trevorflowers

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

I'm usually immune to sad+stupid on the net but pretty much every day at least one in an endless stream of randos registers for a maker forum I frequent and immediately posts basically "gimme now, you do the work" and then if anyone tries to help by pointing them to possible solutions they respond like a jerk along the lines of "too hard f--- you for not giving me this immediately".
I just... I think I need to log on less often and go look at trees.

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to retrocomputing

Heads-up, smol #retrocomputing people.
🖥️
To make working 1:3 scale #VT100 keyboards I need time and tools that require more money than I have on hand (tough Winter) so let's try something new!
⌨️
On 04/04 on https://store.transmutable.com I'll list a "help make the VT100 pre-sale" for 1:3 scale signed & numbered VT100 terminals.
⚙️
To thank buyers for their support and patience while I finish development they'll quickly receive a wee VT100 mini made only for this pre-sale.
😻
(edit: changed to 1:3)

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

Here it is, your moment of machining Zen.
https://youtu.be/A8oWZus3Nf8

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to Artist

Groggy morning thought: I'm confused when people ask me why I work every day and don't rest. The workshop is where I rest. It's all the other parts of life that feel like work.
#artist #shopLife

makergeek, 2 months ago to random

Building robots never gets old. Finished the tilt axis tonight. I was worried it would struggle with the weight of the camera at 90 degrees. But it worked great!

Video of a camera on the end of a robot diving it to swing out 90 degrees and turn to face the ground then return to it's starting point

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

I built experiments in the CS lab of PARC for five years around Y2K, during the snuffing out of the original culture of greenfield research. I'm a bit heartbroken by the center's current state and would dearly love to see a good kernel of people given the resources to create a new wave of deep and exploratory work.
(sorry, paywall)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/26/business/silicon-valley-tech-xerox-parc-sri.html

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

Note to self: No build is so small that it saves time to skip finding or even making a solid workbench.

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

Actual clear bench!
Actual clear floor!
Whose shop is this because it can't be mine?!

mcdanlj, 2 months ago (edited 2 months 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

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

Well, a crate full of tools was stolen from in front of my house. I'm annoyed that the crate was left unattended and that some jerk helped themselves but on the other hand they were all power tools that I used for occasional wood projects and so were screaming banshees of potential death.
For reasons of sensory processing quirks I am a machinist who prefers relatively quiet and safe machines.
My local tool library has more wood working tools than I'll ever need so I'm covered, anyway. 🤷‍♂️

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

Today #OnTheBench is a sampler pack of smol motors and linear actuators with a paint vial for scale. I'm working on a smol mechatronic body commission and thank goodness for the toy and phone industry. The power, durability, and speed available in these little packages is light years ahead of what was available (outside of infinite budget projects like defence) a decade ago.
#miniatures #mechatronics

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

I'm always on the lookout for tiny electronics to use in miniatures (as one does) and I especially want a small board that can run a reasonable Linux. The Luckfox pico mini checks many of the boxes (size, price, speed, storage, etc) though as usual the big question mark with these relatively short run boards is software and support.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqYEbwO
https://youtu.be/1W7ku0vcA1k

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

An investment firm bought Starrett, dang it.

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

Groggy morning thought: It's goofy that we use native apps for CAD, CAM, and slicing when machine tools can host web apps that provide all of those features.
The PocketNC machines are managed via a local web app and it's dang handy.
Browser-based OnShape is getting traction in the CAD space with CAM coming online soon. It's in the cloud but the basic idea can work as a machine-hosted web app.
Klipper and Octoprint are dang handy.
This seems doable and good.

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to random

Note to self: Wear gloves and long sleeves when cutting fiberglass welding blankets.

trevorflowers, 2 months ago to mechanicalkeyboards

So, I'm designing a system to produce 1:4 scale keyboards that are as close as possible to the look, feel, and sound of the full scale originals. The first version will be used in miniature VT100 terminals and I hope to reuse much of the work for other designs and scales.
This is the head of a threadlog about my process, goals, mistakes, and progress.
#miniature #keebs #retrocomputing #vt100
/cont