wjrii @ wjrii @kbin.social

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514

Joined

2 yr. ago

I'm sure some do, but there's also a certain simplicity to "back up the Win95 machine" and "collect working Pentium 2's from eBay," particularly for fields that are not interested in IT for its own sake. A virtual machine adds an extra layer of abstraction and complexity, though I'm sure there's a slow trickle as entities have trouble replacing hardware or luck into technically savvy and ambitious staff. I've certainly seen my share of data being entered into a Windows 10 app that sure as shit seems to be a terminal emulator running some green-text dinosaur, or else it's got a set of Visual Basic widgets that seem like they'd be compatible with one.

Is that President Ra-ghoratreii under that top hat?!?!?

With all the development around Waxahachie, Midlothian, and Ennis, There's a very good chance that many backyards are now built over the loop's proposed path.

There are a few in-progress pics on Geekhack, but here is the final wiring. The RP2040-Zero has 20 castellated GPIO pins, and I ended up with a weird looking but doable 12x7 matrix. Next time I crack this one open, I think I will solder in a second LED to the last open pin and tie it to Capslock. I do find I miss that one a bit.

The plates were from Xometry. I got 3 switch plates and 3 bottom plates made of 1/16" (1.6mm) 5052 aluminum. The only finish option I chose was deburring. Total was US $67, and with the options I chose (and more to the point, the options I declined), I think this is probably about as cheap as it gets; the setup is a huge part of the cost, so I think 1 of each plate was going to be like $44. This first build, I just went right to town putting switches in and starting with the wiring. I justified my impatience by telling myself I want to see how it ages, but mostly I wanted to dive in. For the other two, I think I'll sand and put a clearcoat on before beginning the wiring, and I will refine the case sides one way or another, maybe lasercut plywood, maybe 3D printed, or maybe just spending more time on the woodworking.

Thanks. Been using it for my home and gaming PC (gaming has been exclusively Minecraft with my daughter in that time) for about a week, and no major issues. It is just about the look I was going for, kind of a vague "out of time" vibe without trying to do something crazy like actually live with a C64 layout. Even with this one, the "reverse ISO" left shift that I did as a nod to older computers that had a 1U to the left of the LShift was probably a slight mistake, but I've just remapped it so they're both shift.

Handwires are finicky, but the easy repair seems like it will make things easier to live with. I am sure there are several cold joints in this one (I really am still not very good with the iron), but I caught several structurally problematic ones during the build, and since then nothing has come loose. I kept things vertically compact enough that 3/8"/10mm seems enough to avoid any issues with shorts, but I could probably use a roll of kapton tape.

Between Kai Winn and Nurse Ratched, Louise Fletcher was "gentle menace" personified and a national treasure.

The Pacific Ocean is massive and if a ship turns off its transponder it is invisible unless you have satellites in your game.

So it seems like the key will be some combination of deactivating the transponder, getting away from other ships, being low profile in various EM wavelengths (difficult if it's also large), traveling with a significant cloud cover (hurricane?), escaping detection by military submarines and other sonar sources, and ending up in a place and condition where they're sheltered from all of the above. This seems very nearly impossible if everyone is already hunting for our intrepid vessel, but if there's some reason for people not to be looking right away, I can imagine plausible scenarios where the data takes long enough to come together for the necessary storytelling beats to play out.

Net change of about 0.7% (64K on about 8.9M total between Sling and Dish) in a quarter. Far from their worst quarter, but the trend is bad for the company.

Star Trek must have got annoyed when I repeatedly referred to The Expanse as "the apotheosis of Toronto warehouse sci-fi."

As a defender of Tex-Mex as a legitimate fusion cuisine, can confirm that the Europeans do terrible things to Tex-Mex. You may think you’re over margaritas, chili powder, refried beans, yellow cheese, and salsa roja, but you will change your tune when confronted with odd vodka concoctions, paprika (and precious little of that), crunchy half raw white beans, mozzarella, and water-thinned ketchup.

I love clickies in general, though even I don't seek out generic blues anymore. I have a board with Box Whites that is lovely, but so very gentle it's almost like a linear. I had these Box Navies in another board that malfunctioned, so they got pulled for this project. They are my favorite switches so far, but I haven't tried a ton of different ones. Jades will probably be next. For super budget, I like Outemu Dustproof Green: heavier and more interesting than blues, but just as cheap and will fit in literally anything that describes itself as hotswap.

More generally, I find the community's rejection of click and ping and most other noises outside a couple of specific profiles, while perfectly reasonable, doesn't resonate (LOL) with me at all. I came of age with computer labs full of Apple II's and old PCs with Model F's and Model M's, and messing around with my Atari and and my buddy's C64. Being noisy, one way or another, is half the appeal.

I find a certain relaxation in soldering a board like this, but it's not exactly its own reward so I need to find some angle to explore to make me feel like it's time well spent. I've seen most of these elements on various projects on the interwebs, but never put together exactly like this, so I thought it was worthwhile. I like the zero degree incline, the low height, the programmability, and the vaguely out-of-time vibe from the keycaps, layout, and materials. It is far from perfect, but I'm pleased with it, and given the tools and supplies and switches I already had, the actual cash outlay was not a ton.

I've drawn my luddite line at Twitter and Discord. The twitter decision is seeming like a very good idea, and I assume the Discord one eventually will, too.

I'll just leave this here.

Swedish Fish are garbage, dear friend. They are like a depressed dystopian robot's impression of candy. If we're going to kill ourselves eating overprocessed sugar, it should at least be tasty. Even the simple step to Gummy Bears marks a vast improvement.

Gallery.

GH post.

There are some fit and finish issues, but they'll require a full teardown to remedy, so I'm inclined to call this one done (for now). It might eventually get some little siblings, since it was barely any more expensive to have 3 plates cut versus 1.

Layout: Modified TKL with elements taken from HHKB (and therefore vintage Mac), BBC Micro, and (sort of) MSX and (if you squint) Amiga.

Guts: Handwired, connected to an RP2040 running KMK.

Keycaps: Main are "VSA" overstock from Aliexpress. Function keys are blank DSA, also from AE.

Switches: Kailh Box Navy.

Materials: lasercut aluminum and poorly cut red oak (not my best woodworking TBH, but sanding and oiling forgives a lot).

It's clearly a step down, but I was hunting on Amazon and found an open-box RK96 for my daughter for under $50. Some AliExpress Pokemon XDAs will be going into it. I don't think she actually uses the numpad much, but the 2u "plus" and "enter" keys have Sylveon on them, so whatchagonna do?

Good luck, if thin drainage is troubling you, that might help even if you're not the mucus faucet that I turn into. Mostly it's just treat the most annoying symptoms and let your body heal.

Beyond all the stuff you likely know, rest, pain reliever, nyquil, etc., I find that with a cold my life really goes to shit if my nose is running. It's god-damn miserable and keeps me from sleeping, and even lotioned tissues only delay the chafing (of my NOSE, you creeps!). A generic Claritin every 14-16 hours (I don't get a full 24 hours, but they do tend to work well) dries me out enough that I can ride it out.

$4.50 more and a smaller piece of dessert and they could have got a meal for 8 with probably a better veggie patty. Could have saved $1.50 to go with the cheapo buns, but the Sara Lee, while equally processed (I am not judging... they look pretty good), are a small investment to improve the dinner.

https://www.kroger.com/p/beyond-meat-cookout-classic-plant-based-burger-patties/0081005729013?searchType=defaultsearch