Show newer
Bodger boosted
Bodger boosted

ok, pretty happy with this now. Added a lot more filtering caps to try to reduce the noise and flicker, improved grounding (at least as best as you can on a breadboard) and tweaked the magnetic and electric focus a bunch more. I'm very happy with the result now!

For those wondering about the setup:
DIY HV is supply supplying 700V which is divided down for all the different electrodes in the vidicon tube, 600V on G5, 300V on G4 and G2, 65V on G3 for focus, -35V on G1 for beam current. 15V on the target. Raster is generated by 2 555 timers set up as ramp generators and amplified/centered by two opamps. Output from the tube is amplified by a transimpedance amplifier, amplified again and then output straight to the Z input of the oscilloscope. There is no blanking during either vertical or horizontal retrace, neither on the vidicon nor output, which is less than ideal but works. Vertical frequency is around 40hz, horizontal around 10khz.

#electronics #vidicon #diy

I get a fundraising email stating "We have only 3 days to raise $24,456 so we can have the funds to launch our campaign properly [...]"

Where do they get this oddly specific number? What are the odds of winning if you don't get it vs the odds if you do? Is there an inflection point?

If you go to donate: "Make it monthly?" (they ask this TWICE) "Leave a tip?" You're asking for money to cover processing, that is not a "tip". They "suggest" 16%: that's a big processing fee.

Bodger boosted

The bitter irony in the current GOP infighting over whether Americans are competent enough to become tech workers is that numerous LGBT tech people who are frantically emigrating over hate were committing time to train people to get those jobs, often for free. My best friend wrote a whole book.

Yo, music services*: if you won't let me BUY the track I want, I'll pirate it or do without. I am NOT paying for a subscription, FYVM.
* software publishers too

@mavica_again They *are* caustics, but there's a specific term for that kind, and I'm irked that I can't remember it and have been unable to find it.

I've forgotten the term for the twisted splash of light effect made by bouncing off a flexible mirror (visible in the original Battlestar Galactica intro, and the "edge of the galaxy" effect in unremastered Star Trek:TOS)

Bodger boosted

Continuing on the MacOS diskimagesiod vs youtube battle, it occurred to me I could update the plist for diskimagesiod to say the ProcessType is "Background" - the launchd man page says these should not distrupt the user experience. This involved a few reboots and arcane commands to allow me to edit a system file. However, it didn't work.

It turns out that when ComCrap says "at no additional cost", it's like the "free" home security systems scammers sell: there's a monthly charge...

Updated to the latest Sequoia 15.2. Still has the bug where if you're backing up to a NAS, every so often diskimagesiod suddenly eats all the CPUs and causes youtube to stutter and freeze.

@ArchiteuthisFlux Come up with two more, and we can improve the names of quarks (except for Charm)!

Bodger boosted

I've started feeling kinda bad for all my knobless old boat anchor equipment being reduced to a place to harvest cool metal knobs for projects. So I've taken matters into my own fingers.

Bodger boosted
Bodger boosted

I keep forgetting this isn't Twitter and external links won't effectively hide this post. So here's a @crowdsupply update where I talk about the rationale behind this.
crowdsupply.com/architeuthis-f

Show thread
Bodger boosted

@adafruit I agree on the Alex drawers: I use them with Target's "Brightroom" line of containers to organize Lego bricks.

@adafruit Here's my first computer, a Motorola 6800 evaluation board. It was maxed out with 768B of RAM. I'd write my programs in assembler, hand assemble them, wrap them in S-records, and key them in on a teletype (hooked up to a serial port connected by a 1/4" stereo plug). I still have it, it still works (but now sports 16kB of RAM.

Bodger boosted

I teach my law students that law’s most important purpose to address anger, where possible, in a socially functional way. The social media reaction to a cold blooded first degree murder suggests laws governing health care are not performing that task adequately.

I dreamed my sweetie was showing me a new basically pointless meme that was just pictures of puddles with the text: "WET: The Strong Stay Away". So when I woke up, I made one. Enjoy?

Show older
Computer Fairies

Computer Fairies is a Mastodon instance that aims to be as queer, friendly and furry as possible. We welcome all kinds of computer fairies!