Trevor Flowers ⚙️⚙️ @trevorflowers@machines.social

I create goods from alternate timelines. In one, Vannevar Bush commissioned a working prototype of the Memex. In another, six new-in-box Alto displays were discovered in PARC storage. In yet another, Be Inc went on to create a BeBox the size of a can of soda.

I split my time between three accounts:
- Morning thoughts and dog pix: @trevorflowers@xoxo.zone
- Maker/machinist/manufacturer chitchat: @trevorflowers
- Web-ish XR: @trevorflowers@widerweb.org

Whelp, it looks like I'm building a new workbench which will also enclose the CR10s5, a 3018 CNC router, and an Ender 3v2. I plan to build a separate enclosed cart for my air compressor because, noise. With all of the wood dust in the shop I remember again why I generally avoid building wood structures larger than a breadbox.

It'll be fun to see all of the cold solder fear mongers show up.

Whelp, after 40+ years of soldering and being around solderers I just saw a new and better method:
https://www.instructables.com/Soldering-Wires-Heres-a-Better-Way/

Now that Google is actively breaking ad blockers in Chrome you're all switching to Firefox, right?

Right?

I'm in the stage where I have no idea how it'll all go back into place. My shop is like a gooey mess in a cocoon, on the verge of structure and flight.

I seem to have torn apart most of my shop. It was good fun, though, and tomorrow I get to put it back together in a different configuration. I also tore it apart last Fall so maybe it's a pattern.

Well, I'm building an enclosure for the CR10s5. My shop is drafty and now that we're in Fall the cold and wind are messing with big prints. It'll be tucked under a new bench and I'll enjoy the extra work surface, so it's not a totally useless side project.

This morning I spent an hour in VR with Alan Kay for a design review of my CAD model of the Alto display. We ended up talking about his experiences with HCI and VR. He was a grad student in Ivan Sutherland's group when they worked on the Sword of Damocles so it was interesting to hear Kay's take on the current state of VR from the perspective of someone who was there at the beginning. All in all, a good morning!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Damocles_(virtual_reality)

I replaced the filament sensor and it's worked without trouble for ~10 hours. *whew* That eases my anxiety a bit.

I know, I know. It's Google. But it's actually really cool that they worked with the Framework team to create a chromebook that is repairable, upgrade-ready, and modular. Pretty much every other Chromebook is insta-trash.
https://frame.work/products/laptop-chromebook-12-gen-intel

The Nvidia GTC keynote is filled with goofy video ads that really try to make computation feel like an epic adventure, complete with Hollywood soundtrack and CGI.

It's like a dynabook, but sideways.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MJ4PSFP/

Added a filament runout sensor to my other printer because nobody should have to live like this.

It's handy to have a couple of movable webcams in the shop to keep an eye on long-running processes. I put long cables and grippy tentacle tripods on the USB webcams connected to my two Octopi devices so now I can watch paint dry while in the clean(er) room that has my CAD machine.

We've had powerful non-human organisms playing zero sum games for Earth's resources at least since the limited liability act of 1855. But still, this is a dire prediction.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/93aqep/google-deepmind-researcher-co-authors-paper-saying-ai-will-eliminate-humanity

It hasn't caused a print failure or much delay but twice now the CR-10s5 has incorrectly decided that it was out of filament.

The correct saw blades and an angle grinder made quick work of the Alto base frame's metal tabs that were left over from the bending operation. This is the first time I've assembled full sized printed parts with their metal frame and friends, it's solid af! The last pic shows the bottom of one of the arms. When secured, the tip of the metal arm will rest against the inside front of the plastic arm.

Random tip: I use a command line calculator 'bc' and this BASH alias to keep a date-stamped log of all of my calculations. I leave notes to my future self about what I'm calculating. It's dang handy.

alias bcl='date '\''+## %F'\'' >> ~/.bc_history; tee -a ~/.bc_history | bc -l | tee -a ~/.bc_history'