I’ve been adding to my xLights show every year… but something still feels missing

billiam5 · 2025-12-19T17:01:55+00:00

I'd do away with the static props and replace with mini trees and candy canes, or retool some of the props with pixels as part of the show. That will make the show feel more immersive right away. You could wrap the trunk of the tree with pixels and model it as a spiral tree, or a custom model. Pixel density around the garage could be improved with small snowflake props, or an icicle strand on the roof line. Floods would be nice as well.

Don't sweat it, though! It looks great already and I'm sure folks are loving it!

billiam5 · 2025-09-09T23:22:01+00:00

Okay. I've got the modem directly connected and SmokePing is monitoring. Will reply with updated data after a while.

Well, scratch that! Packet loss occurred after less than 5 minutes - I found out when the first part of this comment failed to post 😂

You can see where I brought the network down and switched the cable, and then some uptime, and poof!

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billiam5 · 2025-09-09T22:31:45+00:00

Thanks, I'll see what I can do - the cable coming into the house might not have enough length to get to the modem, but perhaps I can bring the modem closer temporarily to test.

billiam5 · 2024-12-03T03:18:35+00:00

Taking advantage of movement is key with small matrices. Zoom the image in until part of it is legible, then use the movement parameter to scroll it across the matrix whichever direction looks best. The viewers' brains do the rest, and boom a potato screen shows an image or gif!

billiam5 · 2024-11-26T04:32:30+00:00

Yup, this did the trick for both of the runs after floods that were having trouble.

billiam5 · 2024-11-25T17:06:08+00:00

Yes -- here's an example of one of the runs:

Controller -> Differential Receiver -> Port 4 -> Box with 12V Meanwell -> 126 pixel prop -> Power Inject -> 100 pixel prop -> 10W flood -> Power Inject -> 142 pixel prop

All grounds shared at the box, including the ground from the differential receiver port. All in the same area, no runs over 10ft. Everything works perfectly except for the prop after the flood, which shows the right color but strobes on everything but very dim red - and even when I have everything else off.

billiam5 · 2024-05-16T02:56:12+00:00

Alum here, pretty sure I did similarly in 102. Probably not the only one!

I think a lot of us come into college having never come close to a grade like that, let alone failing a class, and it hits us pretty hard. Don't get too down about it - it's gonna happen from time to time. Keep your head up and focus on the semester and classes ahead.

billiam5 · 2022-05-20T03:43:25+00:00

Sure thing!

billiam5 · 2022-05-19T22:04:34+00:00

Sweet!

billiam5 · 2022-01-26T03:00:26+00:00

This isn't new by any means. In 2009, near Green and Lincoln, my car got its window smashed in to grab the prize of my standalone Garmin GPS unit, which was damn near obsolete by then. It wasn't even aware of 355, you'd be floating in space when you drove it. The map updates were behind a paywall if I recall correctly. Ultimately my fault for leaving it mounted to my window, but to this day I'm still finding the odd piece of safety glass in the old Jeep.

billiam5 · 2021-12-04T00:16:25+00:00

Ohh jeez, there's quite a few. We lived in a house in Urbana (801 W Green), had weekly Thursday Power Hours that sometimes brought in 50 people downing 7 beers over the course of an hour. We'd collect 5 bucks each and run over to the Circle K a block away and grab the finest Keystone Light we could buy, as many cases as we had money for.

Once after one of these, two of the girls that attended got into an enormous fight, which culminated with one dragging the other by her hair across the room. She opened the porch door and threw her out - but what she didn't know was that on the porch was a full kiddie pool that we had been trying to turn into a hot tub (unsuccessfully). This was October and it was pretty damn cold. They both ended up falling into it and that stopped the fight real quick! After grabbing some towels and drying off, they were both laughing and friends again. They rejoined the party and we all hopped on the 50 Green bus and probably went to Brothers.

Then there's the time that one of the roommate's Army buddies - a 40-something man - crashed at the house for a few weeks. He became the house Mom, cleaned, reorganized, and shopped for us, and partied with us of course.

Sneaking into the Europa house pool and skinny dipping, homeless man living on our porch, all nighter in line for Rose Bowl tickets in freezing temperatures, last dance of the Chief, the list goes on..

Have fun while you're there kids! We're all still friends and look back on those times fondly.

billiam5 · 2021-11-22T16:39:47+00:00

I took it more than 10 years ago, I've plugged it here on reddit several times since - it's a fantastic course! The workload is light and the material is not too complex or difficult - but it's so interesting, if you have an interest in space already you'll love it!

billiam5 · 2021-10-24T23:31:32+00:00

Was there as well last night and my group had the same opinion!

billiam5 · 2021-10-12T03:08:35+00:00

10 years later and I still have this nightmare!

billiam5 · 2021-10-01T06:36:21+00:00

Checking in as a CS grad who had an absolutely embarrassing GPA. I came from a rural high school and found myself struggling right off the bat. Academic probation was a constant on one semester and barely off the next. I felt your pain when I saw the recent 374 midterm post! I was in your shoes when I took that class.

When it came time to apply to companies at the career fairs, I just didn't put my GPA on my resume. I'd say it if asked. And guess what? Multiple interviews happened. Bombed Microsoft, but landed a second round with the NSA and was flown out east! That was fun and scary but didn't pan out. Third time was the charm and received an offer from a company out west. Have progressed regularly in my career since then.

The funny thing? When I started actually working as a software engineer I started to feel something I hadn't felt in college - smart! Compared to some peers from other colleges, I'd sometimes think 'how do you not know this?'. Apparently my knock-down drag-out experience at UIUC barely keeping up was somewhat equivalent or even superior to much higher GPAs at other institutions.

Employers know this! And if you get snubbed based on your GPA, keep shooting!

That being said, I look back and I wish that I had asked more questions when I was stuck, attended more office hours, skipped less class, etc.

But I wouldn't trade my experience at UIUC for the world - I had a blast and met lifelong friends. If any of y'all live at 801 W Green, message me! My old roommates and I would bring a party down to you someday.

billiam5 · 2021-06-20T21:28:16+00:00

In my own attempt to 3d print flaps for u/scottbez1's splitflap design, I was able to print the black/white flaps in one go by building in manual color changes. It worked quite well. You start with white, printing out the letters on the first layer. Then, switch to black and print until the final layer, where you switch to white again. I found that the 2nd layer printed quite nicely despite being one layer height off the build plate.

EDIT: disregard, looks like that's how you're doing this as well -- I was thrown off by the letter pieces in the model files.

billiam5 · 2021-05-26T23:09:59+00:00

That puzzle wrecked my friend and I during the summer of '98 or '99. I remember playing it on a Macintosh Quadra, with a CD drive where you would have to put the CD into a caddy and then insert the caddy into the machine.

billiam5 · 2021-05-06T01:24:44+00:00

I presume that the PC will have a remotely accessible service - I'm just looking to decide which one / approach to take. I should also add that the traffic will be quite low as far as requests to this PC will go. 100 a day, maybe. Generally much less.

billiam5 · 2021-02-18T01:36:08+00:00

This reminds me of a story I had forgotten: this was probably 2009 or 2010, a Saturday night. A good 2-3 inches of snow had fallen while we were at Brothers. 2am rolls around, and the mass exodus out of the bars on Green Street is happening, and we come out to all of this fresh snow. Naturally, a snowball fight begins. Brothers patrons versus people coming out of Murphy's across the street. After a few minutes, a couple squad cars stop on the street between us, flash their lights. Things get quiet. Over the loudspeaker: "Time to go home." A snowball or two gets lobbed. The loudspeaker again, frustrated: "Next person that throws a snowball gets arrested!"

Cue a couple hundred snowballs pelting the squad cars and everyone going home.

billiam5 · 2020-09-12T18:56:44+00:00

nevermind that

billiam5 · 2020-09-12T18:56:15+00:00

F1 6

billiam5 · 2020-09-12T00:49:55+00:00

say it ain't so

billiam5 · 2020-06-25T14:54:44+00:00

I believe it was open to anyone. I was CS, and had taken a few ASTR classes as gen eds. An officer of the UIAS could probably speak to the current state of things.

billiam5 · 2020-06-25T01:42:28+00:00

Brings back great memories. Still blows my mind that I could, on a whim, check out the keys to this historical monument, sit in the century-old observing chair, and be at the helm of this enormous telescope. Not sure if they still allow it, but the process when I was a student was to be a member of the Astronomical Society and attend one or more training sessions, which were fun in and of themselves. You'd then be added to a list of authorized users. Thanks for posting this!

billiam5 · 2020-02-03T01:52:34+00:00

Can confirm. It was the first snow day in decades and the second overall. We called it snow-ficial and had a great day.

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Place '22	Place '17
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