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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 4th, 2023

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  • Just some examples of things I’ve printed or plan to. Ones marked with an asterisk (*) at the end are ones I largely or entirely designed myself or plan to largely or entirely design myself. Ones marked with a plus (+) are ones that are half completed. Minuses (-) are ones I haven’t started yet but intend to.

    • Wall mounts for Nintendo Switch components (dock, controllers, Joycon charger, etc.) Definite space saver. *
    • Wall mount for a Raspberry-Pi-based NAS solution. *
    • Parts to augment a computer chassis wall mount for my ridiculously-large chassis. (Yes, there’s a bit of a pattern there.) *
    • A custom Raspberry Pi case that mounts nicely and nondestructively to my desk.
    • A custom adapter for my drill that let me run the drain in my washing machine when the motor was broken. *
    • A custom plate to cover my nightstand clock face so it doesn’t shine in my eyes all night. *
    • A custom die for a Sizzix Die Cutting Machine for quilting use. (That one took a lot of work.) *
    • A custom tool for precisely bending 16mm steel strapping (which I’d sharpened into a blade) in service to the custom die just above. *
    • Custom yarn bowls for my crafty mother. *
    • Custom stitch markers for my crafty mother. *
    • Custom barrel buttons for my crafty mother. *
    • A couple of custom mounts for SAD lamps. *
    • Custom shelving for a bathroom. *
    • Custom mods for some wire shelving in the same bathroom. *
    • Custom mount for a reflector mirror to let me see more with the security camera on my front porch. *
    • A tool for straightening 3D-printing filament. *
    • Spacers for mounting a peg board on the wall.
    • I also had a folding door that broke and got kinda janky. I had a few extra of those peg board spacers, and they turned out coincidentally to be exactly the right size to properly shore up that door.
    • Custom shelving for DVDs/Blurays and video games. *+
    • A custom shelf-drawer for my mousepad. *-
    • A custom 3D printed mechanical keyboard… once I’m done writing the program for rapidly prototyping 3D-printed keyboards. *+

    I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch. And the above is only the useful things and excluding the mostly art/fun items.

    I have in mind to do more 3D-printing of tools. I don’t have much specifically in mind. But that custom steel strapping bender is pretty cool. Also, some of what I mentioned above is available on my Thingiverse.





  • If you’re a software engineer, memorizing an ASCII table (particularly the hex numbers of each character code) is definitely helpful. If for no other reason than so that you can read things that are randomly written in binary without having to consult a table.

    Something not really otherwise terribly useful that nonetheless helped me keep my sanity: learn how to convert to base64 in your head. At work, we had really boring 8-hours-a-day training for a couple of weeks. To pass the time, I came up with random strings to base64 encode in my head. “Hat is 48 61 7a. The first six bits are 010010 which in base64 is an S. The next six bits would be 000110 which in base64 is G.” Etc. I’d write down the base64 strings character by character as I derived them and then check my results for errors when I got back to my desk.









  • I can’t imagine you’re the only one in this situation. If I were in your shoes, I’d search for similar stories online and see if I could get a sense of how friendly the company is to swapping OSs. For some companies, changing the OS is a complete deal breaker. Other companies are pretty willing to assume the issue was indeed strictly hardware and had nothing to do with changing the OS, and thus will go ahead and do the repair.

    If you find that company is more like the former, install Windows. If not, just start the warranty repair process.




  • Anyone who mentions, acknowledges, or even doesn’t sufficiently attempt to ignore/deny my existence or influence in the world, anything they eat tastes and feels like eating raw, unseasoned egg whites for a month. And I’ll put knowledge of that fact in everyone’s minds.

    Then I can do whatever I want to annoy the fuck out of people and they have to ignore me. Wet Willie Elon Musk in public while looking him right in the eye. Replace the audio at a Kid Rock concert with Baby Shark for the whole show and everyone has to pretend it was a typical Kid Rock concert. Draw dicks all over Trump’s face with a sharpie during a presidential address on live, national TV. Find every HOA president and kill grass in their front yard in the shape of Bevis and Butthead.

    I wouldn’t be unreasonable. A wry, approving smile here. Stopping and reading an obscene message I planted before realizing it was me. Stuff like that gets a pass. I might even turn a blind eye to an involuntary case of the giggles brought on by my hijinks, particularly if it helps the vibe. Also, anyone under 15 is exempt from the whole egg whites thing and can laugh their asses off and point with impunity.