AskKbin

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FlashZordon, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?

Been into computer hardware for not very long and got dragged into the Small Form Factor PC space immediately.

The pinnacle for me for a while what getting recent hardware into a PC case as small as a shoebox

I've started with PCs as small as 20L and now have my PC in a case less that 10L. The urge to go smaller while maintaining the same amount of power is hard to resist.

There are others doing full custom watercooling loops in PCs smaller than mine but that is a whole other rabbit hole i don't think i am ready for.

penguin,

In your experienced opinion, what's a good horizontal sff case that can fit in an area around the size of an old Xbox One? I want to build a pc for the tv and the media cabinet it's on has spaces that comfortably fit consoles.

Pseu, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@Pseu@kbin.social avatar

A good quality micrometer. Some will go for the classic Starett, others will get a modern digital Mitutoyo. Doesn't matter if it's a lathe or mill guy, CNC or manual. Any decent machinist will have their mic.

bozo, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@bozo@kbin.social avatar

CRT monitors: the Intergraph Interview 28HD96, informally known as the "Carmacktron" (see picture)

A true 16:9 aspect ratio PC CRT monitor with a maximum output of 2042x1152 @ 80Hz. Not the highest horizontal frequency out there but an absolute monster in 1995.

Edit: Check out https://kbin.social/m/CRTs if you're into this shit 👍

50gp,

that must weight a ton

Fulthi,

Right? It's huge!

Xeelee,
@Xeelee@kbin.social avatar

I had one like that in the late nineties. Felt like pure luxury at the time.

AttackBunny, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@AttackBunny@kbin.social avatar

Modifying cars. Both hobby and profession.

10mm socket. Those bastards always grow legs.

Honestly, high quality tools. Typically Snap-On. And then it just becomes about the circles you run in.

In the RX7 community, a running car, that still has a rotary in it, is like the 1%

Overall Japanese classic cars it’s about certain name brands.

iNeedScissors67, in Why do downvotes affect karma, but upvotes don't?
@iNeedScissors67@kbin.social avatar

It's on slate to be changed I believe, but the focus right now is just on keeping the site up and running.

PositiveNoise,
@PositiveNoise@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, it's best to view the current system as very temporary.

Xeelee,
@Xeelee@kbin.social avatar

Oh noes! I cannot has my imaginary internet points! sad kitty noises

Flaky_Fish69, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@Flaky_Fish69@kbin.social avatar

for all the keyboard peeps.....

https://fluxkeyboard.com/

Gimmick or... do you think the hall effect keys might not be as bad as chicklets? I'm intrigued by the ability to clean it easily. (the keyboard frame itself pops off and can be rinsed.) Not sure I want a screen under it, though.

problem_chimp,

Mechanical keyboard peep here, and to me that's very gimmicky.

swan_pr, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@swan_pr@kbin.social avatar

Knitting can be quite fun and somewhat low cost if you don't get influenced too much. But ask any knitter about their stash and you'll discover we're all hoarders who will not hesitate to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a single skein of hand died yarn (in the ugliest colours) that most likely will end up in the stash and never get knitted. Tools are the same. Why settle for a very basic and fully functional set of needles when you can get the most expensive one?

If you know a knitter, just know they are most likely sitting on a small fortune worth of yarn and tools.

patchw3rk,
@patchw3rk@kbin.social avatar

My wife took up knitting one summer and now we're stuck with this huge stash of yarn.

huckleberry,
@huckleberry@kbin.social avatar

As my GF likes to say, buying yarn and knitting are 2 different hobbies.

Badabinski,

This is a highly contagious problem, and it effects those who crochet as well. I uh, got the bug and made this yard winder from scratch for my girlfriend lol. I use it too, when I get nice yarn in hanks, but it was wildly unnecessary.

Oops, here's the photo: A solid steel yarn winder, mounted on a black walnut base with brass legs and sorbothane feet

-spam-, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@-spam-@kbin.social avatar

Two for me.

For simracing - a set of pedals with a load cell brake. Building muscle memory for the force you push on the brake is so much better than trying to be consistent with the angle of your ankle. The consistency you can achieve with braking is unreal.

Home espresso - a set of accurate scales and a timer. Reducing variables when trying to dial in a new bag of beans or when chasing that perfect cup is so handy. Like the the load cell brakes for sim racing, it allows you to be consistent and just change small things at a time and then stick to what works.

AmbientChaos,

You seem like a very cool person, same exact hobbies for me!

For sim racing everyone in my groups are losing there minds over MOZA hardware. I had the chance to try an R9 and instantly fell in love

For Espresso all my friends are still obsess with the Niche Zero and the Decent Espresso DE1. I roast on a Ailio Bullet and am still very obsessed with it!

Mikelius, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?

For guitarists you have either the 100% analog guys that can spend tens of thousands on a collection of amps, or the ones that went more digital with modelers. The big ones being the Kemper, Fractal, Nueral DSP and Line 6. I have the Quad Cortex and it's a killer, thought I wish the rate of updates was a little faster.

AttackBunny,
@AttackBunny@kbin.social avatar

Tube amps always sound better. Just saying.

Can we tell which category I fall into?

dismalnow,
@dismalnow@kbin.social avatar

Can we tell which category I fall into?

Forearms that can carry a boogie stack from the van to the stage by their damned selves.

That category.

AttackBunny,
@AttackBunny@kbin.social avatar

You know what? Fair enough.

dismalnow,
@dismalnow@kbin.social avatar

I pined over the Dual Rev G when I could actually use one as a gigging guitarist in the 90's - but, as a gigging guitarist, I couldn't afford one.

Now I have a bad back, but it's a Marshall bad back. So I guess it all worked out.

Jimi_Hotsauce,

I like to split the difference and use one of those nutube amps, I got a voxmv50 AC and it works very well for what I do. Tube purists will stick their noses up, modeling people will gawk at the lack of features, but for someone who doesn't even use reverb or delay it's perfect. (Plus it weighs nothing!)

AttackBunny,
@AttackBunny@kbin.social avatar

If it sounds good, I’m into it. I’ve seen really, really expensive amps sound horrible, and relatively cheap ones sound great. But pretty universally, I prefer tubes amps sound.

peppersnail, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@peppersnail@kbin.social avatar

I have electronically actuated (as opposed to cable actuated) gear shifting on my bike. It's becoming way more common these days, though...but still, it's a pretty expensive piece of kit for quite marginal gains.

Fulthi,

I didn't even know that was a thing.

xenos,
@xenos@kbin.social avatar

Woah that sounds amazing, how much of the system is electronic? Is the derailleur itself controlled by a servo?

peppersnail,
@peppersnail@kbin.social avatar

Front and rear derailleurs are servo controlled. These connect to a central unit that also has the shifters connected to it. This central unit can communicate with a bike computer (via ant+) to show gearing.

In addition, you can set it up so that when you shift the front derailleur, it automatically moves the rear derailler. You might want to do this in order to keep roughly the same gear ratio when changing chainrings. Or, there is a mode where you just shift up and down, and the system manages the shift for you, shifting either (or both) derailleurs, simulating a 1x drivetrain.

All of the popular group sets have a version of this: shimano, sram, and campagnolo.

It’s very expensive lol

parrot-party,
@parrot-party@kbin.social avatar

Is it battery operated then or is there a vampire circuit from the pedal power?

SentientMattress,
@SentientMattress@kbin.social avatar

Modern drivetrains are great but I love the feeling of friction shifters. It's like driving an old pickup with a manual transmission.

peppersnail,
@peppersnail@kbin.social avatar

Nothing wrong with that. There’s something to be said for going with simplicity. Way easier to fix if something goes wrong. If I was doing some really hardcore touring through remote areas, I would definitely favor friction shifters for this reason.

Xeelee,
@Xeelee@kbin.social avatar

How's the dental practice doing, Fred?

JWBananas, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@JWBananas@kbin.social avatar

A good bench scraper is useful for anything you do on a cutting board.

LoFi-Enchilada, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?
@LoFi-Enchilada@kbin.social avatar

iPad Pro.

First Apple product I've purchased since the 2005 iPod Video. It does live to its hype for publicists/designers: Ridiculously powerful/optimized device for its form factor, P3 color calibrated 120Hz display covered by laminated glass, and with the support of software like Nomad Sculpt, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher, Procreate, DaVinci Resolve, Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro.

I think the only thing we're missing is a hard-surface modeling package like Blender, and actually usable IDEs like JetBrains Rider, but this thing which is the size and weight of a magazine is already an amazing professional toolbox.

HidingCat,

As a photographer who also did some video services, I simply cannot imagine doing work on that tiny screen and limited storage space without a full blown OS. I don't know how some of you do it.

LoFi-Enchilada,
@LoFi-Enchilada@kbin.social avatar

It's super easy and comfortable, actually. The only thing that might bother me a little is iPadOS, which has been a little buggy lately. Otherwise, 13 inches of screen and storage isn't an issue at all.

The screen is not small IMO. If it is for you, you can hook it up to an external display via USB-C to USB-C/HDMI or wirelessly via Airplay and basically turn it into a laptop/desktop with all the bells and whistles like external sound cards, keyboards, mice, external displays, MIDI instruments, microphones, HDDs/SSDs, etc.

I went for the 256 GB model which always has 100+GB of free storage because I always archive the finished projects onto either cloud or my own server, and delete them from my PC/iPad. Storage has never been an issue for me for as long as I can remember, but the iPads go up to 2 TB of internal memory.

I think that my only frustration with this thing is that it has the same hardware as the iMac/MacBook, and only because of the OS I can't install desktop programs on it. In your case, what part of a full-blown OS would you miss if you were to use an iPad to edit photos?

HidingCat,

I work on two 30"+ monitors; 11-13" for a secondary machine is fine, but if it's my main I want bigger, and if I'm hooking all that up I might as well work on a desktop system that has a much higher TDP limit; power and flexibility-wise I don't think a tablet is something I'd be happy to settle with. This is before I get to the OS even, where I don't like not working with a full-fledge file system and a command line. And proper multitasking too.

exohuman, in How are some NSFW magazines or instances coming through to the kbin.soical sidebar?
@exohuman@kbin.social avatar

This is a problem. Some NSFW communities are not tagging their posts NSFW. I like that we have NSFW content, but something needs to be done about communities that aren’t tagging. It’s getting ridiculous. Report them and then block them.

a_mac_and_con,
@a_mac_and_con@kbin.social avatar

That is one possibility, but I've noticed that communities/magazines/domains I have blocked show up in the sidebar and when I use the search engine. So I don't think the block function is working completely.

EmptyRadar, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?

I'm into 3D printing, so for me right now the piece of kit I'm drooling over is the X1 Carbon by Bambu Lab. It has a lot of fancy features but what I most want is the 16-color mixer. It would be great because it would significantly reduce the painting overhead. I'm hoping to have it before the end of the year, if there's not something fancier out by then.

keeb420,

damn you i need to save money not spend it.

Devi, in What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?

In reef aquariums people are currently obsessed with this -

https://charterhouse-aquatics.com/shop/aquatics/pumps/aqua-illumination/ai-nero-5-powerhead

It moves water. Not anywhere in particular, just makes it move within the tank. It does this job quite well. It sounds ridiculous when you try to explain it to anyone that's not part of the hobby.

Eykha,
@Eykha@kbin.social avatar

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  • Devi,

    It's good for the corals, they like being bashed about a bit, like the waves would in the sea. Corals are very weird animals.

    HidingCat,

    Marine tanks are just full of weird things. Love hearing the stories from friends and acquaintances who're into it.

    keeb420,

    my mom had one growing up. the person we got it from had a maroon clownfish that was full size. it would sometimes attack when my mom was doing stuff in the tank and even drew blood. she ended up trading it in to the dealer she bought stuff from and he put it in his display tank. youd think with now much she spent on the thing wed have had a generator of some kind but nope. i even suggested it. it sucked having to clean the tank after losing power for a week from a hurricane or winter storm.

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