Toric's recent activity

  1. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    Toric
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    My Rust based window blinds controller for Home Assistant, Crabroll, just made its first MQTT-commanded movent! Ive been working on this since july. I had to write a stepper motor movement...

    My Rust based window blinds controller for Home Assistant, Crabroll, just made its first MQTT-commanded movent! Ive been working on this since july. I had to write a stepper motor movement planner, a driver for the TMC2209's UART interface, and wrote a short paper on an integer-only stepper motor movement algorithm in the process.

    But the end of the beginning is in sight. The only thing left to do on the software side is write home assistant YAML describing the MQTT schema, and writing build documenation on how to configure the build time constants. After that, I need to briefly take a detour and assemble my new voron trident 3d printer, and then I can start prototyping the mechanical parts.

    There are plenty of features Id love to add to Crabroll in the future, such as home assistant auto discovery, better build-time config (currently its a bunch of env vars, Id like to make it a simple TOML file), and splitting out the stepper motor library into its own project that others can easily use. But for now, Im happy with what Ive managed to do with this as it is.

    5 votes
  2. Comment on Dell's Consumer Electronics Show 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in maybe five years in ~tech

    Toric
    Link Parent
    to be clear, I dont know if firefox's implementation uses NPU's. They may not, as there are so many out there with no standardized interface to them yet. But it is neural network based, so no...

    to be clear, I dont know if firefox's implementation uses NPU's. They may not, as there are so many out there with no standardized interface to them yet. But it is neural network based, so no reason it shouldnt run on an NPU.

    5 votes
  3. Comment on Dell's Consumer Electronics Show 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in maybe five years in ~tech

    Toric
    Link Parent
    Ill add another one as an American living in Germany who's German still isnt good enough to read bureaucratic webpages: Local language translation, without having to rely on google translate....

    Ill add another one as an American living in Germany who's German still isnt good enough to read bureaucratic webpages: Local language translation, without having to rely on google translate. Firefox has their own language translation models that run on your machine that work quite well.

    10 votes
  4. Comment on What are the simple things in your life that you are thankful for? in ~life

    Toric
    Link
    In September we celebrated 1 year since we moved to Germany. Im thankful for the time we have had here, and our growing support network here.

    In September we celebrated 1 year since we moved to Germany. Im thankful for the time we have had here, and our growing support network here.

    4 votes
  5. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    Toric
    (edited )
    Link
    Been working on crabroll, my rust-based esp32 powered home-assistant compatible window blind controller. Been working on the stepper motor kinimatics for almsost 2 weeks. Ive been working on...

    Been working on crabroll, my rust-based esp32 powered home-assistant compatible window blind controller. Been working on the stepper motor kinimatics for almsost 2 weeks. Ive been working on adapting the algoritm described in this paper to use integers rather than floating point numbers (the esp32c3 does not have an FPU), and its been kicking my butt. I managed to regain most of my precision by rejiggering the order of operations and storing divison remainders between iterations, but im still overshooting my target by a couple of steps, leading to sharp deceleration. Also, for some reason, I randomly go above my target acceleration. My acceleration graph is very... spikey.

    Ive been writing down all the modifications ive been making, and at this point, I have half a paper out of it.

    Its been pretty cool being able to run simulations of this motion planner all in rusts unit test system.

    3 votes
  6. Comment on Fifty Shades of OOP in ~comp

    Toric
    Link Parent
    I had no clue we had a #tildes channel. I just finished setting up a proper bouncer, so IRC is finally persistent for me!

    I had no clue we had a #tildes channel. I just finished setting up a proper bouncer, so IRC is finally persistent for me!

    1 vote
  7. Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies

    Toric
    Link Parent
    Fair enough. For me, its the other way around. My first printer was an Ender 3 pro, wasn't a year in before I klipperized it and put dual z belts on it, another year and I redid the electronics...

    Fair enough. For me, its the other way around. My first printer was an Ender 3 pro, wasn't a year in before I klipperized it and put dual z belts on it, another year and I redid the electronics enclosure and cable management. This year im buying a voron kit to build. Im definitely one of those people who enjoys the printer more than the printing.

    2 votes
  8. Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies

    Toric
    Link Parent
    Id call sovol doable for a motivated entry level. Its not necessarily plug and play, but its a lot easier than building your own printer from scratch...

    Id call sovol doable for a motivated entry level. Its not necessarily plug and play, but its a lot easier than building your own printer from scratch...

    4 votes
  9. Comment on Cell phone advice in ~tech

    Toric
    Link Parent
    The 7 released just this year, and the 6 in 2022, so I doubt a new models coming out next year.

    The 7 released just this year, and the 6 in 2022, so I doubt a new models coming out next year.

    1 vote
  10. Comment on Cell phone advice in ~tech

    Toric
    Link
    Me and my wife both have phones from the Samsung Galaxy Xcover line. Headphone jack, micro-sd slot, and removable battery, at the cost of being a little bulky. I have a 6 pro and she has a 7....

    Me and my wife both have phones from the Samsung Galaxy Xcover line. Headphone jack, micro-sd slot, and removable battery, at the cost of being a little bulky. I have a 6 pro and she has a 7. Other than the usual android/sony bloatware, no complaints.

    10 votes
  11. Comment on Cell phone advice in ~tech

    Toric
    Link Parent
    There is also the samsung galaxy Xcover line. It even has a replaceable battery.

    There is also the samsung galaxy Xcover line. It even has a replaceable battery.

    6 votes
  12. Comment on Is there a postman alternative without the bloat? in ~tech

    Toric
    Link
    Im not a webdev, so I rarely use it, but hurl is a part of my toolkit.

    Im not a webdev, so I rarely use it, but hurl is a part of my toolkit.

    3 votes
  13. Comment on What's your video game comfort food? in ~games

    Toric
    Link Parent
    Me too! I love booting up hardspace just to slowly and methodically disassemble a few ships. Got all the achievements by my second play through, but I keep going.

    Me too! I love booting up hardspace just to slowly and methodically disassemble a few ships. Got all the achievements by my second play through, but I keep going.

  14. Comment on Recommendations for a Linux based job/ticket management system in ~tech

    Toric
    Link
    If you are ok self hosting something, Taiga is a self-hosted jira replacement.

    If you are ok self hosting something, Taiga is a self-hosted jira replacement.

    2 votes
  15. Comment on Swedish startup Saveggy launches pilot scheme for edible, plastic-free packaging for cucumbers – innovative solution made from just two ingredients: rapeseed oil and gluten-free oat oil in ~food

    Toric
    Link Parent
    Sounds to me a cool option would be to geneticly engineer english cucumbers to have thicker skin.

    Sounds to me a cool option would be to geneticly engineer english cucumbers to have thicker skin.

    3 votes
  16. Comment on What game is your personal "Silksong"? in ~games

    Toric
    Link
    Factorio: Space Age. The Factorio devs have been amazing with their attention to QOL and sheer polish for their game, and I knew it was going to be a good expansion when the second blog post about...

    Factorio: Space Age. The Factorio devs have been amazing with their attention to QOL and sheer polish for their game, and I knew it was going to be a good expansion when the second blog post about the expansion was not actually about new features, but about QOL and polish improvements. Every single weekly blog post was a massive hype builder, a topic of conversation for me and my friends that were also Factorio fans. When it did finally release, it absolutely lived up to the hype and then some. I took a week off from work for the release, and probably clocked 60 hours in that week. I did burn out after about a month, but I finally beat the expansion only a couple weeks ago, with a grand total of 250 hours put into the game since the expansion came out.

    5 votes
  17. Comment on Master Boot Record - C:\chkdsk /F (2016) in ~music

    Toric
    Link Parent
    Interrupt request is great, im a sucker for the first track.

    Interrupt request is great, im a sucker for the first track.

  18. Comment on How to not build the Torment Nexus in ~tech

    Toric
    Link
    I'm not currently working for a company building a Torment Nexus, nor do I plan to work for one, ever. However, I grew up during the time that the author described as 'hopeful', hopeful that we...

    I'm not currently working for a company building a Torment Nexus, nor do I plan to work for one, ever. However, I grew up during the time that the author described as 'hopeful', hopeful that we could use technology to actually improve the world, that things were getting better. I went into computing as a career not just because I thought I could make a living out of it, but because I genuinely loved the field and thought I could do good through it. That feeling was stripped almost before I started my education.

    I mean, even before, there were parts of tech I didn't like, I was a FOSS software nerd overall. But I naively thought that somehow, software that did good would win, and that harmful software would be rejected. In some ways, I feel robbed of the future I grew up to believe I could contribute to.

    20 votes