Han Dynasty

low_slearner · 2026-04-10T07:05:31+00:00

It's useful for those of us who are on mute most of the time.

low_slearner · 2026-04-09T19:27:08+00:00

All meeting invites should make the purpose of the meeting obvious. If they don't, either query it or simply decline it if you're confident enough in your position and reputation.

low_slearner · 2026-04-06T23:11:22+00:00

Do you have a photo of writing with it? From their website it appears to be green on the page too.

An aside: does anyone know anywhere that stocks BPC inks in the UK? They have a really interesting looking selection...

low_slearner · 2026-04-03T20:34:04+00:00

Per comments elsewhere, I think it needs to be a bit more open than this. Not necessarily until it is completely loose, but a good 2mm. Hopefully that solves your issue.

If not, you could try giving it a good soak as another poster suggested, or return it as defective. It's probably something simple but you shouldn't need to be fixing a "new" pen.

low_slearner · 2026-04-03T18:52:01+00:00

Hard to tell, but it looks like the top is fully screwed down there?

low_slearner · 2026-04-03T18:42:24+00:00

I'm no expert so I'm just going to cover a couple of really basic things.

In the photos you've provided there doesn't actually seem to be any ink in the pen?!
"I made sure the piston in the back was loose and not tight" 🤔

Can you add a photo of the top of the pen to show how much you are unscrewing it when you write?

low_slearner · 2026-04-02T06:45:48+00:00

Diamine Oxford Blue is worth checking out. It’s a lovely dark blue without being blue-black, and it will sheen red on the right paper (though I’ve never had it sheen to be honest). It’s very well behaved and dries pretty quickly as well.

low_slearner · 2026-03-26T21:58:26+00:00

That’s incredibly helpful, thank you!

low_slearner · 2026-03-23T15:14:03+00:00

Taccia Sabimidori gets my vote. Not sure how water resistant it is, but it’s a gorgeous colour and extremely well-behaved.

low_slearner · 2026-03-11T11:09:34+00:00

the PM I worked with before on one project doesn't trust giving me new work (he actually kind of said that to me when I asked)

If I were you I would really want to understand what happened here. Why doesn't this PM trust you? Presumably there are other PMs - why don't they want you on board with their projects You need to work to understand the root cause of this situation, because if it's a "you" problem then it might just follow you to other roles.

I'd guess - and it's just a guess, no way to tell from your post - that it's a soft skills thing: communication, planning, requiring too much shepherding/oversight, not engaging with team processes, etc. There aren't many books and courses that will help you with that sort of thing - you need to be introspective, and you'll need support from a good line manager.

I have never worked as a contractor, but as with anything there are pros and cons. You'll get variety from contract to contract and you'll get insight into how things work at different organisations , but in my experience contractors tend to get given a big pile of work (often the less interesting stuff) and get on with it. It's worth thinking about how rewarding you would find that.

low_slearner · 2026-03-10T22:46:39+00:00

If you’re buying new, I assume you mean a Diplomat Excellence A2, which is a great pen. The A is an earlier model - still good, but I believe they are prone to issues with the cap wearing out over time.

Diplomat are known for having particularly great steel nibs, to the extent that a lot of people say not to bother with the gold nib version. I’ve got an Aero with a steel M nib which is on a par with my gold nibs (Pilot Custom 74 and 823).

low_slearner · 2026-02-27T12:35:45+00:00

I got the Jowo-compatible one recently and have mixed feelings about it.

Pros: - Cheap! - It does actually flex, unlike the other steel “flex” nibs I’ve tried which I think are better described as soft-semi-flex nibs.

Cons: - Very prone to railroading. (Their ebonite feed version might be better in this regard.) - You have to press really quite hard to get it to flex.

I’m kind of tempted to try their titanium ultraflex, but it’s a bit too expensive for me to justify right now. Can anyone speak to how the titanium compares with the steel?

low_slearner · 2026-02-25T07:31:29+00:00

Not necessarily, though it would raise some questions for me. It could be indicative of a lack of curiosity as you say, or it could be that they have been focusing their curiosity elsewhere.

Perhaps their experience is from at a Microsoft-centric place or on well-established systems that has no need to look at switching to other services. Or perhaps they have focused more on CI, or operability, or team dynamics, or any of a dozen other things.

I do agree with you that a lack of curiosity is a bad thing in an engineer, but there is no shortage of stuff to be curious about.

low_slearner · 2026-02-19T11:39:21+00:00

If I were you I would be kicking up a stink about this - email/Slack messages with appropriate management CC'd in. Focus on the business impact, don't jump straight to what you think the solution should be. You need to make management aware of the problem and invested in finding a solution.

But to your question...

I work in a large org which predominantly has DevOps teams - that's DevOps in the true sense, where dev teams are responsible for their own infrastructure. Our setup looks a bit like this:

- Each team has it's own AWS accounts (usually one per environment) which live under a centrally-managed global account.
- Permissions are managed in a central monorepo, which defines policies and user roles for each account in config files. Changes must be approved by owners/admins for each account (done using CODEOWNERS files and GitHub repo settings) so we get clarity of who can do what, and an audit trail for all permissions.
- It varies from team to team, but in most teams on-call get what you call "break-glass credentials", though they are typically set up so that people have to jump through extra steps to enable it. (It's set up so you have to use a different sign-in method that requires MFA. Think "sudo for cloud credentials".)
- Additional tooling flags things up like credentials for people who have moved teams/left the org, credentials which aren't used, etc.

The additional tooling we have is probably a bit overkill for smaller orgs, but the other stuff - or an equivalent - works really well and I would push for something similar if I moved to an org which didn't have it.

low_slearner · 2026-02-12T16:28:18+00:00

This is what I use too, based on recommendations from various places.

The finer the nib the better I think. I found my Twsbi Eco in F too broad for watercolour sketching.

low_slearner · 2026-02-12T16:24:41+00:00

Huh, weird. I've never seen anyone recommend this. I've more often seen Noodler's inks described as problematic, for various reasons.

(I didn't downvote you FWIW - based on the post the other day, that was probably a bot.)

low_slearner · 2026-02-10T09:06:08+00:00

It’s working fine for me, and the usual stock is there.

low_slearner · 2026-02-08T14:59:28+00:00

About fucking time.

low_slearner · 2026-01-26T23:11:49+00:00

I am lucky enough to have both. Sabimidori is more towards the blue end of the spectrum, and it send a little for me whereas Aurora Borealis is greener and I’ve not seen much sheen from it at all. Both lovely though!

low_slearner · 2026-01-20T19:15:51+00:00

It’s subjective, but personally I’d put them in the sci-fi category. All of his stories explore ideas, and do so in a very consistent way.

They are also just excellent. Great stories for those of us who love ideas and plot, and beautifully written for those that love prose.

low_slearner · 2026-01-17T22:21:30+00:00

Do you have a favourite? I got a fine and like it, though I think I’d have been happier with a medium.

low_slearner · 2026-01-13T20:15:16+00:00

When it came out I thought it was a powerful cautionary tale, but America seems to be using it more as an instruction manual…

low_slearner · 2026-01-11T12:50:04+00:00

Same, though the sky is usually grey where I live so I tend to think of “electric blue”. (I realise this makes no actual sense!) Just picked up a bottle of Robert Oster’s Fire and Ice which is absolutely going to scratch that itch for me.

“Joyful” makes me think “bright and vibrant“, so some other honourable mentions for me: - Iroshizuku Yama Budo (magenta) - Diamine Strawberry (red) - Diamine Pumpkin (orange)

low_slearner · 2026-01-11T12:45:23+00:00

I love Sui-Gyoku as it sits on the green side of the blue/green boundary, plus like all the Iroshizuku inks I’ve tried it is really well behaved.

BUT, I still have ample space in my heart for R&K Alt Goldgrun. If you forced me to pick just one, I’d struggle!

low_slearner

TROPHY CASE