desk Photo 2015: Work @ Uber
- 24 July 2015
I really like standing desks and luckily Uber provides this contraption. Everyone seems to have one.
Dell Rack 2015
- 13 July 2015
My server rack cabinet at home. Removed everything from it, cleaned and dusted it, and installed only the things I’m using.
Desk Photos 2014
- 25 April 2014
Got back to having a standing desk. I stole this rolling desk since they moved us to a really cramped area and damned if I’m giving up one of my monitors.
Wireless Charging Car Dock
- 16 November 2013
So I was tired of having to hold my phone while plugging in a microusb cable after I’ve docked it in my car. I couldn’t find very many car docks out there with wireless charging, and I read that Nokia’s wireless charging car dock didn’t work very well on the Nexus 5.
Dell Rack 2013
- 25 October 2013
Taken after finally re-wiring it and setting it up after moving to San Francisco. I only took one photo of it :(
Photo Albums
- 14 July 2013
Here are several of my random photo albums. As you can see, I am quite fond of taking pictures of my possessions.
Desk Photos 2013
- 05 July 2013
I took this picture shortly before leaving Symantec. The office kept shrinking, people leaving but nobody being hired. I managed to get a nice window cubicle for a few months in the end.
Dell Rack 2012
- 21 August 2012
After over a whole year since receiving it I have finally made full use of my rack and transferred all of my computers and equipment to it.
Atrix Lapdock Other Uses
- 30 June 2012
I bought the Atrix Lapdock since I couldn’t find any sub $100 portable HDMI displays. The only affordable displays I could find were USB only. With the Atrix Lapdock and some adapters, I was able to use it as a portable display for several devices, which is great for traveling.
Desk Photos 2012
- 03 January 2012
I shamefully upgraded from my custom built dual core AMD FX-60 computer to a quad core Intel Core2 Dell computer I borrowed from work. I’ve had that FX-60 for too long and it was showing its age. Also that KVM was so horrible.
US RNS-510 Video In Motion
- 11 August 2011
After purchasing a VW 2010 Jetta SportWagen TDI with the DVD/Navigation option I’ve been searching for a way to get the head unit to play DVD video while driving so that my passengers can watch their DVDs while I drive on long road trips. I finally discovered a way to enable this feature. You will not need to purchase anything or make any prior changes. All you need is a CD-R and a CD burner.
Dell Rack 2011
- 10 June 2011
Ever since I took a Cisco CCNA class back in high school in 2002 I’ve always wanted a rack at home. I even bought one on Craigslist in 2007 for $100 but it had round holes and it was very shallow. Turns out it was meant for music equipment.
Flashing Motorola Droid to Cricket
- 08 April 2011
This guide will explain how to flash a Motorola Droid from Verizon to Cricket based on my experiences. The two (similar) guides I followed had some inconsistencies and confused me until I pieced together clues from other sources. My guide will explain the exact steps I took to get my Droid working on Cricket’s $55 Android plan.
Desk Photo 2010: Work @ Symantec
- 05 August 2010
After the office consolidated into one floor (instead of two), this was my new cubicle.
Jetta SportWagen TDI
- 03 July 2010
Sometime in September 2009, I set my eyes on a Jetta SportWagen TDI as my next car (I was then driving a 2000 F-150). On April 30th 2010 I finally committed to the vehicle and put down a deposit. On June 30th, I received my new car, special ordered the way I wanted it.
Desk Photos 2009
- 05 March 2009
After moving buildings we didn’t have offices anymore, we had cubicles. These are actually really nice cubes!
Desk Photos 2007
- 21 February 2007
I shared this office with my coworker while I was a contractor at Symantec.
Desk Photo 2006
- 26 January 2006
First year in Austin after my computer died. I was stuck using that laptop for months.
Desk Photo 2005: Work @ TISD
- 19 August 2005
This was right before I left my first job for Austin. I loved that Dell Latitude C400 laptop (my first laptop) that I bought on eBay. I think it was a Pentium 3 866 MHz. And that’s a brownie.
Desk Photo 2004
- 16 January 2004
Got my kickass APC SUA1500 UPS! Weeks after getting it the house had a serious electrical problem and caused a brownout on my computer’s circuit. It would have been destroyed if it weren’t for my UPS. I also dabbled in the world of iptables and IP masquerading with my Linux router on a floppy.
Desk Photos 2003
- 15 March 2003
Started by a thread called “Where You Rock” on Big-O-Software Forums in early 2003, I began to take pictures of my desk to show off. Since then I have tried to take pictures of all my desks after significant changes for nostalgic purposes.
ImageCFG
- 30 November 2002
ImageCFG is a utility that probably does a lot of things (I cannot find any official documentation), but the only reason I use it is to fix old games (UT99 for example) which have problems on multicore/multicpu systems. It does so by assigning an executable to specific logical CPUs permanently (by modifying the .exe file, so backup the original in case you want to restore it).