Notices by Tim 🎮 (timixretroplays@digipres.club)

Since the Windows 11 upgrade on my work PC, I feel more disconnected and disengaged. I click on buttons and sometimes nothing happens, sometimes something happens seconds later. Everything is slow to open or load on the fastest laptop I've ever been given. It feels like I'm standing at a control panel of switches, buttons and lights, but none of them are actually hooked up to anything underneath. Or swimming through molasses. I can actually feel a layer of interference between me and my work.

Woolies: The PDF does give me a sum of data in the summary I downloaded, but to look at my data usage over a long period of time I'd have to set up a query per month, download a PDF, and copy that info into a spreadsheet.

Their website could run a single query to pull out gb/month and give it to me in seconds. That's not technically difficult, it's a simpler query than everything else they're throwing at me.

It should be mandatory to sum usage over at least 12 months on their website.

It's 100% intentional that mobile providers don't give you an easy way to see your overall data usage, right?

Like, Telstra gives you a bar chart of up to the last 3 months (not 90 days - if you were halfway through a month, you'd get 2.5 calendar months of data), but nothing more granular.

Woolies lets me view seven days of usage, or download a PDF of up to 90 days, all with mixed units and poor enough formatting I can't easily get it into a spreadsheet.

This is anticompetitive bullshit.

Hey #Australia #AskFedi. How easy/hard does your mobile phone provider make it to see your historical data usage? Do they give you a nice webpage with a chart, do they give you a couple of months and that's it, do they make you download multiple PDF files and do maths from there?

I want to find out how widespread this actually is, and maybe make some noise about it.

Also interested in hearing what it's like for you not in Australia, for comparison.

Boosts for visibility would be very welcome.

Abby is just the happiest catto in the world when she's getting brushy-brushy. #Cat #CatsOfMastodon

Behold, the first prototype of my amazing new invention: The reverse one-way screw! The natural counterpart to those anti-theft screws used to attach license plates to cars, the ROWS can only ever be unscrewed, not driven in.

To use it, simply already have it installed somewhere, and unscrew it like you would a regular screw - attempts to reinstall it will simply result in the screwdriver safely slipping out of the head, with no risk of it actually being driven back in.

#3DPrinting

PSA for Australian #3DPrinting folks - Jaycar are currently clearing out a ton of Creality stuff, including basic PLA. I bought a spool of their white PLA for $15 in Fyshwick (shelves were full of white and black) the other week but their website currently has it for $10/kilo, and they do free shipping over $100.

I wouldn't touch another Creality printer with a ten foot insulated pole, but their filament is decent IMHO, so I'm stocking up on it for future prototyping reasons - you should too!

@hellomiakoda can't help directly as I'm in Australia, but if you can find the equivalent part for another 6xAA battery Radio Shack radio, that might fit in place - and 3D printing a part that small is trivial so it'd be worth a shot.

Can anyone help with finding/printing a new battery bay cover for a Radio Shack 12-519 weather alert radio? (https://www.manualslib.com/manual/137244/Radio-Shack-12-519.html?page=6#manual)

Some more tags for visibility: #3DPrinting @3dprinting@a.gup.pe @3dprinting@techhub.social

I was extremely disappointed to click into the article and read that they were transporting hay, not snakes.

So, this is a #Pinecil. I bought one a couple of months ago along with some tips specifically for installing heat-set inserts, and immediately ordered another to dedicate to hand-soldering. It's a very lightweight soldering iron that can be powered over USB type C from a pocketable USB power bank.

A Pinecil with multiple accessories purchased directly will cost way less than buying one already in Australia, although you will wait weeks and weeks for it to ship and arrive.

The reason I bought two is because I don't know how long I trust it to last if you're constantly swapping tips. The tip-retaining screw is tiny and looks like it's biting into plastic, so I don't think I'd expect that to last very long under heavy, repeated use.

The interface is *very* complex with many many deep menus and options, but basic use is easy enough. Press + to turn it on, press again to set a temperature and start heating, press and hold - to kill the heat.

It's so light I worry a bit about losing control and burning myself, especially with a long cable dangling off it, but so far I haven't. The green grippy bit seems to do the job. And you can put this flat on a desk and its square-ish profile will stop it from rolling anywhere.

For anyone who buys a #Pinecil and thinks, you know what, for a few extra bucks a clear case for this thing will look cool - you'll want this teardown from #iFixit: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Pinecil+V2+Teardown/170774

The official instructions (https://wiki.pine64.org/images/0/01/Pinecil_Shell_Replacement_Guide.pdf) do not actually explain how to snap the case apart, but the iFixit guide suggests levering the halves apart by sticking a small screwdriver into the soldering tip hole.

Practice snapping the new shell open first, to get an idea for how it should feel.

First sign of any QC issues - the clear case is meant to come with two replacement button bits (also in clear plastic), but the sprue that came with mine was missing one, so I've ended up with this slightly Franken-Pinecil with one black and one clear button - but I kinda dig it.

I also decided to keep the green rubber grip from the original case because that looked nicer and more interesting than the translucent-clear one (and makes where to grip it more obvious).

A photo of the inside of a Pinecil, for when you get to the reassembly stage and realise you don't know which way around the little soldering tip clips went originally.

I'm sick with another cold or something, so I'm idly sketching out a 3D printable case for an ITX retro gaming rig, the primary feature of which will be a 15-pin gameport socket up front.

I've started a few projects like this, but never run them right through to the end - if you've ever wondered what designing a PC case is like, just draw a whole bunch of differently shaped rectangles and try putting them neatly in a box. Dunno yet if this one will see the light of day beyond this screenshot.

Some old renders of a SGI-inspired project from a few years back. I had a 3D printer at this point, but not one with a bed big enough to make 20x20cm panels, so the structure was built using laser-cut acrylic with 3D printed brackets bolted onto it.

I did actually get a mostly functioning PC case out of this idea for a while, and there are Many Learnings from that project that have rolled forward into present ones. Unfinished projects are never waste if you learn from them!

A much later render of the concept on the right, here. The top half of the case held the PC itself, the video card and power supply took up the bottom half, so the front grille got divided into two parts. A 180cm fan sat behind this, and actually blew out forwards through the *front* of the case - the grille was painted with thermochromic material so it changed from black to white in places as hot air was exhausted.

I'll try and find photos of the finished case and that colour changing effect.

Follow-up philosophical question: if you were an old ITX motherboard's *backplate*, where would you hide?

Philosophical question for tonight. If you were an old ITX motherboard, where would you hide?