Donald Bell 🦋 @donaldbell.bsky.social

This week on Maker Update, taking your filament for a spin, a solderless USB port, adapting your eBike to the EV grid, and getting your coffee under control.

In a moment like this, when tensions are high, part of the job of the president is to remind us of the ties that bind us together.

Trump’s authoritarianism in real time: ▪️Conduct massive illegal raids.   ▪️Provoke a counter-response.   ▪️Declare a state of emergency.   ▪️Call in the troops. Unacceptable.

I have formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command. We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed. Rescind the order. Return control to California.

I found a 3D printed bar. 🍻 youtube.com/shorts/HaRGnhb…

It's time for @MakerProjectLab #MakerUpdate! 🥳 Projects this week🛠️ : IG: makewithmiles, @simpsoka @Hackadayio @ruthgracewong CriptasticHacker Andy Geppert @instructables @joshxarles @jeremy_fielding @Slant3D #3Dprinting @Makerio @DigikeyEU

If you found this post helpful, consider amplifying it. If you see trolls commenting on it, consider that it may be the actions of a company doing damage control.

Considering that their customers are probably older people with large print photo collections, you may want to see if your parents or relatives have used @scancafe recently and are seeing monthly charges for a service they may not have wanted.

I did something stupid. If you've used @scancafe recently, I recommend checking your credit card to see if you made the same mistake. I had some old photos scanned and unintentionally ended up paying $9.99/mo to keep an online backup of these photos. Thread. 🧵

This week's @MakerProjectLab Maker Update is #LIVE! Watch 📹: Handy Geng, @make, @hackaday, @hackadayio, Clay Builds, @core77, @EMSL, The Byte Sized Engineer #3Dprinter @bantamtools @makerio @digikeyeu

The @MakerProjectLab Maker Update is #LIVE! 👇 Featuring 🤩: @TheNerdforge ☕ IG: @aaronfisherdesign 📹 IG @sparksandcode @make #opensource 😃👀🙌 @OpenMoji @geerlingguy TheCrafsMan @adafruit @makerio @digikeyeu

1/4 Additional new bits of advice I wished I had known earlier (not in my book), as my gift on my 73 birthday: • The best way to criticize something is to make something better. • Admitting that “I don’t know” at least once a day will make you a better person. • Forget trying to decide what your life’s destiny is. That’s too grand. Instead, just figure out what you should do in the next 2 years. • Aim to be effective, but unpredictable. That is, you want to act in a way that AIs have trouble modeling or imitating. That makes you irreplaceable. • Whenever you hug someone, be the last to let go. • Don’t save up the good stuff (fancy wine, or china) for that rare occasion that will never happen; instead use them whenever you can. • The best gardening advice: find what you can grow well and grow lots and lots of it. • Never hesitate to invest in yourself—to pay for a class, a course, a new skill. These modest expenditures pay outsized dividends. • Try to define yourself by what you love and embrace, rather than what you hate and refuse. • Read a lot of history so you can understand how weird the past was; that way you will be comfortable with how weird the future will be. • To make a room luxurious, remove things, rather than add things. •  your parents while they are still alive. Keep asking questions while you record. You’ll learn amazing things. Or hire someone to make their story into an oral history, or documentary, or book. This will be a tremendous gift to them and to your family. • If you think someone is normal, you don’t know them very well. Normalcy is a fiction. Your job is to discover their weird genius. • When shopping for anything physical (souvenirs, furniture, books, tools, shoes, equipment), ask yourself: where will this go? Don’t buy it unless there is a place it can live. Something may need to leave in order for something else to come in. • You owe everyone a second chance, but not a third. • When someone texts you they are running late, double the time they give you. If they say they’ll be there in 5, make that 10; if 10, it’ll be 20; if 20, count on 40. • Multitasking is a myth. Don’t text while walking, running, biking or driving. Nobody will miss you if you just stop for a minute. • You can become the world’s best in something primarily by caring more about it than anyone else. • Asking “what-if?” about your past is a waste of time; asking “what-if?” about your future is tremendously productive. • Try to make the kind of art and things that will inspire others to make art and things. • Once a month take a different route home, enter your house by a different door, and sit in a different chair at dinner. No ruts. • Where you live—what city, what country—has more impact on your well being than any other factor. Where you live is one of the few things in your life you can choose and change. • Every now and then throw a memorable party. The price will be steep, but long afterwards you will remember the party, whereas you won’t remember how much is in your checking account. • Most arguments are not really about the argument, so most arguments can’t be won by arguing. • The surest way to be successful is to invent your own definition of success. Shoot your arrows first and then paint a bull’s eye around where they land. You’re the winner!

Get ready for the @MakerProjectLab Maker Update! #GoodStuff Featuring: @ECEILLINOIS 🏍️🤖 @IEEESpectrum @OpenSauceLive @instructables @adafruit @morefunmakingit @HakkoUSA @drunkenwood @makerio @digikeyeu @donald #Maker #projects #FridayFeeling

This week on Maker Update: a Pi clicker, a credit card-sized cyberdeck, losing all your marbles and a better tape measure. 🤩: @makerprojectlab @JBVCreative @adafruit @TheNerdforge @BlitzCityDIY @instructables @laura_kampf @TomorrowLabNYC @donald @MakerIO @DigiKeyEU

Let's get small 🤏 in this week's @MakerProjectLab Maker Update! 🙌 Appearing this week: @Hackaday @Hackadayio @adafruit @make @bekathwia @Makerio @Digikeyeu

An Ear for Art - @MakerProjectLab Maker Update Featuring 🤩: 🎃 @Hackaday @Hackadayio @instructables #contests @Adafruit @printablescom #project @Makerio

This week on Maker Update: Top shelf Industrial Design, a seriies of tubes, solder paste ejectors, and quantity over quality. 🤩: @makerprojectlab @makerio Link below

📣The @MakerProjectLab Maker Update is out! #StayTuned for: Workshop Nation, Useful Sensors, @wickedmakers Huggy Wuggy #animatronics, XPR kit via @sparkfun, @arduino Programming Electronics, @makerio #Maker #Projects #AI

🎶 I Think I'm a Clone Now 🎵 in this Maker Update 🤩: @hungtruong @hackaday @hackadayio @UofMaryland @make @rydercalmdown @github @arduino @M5Stack @makerio @MakerProjectLab #project #electronics #AI