Nirenjan's Space

Advent of Code 2020 - Day 3

Stardate 59229.7 (Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:53 pm) in code python, AoC

Day 3 of AoC 2020 (Toboggan Trajectory) is easy enough to solve in any language, but we’re sticking with Python for this. As always, spoilers ahead.

Advent of Code 2020 - Day 2

Stardate 59224.4 (Sat Jan 9, 2021 1:32 pm) in code python, AoC

Day 2 of AoC 2020 (Password Philosophy) is an easy problem to solve in Python. As always, spoilers ahead.

Advent of Code 2020 - Day 1

Stardate 59223.4 (Fri Jan 8, 2021 1:38 pm) in code python, AoC

If you haven’t heard of Advent of Code , it is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles that run every year from December 1st through the 25th. This year, I was happy to have solved the majority of the puzzles on my own, with very little help from the subreddit.

Most of these puzzles can be solved in Python using only the standard library, and for some, it really boils down to parsing the input into a form that’s more suited for processing. Suffice to say, there are a ton of spoilers in this series, so if you want to avoid spoilers, look away now.

Linux HID Driver

Stardate 59075.5 (Thu Aug 13, 2020 5:43 pm) in Drivers Linux, Drivers, USB

Most HIDs (Human Interface Devices) are supported in Linux without the need for a custom driver. However, some devices don’t necessarily implement the USB HID specification correctly, and the support for gamepad controls is rather lacking.

Of particular interest to me, and a few others in the Linux gaming community, is support for the Saitek X52/X52 Pro HOTAS joystick. For the most part, this joystick works very well in Linux, but with one limitation. The little thumb stick on the throttle module that controls the mouse motion. Linux only reports the X-axis for that thumbstick, and I traced it to the fact that Linux maps only one axis in the game controls usage page. For this to work as intended, we really need to build a customized driver.

Vegetable Foccacia

Stardate 58988.4 (Mon May 18, 2020 2:07 pm) in Recipes Recipes, Food

Being in lockdown, I have had the chance to experiment more with my food. This is my latest creation in a vegetable foccacia-style bread, which is good enough for a weekend dinner.