Neil Darlow @neildarlow@mastodon.org.uk

I'm trying to like the Dark Theme on GNOME. For the most part it's OK but annoying where applications don't support the system-wide preference, insist on it being a per application choice or just offer a fixed white theme. The GNOME developers are trying their best but the World has yet to catch up.

Honestly, the influx of ex-Twitter users onto Mastodon is a mixed blessing. Those who post multiple toots per minute get blocked (nothing personal but it's just noise to me) and it's seriously affecting my enjoyment of this medium that I'm seriously considering quitting it.

FreeBSD systems upgraded. That was a trivial one. 😊️

Sophie Herold's PikaBackup has received some great new features. You can now schedule backups and manage deletion of saved backups. For a small version-number change the leap in functionality is significant. Oh, it's also got a shiny new application icon too.

If you've been hit by the GNOME Software application not working in fedora 36, a fix is available in updates. For Silverblue you'll need to do an rpm-ostree upgrade to get it.

If you ever have the need to talk serial to embedded hardware, 3D Printers etc. over a conventional serial port or serial-over-USB there's no need for a fancy-schmancy terminal program. GNU Screen has you covered.

Reflecting on my programming history:

Basic, 8080/Z80 Assembly, Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, 8051 Assembly, Delphi, Perl, PHP, Python, Modern C++ and finally Rust.

That's over a total of 44 years from age 16 at Secondary School. I wonder if young people entering the field now will have the opportunity for such a rich experience?

There's a real mindset change required when moving from other programming languages to Rust. The idea that variables can go out-of-scope before the end of a function body is... interesting! 🤨️

Getting ready to do some learning of Rust. I've added the llvm13 and rust-stable Sdk to my VSCodium flatpak and verified that they're available and working then disabled use of rustup in the IDE.

Now it's just a case of working through Rust By Example with the Rust Book at hand to fill in the gaps. I expect this will be a challenging exercise for this old C++ programmer. 😅️

It's frustrating that outlook.com mailservers can determine pass conditions for DKIM and SPF on emails from my domain yet hotmail.com still chooses to drop them into recipients Spam folders.

For anyone remotely interested, I'm attempting to program this thing in c++17 standard. Initially I'm using the PlatformIO Native platform but eventually I'll port it to Raspberry Pi Pico or ESP32 depending on resource demands (and whether wireless connectivity benefits anything).

I can't wait to get CP/M built and running on the end result and maybe a Forth implementation - just for fun.

I had a desire to do some retro programming so I thought "I know, I'll create an emulation of a 1979-vintage Intel Intellec Series II MDS" which was the first microprocessor development system I ever used.

Wanting to emulate the features accurately I determined that I'd have to implement some Multibus features. Multibus I (as used in this hardware) is now obsolete but Multibus II isn't and is trademarked.

As I'm implementing Multibus features in software I named my implementation: Softibus. 😉️

I find myself checking-for and applying updates to my servers more recently. Is it paranoia or just a sign of the times?

I'm finding the VSCodium flatpak, with PlatformIO's Native platform, provides a great C++ development platform. There's GNU Autotools, CMake, gcc/g++, gdb, lldb, make etc. Add the CMake Extended Tools and Native Debug extensions and you have a very rich coding and debug environment.

The C++ Core Guidlines and Guidelines Support Library have piqued my interest in updating my C++ programming skills. The zero-overhead nature of the GSL is particularly interesting.

I've noticed that Cura produces better quality prints than PrusaSlicer but couldn't quite fathom why. It occurred to me that Cura may employ better extrudate flow control. After printing the same object, sliced with both programs, using the same start and end GCode I believe this could be the reason. I observed that after printing a PrusaSlicer-sliced object a small amount of filament dribbles from the nozzle. This isn't the case with Cura so now I need to invetigate actual filament usage.

Why do people join social media networks and then solicit followers with a barrage of posts? That's an instant block trigger for me.

Third time successful. I had to use all my tricks to print this one - even calibrated my X and Y axes.

3DQualityFilaments PLA printed at 210C on 60C bed. 0.1mm layer height at speeds between 5mm/s and 40mm/s (slowdown for cooling).

This thing is 39mm tall and took 7 hours and 21 minutes to complete.

Trying to print the print-in-place Engine Benchmark and it's giving me some grief. Still, I'll have a superbly calibrated printer by the time I produce a working result.

People are funny. Just blocked an account of someone who's desperately trying to make Mastodon her Twitterverse. Sorry, lady, you have to expend a little more effort to be verified on Mastodon that adding to your profile.