Do you or a loved one suffer from distorted 3D prints? Does your laser cutter produce parallelograms instead of rectangles? If so, you might be suffering from CNC skew miscalibration, and you could be entitled to significant compensation for your pain and suffering. Or, in the reality-based world, you could simply fix the problem yourself with this machine-vision skew correction system and get back to work.
If you want to put [Marius Wachtler]’s solution to work for you, it’s probably best to review his earlier work on pressure-advance correction. The tool-mounted endoscopic camera he used in that project is key to this one, but rather than monitoring a test print for optimum pressure settings, he’s using it to detect minor differences in the X-Y feed rates, which can turn what’s supposed to be a 90-degree angle into something else.
The key to detecting these problems is the so-called ChArUco board, which is a hybrid of a standard chess board pattern with ArUco markers added to the white squares. ArUco markers are a little like 2D barcodes in that they encode an identifier in an array of black and white pixels. [Marius] provides a PDF of a ChArUco that can be printed and pasted to a board, along with a skew correction program that analyzes the ChArUco pattern and produces Klipper commands to adjust for any skew detected in the X-Y plane. The video below goes over the basics.
Designer furniture generally comes with excellent aesthetics and (sometimes) functionality. However, such furniture comes with a price to match. One such piece of furniture is the Magis Spun Chair. It’s a striking piece with a fun party trick to match: it works like a top spinning while you sit inside. However, it has a prohibitively expensive price tag of $1,200 to match. That’s why [Morley Kert] is on a mission to build one for less.
This isn’t [Morley]’s first time building a spinning chair. The first attempt featured numerous 3D printed pieces glued together. It did not inspire confidence in spinning, nor was it a striking piece of furniture. So a revisit was in order.
This time around the chair’s construction was CNC milled plywood. Some surfaces featured 3D carving, but the majority were left raw with carving the final shape handled manually. Despite its size, the chair only took four and a half sheets of 3/4 inch plywood by hollowing out the base allowing for more efficient use of material. Once the router had completed the pieces, they were stacked and glued together. Each layer was aligned with hidden dowels making the assembly process fairly straightforward.
However, while usable, the chair looked rather unfinished, so [Morley] went to town on it with a power carving angle grinder. To ensure even carving on the circular profile of the chair, he placed it, or for some sections glued it, on an electronic lazy Susan. After some practice, the carving process turned out really well with a well-shaped and professional looking chair. Some wood varnish and a large amount of sanding finished up the chair very nicely for a total material cost of under $500.
Weekends can be busy for a lot of us, but sometimes you have one gloriously free and full of possibilities. If that’s you, you might consider taking a gander at [Peter Shirley]’s e-book “Learning Raytracing in One Weekend”. This gradient is the first image that the book talks you through producing. It ends with the spheres. This is very much a zero-to-hero kind of class: it starts out defining the PPM image format, which is easy to create and manipulate using nearly any language. The book uses C++, but as [Peter] points out in the introduction, you don’t have to follow along in that language; there won’t be anything unique to C++ you couldn’t implement in your language of choice.
There are many types of ray tracers. Technically, what you should end up with after the weekend ends is a path tracer. You won’t be replacing the Blender Cycles renderer with your weekend’s work, but you get some nice images and a place to build from. [Peter] manages to cram a lot of topics into a weekend, including diffuse materials, metals, dialectrics, diffraction, and camera classes with simple lens effects.
This weekend e-book shows that ray-tracing doesn’t have to be the darkest of occult sciences; it doesn’t need oodles of hardware, either. Even an Arduino can do it..
When making a personal website, one will naturally include a personal touch. What could be more personal than creating a font from your own handwriting? That’s what [Chris Smith] has done, and it looks great on his blog, which also has a post summarizing the process.
Like most of us [Chris] tried to use open-source toolkits first, but the workflow (and thus the result) was a bit wanting. Still, he details what it takes to create a font in Inkscape or Font Forge if anyone else wants to give it a try. Instead he ended up using a web app called Calligraphr designed for this exact use case. Above is hand written; below is the font. Aside from the lighting the difference isn’t obvious. Fair warning: the tool is closed-source and he needed to pay to get all the features he wanted — specifically ligatures, glyphs made from two joined letters. By adding ligatures his personalized font gets a little bit of variation, as the ‘l’ in an ‘lf’ ligature (for example) need not be identical to the stand-alone ‘l’. In a case of “you get what you pay for” the process worked great and to the credit of the folks at Calligraphr, while it is Software-As-Service they offer a one-time payment for one month’s use of the “pro” features. While nobody likes SaS, that’s a much more user-friendly way to do it — or perhaps “least-user-hostile”.
All [Chris] had to do was write out and scan a few sheets that you can see above, while the software handled most of the hard work automagically. [Chris] only had to apply a few tweaks to get the result you see here. Aside from websites, we could see a personalized font like this being a nice touch to laser cut, CNC or even 3D printed projects. If you don’t want a personalized touch, the “Gorton” lettering of retro machinery might be more to your liking.
We like to think that we can do almost anything. Give me a broken piece of consumer electronics, and I’ll open it up and kick the capacitors. Give me an embedded Linux machine, and I’ll poke around for a serial port and see if it’s running uboot. But my confidence suddenly pales when you hand me a smartphone.
Now that’s not to say that I’ve never replaced a broken screen or a camera module with OEM parts. The modern smartphone is actually a miracle of modularity, with most sub-assemblies being swappable, at least in principle, and depending on your taste for applying heat to loosen up whatever glue holds the damn things together.
That reminded me of [Scotty Allen]’s forays into cell-phone hackery that culminated in his building one completely from parts, and telling us all about it at Supercon ages ago. He told me that the turning point for him was realizing that if you have access to the tools to put it together and can get some of the impossibly small parts manufactured and/or assembled for you, that it’s just like putting a computer together.
So now I’ve seen two examples. [Scotty] put his together from parts, and [Marcin] actually got a new daughterboard made that interfaces with the USB to add a keyboard. Hardware hacking on a cellphone doesn’t sound entirely impossible. You’d probably want a cheap old used one, but the barrier to entry there isn’t that bad. You’ll probably have to buy some obscure connectors – they are tiny inside smartphones – and get some breakout boards made. But maybe it’s possible?
Anyone have more encouragement?
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@Giornalismo e disordine informativo articolo21.org/2025/09/aylan-n… Ve lo ricordate il piccolo Aylan Kurdi, il bambino curdo-siriano riverso sulla spiaggia turca di Bodrum? Aveva tre anni, era il settembre 2015 e l’immagine di quel bambino con la magliettina rossa, morto annegato durante uno dei tanti viaggi della speranza e della disperazione cui abbiamo assistito
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo articolo21.org/2025/09/enzo-ti… Ciò che mi aveva colpito di Enzo Tinarelli, nel periodo in cui insegnavamo entrambi all’Accademia di Carrara, ancor prima del suo talento innato era stata la spiccata indole di maestro. Forse suggestionato dalla sua origine ravennate, mi è sempre apparso un
🎭 Pacco a sorpresa – 10 Kg di meraviglie vintage su L'Isola che c'é.
Descrizione: Non è un semplice pacco. È un viaggio nel tempo, un tuffo nell’imprevisto, un rituale per chi ama l’insolito.
Su L'Isola che c'é ti propongo un pacco misterioso da circa 10 Kg, pieno di oggetti che raccontano storie dimenticate:
📚 Libri 🗞️ Riviste vintage 📖 Fumetti 🖼️ Manifesti 🧸 Oggettistica ❓ E altro ancora Ogni pacco è unico, assemblato con passione e un pizzico di mistero. Perfetto per collezionisti, appassionati di mercatini, creativi e anime curiose.
Questa' proposta sarà valida fino alle 13:07 di sabato 20 Settembre 2025
🎁 Un pacco a sorpresa di circa 10 kg che contiene libri, oggettistica, riviste vintage, fumetti, manifesti e altro.
🎭 Pacco a sorpresa – 10 Kg di meraviglie vintage su L'Isola che c'é.
Descrizione: Non è un semplice pacco. È un viaggio nel tempo, un tuffo nell’imprevisto, un rituale per chi ama l’insolito.
Su L'Isola che c'é ti propongo un pacco misterioso da circa 10 Kg, pieno di oggetti che raccontano storie dimenticate:
📚 Libri 🗞️ Riviste vintage 📖 Fumetti 🖼️ Manifesti 🧸 Oggettistica ❓ E altro ancora Ogni pacco è unico, assemblato con passione e un pizzico di mistero. Perfetto per collezionisti, appassionati di mercatini, creativi e anime curiose.
Questa' proposta sarà valida fino alle 13:07 di sabato 20 Settembre 2025
Roberto Vannacci ha ragione dicendoci che noi italiani da Nord a Sud dobbiamo essere uniti e che dobbiamo difenderci dagli immigrati subsahariani, magrebini e mediorientali che vengono ogni giorno coi barconi sulle nostre coste? Io dico si.
probabilmente sarebbe saggio che ognuno rimanesse solo nel suo quartiere. il resto deve essere tabù. niente viaggi fuori dal quartiere. e la pelle deve avere un colore preciso. canoni precisi per tutto. anche l'altezza deve essere italica o regionale. dobbiamo essere tutti più ariani: la perfezione.
P.S. ad andare al mare si diventa marocchini quindi non va bene.
Il summit dei Volenterosi, riunitosi questa settimana, ha evidenziato ancora una volta le divisioni tra gli Stati europei sul sostegno all’Ucraina. Francia e Regno Unito, principali promotori della Coalizione, si dicono pronti a impegnarsi boots
Il lavoro sporco per ora sembra all'Occidente un'operazione per il suo interesse, ma potremmo risvegliarci con lavori sporchi di altri (alleati o nemici) contro di noi se non combattiamo subito i crimini di guerra: fanrivista.it/2025/08/soldato-…
Che la supremazia strategica sia una diretta conseguenza di quella tecnologica è una costante della storia militare. Dall’invenzione della ruota all’avvento dell’intelligenza artificiale, la componente tecnologica ha sempre rivestito un ruolo di primo
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Coloni israeliani volontari, spesso senza la supervisione dei militari, abbattono le case dei palestinesi per conto di una società privata al servizio dell'esercito L'articolo Forza Uria: pagineesteri.it/2025/09/06/med…
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo L'indagine dell'agenzia di stampa rivela che le forze israeliane hanno utilizzato proiettili di carri armati ad alto potenziale per colpire il complesso ospedaliero di Khan Yunis, prendendolo di mira quattro volte, il tutto senza
Nonostante Pechino si sia sempre dichiarata neutrale rispetto al conflitto in Ucraina, le evidenze emerse recentemente dimostrano un coinvolgimento ben più concreto nella guerra di Vladimir Putin. La Cina, infatti, fornisce a Mosca componentistica e materiali essenziali
Tom Petty – la fondazione celebra Wildflowers con un regalo ai fans….. freezonemagazine.com/news/tom-… La fondazione Tom Petty ha celebrato il trentesimo anniversario di Wildflowers pubblicando un autentico tesoro per i fan: un filmato inedito delle prove accompagnato dalla struggente ballata Crawling Back To You. Il video d’archivio, diretto da Justin Kreutzmann, mostra le prove del tour Dogs With Wings del 1995 riprese dal
Tom Petty – la fondazione celebra Wildflowers con un regalo ai fans….. freezonemagazine.com/news/tom-… La fondazione Tom Petty ha celebrato il trentesimo anniversario di Wildflowers pubblicando un autentico tesoro per i fan: un filmato inedito delle prove accompagnato dalla struggente ballata Crawling Back To You. Il video d’archivio, diretto da Justin Kreutzmann, mostra le prove del tour Dogs With Wings del 1995 riprese dal
come accennavo nella precedente presentazione, cercavo un luogo dove poter far vetrina delle 'robe che cucio'.
sono completamente autodidatta e mi muovo con il passaparola per ricevere commissioni per consolidare tecniche e ampliare gli orizzonti, oltre che per guadagnarmi da vivere.
studio modellistica appena ho un attimo, ma mi appoggio anche ad artigiani modellisti che creano cartamodelli che poi cucirò per voi (adulti e bambini).
uso solo tessuti certificati, da rivenditori scelti.
come piattaforma ho scelto di utilizzare Pixelfed.uno.
sperando di non sbagliare proverò a linkare la mia vetrina.
fatemi sapere se l'operazione è andata a buon fine, grazie
Abito bimba in popeline 100% cotone certificato GOTS. Cucio robe tentando di guadagnarmi da vivere. Cucio più o meno di tutto. Autodidatta, ho iniziato un anno fa e sono aperta a sperimentazioni. Studio modellistica nelle ore buche e propongo prezzi accessibili che mi consentano di cucire sempre di più e sempre con più precisione e tecnica. Se sei interessat*, contattami!
We were pleasantly surprised when congressional Republicans introduced our farewell article to the former president, titled Biden’s press freedom legacy: Empty words and hypocrisy, into the record at a House Judiciary Committee hearing this week.
That’s great — it’s always nice to have our work recognized. But if Republican lawmakers agree with us that former President Joe Biden was bad on press freedom, someone should really tell them about this Donald Trump character who’s in office now. All the abuses we identified in the article Republicans cited have (as the article predicted) worsened under the new president, and he’s come up with plenty of new ones too.
We wrote a letter to let the committee know that if it’s serious about addressing the issues our article discussed, regardless of who is in the White House, we’re here to help. We’ll let you know if they reply (but don’t hold your breath). Read the letter here or below.
For 164 days, Rümeysa Öztürk has faced deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and for 83 days, Mario Guevara has been imprisoned for covering a protest. Read on for more, and click here to subscribe to our other newsletters.
Recording police is not ‘violence’
It was bad enough when government officials claimed that journalists are inciting violence by reporting. But now, they’re accusing reporters of actually committing violence.
The supposed violence by reporters? Recording videos. At least three times recently, a government official or lawyer has argued that simply recording law enforcement or Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers is a form of violence. Read more here.
Thanks for citing us, House Republicans. Now do something
That’s great — it’s always nice to have our work recognized. But if these lawmakers agree with us that former President Joe Biden was bad on press freedom, someone should really tell them about this Donald Trump character who’s in office now. All the abuses we identified in the article Republicans cited have (as the article predicted) worsened under the new president, and he’s come up with plenty of new ones too.
We wrote a letter to let the committee know that if it’s serious about addressing the issues our article discussed, regardless of who is in office, we’re here to help. We’ll let you know if they reply (but don’t hold your breath). Read the letter here.
Will secret law prevail in drug boat massacre?
The Trump administration has not provided any legal justification for blowing up a boat carrying 11 alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers on the Caribbean Sea. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out if lawyers at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel were consulted before the slaughter and, if so, what they said.
If there is an OLC opinion about the targeting of the Venezuelan boat, the public and Congress should be able to debate it right now. Unfortunately, the government has long taken the position that OLC opinions should be secret, even though there should be no such thing as secret law in the United States. Read more here, and, if you want to learn more about government secrecy and what we’re doing to combat it, subscribe to The Classifieds.
Stop the judicial secrecy bill
An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would allow lawmakers to scrub information about themselves from the internet. The bill fails to achieve its stated purpose of keeping lawmakers safe — except from investigative journalism.
This week we helped lead a letter to senators from press freedom and civil liberties organizations objecting to the misguided legislation. Even if the NDAA amendment does not succeed, it’s likely that this bill will be back, and we’ll be ready to fight it. Read the letter here.
ICE revives contract for spyware
In 2023, Biden issued an executive order limiting government use of commercial spyware. Subsequently, the Biden administration issued a stop-work order on a $2 million contract between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Paragon, a spyware vendor that makes products that have reportedly been used to spy on journalists.
Editor and Publisher Trump’s anti-press rhetoric is “not bluster; it is not a personality trait. It is deliberate,” our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s Stephanie Sugars said. “It is very much at the cost of the strength of our social fabric and our shared reality.”
RSF Great work by our friends at Reporters Without Borders organizing this response to Israel’s slaughter of journalists in Gaza. It’s unfortunate that more U.S. outlets did not participate. If the outlets you support were not among the few, ask them why.
The Dissenter We spoke to The Dissenter about the Illinois Supreme Court’s ridiculous ruling that the state’s law against strategic lawsuits against public participation doesn’t protect reporting, and the recently passed bill to repair the damage.
The New York Times We talked to the Times about influencers replacing journalists at the White House. Yes, it’s awful that Trump won’t grant reporters the honor of getting lied to at press briefings. But the decimation of FOIA — a source of facts, not spin — is even more concerning.
The Hill Kristi Noem’s complaints underscore why news outlets can’t settle frivolous lawsuits. Now, the door is wide open for government officials to question every editing decision news outlets make, whether to shorten an interview for time or to not air lies and nonsense.
Reason A good recap of why “originalist” attacks on the actual malice standard — which limits defamation claims by public figures — are so disingenuous.
