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How can I improve my handwriting?
  • Practice writing slowly and with good form. Write regularly, give yourself practice pieces. At uni you will be writing FAST, so it'll get worse if you don't keep disciplined.

    Alternatively, learn to touch type, and type any work you need to hand in. - if your handwriting is so bad, you may want to make your notes legible to yourself for revision.

  • Long term storage of LiPo device

    I want to store a battery powered device long term (decades) as a reference article, it will never be switched on or charged again. The problem is that it contains a small LiPo battery that will be very hard to remove.

    Is there likely to be any significant risk I need to worry about? Once depleted will the battery be relatively inert?

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    Suggestion for mounting ServoMotor on the door for Automatic Door Unlock with ESPHome on ESP32
  • While I'm not adverse to home automation, is this something you need in your life, or just want? I like my perimeter security too be simple and tight, extra complications make the security audit much harder.

    Will your insurance stand up to home made remote control unlocking?

    To answer your question, place the servo in a suitably large enclosure and practically any adhesive should work, e.g. 3mM command strips or even velcro or double sided sticky. When confident that this is what you want, use a screw.

  • Does anyone speak hairdresser? I need help communicating.
  • I've avoided the conversation entirely. Ever since the pandemic I've done my own hair with clippers. Made a good enough job of it, even if I've sometimes needed to do a small adjustment the next day.

    For a simple style it's not that difficult if you take your time.

  • Blue hours
  • It's a long time since I had one that age but we clearly noticed when the kids had an upgrade and behaviour changed. I'd put it down to him enjoying his new capabilities and being to excited to sleep. Don't think it's a problem, just roll with it, it's not as if it's a toy you can take away!

    Have fun, it doesn't get much easier, but it does get different.

  • Any tips to help a scientist become a better programmer?
  • All the other comments are great advice. As an ex chemist who does quite a bit of code I'll add:

    Do you want code that works, or code that works?! It's reasonably easy to knock out ugly code that only works once, and that can be just what you need. It takes a little more effort however to make it robust. Think about how it can fail and trap the failures. If you're sharing code with others, this is even more important a people do 'interesting' things.

    There's a lot of temporary code that's had a very long life in production, this has technical debt... Is it documented? Is it stable? Is it secure? Ideally it should be

    Code examples on the first page of Google tend to work ok, but are not generally secure, e.g doing SQL queries instead of using prepared statements. Doesn't take much extra effort to do it properly and gives you peace of mind. We create sboms for our code now so we can easily check if a component has gained a vulnerability. Doesn't mean our code is good, but it helps. You don't really want to be the person who's code helped let an attacker in.

    Any code you write, especially stuff you share will give you a support and maintenance task long term. Pirate for it!

    Code sometimes just stops working. - at least I'm my experience. Sacrifice something to the gods and all will be fine.

    Finally, you probably know more than you think. You've plenty of experience. Most of the time I can do what I need without e.g. classes, but sometimes I'll intentionally use a technique in a project just to learn it. I can't learn stuff if I don't have a use for it.

    I'm still learning, so if I've got any part of the above wrong, please help me out.

  • What are some good places to visit in Scotland?
  • There's a lot of Scotland, and don't underestimate driving times. Argyll is good, but can be rather wet any time of the year. Going around now you should be safe from the midgies. Recommend getting onto some of the islands too, and boat rides are always nice. Kerrera is a lovely little island just by Oban. It has a very atmospheric castle, though the teashop isn't as good as it was so pack a lunch. If you like a dram, make a tour of some distilleries, each has it's own character. Argyll has lots of archeology & standing stones if that's your thing. There are loads of lumpy bits of you like walking too. Pretty much anywhere is good, tourist hotspot are ok, but try to get off the beaten track once in a while.

    If you're driving, and going onto country roads, please please please learn to reverse.

    If you're lucky you may get to spot some wild haggis, but they're quite rare now. The farmed ones are cute but have a nasty bite so be careful.

    Also don't neglect the borders, loads of history.

    It may not sound your thing, but consider geocaching... It takes you to some interesting out of the way places.

  • World facing ‘hellish’ 3C of climate heating, UN warns before Cop28
  • It's in Dubai, right? Simple solution, turn off the Aircon half way through the meeting just to show them what excessive temperature is like.

    Don't let them out until a decision is reached!

    Ok, it wouldn't be constructive, but it'd be good to see all the fossil fuel lobbyists sweating, even if just for an hour.

  • Scottish minister blames sons watching football for £11,000 iPad roaming bill
  • Why wasn't there security on the device? My works devices are password protected and it's a disciplinary offence if I share passwords or give unauthorized access.

    If he gave them the login creds, then he should be penalised .

    If he logged in and gave the device to non parliamentary staff, he should also be penalised.

    He got caught because it cost money, which is the lesser offence. Cyber security should be more robust for ministers than it is for most companies, but seemingly not.

  • Anyone try a tens unit?
  • Have used one for muscular problems in the past with success. The pads have to be in the right place, and the settings right before it works properly, so there may be some experimentation needed.

    If it's running and a pad comes loose you get an 'exciting' shock.

    Don't think they can be used permanently.

    If it's muscle spasms, have you checked for electrical problems like a trapped nerve?

    Good luck with the pain management.

  • New Build

    Do self build watches get the love in here?

    This is my second build, I wanted a more relaxed every day watch with good readability as my eyesight is starting to go. I also fancied a bronze case and will let the patina form naturally. Any scratches, marks or dings will, I think, add character.

    Inside is a Seiko nh36 to give me some options later if decide I need day/date.

    Thought I'd made a mistake with the white hands but now really like them. It's nothing special or expensive but it meets my needs perfectly.

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    Arduino @lemmy.ml RandomUser @lemmy.world
    Finished my Display board application

    Project was to display tide information (time and height) on an LED panel. Fingers crossed the image loads!

    OK, it's not an Arduino as such, it's an ESP32, but I programmed it on the arduino IDE. I get the time from an NTP time server and tide data from an API. A bit of messing around with daylight savings times and I display the next four tides on the Hub75 LED matrix. Date and clock is shown on the other side. Every 24 hours I pull new data down and sync the clock.

    The good: It works as planned.

    The bad: API keys and wifi creds are all hard coded so will need a firmware update if either change. Don't think I have sufficient pins left to allow me to read from an SD card.

    The ugly: The wiring behind it is not beautiful. The code could do with a review and tidy. - Maybe even a bit of error handling wouldn't go amiss. Red and Blue are a bit jarring so close together and the blue is a bit swamped , especially when the brightness is turned down.

    I may make an enclosure to keep it all together and keep the dust off and add a pir sensor to turn the display off when there's no movement. Or I may get bored and dismantle it!

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    slate clock restoration

    I bought a slate clock as a restoration project but didn't spot at the time that it had been painted black.

    Any advice on how to remove the paint without causing damage? Will commercial paint stepper do the job?

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    Arduino @lemmy.ml RandomUser @lemmy.world
    What projects have everyone ongoing?

    While not quite Arduino, I have an ESP32 (Arduino IDE) project to pull tide data via API and show it on a HUB75 led matrix. I've got most of the parts working separately but not quite got them all together yet. What is everyone else doing?

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    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)RA
    RandomUser @lemmy.world
    Posts 5
    Comments 28