I was going through some of my photos and came across a set where I was comparing old and new signage on the SkyTrain. Below is one example from Granville Station. You can see the new sign in the foreground, with the existing sign further back. What struck me is how complex the information is on the new sign. The primary emphasis (judging from the size of the text) of the new platform signs is placed on the platform numbers, as opposed to the direction of travel as is in the old sign. In fact, the direction of travel isn’t Continue Reading
DennisTT.Net 10 years old
It’s hard to believe I’ve had this domain name for 10 years! Although I only got the domain in 2004, my first websites date back in 1999-2000 using services like Netscape Websites and Angelfire, and when <blink>, <marquee> and animated GIFs were the craze. I created this blog back in my high school days, before the time of Twitter (now most of my day-to-day spam is there instead… :P). That was the time while I was in IB, started transit-fanning, and developed MyBB. Over the decade, some things have changed, some things haven’t. I’ve since graduated from university, became a Continue Reading
Updating VMWare ESXi from 5.1 to 5.5
In the previous post in the series of my “VMWare Adventures”, I was having problems with the hardware passthrough feature with ESXi 5.1 (read the previous post if you want a recap on what ESXi and passthrough are). With the recent release of ESXi 5.5, and favourable comments in the communities, I decided to give the upgrade a shot.
Setting up a Raspberry Pi with file sharing and screen sharing for Macs
I’m going to briefly explain how to setup a new Raspberry Pi as a basic desktop computer with file sharing and screen sharing so that Macs can connect to it. This will be useful for quickly transferring files over, and taking control of the Pi remotely. I will be assuming that you have basic command line knowledge (running commands, installing packages, editing text files), and some Mac knowledge. I am not going to be too paranoid about security as I only intend on using my Pi on my home network, but if your Pi is going to be Internet-facing, you Continue Reading
Hello Compass Card!
Yesterday when I got home from work, I was excited to find my Compass card waiting for me in my mailbox! Compass is TransLink’s new electronic fare card that will be rolled out in Metro Vancouver this fall. Earlier this year, fare gates were installed in most SkyTrain station entrances, and Compass readers installed on buses. TransLink is running a “beta test” of the Compass system with 10,000 volunteers from September 9th to October 1st (testing before launch is definitely a good idea!). The Compass card uses NFC to communicate with the card readers. There’s a small microchip and an Continue Reading