Category Archives: Hacking

Thanks for ruining my programming font DejaVu

Posted by DammitCoetzee on February 12, 2010 1 comments

I run Windows 7 on my desktop with great success because I cheat and run ubuntu 9.10 in a virtual machine for all my programming needs. Yesterday, much to my dismay I realized that my font looked strange. Quickly, I navigated to my font menu and went to select my favorite “bitstream vera sans mono”.

“Ah, it’s not here, it must just not be installed. I’ll just fire up Synaptic and… Oh god, where is it”

I panicked. A fast ctrl-t and a google search later I find my answer, “In Ubuntu 9.10 we decided to replace ttf-bitstream-vera with DejaVu. Forget you, it’s better.”

“Ah, well”, i thought to myself, “It says here that this DejaVu font is exactly the same as Vera but with more characters, that’s cool.”

This, however, is a horrible lie. Why?

whereismygap

WHERE IS MY GAP!?!

To me, what makes a programming font is that you can see every character. There are some languages that depend on the programmer being able to count those little “_” marks .

It may be a small thing for most people, but it bothers me intensely. Especially since it’s a blatant lie. This isn’t bitstream-vera this is something else. Things have been changed, that makes it different. End of story.

It’s like someone forcing you to drink pepsi because they cant tell the difference between it and coke.

How to make soldering fine pitch surface mount ridiculously easy.

Posted by DammitCoetzee on July 27, 2009 21 comments

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This simple tool will change your life. I was lucky to learn how to solder surface mount from a master. He had crafted a tool very similar to this for himself and used it daily.  The design is simple, a weighted pin is attached to a piece of round stock and this holds the part down on the board. Using this tool I soldered an entire surface mount board with no errors on my first try.

When you assemble the tool make sure that you push the bolt through and thread the nut first, because you might bend the threads while filing the tip down. Make sure that the tip has a round point about the size of a standard ball point pen. Any sharper and you could damage/mar parts.final

To use the tool just put the part under the pin and go. It’s that simple, no re flow plates or panavises or any of that junk. You don’t need to worry about tip size for most jobs either. Another plus is that the bolt acts as a heat sink so small parts don’t fry.

howtouse

You see that tiiiiiny little part. You’re welcome.

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