@mcbridejc@mstdn.social
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mcbridejc

@mcbridejc@mstdn.social

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mcbridejc, to rust
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Five months later, I finally got around to bringing up my four channel driver board so I can control X and Y at the same time on these. With a hole in the middle of the PCB, this seems like it could actually work as a back-illuminated microscope stage. Not as good as an OpenFlexure probably? But it's just a PCB, simple 3D printed part, and $3 worth of magnets (well, and drive electronics!). The software driving it is , of course!

Video:
https://video.jeffmcbride.net/w/qgJoEM2iXvaUTqEFmjDKNZ

mcbridejc, to random
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Seems crazy that in a modern vehicle with two pixel displays in it, I still need an OBD2 reader to find out why the check engine light is on?!

ajroach42, to random
@ajroach42@retro.social avatar

It's nearly Public Domain Day (my favorite holiday, since the US started celebrating it again a few years back) and I'm eagerly and excitedly collecting materials which will enter the public domain in 2024 to repackage, share, remix, and otherwise defile.

There's so good stuff coming to the US, and it will be transformed in to even better stuff.

But! this Public Domain Day is also a time for sadness (small thread)

mcbridejc,
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@ajroach42 The way I look at it is that if the goal of granting intellectual monopoly is to encourage the creation of the protected work, then what matters is the incentives at the time of creation.

At a 6% discount rate, the present value of that monopoly 50 years in the future is 5 cents on the dollar. Nobody -- individual or corporation -- is being meaningfully motivated by the prospect of the potential revenue 50 years down the road. They will do the same thing for 20 or even 10 years.

mcbridejc,
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@ajroach42 A corollary is that extending a copyright term after creation is a gift solely to the owner, at the expense of everyone else. It's an utterly deranged thing to do.

ai6yr, to diy
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Hmm, it appears impossible to buy just a handful of T-Nuts online. I suspect a handful at the local hardware store costs more than the giant 100 and 120 packs... but, really. I only need 4.

mcbridejc,
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@whoosh @ai6yr Don't be so sure! My local hardware store has some groceries/produce and will make you a sandwich! :)

mcbridejc, to random
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I'm back on PCBs and magnets this weekend, and this morning's activity is assembling arrays of little magnets with alternating polarity. It's finicky to do, but also an oddly relaxing task. When you get them oriented right, they just snap into place.

mcbridejc,
@mcbridejc@mstdn.social avatar

And hey, it works! As-is that 5x5 array can just carry 2.25g, or about one half of a microscope slide...may need some more magnets and/or some more current :). Also, I'm going to need a driver that can handle both directions at once.

https://video.jeffmcbride.net/w/fjGXbmPiiYbLuproxQYWRG

mcbridejc, to pnw
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Are having a really good fall, or am I just noticing more than in past years? It feels like the woods by my house are just exploding with right now.

image/jpeg

mcbridejc, to random
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This was so awesome! I'm proud to have made some (very small) contribution to making this flight happen today, and impressed by the amazing engineering that went into this 15 second first flight!

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/stoke-space-test-rocket-hop-moses-lake/

mcbridejc, to random
@mcbridejc@mstdn.social avatar

Look it's not just that ad platforms are a vector for malware. Ad platforms ARE malware.

jonty, to random
@jonty@chaos.social avatar

Whenever I see people talking about butt-dialing or butt-messaging I am mystified about how it happens in 2023.

Do they have highly skilled butts capable of cracking fingerprint scanners and Face ID. Does the NSA have rooms of cryptanalyst butts repeatedly sitting on phones.

mcbridejc,
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@jonty It never happened to me for years, but then something changed (my theory is an android update) and I started dialing emergency contacts all the time in my pocket -- these dont require unlocking. I had to remove emergency contacts because it got ridiculous.

rubenwardy, to Electronics
@rubenwardy@fosstodon.org avatar

Something that's super annoying about doing is when you realise you need a component and then have to wait a few days for it to arrive. Also, the fact that's there's no undo-redo in real life, that would be very helpful

mcbridejc,
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@rubenwardy and in my case it's usually because I messed up and left something off if the digikey order!

Also... Can you just increase the base resistor? You have a base resistor... Right?

jaseg, to random
@jaseg@chaos.social avatar

Chatting with @janamarie about bright LEDs this weekend inspired me to finally dig up and continue an old project of mine, where I try to control one of these fun, stupidly high-power RGB COB modules from aliexpress.

mcbridejc,
@mcbridejc@mstdn.social avatar

@jaseg this reminds me of using 100W LED modules for a calibration fixture. They were astoundingly bright! Although they did generate some heat I remember also being impressed by how small of a heat sink they got away with, considering. Out of curiosity, do you have a use in mind for the bright LEDs?

mcbridejc, to random
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The paris metro ticket machines run windows NT 4.0, released in 1996. Completely on brand for paris, the only machine here is not working.

falcon, to random
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I wonder how a good fraction of the people I know get to buy houses /and/ randomly quit their jobs and not work for 6+ months every couple years, /plus/ still have all these fun projects.

mcbridejc,
@mcbridejc@mstdn.social avatar

@falcon I think tech salaries are often just large? I gather the median google engineer comp is north of 250, while seattle median is less than 60. Honestly Im kind of amazed that people earning that much arent all trying to find ways to trade money for working less.

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