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What did you do this weekend?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
Lots of stuff. Took a daytrip to microcenter for an impromptu upgrade from my 580 due to a slight misunderstanding on the ownership of said 580 (I thought it was given to me, but it was just loaned, owner needed it back, and I gave my old card to a friend). Ended up getting the Sapphire version of the 5600 XT, and so far so good. The only thing that would really tax my 580 was VR, as I've got a headset operating at some obnoxiously high resolution, but I haven't had the chance to try it out with the new card due to the other project that's been occupying this and last weekend.
I finally finished my keyboard build. I did a custom 40% build with 3D printed parts and kailh plum switches, based on the Wakizashi 40 model I found on thingiverse, but with the key layout altered and using a custom firmware I did up from scratch, thanks to the wonderful and descriptively named websites Keyboard Layout Editor and Keyboard Firmware Builder.
Finished pic.
In progress pic.
The layout is weird, but not as weird as it looks, someone just moved the pile of keycaps I had on the table, and some went missing, so I used what I could find. I'm currently printing a few DSA keycaps to replace the ones that are obviously of the wrong size or in the wrong row. Also I melted the stem of the B key with my soldering iron while using it to touch up the print, and will replace that soonish. I dread reopening that case with its rats nest of wires.
One of the things I did with the layout that I quite like and makes me wonder how far I can take the idea is using vim bindings for the direction keys. It's surprisingly pleasing to just be able to hold down a button and move around with hjkl. Now all I can think of is, how much of the vim interface can I replicate at the keyboard firmware level? It'd be incredible to be able to just hit a toggle and have the whole command mode available.
Anyway, I learned a lot on this project, first thing is that stripping ethernet twisted pair wires without breaking them is a bitch and a half, second thing is that soldering diodes together end to end for the rows is actually pretty easy, even for a novice solder-er, third is that soldering stranded wires is just awful. I never could get the ends tinned and stuck together, and fourth is that a hot glue gun is a great if unprofessional way to sturdy up sketchy solder points, and stop uninsulated wire ends from bumping together near the microcontroller.
I think I'll be building another keyboard at some point in the near-ish future, using some of the tools for generating your own case and keyplate for the purpose. I'm not disappointed with how this turned out, but I think with the benefit of experience I could do a good bit better, and I do have some issues with the key layout on this one that can't be fixed in firmware.
I would say that I like them overall, even with the lower-than-anticipated tactility. Nothing to replace the BOX Navy, but very serviceable. If I have any additional thoughts after using the keyboard as a daily driver (pending my creation of a software fix to a hardware problem), I'll drop a reply here. I look forward to trying box royals, but I might just hotswap them into my regular keyboard before building the next one, which might be a bit while I work out what I'd like to improve over this one. I also look forward to reading that post whenever you do your build!
Argh, I just put in the order for a 50 pack of BOX Royals, couldn't help myself. These are the last switches I'm vicariously testing for you for a little while though!
Assuming you're talking about this microcenter, man, that is the best place to buy computer parts. Their prices are insane (usually lower than Newegg and Amazon), and I can go pick it up with a 30 minute drive.
That's the one. I've gotten great deals on open box parts there, though this card was new. They're also the only physical store I can get a lot of hobbyist electronics stuff and 3D print filament (which is cheaper there than anywhere else I've seen). It's probably good for my finances that mine's a bit over an hour away.
I configured my newly bought thinkpad p53. I actually moved away from macos. I installed fedora, webstorm, and was able to get going building https://midnight.pub. I'm getting more and more inspired by MUDs, and added the notion of place / people being able to be in a place.
Hey thinkpad friend! (Thinkpal?) I feel like I'm going to get really into having a thinkpad in a way I haven't been about most other consumer goods.
I have a midnight.pub account, but I admit it -- I don't get it. What do you like about it?
I read that you got the x240! It looks really good. The main issue of the p53 that I have is that it's very heavy. I'm also learning emacs and it's twisting my brain in a good way! As for Midnight, it's my way of spending all my creative energy into building something. Feel free to hop on from time to time to exchange a virtual beer :)
There's so much to emacs, right?! And trying to learn LISP at the same time ... it's something :)
I'll have to stop by the pub sometime later!
(Thinkpad is an excellent name)
Unfortunately this generation has the controversial trackpad with no physical buttons for the nub. I know it's a eccentric way to move a mouse but I cannot go back to something else on a laptop (well... Ok, maybe a macbook touchpad with a full range of customizer gestures).
I'm forcing myself to use it and ditch the trackpad! I'm struggling a little right now tough... any tips for a nub noob?
I first learned to use the nub with a x220t mais I pretty much had to use it because the trackpad was really bad.
Over the time I noticed that the default sensitivity is too low for me. You'll may want change it.
I'm using Firefox with the gesturefy to optmizeweb browsing, but that's not nub-specific.
That’s the first I’ve ever seen midnight. Looks neat... I’ll have to dig into it.
You are more than welcome to! Let me know if you want a key.
I would absolutely love one.
So I had a weird sort of almost-whole-week off because of worries around Marco and Laura. I'm fine, my city's fine; we're a long way from where it hit really bad.
Anyway, I got my new laptop ( a Thinkpad x240 ) in and have been tinkering around on that. Got Void linux and EXWM up on it, learning Emacs, having a good time.
I also made a bunch of food! Yum yum :)
My little Polycule fam and I went and rafted down a very pleasant, very slow moving river on the little Island we live on! Another river user caught up to us (when we got stuck on a log) and demanded to take a picture of us for us, because apparently she and her partner just thought we were the cutest 😁
Other than that - it was a very lazy weekend and I cleaned up the house while my wife visited her friends on a smaller neighbouring island.
Scanning! Every now and then I pay my parents a visit, and my dad happens to have a scanner which is good enough to scan my film negatives. So I spent the vast majority of last weekend digitizing these
The school broadcast turned to more miscellaneous, secondary things that we don't need to watch during this week, or rather what they feel should be because the first broadcast was someone teaching how do draw a decent (simple) anime character's head and there were broadcasts related to meditation amd making chocolate so... leisurely is probably what they mean that by that.
Never change center-right, never change.
Either way I don't want to care for this so I didn't watch it, and do basically nothing other than this and have this channel called JibJab pop up in my recommends. Unfortunately politics has become too serious for stuff like this :p Also, is anyone here nostalgic for this channel?
Also someone in my class posted a status of himself apparently (because status updates delete themselves after a day) smoking/using a Narguille. That happens where I live. Overton window here is wack for young people too.
Went to the farmers market and got lots of goodies (veggies, jam, honey mustard, bread, etc) and had brunch outside (to-go from the restaurant since it was packed with people). Really enjoyable weather since the days prior were in the high 90s...