Archive: 2023-10
Week 147: Hello darkness, my ancient foe
Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh.
Week 146: Tomato time
A muddy piglet came to say hello
I tried – and succeeded – 3D printing with PETG filament for the first time. I wanted to use PETG to print a replacement mudguard bracket for L—’s bike where it had broken. PLA is excellent for many purposes, and easy to print, but it’s quite brittle. PETG is more flexible and robust and, I hope, more appropriate for this application. PETG is also water- and weatherproof, so I made a few useful hooks for the bathroom.
The notion then occurred to me that I could try printing a couple of inoffensive house numbers for the front door. I’d put a picture here to show how good they look, but you know, opsec. I’d intended to make some with the laser cutter, but I thought I’d have a go at printing while I had everything set up.
Running a backup via cron when the computer is asleep
On my desk I have a full-size PC running Linux that I use for most of my work. I much prefer it to working on a laptop. What I don’t like so much is the increased power consumption, so I’ve set the computer to go to sleep after a fairly short period of inactivity.
Week 145: Beating a dead horse
Ever since we moved into our house, I’ve been inconvenienced by some websites insisting on the wrong postcode. If, for example, our postcode were actually ZZ12 3BB, they’d suggest ZZ12 3BA, and I’d correct the postcode back to ZZ12 3BB and carry on.
Week 144: A lovely summer afternoon in October
I did a welding induction at the makerspace. The last time I welded anything it was a job, over half a lifetime ago, in another country, in a different language, in a place that no longer even has the same name.
Week 143: Prefabricated
On Tuesday, we went to the reception for the opening of the Fortitude exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians, next to Gandalf Corner.