Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

People subtracted on adding machines w/ a neat trick: the complements method. Convert a number to its complement, add it, and discard the extra "1" on the left. Many calculators with subtraction functions use this method under the hood: https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/subtraction-by-addition.html

Of course if you can add repeatedly you can multiply, so this machine has a "repeat" button in the bottom right corner. Once pressed, any number you enter stays pressed down after you pull the addition lever, so you can add over and over just by pulling the lever.

The Burroughs is a true adding machine--it can only *add* numbers. Notice the limited buttons on the keyboard. If you ever heard someone refer to a modern calculator as an "adding machine" it derives from the fact that originally that's all they could do back in 1908.

This adding machine has a carriage at the back so you can add a paper spool or even a sheet of typing or ledger paper, with tab stops you can set to speed the process of filling out forms.

This is my Burroughs Class 1, Model 7 Adder/Lister made in 1908. The glass sides and front let you watch the mechanisms as it's adding.

These antique calculators have a funny way of multiplying...

There is something special about the first phase of a new hobby. So much to learn, new skills to master, deep rabbit holes full of discoveries around every corner.

If only you could take this carbon capture tech, make it solar powered, shrink it so it fits it in your back yard, self-replicating so it could cover thousands of acres of land, and have it double as wildlife habitat, and you would have invented trees. https://gizmodo.com/the-world-s-biggest-plant-to-suck-carbon-dioxide-from-t-1847636362

Who would have thought that a tech company would use a feature marketed as being for security to exert remote control on their customer's computers instead? https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/09/riot-games-anti-cheat-software-will-require-tpm-secure-boot-on-windows-11/

You may be laughing now, but after the zombie apocalypse wipes out the grid and you are calculating cryptocurrency with pencil and paper, I'll be laughing (and cranking) all the way to the (probably by then barter-based) bank!

I dusted off my limited Python skills and modified Nitrokey's "Qubes OEM" installer to add support in anaconda for changing your LUKS passphrase at first boot. With that in place, we can now offer Qubes as a preinstall option: https://puri.sm/posts/qubes-now-a-preinstall-option-for-librem-14-and-mini/

In addition to calculating dozens, the rightmost wheels were apparently primarily intended for adding/subtracting feet/inches/fractions of an inch.

New addition to the mechanical calculator collection! This Addometer by Reliable Typewriter and Adding Machine Co not only does basic arithmetic, the far right dial does simple fractions and the dial next to it that literally goes to eleven calculates by the dozen!

USB-C is annoying. I thought my laptop dock was failing--the screen blanked out whenever it moved on the hinge and it kept getting worse. I initially blamed a weak wire between the screen and base but on a whim replaced the USB-C cable with a new, higher quality version and all the instability went away instantly.

Aruba I make ya sudo gonna take ya to a root prompt I wanna own ya pretty momma. Key escrow I now know baby why don't we go. Oh I want to take you down to Ring0 we'll get there fast and then we'll take it slow. That's where we want to go way down to Ring0. https://threatpost.com/hpe-sudo-bug-aruba-platform/169038/

Another day where I found myself pointing someone to one of my old Linux Journal articles to help with a task. This time it was an article about VIM macros from 2014: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/return-mac

I know an old lady who swallowed dewormer for horse. She's dead of course.

She swallowed dewormer to chase the bleach, she swallowed the bleach to chase the bulb, she swallowed the bulb cuz it's UV, which everyone knows makes COVID flee.

She did all these things cuz talk radio said, but I don't know why she's not jabbed instead. I guess she's dead.