iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

this is from my first test roll of arista 400 I put through mine. the very long test roll... 48 shots is a slog lmao.

a tall, skinny watertower on thin spindly legs, viewed through the riveted steel lattice frame of an old railroad bridge. the sky is a uniform off-white , and the few trees visible are leaf-less.

Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

it does work just fine, however, even with LED bulbs, which is especially remarkable as the latest this could've possibly been made was almost a century ago. 😬

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

swimming myself upstream, I guess.

a porcelain and brass Wirt 'Dim-A-Lite' lamp dimmer, designed to screw into a standard medium-base Edison socket, with two string tassles hanging down to allow adjusting the rheostat inside, laid out on a glass tabletop surface.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

anyway yes I did just get this beautiful hobnail hurricane lamp with a swiveling cast iron wall bracket for $8.99

an intricate art nouveau-style cast iron wall sconce, slightly rusted, with a hobnail shade and clear glass chimney, laying on top of a bunch of priority mailer boxes used as a photo backdrop.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

I'm paid to make management mad by exposing them to the reality that the company's material possessions are all old and broken

white text on a black background, reading:
"poorly explain what you do for a job."

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

not really an apt metaphorical comparison when both subjects (myself & the below automobile) are moreso the eponymous dorian grey rather than the picture of

a grainy black&white film quarter-angle photo of the front right side of my 1989 SAAB 900 Turbo hatchback coupe, parked in our driveway on a rainy fall day, with part of our front porch and the two houses across the street visible in the foreground and background (respectively).

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

people talking about bicycles got me dreaming of spring

a black&white film photo of my Gary Fisher Marlin 26" mountain bike leaning on its stand in some grass, against a brightly lit wall of woodland. both frame-mounted bottle holders are occupied, and there's a plastic crate with a lunchbox crammed inside bungie-corded to the rear rack.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

given said thermostat is a 1930's Minneapolis Honeywell 'Acratherm' doing otherwise would hurt my soul

a tall, thin 'Art Deco' style thermostat painted a metallic beige, with the setpoint selection knob sticking out of the top, and a mercury bulb thermometer in a scale along the center front, mounted on a black wall next to a white doorframe vertical.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

extra fun when you realize it was coming from around the vicinity of this grave monument:

a carved limestone grave monument of a winged female angle, hands loosely clasped above her navel, looking downward toward the grave, the underneath of both eyes streaked with black mildew growth.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

on a long enough timeline those weird super cheap, super wide-angle 35mm cameras will become cool.

my left hand holding a very yellow cheap plastic 35mm 'PANORAMA' camera from the early 1990's against the backdrop of our yellow kitchen cabinets, vintage floral-patterned vinyl runner rug, and black wood floor.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

it's БелОМО Агат-18К time

my left hand holding a БелОМО Агат-18К, a compact black plastic 35mm half-frame film camera made in Soviet-era Belarus sometime in 1985 or 1986, its lanyard cord wrapped around itself, over my crossed legs.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

adapter adapting an adapter to an adapter to an adapter

an mSATA SSD, mounted in an mSATA to 2.4" SATA adapter caddy, which is mounted in a 2.5" to slimline ODD adapter caddy, plugged into a slimline SATA to SATA adapter cable, inside an HP DL320e 1U server.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

POV: you work for a railroad and just pulled your hivis hoodie out of the wash

a section of the right-hand front of a neon green hi-vis hoodie with reflective safety stripes, covered in black splotchy stains, held up to the camera.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

the RS15 NEO project is now just waiting on a batch of resistors to come in 😊

a bare square circuit board labeled 'RS15 NEO' clipped into a plastic case, the interior of which has an embossed 'UP' arrow, viewed upside-down, sat on a battered bench top.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

cool and normal climate behavior for around here (basically no rain for two months ending with a forecasted five day deluge):

a graph of a sensor named 'Oregon Scientific PCR800 Rain Accumulation' from Home Assistant, with an X-axis of millimeters from 85 to 100, and a Y-axis of dates from November 1st to November 21st. from November 1st to 20th, the rain total was only 3mm, but on the 21st the line goes up almost vertically toward to 100mm and the right edge of the graph.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

tfw you can't buy something anymore, but found a forum post explaining what's inside and you know just enough about designing your own PCBs.

the rear side render of a circuit board, showing not much more than the two mounting holes on the top corners, and silkscreen text for a connector, along with:
"A1 1-OFF 2-ON [sic]
A2 1-OFF 2-ON
A3 1-ON 2-OFF
A4 1-ON 2-ON"

and my mastodon handle.

the front side render of a circuit board, labeled "RS15 NEO". there's a SOIC-8 chip (U1), three 0805 resistors (R1-R3), a 4 pin connector (J1), and a DIP switch block (SW1) unfortunately rendered as a chip package.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

repost with a banger picture of you

a photo of me wearing all black, wielding a shovel full of snow, the sleeves on my hoodie rolled up, clearing our shared asphalt driveway after a winter storm. to my left is a 1989 SAAB 900, half cleared of the snow.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

we may heal from trauma, but the scars will always show a glimpse of who we were before, etc., etc.,

the top left corner of an Apple Keyboard II, viewed quarter-angle toward the ADB port, with the top case removed and flipped upside down, resting on the keys. one of the catches molded into the plastic of the bottom case has clearly cracked and been glued back together.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

"I AM THE RESVRRECTION" Kodak Gold 200 Kodak No.2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Oakwood Cemetery October 15, 2022

A fall scene photo of a grave plot monument, a carved door frame with a brass cast depiction of a hooded Jesus Christ pointing their right hand toward the heavens, and holding a loaf of Roman-style bread in their left. Just above the brilliantly green grass, in the foot of the monument, is inscribed 'I AM THE RESVRRECTION'.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

"What It Means To Be A Woman" Kodak Gold 200 Kodak No.2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Forest Park Cemetery October 19, 2024

A film scan of a fall forest scene, with a quarter-angle grave plot monument taking up a majority of the frame. The monument depicts a female figured angel, wings outstretched against a rough-hewn cross, the angel disfigured and rendered headless by vandals long-past, a column of sunlight breaking through the treecover to illuminate the chest and vacant shoulders. There's a triangular light leak on the bottom right of the frame, almost level with the concrete plinth the monument sits upon, a hallmark of the camera it was shot on, and a thorn in my side.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 26/10/2024

used the first seven or so of the 48 in a graveyard, the gothic photographer's favorite subject of choice.

my hand holding the BelOMO, its lens and shutter cap removed, up against the blurry background of a fall colored graveyard, prominently featuring a monumental winged angle on a cross.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

last two wheels have their tires mounted, and are roughly balanced. now to have lunch before installing them...

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

step one of the porch outlet wiring redo is done—replace and move the junction box screwed to the basement window, and swap out the 10A rated X10 WS469 appliance switch with a 20A rated ACT RS101 appliance switch... which along with double the ampacity, is four times as loud.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

it even came with all its calibration certs, starting when new in 1994, and ending in 2016:

a photo of a device calibration certificate, showing the ambient temperature, relative humidity, certification number, and calibration date of April sixth, 2016.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 04/10/2024

lmao @halkyardo.bsky.social the $50 54504A is absolutely fine. including the NVRAM. what.

a photo of the CRT on an early 1990's HP 54504A oscilloscope showing all self tests passed

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

two, actually, since they're connected in parallel (C64, and C65). the one looks like an epoxy package tantalum, so that's more suspect than the ceramic.

a photo of the circuit board in the bottom of a Connor-made 40SC hard srive. C65 and C64 are to the right, near the bus terminating resistors and SCSI connector.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 03/10/2024

with it unplugged (and now removed to poke around at it), the BlueSCSI boots just fine.

a photo of the B&W screen of a Macintosh SE running system 6.0.8, with the 'About the Macintosh Finder' window open.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 02/10/2024

in moka we trust (to make highly caffeinated but yet still delicious morning coffee)

a six cup moka express on a stove with a square tile backsplash, viewed with the lid open as aerated coffee spills out of the spigot at the end of its brew.

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Francis Theodore Catte @fcatte.bsky.social · 27/09/2024

🥰 the last 10% of a project as complex as this kitchen has been means every big milestone left, like finally mounting and wiring the undercabinet lighting, feels so good.

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