László 🔜 GLC

Exactly 922 days after I was first told about its existence, after all that detective work, paperwork, and permit-getting, driving it here, and obtaining a reference sample, we were finally able to record a spectrum with this 1970s radiation source that is pretty much unobtainable these days.

There we go, all back together again! Making high vacuum like it's 1976.

I bought something dumb, and I admittedly like it... Now I can finally use up all those pods I kept nabbing from the Radisson because I could never resist free things, even if I couldn't really use them. (I didn't want to remain coffeeless whenever I'm at mom's place or in Budapest.)

Granted, our hero never connected this thing to anything, but he knew that one day its time would come, and he bought a selection of hose barbs. With some mild violence, I have now established a constant supply of clean helium gas to this laboratory, for the first time in 40 years. :E

BUT WAIT. A certain SOMEONE has already pre-planned, long ago, to stop this malpractice of using whatever might be in the helium recovery line. And this someone also had a pure helium gas cylinder, ready to go. AND a regulator, which this someone had fitted in a safety cabinet. What a fucking hero!

Couldn't resist and got some proper magnetic camera mounts. Ironically, the base is even more powerful, so I ended up pulling the threaded bit out of the webcam's plastic base when I went to pull it off the rack...

Huh, the thread from a big magnet hook does actually fit the webcam! How neat. Now I have a (very overpowered) magnet to hold it to the rack! (I ordered a proper magnetic mount in the meantime.)

@PatrickHerd@aus.social @gigabecquerel@chaos.social The holy Santovac 5, queen of diff pump oils.

Fun fact: When the oil level in your car's engine suddenly goes up rather than just down, it's usually a bad sign. For vacuum pumps, while not as catastrophic, it's also a clear sign of "Please drain out this vomit-like oil-water emulsion and put fresh oil in!"

Major clash between two professors, and I'm just sitting in the middle, thinking "I'm just the guy who keeps shit running." Guess I'll dopamine microdose by repairing a few more busted fiber ports. Even ended up printing a new label for this one after extrapolating what it should say.

Back to the heatwave and over 30°C inside our office... I'll try the British remedy and drink some boiling hot liquid!

With my philosophy being "Don't try new things on Friday," we decided to not yet connect my new gas supply and will instead rely on the bladder for the weekend. To ease my colleagues' scepticism, I set up a webcam and used one of those flange-attachable LEDs for nighttime illumination.

@gigabecquerel@chaos.social The biggest irony is that one could put nitrogen in there, but we never did...

Two hundred thousand with no breakdowns or accidents. Always got me home, even with marten-severed vacuum lines or a nail in a tire. I think that's kinda neat. This is my third A3, the one I like least, but also the one I had the longest (2019) and put the most mileage on.

I've been asked on short notice to do a super duper secret measurement on a sample because someone discovered something super duper significant, or so they think. I joked to my friends that people will be standing around me and my machine, expectantly waiting to see what their sample will do, and I'll tell them that it does absolutely nothing at all. Guess what ended up happening.

@derf@social.skyshaper.org *is IN.*

@dtl@8bitorbust.info Those tasks sound extremely relatable, though. I remember seeing a scene in The Crown of the press secretary arriving at his desk, and immediately, someone brings him tea and biscuits. I wish someone would also bring me tea and biscuits when I arrive at work.

@david_zwei@chaos.social Ich werde nie verstehen, warum Fahrzeugbreiten ohne Spiegel angegeben werden... Sie sind doch da, am Fahrzeug, und verschwinden nicht einfach.

@PatrickHerd@aus.social @gigabecquerel@chaos.social My kidnapping victim is still just sitting as-is due to lack of time. :< *sad lack of magnetron sputter coating noises*

@masek@infosec.exchange ...aber Sauron und Palantir sind nichts Gutes. Da könnten die sich doch direkt Darth Vader nennen, aber da Arschkröten von Bannon ja erklärte Fans sind, würde mich das ja nicht überraschen...

@Citali@fellies.social I don't think I'd have noticed those thigs, should they have happened, but it might explain my results if they did. o.o

@Kuniti_shino@pounced-on.me They show which rear seats are occupied and have their seatbelt on (they disappear after a short time, with the space occupied by the readout of the outside thermometer).

@PatrickHerd@aus.social I'm a big fan!

@WooShell@chaosfurs.social Well, it's attached with only clips so you can pull it off with no tools, so that wouldn't be very spectacular.

Getting everything ready to take delivery of a new radiation source today. They have been numbered sequentially since the late 70s. We finally arrive at the obviously amusing number.

Was getting ready to regenerate the O2 adsorbers in the glovebox. Got everything set up, right gas pressure and flow, but it takes 2.5 hours before it actually starts doing its thing. Setting my phone alarm, I dutifully returned to make sure that when the gas starts flowing, the flow meter is where it should be. I opened up the cabinet to be ready to adjust, being greeted by a lot of hissing.

@erkhyan@yiff.life ...what the fuck, I didn't actually know that. *asks boyfriend what he thinks immaculate conception means* Whew... At least I'm not the only one who had it wrong into his late 30s...

Been misgendered so many times when communicating only via e-mail due to my first name that I finally added he/him to my signature. Should have done that years ago. But it's kinda fun when people expect an Indian lady and are then faced with a Hungarian guy, complete with mean mug and shaved head.

Does any tech-minded person here have access to the manual for a Philips CM 12 TEM, or can they tell me what magnetic stray fields it can deal with before becoming unusable? I can only find Erwin Sabio's alignment and setup guide so far...

After some conversations yesterday, it dawned on me that I was like those two from the XKCD comic, wildly overestimating the ability of ordinary people to tell apart different aircraft types, even if the differences are unspeakably glaring to me. I'm sorry for being that guy.

The good thing about obsessively grabbing free lab equipment whenever it becomes available: If you need to pretend to need more lab space, you always have some serious-looking machinery to put in there. And nobody but you knows whether any of it works or not.

So much better. Small jobs that lead to obvious and immediately visible improvements are my fave. It also makes me happy to work in an old lab where you can find random junk if you need it. Piece of scrap metal? Sure! A pair of fitting screws? Found in minutes! A hole punch? I have one right here!

@darkrat@chaosfurs.social It hasn't even arrived yet, but feel free to lick, I guess. o.o

@mist@chaosfurs.social You need an undefined number of those at the very least!

@darkrat@chaosfurs.social @WooShell@chaosfurs.social Then it's a good thing I just keep grabbing the pods for home use. o:

After getting that 1.1mil in funding for a new magnet cryostat system, the main question is: Where to put it? Can't put it here; there's sensitive equipment next door! Can't put it there; there's sensitive equipment one floor below! There's sensitive equipment everywhere... Fucking stray fields. x_x

Thank fuck it's Friday... After staying away from sweets for two weeks or so, I managed to microdose myself down to just one (1) sugar cube in my coffee. But I don't think I could go entirely without sugar to offset the intense BITTER.

@david_zwei@chaos.social Oha, das ist aber ein interessanter Mühlen-Rest! o: Frage mich immer, was genau dieses Teil wohl mal gemacht hat, oder was da mal genau dranhing...

@LumiaP2L@meow.social @neliger@social.neliger.com Oh no, he's hot!

Ever since this video system was set up in 2020, the audio output has been on the weak side, with no discernible way to adjust it (changing the volume in Windows/Zoom didn't do anything). Yesterday, I discovered that the sound bars had their own remotes, still in their original packaging. Gwuh.

@WooShell@chaosfurs.social They're complimentary and they refill them if you use them (or if like me you just dump the entire contents of that drawer into your bag every day).

@LewisWorkshop@mastodon.online A bountiful quiche!

@prema@hachyderm.io I'm sorry, I took everything! *hoards*

It always irritates me so much when I see where our campus is headed in the distant future, with us eventually being evicted from our building complex, to be squished into a renovated 70s tower, but the architects go on about the "master plan" and the "overarching concept" or the entireity of it and how they will create "places of encounter" and all such bullshit while actively pulling apart various branches of research that currently share one building. Gwuh.

"Yeah, they are giving away UHV parts..." GIVING AWAY UHV PARTS?! Well fuck me sideways! Grab the cart, we're going shopping! Many standard connectors, four-way crosses, viewports, and a tasty pneumatic angle valve, with controller!