We do not live in a fucking democracy: https://www.leicester.news/bbc-edits-out-pride-pins-on-university-challenge-in-orwellian-move/

Do feel free to complain to the BBC about this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints
And maybe mention how many times Reform and far right folks are featured in their shit but apparently being Queer on the BBC isn't allowed...

#UKPol #LGBTQ #Activism

New, if somewhat niche, blogpost:

"Fixing my LocalBytes Tasmota smart bulb which had lost its Tasmota template"

https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/10/fixing-my-localbytes-tasmota-smart-bulb-which-had-lost-its-tasmota-template/

#HomeAssistant #Tasmota #blog

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk On a related note, this seems like a good place to mention the awesome Tasmota Supported Devices Repository: https://templates.blakadder.com/

RE: https://chaos.social/@slothrop/117502361968527919

Ok so seriously who's making drop in replacement motherboards for these fucking things?

Sod #PCB images..

This is from my wife.

Some parts still floating, FFS

This is a good test now that I have the right model for the ribbon connector - I think I need just a bit more slack on it. So maybe moving ½mm right.

LOL, the ESP32 module STEP has the internals, so my resin printer is printing them!!! It will end up filled with resin.

#PCB

As ever, Randall has me pondering.

https://xkcd.com/3315/

So is there ½ heavy water where only one hydrogen is deuterium and not both?

Is there extra heavy water with tritium?

I mean is there ...

- Water 1+1
- Half heavy water 1+2
- Heavy water 2+2
- Lopsided heavy water 1+3
- A bit heavier water 2+3
- Very heavy water 3+3

And this is ignoring all combinations with "ium" (electron spinning with no proton or neutron) as Randal proposes.

#science #deuterium #tritium

Oooh export with pads, layers 22, 23, 24, and 25...

Layer 22 is top of PCB
Layer 23 has pads, yay!
Layer 24 is a gap, uh
Layer 25 has start of SMD components.

Exporting pads seems to have lifted the components 50um. @kicad bug maybe (added to feature request).

Shame else the pads layer would have glued the components down.

Layers 22, 23, and 24. Frankly I am amazed it printed at all! None of the SMD components contact the PCB!

Layer 22 is top of PCB
Layer 23 is a gap
Layer 24 is start of components

This is what's in the manual of my 1989 alarm clock in case you didn't know what we lost in repairability in just 10 - 20 years

First time I have tried printing an assembled #PCB.

The only snag is that it is too accurate I think. Even telling it to print the pads does not necessarily seem to quite "attach" all the parts to PCB. I can tweak height position of 3D models. It needs an export of solder paste to stick parts to the board in the STL.

It is amazing - it even printed the USB-C, with the bit in the middle, and it fitted the plug!

Helps ensure placement works as expected.

New bitwise operations example by @knees on the L5 website

https://l5lua.org/examples/bitwise-operators/

Bloody time changes - we need to scrap this an stay UTC.

I can see my being in the hot tub at 4am tomorrow.

Sometimes I hate data sheets
#PCB

What is especially annoying is I did an obscure course at school which was TD, Technical Drawing. It was quite fun, and involved a lot of pencils and paper. But the principles were very sound. I recall winding up the tutor with the credentials of my grandfather as chief technical something (not sure exact title now but involved technical drawing) for the county. I have an O'Level in TD I think.

My grandfather designed houses I think!

another thing that’s been on my mind recently, from the olden tymes, back when I ran a small regional dial-up ISP for the first few years of the web, is the relationship we had with our customers.

we were not a big player. this was southwest florida, and the only reason it made any sense to launch a dial-up ISP in the mid-90s is that southwest florida was a few years behind it tech take-up anyway, so it was prime time for the area really. We only had 64 lines coming into our office and they were sharing a fractional T1. it was fine. we weren’t oversubscribed more than about 8-to-1 when most of the industry was already playing with 25-to-1 ratios of subscribers to modems.

Some cities it's just not worth fucking with

It seems so quaint that RTC chips still work using BCD, and two digit years. #PCB

> Following the recommendations of the Small Business Regulatory Taskforce, the government has decided to pause implementing the requirement for small companies and micro-entities to file profit and loss accounts with Companies House from April 2028.

However, most annoyingly:

> All companies to file accounts using commercial software

Requiring "commercial" software is rubbish :(

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/companies-house-update-to-accounts-filing-from-april-2028

WTF #TOSTCO #OTS

https://www.revk.uk/2026/10/is-totsco-fit-for-purpose.html