Another year, another fix to Crystal Palace, a somewhat cheaply built clone of the Prusa i3 V2 3D printer that I've been upgrading steadily since I bought it last summer. This time the extruder cooling fan failed, so I ran down some superior ball-bearing replacements and got it running today.

Happy New Year to my readers!

I'm informed by google's doodle that today is the 131st anniversary of the invention of the hole punch. Here's a lovely example from my office:

I've put my notes on assembling, fixing, and upgrading Crystal Palace, my 3D printer, on this page. The machine is a Prusa i3 v2 clone made by Reprapguru, and it's needed a lot of improvements to get to the level of quality and reliability it currently enjoys. Hopefully these notes will be useful to anyone else that has this machine or one like it.

In February I provided some engineering assistance to Melissa Norelli Hassan and Gemma Ward of Delray Beach's Unity School. Together we turned their playground swingset into an interactive musical exhibit inspired by the touring musical swings that visited West Palm Beach last year. Read more here.

Today, July 21st, we honor the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, a man that did more for cocktail culture, simply by drinking, than almost any career barman can claim for a lifetime in his trade. But what will we drink? The choice of Hemingway cocktails is wide, of course: Death in the Afternoon, Death in the Gulf Stream (he's a dangerous man to drink with), Green Isaac's Special, the long list of standards that appear in his books. But probably the most characteristic classic out of the vast Hemingway drinking-lore is the simple Daiquiri.