Recent Posts - Page 3 - Eric Cheng
Eric Cheng

Watchdog kernel panics in M1 Macs running macOS X Monterey (version 12.1)

I set up a brand new MacBook M1 this week; I was excited to potentially return to Macs after years of being on Windows machines, but my machine immediately started having kernel panics after the display would turn off. The kernel panics reported "userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 120 seconds".

Add COVID-19 Vaccine Record to Apple Wallet in under 60 seconds (for California residents)

It literally takes 60 seconds to add your COVID-19 vaccine record to Apple Wallet. Article is for California residents, but your state and/or hospital might also have simple paths. Do it now!

How to keep rats out of your car’s engine compartment

Rats invaded our car’s engine compartment a few years ago. Luckily, we found them before they did any damage to the engine itself, although they did remove quite a bit of the insulation under the hood (whereas a neighbor had her engine effectively destroyed by a bad infestation). After some research, I picked up an ...

The Pelican Nebula

The Pelican Nebula (IC5070, 1,800 light years from Earth) in the constellation Cygnus, in the middle of the Milky Way. Captured over 2 nights of fantastic seeing conditions in August, 2021.

The Heart Nebula

The Heart Nebula (IC 1805 / Sharpless 2-190), 7500 light years away, in the constellation Cassiopeia. Stacked in Astro Pixel Processor and edited in PixInsight. Shot in San Mateo, California, in Bortle 5/6 skies, September 6 and 10, 2021.

Upgrading PixInsight with GPU-accelerated TensorFlow v2.6.0 for StarNet++(RTX 30 Series)

ensorFlow, CUDA, and CuDNN must be matched based on compatibility. I haven't found an updated matrix that goes up to TF v2.7 and couldn't find an easy download link for the v2.7 dll, so I went with v2.6.

USB audio interfaces and system audio levels in Windows

USB audio devices like the Go XLR usually work well, but sometimes, Windows gets in the way. These interfaces like to be at fixed levels in the OS because they offer better levels adjustments...

Adobe Lightroom Classic constantly crashing in Windows? Unplug your Android devices.

tldr; A Google Pixel 4 in USB File Transfer mode caused constant Adobe Lightroom Classic crashes in Windows.

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396)

I finally had a clear night–the first in over a month–so I set up the telescope and new astro camera in the yard to image the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396). I’m using the same telescope as before, but the rig now requires a focal length reducer / field flattener in order to match the increased ...