Saturday, November 30, 2019

Blog update

So in the last couple of posts I made, I had to find a new way of sharing my photos and videos and possibly a new home for this blog.  Here's an update on that topic.

Years ago when I moved from my original blog host, the late Yahoo!360, it was a lot of copying and pasting around 100 blog post to Blogger.  Now I have over 200 blog post and no easy way to export and import them onto another blog platform.  So never mind.  It's too much work relocating.  I'm stuck here I guess.

As for the videos and photos, I already mentioned Google Drive will archive all the photos I insert in Blogger and it seams it'll work the same way for videos, provided the video file in 100MB or less per video.  No problem there as my videos in FLV format are around 10-20MB's each.

I was trying to ditch Google altogether, but all the alternatives are too limiting, for free.  So my plan is to use my Google account only for Blogger.  I'll use a different email service for personal use.  Now I just need to convert all my videos in FLV and reupload all my past photos and videos.  You'll see I've already redone a few posts, but it'll take me a long time to fix all of them.  I'll start with the most recent and work my way backwards through time.


John

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

YouTube, COPPA, The World Gone Mad

You may have noticed that now the videos don't work.  That's because thanks to YouTube trying to throw all the content creators under the COPPA bus, I have decided to stop using their service.  I don't think I had to worry about my videos being thought of as "directed at children," but the way YouTube was handling the whole thing was irritating me.  I'm even considering going as far as moving my blog and email from Google to something else, although I don't know where that would be.  Remember that this blog started on Yahoo's platform before they shut it down.

In the mean time, I'll be looking for a new video hosting service.  Shoot, at this point I might as well rent a private server.  But $$$$$.

Lots to think about.

Stay tuned.

John

Friday, November 8, 2019

Photobucket Links

Long time.  So you may have noticed all the picture links are now broken.  That's because I deleted my Photobucket account where I was storing them.  Apparently, a free account on Photobucket only gives you a 25MB max bandwidth and I was going over that limit by 300% and over a storage limit too..  As such all the photo's had a watermark added and were low rez, plus I couldn't upload any new photos unless I started paying a subscription.  I don't know when these new restrictions started, but I wasn't having these problems when I last made a blog post.  So instead of paying $5.99 or more a month (which I can' afford right now) I decided to delete my account with them and find an alternative solution....which I'm still looking for.

One idea I've been mulling over is switching from a Blog to a Vlog using my YouTube channel.  This way I wouldn't need a new online storage for my photos but would make slideshow videos for all my existing photos and then new content would be in video form.  Of course that could mean no more updates here except maybe a post with a link to my Vlog video.  Still mulling it over.

Anyway, I've been very busy in real life and have had no time for Droid building, or anything else really.  But I have recently acquired a LOT of free time so I might just try getting back into things here.

Stay tuned,

John


UPDATE Nov. 12th!!!  I just learned that Blogger will store photos and videos using Google Drive.  Wish I knew that a long time ago.  So I'll be updating the photo links over time, starting with the most recent posts and work my back through over 200 posts....oh joy.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Droid-Con 4 Is GO!

Well as luck would have it, I am able to attend all four days of this years Droid-Con after all.  Cya there.

John

Friday, May 6, 2016

Celebration Orlando (or Celebration 8)

Yeah.  So Lucasfilm recently announced "Celebration Orlando" in April of 2017.  Yes, of course I'm going.  R2 Builders Club is all ready buzzing about it and making plans.  Maybe I can win the Droid Races this time.

John

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Over Due Update

Yeah.  Long time since last post.

I've had a lot on my plate lately so my Droid building hobby has had to take a back seat for a awhile.  Main issue has been a little water leak in my workshop space in the basement when it rains.  I've had to completely dissemble my workshop so I could fix it.  I think I have it temporarily fixed so all that's left to to everything back together again.
Second issue is after assembling the new legs I found flaws in the measurements.  So back to square one with that.  Will have to make a new template again and get a new miter saw.  Current one is decades old, slightly out of alignment and can't be realigned.  Once I get the shop put back together again I can start on Legs version 3.

Droid-Con IV is this June, but unlike last time I'll only be attending one day.  Need the vacation days for something else.

One new project idea I recently thought of is making the head of the droid HK-47, the assassin droid from the RPG video game Knights of the Old Republic by Bioware.  Haven't figured out how I'll make it yet.  When complete I want him to have glowing eyes, servo-controlled head tilting and voice track playback.  He'll be automated so when you get near him he'll start twiching his head and say a phase from the game.  I don't think anyone else has done this before...that I can thus far find anyway.

[Closing Statement] "Will try to give another update soon....meatbags."

John

Monday, October 19, 2015

The Circle is Nearly Complete

Saw the new "Official" full Trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.   YEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm excited.

Just bought a ticket for the early showing and for the next day at my local 3D IMAX.

Nothing new about R6.  Various things had to be prioritized time and money wise.  Will resume when able.

John

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Droid-Con 4

Droid-Con has just been announced for June 16th-19th, 2016.  The con will be held at a different Hotel this time because Droid-Con has gotten too big (head count wise) to fit at the previous place.  The new Hotel is actually brand new and across the street the other one.
Of course I'm going.  Already signed up.  I'm thankful they do this in Indiana every time.  Once I'm done getting the legs usable I'm going to focus on finishing the head.  I have a full year to do it so wish me luck.

As always go to www.astromech.net or www.droidcon.info for more information.

John

Monday, May 4, 2015

Glue part 3

Started first two pieces of right leg and added another piece onto the left leg.





Started work on a detail piece for the legs that I never got around to making for the first set.  But I'm going to need buy the band saw attachment for my Mark V before I can make any head way on this piece.

John

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Glue part 2

Glue the next piece on.  Wait another 24 hours.  Repeat.






John