[Chris Borge] has made (and revised) many of his own tools using a combination of 3D printing and common hardware, and recently decided to try metal casting. Having created his own tapping arm, he …
Trump’s Unposted Truth Social Draft Leaks From Oval Office
In an Instagram story posted Friday, Eric Trump, 41, shared a photo taken in the Oval Office showing his father with his hand resting on a sheet of paper labeled “DRAFT TRUTH.”
The drafted post discusses the “severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides” that began Dec. 9 in Washington state.
"Almost one in four households couldn’t pay their energy bills in 2024, according to census data."
One in four. One in four. Read that again, folks. ONE IN FUCKING FOUR households. The propaganda is that we are a wealthy country. WE ARE NOT. There are a few wealthy people here, and there are a shit ton of poor people here. It's just that the wealthy people are so wealthy that when you include them in the average, it sounds like we are a wealthy nation. "A rising tide lifts all boats," my ass!
“Rural America knows the truth long before the rest of the country feels it. Nothing collapses all at once. It just stops working in small places first while everyone else calls it local hardship. That’s why wood banks—like a food bank but for fuel—are important. They’re the clearest sign that basic systems in this country have already failed.”
AI features are crowding into Google search, Gmail, iPhones, Windows laptops, and other products. If you're suffering from AI overload, these settings can help.
If you live in a major city, you’ve probably seen a street performer with some variety of slapophone. It’s a simple musical instrument that typically uses different lengths of PVC pipe …
Local school district to open Safe Sleep Lot as homelessness grows
Cincinnati Public Schools are opening a designated parking lot for homeless students and their families, allowing them to sleep in their cars while they seek housing. This initiative, part of a program called Project Connect, aims to provide a safe space and support for those experiencing homelessness. Being homeless has become illegal.
WTH has happened to this country when schools have to provide sanctuary for the homeless?
Not a huge percentage of our readers probably get their heat from diesel fuel, but it’s not uncommon in remote areas where other fuels are hard to come-by. If you’re in one of those are…
The NanoVNA comes with attenuators, test/calibration loads, and a couple of (admittedly poor quality) cables. Adding to that, SWR+power meters are pretty important (I have both the HF and VHF versions of these for that).
I'd also recommend learning how to make your own cables and obtaining the equipment to do so. Aside from the much better quality and durability you'll gain, it'll also let you build any cables you need (good for getting away from adapters).
I usually stick with old-fashioned UHF connectors, but the NanoVNA forced me to become comfortable with SMA connectors. (More recently, I'm starting to explore N connectors instead of BNC.)
@deepfryed Butting in a bit, sorry: the most important advice of all is implicit in the original post: know your gear and how to self-check it. Be skeptical of cables (especially inexpensive ones), because they're what get the most wear.
Speaking of wear, get "port savers" for any SMA test gear. They're just a consumable male/female "adapter" that goes on the port once and take all the wear. Decent ones aren't cheap, but you _will_ wear out the SMAs on cheap test gear after a few years.
Al and I were talking on the podcast about the Home Assistant home automation hub software. In particular, about how devilishly well designed it is for extensibility. It’s designed to be added on t…
As technology marches on, gear that once required expensive lab equipment is now showing up in devices you can buy for less than a nice dinner. A case in point: those tiny displays originally sold …
Not only are pianos beautiful musical instruments that have stood the test of many centuries of time, they’re also incredible machines. Unfortunately, all machines wear out over time, which m…
Back in the mid 1990s, the release of Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system cemented the Redmond software company’s dominance over most of the desktop operating system space. Apple we…
Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • •Me. 😅