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What did you do this week?
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 week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
I bought a new car! A 2018 Chevy Volt.
I had my last one for seven years (and it was a few years old when I got it) and it's on its last legs so I figured I'd get rid of it before it ended up being worthless.
I've never had a car this new. My last car was from right before they started adding fancy new technology and big center console screens so it'll be fun to have a car with modern features!
I went skating outdoors!! - Yes, I just posted that same update in the fitness thread because I'm so happy about it. :)
I feel like the psychological weight of not having skated for months has been entirely lifted with just the one little trip!
Also registered for the CureVac brussels trials and yesterday got confirmation, going on the 22nd for the first interviews and/or shot.
I've mentioned a few times that I'm working on opening a board game store/quasi maker space with my girlfriend.
This week I bought new art supplies for use with our laser cutter. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but what I got we're Culture Hustler's super pigments including BLACK 3.0, the supposedly blackest black paint that the creator developed after Anish Kapoor got exclusive rights to Vantablack. #ShareTheBlack
I have really cool ideas for what to do with it once it arrives, but first I just want to see what it looks like. His pigments are so extreme that cameras can't actually capture them and displays can't properly show them. So I really only have theories about how it will actually look.
I also ordered some electronics that I think will provide really cool effects when super imposed on the super absorbent BLACK 3.0. It's been a long time since I've held a soldering iron and I've missed it.
I skipped their SHIFT paint that's heat sensitive, but I have some really cool ideas about what can be done with that. Next time I order from them I'm going to get some SHIFT so that I can build the world's most EXTRA die. Or at least try.
While I was ordering inventory for the more traditional side of our business, I stumbled upon a somewhat serious bug on one of our supplier's websites. I need to submit a bug report.
And I got an air fryer. I've heard good things, and am very excited.
Edit: I just checked my order and apparently past me DID order some SHIFT. This is both extremely exciting and also means that I need to order a few more electronics parts to experiment with.
I haven't seen the previous posts, but that all seems super cool! I've been looking for maker spaces around me since I just bought a small keyboard that I need to assemble. I'm having a hard time finding one with a soldering iron, so if you hadn't thought of including one of those in the space, maybe give it some thought?
Air fryers are the shit, I've already made some really good food with the one I got from my sister!
Oh neat, we think there's a natural synergy between board games (and TTRPGs) and maker spaces since we believe a lot of folks will want custom accessories. And (once we have a physical space) we'll want to support our community with paint supplies and services like 3D printing and laser cutting. Though we probably won't allow our customers to directly use any of our heavier or more dangerous equipment. I don't even want to think about the liability issues.
I'm an electrical engineer by training, so I'm definitely planning to design some stuff with embedded electronics. I've been putting together schematics in my head over the last few days. And that'll all need a soldering station to build and prototype, so that's definitely on the list. But soldering means lead, fumes, and very hot tools, so it counts as too dangerous for customers without a really strong waiver.
Here is some of the stuff we've made with our laser so far.
What sort of stuff have you made from your air fryer? Do you have any favorites?
I had a busy week at work, but I did manage to take tuesday off. On tuesday, I made good progress on my music and this morning I released my second single! Feel free to check it out. I'm sure google translate will do a decent job on the lyrics, if you're curious. https://jakeentrecote.bandcamp.com/track/jalokivi
Getting back in to amateur radio. I got an old transceiver cleaned up and working again. Put an antenna up and then found out that I have a major "RF Noise" problem at the place. I'm rural and I shut every circuit breaker off but the noise is still there.
I built a direction finding antenna and connected it to a "TinySA" spectrum analyzer but it's still being very difficult to locate. I suspect it's no on my property (I even turned off our cellphones). I get noise pulses ever 50 KHz or so across most of the HF spectrum.
I suspect it may be a neighbor's solar panel/inverter installation but that's just a guess.
Bug chasing. I'm trying to get my desktop running on Pipewire with Linux. I ordered a USB headset adapter because my headphones weren't polling early enough in Debian Bullseye. I then had a problem I thought was a udev update. I installed Arch to test, spent 3 hours I should have used sleeping trying to find the problem, and happened to switch to a TTY in time to see the usb headset adapter not polling correctly via vomited log data on my tty. Yank the headset adapter, headphones back in the jack, everything's fine. I'm thinking of keeping Arch, as I was only using Debian because I didn't see myself using Linux much, but now that I'm making the effort to use it more I can justify the slightly increased maintenance of rolling release.
I got my 8bitdo SN30 Pro+ and Xbox One controller connected to my Windows and Linux installs via the same key, with xpadneo as the driver, and it's all perfect.
I also set up Simpsons Hit and Run via Lutris, which has a thriving mod community, and still plays really great.