Jeff Martin @cuchaz@mastodon.technology

Finally got my single-board-computer working as a USB device!

Now to get the host side working.

And here's a shoutout to the Linux kernel for letting me do almost all of this in user-space!

“Software you can love”

What an interesting concept for a new brand of free/open software.

https://kristoff.it/blog/the-open-source-game/

Also, I need to look into getting a macro lens. It’s so hard to keep these pictures from coming out blurry.

And maybe clean up my flux too. 😋

It worked! Looks like I can solder 0603 passives without too much trouble. And now I can breadboard with those damn tiny bits too. This little breakout board was half utility and half test/practice. 😃

Oh, and thanks to @AskChip for tips on prepping the boards for soldering. Those green scrubbies are awesome at removing the oxide layer, but not the copper!

I finally got the isolation routing to come out clean! 😃

I just had to measure the imperfections in the tool and adjust the isolation job to compensate. Oi, what a pain, but at least it worked.

Btw, this is a test board for a bunch of 0603 passives I just ordered. Should be good soldering practice too.

On a related note, anyone have a good source for quality CNC tools in the US? 😀

Apparently the ones I bought off the internet are garbage. If I'm lucky, 3 out of the 10 bits will actually be usable for isolation routing.

I bought a CNC mill recently to prototype PCBs with a turnaround time on the order of hours instead of weeks. But I've been having a hell of a time getting the isolation routing to come out clean.

After a long story, it turns out the V-bits I've been using are just poorly machined! Inspection under a microscope shows all kinds of issues. It's so bad I'm tempted to write a blog post about it, if anyone's interested.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2016/06/19/soldering-challenge-to-challenge-you/

Chuck Norris can hand solder a BGA.
With his eyes closed.
Using his feet.
In shoes.
Made of concrete.
Under water.
With a soldering iron heated only by his anger.

🤣

And who says comment threads are all bad?

Seasonal pranks and grammatical imperfections aside, I really like the sentiment of this slogan as a business philosophy.

Move Slow and Make Things

https://multithreaded.stitchfix.com/blog/2021/04/01/move-slow-make-things/

A nice summary of all the changes to Java, the JVM, and the JDK since version 8.

https://advancedweb.hu/a-categorized-list-of-all-java-and-jvm-features-since-jdk-8-to-16/

And the top comment on Hacker News is super high quality!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26593117

Short excerpt:

“Factorio essentially compresses real-world work patterns into a shorter time period, giving you the chance to see how someone works in the space of a couple hours. I don't know anything else that does that.”

- kentonv

Factorio Is The Best Technical Interview We Have
- Erik McClure

https://erikmcclure.com/blog/factorio-is-best-interview-we-have/