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bekavalentine.bsky.social
beka valentine
@bekavalentine.bsky.social
460 followers 280 following 3.5K posts
a dyke who hacks on things. she/xey/ey.

defnotbeka@twitter.com
beka_valentine@kolektiva.social
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bekavalentine.bsky.social
similarly, in the 1960s, airplane engine throttles had ball shaped knobs, and if you wanted to push the engines to high speed, you'd push the balls all the way forward against the wall dials, hence "balls to the wall"
some dusty old airplane dials and throttles with ball knobs
December 9, 2025 at 7:34 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
the earliest known instances of "balls out" is used in reference to centrifugal governors on steam engines, which maintain a specific engine speed. the governor spins a pair of balls which rise higher the faster it spins, and thus pinches off more fuel, maintaining speed
December 9, 2025 at 7:29 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
December 9, 2025 at 3:22 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
learned how to make screw threads and splines in OpenSCAD and used that to build a depthing tool inspired by ClickSpring's depthing tool

now I can learn how to make clocks :)
a knob handle with a spike and a negative spline, and a thicker spike with a threaded portion and a positive spline the spiked portion together with a nut that matches it. a second copy is mounted to a guide bar, with a compound gear on the thinner spike, and another gear sits behind them
December 6, 2025 at 11:59 PM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
@harvey1966.bsky.social 🤔🤔🤔
November 28, 2025 at 9:02 PM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
figuring out how to make good multi-layered laser cut parts using registration pins. ill probably make a video about it soon :)
a compound gear formed from an 8 layer small gear and a 2 split-layer large gear another large 2 split-layer gear, showing the horizontal split face the same large 2 split-layer gear, showing the vertical split face
November 27, 2025 at 3:20 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
a more typical comparison is this: the two point rectangle tool. in Fusion 360, it's just as informative as the move/copy tool is. but in FreeCAD? good luck!
Tooltip which says "Creates a rectangle using two points for the diagonal corners. Select the first point as the start of the rectangle. Select the second or specify the width and height values. Press Ctrl+/ for more help." Tooltip which reads "Create Rectangle. Creates a rectangle in the sketch. Sketcher_CompCreateRectangles"
November 27, 2025 at 12:01 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
compare that to FreeCAD's move tool tooltip. this is.. not great. it's fine I guess. slightly confusing. but this is also the best you'll get
tooltip which reads "Move (M, V). Moves the selected objects from one base point to another point. If the 'copy' option is active, it will create displaced copies. CTRL to snap, SHIFT to constraint. Draft_Move"
November 26, 2025 at 11:58 PM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
if you open up a new sketch in either of them, and have to learn what the different tools do, in Fusion 360 it's surprisingly easy. consider this tooltip that pops up when you hover over the Move/Copy button in the tool bar:
Tooltip which reads: "Move/Copy (m). Moves the selected face, body, sketch, or construction geometry a specified distance or angle. Select the objects to modify then specify the distance or angle. Use Set Pivot to reposition the manipulator. Press Ctrl+/ for more help." It also includes a picture of the tool in use on a blue selected cube.
November 26, 2025 at 11:49 PM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
but if you go to this video now, you can't find my comment at all. weird!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOU...

well, I thought so, anyway. so I looked in my YT comment history (support.google.com/youtube/answ...)

and this is what I found
An info box showing info on my comment, which it displays as being attached to a Chronova video
November 26, 2025 at 7:00 PM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
YouTube comments are DEEPLY broken and I have the evidence to prove it

two days ago I commented on a Utopian Scholastic montage music video:
A screenshot of my comment on this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOUNvMX-ws The comment shows as having been posted "0 seconds ago" and reads "I appreciate the time and effort you've put into all of your 90s aesthetics videos, thank you."
November 26, 2025 at 6:57 PM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
i noticed this after opening up a Kodak Brownie 2 movie camera that I bought recently and seeing the inside of the film cover's lip
the film compartment cover as a whole, showing a slot around the edges, inside which a cushioning piece of felt is located a close up side-lit view of the felt in the gap
November 23, 2025 at 10:16 PM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
i made another two, with half the sugar and no oil (and a vegan egg wash) but the crumb is the same:
November 11, 2025 at 7:06 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
just made this bread and gosh
two loaves of golden bread on a rack
November 10, 2025 at 6:23 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
a flat-shaded diagram showing the sun-earth-moon system with various orbital planes, orbital directions, and axes shown two diagrams. the first shows the earth-moon system with exaggerated eccentricity of the moon's orbit, and the same point on the moon marked with a triangle, showing how it only points directly to the earth at apogee and perigee and other times points toward the center of the ellipse of the orbit. the second shows the sun-earth-moon system again but with different labels and with more light-based shading
November 5, 2025 at 12:46 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
map of the US showing the locations of different installations that form the Space Surveillance Network, with transmitters in Gila River, Lake Kickapoo, and Jordan Lake, and receivers in Brown Field, Elephant Butte, Silver Lake, and Ft Stewart three diagrams. the first shows a cutaway of a Collen Position finger, some kind of instrument for navigation in space. the second is an austronauts view through the instrument, showing crosshairs over the edge of the earth and the big dipper above that. the third is a diagram showing how the position finger works, showing the plane through which the view line goes, the earth, the view line tangent off the earth, and a star being viewed diagram showing an abstracted sketch of a "TAD Coordinator", some kind of device for approximating orbital properties of a satellite. it consists of two concentric circles divided in half. the top half has radial lines forming a gentle spiral, the bottom half has semicircles of different sizes all tangent to the right edge of the outer circle. there is a graduated measurement line visible between both circles, at a slight off-vertical angle, one for each set of curved lines a diagram an abstracted version of a "spherical coordinator", some kind of device for a different kind of satellite orbit measurement. this shows a grid of latitude and longitude lines, seen from the inside of a sphere, with a graduated measurement line running diagonal
November 5, 2025 at 12:42 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
diagram showing the celestial sphere relative to the earth, including labels for various things like zenith, nadir, declination, celestial horizon, and so forth diagram showing the position of our galaxy in the universe, our solar system in the galaxy, and earth in the solar system, along with a scale diagram of the earth and moon, with the earth and moon's sizes double relative to their separation two diagrams. the first shows the relative sizes of the sun and planets, as well as their orbital sizes below; the second shows axial tilt of the moon relative to its orbital plane diagram showing the orbit of a satellite name ECHO, relative to the surface of the earth, showing its apogee and perigee
November 5, 2025 at 12:29 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
i got into Starfleet Academy, and this is the book you gotta study
cover of Space Navigation Handbook (NAVPERS 92988), a blue book with the earth and moon and a rocket
November 4, 2025 at 1:32 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
which is why the palantir logo is an org on a plinth

bsky.app/profile/kayi...
October 29, 2025 at 6:36 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
what is any of this? who knows! but its a fuckin vibe
burgundy tunics and hot pink fluorescent cubes and stark white blobjects
October 12, 2025 at 5:40 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
you cant make a guy like this anymore
another Blake's 7 guy, in a drab green tunic with slightly fluffy arms
October 12, 2025 at 5:33 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
i mean goodness, look at this guy
guy from Blake's 7 wearing a patchwork of fancy fabrics that look like a terrible scrapped together ren faire outfit
October 12, 2025 at 5:28 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
my loom's jacquard mechanism is working in full scale now! 20 heddles! ahaha :)

caution: loud noises
October 9, 2025 at 4:52 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
latest version of my jacquard mechanism, driven by a stepper motor, faster and more reliable and now programmable! :)
October 2, 2025 at 6:12 AM
bekavalentine.bsky.social
heres a dollar, buy yourself a sense of humor, kid
September 22, 2025 at 3:09 AM