[X] My Assistant

Finally made a little program to help me managing my list of ero-novels (setting them in "reading" folder, then moving them to "kept" or "not kept" folder (in this case without the files)).
Damn it, unlike my previous program in console mode, this time I had to make a GUI.
I HATE HAVING TO TAMPER WITH THAT DAMN STUFF.
There never is something that will do the layout or scaling the way I want. And the messagebox I'm popping are basically useless because too small, and no way I'm making my own to auto-scale and all (see full caps message above).

I really wish this would always happen when I have these stupid very specific ideas, it would save me a lot of time.
though it does lack a udev rule, and I'm not a huge fan of perl deps, so I might still rewrite it in bash or something

I can provide a udev rule later. Hate writing those things but I have one that works.
I did that variant, too, but i called mine 'bl' since it's quicker to type.

Also, think i've found an LCD housing, once I've lined it with foil or something. A bit beat up, but it'll hold it which is the important bit. Will have to make it just a wee bit taller but that's what duct tape is for.
My new drawing tablet's box. (Huion).
[i.imgur.com] (IMG:[i.imgur.com] https://i.imgur.com/U9QRvSkg.jpg)

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 11 2021, 19:08

I can provide a udev rule later. Hate writing those things but I have one that works.
I did that variant, too, but i called mine 'bl' since it's quicker to type.

since its not specific to the program theres plenty examples around. already threw this in:

CODE

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", RUN+="/bin/chgrp video /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness"
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", RUN+="/bin/chmod g+w /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness"

also PR'd some fixes to get rid of a perl dep I didnt feel like installing into that backlight utility I found,
if he's still alive I'll just PR the udev rules into his repo as well for completeness sake.

Also, think i've found an LCD housing, once I've lined it with foil or something. A bit beat up, but it'll hold it which is the important bit. Will have to make it just a wee bit taller but that's what duct tape is for.
My new drawing tablet's box. (Huion).

its not too late to go with the timeless classic pizza box case.

This post has been edited by cate_chan: Aug 11 2021, 23:13

since its not specific to the program theres plenty examples around. already threw this in:

CODE

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", RUN+="/bin/chgrp video /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness"
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", RUN+="/bin/chmod g+w /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness"

also PR'd some fixes to get rid of a perl dep I didnt feel like installing into that backlight utility I found,
if he's still alive I'll just PR the udev rules into his repo as well for completeness sake.

Ugh, hate dependencies so much. (see my most recent rant about Jpeg XL).

its not too late to go with the timeless classic pizza box case.

I don't think the pizza hut I worked at had a box large enough for it. Costco does, but that's waaayy too tall for a wide aspect monitor.
Also: I went for a more "equal access" approach:

CODE

SUBSYSTEM=="backlight",RUN+="/bin/chmod 666 /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness /sys/class/backlight/%k/bl_power"

Also: I went for a more "equal access" approach:

CODE

SUBSYSTEM=="backlight",RUN+="/bin/chmod 666 /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness /sys/class/backlight/%k/bl_power"

thats one way to allow access, bit too communisitic for my liking

thats one way to allow access, bit too communisitic for my liking

Yeah I was thinking communist when I said it, good catch.
It's the peoples' backlight.

Thought:
Honestly if someone has physical access to one of my machines I have pretty much zero actual security measures in place to stop them from doing whatever they want. Not even xscreensaver/a lock screen.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 12 2021, 04:20

I woke up last night to my big PC rebooting by itself. KVM switch was set to the other box, so just held the power button till it turned off. Not sure what triggered that, what is now broken software wise.
In any case, I'll be swapping out it's power supply later today- was just waiting for it to go down to do so, as wasn't willimg to shut it down justbforbsuch.

One of my 80mm PC fans is rattling.

Drilled a hole in the back to pop it out, got oil in it, and it seems to be a little quieter than before for now, but it's still making noise so I just bought a five-pack of fluid dynamic bearing fans.

Was thinking of getting ball bearing ones, but I don't think that I would like the noise since I already had fluid dynamic bearing ones in it. And even if both of my 80mm's fail, I got five fans for about six bucks apiece so I can just swap some in.

My 120mm fans are double ball bearing already, and they're quiet enough, but I don't know if I want to risk it. The other problem is that there are approximately five 4-pin PWM fans in the world that I can find that don't have crap like LED's on them, and even fewer with daisy chaining connections.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 12 2021, 18:29

Ones without LEDs are plentifull, my computer has only 4 pin fans, save fir the 2-pim 40mm I put on the raid card As for cables, mine are homebrew.

Ones without LEDs are plentifull, my computer has only 4 pin fans, save fir the 2-pim 40mm I put on the raid card

As for cables, mine are homebrew.

I'd do that, but getting the connectors is pretty annoying. I've found them before but it took entirely too long to find the right part. And then I have to dig through fan datasheets for the ones without a connector already attached.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Aug 12 2021, 18:31

I got amazon 3/4 way splitter cables, and rearraged. The pins are quite easy to get out of the female housings, and just spliced the power wires with solder and heatshrink. I'll take pics when I have it all pulled apart.

got in some new healing bench filler today, a drunk ebay bid won elektronika 7 21 vfd alarm clock, or whats left of it.
(casing and stuff is soaking in the sink still, lots of disintegrated foam and yellowed plastic)
the good news: vfd looks good from what I can tell, cant see any signs of it having lost vacuum, or wires being ruined
the less good news: no signs of life, was sold as 'untested' with cord cut.

from what I can tell the power supply seems alright ish (mostly new caps, 6v test point is 6v)
everything around the quartz circuit is shot, crystal, capacitor. not sure how alive the chip is but ordered some replacement crystal at least.
schematic if anyone is interested in helping me decypher some of the power supply caps(they're all blank on circuit board):

the пФ being pF makes sense since thats just cyrillic, but I cant make sense of the 'мкФ' since that'd be 'mkF' which doesnt get me towards any logical capacitance.

also for some reason owners of these clocks really like swapping out the two intended crystal load capacitors with one, nearly every picture I see online and mine is victim of it. starting to think it might have been a factory choice.

This post has been edited by cate_chan: Aug 13 2021, 01:20

'mk' might be a kludgey way of saying 'micro' (mikro). 50uF seems a sane, if just hair small, power filter cap.
20uF with .068uF/68nF seems a typical value after the regulator they have set up.
The greek micro symbol and u for micro are relatively recent, I have many books that use "mF" for microfarad, and a few that even use mmF (micro-microfarad, aka picofarad).

The greek micro symbol and u for micro are relatively recent, I have many books that use "mF" for microfarad, and a few that even use mmF (micro-microfarad, aka picofarad).

I think my commodore monitor from the 90's used something like mF for microfarads as well. Threw me for a loop at first. Unfortunately I don't know any russian or eastern block electrical engineering types to verify

'mk' might be a kludgey way of saying 'micro' (mikro). 50uF seems a sane, if just hair small, power filter cap.
20uF with .068uF/68nF seems a typical value after the regulator they have set up.
The greek micro symbol and u for micro are relatively recent, I have many books that use "mF" for microfarad, and a few that even use mmF (micro-microfarad, aka picofarad).

those values seem pretty reasonable to me. the 'mikro' seems very likely, good to keep in mind if I ever find myself with more of this soviet era stuff.

quick update about the vfd and power supply board, did some quick reading up and the grid is being powered correctly with ~4v ac.
the grid wires do 'glow' ever so slightly when I turn off all the lights, which is supposedly a very bad thing but the voltage seems spot on.
at the very least that confirms the tube isnt ruined while I wait for the other crystal and hope the unobtainium chip still works.

The greek micro symbol and u for micro are relatively recent, I have many books that use "mF" for microfarad, and a few that even use mmF (micro-microfarad, aka picofarad).

I think my commodore monitor from the 90's used something like mF for microfarads as well.

I refuse to believe that the "µ" sign is a new thing; the people planning SI stuff would never have recommended using "m" for "milli" and "micro" simultaneously.

However, I do believe that replacing "µ" with "u" could be a relatively new thing. The earliest context where I recall having seen it for sure is "uEmacs" (although I have no idea when I saw that for the first time; I have never used Microemacs myself).

My theory is that "µ" for "micro" has been in official use since 1960 or perhaps already since 1873; various Wikipedia articles are vague on this, and I don’t know where else to seek. Up until the early 1960s or so, scientific publications were widely typeset with traditional methods, so that those who needed the micro sign in print the most had it readily available. Newer typesetting systems, however, had much more limited means for producing rare characters, especially so around the 1970s, and simultaneously the need to print them in everyday contexts was growing. This led to many ad hoc solutions, and the examples you have given indicate that replacing "µ" with "m" was one. Who came up with the "u as a micro symbol" concept and when is another interesting question.

As a side note, SI rules explicitly prohibit combining unit prefixes, so "micromicro" for "pico" is another ad hoc solution.

Likewise on books and schematics using 'kilocycles' KC in lieu of Kilo Hertz, KHz. And a good while past Hertz being an official thing.
I've also seen physical parts with mmF and mF printed/molded/stamped. The latter including ones made since 2000.

I think a big part is old engineers keeping the notation they're used to.
To add to the confusion, I've started seeing mF actually mean milliFarad, but often a 5 or 6 digit number is written out to avoid using it.

As for u for micro, I thinknit's an internet era thing, with people simply pressing the key with the closest symbol and context making it obvious.

This post has been edited by Wayward_Vagabond: Aug 13 2021, 14:31

I think a big part is old engineers keeping the notation they're used to.

Very likely.

As for u for micro, I thinknit's an internet era thing, with people simply pressing the key with the closest symbol and context making it obvious.

Not so sure. The typewriter era knew numerous similar replacements, although they were country-specific more often than today.

I have seen (even used, to a small extent) an old typewriter lacking the digits "1" and "0". They had been left out to give space for other characters, and the user was supposed to replace them with "l" (small L) and "O" (capital O), respectively. I also know of at least one country where elderly people are used to replacing parentheses ("()") with slashes ("//"), because of typewriter-era limitations. Yet parentheses were used in almost all print works even back in the days, so they are recognized by everybody.

I’d assume that the "micro" prefix was needed a lot less often by most people before the Internet era, and therefore the average typewriter user preferred not to abbreviate it at all, either with "m" or "u". Those who considered it important enough could leave a blank space and add in a "µ" with a pen (a fine black marker pen, if they wanted to pursue an illusion of press printing). But this is merely a guess.

This post has been edited by Katajanmarja: Aug 13 2021, 15:26

The typewriter era knew numerous similar replacements, although they were country-specific more often than today.

I have seen (even used, to a small extent) an old typewriter lacking the digits "1" and "0". They had been left out to give space for other characters, and the user was supposed to replace them with "l" (small L) and "O" (capital O), respectively. I also know of at least one country where elderly people are used to replacing parentheses ("()") with slashes ("//"), because of typewriter-era limitations. Yet parentheses were used in almost all print works even back in the days, so they are recognized by everybody.

that era is still not completely gone either, these are still used to this day

Ran into things getting broken within my virtual pc.
I want some kind of OverOS, that allow to hotswap between several ordinary OS, while retaining that ability to swap between them, and maybe also controlling how much of the hardware they have access to (virtually cutting Internet cables, and maybe storage or other things could be interesting too).
But I guess it would hugely need powerful hardware support from more components that virtualization, and for some slowness injected (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/mellow.gif)