A long time ago, I turned a PC in my basement into a web server. No DNS. Just a static IP address. Within 15 minutes, the logs showed it was getting scanned.

SSL encrypts traffic in-transit. You need to set up auth/access control. Even better, stick it behind a Web Application Firewall.

Or set up a tunnel. Cloudflare offers a free one: https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/networks/connectors/cloudflare-tunnel/

OK, just tried it with one of those old forms. Added a text field overlay and a signature. Even flattens before saving. Works great. Awesome, thanks!

Went to look up what XFA forms were (https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-learn/forms/document-services/pdf-forms-and-documents).

Most of the non-fillable forms I encounter are what that document lists as “Traditional” PDF forms, likely generated using older tools from print streams. For example, a school athletics release form, or a membership application for a small organization. None of them have any fillable PDF fields. The original expectation might have been to download and print out the PDF, hand-fill it, then fax the result back.

I’ll dig up a form like that I had to fill a few weeks ago and give it a try.

This looks great!

Can you use it to overlay text fields and fill them?

Most of my uses are basic. Like filling out a PDF form that doesn’t have proper form entry fields. These are usually older government or bureaucratic/healthcare/school forms.

I end up adding text boxes and entering values, or adding an X on top of a checkbox, adding a signature PNG file and scaling it to fit the size. Sometimes I have to add a highlight overlay. Then I save it all as a single flattened PDF file.

Amazingly, this is hard to do in Acrobat and a lot of apps. I end up using a janky, 10-yo desktop app that is no longer supported.

Thank you for the Fascinating Aida link. Spent the afternoon discovering their great back catalog.

Where’s the Baclava? Or if truly culturally insensitive, the Balaclava?

The Catch: https://youtu.be/7bLt2xKaNH0

“It’s over, Anakin. I have the high ground.”

• Ubuntu desktop - the whole shebang including office apps
• PiHole ad-blocker
• Jellyfin video server
• Minecraft server
• Local LLMs
• On-site VPN service
• Home Assistant smarthome controller

So many things, and much more…

The Inca architecture is an important part of pre-Columbian development in South America.

That I slept through the Rapture.

Again.

I looked into CubeSats in a previous job. Basically, there are four questions:

• What’s the purpose?
• How to design and build one?
• How to launch it?
• How to collect the data?

Part 1: this is the back of the napkin sketch. What are you trying to do? Weather, water, fire, radiation, or air data? Imaging? Has anyone already done this? What’s the plan?

Part 2: you can DIY the whole thing, starting with the CalPoly CubeSat workshops: https://www.cubesat.org/. They’re the folks that started the whole thing.

There are also kits and services out there. One example is Pumpkin: https://www.pumpkinspace.com/, but there are a lot of others like it out there. You want to figure out what sensors you need, mechanisms to orient the sensors, radios, power management, etc. Also, what’s the lifespan before it descends into the atmosphere and burns out.

Part 3: The big problem is launch. You need to eventually get it up into space. There are commercial services, but you’re looking at $10K-$50K and up to get into the queue. Another option is to go through NASA’s Launch Intitiative: https://www.nasa.gov/kennedy/launch-services-program/cubesat-launch-initiative/ or ESA’s Fly Your Satellite program: https://www.esa.int/Education/CubeSats_-_Fly_Your_Satellite

These require being part of a non-profit or educational institution. And the waiting list is long. Like, years.

Part 4: OK, now that you got it up in space, what do you do with the data? It’s circling the globe and there’s a narrow window where the radio can connect to an earth station, send the data, and maybe receive instructions like where to point the sensors. Forget about OTA. You won’t have a large enough connection window or bandwidth to do that.

You can roll your own comms, or you can see about using an existing service, like AWS Ground Station: https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/. Microsoft had a similar service called Azure Orbital, but they retired it last year.

After all is said and done, you now have some cool data. You’ll want to process it and use it for something. This goes back to step 1. Figure out what’s the purpose, what you want to get out of it, and work backward. You can use the AWS service, pipe it into an S3 bucket or store it in a database, then run analytics and visualizations on it. If you want realtime, it’ll cost extra.

It won’t be cheap, but it will likely be a lot of fun. I proposed several projects in a past life. We got pretty far, but the launch window was years away and by then I was heading out. All this is an infodump of what I learned back then. Hope this helps.

Matter is supposed to solve this problem. Unfortunately, a lot of implementations still phone home, at least during provisioning.

Not only is it doable, you can have a script download the job listing, feed it your resume, and have it rewrite your resume and cover letter to match everything they list in the posting, then submit it.

Exercise left to the reader.

I smell an AI lurking somewhere in the shadows.

Just saw a new outdoor Wyze camera with a motorized head, small solar panel, SD-card, and wifi for around $80. If you figure out the server side, it might be a good hardware foundation.

Other option is a Pi-based camera.The server side would be easier to set up, but you would have to figure out power, enclosure, and weatherproofing.

Edit: this might allow access to the video stream: https://github.com/mrlt8/docker-wyze-bridge

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Whoopsie Daisy!
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It’s way more beautiful when you go there during cool season. In hot season, you want to get away as fast as you can.

Judging by Costco displays, this happened in August.

On a previous thread, someone pointed to https://sonoff.tech/en-us/products/sonoff-dongle-max-zigbee-thread-poe-dongle-dongle-m

Looks like it might support both.