Washington state folks: Tues Aug 4 is the primary election. If you are a US citizen living in Washington, you can vote. Every county has at least one voting center where you can register and vote tomorrow.

I started getting the Burgmaster mounted on the collection of base parts that came with it tonight. The previous owner's dad had been in the process of retrofitting it onto a X-Y table, so it's all a bit weird. But that's fine. What's less fine is that I […] [Original post on clacks.link]

One of the things I learned about demoing the 9 prototype Life Cells at Open Sauce was that the alignment from just the magnets wasn't good enough. The pogo pins could still bridge across the pads if you didn't get it just right. Ideally, you should be able to […] [Original post on clacks.link]

Goddamn, I really need to switch to FreeCAD if only just to stop Solidworks from making me log in again multiple times a day.

Reading Hannah Arendt in 2026 is brutal:

An occasional reminder that https://symbol.wtf/ is possibly the single most useful page on the Web.

‽

A dumb website for copying symbols.

symbol.wtf

I finally dug out the box of almost-complete-except-the-most-important-assembly Burgmaster turret drill parts, and it looks like that head I picked up on the way to Open Sauce will work! Next I need to figure out if the motor still works. And do a deep clean on everything.

Huh, I could have sworn the prescription lens blanks were 60mm. Sorry, everyone I misled!

Sometimes you can't sleep until you've gotten a very silly idea out of your head.

So, another problem arrived today. Not as wildly, unbelievably great of a deal as the taps and dies, and the size distribution is lumpier than I was hoping. (25 of the 1-1/2"/38mm, 43 of the 2-1/8"/54mm, 1-6 of everything else.) But still a very good deal, even if I'll have to give half of it away.

So, Open Sauce. I'm back in Seattle, and can almost declare that I didn't back any unwanted crown-looking viruses. As always, I got caught up talking to people and completely forgot to get any pictures beyond the initial booth setup. And, again as always, I didn't get around much to look at the […]

RE: https://mastodon.social/@eliocamp/116957150306909602 It's not lost to history after all!

Elio Campitelli@eliocamp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 2w ago

@attoparsec Ok, this *could* be it. It's 17:45 long and labelled as with the name Mike Beeler, which mightbe consistent with Lifeline vol9 that says that Mike Beeler loaned it to him. https://www.csail.mit.edu/node/6613

I don't suppose anyone has a lead on the 17 minute film William Gosper made about Conway's Life at MIT back in the early 1970s? It's mentioned in Lifeline volume 9 and a Martin Gardner book, but I can't find anything more concrete than that.

I'm a bit late in this, but there's still time I've been helping @attoparsec out at Open Sauce this weekend! This has been very tiring, but so fun. Absolutely worth it. There's still one more day! Come check us out tomorrow if you're in the area and have time (and want to spend ~$120 for the […]

My small pizza came with more red pepper packets than pizza.

I forgot to post: we're at booths F.166 and F.167 in the Fiesta Hall at Open Sauce, come find us!

I have made it to San Mateo, all ready for setting up at Open Sauce tomorrow morning. Bonus: while passing through Vacaville, I managed to buy the only Burgmaster turret drill turret I've ever seen listed for sale on its own. So maybe that incomplete box of […] [Original post on clacks.link]

This is what happened when I decided to do something about overgrown greenery in bike lanes thwapping me in the face. https://youtu.be/g6iRBKOiye8

This is what happened when I decided to do something about overgrown greenery in bike lanes thwapping me in the face. https://youtu.be/g6iRBKOiye8

I took a gamble on a confusingly-worded auction listing, and now I'm never going to need to buy another tap or die for the rest of my life.

I've had this ridiculous idea bouncing around my head for years, and tonight I finally did it. Take that, overhanging greenery! #biketooter

Having World Cup games here means lots of samples to estimate how many graphic designers know that hexagons alone cannot tile a sphere. (Roughly 1/3, I'd say.)

I just realized it's weird that most people seem to think that zero-gravity "Vomit Comet" flights achieve free fall by diving straight down, instead of following a parabolic arc up and over like they really do. Because that's actually a thing commonly done in […] [Original post on clacks.link]

> Operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it was, in essence, a 76,000-square-foot artificial wound. Trays full of meat, blood, and water, each one heated to the exact right temperature to stimulate screwworm growth, moved through the facility on a monorail system timed to the lifecycle of […]

I'm still working on the custom eyeglass project, and I just hit a new milestone: 3D printed frames, with prescription lenses I edged (cut down and shaped to fit the frames) myself on the belt sander from 60 mm blanks. These are the "Hitomi" frames I found in a […] [Original post on clacks.link]

It's kind of fiddly still, but for the first time I have the complete Life Cells, connected to each other only via homemade magnetic pogo pin connectors, running real Life behavior! I ordered the parts needed from a real control panel today, which will have […] [Original post on clacks.link]

Should it ever be needed, I think I've found the perfect name for a legendary sword.

I just finished a double feature of the Illuminatus! trilogy (first time) followed by Foucault's Pendulum (first reread since high school), and I think I'm experiencing some psychic whiplash. The first was just some silly fun, but I had forgotten so much of the second, and it turns out to be […]

We're approaching Open Sauce again, July 18-19, which means that I am once again looking for someone to help run the booth. I can provide an exhibitor pass for the full weekend, plus access to the Friday night party. That's limited to just 2 people from each […] [Original post on clacks.link]

This weekend I finally cut down the cargo trike's rear axle so I could add the differential. Luckily each side was already supported by 2 bearings, so no other serious modifications were needed. This also meant adding a pressfit sleeve to what used to be the […] [Original post on clacks.link]