Fix blurry fractional scaling in Cinnamon (Linux Mint)

Here’s a quick tip for those of you having issues with blurry fractional scaling in recent versions of Cinnamon. Here I am using Cinnamon 5.2.7 with Linux Mint 20.3, but similar versions should work in the same way Fractional scaling enables devices with high DPI displays to achieve a comfortable interface size - not too small or large for the …

Using docker-compose with Django, Nginx and Gunicorn

I host the starcross website on my own server, and value the ability to easily move the site around - experimenting with different linux distros and hardware There are a number of guides on building a Django oriented docker compose stack. Some are a little overcomplicated for basic setup, others I found very helpful and I have provided some links …

Starcross Django Gallery - A new Django gallery package

I created a gallery package for Django to host my photos, and to make a contribution towards the the great collection of django packages already available. I wanted a particular set of features, the key areas being: Simple, clean design that maximises space for image thumbnail display Justified image layout, as used by sites like …

Customising Django Simple Captcha

I used the django-simple-captcha to protect the comments form from spamming. Some time after the site went live, I noticed spam comments starting to appear.  The site does not generate much traffic, but the comment spam nonetheless became more and more prolific, with dozens of entries appearing each day. I took a look at the captcha to find out what …

Using Images in Django

Update: I have now expanded the gallery package to include many new features and released it on PyPI as django-starcross-gallery. The version on github is the full version instead of the basic one described below This is another tutorial style write-up of my exploration of django features. I build a basic gallery style app and look at …

HTML5 Canvas Fractal

I always wanted to create a fractal generator since experimenting with fractal programs on my Amiga many years ago. Fractals are fascinating, beautiful patterns generated mathematically. They have infinite complexity, and you can explore uncharted depths by zooming on different areas. In this case I'm using the Mandelbrot set, but there are many others. The <canvas> element introduced in …

HTML5 Canvas Game of Life

Conway's game of life is a model of cellular automation that produces intriguing, organic looking patterns and animation as it evolves. Like my fractal generator, I think it's another example of fascinating imagery that is produced with very simple rules. Cells are modelled on a grid, and they evolve depending on their number of …

Building a simple django blog

I created a simple django blog to use on the Starcross website. Here's a write up about the design decisions I made an some code snippets I used. As with all my posts, I'm interested in your suggestions, comments, and any other contributions. There are lots of examples of django blogs out there, but they are simple to build so …