Category: DIY

Windows 10 Hyper V Woes

I recently needed to set up a Win10 Hyper V, and then join it to a domain over a VPN connection.  The first issue that I faced was that Cisco Anyconnect VPN client detected the virtual machine as a Remote Desktop Connection and refused to allow it to connect.  I solved this by switching from Enhanced Session to Basic Session by clicking this on the toolbar of the virtual machine:

My second issue was that, even after successfully joining the machine to the domain, there was no Switch User option (I needed to switch to a domain user while on the VPN in order for it to authenticate to the domain server and build the local profile for the domain user).  No matter where I looked there was no option.  Not in the power options, not via Alt+F4, nowhere.

I solved this by invoking tsdiscon.exe directly via a run line.  Bear in mind that it’s my understanding tsdiscon.exe is not available in Win 10 Home edition, though I don’t know why anyone would build a virt of Home edition.

What’s Art?

wander1I made this to submit as a possible logo for an event.  Ultimately I’m pretty meh with how it came out, but making it started me thinking about art.  Thanks to technology my generation in particular has seen quite a change in the creation, and potentially the definition, of art. Bearing that in mind, is this creation of mine art?  Is it even my creation?  The owl began a photo I did not take, as did the moon.  The background originates from an image I did not create.  The text is in a font I did not create.  They’re all found items that I digitally manipulated – some dramatically – to suit my purposes.  So is this art?  Is it just theft?

The music on The Beastie Boys 1989 release Paul’s Boutique, ranked 156 on Rolling Stone magazine’s greatest 500 albums of all time, is comprised almost entirely of samples.  It’s an album that, thanks to changes in laws, would be impossible to make today.  The cost of securing the rights to all the samples would be enormous.  Here’s just a partial list of samples featured on the album.

Is Paul’s Boutique art?  Is it just theft?  And, if Paul’s Boutique isn’t art, then what of Warhol?  Shepard Fairey?  Banksy?  Where is the line drawn?

PS:  Three things.  

1. The word “art” doesn’t mean “good.” There’s bad art. Obviously that’s mostly (entirely?) subjective. So simply not liking something doesn’t make it not-art.

2. Obviously I’m not putting anything referenced above on equal footing. They’re all examples of projects created from existing media or artists known for works created from existing media.

3. It’s my personal opinion that, for the most part, art is the product of exercising creativity. To that end, every time a person picks up a guitar and plays something they came up with, it’s art. Even if they never play it again, and no one ever heard it other than them, for that moment there was art afoot. I believe a carpenter can be an artist. A cook can be an artist. I do not like the line some people try to draw between “art” and “craft.” I understand that crocheting something from a pattern is different from crocheting something of your own inspiration, but too many critics use the former activity to label the medium of crochet not-art. You can make art out of anything, dammit. And art doesn’t have to be paid for or displayed to be art. Art doesn’t have to be shared at all. The pictures my son draws, pulled from his own mind, that he discards once he’s done with them… they’re art. Rare art at that.

The Upstairs Deck

It’s terrifying that the previous owners had a hot tub up here.  The railings, especially on the sides, are held together with a million brads and wishful thinking.  Time to make it less deadly.

IMG_1049This side doesn’t have a top ledge at all. Nope, just a 2×6 hastily nailed into a scrap that’s nailed into the siding.

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That looks sturdy, right?  It’s not like you’re nearly 20 feet off the ground.  Oh.  Wait.

The other end is a ridiculous hodge podge of thrown together shittitude.

IMG_1051See?  I don’t even… I can’t… I mean what…

Continue reading →

Front Stoop

In a stroke of genius the original owner of our home poured a huge cement stoop right up against the house.  By right up against I mean right up against.  What separates the house siding from the cement stoop?  Not a damned thing.  That’s right – it’s poured against the hardiplank siding.  Brilliant!

Unsurprisingly over the years water from rain and, more likely, snow has sneaked its way between cement and siding, and then between siding and OSB.  I tore out the siding and tore out the effected OSB.  Thankfully (amazingly?) the rot has not penetrated further than the first layer of OSB.  The dream is to either tear the cement stoop out and replace it with a deck or deck right over the stoop (and in the process redirect moisture correctly).  There’s no money in the budget for this sort of fancifulness right now, so a repair job was in order.

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Cleaned it all out, cut out all the rotted siding, trim and underlying OSB and replaced with new, and installed flashing in the affected areas down to the slab.

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Sided, sealed and caulked.  Ready for paint.  Those pillars remain on my to-do list.

External House Work Continues

Fire be damned.  We’ve got this scaffolding that we’re paying by the day for, we need to use it.

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Getting the dryer vent *close* to the outside is good enough, right?  There’s a lot of half assed work we’re having to correct on this house.  Not as much as on our old Atlanta house, mind you, but that house was some 40 years older and had been a rental.

IMG_0949Funny – the day prior to this pic being taken she yelled at me for using a ladder up there.  You can’t see it from here, but that ladder isn’t just resting on the roof.  It’s a a sheet of OSB with a 2×4 lip secured to it.  The whole sheet’s nailed to the roof.   So this isn’t quite as sketchy as it seems.

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Framing out for a railing on the Door To Nowhere.  Eventually it’d be nice to do a deck, but we definitely don’t have the money for that, and I don’t have the skills to build a second story deck myself.

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Tearing up the steps to get the scaffolding where we need it.

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The upstairs deck is shit.  Shit I say!  I can’t believe they put a hot tub on this thing.  There’s a lot of work to be done here, but for the moment it’s just about exposing and fixing rot so we can paint.

Prep for paint

DIY continues.  The front pillars are falling apart, and I hate the way they look anyway, so it’s time for them to go.

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What’s a pillar on a house built in the 90’s?  A big PVC pipe.

IMG_0869One down.

IMG_0875Building an epic marble run with the remains of the pillars.

IMG_0871These little dudes are everywhere on the house.  CUTE!!!one1!

IMG_0876Slapping some paint on for a little instant gratification.

The Harbor Freight Conundrum

People love to hate on Harbor Freight.  I’ve had people who don’t work with tools professionally, or regularly, or even occasionally – total non-DIYers – proclaim HF to be the “Wal-Mart of Tools” and vow to never buy anything from there.

And I sort of get it.  I’ve seen lots of equipment of questionable quality from HF.  But I’ve seen the same from Lowes and Home Depot, and even the mighty Craftsman name has been branded onto some real garbage.  Sears – once absolutely trusted for tools if nothing else – has fallen off, especially in the realm of power tools.

And some of us don’t need that saw that can handle being run 7 hours a day 7 days a week.  Some of us need it for a project or two.  Some of us just want to try our hand at something, and can’t afford to make an investment into professional level equipment to do it.

However, I’m definitely That Guy when it comes to “disposable” tools.  Disposable anything, really.  I hate cheap shoes, cheap printers, cheap anything that’s designated as throwaway rather than repair when it breaks.

So there’s a balance to be struck.  Is everything at Harbor Freight crap?  I don’t know… but luckily I’ve found a thread on The Garage Journal where pros and serious DIYers weigh in on their Harbor Freight purchases.  Some of the info within is expected – and some is surprising.  This thread’s an invaluable resource, I think.

The Deck Continues

I actually finished this awhile ago, but I’ve been engrossed in things other than posting to sites no one sees.

After opting to forgo fancy wire cabling deck rails in the name of being frugal, I decided to go traditional with the two unsafe areas of the lower deck that needed railing.  In the process I managed to recycle a lot of materials from that left at the house by the previous owner.

photo 1Running beneath the previously installed privacy screen.

photo 2The other side.  The railing here wasn’t missing, but what was there wasn’t tied in correctly on either side, and was wibbly and loose.  It was also constructed by the ubiquitous brad nailer the previous owner so loved to use on everything.

photo 3So I tore it all out and redid it, including redoing the stair bannister.  It’s much better.  You can get an idea of the “quality” of workmanship I’ve been dealing with by scoping out the rail on the upper deck.  It really seems like the railings were total afterthoughts.  I’ll be redoing the upstairs next.  Then I’ll put a sloped ceiling above the lower deck to divert precipitation and we’ll paint the whole mess something purty.

 

Privacy Barrier 1

Completing the privacy barrier on the back deck.  We doubled up on the fabric because the single layer was just a bit too thin.  The cat isn’t going to appreciate us cutting into her deck sun rays.  She’s gonna have to learn to go into the yard I’m afraid.

IMG_0464From the deck…

IMG_0471From the other side.  I’ve abandoned the idea of replacing all those slats with cabling on the railings.  While I think it would look groovy, it’s just too expensive.  It’s stunning how much that stuff costs… I averaged it at around $60 plus a cable a side.  Since code requires there to be no more than a 4.5 inch gap between them… well, you do the math.  It’s just some damned metal wire and grommety ends.  I don’t know why it’s so expensive.  THE COST OF DECK CABLING IS TOO DAMN HIGH!

Aaand, if that’s the worst of your problems you’re doing a-OK.

Next projects, not necessarily in order: redo the deck railings, fixing and or replacing all the way around, building a fence hanging raised bed for some herbs, building a privacy structure for our dining room window that overlooks the neighbors dining room.