Vectorizing scanned images for indigenous paddles

I've been working with Brittney Townrow, our incredible indigenous education coordinator, on creating a workflow for paddle designs. Indigenous paddles are designed for steering canoes though can also be used for ceremonial purposes. They often have traditional stories or designs carved and/or painted onto them.

Brittney's research highlighted the uniqueness of each paddle's shape and design for it's purpose, such as speed or noise in the water. Artwork would reflect regional stories and often times be dependent on the type of wood used.

Cedar was the traditional material for it's durability and weather resistance. Since we can't cut cedar indoors I first turned to SPF lumber, the cheaper traditional stud lumber we used for student woodworking projects. Traditional carving techniques involve sharp blades and files and many hours of quality craftsmanship. Safety and timelines were, as always, our first thoughts in the classroom especially with an intended age range of Grade 4 (~8-9 years-old).

We experimented with creating templates children could draw on with sharpie. We lasercut four different outlines on 0.05" chipboard. This cardboard was stiff enough to have function but is a very fast material to lasercut so we had about 75 blanks in minutes. This worked well and pretty much any colouring medium could be used to decorate them. When we reflected on this I knew I wanted to give agency for kids to create their paddle from their own creativity, including the paddle shape. So instead of using a template was there a way they could design their own paddle from start to finish?

Templates on 0.05" chipboard

I tried printing out a design on paper and gluing it on a panel of basswood. I acknowledge that we would need permission from an artist if we were to scale it up, an important media literacy awareness I try to remind students of as much as possible. I wanted to try carving safely with a file since I knew we would not be able to use anything sharp with wood with this many kids in a room. My intermediate woodworking students would love this challenge but our primary students have not had this kind of woodworking exposure.

I tried a couple of different rasp files, bastard and half-round, to remove as much wood as possible. One of the trickies was sourcing enough clamps if we were to scale it up; how many workstation could we setup in the Makerspace and keep it safe and manageable? I tried horizontal and vertical clamping and found vertical gave the most leverage. A coping saw was very useful in trimming off most of the wood, though I knew it would be tricky to manage for kids.

The files created a lot of sawdust and fine dust particles and required lots of effort. It took me probably 15 minutes of hard work just to get one corner. The finished paddle was acceptable; it matched the shape of the paper template and just needed a quick sand to be smooth and presentable. However, the effort and tools required made it very clear it was not scalable to the level we wanted it to be.

So, we took a step back and reconsidered our resources. We started with presenting traditional and modern forms of paddles to students, along with their historical and cultural significance. Brittney had done great work exploring Haida shapes, for example, and students could draw from their own class research around importance of indigenous symbols. Students could then freeform draw their own paddle on paper and fineline their artwork inside the paddle. The completed paper drawings could then be scanned very quickly and saved as individual PNG files.

To vectorize these scanned images I created an Illustrator action:

1. File > Place scanned PNG image
2. Image Trace > Black and White logo
• adjust these settings for your scan:
• Simplify
• Noise
• Threshold
• Ensure you checkmark these settings. I had a huge problem with Illustrator creating double-paths stacked on top of each other on the same layer making it virtually impossible to detect. I had to manually select duplicate paths and delete them, a very onerous task!
• Create: Fills (no strokes)
• Ignore colour: white
3. Expand
4. Ungroup
5. Release compound paths
6. Select all paths, remove fill and set stroke colour to green (score) and .25 size
7. Select outside line, set to red (cut)
8. Group

I did notice that my action would sometimes skip a step which was quite annoying. I chalk it up to the age of my Macbook (2018 and still rocking!) Once you have the vectorized paddle you can arrange them on one artboard for cutting. If you're anything like me you'll spend more time arranging and squishing everything to use up every last square inch of material so there's no wastage. One important consideration is wood grain: it should run top to bottom of your paddles for strength.

OpenCore root patch boot hanging

 I've had a few older iMacs running macOS versions that are not officially supported by using OpenCore bootloader patcher. They've been running Monterey and Ventura very well with only a couple of non-critical quirks.

However one issue came up since coming back from winter break: a Ventura iMac was hanging on boot, just stuck on the Apple logo. A bit of investigating revealed it was a root patch applied before the break. These root patches are handled automatically by OpenCore, usually in response to macOS updates or code revisions. This time, the root patch didn't handle the graphics update properly (Metal) so it couldn't boot properly.

To revert, boot from a recovery disk and open a Terminal prompt. Find your install volume:

ls /Volumes

then mount:

mount -uw "/Volumes/VOLUMENAME"

revert the snapshot:

bless --mount "/Volumes/Macintosh HD" --bootefi --last-sealed-snapshot

list installed extensions:

cd "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Library/Extensions" && ls

I had to remove the IntelHD5000.kext and IntelFrameBufferAzel.kext (rm -rf "kextname") 

On successful reboot DO NOT re-apply any root patches. Instead, go to Apple's Developer Download Page and download the Kernel Debug Kit that most closely matches your macOS version. I think when I applied my root patch the first time it didn't download the debug kit properly and applied the wrong kext extensions.

 

Extending a Chromebook past the Auto Update Expiration with ChromeOS Flex

A while back I wrote about an adventure I had installing BrunchOS on old Acer C720 Chromebooks to extend their life past the Auto Update policy expiration. Google's Auto Update policy is similar to Apple's iPadOS support policy that stops supporting older devices after a period of time. Thankfully, end of support doesn't mean the device is bricked and we can still use it, though it doesn't benefit from secutity and usability updates. We have a fleet of older Chromebooks that we use for loaners should a student forget their BYOD. Google has actually now promised at least 10 years of support which is amazing news and I've definitely enjoyed Apple's excellent efforts to support older iPads on new iPadOS releases.

I took a look at ChromeOS Flex today and got it up and running on two devices in minutes which is a significant time savings over BrunchOS. ChromeOS Flex follows Google's acquisition of Neveready Cloudready and is intended to revive older Macs and PCs. It's a great idea and reaffirms the simplicity that student BYOD can be. ChromeOS Flex requires modifying the bootloader and does not do a security chip check, and also does not support Google Play or Android apps.

The process for our Acer C720s was straightforward:

1. Download ChromeOS Flex onto USB using the Chromebook Recovery Utility
2. Remove the write-protect screw.
3. Reboot in developer mode (I had to deprovision in the Admin console first).
4. Open a CROSH shell (Ctrl + Alt + T) 
5. Run MrChromebox's firmware utility script:
   

   cd; curl -LOk mrchromebox.tech/firmware-util.sh && sudo bash firmware-util.sh

6. Reboot
7. ???
8. Profit! (I'm sure explicitly prohibited in the T&C)

Chipboard Cardboard Constructors

Chipboard Cardboard Constructors are laser-cut chipboard tile shapes with slots that allow for friction fitting. Fitting different shapes together can generate tactile 3D shapes quite quickly and I've found kindergarten students are able to manipulate them quite easily.

There are a few ready-made design files floating around the intertubes but most are made for corrugated cardboard. While corrugated cardboard is a wonderful material it's not plentiful enough for me to create hundreds of tiles in different shapes. I like to use chipboard which we get quite cheaply in bulk in large sheets.

Rather than modifying existing files I figured it would be easier to draw my own files. I went for a rectangle, triangle and circle and went for the simple angles at corners and mids. Skewer-sized holes allow for axles, spinners, poles, etc.

Here are the files, they're licensed as NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International so feel free to modify, change and share alike but do not use my files to make money. They are sized for 0.02" chipboard, on a 12"x18" artboard, so be careful resizing if you have different sizes since slot sizes may not fit.

I wanted to practice optimizing files for the laser cutter so I was trying to find shortcuts to eliminate overlapping lines or to speed up travel times. I didn't get very far and just deleted overlapping paths manually. It's very soothing to see sides of shapes line up so the laser cutter just has to make one cut for two different shapes.

Running Technology

Next weekend is the BMO Vancouver Marathon and all across the city runners are fitting in their last training runs. Today was a gorgeous day (sunny 22 degrees!) so I'm sure it's going to be busy on the streets. The marathon route is absolutely gorgeous and takes you through some amazing vistas, though it ends on the beautiful, but testing, seawall and a steady uphill on the last kilometer. The overall elevation gain is relatively minor, maybe even net downhill, but it's Vancouver so lots of Running Up That Hill.

Running technology is highly personal. Just look at how many flavours energy gels come in. I don't like to carry many things with me so I usually just have my phone and a stretchy running belt. Sometimes I'll bring bluetooth earbuds but most of the time they stay in my pockets and I only turn them on when I need a change of pace.

Strava is by far the most popular mileage tracker though I'm not a big fan. I run for me and it's my break from everything; screens, tech, people, distractions, work... so I'm not the target audience for Strava's leaderboard or segment challenges and comparisons. Social fitness tech does have incredible potential for encouragement and motivation though and Strava excels in that.

I used the Nike Run Club app to train for my first marathon and I loved it. It formulated a 13-week plan based on my current running regime and comfort level, was apparently adaptive as it processed how well I did during training runs (though I'm suspicious of how much tweaking it actually did for subsequent runs), and had great vocal encouragement and nuggets of wisdom from runners like Mo Farah and Nike's Coach Bennett. Unfortunately, about two years ago Nike removed the adaptive training program and the only way to get it back was to download older .APK versions. Even then, the app would have glitches because it would presumably call home to Nike and it wouldn't get the updates it needed.

I tried Runkeeper for a while and it seemed to be a killer app. It had a great web interface where you could export data and edit routes, like you forget to pause when you're passed out on the park bench for half an hour, or get distracted by the bakery counter when you have a washroom break. But there were little issues with the GPS locking, and huge issues like syncing with Rungap (more on that later).

I've been using Runtastic (now called Adidas Running) for a few years now and it does what I need it to do. It's GPS lock is good enough, it's great on batteries, I like the succinct vocal reminders of time or distance, and it's great on battery life. There's lots of features locked behind a subscription but I don't need that level of customization.

While I was trying out these different apps I used Rungap to synchronize all the data between accounts. It works well and offers lots of export features like GPX conversion. The neatest thing it does is extracting data from walled gardens like Nike. I'm not sure what magic it does but Nike didn't provide any export options when I was using it. Yet Rungap was able to not only pull data but make it readable by other apps.

Having an open, readable format like GPX makes it easy to manipulate data afterwards. It has XML fields  GPS coordinates, timings, waypoints and allows for any extras like notes. The proliferation of fitness technology like heartrate, wearable tech, or even fall detection makes open data even more important so your data can always belong to you. Unfortunately this often runs contrary to commercial interests, like show companies sponsoring running apps, or proprietary data logging to lock users into one ecosystem.

GPX files make it easy to view and manipulate GPS data

Communicating Student Learning

In 2016 British Columbia shifted to proficiency scale reporting alongside a redesigned curriculum. The new curriculum supports deeper learning through concept-based and competency-driven education. There is a greater integration of technology-enabled learning environments, inquiry-based questioning and weaving Indigenous perspectives and knowledge, such as the First Peoples Principles of Learning.

The proficiency scale is used to communicate student learning in all areas of learning, and descriptive feedback provides students with information about where they are at in their learning and strategies for how they can move forward in their learning. We've used rubrics in many areas but parents were largely unfamiliar with how they communicated student learning:

A pillar of our assessment strategy is providing continuous feedback to parents throughout the year. As a 1:1 device school we were in an advantageous position to provide continuous feedback throughout the year via Seesaw, our digital learning management system. Seesaw provides a student-friendly platform to “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. It works alongside our student information system from Blackbaud that compiles and distributes our official report cards.

Kindergarten to Grade 4 students have had 1:l access to iPads, empowering students and teachers to communicate learning in realtime. iPads allow instant access to sound and video recording, documentation, and teacher feedback in one simple platform.

We've been using Seesaw for seven years now and have noticed a tonal shift in parent connections. It's easy for parents to subscribe to notifications and be hyper-aware of everything that gets communicated through Seesaw. However, I like to suggest parents having weekly discussions with their child in front of their iPad as they scroll through the week together. The metrics over the years are astonishing to behold, not just the volume of content we're posting in just a few grades, but the number of parent engagements:

It's also interesting seeing the ebb and flow of engagement throughout a school year. In the charts below you can see how parent visits closely follows the timeline of when posts are published, with lulls during holidays and school breaks. Check out the first week of school too; we have nearly instantaneous parent signups as the year begins with a couple of weeks of troubleshooting as we get to around 98% family reach. Remember, we run Seesaw alongside our official school reporting system (Blackbaud) and does not replace any official forms of communication.

In essence, Seesaw (or any other LMS like Classdojo, Canvas, Moodle, Schoology, Freshgrade (RIP)) can make for a powerful parent engagement tool. When we strive to communicate student learning we want to do it consistently and continuously, not just three times a year. And if we're moving away from static percentages and grades to a proficiency rubric then presenting learning as an evolving, timely process can help students, teachers and parents understand the process in addition to the end result!

#healthytech days

Last week I challenged students and staff of the Junior School to explore healthy technology options for a few days. #healthytech days was an opportunity to step away from our devices for three days. The intent was to gather experiences and reflections on the respite from technology. We all knew devices would be coming back after #healthytech days were over so it was opportunity to re-develop our relationships with technology and aim for a more balanced digital wellness.

#healthytech days began last year when I launched a campaign for Grade 7s to experience two "tech free" days. Students and teachers were challenged to keep their BYODevices at home and/or limit their school technology use. What followed were wonderful conversations and reflections around mental health, appropriate technology use, assistive technology, and how to modify our tech relationship to include more positivity and productive use.

Tech free days coincided with the PE department beginning a healthy eating/food unit with the Grade 7s which made for a natural and mutually beneficial connection. Coincidentally, I had also taught nutrition and dietary science to these students for a cooking elective the year prior!

First, we looked at Canada's Food Guide and it's emphasis on variety of foods. The plate shows approximate ratios of healthy and nutritious food and offers suggestions on nutrition, such as protein, whole grains, and plenty of vegetables or fruit. 

The plate was a visual connector to Dr. Shimi Kang's Tech Solution strategy. Her plate visualizes a balanced tech diet that embraces positive, productive technology use while reducing or eliminating toxic and junk tech. I recommend reading her book for more insight into what constitutes toxic tech; the brain science and physiological effects are very convincing.

Once we had a baseline of understanding we connected the positive effects of healthy eating with healthy tech:

I also challenged families to continue the experience at home and offered the Canadian Pediatric Society's Four essential 'Ms' as expert medical advice:

1. healthy management
• Make and regularly review or revise a Family Media Plan including individualized time and content limits.
• Continue to be present and engaged when screens are used and, whenever possible, co-view and talk about content with children and teens.
• Discourage media multitasking, especially during homework.
• Learn about parental controls and privacy settings.
• Obtain their child’s or teen’s passwords and login information for devices and social media accounts, to help ensure safety online and to follow
• online profiles and activities if concerns arise.
• Speak proactively with children and teens about acceptable and unacceptable online behaviours.
  
  
2. meaningful screen use
• Prioritize daily routines, such as interacting face-to-face, sleep, and physical activity over screen use.
• Prioritize screen activities that are educational, active, or social over those that are passive or unsocial.
• Help children and teens to choose developmentally appropriate content and to recognize problematic content or behaviours.
• Be a part of their children’s media lives. For example, join in during video game play and ask about their experiences and encounters online.
• Advocate for schools, child care centres and after-school programs to consider developing their own plan for digital literacy and screen use.
  
  
3. positive modelling
• Encourage parents to review their own media habits, plan time for alternative hobbies, outdoor play and activities.
• Remind parents and adolescents of the dangers of texting or using headphones while driving, walking, jogging, or biking.
• Encourage daily “screen-free” times, especially for family meals and socializing.
• Ask whether screens are “off” when not in use, including background TVs.
• Remind parents and teens to avoid screens at least 1 hour before bedtime and discourage recreational screen use in bedrooms.
  
  
4. balanced, informed monitoring of screen time and behaviours.
• Complaints about being bored or unhappy without access to technology.
• Oppositional behaviour in response to screen time limits.
• Screen use that interferes with sleep, school or face-to-face interactions.
• Screen time that interferes with offline play, physical activities or socializing face-to-face.
• Negative emotions following online interactions or video games or while texting .

Indigenous formline shapes

An interesting design and materials selection process came up recently with Brittney Townrow, our school's formidable indigenous education coordinator. She proposed creating cutout shapes of Pacific Northwest Coast formline art, specifically her Heiltsuk community. She could then use these cutout shapes as physical building blocks or stencils for art.

The primary formline is typically continuous making it an ideal shape draw as vector lines. Other smooth undulating lines combine to make up a variety of shapes that can convey animal anatomy. Recreating these lines in Illustrator was quick and resulted in editable vectors:

Photoshop has basic .STL capabilities for 3D files but Illustrator does not. I opted to export as SVG and import into Tinkercad to allow for easy sharing and editing of individual files by others in future. Unfortunately, I don't have permission to share these files.

Of course, vector files allow for easy laser cutting since it's s standard file format. I like the feel and texture of the wood cutouts, but I think the 3D-printed ones will last much longer in younger student hands:

Brittney also had some great ideas of having students learn traditional techniques of indigenous paddle carving by making their own. What a wonderful idea to not only have children apply what they've learned but to also express their own creativity and influence on artwork. I have an ADST Woodworking class that sees every Grade 6 student so this was also a natural conveyance point.

We're purposefully limited to safer hand and power tools in the Makerspace so I explored ways to make a paddle safely that also had maximum student creativity. We typically use dimensional SPF lumber in woodworking due it's price point and relative softness but even thinner material would pose a problem for the curves and cutouts of paddles. Chisels were out the question due to their sharpness and longevity of the blades so I tried coping saws, rasps and files, and a jigsaw on basswood, a much softer wood.

I printed out a paddle image for a test and used a light coating of spray adhesive on a 3/16"x4"x24" plank of basswood. If you let it dry a bit the low tack should help the paper come off a bit easier. Our tech ed teacher just uses glue sticks but I think it's pretty fun using spray adhesive! Student projects can draw out their own paddle shape on a pre-determined paper size before gluing.

I first tried using the rasp and files since I figured it mimicked the traditional use of chisels. It worked, but required a lot of effort in consistent strokes. It also created a lot of dust and I split the wood a couple of times being a bit careless. This means students would undoubtedly split it and I quickly abandoned rasping. I then tried the jigsaw and coping saws. The jigsaw applied too much vibration and required constant re-clamping. The coping saw worked well. You can see the texture differences below, from left to right; jigsaw, coping saw, rasp:

I can see a lot of extensions and modifications possible for this project. If time is a factor then paddle blanks can be purchased and focus placed on the artwork. Coloured sharpie or other permanent markers worked great with wood and bypass the messiness of paint. Mineral oil is a safe finish to apply that also bypasses any fumes or fire hazards. The laser cutter could also be quick cutouts or engraving, especially if 3D carving is needed. Even simple wood burners would add a nice textural feel and look.

Vector cut lines from scanned images

'Tis the season and it's another round of ornament making with the laser cutter.  This year's edition features custom names of recipients cutout and placed in a wintery scene filled with reindeer antlers, snowflakes and trees. Those decorations look nice but are practically there to hold the name since it spans across 3" of empty space.

I made the ornamental shape pretty quickly in Illustrator with a few circle. The snowflake, trees and antlers were all royalty-free vector shapes that I further manipulated through stacking. I liberally used the Pathfinder > Unite tool to combine vector lines to create continuous cut lines so nothing fell off.

Adding the names was a straightforward process beginning with selection of font. I went over to Fontsquirrel and chose a few script fonts that had connected letters. This was important so I didn't have to manually create connection points for letters that weren't connected to anything. Great Vibes, Allura and Hello Almeida worked for me but I had to test them each since each name had different amounts of ascenders and descenders that would obscure their shape.

I manually adjusted the size and the shape as little as possible using Selection then Type > Create Outlines. This let me enlarge the actual text shape (Object > Path > Offset Path) since I was concerned certain thinner letters would be too fragile with the 1/8" ply I was using. Pathfinder > Unite finalized the outline shape and I resized further to fit. Then, select the name and the inner ring shape and use Pathfinder > Minus Front to create a compound shape. If too much is subtracted try rearranging the stacked layers so the name is on top.

Each ornament only took around 3 minutes to cut which was quite the time savings from last year's elaborate multi-layered bottle holder ornament. However, while I was working on the ornaments I realized I needed an activity for my Takeaway Makeaway club in the Makerspace. Since the laser cutter was already on I gave them some scrap paper and sharpies and had them design takeaway medallions.

Once they finished their drawings I sent them through our scanner via document feeder which handily sends me a PDF of scanned images. I copied a pic and dropped it into Illustrator. Since each image had a unique shape I needed to create custom cut lines quickly for each image. I used Image Trace (usually Black and White logo since they were monocolour) and expanded the selection to create editable vectors. I left the image on an Engrave layer and held down the Option key while dragging to create a copy of the image on a Cut layer.

I locked the Engrave layer and used Pathfinder > Unite to find the outside and then Offset Path to make a larger outline. This is the same method I would use to create cutout stickers using the Cricut though I think their proprietary software may do this as well. I exported the Engrave and Cut layers separately to avoid any duplication of lines and had a quick takeaway done in an hour or so!

littleBits and some hot air

I recently dished out some littleBits for a lunchtime Takeaway Makeaway. It's a great club activity, especially when coupled with challenge cards that students can work independently on. The first few are always quite simple, getting them used to what bits they have available to them, and then progressing further up with multiple ways to solve a problem.

I noticed that one of the bits had some scotch tape on it and looking closer at it I saw one of the SMDs had fallen off and I had taped it to the bit so I didn't lose it. Rather than crudely soldering it back on I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try hot air soldering using a hot air rework station. The pads looked okay and there was actually enough room to solder it but here was an opportunity to try something new!

The "before" pic with lonely capacitor fallen off.

I had actually done some research on hot air stations a while back and have the Hakko FR-810B wishlisted but it's a tad pricey (well over $1000 CAD!). Cheaper options exist, such as this Toolour version that was recommended to me. Once I started looking into it a bit more I saw a basic version that seemed to be clones of a model labelled 858D. I don't know if it started out as a commercial product or just a generic clone, but it's a pretty simple device. It has a ceramic heating element in a handheld wand, with fan control and an adjustable digital readout of temperature.

Note the temperature reading with the wand in holder. Does this mean there's no standby mode and is continuously heating?

These type of heating stations can handle 400-1000 watts so it made sense to open it up before plugging it in to check some basic safety features. The 858D clones have a history of mismatched PCB designs, mis-coloured wires and questionable grounding. There were four areas to review:

#1: Check continuity of power plug

Put your multimeter in continuity mode and do a check of the power cord. This is a component that is mass-produced and used in many different electronics so it's probably not specifically made for the high loads of hot air. Check that the hot, neutral and ground wires are properly labelled (if applicable) on the plug and are not shorted against each other. Do the same for the power input plug.

#2: Check hot/neutral wires
Wire colours are important to regulate since they carry live electricity and workers may get sloppy if they do not have a load checker on hand. This doesn't mean it's a foolproof system, you should always double-check but it's a good start along with rules of thumb like "one hand in the pocket" rule that says to work one-handed so any potential shock does not across your body. In North America hot wires are black, sometimes red, blue or brown, neutral is white, sometimes grey, and ground wires green. Luckily my 858D had correct colours which I double-checked led to the correct inputs and outputs. Also check that the hot wire is leading to the switch and not the neutral; if it leads directly to the board it can still charge it even if it's switched off.

#3: Check fuses
Fuses are hit and miss since they're being shipped in a variety of conditions. I've received broken fuses, missing fuses, and mismatched fuses. My 858D had the fuse located in the power input plug, and it was correctly laid across the hot wire. Other 858Ds have a separate physical fuse so make sure it's wired correctly.

#4: Check grounding
Grounding adds a layer of safety by providing an alternate method of discharge to the ground instead of through you. Check the path of ground using continuity from each grounding point on the PCB, transformer, and case through the power plug. My 858D case was powder-coated so I had doubts about the continuity through the screws. I filed through the paint on numerous screw points and the mounting screw of the ground wire since it was attached to a standoff from the case. I also checked that the transformer legs were making good contact with the case in case there was a short. All-in-all it was a reasonably well-built device and there wasn't too much work I needed to do, just a lot of double-checking.

Pulsing like a heartbeat

So now it was finally time to power everything up! The capacitor was big enough that I didn't need a microscope so I freehanded it. I tinned the pads with leaded solder because it's what I had though lead-free solder may have a lower melting temperature reducing potential damage. I then applied liberal amounts of flux and set the hot air to 250C. I opted for the smallest nozzle, maybe about 8mm wide, since the littleBit was so small. I started the fan speed really low just to warm up the whole bit so there wouldn't be any thermal shock.

After that it was pretty uneventful...until I discovered what makes littleBits so awesome. The magnets! A wrong nudge one way or the fan blowing a certain angle and the capacitor flew off sticking to the magnetic side. I had to hold it down with tweezers until the surface tension of the molten solder affixed the capacitor enough to the surface. Once done I noticed I had melted the plastic housing a bit but thankfully the mount and the magnets still work.

Upgrading old iMacs

One of the nice things about the Apple ecosystem is that things really work well when you're current. One of the terrible things about the Apple ecosystem is that if you fall off the supported systems list you're left to wither, stumbling around closed-source code and proprietary hardware with no available parts. 

Our move to student BYOD was almost a decade ago which means we have some old computer lab hardware laying around such as late-2013 21.5" iMacs. If memory serves, they shipped with Mountain Lion which I think was the last OS X that Apple charged to upgrade. Mavericks was released shortly after we acquired the iMacs and the free upgrade was a nice touch. We opted for the wireless Magic Keyboard and Mouse, deciding to go all-in on the sleek aesthetics. It could have been interference, somebody microwaving their lunch, or our cinder block construction, but having 25 pairs of wireless devices in one room wrecked havoc on connections. Countless hours were wasted reconnecting devices and preventing peripherals from connecting to other iMacs.

As time goes on I'm going more and more portable. My current workflow involves a 13" Macbook and an iPad, but I have two external displays when I'm at my desk. (side note: at the time of me writing this Apple has dropped the term "notebook" and has adopted "laptop.") I still think there's a place for desktop computers, specifically permanent workstations/kiosks or terminals requiring a consistent setup, e.g. server monitors or readouts. Then there's the practicality of having a larger display. I think we're all waiting for the final merge of iPad and iMac by having a shell of a desktop with just a keyboard and mouse and you just slide in an iPad to "dock" it.

I guess this is a long way to say I haven't gotten rid of any old iMacs yet. So after yet another Makerspace reorganization I plugged one in, resynced to Meraki and Apple School Manager and ran all the updates. It took the better part of a day just because of how slow everything was running. It was on Catalina and just needed a big macOS update and some app updates but it was running ok. I then decided to compare it's lacklustre performance to a fresh install of Catalina. While it was installing I tried to upgrade to Monterey but realized it had dropped support to these iMacs, even though they were still Intel-based.

Thankfully, OpenCore allows patching of the bootloader to allow macOS installs on non-native hardware. It was a straightforward process to create a USB boot disk with Monterey get it up and running. OpenCore even detects that it's booting from USB and offers to load it into the HD!

So far Monterey seems slightly faster than a clean install of Catalina. But it still wasn't fast enough so I decided to swap in a $20 SSD and 16GBs RAM -- the RAM was double the cost of the SSD! Getting into the iMac was quite the chore. iFixIt had a nice teardown along with colour-coded screw placement which helped immensely in the rebuild. Some notes:

• using a utility knife with max 3/8" blade length worked well for cutting display adhesive
• cable connections are very fragile! I may have broken off an antenna connector
• the logic board can be screwed in but still offset enough to have the ports not-aligned with the rear cutouts. Triple check all plugs are usable before closing it up
• RAM may be replaceable without removing the logic board but you'll need to be agile enough to release the locking lever by touch alone
• adhesive strips can be found cheap on Aliexpress

I haven't reattached the display with the adhesive strips yet and am relying on the Alien Tape-like holding power of dollar store painters tape. So far so good, but as expected there's only been a bump in SSD stats with negligible difference in RAM or CPU usage for now.

 

Coincidentally this week Oracle released version 7 of Virtualbox. I use it to run virtual machine instances of Windows and Linux on our Macs. They let me quickly run some legacy Windows software like our digital signage program and laser cutter software. For redundancy I rely on two machines: one running Virtualbox and one dual-booting using Bootcamp. Both work great and have their specific use cases. Anecdotally, the SSD is much faster in Virtualbox.

Managed Apple IDs and User Enrollment

A while back I posted some issues we were having with distributing apps to our Bring Your Own iPad students. The tl;dr is our school would purchase a few apps using our volume discount and then distribute the redemption codes to families. They would redeem the code in the app store and the app would download and they could retain ownership and responsibility to keep it updated.

The migration to Apple School Manager has sunsetted the use of redemption codes and relies entirely on ASM and MDMs to manage devices and users. This presented a logistical problem for us since we want a no-touch policy on BYOD to enforce an air gap from any of our internal networks.

Apple has started up a new online education community that includes teacher education, the Apple Teacher and Coach programs, and also a new forum. This form is interesting because it's education-focussed which hopefully reduces the amount of useless help or rhetoric posted on more public or generic technical forums.

I posted my issue to the Deployment forum and was suggested to look at User Enrollment. The use of federated authentication would play well with our current sync of AD and Google. We do not provide students with their login until Grade 4 though which would make for interesting management in the younger years. I suppose we could provide a simple password for first login then reset all passwords, but this may interrupt app updates down the road.

The siloing of personal data away from corporate data is a great feature and is a hallmark of Apple's push for privacy. Having separate volumes emphasizes the separation of data and how ti cannot be accessed.

I've started testing it with a few user accounts and am hoping for good news for next September!