My oh my, The Mind Benders class I taught at FOCI wrapped up last night and what a wonderful whirlwind! I had the most amazing students who time and time again, were so hungry for knowledge, and wanted to learn more and more.
We learned to bend neon, make digital vector patterns, blink the neon with programmable microcontrollers and I even showed them how they could work with a glassblower to pull their own tubes.

My TA, @dinkytown was incredible- typically fulfilling the class's needs before I even asked her. I am thrilled that she learned a bunch in the class.
It was able to train two FOCI staff members to bombard (the dangerous process of purifying and putting gas in the tubes)- so now FOCI neon renters can get their tubes filled quicker.
The artist talk and demo I gave was well attended, and now FOCI has the doodle I made during the demo in their permanent collection.

We were yakking about this encryption issue at a recent ham radio club outing.

Mavens pointed out that managing encryption adds expense.

Encryption also complicates inter-agency communications, an improvement of which was a goal of post-9/11 and post-bridge-collapse radio system overhauls.

"It’s not clear what, if any, recent examples exist of disruptions to local law enforcement operations as a result of maintaining uninterrupted 911 radio traffic."
https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-police-to-encrypt-911-radio-traffic-barring-public-from-monitoring-emergency-dispatches/601330757

Spring is the perfect time to clear out your pile of old electronics. Free Geek Twin Cities could take them off your hands while helping the community. #MNastodon #Minneapolis #TwinCities #RetroComputing #RetroTech #DigitalDivide https://twincitiesgeek.com/2025/04/free-geek-twin-cities-is-reducing-waste-and-bringing-tech-to-communities-in-need/

Man … how cool is Tim Walz? Love this dude. #minneapolis #electricfetusminneapolis #recordstoreday #timwalz

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:p6m7c7npagd6bdjjcf6a2keq/post/3lmpgnichws2a

Cleaning out the bookshelf to make room for music stuff.

I couldn't quite bring myself to get rid of "Mastering Regular Expressions." In part because what if (sneeze laughs into coffee ) I need a big regex?

Also because I bought that monkey paw I don't want to inflict it upon an innocent.

If you're in MPLS DM me if you want them and they're yours.

Full list in alt -text

It's morning in Minneapolis. Sunday's forecast high? 69. Nice.

These are egg-free chocolate chip cookies, made with an egg substitute: flax seed meal and water. No problem found.

Butter, though? Believe it.

#Bookstodon #Minneapolis In Minneapolis today? Stop by the Midtown Global Market for the first Herstory Book Fair! I’ll be peddling my books from 12-3, apart from a brief interview and reading at 2PM. https://facebook.com/events/s/herstory-book-fair-at-midtown-/1672347920376927/

Hey there MSP! I’ll be at the Tesla protest tomorrow in Golden Valley, 11-noonish! Come on by!

And wherever you are, betcha there’s one near you too: https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/teslatakedown

"Housed in the Lyndale Avenue storefront that’s been a Minneapolis music hub going back to Oar Folkjokeopus in the 1970-‘80s, Lucky Cat is more fuel for the Record Store Day fire that burns bright every year in the Twin Cities. More than a dozen stores in the metro area are listed as official participants in the national RSD bonanza, happening across the country Saturday."

Strib: 5 things to know about Record Store Day 2025 in the Twin Cities
https://www.startribune.com/record-store-day-2025-twin-cities-things-to-know-electric-fetus-lucky-cat-bootsy-collins-mill-city/601326665

A tiny gondola slung over the parapet of a downtown Minneapolis skyscraper on cables dangling from a slender beam hosts a pair of window washers. Whoa. Scary.

Why do people fight for servitude
As if it were their salvation?

Racket on dive-bar fenestration in Minneapolis—

'It's an architectural feature that has aged itself into being trendy again: the glass block window. They’re the perfect solution for when you want to let a little light in but don’t want a window that something (or someone) can be thrown through. Once I started noticing glass block windows, I started to see them everywhere. Some of the better ones are even pretty, in a “default desktop wallpaper starter pack” sort of way.

'The rules: I’m only including dive bars in Minneapolis that are open at the time of publishing, and I’m only ranking them by their glass block windows. (Want to rank glass block windows in St. Paul? You know what to do.) I’ve probably missed some places and it’s possible I’ll be wrong on some stuff, but if you’ve read this far, I’ve already won—we have your click.'
https://racketmn.com/glass-block-list-10-minneapolis-dives-ranked-by-their-glass-block-windows

Dire kelpie standing on a musical score etched in chalk on a sidewalk in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

Advice in today's "Essential Minnesota" newsletter from the Strib:

Visit the Electric Fetus.

It's not far from the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Make a day of it.

I love the sound of the creaky hardwood floors and the smell of patchouli oil.

Remembering happier times, I guess.

“If I have to leave my bike unattended, I don’t care how many locks I carry, I’m not going to do it,” said Mike Vogl, a south Minneapolis resident and cyclist who recently chronicled the retrieval of his neighbor’s stolen e-bike on local transportation news site Streets.mn. “Either I keep my eye on it the whole time, it stays next to me the whole time, or I leave it at home.”
https://www.startribune.com/secure-bike-parking-minneapolis/601323746

I visited Robert Haus, a national neon treasure two days ago in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
I have known him online for years, and he moved from Alaska so now he is slightly easier to visit.

Robert has probably the best collection of historic neon artifacts, especially when it comes to old bending equipment, transformers, catalogs, and other difficult to find oddities. "Neon Archaeology" is his thing and his blog catalogs his journeys,

https://www.novioljourneys.com/

His setups were impressive- he has very comprehensive radio and electrical knowledge around neon bombarding systems. FOCI is lucky to have him around. I gave him some hand pulled tubing to play with in exchange for some coffee beans he roasted and some really old rare electrodes. It was so nice to meet him and his wife.

Microsoft thinks you should recycle pcs that can't be upgraded to windows 11...

Please do not do this. Try linux or give them to someone else who will, or donate them to charitable organizations.

Goblins need spare computers everywhere!

#question
Can we have a #hashtag on here for people who wish to discard perfectly good computers, so other people on here who are less fortunate can get them and use linux or something?

Any opinions on a best hashtag for that?

*edit @generationX mentioned a hashtag, #computertruhe (which is a group or the german equivalent to this paying it forward of computers or related parts, and is active on mastodon!) This may translate to #computerchest and is the best lead on a relevant hashtag for this purpose so far!

#retux (for games?)
possibly #upcycling

Unique for this purpose suggested:
#takemytech (at least 2 votes!)
#sparePChere
#pc2hand

by area:
@PCsfueralle for Austria, like computertruhe for DE

#LinuxInstallParty may be relevant! DE I think!

#FreeGeek for #Portland and maybe #Minneapolis !

#Debian 12 Bookworm made installation and GUI much easier than previous versions, including nonfree repositories for proprietary driver support! Debian 13 Trixie (stable) drops later this year. It is upstream and all about open source, as a Linux option.

in looooooooooove..!!!!! @salad_bar_breath
#transjoy #minneapolis