This site is for sharing my solutions to problems, giving project pages to some of my open-source work, and for general informational articles (RSS feed).

I currently work in software development, with a background in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry, and can be contacted by email. You might be interested in my projects on GitHub.

Articles

Biotechnology at uOttawa

Apr 4, 2025
My thoughts on the University of Ottawa Biotech program: careers, job prospects — is it worth it?

How much space do Montreal's cars take?

Dec 2, 2024
How much surface area is occupied by cars in Montreal? I make an estimate.

Fix HomePod mini connectivity with the Bell Giga Hub

Aug 9, 2023
HomePod minis having trouble connecting with a Bell GigaHub? Here's how I fixed their connectivity issues.

Changes in religion in the 2011 and 2021 Canadian census

Apr 17, 2023
Comparison of growth and losses in Canadian religious groups in the 2011 and 2021 census.

Fix songs skipping and looping in koel

Feb 19, 2022
Analysis and fix for an issue with songs stopping and looping in self-hosted music streaming software koel.

Windows 11 Device Encryption on the Lenovo T480

Jan 30, 2022
Disable Thunderbolt to enable Device Encryption in Windows 11.

Annual budgets with Firefly III

Dec 26, 2022
Self-hosted personal finance manager Firefly III budgets monthly, whereas I budget annually. Lychnos is a web frontend for Firefly III that supports yearly budgets and transaction entry.

Configure ddclient for Cloudflare Dynamic DNS

Sep 9, 2022
Configure automatic updates of Cloudflare DNS records using ddclient.

Physicochemical Limitations of Capillary Models Applied to High-Concentration Polymer Solutions

Feb 11, 2022
Main findings from my Masters research: how models of fluid absorption into powder beds can better predict the behaviour of polymeric solutions.

List of Mormon History Association "Best Book" award books

Dec 16, 2021
The MHA's list of their "Best Book" award winners only lists authors, not the book titles. Here's an easier list to browse.

Visualize dependencies of structs in Go

Nov 1, 2021
Tool to help understand relationships between custom struct types in large Go projects.

OBS Studio Virtual Camera on FreeBSD

Oct 10, 2021
Use the OBS Virtual Camera on FreeBSD using webcamd.

Samba with macOS Spotlight on FreeBSD with Elasticsearch

Apr 26, 2021
Set up samba on FreeBSD so that macOS clients can search file shares with Spotlight.

Distinguishing Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters (Quiz)

Apr 18, 2021
Short quiz to test recognition of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text.

bhyve UEFI shell, Linux, and grub

Mar 2, 2021
Use the EFI shell to boot a newly installed Linux guest in bhyve.

Intel 8265 Bluetooth on FreeBSD

Jan 16, 2021
Use iwmbtfw to set up Bluetooth on FreeBSD with recent Intel cards.

Pumpkin pie recipe [Video]

Dec 7, 2020
One of my favourite desserts! Recipe from my great-grandmother.

CCEC 2020 Reg Friesen Competition [Video]

Nov 18, 2020
Review of pre-print manuscripts on remote instruction since January 2020. How are students and instructors adapting the the global pandemic?

CCEC 2020 3-Minute Pitch [Video]

Oct 30, 2020
Summary of my Masters research at the 2020 Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference. First-place in the 3-Minute Pitch competition.

Firefly III monthly summary emails

Oct 18, 2020
Self-hosted budgeting software firefly-iii doesn't have an email reports feature. I missed this from Mint and re-implemented it with the API.

Martin Schlachter and Justina Tschosick

Sep 19, 2020
Everything I know about my great-great-great grandparents Martin Schlachter and Justina Tschosick.

Videoconferencing on FreeBSD

Aug 15, 2020
Support for videoconferencing platforms, like Zoom, Skype, and Teams, on FreeBSD.

USB audio devices on FreeBSD

Aug 6, 2020
Hardware support and configuration for USB audio devices, such as the Behringer UMC22 sound card, on FreeBSD.

Using a webcam on FreeBSD in web browsers

Apr 19, 2020
How to use your webcam with Chrome and Firefox in FreeBSD

Filename encoding errors in macOS Time Machine backups

Mar 29, 2020
Mysteriously failed backups can sometimes be traced to filename text encoding issues.

Adjusting acpi_video brightness increments on FreeBSD

Mar 12, 2020
Replicate the behaviour of intel-backlight in acpi_video on FreeBSD by customizing the brightness adjustment increments.

FreeBSD WiFi PCI Passthrough: Intel Wireless 8265, bhyve, 13-CURRENT

Jan 7, 2020
FreeBSD drivers for Intel 8265 are limited to 802.11g speeds. Use bhyve PCI passthrough for full 802.11ac throughput.

Review: Solution processable liquid metal nanodroplets by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization

Dec 18, 2019
Background and review of 2019 paper by Yan et al: "Solution processable liquid metal nanodroplets by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization" (Nature Nanotechnology).

FreeBSD on the Lenovo Thinkpad T480

Aug 21, 2019
Compatibility of FreeBSD on a Lenovo Thinkpad T480, notes and fixes (HiDPI, Trackpad, camera, etc).

ICC Profiles for Canon MP480 and CanoScan LiDE 700F

Apr 23, 2019
ICC profiles and colour calibration, with example scans, for Canon MP480 and CanoScan LiDE 700F scanners.

Known and available recordings of The Cangelosi Cards

Apr 12, 2019
Recordings by jazz band The Cangelosi Cards are hard to find! This page has links to those I could track down (excluding YouTube).

Expanding SZDD MS-DOS archives on macOS

Apr 10, 2019
Use a DOS emulator on macOS to expand an SZDD archive created with MS-DOS COMPRESS.EXE

Tab DJ: Balance left-right channels and volume of tabs

Feb 11, 2019
Chrome extension to adjust left-right balance and volume of tabs. Can be used with a DJ cable to DJ from a web browser.

SpectraDoze: Colored Noise Generator for the Web

Jan 31, 2019
Coloured noise generator (white noise, pink noise, etc) for the web, inspired by the Android app ChromaDoze.

How to choose music as a swing DJ: Venn diagram

Jan 29, 2019
Advice for new DJs: choose music that both you and your audience love.

FreeDNS subdomains in anonymous proxy campaign

Jan 18, 2019
Ever wonder about mysterious subdomain requests on FreeDNS? Analysis of some repeat requests exposes a censorship evasion network.

400 MHz processor in a Macintosh PowerBook G3 PDQ?

Dec 4, 2018
System Profiler reports a 400 MHz processor in a model that only came in 233, 266, and 300 MHz configurations. Is this an overclock, an upgrade card, or something else?

Avahi "Host name conflict" in FreeBSD jail

Nov 25, 2018
Turns out only one FreeBSD jail per network interface can run Avahi at the same time.

Install stand-alone 1Password from App Store on iOS

Nov 24, 2018
How to install 1Password 7 stand-alone version on your iPad or iPhone, without a subscription.

Ten ways to improve any engineering class [Video]

Sep 20, 2018
Ten easily-applied ideas taken from the literature on teaching in engineering. Presentation won second place in the Reg Friesen competition at the 68th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference.

Registering for affordable French classes at the Commission scolaire de Montréal

Aug 30, 2018
Full- and part-time French classes in Montreal for about $50 per semester? Information about these classes is available only in French: here's an overview if you're not yet fluent enough to get the details in French.

Calculate amounts from Régie du logement rent increase decisions

Jun 27, 2018
Tool to calculate amounts reported by a landlord for a rent increase decision from Quebec’s Régie du logement. Helpful for estimating the increase that would be granted by the Régie.

Whole cell biosynthesis of N-acetylneuraminic acid derivatives [PDF, 1.8 MB]

Apr 27, 2018
Undergraduate thesis for my Honours BSc in Biochemistry from uOttawa. Production of a valuable natural product in genetically engineered E. coli.

Schlachter family website (1999)

Aug 11, 2017
Many stories from Mexico in this family website recovered from an old hard-drive.

Thoughts on used bicycles

Nov 8, 2016
Things I look for when choosing or improving a bicycle.

Fix 2015 Moto G (3rd Gen) Unresponsiveness

Apr 21, 2016
Using a slow SD card as internal storage in Android 6 can cause serious performance issues!

Disable OS X kernel_task throttling

Dec 9, 2015
How to disable kernel_task CPU throttling in OS X. Tested on OS X El Capitan.

Multi-variable To-do List

Nov 25, 2015
To-do list weighing both the deadline and the value of the task. Helpful for balancing urgency and importance, tuned for university course work and exams.

Track Concatenator

Jan 24, 2015
Join together iTunes tracks. Uses ffmpeg, mp4v2, and others to interact with iTunes using AppleScript.

IM Days Presentation Materials

Nov 18, 2014
Materials for my presentation at ARMA NCR IM Days.

Build Netatalk 3 on Raspberry Pi

Nov 13, 2014
How to build Netatalk 3 (with Spotlight support) on Raspberry Pi.

The Sin of Disharmony in Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner”

Apr 1, 2010
The Ancient Mariner’s offense explored and unified.

Comparison of the Carabid Assemblages of a Deciduous and a Coniferous Stand in Aylmer, Quebec’s Boucher Forest [PDF, 160 kB]

Mar 19, 2010
A comparison of the carabid beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblages of a coniferous and a deciduous stand of Aylmer, Quebec’s Boucher Forest. The dominant species were nonindigenous, preferring cultivated ground.

dPNG

Feb 6, 2010
Tool to convert images to PNG format, then optimize them to reduce file size. Requires Mac OS 10.6.

Love as Misunderstood in Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Dec 4, 2009
Comparison of Oberon and Don Pedro’s understandings of love contrasted with the influence of Puck and Dogberry.

Jane Eyre as an Aarne-Thompson Type 425C Fairy Tale

Apr 20, 2009
Essay arguing against Jane Eyre as a ‘fairy tale gone wrong.’

Cappies 2007-2008 Season Shirt

Jul 17, 2008
Shirt featuring the names of the schools and shows of the 07/08 Canada’s Capital Cappies Season! Shows listed in chronological order. Plain colours make this shirt ideal for tie dyeing!

Exploring Subjectivity, as Seen in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Photo Essay [PDF, 1.2 MB]

May 31, 2008
Photo essay on subjectivity, written as a novel study project. Photos and analysis.

The Music Man—Review

Apr 22, 2008
My review of the April 22nd, 2008 performance of Sir Wilfrid Laurier High School’s production of “The Music Man”, for the Cappies.

The Triangle Factory Fire Project—Review

Apr 12, 2008
My review of the April 9th, 2008 performance of Canterbury High School’s production of “The Triangle Factory Fire Project”, for the Cappies.

Maslow’s Hierarchy and Food Complacency

Mar 14, 2008
Why don’t we care about food? Complacency?

Flowers for Algernon—Review

Dec 27, 2007
My review of Immaculata High School’s production, for the Cappies.

The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood—Review

Dec 12, 2007
My review of South Carleton High School’s production, for the Cappies.

Comic Potential—Review

Dec 1, 2007
My review of All Saints High School’s production, for the Cappies.

The Worst High School Play in the World—Review

Nov 24, 2007
My review of Cairine Wilson Secondary School’s production, for the Cappies.

George Wilson—Monologue

May 14, 2007
Internal monologue of George Wilson, a character from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, as he’s walking from The Valley of Ashes to Gatsby.

From Symbols to Thought

Apr 9, 2007
Teenage reflections on childhood experiences with writing.

The Realizations of Self as Seen in “The Cardboard Room”

Feb 5, 2007
Looking at interesting topics like hate, fear, and emotions, this was my response that I wrote for my Mid-Year English Exam. I actually put a lot of thought into this, and I suppose it was cathartic in a way.

The Portrait of a Madman: Schizophrenia in “The Tell Tale Heart”

Dec 21, 2006
Narrator of ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ as a literary schizophrenic.

The Use of Apprehension for Creating Tension in “To Kill a Mockingbird”

May 23, 2006
Out-of-place natural events as creating tension in “To Kill A Mockingbird”.

To Kill A Mockingbird—Response

May 4, 2006
Response to “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Features a drawn-out connection to the Iliad.

MMVI vs MDCCVI

May 8, 2006
Essay: how life in Quebec today is better than it was three hundred years ago.

Irony in Macbeth

Jan 20, 2006
How Shakespeare used irony in Macbeth. Favourite phrase: “relentless sinister determination.”

Macbeth—Response

Dec 11, 2005
Portraying Macbeth as weak-minded and easily manipulated.

D’Arcy McGee High School Gee Gee’s Logo

Dec 9, 2005
The logo of the D’Arcy McGee High School Gee Gee’s, as vector art (with rasters available).

Response to The Chrysalids

Oct 25, 2005
Reading response to John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids.

Aconitum aquarius [PDF, 233 kB]

Oct 2, 2003
Science project: invent an imaginary animal.

Getting the Price Right: Maize Production in Mexico After Market Liberalisation

Sep 1, 2001
Making available my dad's Masters research essay.