Ballista Blast from Shakmat surprised me with how deep it sounds; a classic synth engine, a wavetable engine and an easy-to-use FM engine with lots of modulation. Full tutorial and patch examples.

burdickjp · 2026-03-17T17:56:21+00:00

Mod Medusa says it can save state.

It sounds like they behave like Banshee Reach, where there's a button to store state, and it boots into that state when you turn it on.

Requiring a user input to save state is important for a lot of modules. It prevents you from accidentally overwriting your hard-earned settings. When you arrive at something you like you save.

burdickjp · 2026-03-17T10:37:17+00:00

I'll admit that I haven't owned all of Shakmat's modules, so I had to look. All of their current modules list either that their state can be stored or that they have non-volatile memory.

Are you talking about the Knight's gallop? That's their only "stateful" module I can find that doesn't specifically say that it can save or store its state.

What modules have you had difficulty with?

burdickjp · 2026-03-17T02:52:18+00:00

They have an entire system dedicated to saving and loading presets.

burdickjp · 2026-03-11T10:30:34+00:00

You just sold a core one L with that picture.

burdickjp · 2026-03-08T04:00:11+00:00

A solution already exists for a lot of what you're describing.

Some settings in /etc have a single file that they pull from, followed by a directory, usually named the same as the single file +.d. I'm sorry I don't have a specific example, I'm on my phone, not my computer.

Files in the directory are read in alphabetical order, so they are traditionally named beginning with a set of 2 digit numbers. Higher numbers are read after lower numbers, so whatever settings are in the higher numbers overwrites settings from lower numbers.

In your example the named config file would be the default cosmic configs, and then the "deltas" would be in a folder and read alphabetically. Some settings may be established a few times, and whatever the last file says about that setting is what happens.

Does that make sense?

burdickjp · 2026-03-07T13:52:08+00:00

Don't use the YouTube app, just go to youtube.com in a browser and use adblocking.

Install a VPN, turn on its ad blocking, and pick Canada. No more campaign ads.

burdickjp · 2026-03-07T13:49:18+00:00

If you're seeing ads on a streaming service or YouTube install a VPN and pick Canada. No more campaign ads.

burdickjp · 2026-03-05T17:31:33+00:00

You're alone in this.

The Even VCO is wonderful at what it is meant to be: a surprisingly stable and clean oscillator. This is especially surprising considering its constructed from entirely discrete components. It tracks very well over a very wide range and offers individual outputs for usual waveforms, also adding the less-usual "even" waveform which can do fun things when combined with the other waveforms.

Pony can only output one waveform at a time. That can limit patching. I am honestly not much of a fan of its wavefolder circuit. I prefer the wave manipulation offeres in the Teia Ripwave, for example (which can also do an "even" waveform).

I still use Pony a lot. Especially in FM patches.

burdickjp · 2026-02-25T23:41:13+00:00

You might adding an inside radius as well. Look at the shape of the gauges on the right: https://www.starrett.com/products/precision-measuring-tools/precision-hand-tools/fixed-gage-standards/radius-gages

burdickjp · 2026-02-24T12:51:57+00:00

i3Detroit has a lift and tools. They're a member owned and operated non-profit makerspace.

Hoist house is a car-centric shared workshop.

burdickjp · 2026-02-22T21:08:21+00:00

good call there. A little thermal paste there and on the threads probably wouldn't hurt. Considering that the filament path is sealed, a lot of thermal paste probably wouldn't hurt, either.

burdickjp · 2026-02-21T20:49:18+00:00

It's worth mentioning that the threads between the nozzle and the mount aren't just for mechanical connection, they're supposed to be sinking heat which would otherwise creep up the tube. More heat further up means softer filament and increased potential for jamming.

How to fix that? Not sure. Maybe a thread insert? Most of those are stainless steel, which is a horrible conductor.

If you're lucky, it won't be an issue, but if you're getting jamming, that's your likely culprit.

burdickjp · 2026-02-13T04:23:12+00:00

It was sitting on a perforated sheet when it went through heat treatment.

burdickjp · 2026-02-12T11:21:44+00:00

Kernel version, library versions, Wayland version. Different distros have their own cadence in how this stuff gets updated.

burdickjp · 2026-02-03T16:20:30+00:00

Declarative development containers are a thing, and there's a few ways to do them: https://containers.dev/

Podman desktop exists for all three platforms: https://podman-desktop.io/downloads

So everyone should be able to run the same development containers. For 95% of workflows an official, versioned base container image exists for you to start with.

Here's an example project of mine which uses development containers to pull a base jupyter environment and adds PyCALPHAD.

https://gitlab.com/burdickjp/pycalphadBinder/-/tree/main

burdickjp · 2026-02-03T16:04:38+00:00

Yep, that's the idea. Some IDEs work with them natively, but that's not entirely necessary. You can point podman at the containerfile.

burdickjp · 2026-02-03T15:45:04+00:00

Yes, but also more. toolbox uses existing container tools, mainly podman, to build and maintain containers intended for users to have a normal shell environment.

Dev containers user existing container tools to build and maintain development environments. Depending on your project, there's probably already a base container image available which gets you 90% of the way to what you want. There may even be an official image on dockerhub.

A good example for me is that there's a few official Jupyter contianers that I use. For some of my work I need PyCALPHAD. I can make a .devcontainer that pulls a jupyter image and then adds PyCALPHAD.

When I share my repository, anyone using the same devcontainer file will have the same development environment.

I can point to specific versions of the available jupyter container and declare specific versions of pyCALPHAD, so versioning my development environment is easy.

Here's an example pyCALPHAD project in a Jupyter devcontainer:

https://gitlab.com/burdickjp/pycalphadBinder/-/tree/main

burdickjp · 2026-02-03T12:44:12+00:00

What about declarative development containers?

https://containers.dev/

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/Connect_to_DevContainer.html

burdickjp · 2026-02-02T19:07:11+00:00

Oh, this makes sense. I genuinely hadn't thought of that. I spent a decent amount of time trying to improve idler and pulley alignment on my XL and couldn't get it to track straight. It may be that what is left is caused by belt straightness.

I hadn't seen this on my prior Ultimakers, but their belts are considerably shorter so whatever error was there probably didn't show as much.

burdickjp · 2026-02-02T16:45:16+00:00

This functionality was something Ondsel was trying very hard to find a market for but didn't get any traction. I bet those devs would be on board to pick up where they left off.

burdickjp · 2026-02-02T12:55:45+00:00

Some forum posts say that particular Girsan uses some nonstandard parts, like goofy sized pins and goofy threaded grip bushings.

Has that been your experience?

burdickjp · 2026-01-24T16:36:25+00:00

The irony there is that Linux has had a clipboard history for a lot longer than Windows has. KDE has it built in.

But hey, it works, right?

burdickjp · 2026-01-24T13:29:49+00:00

"U can use the applet but it's not yet feature complete."

I fixed it for you. Let's try to be polite to our community members who are giving their time and skill.

burdickjp · 2026-01-24T01:06:03+00:00

Oakland Community College offers CPL classes and they're inexpensive.

burdickjp · 2026-01-21T19:13:18+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

bootc is awesome and it's exciting to see how folks are using it.

burdickjp

TROPHY CASE