Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

@HopelessDemigod @vk2tty @vk6flab Oh, and Frankenstein is kind of what I do, as long as it's solid and reliable, and does what it's supposed to do for a long time.

Speaking of long time, if you want to solder to stainless or ordinary steel, you can use hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid, pool acid) and it will work fine but won't last. the trapped chlorine atoms will react and the joint will fail in about a year. Use phosphoric acid instead.

@HopelessDemigod @vk2tty @vk6flab I'm ignoring the dangers of lead, of course. But this is how it was done when I was a kid. A blowtorch, bars of lead, and the right acid flux. You can solder to steel. What???

I chuckle when I see hams going through all kinds of commotions to connect with stainless antenna parts. Just solder it, man. What?

@HopelessDemigod @vk2tty @vk6flab It's stainless steelware so it's okay. ;-)

I've done it to break down the preconception that it's impossible to solder to steel, stainless, or nickel. A copper wire soldered to to a fork gets the message through.

I learned this long ago when "body work" on a car didn't involve the use of Bondo. You pulled out the dents and then filled with LEAD, not Bondo. How do you get lead to amalgamate with steel?

@AndyHarrison The rubes in Kentucky don't know that getting rid of immigrants means no more lettuce, tomatoes, celery, carrots, cantaloupes, parsley... on their table. They don't realize that immigrants have always been the lifeblood of the US economy. Not them.

@vk2tty @HopelessDemigod @vk6flab I use classic 63% lead solder with the highest flux percentage I can find for everything. I ignore whatever might be there already. Never had a problem.

If I need to solder steel or stainless steel or nickel I use Ruby flux and my regular solder. No problem. People are stunned to see me solder copper wires to stainless steel dinner forks, nickel plated US quarters, US nickels. Easy peasy.

@decodingtrolls The Rus have had a huge problem for hundreds of years. They stupidly settled on a large piece of land that's basically worthless. The only way they can get along is to prey on neighboring countries that didn't make such a stupid choice and are able to produce things like, you know, food.

When will the world figure out that Russia is a paper tiger with an economy the size of Spain's? Yes, Spain. (No offense to the Spaniards intended. The Spaniards don't pretend to be a world superpower.)

It's all bullshit, smoke, and mirrors. And they've been plagueing the world for hundreds of years. When will it end? Russia needs to be decisively crushed, once and for all, and all the occupants chased out into the real world.

The Ukraine war gave me hope that this might finally happen but then the USA elected Trump. So now I guess the corrupt shitshow that is Russia will continue.

@Gargron
I love Mastodon. Been here since 2018.

The main thing we need today is people who can afford to operate the instances they create. Running an instance with 30,000 active users requires server power that costs real money and takes technical skill to operate. Some server operators get in over their heads.

I participated in the capture of Google+ for posterity for the Internet Archive when it was ending. This was a real education in the enormity of server power and data storage required to run something like Google+, especially after they stopped throttling us. We're downloading how many gigabits per second??? Holy fucking shit. "Yeah, we found more servers in Thailand we can lease...yeah 10 Terabits per second more...okay..."

Running a large instance is not a hobby, it's real work and takes real money.

@joy @Gargron I am one of them. I will never forgive because of losing contact with some of my favorite people/

On the other hand, I understand why Google chose to get out of this part of the game. But, instead, we have the fediverse which I like very much.

@samiamsam Exactly. That's the routine.

@BlackAzizAnansi I don't know about Twitter but 12 years ago, when I "deleted" my account on Facebook, they said that they never delete anything. Deleting your account means it becomes invisible but nothing is ever deleted. They said they keep everything and have no idea how much stuff they have.

So I would assume the same is true for Twitter and the rest.

@claralistensprechen3rd @DemocracyMattersALot Hah, yeah. I don't understand it.

The other day some Republican politician said, "I've never met a woman that enjoys sex." I'm not the sort of person that's ever at a loss for words, but in this case I am. I don't even know how to react.

@GayDeceiver Makes sense, though. Christofascists, the biggest consumers of porn, get their biggest jollies when they think they are breaking the law or doing something wrong. So, they want to outlaw it.

@pixiecata I've been an FP jockey for 60 years. Jinhao makes great pens but you have to know what you're doing to fine tune and polish the nib, feed, etc. Once you do, you have a pen that will serve you pretty much forever. The same is true for old Sheaffer school pens.

I have fancy pens but my everyday writers are Jinhao's.

When it comes to how well the pen writes and works, price means nothing. Funny thing is my Jinhao pens are more striking and eye-catching than my "fancy" pens. When people see me writing, they are always the most interested in the Jinhao's, especially those with a big #6 nib. Ooooh, wow. The #6 nibs are the hardest to get working right but once you do they just go and go.

So yeah, if you write with a fountain pen to enjoy the writing experience and not to impress your friends, go with Jinhao, set the pen up properly, and write.

@DemocracyMattersALot A bunch of deluded white guys that think they can have this, and want it.

@darrenmorin Very cool. My father was born in 1891. Grandfather was born in 1863.