So, I’ve added a gallery feature to the site, a piwigo one. Seems to work just fine Go here http://smackaay.com/gallery/
Author: Steven Mackaay
Anvil Micrometers for Rotor measurement
Well, we just made 5 rotor measurement micrometers, the most we’ve seen in a batch thus far. Figured I’d share since they were interesting to modify and calibrate. Here’s some pictures of them before we make a box and ship ’em out. They’re always a nice looking tool.
Mr. BarFace – Generate facing toolpath for round stock
So, I wrote a program, out of some necessity for speed to allow the rough facing of the side of a bar of round stock. Often times people will use a standard facing cycle to mill the side of a big bar of round stock but there’s a ton of wasted time and air cuts….
CalculonX – A console calculator
So, I’ve been using a console calculator that I made for over 20 years ago so I’ve decided to update it and basically just make it the way I want it. If anyone ever saw it (unlikely) they would know it’s outdated. Here is an overview of the changes. So, this time I am including…
Image Geotagger
Here is an image geotagger. It uses leaflet for the map so it may give you guff depending on your browser security settings. Click HERE!
A quick trip to Wildwood AB
Went to go visit family friends in Wildwood Alberta. Nice little town, wouldn’t mind retiring there.
Photo Comparisons P5000, 6000, zs99, TG-2 and HP735
So, I decided to do a little test and compare a small variety of my PS cameras, those being the Panasonic ZS99, the Nikon P5000 and P6000, the Olympus TG-2 and the HP Photosmart 735. I didn’t get the images from the Photosmart because it defaulted to the lowest resolution and didn’t notice it. I’ll…
A web based image labeller
So, I needed something to label images with EXIF data for easy comparison. This will allow you to apply labels based on data from the file in a fairly easy way. Exports as PNG for lossless. You can drag new images in and apply the same label in the same place… as best as possible….
Edmonton – July 28, 2025
New ZS99 camera, gettin’ out
Been getting the itch to take some photos again, capture things as they are. Regular boring scenes that we may look upon as just little slices of life. Was a pretty hazy day, had to boost the levels a bit to make the images palatable. So far the camera has been very good. Nice and…
A Final Comparator
Over the years I’ve designed a whole range of different comparators for various purposes and with various external constraints. I just finished my hopefully final one, blending every version from the one before it and having learned lessons on what works and what doesn’t. It seems like a simple thing, and it is, but even…
Bas relief style CNC milling with an STL
So, we have these pieces that need a certain texture placed on them. Well, less a texture and more a 3D scanned surface of some sort of machine block or something. I’m not entirely sure of the application. All I know is that it requires a very fine surface to be milled so that it…
Spline Cutting Macro (HAAS Macro)
Wrote a quick spline cutting routine for cutting splines for the side. Supports starting at a given tooth, roughing depth, taper adjustment and finish depths. Can come from -/+Y and go any direction on X. Nothing too spectacular but I leave it here for fun.
Still selling, Comparators!
Back in 2018 I designed a type of comparator (and setting master) for compressor valve grooves. Just finished another batch of 10 of them, it went well. Nowadays we wrap the master in paper along with oil in order to prevent rusting. Sending them to the southern states made them rust a fair amount. Just…
NCComm – An RS232 device for CNC communication
So, I wanted to try my hand at making a communication device between a standalone device and the CNC, something I wanted. I achieved that. I wanted it made out of the most common parts an average person can easily buy off Aliexpress. You can buy one for like 200 bucks but it was fun…
DooM WAD Level Selector
I was going through old CDs and came across some doom wads, levels for the old DooM. So I fired up GZdoom and tried a few but it got kind of tiring going through command line so I had AI (mostly) write a WAD file loader. The result is the aptly named Doom PWAD Manager….
Texture Generator and Claude 3.7 Sonnet
So, I was at the mall, waiting, and I was thinking about the old Wolfenstein 3D. I was thinking about the textures and wondering if you could algorithmically generate textures to make a game like that. I decided to ask Claude 3.7 Sonnet to make a program to do just that. Well, it made a…
Ripping an image based PDF to text (and old TurboBASIC commands)
Recently, I wanted to pull text from a PDF that was scanned in from an old manual, namely the Borland Turbo Basic manual. The text that was in the document was garbage, nothing there to be done, so I decided to write something that would allow me to: 1. Load a PDF2. Rip the images…
Demographic charts
So, I’m pretty interested in the state of the world and how populations in wealthier countries are starting to fall. I was kind of looking at charts, population pyramid charts to be exact and I found that population pyramids, while interesting don’t show the decline in as interesting way as a line graph. So I…
New prompt permutation script
A while back I made a prompt permutation script for generating large numbers of image prompts for use in automatic1111. I updated it with a new operator, the incremental operator ‘&’ so it will cycle through the list items instead of choosing random ones. Here is a sample prompt and output. Basically a fancy search…
Gage Block Buildup Calculator
So, I have that Python source code on the side of my site there for calculating gage block buildups. I figured it was time to turn it into a JS program so that people can just access it from the web. Not super complicated but useful nonetheless. http://smackaay.com/files/gbcalc/gbcalc.html Features as follows: Anyways, hope somebody out…
The YouTube Recycle Bin
I was watching a video from a youtuber KVN AUST. The video: https://youtu.be/8uHFm6LK6PE?si=SLIaCEzNBx_iL97V It featured a map for looking at and searching for odd videos across YouTube. It’s pretty fun just to see little slices of life or weird things people would bother uploading so I made a little JS proggy to generate the most…
A visit from an old friend, the boreGauge
A few years back we made a gauge for measuring large bores in hydraulic cylinders. Seems the company that bought it from us needed the software for it again. I had to dig through my old source code and see if I had a recent version, turns out I did. On this project I did…
StableDiffusion Permutation Script Update
So, like a week ago I wrote a script to make permutations for SD prompts. I’ve updated the script to allow for random terms as well. This allows one to add variance in the prompt but to not add to the number of permutations. Everything is explained in the code block comment. just change the…
Pong-2024
I was bored and made a quick Pong game. It’s not great, not terribly well finished but I wanted to see how good the tools are these days. It’s been a while since I wrote a game. It was fun to make. Give it a shot. https://smackaay.com/webgames/pong2024/index.html It’s output in HTML5 so no installation is…
Calgary Zoo and Torrington Gopher Museum
Last weekend we decided to go with my parents for a quick trip to our neighbors to the south and visit the Calgary Zoo, It was a big place. Lots of cool animals, nice facilities. everything was pretty good. Here’s a few images as well from the zoo. It was overcast for the most part…
Resolutions for SD image generation
When making images for StableDiffusion it’s best to take the aspect ratio in mind and make it fit into the total number of pixels that the model was trained on. This results in the best images for that given model. So, for SDXL it’s 1024×1024, others it may be 768×768 or even 512×512. Here is…
A quick script for creating prompt permutations for StableDiffusion
So, I enjoy making stuff in StableDiffusion and in the WebUI interface is an option for a prompt list. I like using the Prompt S/R in the scripts but it tends to top out after about 1500 permutations. Here is a script for generating those in as many dimensions as you want. This Python script…
Some of my AI ‘art’
I’m not stupid enough to consider plugging in some prompts to a diffusion AI to be art but I enjoy it nonetheless. Also, I’m aware of the copyright, moral and overall societal implications of it. That’s not for me to solve. Here are a few of my favorites from December 2023 to February 2024.
An RTJ chart
Here is a chart for RTJ ring groove facings. It’s very specific to my own use case but maybe somebody else will find it useful. I guarantee nothing, if you use it, it’s at your own risk. Bottom width is the size at the bottom of the groove, Largest Ball is the largest ball that…