2026-04-12T21:00:50+00:00 David Schlachter atomfeed@schlachter.ca https://www.davidschlachter.com/ https://www.davidschlachter.com/index.xml © David Schlachter https://www.davidschlachter.com/favicon-32x32.png https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/creme-holy-moly 2026-03-30T12:20:00-04:00

Can't figure out how to get the chain guard off? The centre pries off.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/firefly-iii-freebsd 2025-12-28T14:27:00-05:00

Installing personal finance manager Firefly III on FreeBSD.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/no-cd-patch 2025-12-28T12:09:00-05:00

Decompiling to understand how a CD-check was implemented in an old program.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/todoist-repeater 2025-11-11T22:45:00-04:00

My approach to managing and creating repeating tasks using a cron scheduler in Todoist.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/dynamo-lights 2025-07-24T14:39:00-05:00

Reviews of dynamo-powered bike lights that I've tried.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/uottawa-biotech 2025-04-04T13:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/montreal-how-many-cars-area 2024-12-02T18:50:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/homepod-mini-giga-hub 2023-08-09T23:02:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/census-religion-2021 2023-04-17T14:00:00-05:00

Comparison of growth and losses in Canadian religious groups in the 2011 and 2021 census.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/koel-songs-skipping-stopping 2022-02-19T11:10:00-04:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/t480-device-encryption 2022-01-30T14:21:00-04:00

Disable Thunderbolt to enable Device Encryption in Windows 11.

https://github.com/davidschlachter/lychnos 2022-12-26T11:34:00-04:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/cloudflare-ddclient 2022-09-09T17:00:00-04:00

Configure automatic updates of Cloudflare DNS records using ddclient.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c03857 2022-02-11T07:33:00-04:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/mha-best-books 2021-12-16T20:36:00-04:00

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

https://github.com/davidschlachter/embedded-struct-visualizer 2021-11-01T18:05:00-04:00

Tool to help understand relationships between custom struct types in large Go projects.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-obs-virtualcam 2021-10-10T17:15:00-04:00

Use the OBS Virtual Camera on FreeBSD using webcamd.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-samba-macos-spotlight-elasticsearch 2021-04-26T22:39:00-04:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/chinese-japanese-korean-characters-quiz 2021-04-18T16:00:00-04:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-bhyve-uefi-shell 2021-03-02T18:43:00-04:00

Use the EFI shell to boot a newly installed Linux guest in bhyve.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-intel-8265-bluetooth 2021-01-16T13:16:00-04:00

Use iwmbtfw to set up Bluetooth on FreeBSD with recent Intel cards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sZA-ohO06M 2020-12-07T15:23:00-04:00

One of my favourite desserts! Recipe from my great-grandmother.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti-OMM9sBjE 2020-11-18T09:15:00-04:00

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j48QJP9dQUc 2020-10-30T12:15:00-04:00

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

https://github.com/davidschlachter/firefly-iii-email-summary 2020-10-18T12:59:00-04:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/martin-schlachter-justina-tschosick 2020-09-19T08:30:00-04:00

Everything I know about my great-great-great grandparents Martin Schlachter and Justina Tschosick.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-videoconferencing 2020-08-15T23:41:00-04:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-usb-audio 2020-08-06T20:49:00-04:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-webcam-browser 2020-04-19T22:35:00-05:00

How to use your webcam with Chrome and Firefox in FreeBSD

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/timemachine-encoding-normalization 2020-03-29T11:32:00-05:00

Mysteriously failed backups can sometimes be traced to filename text encoding issues.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd-acpi_video-thinkpad-display-brightness 2020-03-12T15:01:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/t480-bhyve-wifi-pci-passthrough 2020-01-07T12:40:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/liquid-metal-compatibilized-polymers 2019-12-18T16:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/t480-freebsd 2019-08-21T12:56:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/icc-profiles-mp480-lide-700f 2019-04-23T13:15:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/cangelosi-cards 2019-04-12T13:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/expand-szdd-archive 2019-04-10T00:40:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/tab-dj 2019-02-11T15:00:00-05:00

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

http://schlachter.ca/spectradoze/ 2019-01-31T00:36:10-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/swing-dj-choosing-music-venn-diagram 2019-01-29T10:58:00-05:00

Advice for new DJs: choose music that both you and your audience love.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freedns-domain-attachments 2019-01-18T12:46:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/powerbook-g3-pdq-400-mhz 2018-12-04T12:00:00-05:00

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?

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/freebsd_avahi_jails 2018-11-25T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/1password-ios-standalone 2018-11-24T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eccwhuC6Jcw 2018-09-20T12:00:00-05:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/montreal-french-classes-csm 2018-08-30T12:00:00-05:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/regiecalculator 2018-06-27T12:00:00-05:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/bch4040-thesis.pdf 2018-04-27T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://schlachter.ca/familyweb/ 2017-08-11T12:00:00-05:00

Many stories from Mexico in this family website recovered from an old hard-drive.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/bicycle 2016-11-08T12:00:00-05:00

Things I look for when choosing or improving a bicycle.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/moto_g_2015 2016-04-21T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/kernel_task 2015-12-09T12:00:00-05:00

How to disable kernel_task CPU throttling in OS X. Tested on OS X El Capitan.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/multivariable-todo 2015-11-25T12:00:00-05:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/trackconcat 2015-01-24T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/IM 2014-11-18T12:00:00-05:00

Materials for my presentation at ARMA NCR IM Days.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/netatalk3rpi 2014-11-13T12:00:00-05:00

How to build Netatalk 3 (with Spotlight support) on Raspberry Pi.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/ancientmarinessay 2010-04-01T12:00:00-05:00

The Ancient Mariner’s offense explored and unified.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/spea.pdf 2010-03-19T12:00:00-05:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/dpng 2010-02-06T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/midsummeraboutnothing 2009-12-04T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/janeeyre 2009-04-20T12:00:00-05:00

Essay arguing against Jane Eyre as a ‘fairy tale gone wrong.’

http://www.cafepress.com/m5oxR6NhoD 2008-07-17T12:00:00-05:00

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!

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/photoessay.pdf 2008-05-31T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/musicman 2008-04-22T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/trianglefactory 2008-04-12T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/maslowfood 2008-03-14T12:00:00-05:00

Why don’t we care about food? Complacency?

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/flowersforalgernon 2007-12-27T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/sttorh 2007-12-12T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/comicpotential 2007-12-01T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/twhspitw 2007-11-24T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/monologue 2007-05-14T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/writinghistory 2007-04-09T12:00:00-05:00

Teenage reflections on childhood experiences with writing.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/selfrealization 2007-02-05T12:00:00-05:00

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.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/portrait 2006-12-21T12:00:00-05:00

Narrator of ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ as a literary schizophrenic.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/mockingbird 2006-05-23T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/mockresponse 2006-05-04T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/2006vs1706 2006-05-08T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/macirony 2006-01-20T12:00:00-05:00

How Shakespeare used irony in Macbeth. Favourite phrase: “relentless sinister determination.”

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/macresponse 2005-12-11T12:00:00-05:00

Portraying Macbeth as weak-minded and easily manipulated.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/geegee 2005-12-09T12:00:00-05:00

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

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/chrysalidsresponse 2005-10-25T12:00:00-05:00

Reading response to John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/writings/aquarius.pdf 2003-10-02T12:00:00-05:00

Science project: invent an imaginary animal.

https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/getting-the-price-right 2001-09-01T12:00:00-05:00

Making available my dad's Masters research essay.