Notices by I love this, so I (jpm@aus.social)

@decryption people have made PCBs at home for decades now, the results are usually fine for simple things with low component density (and large component size) and low-frequency operation.

@decryption CNC machines exist, ask @Unixbigot about making your own medium-density PCBs.

@decryption @Unixbigot the original home-brew PCBs were made using opto-chemical etching by printing the layout on a sheet of plastic and shining a UV light though it to remove the copper layer.

@decryption @Unixbigot home hobbyists started using CNC mills instead of chemicals, because that shit’s nasty and also robots go beep boop and you can watch them work, but trace widths and spacing aren’t as good as the chemical etching processes, so only really worked for things using components you can hand-solder and won’t get much finer than 0.5mm features.

@decryption @Unixbigot commercial PCB fabricators still use this process with more advanced lithography techniques and chemicals to obtain finer trace widths and trace spacing, and their prices have dropped so much that it makes little sense to do it yourself anymore - unless you’re in a sanctioned country and actually getting the manufactured PCBs is very tricky.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/116963895149241822

The tokenpocalypse continues apace. Just wait until the Spicy AutoCarrot companies ratchet up their prices by 10x and still fail to make a profit.

@abstractcode @xssfox true story that’s definitely true: worked in a server room that you had to swipe out of. One day a sign appeared inside, saying “UNLOCK DOOR BEFORE PULLING HANDLE”. Someone had broken the handle off inside…

@NanoRaptor one with a T-bar shifter

@ariadne @eschwartz @hatzka @albertcardona I’ve also heard some mumbling (but do not have an independent source) that the most of the Hurd x64 port was extruded from a slop machine.

@eschwartz @ariadne @hatzka @albertcardona there’s really no escape, and this is why I’m so disillusioned in the entire IT industry. Even FreeBSD has slop in kernel (thanks to OpenZFS)

@gsuberland uh oh what now?

@whitequark @glyph so many people just ignore it, including approximately everyone who uses Docker for anything at all

@petrillic the great* thing about metrics is you know exactly what numbers you need to generate to the exclusion of everything else.

@whitequark it’s exactly what a supposedly secure messaging system needs, to send your message off to someone else to re-write for you

Dear The USA,

What the fuck?

Regards,

Everyone else

Dear computer companies,

This -> ✨

Is now the Mark Of Cain. I will never ever click any button that features it.

Regards,

Approximately everyone

@zzt wait what they’re killing off the “fuck off” magic string?

@zzt damnit. How are people supposed to test this now?

@zzt (yeah, I know, the kinds of people who use this aren’t the kinds of people who handle errors or test things)

@zzt or maybe I’ll just start sticking goatse ascii art in, they’re still infested with puritans because they’re based in the USA