Nice in-person meeting last night. One attendee brought his portable modular synth case. I wish we would have gotten around to plugging it in, I’m interested in the sounds of some of the modules.
Sorry to those who were hoping we’d be virtual as well. Maybe you had your own separate meeting. Maybe DC540 has forked now.
We discussed yet another new direction for this year’s badge. Sounds fun and intriguing. Even more so if people run with the idea.
A discussion came up about the state of CentOS replacements after CentOS’ shift to an upstream rolling distribution model. I thought I’d share this writeup by computingforgeeks, which summarizes the four main contenders, mainly in order to battle one member’s contention that “only four people use Rocky.”
My two favorite reasons for upgrades are expanded capabilities and simplified workflow.
I recently upgraded my mixing board/recording console from a Tascam DP-24SD to the Model 24. They’re both 24-track recording consoles, but the operation is night and day.
First, the DP-24SD only has 8 real-time input channels. This is fine for someone who wants to lay down tracks one or several at a time, but not for someone like me whose primary limiting factor was “too many sound sources.” The Model 24 can actually receive 24 channels of audio at once. Bye bye rack-mount submixer, hello modular synth sound sources!
Second, while the DP-24SD was really capable, with panning, effect sends, per-channel EQ, etc., all of that was controlled in a menu. When your’re in a zone making bleep bloop sounds, it takes you out of the zone to have to navigate menus. The 24 has dedicated knobs for panning, FX send, EQ, etc. for each channel. It’s like the gear I learned to do this stuff on back in the day. Except now it records 24 tracks to an SD card.
The end result of these improvements is that making music gets me high again. Instead of frustrated menu-navving, I’m tweaking sounds and levels in real time and doing more, with less context-switching. It’s a more organic relationship between myself and my analog synths.
And yes, it’s messy. I find myself changing my wiring choices every time I fire it up. In real time. On the fly. Someday the semimodulars and the modular stuff will be closer together. Until then, here we are.
It’s a similar upgrade decision tree for the laser engraver. I found myself deciding not to try new things a few times because it would require a height adjustment. Two hex screws to loosen, move the laser head to the new height, and then tighten again. A recipe for stripped screws, and a pain in the butt. Found the plans for this on thingiverse, installed it, now changing the height is just turning the knob. SO much easier to adjust the height for wood, leather, aluminum, or even the roller attachment.
We’re opening up the basement for an in-person meetup tomorrow evening. The usual location at the usual time. Masking is still encouraged.
I’ve been working on calibrating and documenting the laser engraver settings. I also added a 3d-printed height adjustment mechanism, which is amazing. If you want to bring home a souvenir, open up GIMP and create yourself a business card. 84x54mm, or 54x84mm if you want it vertical. I have several colors of coated aluminum business card blanks to choose from, and I’ll be happy to burn you one while you’re here. This is from a recent commissioned request.
If we have enough cats to herd, we’ll talk about the official organization and maybe even elect a board. Bring a snack or bev to share if you’re so inclined, or just mooch. Your choice. We’re all family here.
If you’ve never been and you’ve been vetted and have the address, come on out. If you’re a complete stranger, consider getting to know us in the Discord for a meeting or two.
Got the news in the mail this weekend. The process took 7 months once the corporate structure was correct. Feel free to join the discord this evening. We currently meet on Mondays at 1830 Eastern time. Virtual only until Covid lightens up.
Meetup this evening in the Discord @1830ish. The decision was made to stay virtual-only until Omicron loses some momentum. Don’t want to participate in the spread. Taking advantage of the downtime to refresh the space.
I know a bunch of you are traveling or otherwise engaged with family and holiday activities. Therefore, there will be no in-person meetup on Monday 12/27.
However, I will likely be online, assuming I make it home on time. I have to pick up some auction stuff in Maryland in the afternoon.
I’m very excited about the badge discussion we had last week, and look forward to further discussions with those who have been read in to the project. I’d like to see what thoughts you’ve had since last week.
So I finally put shiny white wallpaper on that long table at which we normally convene, and I thought, since it’s starting to shape up in there and the table is clear, perhaps we should have a minor little holiday gathering of some sort, and maybe our little death cult could recreate the last supper?
In other words, hybrid again Monday, I’ll restock the beer by then. Dress in your holiday finery. Be photogenic unless you’re in the witless protection program. We can discuss food options in the Discord over the weekend.
Show up in person or stay virtual if you must. We’re getting a little better at Hybrid.
Maybe we can talk Kevin into walking us through an RE challenge.
Maybe we’ll talk someone into drinking Malört.
Maybe the asteroid will show up early and obliterate us all.
I’ll be burning wood again during the meeting. If anybody wants to burn a custom holiday ornament, I have extra blanks. Bring a round image. 85mm x 85mm at 300dpi is optimal, but the software is very forgiving.
Actually, no, I take that back. Making that association would give evil a bad name. Parallels hijacks media file associations and routes them to Windows VM!
Installed Parallels on my M1 Macbook Air so that I could have a Kali VM when I needed it.
Eventually installed a Windows VM for reasons.
Then I noticed that Parallels had hijacked some of my media file associations so that when I clicked on MP4 or AVI files, default behavior became “Launch Windows VM and play it using Windows Media Player.” On what planet is this desired or acceptable behavior?
Of course, I undid it. Finder/file/Get Info/Open With/make change/for all. But part of me wants to meet the people that thought that would be a good idea and educate them with a hemlock cocktail. Is this simple pseudo-benevolent scope creep, or is this evil payola? I’d like to believe that the number of people desiring media to play inside a VM is less than 1%. It’s the least efficient way possible to play media. The only thing worse would be if, when you click a media file, someone is dispatched to your door to play it on their phone for you.
This evening we’ll be hybrid. If you just need to get away from your miserable home and have a beer with other adults who know what you’re talking about when you talk nerdy, feel free to come by. We’ll also stream to Discord for those who are too busy and self-important to hang with your friends. 6:30 in the usual place.
