The “Pocket Ref" book is the most amazing compilation of useful info I've ever owned. Mine is over 10 years old now. Need to know the amount of magnesium in the human body: .034kg. Capacitor color codes? What to do about a chemical burn? Volume Thermal Expansion Coefficient? Anniversary names? All there and more. IMO even in the internet age this is still a must have book for makers, designers, DIY etc.

sequoiapublishing.com/product/

Folks up north needing to clear their driveway after a winter storm: let me grab my snow shovel.

Folks in north Texas facing 3” of ice on the driveway: let me grab my pickaxe, and hon do we have any dynamite left over?

After hearing a couple of folks praise Claude for IOT/Embedded projects I gave it a try. What a GIANT waste of time and $20. I tried 2 different simple projects and it failed. I watched it go through multiple redirects/loops trying to get a solution and had the joy of it blaming ME when the code didn’t work even though, as it admitted, I did exactly what it told me to do. It was worse than a freshman intern in my experience.

With temps around 13ºF and icy roads and sidewalks I was kinda bored so I thought 3D printing something would be useful/fun. I found an ice scraper model and printed it using ASA. ASA is a dream to use on my Core One. Definitely my favorite “tough" filament.

We’re going to have an unusually weather-filled few days. We’re starting Friday off with light rain and 45ºF temps (7ºC) which will turn into freezing rain tonight followed by sleet Saturday with a high of 32ºF. From there temps will slide down to 10ºF (-12ºC) through Monday.

Probability of ice damaging power lines and vegetation is pretty high. Snow is much less damaging and dangerous than freezing rain and sleet. Fortunately we can all hibernate here at home the next few days.

Shawn Hymel is at it again, this time covering embedded Rust.

youtube.com/watch?si=mG-rfONPK

I’m wondering how people associate notes/comments with their 3D designs, e.g. in Autodesk, as well for slicer settings?

E.g. in Autodesk I sometimes need to document inobvious choices. Autodesk has a “comment” feature but it does its best to completely hide comments when you come back later. I use PrusaSlicer which doesn’t have a notes feature AFAIK. Slicer settings don’t cover everything, as an example, and for some models manually tuning on the printer yields a better result.

Wow, 20m, 15m and 10m are hopping on FT8 this afternoon (de Texas)

I love the combination of these two!

Andreas is a smart guy so I was interested in his take on AI agents in the context of embedded/IOT projects. I used to create these kind of projects in my sleep (as a hobby) but like him I have stepped away. I’ve a project in mind so I might try this approach out rather than spin my brain back up on devices, libraries, and PlatformIO.
youtube.com/watch?v=5DG0-_lseR4

Sooooo satisfying

I have a functional print that needs about 400g of filament. I’m taking this as a good opportunity to use up several short spools. The result will look chaotic but that will be fine because only the last few layers will be visible when installed.

Feels good because short spools are a bit annoying

I can attest that Snaps are simple, fast and effective. @socprof masto.ai/@socprof/115840087812

I bought a spool of Sunlu filament for the first time (matte black). Being used to Jessie and Prusament I didn’t react positively to how loose it was wound. But I’ve used up nearly the whole thing with now problems and it was cheap.

In hyperlocal news: our son finished classroom instruction for his license so I took him to a deserted parking lot for his first time behind the wheel. He did fine. I only had one minor heart attack.

First 3D design and print of the year is trivial: needle caps for non-sharp needles.

One is for a syringe used in lubricating linear rails and the other is for cleaning fountain pens.

It is about time to say goodbye to my Hobonich Techo Cousin, my first ever Hobonichi. It has been a solid friend.

For 2026 I am switching to the Hobonich Techo original decked out with Tamagotchi. The smaller format will force me to rethink my usage but hopefully not crimp my style. 🎉

Got my tea lights today so now the aforementioned cottage lights up 🎄

I think I have a partially clogged CHT. I’m saving the joy of a cold pull or whatever else will solve the problem for tomorrow.

On the positive side I created 3 new models in Fusion using recently learned techniques 👍🏼

I printed the parts yesterday and did the assembly this morning while waiting for the laggards to wake up so we can open presents. Tree light for the interior is still on the way.

Model: https://www.printables.com/model/682489-xm

Merry Christmas y’all from an unseasonably warm Texas. 🎄🧑🏼‍🎄 Wishing you can find the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Spending time this Christmas eve making QSO using FT8 on 20m while 3D printing some Christmas decor.

Trying to convince myself to get out an exercise - it is an unusually warm 74ºF here and that is oddly discouraging.

I had been using FireFox as my backup/alternative browser. Given their stupid announcement regarding AI I deleted it everywhere. Going to try using @kagihq Orion browser instead.

This ethos is why I chose, and continue to buy, Prusa printers.

Open-sourcing CORE One CAD Files Under the New Open Community License (OCL) - Original Prusa 3D Printers blog.prusa3d.com/core-one-cad-

After being off the HF bands for nearly 2 months due to a failed feedline it sure felt good getting back to making QSOs again. Nothing exotic today but a good quantity and several POTA.

I wanted to find the fault in the direct bury coax but there were several places with too much plant overgrowth. It shall remain a mystery. On the plus side I was able to route the feedline slightly differently to keep it a bit shorter.