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What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?


Ultimate Steve

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I bought a metal cutting band saw.

The thing is awesome. Fast and cuts beautifully. Not exactly dirt cheap, but with all the savings I'll be making on that elbow grease, it will pay for itself in no time.

I did have to make a few modifications, though. Originally you had to stand there and push the GO button and the handle, which on bigger pieces would certainly get tiresome (not quite as tiresome as hacksawing, but still), so I ziptied the button to always ON (there are still ON/OFF buttons, so no lost control there) and installed a mounting for some weights. Now I can pop some weights and leave the saw to do it's thing mostly unsupervised. I still need to make an endstop so when the cut is complete it doesn't slam down (current endstop is not in good position for this type of operation).

 

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Attempt no. 4 of desoldering that GB battery. After a half success last time, where I got at least one plate desoldered, the stupid thing finally came off and I successfully replaced it with a new one! SRAM is now getting (-)2.95V, close enough to 3 for a save to be retained!

Now, the connections aren't clean at all and one of them is more abstract solder sculpture than connection, but that doesn't matter to me right now. Just like everything else, the key to that is just practicing, and given I hardly had any before I couldn't be happier about the result!

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Not really happened today, but I'm officially of my meds (antidepressants). I had those for the last five years, and it's finally over, and my moods are kinda stable now, and bearable (in a not always being in pain kind of stability). So, not really funny, definitely interesting. And not today, but those treatments takes time to kicks in and wears off, so wanted to be sure.

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Replaced a second GameBoy battery. Took 30 minutes, tops. That's much faster than multiple days worth of attempts like on the first one!

I'm pretty sure 2.88V is good, considering that the battery also powers a clock, so I probably can't expect the full 3V to make it to SRAM. Plus, chips have certain tolerances, and 0.12V is surely inside those. I tested it and it seems to work fine, I don't see a reason to worry.

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Formula 1 Hungarian GP Qualifying happened a few hours ago before I went to sleep. And Mercedes, which have been nigh untouchable since 2014, once again got the first two position, and will finish 1-2 in the race most likely.

Now, here comes the interesting part. Racing Point, a team which would be one of the backmarkers, or lower midfield in the last few seasons, supposedly copied off the 2019 Mercedes F1 Car for their own 2020 car. And shockingly, they qualified 3rd and 4th!! Only behind the OG Mercedes and *0.4 seconds* FASTER than a FERRARI!!!! Red Bull, which was supposed to perform well in this race had only 1 driver in the top 10!

Digest this : A 2019 Mercedes is better than ALL the other 2020 cars. If Mercedes had not bothered to develop a new car, it would still win... :confused:

I am not mad at Mercedes. How can I be mad at brilliant engineering? But what are the engineers of other constructors doing? Sleeping? Like DUDE, What the HELL! they all look like a bunch of amateurs compared to Mercedes....

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7 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

Only behind the OG Mercedes and *0.4 seconds* FASTER than a FERRARI!!!!

You can't really consider Ferrari anymore, they shot themselves down before the season even started. It only took the first race to establish them as an absolute joke. Even the (German) commentators made fun of them.

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16 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

I am not mad at Mercedes. How can I be mad at brilliant engineering? But what are the engineers of other constructors doing? Sleeping? Like DUDE, What the HELL! they all look like a bunch of amateurs compared to Mercedes....

In fairness, Red bull does/did? (not super closely following everything) have a very good chassis/car, but also had issues with the power unit going on (I think this was more the case last year or the year before). I think what you see more especially is just how throwing money at a problem will tend to make things better. Would not be surprised if Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull (the 3 really competitive teams last year) are spending much more money compared to the other teams on the field and thus can make better performing cars. Also with the major 2021 rule changes coming up, probably a lot of time is being invested there.

 

But yeah, Mercedes is very dominant, and Ferrari definitely messed something up for this year. But I wouldn't say the other engineers are sleeping. Aerodynamics especially is very tricky.

(also pls note - I dont know super well what I'm talking about here so I could be wrong).

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5 hours ago, qzgy said:

In fairness, Red bull does/did? (not super closely following everything) have a very good chassis/car, but also had issues with the power unit going on (I think this was more the case last year or the year before). I think what you see more especially is just how throwing money at a problem will tend to make things better. Would not be surprised if Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull (the 3 really competitive teams last year) are spending much more money compared to the other teams on the field and thus can make better performing cars. Also with the major 2021 rule changes coming up, probably a lot of time is being invested there.

It's too early in the season to be honest. Usually by now its mid-season and teams have their cars fully figured out. But this just being the third race of the 2020 season, drivers and engineers still have some catching up to do with their respective cars. Red Bull had some major balancing issues during Qualifying at Hungary which led to steering issues and violent vibrations in the cars, so I was concerned. Thankfully they sorted it out before the race.

Ferrari built a cheaty power unit that allowed them race victories in the last season, this time not so much. In fact the difference is such that Hamilton lapped both Ferraris at Hungary yesterday.

14 hours ago, Delay said:

You can't really consider Ferrari anymore, they shot themselves down before the season even started. It only took the first race to establish them as an absolute joke. Even the (German) commentators made fun of them.

Eh, I was comparing the Racing Points to the Ferrari because the Ferraris were just behind at 5th and 6th in Qualifying. The Ferraris had absolutely abysmal race pace though, compared to the 2 Mercedes and Max Verstappen (Red Bull). And Hungaroring is a track which depends more on the aerodynamics of the car, not the engine. Just the opposite of the previous races at Austria which HEAVILY relied on power units. That's why Ferrari had better qualifying results.

Ferrari is going to be so humiliated at Monza, even more than Austria considering Monza is the lowest downforce track on the calender.....

*****

Now, to the complaining part:

So, the Hungarian F1 GP happened yesterday. However a few hours before race started, I had an argument with my roomie about Fernando Alonso joining Renault. It was an intense argument and she lost. Being the vengeful spirit that she is, she did not let me watch the race and commandeered the TV to watch a soap opera.... I was waiting 2 weeks for this, man. 2 weeks. :mad:

I just watched the live standings on google and pretended in my head that I was actually watching the race...

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FINALLY, I SAW NEOWISE!!!

I've taken some pictures as well, though unfortunately only one of them comes close to being in focus. Any help on how to calibrate the focus of a camera would be well appreciated.

 

But anyways, I saw Neowise in a sky so clear that it couldn't be better. I could even see the Milky Way faintly, my attempt at taking a picture of that was a little less successful.

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After nine days of meditation and self-strengthening, I have dared to cross the 10kth post frontier...

It's very woeful to realize what a chatterbox you are I am, but one thing tries to comfort me a little.

Actually, the 10kth post has been posted long ago, if count the removed, lost, and uncounted ones.
So, the things didn't get worse. They just have reassured the obvious.

Dear all, thank you for your patience!
Dear forum HDD, thank you for your volume!
Dear English, sorry for articles! And prepositions. Tenses probably more or less match.
Dear Universe, sorries for the additional entropy!

P.S.
Oops. Still 9 999. Well, at least I tried.

P.P.S.
Saw the NEOWISE, too. But in a city, in KSP it looks better.

Edited by kerbiloid
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Today I located some of the important information that I need to start designing an experiment based on the ISS payload installation system. I hope I can soon come up with some CAD models of what I want. If you want to send your very own experiment to space, you might want to design it around this document: https://biospaceexperiments.com/index_html_files/2009 EXPRESS Rack Payload interface Definition Document.pdf

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Oh, nothing much, just a squirrel hanging out...

Spoiler


XaKDA9m.jpg

Furry little guy must have abs of steel.

5eVJgit.jpg

 

At least that’s how it started...

I’m gonna have a grand-chick. :D

Spoiler

t7mx4b5.jpg
Well, maybe. I’m keeping expectations muted. We’re kind of amazed it got this far at all, we left the gal in question a couple of eggs to try and get her through her broody cycle, and lo and behold one is pipping! Can even hear the little thing cheep inside.

 

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So... that egg... didn’t end well. :(

Hopes were low when the second one started pipping the other day, but much to our great surprise the next morning we found this fluffy little flibbertigibbet in the next box: 

Spoiler

A6yEIMX.jpg
:D

whom the momma hen immediately started pecking at when she realized it wasn’t an egg and had no idea what to do with it. :(

So, back to two months of indoor chickens. :rolleyes: Schlepped up to Tractor Supply today to try and find her a friend only to find they were all too old and there was a 4-chick minimum anyway. :P

In the meantime she’s cuddling with this silly stuffed donkey.

cRvfx9X.jpg
 

and... other things... 

Ll6llxP.jpg

She has also decided that my wife is now her mother and CHIRPS INCESSANTLY any time she’s not around and oh my Kerm does that little thing have a set of lungs! Er... lung...

But she’s made it a full day now and is finally eating, drinking, pooping, and occasionally bathing in her food...

aIsgbDO.jpg

 

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