BurnhamUp!

Beware ATT Active Armor

Chris — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 04:08:44 +0000

I turned on this feature of ATT fiber since it was free and seemed like a neat security thing. I’m not sure what it does, but it was an immediate cause of bufferbloat that took me months to resolve. Part of the reason it took so long is that it only became apparent when I tried to download large files. Speeds would slow to 10%. But otherwise the internet was usable, but it used to work so much better.

The issue seems to be that Active Armor inspect your packets, but it takes some time. When it’s buffer is full, other network processes have to slow down.

Trying NextJS

Chris — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 04:02:29 +0000

I’m working on a simple application, and thought React would be helpful. The react docs now recommend you use a framework, and recommended nextJS. I tried it out, but it seems like it’s really working against my goals for this application. I want something that will run statically without a server, since the API calls should be made from the client. They provide a lot of server features, but it looked like you had ways to turn them off. However I finally hit a snag trying to do static deployment and dynamic routing. I wanted a route like /post/ and they really wanted me to be able to enumerate all the possible routes. I think this just wasn’t what I wanted.

I’m fairly happy with what React is providing me, so maybe I go with a lighter framework.

Plants Vs Zombies Could Not Activate

Chris — Sat, 14 Sep 2024 03:22:49 +0000

Got an error trying to help my son launch Plants vs Zombies. A big popup about how the game ‘could not activate’ and that I needed to sign in with the correct account. Super confusing, since I was launching the game from my library in the EA app.

Found an article with the solution which is to navigate to “C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License” and delete the contents of the folder. Afterwards relaunching games will build back licenses.

My guess as to what happened – I originally installed the game from Origin some number of years ago and their DRM scheme didn’t survive the change to the EA app. Why they didn’t just code that solution into the app, I don’t know. Maybe their app doesn’t know the DRM check failed. Maybe the transition period where both apps were active caused a conflict.

Faster Road Trips

Chris — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 23:25:11 +0000

When I was a kid it seemed like it took longer to drive from California to Utah than it does now. Some of that is explained by increased speed limits! In 2013 the Utah stretch of I-80 was increased to 80 MPH. In 2017 large portions of I-80 in Nevada were increased to 80 MPH. So if roughly 400 miles of highway had a 5MPH boost to it, that’s a 20 minute savings!

The rest of the speed increase can be attributed to my wife, who reminds us that it is just as easy to eat in the car and keeps us moving.

Played: Mixolumia

Chris — Sat, 10 Jun 2023 02:45:20 +0000

My random game for the night was Mixolumia. It’s a super polished Tetris like game with falling blocks and great music. I usually go into my Itch.Io game with low expectations, but there are some bigger indie releases mixed in. I’m not sure how to get better at it or if it holds up after more play. I want to finish it’s marathon challenge of clearing 450 blocks, but I’m only making it to the 300s.

Fireworks

Chris — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 04:16:30 +0000

My son had some questions about fireworks, and so we put together some cool videos to watch.

We started by finding a good fireworks show to watch. There’s a wealth of videos out there, we settled on this one:

Then we found this great video about the behind the scenes of how fireworks shows are set up

And that was followed by a video that filmed the launch site

Finally we finished up with an old favorite – how fireworks are made:

Further Questions

Could you build a multicolored firework? The examples in the videos seemed contain only a single color of ‘stars’. Do they not mix well, or do they just not look good? Maybe a firework show designer would just rather synchronize multiple fireworks.

Further Activities

The games Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and the newer Planet Coaster have a firework designer.

Bonus

All the fireworks going off at once

Local Politics

Chris — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 04:43:38 +0000

I went through all of the offices on my ballot, from President down to the park and rec district. There’s a lot to keep track of and figure out. In some of these local races the signals I’m really looking for are newspaper editorials and endorsements on their website, and also to check that the person isn’t somehow insane. I’m wary, because this probably biases me in favor of the establishment. I did find the hours of voter forums from the League of Women Voters, which is awesome, but daunting.

League of Women Voters forums

I’m hoping that by watching them, I’ll at least learn a bit more about what is at stake. For a lot of these smaller races, I’m not even sure how to evaluate a good candidate. They usually have a big spiel about themselves, and then a list of cool things they want to do. But often times, it doesn’t seem connected to what the job actually is. I guess the purpose is to show that they care about the same issues as you, so maybe they’ll make good choices on the committees.

The Lord Will Prevail

Chris — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 05:09:21 +0000

General Conference was still hard with kids today.

I was really quite taken with President Nelson’s story about myopic. It raised so many questions – did he have a lesson in mind when he passed the word along? Or was he trusting in inspiration that he did not yet understand? I would be concerned with how it might be received, and yet it turned into a really profound lesson.

Maintaining an eternal perspective turns a lot of problems on their head. Things like suffering, difficulties, and even death don’t seem so bad when you don’t see them as permanent. And I think once it’s combined with loving and serving others, it feels like an unstoppable force.

The one story about the missionary missing out on the historic event at the Tokyo conference resonated with me as well. It just seemed to validate all the other parts of this year that suck, besides the death and sickness and racial injustice. Like, that it was okay to feel sad about everything else too. I can’t remember if there was advice offered, but I’ll be looking again soon.

General Conference – October 2020 (Saturday)

Chris — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 03:20:38 +0000

Watching conference with kids is hard. But we tried to set that expectation, that we would be distracted, and that worked well in keeping the peace.

My main impression is that I am improving. I am in fact making progress and am doing better than I was 2 or 5 years ago. There’s still a lot to do, but it’s encouraging to realize.

Second I was quite struck by the idea that God would not have been surprised by the pandemic, or have to rush to rearrange any plans. And so I wonder how far back those preparations could have gone in my life.

Last, I always feel reassured by reminders that other faithful people have gone through difficult times, and have come out the other side. Like the despair of Joseph Smith spending months in jail. Or how the Saints must have felt passed through the Civil War, World War 1, the 1918 pandemic, or World War 2. It would have felt like the end of the world.

The President Has Covid

Chris — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 04:48:58 +0000

There’s a lot on my mind today, but this is the story that is so overwhelming. The President of the United States is has been hospitalized with the coronavirus. The whole thing is just so upsetting. And I think what’s so upsetting is that it’s not just him, but it’s looking like almost two dozen people at this point. It’s just frustrating to see people that we call our leaders, and their hand picked advisors and professionals all fall ill because they weren’t ignoring the basic safety advice. I’m not saying that this could have been prevented, but it didn’t have to be this bad. It’s really looking like the event to introduce the new Supreme Court nominee is what they all have in common, an event marked by no masks, close proximity and hugging! And it just feels like that we’re never going to turn the corner on this pandemic, because this keeps happening.

I think there’s also a lot of anxiety because it looks like things can still get worse. How many more White House staffers will turn up positive? Cabinet members? Senators? What if someone dies? There’s going to be serious and lasting consequences – and it didn’t have to be this bad. I’m just upset at how reckless this is, and how many unrelated innocent people are yet to be harmed.