Jim's Depository

20 years of rewriting the same code
Uncategorized category
A playful stunt can turn dangerous fast without controlled fuel, a clear exhale, and drinking water within reach. The linked demonstration offers a safer starting point for satisfying curiosity without singeing more than your pride.
coding category
When a tiny change represents hours of invisible reasoning, keystrokes are a terrible proxy for progress—especially for teams measuring developers by output instead of solved problems.
Uncategorized category
A cautionary look at why turning foundational protocol documents into accessible EPUBs can become a licensing dead end—and why rights clarity matters before investing in format conversion, text extraction, or crowdsourced cleanup.
linux category
Put a low-power Linux webcam online without a heavyweight streaming stack. Video4Linux2, HTTP access, MJPEG hardware compression, and browser-based UVC controls make it suited to embedded monitoring and simple camera deployments.
coding category
Avoid PNG’s larger payloads when photos need irregular transparency: this browser-side technique pairs JPEG color data with an alpha mask using JavaScript and canvas, with a possible FlashCanvas path for legacy IE.
linux category
A tiny firmware timeout can turn routine server activity into premature disk wear and a painful recovery. Learn how Debian users can inspect S.M.A.R.T. counters and build a bootable DOS USB to apply Western Digital’s otherwise inaccessible fix.
coding category
See how a few browser-specific fixes and smarter asset choices can turn a canvas-heavy dashboard into a lightweight interface that stays sharp, loads quickly, and behaves consistently beyond a single browser.
linux category
Avoid misaligned partitions that quietly cripple 4K-drive performance on older Debian systems, and sidestep Squeeze-era fdisk and LVM-over-USB boot-time traps.
linux category
Avoid losing early-warning disk health data when moving SATA storage off the motherboard: this tested JMicron enclosure works with Linux smartmontools, with a practical warning about the unreliable power-supply variant.
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