Captain Aggravated @sh.itjust.works Linux gamer, retired aviator, profanity enthusiast
The way that occurs to me to do this is to resaw it on a band saw a bit over-thick and then use a wide belt or wide drum sander to take it to final thickness. In moon landing units you want a veneer that's 1/16" thick. I wouldn't trust a thickness planer to that, it would be so flexible it would just pull it up into the cutter head and grind it like a wood chipper. My thickness planer doesn't even go thinner than 1/8" (~3mm).
With hand tools...Maybe make a jig that guides a frame saw - something like a giant miter box, and then I think you'd double-sided tape it to your workbench and go at it with a smoothing plane
Well that's fascinating. You may find this hard to believe but I've never really considered Mexico's relationship to the pancake before. AFAIK "hotcakes" is an American term, I don't think I've heard the British use it, so...do you think of pancakes/hotcakes as American? Makes me wonder what the Spaniards call them.
I bought a Dell Inspiron circa 2014 intending to run Windows on it. I was dabbling in Linux playing with Raspberry Pis, but didn't really have designs to run Linux on my main computers. I found Windows 8.1 so unlivable that I tried out Linux Mint.
That laptop just kept dying.
I went around and around with Dell support for a semester about that damn laptop. I was going back to school, I bought a laptop for school, I didn't get that fucking laptop. I did an entire semester of coursework with a Kindle Fire and two Raspberry Pis (a 1B and a 2). They finally replaced the damn thing with a different model, that was missing a lot of features I had ordered. Dell is at the top of my goddamn blacklist.
Anyway, the first x86 machine I ran Linux on, Linux compatibility wasn't a factor, and then I really didn't get a choice anyway because I didn't get the machine I ordered. But I've had dental surgeries that I enjoyed more than Windows 8.1.
In the early days, Linux Mint needed a kernel update to support the trackpad. I'm still not convinced the dedicated GPU ever worked. I had an external docking station that was very meh. It did the job though, I actually still have it in service. It won't run Windows 11 I don't think but modern Linux runs just fine.
I've since built two desktops with Linux compatibility in mind which have worked very well, and a little Lenovo thing to use as a shop tablet which...could be a lot better.
I swear I remember reading a magazine back in the day, either before the movie was out or shortly after, talking about all the outfits "Queen Amidala" wore and that they were there "to give the girls in the audience something to look at."
They phrased it in such a way that made it sound like they were explaining the occasional monster truck that drove through the set of a rom-com. "To give the men who were dragged here something to look at."
You want uniquely American, forget wheat flour and make some hoe cakes. Cornmeal based.
At first I thought you meant it can't be rotated, but no it can be rotated, it just can't be flipped over.
If there's any kind of bevel to the blade or other non-symmetry, this makes sense. I mean, the carbide inserts on my jointer don't work when upside down.
All this said, I've used the same no-name brand of windshield scraper my entire life and I've never worn one out.
In the aviation world we say airworthy, unairworthy, and cannot possibly fly. There's a difference between "the fuel gauge is broken" and "the left wing is missing."
I'm pretty sure it's a space thing. How many millions of people in New York live in half a closet, where your "home" is the place where you sleep and recharge your phone, and you spend every waking second out and about in the city. You don't have a kitchen much less a dishwasher. Meanwhile I've never seen a double wide mobile home without one equipped from the factory. I would be surprised to find a multi-bedroom family dwelling without a dishwasher.
I have a diverse portfolio of salsa and queso, plus some french onion dip which is quite nice with ruffled potato chips.
(Taking your questions seriously and attempting to offer genuine and practical advice with some of my usual psychotic sense of humor)
There aren't billions of versions of Linux, only tens of thousands. Of those, some are meant for servers, some are meant for embedded devices, some are meant for supercomputers, some haven't been updated in a decade and some are for specific weird niches. Filter out the joke ones like Hannah Montana Linux and what you'll have left are five major distros called Red Hat, Debian, Slackware, Arch and SuSe. These five are quite different from each other, they do things like develop their own package managers and such. Most other distros are minor modifications of these, most of the time just including a different desktop environment or included software. Debian's forks include Ubuntu, Linux Mint, ElementaryOS and Neon. Fedora is a fork of Red Hat, Manjaro, EndeavourOS and SteamOS are forks of Arch, and I'm sure Slackware and SuSe have been forked too. The majority of forks are "What if this distro, but this desktop instead of that one?" This is why there are three different versions of Linux Mint, your choice of Cinnamon, xfce and MATE desktops. How do you choose? Try a few and see which one you like best. They're all free.
You can play Steam games on Linux. Valve has gone BIG into Linux compatibility, their Steam Deck handheld gaming PC ships with a Linux operating system called SteamOS which as previously mentioned is a fork of Arch Linux that comes with the KDE desktop. They have a compatibility layer called Proton which, if I understand the tech correctly, translates DirectX API calls into Vulkan API calls which Linux can understand. At this point, the vast, vast majority of Windows games just work on Linux. The one big sticking point at the moment are kernel-level anticheat systems often used in competitive multiplayer games. The developer has to specifically choose to release a Linux version that enables this, and most don't. So there are some games to include Fortnite that the developers have specifically chosen to not run on Linux. I've been PC gaming exclusively on Linux for over a decade now.
A lot of Linux users are indeed programmers, developers or sysadmins. I'll remind you that Android and ChromeOS are also both Linux operating systems. Many distros these days have complete and polished graphical desktop environments that make the OS similar to use to Windows or MacOS. Take a look at Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition, I bet you'll find your way around.
Depending on where you are in the United States you'll hear them called "pancakes" or "flapjacks." I think the difference is, a pancake is cooked in town on an electric or gas stove by someone wearing an apron, a flapjack is cooked in the woods over a campfire by someone wearing flannel.
Allegedly the term "hotcakes" also meant pancakes, but I think it's obsolete. It survives in the expression "to sell like hotcakes." In my experience, you're more likely to hear it used as a euphemism for tits than breakfast carbohydrate discs.
The amount measured by a typical tea or coffee cup is approximately 1/2 US Pint, so when it comes time to codify it that's a reasonable place to put it.
Anything else you wish to artificially complicate?
It is my understanding that a mix of units was used. I do not know how much metric was used in the design of the engines or rockets, the construction was largely done in SAE units because that's what the aerospace industry was tooled up for. It is my understanding that calculations were done in metric but converted and displayed in nautical miles, feet, and feet per second for the crews who, being US aviators were accustomed to those units. The crawler transporter's fuel economy is measured in gallons per foot.
It boggles your mind that the units people were actually using became standardized?
I don’t think it’s a given that anyone needs monetary compensation for that.
Stop paying them and find out.
Recommendations for home media infrastructure esp. software?
So here's the state of things right now:
I've got a Synology NAS with stuff like my movie collection stored on it. I think at some point I'll move my music collection up there, too. It's an ARM powered 2-bay thing, I'm not particularly interested in using any of Synology's software, and there's some stuff that won't run on that box because it's ARM instead of x86. I don't really have a "server" box running.
A few years ago I bought a "commercial TV" aka one that doesn't have Roku or whatever. For awhile, I ran OSMC (basically Debian Kodi) on a Raspberry Pi, which...I had enough problems with that it's unlivable. I'd rather just not have a television than continue to use OSMC.
In the meantime, I built a new gaming PC for my desk, the old machine (which happens to be in a Fractal Node 202 case so it already looks like a TiVo) has been moved into the living room. It's a Ryzen 3600/GeForce GTX-1080 machine with a bit over a terabyte of SSD and 16GB of RAM. It's still kicking bubblegum and chewing ass. Yes, it idles at a greater power draw than the Pi pulls at full steam, but it'll spend most of its time asleep, we'll be okay.
I'm currently still using Mint Cinnamon on it. Which is a hilariously unusable home theater OS. Plus I have my desktop (a Ryzen 7700/Radeon 7900GRE machine running Fedora KDE) and my phone (A Galaxy S10e) that I sometimes watch media on. Some questions:
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Why does VLC error out when trying to play mp4s stored on my NAS? Is it because SMB is Microsoft fucksewage that doesn't actually work? Because that's my working hypothesis.
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I have so little information on what Plex/Jellyfin even are, I gather Plex is at least semi-commercial while Jellyfin is the open source but worse option. These may or may not have a server component that has to run on a server-like box, which I don't and won't have.
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On the client side, I don't know if they take the place of a DE the way Kodi does, or if it's a separate app, or if you'd have to exit Plex or Jellyfin to use something like Steam, or if Steam Big Picture mode would work as a media center, but can it get to Youtube...
Is there anything out there that works better than throwing my TV away and forgetting about it?
Standing around in my driveway in the middle of the night
I finally caught a lunar eclipse. like five of them I missed due to weather, it's clear tonight.
Cleaned the house, not that you'd notice
Did a lot of things like emptying the bathroom trash can, got rid of some packaging that was holding nearly nothing, put some stuff in some drawers, folded one load of laundry and loaded another. The place is technically better in a way that isn't apparent.
Bench plane tuning question
So I've got a goofy issue tuning my block bench plane. It's one of the Pony Jorgensen #4 smoothing planes they're selling at Lowe's in the States. Works pretty well with one exception: Moving the frog forward to bring the iron closer to the mouth also advances the iron.
I can't get it anywhere near as closed as you're supposed to with a smoothing plane before I can't retract the iron sufficiently. The mating surface in the sole that the frog rests on is slightly angled downward, so the frog is lowered as it is moved forward. I can't realistically bring the iron any farther on the chip breaker than I've got it.
As I had it apart, I noticed the finish on the bottom of the frog, the surface that mates with the sole, was as cast, it isn't machined or lapped. Should it be?
End table drawer with secret compartment
I posted these end tables here awhile ago.
The carcasses turned out pretty well but I was never happy with the drawers. I implemented them as the world's worst piston fit drawers, they had like a quarter inch of slop so they were less drawers and more boxes that fit in a hole.
I had some time on my docket so I remade the drawers, converted them to side hung, fitted them better to the space provided, and lengthened them. I had just enough poplar to make an additional drawer back, so I implemented @[email protected] 's suggestion and added a secret compartment. I haven't made the stops yet so it will just pull right on out but I've made a piece of furniture with a secret compartment in it. Now I need something cool to put in it. Maybe a smallish bottle of scotch and a pair of glencairns?
Help me identify a saw contraption I thought I saw on Youtube
Probably several months ago I watched some woodworking video on Youtube, and the video was sponsored by this strange saw contraption that I'm having no luck googling. Maybe I dreamed it up and I've got something worth patenting, I don't know.
The most concise way I can explain it is, imagine if the table saw had been invented, but power tools and circular saws hadn't. Or, think of the journey you go on when making a circ saw into a table saw, and then go on that journey with a frame saw.
This is a stationary tool that holds a straight blade in tension, the blade doesn't move, the stock is secured to a guide which slides on rails, and can be positioned to make various different cuts.
I thought "huh, I'll look that up later to see if it's worth a damn" and now can't find it again. Might have dreamed it.
Worked a lot in the wood shop and had a hot meal
Bit of a marathon session today in the wood shop finishing a computer stand I'm building for my father. Did most of the construction of a drawer box. Had to do some tuning on my dovetail jig, it's not as definite as I'd like it to be, but the drawer box turned out okay.
Worked up some fatigue, my cat Izzy helped me take a nap on the couch. If you don't have an air purrifier, I highly recommend one.
Woke up hungry, made a stir fry. Still missing a tooth so a stir fry is a great way to get an actual hot nutritious meal in me. Thoroughly enjoyed it, too.
I had dental surgery
Resorption in a front tooth. Had it extracted and now there's a fancy titanium drywall anchor grafted into my skull. A few weeks of healing and then I'll have a false tooth bolted in.
Sharpened my plane iron
I'm still getting into the swing of sharpening chisels and plane irons. Woodworking is a science, sharpening is an art, a dark and arcane one.
Sticky monitor edge is driving me nuts
Running Fedora KDE, I've got two monitors side by side. If I move the mouse slowly from one to the other, it seems to catch on the edge between. It makes interacting with things near the edges of the monitor a pain in the ass, if I overshoot with a large gesture to move the mouse to that region and then some unseen force prevents me from precisely moving the mouse back.
I can't find anything in the settings menu that sounds like it would turn this off. How do I turn this off? It needs to be turned off. I intensely hate it.
What's a good email provider?
Thinking of starting media creation, want to have an email address dedicated to that purpose. Don't want to go with Gmail as I'd like to phase Google out of my life, amd Protonmail seems incorrect for this because it largely wouldn't be encrypted mail.
Recommendations?
I forgot to run my dishwasher last night
My favorite pan for making pancakes was used to make pancakes so I'm waiting to have breakfast until the dishes are clean.
Do the old Greek, Norse or Roman gods take godhood of modern concepts?
Like, would Hephaestus be the god of magnetos, distributors and capacitor discharge ignition systems? Or does that count as lightning and thus be Zeus' problem? Is Oden the god of whiskey because it necessarily must be made in oak barrels, or being booze would that fall under Dionysus? Is Mercury the god of SMS?
Nothing at all is going on.
I have no news to report. Daily life continues. Nothing good or bad has happened. It has been a perfectly normal, average day. The weather is as to be expected for this time of year, the cat and I both ate a normal amount of food, everyone is safe. Nothing of note has occurred.
I found a book under my bed
It's a paperback copy of Clive Cussler's Pacific Vortex, and earlier entry in the Dirk Pitt series. It must have fallen down there years ago.
Yearly cocktail tradition
Every year I buy a bottle of Laird's and make Jack Roses around the winter break. And I'm...doing that. Applejack isn't that easy to find, a lot of liquor stores don't bother to carry it but I found some.
I made the grenadine a little too thick this year, it's a proper pancake goo rather than a sugary liquid but it's still tasty. I think next year I'm going to buy fresh pomegranates and milk them myself rather than buying juice.
Vexed about starting a business ABANDONED IDEA
This may not be the right community to post this in; it's at least obliquely involved with woodworking.
I intend to hang a shingle as a furniture maker. Yes I know I know "Beware turning a hobby into a job because it'll suck the joy out" before the pandemic I was working in a custom build shop, about the only thing I didn't build for customers was furniture, and I kinda miss the pipeline.
In fact, I'd kind of like to find several other craftsmen of various flavors and open an "artisan shop", where, say, a table I built is used to display vases the potter made, and so on like that.
I got, or rather built, that custom building job at a makerspace in the city, and I could get this venture off the ground with a quick message to the General Slack channel. Not only was the place full of craftsmen and artisans but it was plugged into the entrepreneurial world, people would pour out of the woodwork to either join up or point me to resources. Where I'm at now there's just none of that.
I think I'm at the point where I just have to build something and put it up for sale. Just...before we bother with business plans and branding and logos and social media and all that crap, I need to open a personal Etsy account or walk into a local consignment shop and sell a thing I made out of wood just to prove I can actually do it.
This may wait until spring at this point; between a family member in hospice and the winter...
Can it be someone else's turn to talk now?
Distro/software for living room/TV PC?
So for the past little while I've had a Pi 4 hooked up to my TV as a Kodi box running OSMC, which has been okay I guess. Having recently built a new PC, my old Ryzen 3600/GTX-1080 box is freed up, so I'm thinking of replacing that Pi with something that can also run Steam.
I'm completely at a loss for what system to run for a living room couch/TV experience. Kodi...could be better, OSMC doesn't have a desktop and won't launch just a normal web browser, it uses Kodi as its only UI and it's just not fully good enough.
I'm also not sure if Steam Big Picture Mode is capable of being a media center. Like, can it play movies from there? My experience with Steam's Big Picture Mode is it runs like microwaved shit anyway, feels as responsive as the average dogwood.
I want to be able to get to my collection of movies on my NAS, play Steam games, and do some web browser tasks like watch Youtube and that kind of thing. I just don't do the streaming services, I don't need Huflix or NetMax or whatever.
Have you ever made up a movie after only seeing the trailer?
As in, you see a movie trailer, and based only on that trailer you make up the whole movie in your mind, and it ends up being different than the actual movie. Was your version better or worse?
I'll go first: Men In Black 1 had a somewhat misleading trailer, where they're about to shoot down the flying saucer at the end, and they say to each other "Do you have any idea what you're doing?" "Not a clue." And they shoot. So in my mind it was two guys from the FBI who had to suddenly deal with the existence of aliens and learn to fight them on the fly, learning and making it up as they went along all the while learning to work with each other.