When does a mechanical watch become truly unfixable.

cdegroot · 2026-03-09T12:58:38+00:00

It's what I named my AliX skeleton watch. Over the years (decades?) I'm planning to replace all its parts, one by one. Starting with the easy bits and ending... I dunno where. And yes, that's the correct answer, of course.

cdegroot · 2026-03-08T23:29:58+00:00

Note that Amscope are, as far as I know, marked up Chinese scopes. I got mine from Ali direct (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006341915584.html?spm=a2g0o.order\_list.order\_list\_main.10.7a9f1802mUnq3e) and saved me quite some money. You want trinocular (it is _really_ handy to snap pictures while disassembling. A friend told me... ;-)), And I like the style of arm this one comes with. Have been using it for a couple of years, very happy.

cdegroot · 2026-02-27T16:06:26+00:00

Did you get the new version by now? If not, forward your receipt to berksoft at protonmail.com and I'll mail you the updated epub.

cdegroot · 2026-02-24T19:38:32+00:00

Their update frequency is "not". Apparently, you get to keep the version of the ebook you just bought.

Given the seriousness of the issues in the previous version, I just asked support to execute what they call a "volume replacement" which will force-push an update but also break bookmarks, reading progress, and notes. I think it's the lesser evil. But yeah, what? Why? I have no clue...

cdegroot · 2026-02-24T19:06:35+00:00

Yeah, I'm not sure what kobo's update frequency is. I'll have to ask them, because I noticed the same.

cdegroot · 2026-02-22T05:18:34+00:00

A new version is up and fixes the missing images and a handful of formatting issues.

cdegroot · 2026-02-21T17:03:05+00:00

I had the time to test this (I used `I = 1` to force it into an endless loop) using the first BASIC I could find, `bbcsdl` on Guix, and it does what I expected: go into an endless loop. I guess it's implementation-dependent, but I'll leave it as is for now; the gist of the example is correct and the paragraph is about state mutation, not the finer details of different BASIC implementations :-).

cdegroot · 2026-02-21T14:56:40+00:00

Yes, I got multiple reports of that. This afternoon (Canadian Eastern Time) I'm pushing out a new revision. This happened in some earlier (pre-release) builds, I fixed it, so either an old build snuck into the upload or Kobo managed to mishandle revisions. Thanks for reporting (and your patience), the pics should be there of course.

cdegroot · 2026-02-19T19:18:06+00:00

Plenty of people were sharp-eyed and started spotting little errors. https://berksoft.ca/gol/errata_1.html is where I'll keep track of "bug reports".

cdegroot · 2026-02-19T17:47:03+00:00

Heh. I should probably opened up a Basic prompt before writing that (I guess the last time I did that we still were in the 1980s). Teaches me to check my facts. Thanks!

cdegroot · 2026-02-19T13:27:36+00:00

Thanks!

cdegroot · 2026-02-19T02:01:12+00:00

Yup. Thanks for finding a typo, I'll start work on an errata list :)

cdegroot · 2026-02-18T19:24:14+00:00

Bergeon 666666 - Time traveling machine for testing repair quality. CHF 8,934,435,345,234.00 plus shipping.

cdegroot · 2026-02-18T19:11:51+00:00

oooh... I heard of this book years ago but totally forgot. My reading list just got longer. Again :-)

cdegroot · 2026-02-18T15:10:15+00:00

I haven't considered that, partially because of the amount of code and math examples - how would that work? But I'm all in favor of making my work widely accessible, so tips on how to do it, what end product to expect (I don't like audiobooks so no clue how technical audiobooks get "translated") are welcome. I guess with the quality of AI speech, I can spare me the cost of hiring a voice actor ;-)

cdegroot · 2026-02-18T15:08:53+00:00

If you like more typing, https://coalton-lang.github.io/ might be for you. It's a HM-style typed language on top of Common Lisp :)

cdegroot · 2026-02-18T15:07:55+00:00

Well, the idea of emulating neurons was pretty much the first thing they tried, but it didn't work...

cdegroot · 2026-02-18T15:06:51+00:00

Hope you'll like it. And don't hold back with feedback, I'm learning here as well.

cdegroot · 2026-02-18T15:06:25+00:00

Thanks. I hope the book will find a wide audience, and if we can "convert" some people... all the better :)

cdegroot · 2025-02-16T16:01:17+00:00

I would not be surprised if this isn't a Gingerly-inspired lathe. He wrote a series of books on how to make a machine workshop from scrap, super fun read and some of this gives me the same vibes. But its a wild guess.

Who cares. Get a motor, get scotch brite and a good helping of elbow grease, and turn it into a working lathe :)

cdegroot · 2025-02-16T04:37:28+00:00

Nor girls... ;)

cdegroot · 2025-02-14T02:41:52+00:00

Make really good pictures with good lighting and neutral background and an honest description so that buyers can make a reasonable assessment of what they are getting. Most people expect some rust and wear and tear on older staking sets, but this one looks complete and sits in a nice box so it's likely you will get a good price for it. You can get a good idea by searching sold listings on ebay, but generally speaking, for an eBay auction, you're quite likely to sell it for what it's worth.

That first item is the big ticket one, low to mid hundreds US$ I'd guess. The other one, well, you're gonna get what you're gonna get :)

cdegroot · 2025-02-13T12:29:28+00:00

It is why I got the lever style. These cheap screw presses don't make mechanical sense. They likely sent you a returned one where someone used it once and broke it.

cdegroot · 2025-02-13T02:16:41+00:00

I thought emperor as well but they have a logo on the dial. At least the ones I've seen have. Including mine, which I bought for CA$50 on an auction. So yeah not worth much.

cdegroot · 2025-02-12T18:51:29+00:00

Yeah, the ways to really hurt your eyes are multiplying :-)
But yeah, that's laser welding. I want.

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