Mastodawn

P=V²/R for a standard 125mW resistor gives you a suitable resistor (about 5k ohms at 24V). Connect everything else as normal, but stick the resistor between the positive wire and the positive battery terminal for a couple of minutes to pre-charge the capacitors then remove it and connect the positive wire to the battery as normal. Hey presto, no spark. 2/2.

Brian Burton Jan 25

I've just replaced the batteries in three old #UPS boxes. While looking for the instructions or some sort of guide I came across several video tutorials all with the same key sequence missing: when you reconnect the wires, you get The Spark. None of them show it or tell you how you avoid it. It's not a big problem but it makes me jump every time. There's a solution. 1/2.

Brian Burton Oct 8, 2025

Odd helpline experience just now:

Brian: your contractor has done <thing 1> which broke <thing 2> and I need them both resolved.
Agent: I can help with <thing 1> but we can't do anything about <thing 2> even though we caused it.
B: what do I do?
A: You can raise a complaint if you like.
B: ok. How do I do that?
A: call <number>, give them your postcode and they'll handle it.
B: but I called that number and got through to *you*.
A: Yes, I can take a complaint. Would you like to complain?

Brian Burton Aug 29, 2025

Fesshole 🧻Aug 29, 2025

Throughout the whole summer I sleep outside on my own, either on a sun lounger or if it's raining under a gazebo. My wife has told me not to tell anyone as she thinks it's odd, but there is no better feeling than falling asleep under the stars and waking up to birds singing

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Brian Burton Aug 29, 2025

Version 2 is much better. I need to make the next one solid infill in the top layers to improve how it looks but I'm much happier with this version. Thanks to the reading material kindly linked by @Klassika and a 0.2mm printer nozzle I've found that the finer detail allowed by the nozzle means I can fillet the top and bottom of each pip by 0.4mm radius and I get something that's much stronger and closer to the standard. I feel confident to send this to my tester for them to read now...

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Brian Burton Aug 27, 2025

The method that worked for me was to write the Braille in Inkscape, then convert the text to a path saved in an SVG, then I could import, scale and extrude that on to a face of my model in CAD. I found manipulating the Braille as text directly in CAD made it hard to size correctly.

Brian Burton Aug 27, 2025

New achievement unlocked: I've been working on a project with a colleague to correctly write in Braille and then I've figured out how to 3D print an object with the Braille embossed at the correct size. It's probably not perfect, but it should be acceptable. The image is my test print.

#Braille #accessibility #A11y #3DPrinting

Brian Burton Aug 16, 2025

I've been told I should post this.

Walking down the steps of a family restaurant in Tokyo something appealed to me about the urban view through the arches over the stairs.

#photography #Tokyo

Brian Burton Aug 2, 2025

Cory Doctorow Aug 2, 2025

Not only is agentic AI bullshit, but it's a specific kind of bullshit that AI hucksters have busted out in the past, and will bust out in the future, so it's worth spending a minute to unpack this bullshit and catalog its traits so that we don't fall for it.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/02/inventing-the-pedestrian/#three-apis-in-a-trenchcoat