Notices by Dave Polaschek (he/him) (davepolaschek@writing.exchange), page 2

@skinnylatte I also Do Not Want sourdough. We have a local bakery in Santa Fe which has a long line every week at the farmers market. I stood in the line shortly after we moved here. “Do you have anything that’s NOT sourdough?” “No.” “Ok. Thanks for your time.” We wave at each other sometimes, but it’s nice to know that’s a line I never have to stand in.

@gumnos @etchedpixels I prefer “aged” dead badger. Or perhaps “aromatic!”

I’ve had people telling me that some of the projects I’d like to tackle require “serious hardware,” and as I think about it, I’m pretty sure I first saw the idea running on a 286 running either QNX or XENIX, but I can’t remember which for sure, and whether it had more or less than 1MB of RAM. / @spstanley

First, they bombed #NewMexico. https://searchlightnm.org/trinity-bomb-detonation-atomic-bomb-1945-new-mexico-downwinders-congress-trump-radiation-exposure-compensation-act/

Photo from the morning walk. The tree cholla is blooming. #cactus #BloomScrolling

@derek We don’t use our fireplaces at all, so I built a cover for one to keep the cold air out, and am working on a second for the other (curved, so more complicated) fireplace. Many of our friends and neighbors think it came out pretty good.

I haven’t had much time in the shop this year, for reasons, but I’ve gotten a few sessions lately. Turned this bowl from some Russian olive I got from friends. The wood fought me most of the way, but I think the end result came out well. The bowl is about 8-9 inches (20+ cm) in diameter, mostly turned on the lathe, with a hand-carved rim. #WoodTurning #WoodWorking #Bowl

Activists from a Polish think-tank who have fought off authoritarian governments twice in Poland (first the communists, then the right-wing populists) have some tips for activists in the US. It’s a good read with a few actionable tips. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/28/right-defeated-same-antibodies-poles-developed-beat-communism

I’m looking for a small, water-proof-ish device which I can use in the bathroom to access a web page and enter my weight after I step on the scale every morning. Only needs to be minimally waterproof in that it may be operated with wet fingers. The touchscreen on my iPhone SE 2020 is bad at this, and I don’t WANT this device connecting to iCloud, which is hard with an iPhone. Is there some cheap box that will work? Old eReader? An RPi with touchscreen seems excessive. #AskFedi

@skinnylatte When I worked at the Big Red A, some of the engineers I worked with from India wanted to move to the US (usually for non-work reasons). And there were some who had done the math and wanted very much to stay in India, because the cost of living in CA made the better salaries there not so good after all. And almost none wanted to move to Minnesota (cheaper COL than CA, similar salary) due to the cold.

PSA: Mac OS 15.2 breaks Time Machine backups. A friend had his entire backup history blown away by Time Machine. If backups are important to you, wait for 15.2.1 or beyond.

SuperDuper and CarbonCopyCloner are similarly affected. Just avoid the update if you can. If you’ve already updated, disconnect your backup disk so it doesn’t get clobbered. #macOS #Apple

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/12/17/macos-15-2-breaks-superduper-bootable-backups/

As it’s Sunday, I spent the morning doing low-impact #woodworking. Lowered the ground around this #acanthus leaf. It’s my first, and also the first carving I’ve done in a month or two, so a slow warm-up was welcome. This was about 2.5 hours, though there was some time spent sharpening the gouges.

The gouges are (in Pfeil numbering), an 8mm skew, a 6mm 60°︎ V, a 20mm #3, a 14mm #5, a 12mm #7, and a 12mm #9. The 5 and the skew get the most use, but all six were needed. #woodCarving

As I was reading through “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism,” by @pluralistic, I idly wondered what the font used for chapter titles was, and went looking for a colophon, which I didn’t find. What I did find is pictured below. Apparently it’s a work of fiction?

Seeing that, even though I suspect it’s a mistake, made me much less eager to finish the book. Oh well, maybe one of the neighbors will like it when they find it in the local Little Free Library.

https://craphound.com/category/destroy/

@jamigibbs For me it depends on the stresses I foresee the cabinet facing. Generally, for things that hang on walls, I put the pin boards horizontally, as pulling them through the tails would be difficult. Pulling the tail boards off the pins, would be comparatively easier (assuming a complete glue failure).

But I also cut my dovetails with chonky pins, which I think look better on the sides of things, rather than the thin pins which are the fashion.

@silverwizard @brynet There’s something “funny” about my uboot that I never figured out. I think an upgrade would basically be a wipe and install at this point, but don’t really have the spoons to figure it out (or I would have fixed it for everyone).

@brynet Ooh! There’s a way to get my PineBook Pro upgraded! Go to a conference and leave it sitting (the install and upgrade path on that is… awkward, and I haven’t gotten in deep enough yet to try to fix it).

Or I could give it to someone else with more time. Know of anyone in the US who would want it, so I can avoid shipping headaches?

On Thursday I posted a picture of one of our tree chollas that had exploded into bloom. 77 people liked it, which seems like a lot.

This morning, a different tree cholla next to our driveway had an enormous flower. This single flower is between 3 & 4 inches across (75-100mm). #BloomScrolling #Cholla #NewMexico https://writing.exchange/@davepolaschek/112650796436573694

@freemo Enamel paint would be a good bet. Prime first with an appropriate primer. You could use a spray enamel clear-coat over the top. Me, I would use a few coats of shellac with dye in it for the color, then a few (3-8) thin cots of tung oil, with at least a day between them. Wouldn’t be as durable, but would be easier to “touch up” after it gets dinged (and it will get dinged).

@derek The brand I have in the shop doesn’t seem to be available any more. I think I got it from Tools For Working Wood, but they don’t even list it any more.

Lee Valley sells larger containers and a lot cheaper price. https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/supplies/adhesives/glue/20019-high-tack-fish-glue

StewMac sells 8oz bottles (which is probably enough for a long time), but it’s more expensive per ounce. https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/supplies/glue-and-adhesive/glues/wood-glues/stewmac-fish-glue/

If you refrigerate it when you’re not using it, it’ll last forever.

@derek Sealing / grain-filling first kept the dark (walnut) sanding dust out of the lighter ash pores. Also, fish glue is the traditional glue for installing metal frets in wood, and it’s very nice to clean up.

I also do most of my staining nowadays with coats of tinted shellac. It gives me more flexibility, and if I want to “back up,” I can simply take an alcohol-soaked rag and remove some shellac (and tint).

Yeah, it takes longer, but I get more control. I like that trade.

@wedge @derek The order I would try (I’ve not done metal inlay, but I’ve done multi-wood inlay, with contrasting colors including ring-porous wood) would be: oil if desired, grain-fill, cut grooves, glue inlay using fish glue (which cleans up with hot water, and which allows most finishes to stick), sand lightly, shellac (as a sealer, and also because it sticks to anything, probably my stock 1.5# cut), then finish as desired. (1/2)