iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

I need the #it equivalent of a thimble. I crimped and punched down about 30 drops and my fingertips are so raw it’s unbelievable.

A painted piece of plywood ready for a rack to be installed. There is an umbilical of about 40 CAT6 cables and an open circuit breaker.

A rack and security system with lots of wires in it.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

This weekend I wired the network for my wife’s soon to open book store / pottery studio. It was so much work. My god. But I learned a ton. And I’m quite proud of my work. I also learned how to drive a scissor lift!

Me near the ceiling of an under construction bookstore. I’m on a lift! There’s a light fixture next to me!

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026

If you remember my stairs I added an extra 2x4 half lap to the bottom posts and started to poly them. I need to remove and glue up one of the banister’s though as it started to split at the top where the (countersunk!) screws went in. It’s ugly but it’s finally feeling sturdy.

Ugly wooden basement stairs that I’ve spent way too much time on

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 06/07/2026

I finally got two #meshcore devices! I’m going to need one for each of us eventually I’m sure 😅

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 06/07/2026

I don’t know when the #mta #metronorth switched mascots from robocop to a dog but I’m for it.

A faded poster about the Tracks community outreach program featuring a shock trooper robocop looking mascot with a metronorth railroad sticker on its chest

A screenshot of the website with a friendly dog mascot waving with “Tracks” written across their chest

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

I need to what now? When did “record my face geometry” become a requirement for renting a car?!

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 09/06/2026

What are you suppose these are? I found them at an old factory building.

Some sort of red pumps with electrical boxes in the ground?

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2026

The Cowboy Bebop episode "Wild Horses" features a retrofitted Space Shuttle Columbia that saves the day. It crash lands afterwards but I'd bet it gets fixed up again. It's wild and I wish that was it's fate.

A photo of 3 people and a crashed Columbia behind them in a desert.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026

Glamour shots of the build. The bracket for the sata card was the hardest part because I cannot do math with a head cold. I wish all the power bricks fit in there but that’s goals for another future build I suppose.

The motherboard and sata card with blue cables

The computer closed up with blue cables hanging out the back sitting in the case insert that holds the drives and computer

The back of the case hinting at a rats nest of wires inside

A close up of the sata cables and their external power plugged into the case with the sata+power mounts

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026

I couldn’t #3dprint the case as it was too big for my Prusa but @requiem rescued the project because they have a printer that could print a set of luggage for my entire family in one go.

An uninteresting 3d printed box with an open front, and a grill on the back

A more interesting 3dprinted insert to hold drives and a computer

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 18/05/2026

For $0.15 more a connector I can get recycled plastic?

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 18/05/2026

I’m finally running out of my wago press fit terminals so I’m upgrading to the lever ones. Ok maybe I’m not completely out but I really want to use the lever ones. Anyway the 10 conductor lever terminal just seems like a bad idea.

A 10 conductor double level wago lever terminal.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2026

I'm not sure I ever shared the end of this project! It works great!

A standing desk with a bamboo wood top and white metal frame, viewed from a low angle showing the underside. A MacBook laptop is mounted horizontally beneath the desk surface in a under-desk laptop mount. A large ultrawide monitor displaying a dark-themed Mastodon is visible in the background.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2026

Revision two, this one has the cross go into the corners so it wont pop loose. Less complex too. Printing a test now.

I love how you can highlight the removed parts. Open SCAD is fun. This has 4 triangles cut out of the sides of the spike so it's more .. spike like.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 23/03/2026

Here's the design for the spike. I'd take a photo of the original but it's raining and I'm tired. The original has a flat bit to keep dirt out of the post but a floating rectangle is rough to do with fdm 3d prints and I don't care about the dirt. I suppose I could […] [Original post on toot.cafe]

A spike that's a tapered cross with some notches near the bottom to stop it from sliding too far into the post. Goes to a point on top.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 23/03/2026

A while back I 3d printed some posts for the cheapo lights in my front yard. This winter they all survived sans one that probably got hit pretty hard with a snow shovel. Unfortunately the lights used the stock spikes and all but one of those broke. So lets do […] [Original post on toot.cafe]

The cheapo light with the 3d printed post in my front yard.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 12/03/2026

After watching the movie Relay I got inspired. It’s so beautiful🥹

This is a TDD or TTY device. It is essentially a serial terminal and a modem, and you could dial other devices or a relay service. Who would make phone calls for you.

This is the Devices keyboard it is very close to an old IBM font someone called Leroy Lettering which seems to be a lettering system more than a font.

Warning label saying no user serviceable parts inside

Serial number 9002 by Known Research Inc

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 20/02/2026

3 days of chasing my kids around a water park hotel with an interactive magic game where that is 4+ hours of running around the grounds has finally caught up with me.

It’s me sitting on the ground of a lobby while kids with wands run back forth. It’s just my feet. I think I need new shoes with how sore my feed are.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 26/01/2026

I might complain about the docs but this VZM32-SN is something else. I've never seen a zigbee device that does... so much

The Home Assistant add a zigbee device screen shoing a long list of things I don't even understand that this switch can do.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026

Last summer I built this workbench (this photo is freshly installed which looks so empty compared to today) and it was practice for the workshop. - butcher block countertop is too precious for a workbench but for a work counter it’s probably great - a hardwood […] [Original post on toot.cafe]

My beautiful wooden workbench that I spent way too long working on and experimenting with

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026

Got my brother and a friend up to do some painting of my workshop. It was my office for a hot minute and coworkers called it a “dungeon”. They couldn’t even see the flagstone wall that’s probably got horsehair and mud as the mortar. - Painting cinderblock with […] [Original post on toot.cafe]

Unpainted workshop with a flagstone wall

More painted walls, but this one had a custom wood framed led light meant for dropped ceilings. I have dropped ceilings in the sense they’re much too low.

Honestly walking around this corner looking a freshly painted wall felt really good

You can see the room peaking out from behind my workbench

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 11/01/2026

A while back I purchased this 7 segment display 3d printable project from Engineezy a while back and printed a digit and enjoyed it. Now it's time to build a clock. I got some build notes on stuff I could clean up but I love it anyway <3 […] [Original post on toot.cafe]

Three 3d printed 7 segment displays on my workbench which is made out of a beautiful butcher block countertop.

3d printing some cams and the front and back of the 7 segment display

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 01/12/2025

OK #hugops to the MTA TrainTime team this December 1st when everyone’s monthly pass expires.

A screenshot of the MTA TrainTime ticketing app with an html error response to what I have to assume should have been a json api response including ticket data.

Grand Central
Error Fetching Tickets <html>
<head><title>429 Too Many Requests</title></head>
<body>
<center><h1>429 Too Many Requests</h1></center> <hr><center>nginx</center>
</body> </html>

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 26/11/2025

Props to the delivery van driver blasting REM at 8 in the morning in the middle of the city.

An iconic white and orange temporary steam vent billowing steam in middle of Lexington Ave in New York City. (They’re never temporary)

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 20/11/2025

And a few more. Not as pretty but I just love trains.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 20/11/2025

I took some photos on the train this morning.

A close-up of a train's side, featuring various lights and signals, including an illuminated orange light. The setting includes a platform with part of the train visible and a blurred background of trees and sky.

An exterior view of a MetroNorth train door featuring a heart-shaped design with rainbow stripes and the letters "MTA" in the center. Nearby, there are various warning signs, including one that says "Watch the Gap" and instructions for door operation.

A close-up image of a door inside a train, featuring a flashing light labeled "DOOR CLOSING." The background shows a blurred view of the outside, including glimpses of trees and buildings.

An interior view of a train displaying a digital sign reading "Grand Central." And a number "4223" visible above the sign.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 19/11/2025

Listen I’m sure Adam’s farms is great but I can think of a lot of things that top stock photo pizza

A stock photo of a pizza slice with gooey melted cheese, with the text "How do you top this?" and branding for Adams Fairacre Farms, on a metro north train

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 05/11/2025

What an elegant way to handle time in a human centric way that can be used on devices that might not have a tz library or even know the current time. I bet the discussion for this time format was really interesting and I wonder if it’s a real standard! #gtfs

Time - Time in the HH:MM:SS format (H:MM:SS is also accepted). The time is measured from "noon minus 12h" of the service day (effectively midnight except for days on which daylight savings time changes occur). For times occurring after midnight on the service day, enter the time as a value greater than 24:00:00 in HH:MM:SS.
Example: 14:30:00 for 2:30PM or 25:35:00 for 1:35AM on the next day.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 30/10/2025

#til about Jean Giraud "Moebius" an artist who obviously influenced me and I didn't even know it www.thecollector.com/moebius-artist…

Mystère Montrouge, special limited-edition portfolio, 2001. Source: Muddycolors

It's a glowing face in a wall.. but it's so much more than that. Its a complex image with clean lines and yet it's so muddied with items and characters and objects.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2025

The Onion on point with their fake ads this month.

An advertisement for Spotify featuring a person with headphones and sunglasses, along with the text: "It’s not legally classified as sweatshop labor if they’re musicians."

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2025

Kate's BF is a dick but his JVC sweater is on point Would it kill him to be supportive of her interests?

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2025

me when I haven't seized the means of production

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2025

Yeah, I have some really big news for tonight. I’m making my own chili lime seasoning and there’s no way this can go wrong

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2025

The absolutely best place to play Space Invaders

A lunar lander is displayed in a dimly lit environment, showcasing its intricate design with reflective materials. In the foreground, a person sits at a commodore PET playing space invaders.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2025

TFW the place your train on an obvious service platform and you get to see all the cool equipment they just left laying around. 🤩 (The only photo I took without a ton of peoples faces in it.)

People walking down a platform at Grand Central Terminal with a bright yellow cart and a red genie lift that’s got to be like 40ft long.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2025

I can't get over this governance thing though. The app store has some bush league issues afaict. Lets look at these alacritty pages. Which one is "official"? Poll in the next post.

This appcenter page header for the snap of alacritty has the author as "Snapcrafters" with a star after it, some status and links. I'll go into detail in the next few posts.

This appcenter page header for the deb of alacritty has no author, a "homepage" link and a version. I'll go into detail in the next few posts.

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Francis 🏴‍☠️ Gulotta @reconbot.toot.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2025

Props to the one kid who waved with me while our trains traveled 50mph two feet apart. I hope you’re as unreasonably happy as I am at the whole situation. Awkward train friends are the best.

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