@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

vik

@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz

Aged RepRap core developer, ex- firefighter, emergency medic, longhair coder, Incident Creator at the Masterton Fab Lab, and a Twitter refugee.

"Si potest non bonum esse, cave."

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vik, to uk
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Folks in the , my old colleague Dr. Adrian Bowyer is running a petition:

"New rules for manufacturers of medical device implants

We believe it should be made illegal for manufacturers of medical devices implanted into patients to regularly charge the patient for upgrades or maintenance."

It also calls for "IP" to be released if a manufacturer fails. I feel this subject is important enough to ask you to disseminate the link. Thank you.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/656376

dgar, (edited ) to random
@dgar@aus.social avatar
vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@dgar "I never said half the shit people say I did." - Albert Einstein

vik, to random
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Tried sending an APK to a mate on his gmail account. Google blocked it as "spam."

vik, to random
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The second generation μRepRap prototype now has a name: "Titch"

It's getting kinda sophisticated...

vik, to random
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Quirkey now in adult size with coloured keycaps. We're using that in the docs to aid learning.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3433244

vik, to random
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I can just see this researcher, trapped at home in lockdown. Bored out of their mind, and coincidentally in possession of the lab's new thermal imaging camera. "Oh look, a mushroom." https://phys.org/news/2023-05-mushrooms-cooler.html

vik, to random
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When a mechanism is fully reassembled, a weird spring will always be found on the bench.

vik, to random
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A froopy to all life forms.

vik, to RaspberryPi
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Ahah! By means of a "heartbeat" LED wired onto the pico, I have figured out why the HID fails. If the connected PC is in sleep mode, the pico is still running. If the pico tries to send a USB keystroke (cos it got bashed accidentally) the transmit call fails, and the code quits. Keyboard is then "dead" and won't reconnect when the PC wakes up.

vik, to Astronomy
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100 Years ago today we discovered that the Andromeda Galaxy was in fact a galaxy, and full of stars.

vik, to random
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Uhoh. Looks like this batch of lightning isn't going to miss us. Currently at 170 strikes per minute, though likely to taper off a bit on landfall.

vik, to space
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Announcement from : The Ingenuity helicopter on Mars broke a rotor blade on landing and is out of commission after an incredible 72 flights. Only 5 were originally scheduled, so a significant over-achiever there.

vik, to random
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Alrighty then. Now typing on a Quirkey plugged into an Android phone. Testing 123. Is this thing on? <tap><tap><tap>

Looks like Ctrl-C Ctrl-V work anyway!

vik, to random
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Rant about USB microscopes: Any USB microscope offering "321x magnification" is lying. Why? because it has no eyepiece. So you can't compare the original size with the magnified image. The size of the magnified image is totally dependent on how big your monitor is. What you want to know is how small a feature is represented by one pixel, and they don't wanna tell you that.

vik, to random
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vik, to random
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Idiotic use of capacitive switches in the kitchen, part 2:

If you have an oven with capacitive switches above the door, and you bake a moist food on a cold day, the steam will condense on the controls and randomly trigger them.

I am a firm believer that capacitive controls should be banned in kitchens on safety grounds. This is not the first time they've fucked up in my household by a long chalk.

vik, to random
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And this, ladies, gents, and others, is why you don't farm out 3D printing services to The Cloud: https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/16/23064592/bambu-print-asleep-cloud-outage

norightturnnz, to random
@norightturnnz@mastodon.social avatar

Marama Davidson's Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill was just drawn from the Member's ballot in Aotearoa. In addition to existing rights to provision of spare parts, the bill requires manufacturers to give consumers info, software and tools for diagnostics, maintenance, and repair. It also voids guarantee requirements to use only authorised repairers, and allows customers to request repair rather than replacement. @pluralistic

https://bills.parliament.nz/v/1/46c00b0b-8475-4257-1f95-08dc3c85b8e3

vik,
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@norightturnnz Guess whose local MP just got a letter then :) I think I'm in his good books 'cos I let him fire a cannon with a real cannonball in it last weekend. One can hope. @pluralistic

vik, to random
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Just caught !!!DOG!!! with his head in the dishwasher doing a pre-rinse.

vik, to random
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Well, the voice option for emergency alerts works on my phone.

At some point the cat will come out of the inside of the sofa...

vik, (edited ) to homeassistant
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Next project is a 15 tonne water tank level monitor. So, your thoughts:

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@fishidwardrobe
It's for a tank. So it has to be heavily armoured with a garden shed welded on top ...

vik,
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@fishidwardrobe
As in an elephant being a milspec mouse? I have been known to slightly over-engineer things sometimes (see Arduino-activated 5kg Rat Flattener project, and yes it would flatten a 5kg rodent).

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@futuresprog
Farmgeek did one with ultrasonics a few years back. Seemed to work for a couple of years at least. I'm more concerned about the buildup of spider webs - that's what killed the old greenhouse electronics. Ironically the dodgy homebrew conductivity probes survived intact!

vik,
@vik@mastodon.nzoss.nz avatar

@rogerparkinson I have 05's which don't seem to work at 3V3 but I know a place I can swap some over tomorrow. I may just stick multiple options on the same device. Belt & braces.

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