mcdanlj

smellsofbikes, 2 months ago to random

When I was walking back from the auto parts store with four brake pads in one hand and my N95 dangling from the other, my next door neighbor said "still masking? How long are you going to keep that up anyway?"
What I said: until people stop dying of covid.
What I thought: dude you were in the hospital on a respirator for a month in 2020 and in the last year have had two heart attacks and a stroke.

mcdanlj, 11 months ago to random

I have a kid headed off to college who wants a @frameworkcomputer DIY 13" system to run @fedora on while studying CS. ❤️

What are the tradeoffs between the Intel and AMD variants, specifically for running Linux, specifically the next-generation systems (13th Gen Intel Core or AMD Ryzen 7040 Series) currently available for pre-order?

• Webcam? (I don't know whether Frame.work are using Intel's proprietary, closed-source, non-upstreamed webcam implementation on their Alder/Raptor Lake systems.)
• Battery life?
• Performance?
• Other technical considerations?

JTBC I'm not looking for anti-Intel or anti-AMD comments, just technical information, with a focus on good support from a fully open source install.

#framework #fedora

mcdanlj, 10 months ago to random

Ooh, I like this "repair" logo. It seems like a great #repairCafe — and #makerSpace — badge, particularly as a form of community outreach.

https://hackaday.com/2023/07/07/show-em-what-youre-made-of-with-this-repair-logo/

mcdanlj, 4 months ago to 3DPrinting

I'm currently deciding whether to do a design in #OpenSCAD or #FreeCAD or maybe some of both?

I may convert an old 12-chord autoharp from my wife's family into a 21-chord unit by making narrow chord bars. If I do that, I'd like to try #3DPrinting the chord bars with integral TPU dampers, programmatically generated.

Because there are multiple common chord layouts, I'd expect to generate chord bars from four pieces of data:

1. Button rank: Which of three rows should the button go on?
2. Notes: Which notes are in the chord?
3. Strings: Note names of every string, along with their relative station.
4. Name: Chord name printed into the bar.

Then I could remove from the model sections of the TPU damper part of the bar for every string corresponding with a note named in the list of notes for a particular damper, so that it doesn't damp the notes in that cord.

This feels programmatic, and OpenSCAD would be a rational choice. I know that one can program macros for FreeCAD, but it's harder to make FreeCAD macros part of a project instead of part of an installation as far as I know. On the other hand, I'd love to generate STEP files that express more semantics, rather than STL files, which argues again for FreeCAD. Maybe I could find a way to drive this from a spreadsheet in FreeCAD instead of with code. 🤔

Or maybe we should stick to the 12-chord version for now until we decide this is too limiting. 😀

mcdanlj, 4 months ago to random

I'm interested in running both the current #FreeCAD development versions and the stable version. I am thinking about the flatpak for development builds. That defaults to different paths than the native or appimage versions I've run to date.

I can of course copy some paths from one config to the other, but are there some things that I should keep separate in order to safely run both?

mcdanlj, 8 months ago to 3DPrinting

A few years ago, I built a #3DPrinting dry box for dispensing filament from a locking sealed plastic container with dessicant. I did two things wrong.

• In a container with room for three spools, I hung them all on a common axle, instead of putting rollers in the bottom, which meant disassembling the whole thing any time I wanted to make any change.
• I ran the filament out through holes in the lid instead of the side, which made it hard to change even a single roll.

I want to fix both problems, starting with using rollers. I found a design for a spool roller that looked nice in some ways, but uses a fairly restrictive license and doesn't include CAD files for modifying it, and which (for my use with 625 bearings that I have a bunch of) requires M2 countersunk screws whereas I have more M3 available.

So last night I designed a similar set from scratch in #FreeCAD designed for faster printing. Instead of posting a bunch of STLs, I'm going to make the design parametric so that you can adjust it for your own needs and printer and bearing characteristics. For example, the original allows you to select flanged or plain bearings, which means less bearing surface if you are using plain bearings. So I'll let you select the bearing type as well as the size.

I'll release the whole set with a more liberal license when it's tested, along with instructions for modification.

mcdanlj, 8 months ago to random

Headline: "Harvard Study: Sticking to a Mediterranean Lifestyle Can Reduce Your Risk of Death"

No, actually. No, it can't.

"Doctor, what are my chances?"

"Zero. Same as mine. Same as everyone else's."

mcdanlj, 8 months ago to random

When I bought my pinecil, what was really missing was a case.

Not any more.

https://www.printables.com/en/model/555123-pinecil-all-in-one

The magnets haven't arrived, I haven't yet made the stand that fits in here, and I still need to get wet and brass sponge for the empty tray parts, but I really like this model. It printed great on my Qidi X-Max 3 in Gizmodorks orange low-odor ABS. Plus a little contrasting blue for the solder spools.

I tried to post this as a "make" on Printables where it comes from, but you can do that only if you have a printer listed on your profile, and there appears to be no way to list a printer on my Printables profile. 🙄

Hinge detail showing M3x20 screw
Latch detail showing M3x20 screws

mcdanlj, 7 months ago to 3DPrinting

I just designed a set of blocks for #3DPrinting "Skyscrapers" / "Towers" puzzles. (Thanks @simontatham for the online version!) They are a little bit like sudoku, wth a tangible third dimension to the reasoning.

Models are available for download with printing instructions at Cults3D, Printables, and GitLab.

Puzzle grids are available to download from Julia Robinson Math Festival and Mark Chubb. Feel free to share other sources of grids in the comments!

I have provided the parametric #FreeCAD model that lets you modify the blocks. Want to make a small set with magnets in the bottom for travel? Want to make a giant set to use at the front of a classroom? Want to make a giant set with huge magnets to use on a magnetic white board at the front of a classroom? Change the parameters, maybe edit the shape of the BottomBody part to accommodate holding a magnet, and you are set! Need help? Ask in the comments.

#jrmf #puzzle #mathpuzzle #FreeCAD

Photo of 5x5 set of blocks

mcdanlj, 7 months ago to golang

TIL about the icecream python package, which I like to think I would have learned about earlier if I were still writing a lot of Python. But maybe not, because I read to the end and discovered that it's also available in many other languages, including #golang.

https://github.com/gruns/icecream#icecream-in-other-languages

https://github.com/WAY29/icecream-go

https://mastodon.social/@biglesp/111209427005933294

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to random

Oh no. Oh no oh no. This will not end well for software in general. We've never before had an "un-leap" skipped second and even the occasional leap seconds in the past where they weren't new have caused us a lot of problems. Seconds that don't exist will make something go haywire, I'm sure.

Everybody get out and push?

https://abc11.com/a-faster-spinning-earth-may-cause-timekeepers-to-subtract-second-from-world-clocks/14592379/

mcdanlj, 6 months ago to fedora

As the person who first came up with /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* (sorry!) I am so tired of typing it and am enthusiastic about this change.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/MigrateIfcfgToKeyfile

#Fedora #Fedora39

mcdanlj, 1 day ago to random

In order to help someone build an "open source" project that was built with windows-only proprietary tools, I need to install Windows on a computer at least for a while. I think I spent at least an hour trying to create bootable media on someone else's windows computer before finding a comment buried somewhere that the windows media tool just silently fails to work with sandisk thumbdrives, with no information shown.

Compare that to Linux iso images that can just be written to a USB drive and still work (thanks to H. Peter Anvin's work many years ago) and work just fine on those same sandisk drives.

mcdanlj, 2 months ago to random

My garage door opener is dying; the worm gear is making irregular clunking noises. While I don't currently use home automation, I'd hate to accidentally rule out Home Assistant. What are the brands that currently support local control?

mcdanlj, 7 days ago to fedora

I decided to try building #FreeCAD from source. I used a F39 toolbox on my #Fedora 40 #Silverblue and installed the prereqs; most from packages, but pyside2 from pip (inside the toolbox) since it hasn't been packaged in Fedora for years. The segfault I'm getting from libshiboken isn't illuminating to me. I could imagine a missing dependency on a package causing a segfault, or maybe no one is building FreeCAD on Fedora and it just doesn't work on F39. 🤔

Not clear that I'm close enough to the beaten path for this to be worth a bug report, though. Quite likely PEBCAK...

mcdanlj, 9 days ago to fedora

The #FreeCAD stable build Appimages don't work on #Fedora 40 which is making it hard for me to test a fix I've been working on in the Lattice2 workbench to make it work in current weekly builds as well as stable releases. https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/issues/12894 which requires workbenches and macros to be changed.

I'm a novice on Lattice2, so I'd appreciate testing of all the functionality of the workbench both on recent development builds and on stable FreeCAD. I want to make sure that the fix is complete and correct on both stable and development versions before suggesting that it is ready to merge.

If you use git to install workbenches, you can do something like this if you want to test and help:

cd .local/share/FreeCAD/Mod/lattice2<br></br>git remote add johnsonm git@github.com:johnsonm/Lattice2.git<br></br>git fetch johnsonm<br></br>git checkout johnsonm/mkj-attachment-support<br></br>

Feel free to comment on the pull request itself or here, I'll see it either way.

mcdanlj, 5 days ago to random

I've finally built #FreeCAD for myself, with the TNP mitigation enabled. Now every time I see something cool in the @FreeCAD WIP Wednesday posts I can play with it without waiting for a new weekly build. ☺

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to random

This morning on my commute to work, I drove over a screw. I couldn't find a tire shop near me with an opening before next week, so I learned a new skill of inserting a temporary tire plug.

It wasn't that complicated, but the instructions didn't mention re-inflating the tire after you start pushing the plug in. I spent about 15 minutes trying to push it into a completely flat tire before I put about 9 lbs of air in with only the tip of the plug in the hole, blocking most of the airflow, after which it took a few seconds to push the plug in the right amount, before fully re-inflating the tire.

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to random

I am trying to create a cutaway view of an assembly in #FreeCAD.

It doesn't work at all. It sections some of the parts but not others in the assembly, so I can't use it to make a cutaway view.

Probably I'm doing something wrong. So I searched for "assembly persistent section cut freecad" and saw a forum result that looked like exactly what I wanted to know. "Persistent section cut inconsistent behavior in assembly" felt exactly on target.

Guess who posted that question to the FreeCAD forums in 2022?

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to woodworking

I'm looking for anyone who has a Pratt Burnerd lever-closing collet chuck of any kind, and/or anyone who has a manual for one. Pratt Burnerd don't seem to keep them on their web site; fair enough, this has been out of production for decades. But I'm crazy enough to have bought what is apparently one of the few D1-5 PB LC-15s ever made (because I wanted a collet chuck with similar capacity to my spindle) and I'm trying to bring it back to life.

Photos or scans of the manual for any of their lever-closing (or maybe even pneumatic-closing "PC") chucks, or any teardown pictures or videos you know of, would be helpful. I'd like to be a good steward of this piece of machining history.

#machinist #machining #lathe

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to random

This rotary broach I designed is 1" across the (poorly) knurled section, and the body is only 34mm long. It has the minor downside of not working very well, so I get to re-make the body and nut. The spindle inside is as close to perfect as I can do, so I can keep that for the next iteration. But the next iteration will be larger in diameter which will make it easier to make. And I think no more knurling in the new design.

#machining

mcdanlj, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to linux

About a third of a century ago, I read the original source code to the Linux ps program that worked by reading kernel memory from a setuid root program, used that to enhance the brand-new /proc filesystem to support all the features I now knew ps might need, and wrote a brand-new version of ps. I added features I'd wanted forever on the VAX 11/780 I was using at the time, like built-in sorting instead of piping through sort or awk, and at least trying to fully honor both BSD and System V command-line arguments. I called it "procps" to distinguish it from the original "kmem" ps.

As far as I know, none of my original code survives. I think it's been re-written at least once, maybe twice by now. This is clearly the procps of Theseus.

But it's still called "procps" in Linux distributions, which I have to imagine confuses newcomers. "Why do I have to install procps to get the ps command?"

#linux

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to 3DPrinting

I just learned that Prusa are childishly blocking all links from @cults3d after I complained at their workaround that was a pain when I tried to share on Cults a link to Printables for an alternative to one of my designs.

https://3dp.chat/@cults3d/112291160322661415

Most of my public designs I've been sharing on both Cults and Printables for a while, but this makes me consider taking my designs off Printables. I probably won't, because I don't want to punish users for Prusa's bad behavior, but I'm unlikely to keep posting new designs there when Prusa is actively blocking normal use of the web in a user-hostile way.

Unlike Cults, who are active here, I get the impression that @josefprusa is a post-only account and I can't imagine that he cares what I think.

#3dprinting @3dprinting

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to random

My eclipse was overcast, and that was better than I expected.

My cell phone camera had been compensating for the light as I took occasional pictures as the light slowly dimmed before totality, but I discovered that video was a lot more representative.

As totality arrived, I spent my time actually looking directly at my surroundings, but I was also holding up my cell phone recording what I was looking at.

This is a still from that video from during totality, looking south. There's just a little bit of light visible in distant clouds. A fire is in the foreground. A person in a light-colored shirt standing less than two meters from the camera is barely visible at the left side. The clouds are dark. The overall illumination is similar to deep twilight.

mcdanlj, 1 month ago to random

My iGaging 1-2" micrometer works great, except that it resets and loses its zero every time I actually measure something with it. Which, being interpreted, means I am running kind of blind in that range.

I guess I should take it apart and try to fix it before buying a new micrometer. sigh.