Notes
As alluded to in previous posts, I am a Terrible Notetaker. I have fired up Logseq as that seems to (notwithstanding the possibility that it’s moving to a DB backend vs flat files) fit me a bit better - the block/pages idea seems to work well, and the iOS app is excellent, but the proof will be in the pudding.
If I find myself with a week’s worth of blank daily journals, then we know it hasn’t taken! The real check will be whether it stands up to work once I’m back, I have deliberately not been thinking about any of that while off.
Maker goals
First, some form of apology. I’ve read that the best way to improve is by writing, so you’re now a test audience for what may resemble a bit of a stream of consciousness - I’m going to try and get some words down regardless, and this may soon resemble a dumpster fire but I will promise to try and keep some relevance in here somewhere.
Further to my various posts re the microjournal, I’ve been pricing things up and it is likely to come in at about GBP150, plus/minus some tool investments - it is high time I got myself a soldering iron and it turns out that things have come on some way since I was doing sound for a living! Also it turns out that you can still get leaded solder, which I didn’t think was a thing any more, but apparently I was wrong.
I have been considering the V2 original. Not a folder, but in what the designer describes as an accountancy calculator. I think it looks pretty good.
So the plan. First things first, I will get the case printed. Once that’s in hand, I can see exactly what I’m working with and whether adding something bigger than the 30 key planck ortho is a sensible idea or not. I’m wondering whether the rPi zero is right, or whether I want to go all in with an actual rPi but, like the keyboard, until I see what space I have to actually work with, it is a tricky one to say.
Technology ambitions
Yesterday, I linked to this.
It turns out that the maker, Un Kyu Lee, has in fact open-sourced all the units on that there GitHub, and as the proud owner of a 3D printer this could very much be something on the cards!
Again, very much a want rather than a need but there is no denying that it is an exceedingly good looking beast and probably more practical than the Psion 5MX that’s languishing in a drawer. I clearly don’t do enough writing to make it a justifiable purchase, but as a project to make, I think it may be entirely reasonable. I’ll have to do the sums and if I can get it below the maker’s $289 I’ll be onto a winner.
Practically speaking, the 3D printing side is about as free as is it possible to be now (with filament coming in at about £15/kg ish) with a printer on hand, which just leaves the electronics and I happen to have a load of MX switches lying about from a mistaken purchase. The only real issue is that I may have to spend more time on the Ali Express website, and that is something I really want to avoid if at all possible.
Watch this space!
Assumptions, we make them…
So I mentioned something about drones being witchcraft. Possibly wizardry. But turns out that I was overconfident in the magic - I have a Project, which requires me to map the back field at high resolution.
Maps Made Easy is one of those “this is witchcraft” applications that makes the drone, which is already magic, churn out high resolution aerial mapping in minutes. Draw the area on the phone, send it to the drone, drone lifts, does the camera work, returns and you just send up the files. Boom.
Anyway, long story short, turns out that the assumption I made about collision detection in this mode was, in fact, wrong, and I watched it gently glide into a tree.
The problem with the witchcraft of drones is that once the magic has evaporated, you’re left with an object with the aerodynamic property of a brick hanging in the air. The results were grimly inevitable, which is why I am once again cursing Ali Express’ UX designers who must hate their users so, so much.
Also, I don’t need one of these, but I do very much want it.
3D Printing
Late to the party, as always, but I recently picked up a BambuLabs X1 Carbon. Cor, isn’t it good!
Leaving aside controversy around some recent firmware updates and noting that in the latest update they’ve added some support for Sunlu filaments for the AMS, it really is astonishing quite how far this tech has come - with a bit of CAD expertise, or just using files from others, you can end up with actual, finished physical products in hand.
Like drones, this feels a little bit like witchcraft. It may be the fact that I’m firmly Gen X, but does nobody else seem to be unbelievably excited by the fact that these things that weren’t even conceived of in the the 90’s are suddenly here and within the reach of literally anybody?
Holidays, procrastination & tech
I went on my first holiday in nearly 4 years. It was lovely. Four days on the Isle of Arran and I barely scratched the surface, will definitely go back aiming for better weather so I can put a drone up and get the mics out!