Kenmore fridge defrost

I came back from vacation to a fridge that wouldn’t get cold and a freezer that was iced over in the back. I have a bottom-freeze model so I knew the issue – ice was clogging the duct that allows cold air up to the fridge. I’m guessing the defrost cycle didn’t kick in enough to defrost the back so I used some hot air to try and clear the path. That worked but there’s no easy way to trigger a manual defrost from the manual. Until I found this video which worked!

After a couple of cycles everything seems to be working better. I still have a Raspberry Pi monitoring the temperatures so I can keep an eye on it before I do some actual fixing. But so far, so good. See this post for that project: https://chriseaston.com/2023/01/30/fridge-and-freezer-temperature-monitoring/

A little warm after the defrost cycle but more in line…

I realize again I need to blog more.

I’m not sure why, but I feel the need to blog a bit more, so I’m going to try and make a post a day. I’ll be on vacation coming up soon which might make it tough but I’ll try!

So far: I’ve done 6 days of p90x3 — starting up again and hope to continue.

Getting some things done around the house: Solar panels have been installed w/ new panel. Next up:

  1. New Patio including concrete, side walkway, and patio cover.
  2. Air Conditioning.
  3. Master bath remodel late August

Some minor things I need to do this weekend:

  1. Hang medicine cabinet I bought months ago.
  2. Landscaping in the front.
  3. Closet organizers for master and Inny’s room.
  4. Cabinet for A/V equipment.
  5. Prime and Paint stucco around windows and old panel.

vBulletin to Discourse conversion.

I’m in the process of trying to move from vBulletin on a forum to Discourse and I’m having a bit of a hard time. There are no instructions on running the importing script so its taking a bit longer than it should. I’ll work to document what I’m trying in this post to help others who might have a difficult time.

Discourse looks great and works really well. Plus combined with docker its very simple to setup from scratch, upgrade, backup, and restore. Plus its free and vBulletin hasn’t really added any great features and Discourse is kicking its ass. The forum in question is currently at: technobadger.com, which used to be the old forums at psx-dude.net — my first domain from long ago.

I first started by following the docker instructions for discourse to get it setup:

I made a backup of my vBulletin MySQL database and copied it onto my test machine into a database called `technobadger_production`. Don’t forget to create a user that can access remotely.

[code]
mysql> GRANT ALL ON technobadger_production.* TO ‘technobadger_r’@’%’
IDENTIFIED BY ‘sX55ot6FJ#q#3%Ms’ WITH GRANT PRIVILEGES;
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
[/code]

You’ll also need to let the mysql server listen for remote connections. You can edit the /etc/mysql/my.cnf and comment out the following line. Don’t forget to restart mysql for the changes to take effect.
[code]# bind-address 127.0.0.1[/code]
I copied the attachments folder into `/home/chris/attachments`. I copied the attachments into the container:
[code]
# docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
b7764d41d245 local_discourse/app:latest "/sbin/boot" 29 hours ago Up 29 hours 0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, 0.0.0.0:2222->22/tcp app
[/code]
I copied changed into the root of the container:
[code]
cd /var/lib/docker/aufs/mnt/b7764d41d245394cf5d7f7e44cdd2c7bd2866fe2a42dd5572357e4fb760a3c7a
mkdir attachments && cd attachments
cp -R /home/chris/vb-attachments/attachments/* ./
[/code]
Change into the discourse directory: `cd /var/discourse` and launch into the docker:
[code]
./launcher enter app
cd /var/www/discourse
apt-get update && apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev
gem install mysql2
[/code]
I edited the script/import_scripts/vbulletin.rb file and changed the top lines to represent the database i installed on the container host (outside of the container) and added an entry for password. 10.0.0.128 is the ip of my main server that has mysql on it.

 

[code]
class ImportScripts::VBulletin < ImportScripts::Base
BATCH_SIZE = 1000

# CHANGE THESE BEFORE RUNNING THE IMPORTER
DATABASE = "technobadger_production"
TIMEZONE = "America/Los_Angeles"
ATTACHMENT_DIR = ‘/attachments’

def initialize
super

@old_username_to_new_usernames = {}

@tz = TZInfo::Timezone.get(TIMEZONE)

@htmlentities = HTMLEntities.new

@client = Mysql2::Client.new(
host: "10.0.0.128",
username: "technobadger_r",
password: "sX55ot6FJ#q#3%Ms",
database: DATABASE
)
end
[/code]

I edited the Gemfile in `/var/www/discourse` and added the following line to the end:
[code]gem `mysql2`[/code]
and then ran…
[code]bundle install –no-deployment[/code]
I modified the Postgres config file (/etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf) to change everything to trust for the import. Obviously don’t use this on your production server as that could be bad.
[code]
# DO NOT DISABLE!
# If you change this first entry you will need to make sure that the
# database superuser can access the database using some other method.
# Noninteractive access to all databases is required during automatic
# maintenance (custom daily cronjobs, replication, and similar tasks).
#
# Database administrative login by Unix domain socket
# local all postgres peer # Chris: Replaced with line below
local all postgres trust

# TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD

# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
#local all all peer # Chris: Replaced with line below
local all all trust
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 0.0.0.0/0 md5
# IPv6 local connections:
host all all ::1/128 trust
# Allow replication connections from localhost, by a user with the
# replication privilege.
local replication postgres peer
#host replication postgres 127.0.0.1/32 md5
#host replication postgres ::1/128 md5
[/code]
I had to modify the importer script because some of my avatars didn’t have a file extension or were empty. Below is a diff of my changes for this file:

[code]
@@ -110,7 +111,11 @@ class ImportScripts::VBulletin < ImportScripts::Base
file.write(picture["filedata"].encode("ASCII-8BIT").force_encoding("UTF-8"))
file.rewind

– upload = Upload.create_for(imported_user.id, file, picture["filename"], file.size)
+ if picture[‘filename’].nil?
+ upload = Upload.create_for(imported_user.id, file, "anyfile.jpg", file.size)
+ else
+ upload = Upload.create_for(imported_user.id, file, picture["filename"], file.size)
+ end

return if !upload.persisted?

[/code]

I also had some forums that didn’t have parents in them. I had to update them manually:

[code]
mysql> SELECT forumid, title, description, displayorder, parentid FROM forum WHERE parentid NOT IN ( SELECT forumid FROM forum ) AND parentid <> -1 ORDER BY forumid;
+———+——————-+———————————————————————————————————————————————————————–+————–+———-+
| forumid | title | description | displayorder | parentid |
+———+——————-+———————————————————————————————————————————————————————–+————–+———-+
| 15 | Sub-forum 1 | Sub-forum1 description | 1 | 14 |
| 16 | Sub-forum 2 | Description | 1 | 14 |
| 19 | Talk about TDRM | | 1 | 18 |
| 20 | Editing | | 1 | 18 |
| 21 | Clans | | 1 | 18 |
| 23 | Newbie Discussion | | 1 | 22 |
| 26 | My Scripts | Having a problem with one of my scripts, want to see other people using it, or have a comment or request for a feature. Or still even have a code hack, post it here. | 1 | 25 |
+———+——————-+———————————————————————————————————————————————————————–+————–+———-+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> UPDATE forum SET parentid = 1 WHERE forumid IN (15,16,19,20,21,23,26);
Query OK, 7 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Rows matched: 7 Changed: 7 Warnings: 0
[/code]

Then I ran the following under the /var/www/discourse
[code] # rails runner script/import_scripts/vbulletin.rb[/code]

Hannibal Finale

This past season of Hannibal was… different.

This post may contain spoilers so read at your own risk. But it probably doesn’t contain much.

This third season moved quite a bit more slowly and didn’t contain the same awesome cooking that Hannibal had done in the previous season. The slow mo, artsy, scenes that made Hannibal beautiful on TV and on Blu-Ray were gone and replaced with pretty lame slow-mo shots. It just wasn’t the same without Hannibal being Hannibal. It was nice seeing more of Gillian Anderson in her role but her logic for sticking around didn’t make a whole load of sense. But why the heck didn’t anyone who saw Hannibal teaching.. walking around.. whatever.. and tie him to the FBI most-wanted list that I’m sure Hannibal was on? It just didn’t seem right that he was able to travel so easily without setting off red flags. Then the face-off scenario didn’t make any sense at all. In any event, the final episode was a bit of a let-down, especially the cliff scene at the end — they should have just parted ways. In any event:

But I’d still watch the next season! Lets hope Netflix or Amazon pick it up.

I lost my camera in Japan :(

I lost my Sony RX100 M3 in Japan today :(. I left it on the train from Kansai International Airport when I transferred to a slightly faster (blue) train at Izumisano station I believe. On the camera is a picture of my passport, which features a really bad picture of me. If you find my blog please contact me. My full name is Christopher Easton and that’s on the passport. There are also some photos of Shanghai. I’ll be here until the 17th and then back to Shanghai for a couple of days and finally out to home again. If you find it I would be very grateful to get it returned. If you can either call me to leave a message below -or- call me at +1 (805) 300-3487 -or- e-mail me at chris@ (i.e. @chriseaston.com to stop spam) I would really appreciate it.

Coffee Fails

Just thought I’d share a bit of my absent mindedness with coffee in the morning. Yesterday I poured water in my coffee grinder and today I didn’t have the grinder assembled properly so I had to clean out beans from where they didn’t belong. I must dislike coffee grinders.

Paneer (Indian Cheese)

I’m addicted to Sag Paneer from a local Indian place called Bollywood #3 in Westlake, CA. Today I decided to try my hand at making paneer that I’ll eventually use to make some Sag Panneer at home. I followed these general guidelines in the video below. I ended up using:

  • 1/4 cup of lemon juice
  • 1.75 Liters of Organic Whole Milk
  • A clean 100% cotton towel.

I brought the milk to a boil and added the lemon juice. Remember to stir often! I didn’t any burnt some of the milk that I ended up picking out. So when it starts to boil and you add the lemon juice immediately kill the heat. You should start to see the curds separate from the whey. After a couple of minutes of being fascinated with this I strained the curds through the cotton towel and poured some water to get rid of some of the lemon juice and whey. I then wrapped it up and squeezed out some of the milk. The next step is to twist the towel and then weigh down with something heavy so the curds start to stick together. Pretty simple! I’ll try again with vinegar and some muslin cloth. I’ll also post up my experience and recipe for the sag paneer when I try it tomorrow.

Tree of Life

Want to test your home theater? I recommend you check out Tree of Life for some of the amazing visuals and sound. Your room should be shaking during the creation scenes and your eyes should pop out when you see the trees. Just trust me and check it out on Netflix.