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johnboiles

343 karma · joined April 30, 2010

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/johnboiles; my proof: https://keybase.io/johnboiles/sigs/DPIgl8wEPzzBMdJHqSXNKW8UGjYoOmP5tCYTJRGXgXI ]
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johnboiles··on OBS (macOS) Virtual Camera
Not sure about cross-platform, but for macOS I started this plugin by creating a minimal virtual camera: https://github.com/johnboiles/coremediaio-dal-minimal-exampl...

@seanchas116 made a Swift port of my minimal example https://github.com/seanchas116/SimpleDALPlugin

Overall it _was_ very difficult! Apple's documentation and sample code for CoreMediaIO DAL (virtual camera) plugins are terrible. I just brute forced it for hours trying all sorts of different combinations of things before I got something to work.

johnboiles··on Ask HN: What's your quarantine side project?
Spice up your video conferences with OBS compositing (allows you to do green screen, multiple cameras, etc)

https://github.com/johnboiles/obs-mac-virtualcam

johnboiles··on Share OBS output as a webcam in Hangouts, Zoom etc
I made a plugin that sorta works for this last week: https://github.com/johnboiles/obs-mac-virtualcam
johnboiles··on Ask HN: Should I buy a boat and live off the grid?
Final sale price was 50k (& our broker took a 5k commission), so money in our pocket was 45k.
johnboiles··on Ask HN: Should I buy a boat and live off the grid?
+1. This is a delightfully concise version of what my wife and I did.
johnboiles··on Ask HN: Should I buy a boat and live off the grid?
My wife and I lived on a 33" Hunter 336 in Berkeley, California for 2+ years. Our first child was born during that time and lived on the boat until he was 18 months old.

It was a great experience; I'm very happy we did it.

Our boat had some nice amenities which made it a great liveaboard boat: two berths (so our son had his own room), bathroom w/ builtin shower & electric macerating freshwater toilet (which I installed), stove, oven, microwave, electric hot water, fridge, large kitchen sink. We typically would shower on land at the Berkeley Yacht Club which was very close to our slip (the bathroom on the boat doubled as the shower and it was inconvenient to get the bathroom floor wet). A dedicated shower is the only major feature I'd add if I were to live on a boat again.

Social life was different. Our friends seemed less likely to just come over and hang out. But on the other hand, we got to host our friends on sailing trips and give them a very unique experience of the SF Bay. I can't speak to the experience of dating while on a boat, sorry :)

One thing to note: boats do come with a lot of maintenance -- saltwater has a way of destroying everything it touches over time. It was difficult to find people I trusted to come work on the boat without taking the boat to a boat yard (which meant moving out of our home temporarily), so I ended up doing most of the maintenance myself (shout out to my friend Eskil Olsen for selflessly spending his time helping on a handful of occasions!). I would only buy a boat if you are comfortable with learning how to fix it.

Economically we came out solidly ahead. We bought the boat for 39k, put about 13k of work into it (also a ton of my time), then sold the boat for 45k (after brokerage commission). Our monthly fixed expenses were about $500 (water, power, internet, slip fees). Considering a 2 bedroom in Berkeley would run at least ~2k+/month we probably saved ~30-40k over the ~26 months. That said, the time put into maintaining the boat was significant, and if that's not something you would enjoy, it could easily skew the value equation.

The social stigma was very manageable. People would be surprised and maybe slightly weirded-out when I'd first share that I lived on a boat, but as I'd share more I think people caught the vision. I think doing it with my wife helped normalize it. And once people were able to go sailing with us, I think they really got it.

We finally moved on land while pregnant with our second child. My favorite house-amenity is a dishwasher.

Finally, here's the (sold) listing for Chasseresse, the boat we lived on: http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1995/Hunter-336-3037385/Berk...

johnboiles··on Ask HN: Share Your Raspberry Pi Project
Also also, I have a Pi with a usb RTL-SDR radio receiver functioning as a mobile HAM APRS iGate: https://github.com/johnboiles/pi-rtlsdr-igate-docker
johnboiles··on Ask HN: Share Your Raspberry Pi Project
Also made a replay camera for the office foosball table. We have an iPad scorekeeping application that queries the Pi for a video replay after every goal.

https://github.com/johnboiles/replaycam

johnboiles··on Ask HN: Share Your Raspberry Pi Project
I've been really digging home-assistant. Just got it set up a few weeks ago. Ended up buying $300 of zwave switches soon after
johnboiles··on Ask HN: Share Your Raspberry Pi Project
Just sold the sailboat though ️
johnboiles··on Ask HN: Share Your Raspberry Pi Project
I had one on my sailboat making all the boat's sensor data available over wifi. It also let me control the Raymarine AutoHelm from my iPhone.

https://github.com/johnboiles/Helm-firmware https://github.com/johnboiles/Helm-hardware https://github.com/johnboiles/nmeaproxy

johnboiles··on The Liberal Blind Spot
This was a good read; must have missed it the first time it came around. Thanks for sharing
johnboiles··on Windows 93 in JavaScript
yo dawg....
johnboiles··on MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues
Same here, rMBP late 2013. Problems happen most frequently when plugged into an external thunderbolt display.
johnboiles··on Show HN: Penny – Sell via Instagram; has an API to automate shipping/verticals
I just launched my first company, Penny. Penny provides a simple way to open an online shop on Instagram. Sellers post a photo of the item along with the price and the hashtag '#paywithpenny'. Buyers can then purchase the item by posting '#sold' in the comments.

It also has an API (http://www.paywithpenny.com/api) so you could pontentially automate shipping (if you have some sort of drop-shipping setup) or even manufacturing for on-demand items such as art prints.

To celebrate the launch, we launched a bunch of koozies into (near) space and are selling them via @beentospace on Instagram. Proceeds will go to charity.

johnboiles··on Yelp Hackathon results in an iPad-powered KegBot
If you're looking to get started with hardware, I'd check out SparkFun's Arduino Inventor's Kit. http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_i...
johnboiles··on Yelp Hackathon results in an iPad-powered KegBot
The arduino firmware was based on kegbot.org's. We added RFID support as well as analog temperature sensor support (normally kegbot.org uses a separate usb rfid reader and a one wire digital temperature sensor). We wrote all the iPad software ourselves. After jailbreaking the iPad, it's possible to interact with the serial port in the dock connector just like you would in any POSIX (linux, unix, etc) system.
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