Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Anyone interested in mechanical engineering should definitely check out the *analog* carry mechanism in these Marchant calculators that relies on planetary gears. These Marchants are arguably the high water mark for electromechanical calculator engineering.

Check out the latest addition to my ⁨#antique⁩ ⁨#calculator⁩ collection! This is a Marchant "Silent Speed" 8D from 1940, a fast electromechanical analog calculator that can even infinite loop if you divide by zero. I'll be refurbishing it this weekend to make it fully functional.

I'm glad that articles like this by Tatum Hunter that walk you through how to opt out of cellular carrier tracking exist, but I'm sad they are necessary. This is exactly why we created the AweSIM service. #privacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/01/cell-carrier-privacy-settings/

I did many #Librem5 convergence demos with my #Nexdock360 at #scale19x. It's so fun to watch the moment when people *get* convergence after seeing me drag a known Linux desktop app between screens and have it morph based on screen size.

I wrote about the "smartphoneification" of cars last year on the @purism blog: #privacy https://puri.sm/posts/locked-in-a-remote-control-car/

If you wanted to know why I'm thankful I don't need to replace my car, and if I did, it wouldn't be with a modern one, here's why: #privacy #bigdata https://themarkup.org/the-breakdown/2022/07/27/who-is-collecting-data-from-your-car

This has the side-effect of reminding me how to use each of these calculators, as they all have different methods to perform basic arithmetic, none of which are intuitive.

#Antique #calculators typically degrade through lack of use. Oil/grease gets stiff, dust/dirt takes over. My solution is repeat the simple calculations I usually perform in my head or on my computer on one (or more) of my calculators to exercise them.

Who would have thought that a thermal exhaust port could be so risky?

The ⁨#scale19x⁩ memory that will stick with me most is when an unopened soda can left in front of the projector exhaust vent exploded in the middle of my talk like a gunshot, shooting a geyser of soda in the air. I'm going to get so much mileage out of that story.

Thank you everyone who came to my talk! This is the first time one of my talks featured a surprise explosion! ⁨#scale19x⁩

This is a story all about how
My ⁨#scale19x⁩ talk's going down
So if you have 60 minutes come sit right there
I'll tell you about OpenSnitch in a room called Bel Air

(1:30pm, hotel lobby level, right of hotel entrance)

The wool scarf is done! This is a surprise present for a male family member (who doesn't read my social media feed). It took about 7.5 hours start to finish and I'm pleased with how it turned out. ⁨#weaving

Well that was fast. I just finished ⁨#weaving⁩ the scarf. Now I just need to take it off the loom, tie the fringe, and wash/full it.

My next ⁨#weaving⁩ project is a simple twill scarf using single-ply, natural color worsted-weight wool raised locally. Doing something this simple is a nice change of pace from my previous projects.

Also, she *may* have convinced me that I want to get a dobby loom instead of a Swedish draw loom.

At lunch I visited a local fiber art exhibit and coincidentally one of the weavers in the exhibit was there and explaining her work to a friend. Got to chat about her work and weaving in general! #lucky #weaving