Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Today is my last day at Purism after being there for over five years. I'm marking the event on my Tempus Nectit knitting machine clock with a white stripe.

#knitting

(Apologies to Rick Astley)
We're no strangers to hacks
You know the column, and so do I
A full published book's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you what I've written
Gotta make you understand

It's the Best of Hack and /
It's a Linux admin class
You can order and real fast send to you
Hardback's awesome I won't lie
Paperback is a close tie
With the ebook you can buy on Lulu

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kyle_rankin

#SelfPublishing #writing

Back in 1918 machines were designed to tell humans when they made a mistake. Over a hundred years later the roles have reversed. How times have changed.

#AI #VintageAds #calculator

This Monroe Model G mechanical calculator was made some time between 1918 and 1920, and is the one I used on the cover of my new book. I also featured non-blurry pictures of it as the background image on each chapter, and in those cases left a little easter egg for keen-eyed readers.

#calculators #writing

Wrote for Linux Journal and it was a gas
Every month, published Hack and /
Wrote for a decade only to find
LJ went bust, posts gone behind

Wrote for Linux Journal and it was divine
I wrote down everything on my mind
A lot of great tips that now you can't find
LJ went bust, posts gone behind

In between, I put the best columns in a book of mine
It is now self-published with hardcover spine
Paperback and ebook too, they all are good
I sell them on Lulu

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kyle_rankin

(apologies to The Primitives)

Here I go, way too fast
Wrote The Best of Hack and /
It's about Open Source
It's a Linux Admin Crash Course

So click, click that link
And let me know just what you think
I had enough past tips for you
Enough to fill a whole book through

So what type of book (there's three)?
Hardcover's the best to me,
The paperback is not bad too,
The ebook isn't paper bound
With glue

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kyle_rankin

#writing #publishing #SelfPublishing #linux

The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course is published!

This book doesn't aim to be an exhaustive guide to everything you need to know to be a system administrator. Instead, this book allows me to act as a remote mentor to someone starting out in IT or system administration whether as a full-time job or as a full stack developer.

It's available in premium hardcover, paperback, and ebook forms here:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kyle_rankin

#writing #SelfPublishing #linux #publishing

Look what just showed up in the mail! My (hopefuly final) page proofs for the standard and premium hardcover versions of my new book The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course!

At first scan things look good. I will give everything a final, careful look, and if all looks good, I could go live as soon as tomorrow! If you can't tell by the overuse of exclamation points, I'm excited!

#writing #publishing #SelfPublishing #linux #linuxjournal

For Easter dinner we will be wiping our mouths with overshot napkins I wove last year. I didn't realize until after I wove them that the elongated wheels (due to fabric weft matching warp in thickness) look like a row of Easter eggs.

#weaving #easter

I almost forgot to change the yarn color in my knitting clock for today! I had planned to do it before bed, but first thing in the morning works as a backup.

#knitting #easter

I worked on my book all weekend. I finished the book layout in LaTeX and reviewed the 200-page digital "page proof" word by word, correcting any formatting mistakes and other errors. I finished my final tweaks to the index and this evening uploaded the completed and proofed PDF, designed the cover, and submitted all of the rest of the information.

The final step before I release "The Best of Hack and /: Linux Admin Crash Course" is printing and reviewing the finished physical product.

#writing

I've published a full write-up of the inspiration, design, assembly, and installation of my @hackaday inspired knitting clock: Tempus Nectit!

I had to learn quite a few new skills to complete this project from controlling stepper motors with electronics to 3D modeling. I tried to document everything I could so that someone else could follow step-by-step and make one of their own.

https://kylerank.in/tempus_nectit/

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

My knitting machine clock, Tempus Nectit, is complete! I advanced it to the current time and mounted it on the wall. The white section is waste yarn to cast on, and the red stripe marks Valentine's Day. The shiny metal "tooth" marks the hour hand. Currently it is set to noon. The clock will advance every hour, completing a full circle (and row) every 12 hours, or two rows a day.

Now I have the massive task of the technical write-up for my site.

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

The case for my knitting machine clock is complete!

I could hang this on the wall now and start knitting this year's scarf, but I'm going to spend time on the software side. The fact that this has 22 hooks leaves me with imperfect options. Right now I do one stitch per hour, and half stitches at 0,6,12,18 to make one row per day. I *could* simply divide a full day's motion across 24 hrs, or do it in 12 hours (2 rows/day) to mimic a normal clock. Thoughts?

#knitting #3dprinting #electronics

The next book on my reading list is Plutarch's Lives (Dreyden). On the inside cover is this dedication to the 15 year old boy who first received this 1908 four-volume set new in 1909.

I assume the gift was intended to train the young man in moral virtues. My understanding is that this was a somewhat common practice in prior eras. The idea was that young men would learn and emulate the virtues of the Greek and Roman heroes described within, presumably without the vices.

#reading #books #history

I was reading a book on the history of American coverlets and it referenced (and was clearly inspired by) this book, Keep Me Warm One Night, an exhaustive history of the Canadian coverlet weaving tradition. The book is out of print, and most of the used copies were rather expensive.

I found a copy for a more reasonable price so here it is, part of my weaving library! My mom has hinted she'd like a traditional coverlet, and it will likely be inspired by one from this book.

#weaving

My towels are finished! I handstitched the hems with a felling stitch using matching thread so it would be invisible, and because this is a reversible pattern and has no "right" side, I put one hem on each side of the towel. In this picture you can see what each side looks like. The one on the left (with some treadling mistakes) I will keep and the one on the right will be submitted to a competition.

#weaving

I thought some of you might find it interesting to see a short video of the knitting clock in action. I'm simulating multiple days here, one complete rotation (day) at a time, with a short pause in between.

This is a lot louder than the final clock will be, because I'm using faster and more powerful double steps for these steps. The actual on-the-hour stitches will use quieter, slower, microsteps.

#3dprinting #knitting #electronics

More progress on my knitting clock. I have finished designing and printing the bottom half of the "top" of the case that covers the knitting machine and provides a spool and tensioning guides for the yarn.

Here you can see it after I set up some white waste yarn and then switched to black yarn. I simulated a day or two's worth of knitting and then let it auto-progress a stitch every hour overnight.

Next I will design the "roof" for the clock.

#3dprinting #knitting #electronics.

Well I think I'm calling it quits on this towel set early. This is the last in a long series of warp threads that came loose from the weaver's knot that attached it to the previous warp.

That by itself I could deal with, but what is worse is that all of the loose warp threads on either side of the weaver's knot are now tangling and making it almost impossible to get a shed without separating them each time the shed changes. I don't think I will tie onto an old warp in the future.

#weaving