While I haven’t printed many actual modifications to my printers themselves, I have printed a pretty good set of storage bins for the various tools and spare parts that I have for working with my printers.

Originally, I had made about an 8-inch square box, 2 inches tall, with a lid, and I just let all my tools and parts rattle around in there. But then I came across the Gridfinity system. I started by printing a 4×4 base plate, which fit almost perfectly into the box. Then, with a variety of bins (see in the photo below), things got much more organized.

The latest piece I added to this collection is the first one in the collection that I printed using my CORE ONE printer. When I got that printer, it came with a number of tools that I needed to keep organized, which meant I needed a new holder for them.

For this model, I took an existing Gridfinity 2×1 block and modified it somewhat extensively in Fusion 360. First I made it into a solid block, and then I sketched holes to match the sizes of the tools that I wanted to store in it. I then cut down through it the block, so that I could stand the tools up in it, as the following photos will show much more clearly than I’m probably explaining in words:

Here’s this new block added to the red box mentioned above, along with a similar block I’d made while I only had my old printer, plus several other smaller standard Gridfinity bins I’ve printed:

Here’s the STL. On the top you can see the extruded holes that the tools go into. If you flip it over, on the bottom you see the Gridfinity “feet” that fit into the base (inside the red box).

I actually had to print this piece twice, as the first time, a couple of the holes were a little too small. The first time I printed it, I took a time-lapse video, which is my first time doing that! You may notice the colors were different in the first print (on the video) – I’m just trying to use up all of the original multi-color pack of filament that I got back around 2017 – a lot of it has gotten pretty brittle and not the best for printing with anymore, but I’m too cheap/pack-ratty to throw it out, hence, random parts around the house will get it!

Good grief – this is clearly a job for a 3D Printer!

Of course, I mostly know what they’re set at, because I’ve been using this stove for close to 20 years, and I just remember things like that pretty well. But, as my youngest kiddo has started cooking some recently, I realized that they didn’t have the benefit of my memories, so it was a problem that I wanted to fix. I had previously tried finding some replacement handles online, but, I had no luck, as it’s a pretty old unit. So, 3D Printing to the rescue!

I didn’t actually print complete replacements for the handles. I found that a bit too difficult to model, as the peg that they go on is a pretty complicated shape – not just flat on one side like I’d mostly seen when shopping for replacement handles online. Rather, I’d describe it as more of an angled “H” type shape. Maybe I could have done it, but, instead I just printed circles that would fit over the existing handles, with white and red markings.

Here’s the model:

(also, thank you to Cursor for writing this new STL model viewer for me… It took several rounds of adjustments, but net-net, had to be faster than trying to write it by hand!)

Flowers

We’ve got 3 Sunflower plants going strong (and I don’t want to say what happened to the fourth…) One is as tall as me, with no blooms quite yet. A second has five or six open flowers! The third has one flower on it so far, and some more coming.

Our 2 Morning Glory hanging baskets are really taking off now, with tendrils going up to the tops of their baskets. I’ve only seen one flower on either of them so far, and it didn’t open up at all, though I did get one picture of it. Then in the back yard we’ve got some pots with Moonflowers, and last night just before bedtime I saw the first bloom on one of them. It was big and beautiful!

But easily my favorites have been the Zinnias. I originally put them in some small pots and set them around our mailbox. But I could tell they were getting root-bound, and since I was feeling a little bit of inspiration, I decided to put some landscape bricks around the mailbox, so I could then transplant them into the soil. Just a few days after I finished that, they really started to take off (although the Miracle Grow may have made a difference for that too).

We are still hopeful that we’ll see some buds on our Canterbury Bells, Wild Flowers, and Painted Daisies. Though I think all of the Five Spots that we put out have sadly passed on…

Veggies

Not quite as beautiful as the flowers – or maybe just as beautiful, but simply less colorful – is the veggie garden. A reminder of what we planted in here:

• Chives – which barely sprouted, but also, I don’t know what I’d use them for, so thats okay too
• Carrots – which are growing like weeds and might be ready to dig up soon
• Basil – which has made for some good pesto, and added a little flavor to some pizzas
• Brussels Sprouts – which I’m most looking forward to – but apparently won’t be ready to harvest until the fall??
• Spinach – which I got 4 or 5 good meals out of
• Parsley – which I’m not really sure why I planted? I did put a little on some chicken the other night…
• more Carrots – which are also close
• Peppermint – which barely sprouted, despite me being told that it was so easy to grow?

… really reminds me of a Tholian, from Star Trek:

I’m sure it’s just me…

Given the rumors that (a) all of their OS’s will be getting a redesign that has similar elements throughout them, and (b) that they’ll all be re-numbered with the year (next year) “26”, I’m going to predict that Apple will introduce a whole new name for their full software ecosystem. A name that spans iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS, tvOS – and brings them all together into a single name. I’m guessing that name will be Apple OS 26.

I think this idea makes sense because so many of the Apple services that we use (e.g., Messages, Notes, Reminders) span across the various hardware platforms and OS’s on those devices, and Apple has done well in the past few years with keeping those services at feature-parity across platforms. Being able to refer to ecosystem-wide features by the “Apple OS” version that they exist within just makes sense.

I believe that they’ll start by announcing that new name, Apple OS 26, and then they’ll break with the traditional format of the WWDC keynote, and instead of going through each OS one by one, they’ll go through everything by feature or by service. Probably starting with the design changes that are coming everywhere, but then getting into the specifics of individual apps and services. For example, discussing new Messages features, not as an iPhone feature, but as an ecosystem feature. If they’re going to get similar UI/UX updates everywhere, and they already get new features everywhere, it only makes sense to talk about them all together.

I’m sure I’ve heard some of my favorite podcasts mention this format shakeup as a possible change they could make over the past few years, but I didn’t hear anyone say it last week, so if it happens today, I’ll claim credit for it. And I’ve not heard anyone ever mention the ecosystem-wide name, so that one’s totally mine.

What are the odds on any of this happening? Easily under 30%, I’d say

As Spring came along this year, I knew I wanted to do even more gardening. This year I also felt like I wanted to plant some vegetables too. I’m not really sure why, other than just for fun. I mean, I do like to eat veggies, but it’s so easy to get them from the store. I don’t expect that anything I grow will be better, although maybe I’ll be surprised.

It was around the middle of March when I first got the itch to start this project. But, a little bit of research and asking around quickly led me to realize it was too early to actually plant anything outside. So instead, I started down two paths that I could pursue indoors, while waiting for warmer weather.

First I bought 16 different packets of seeds – 8 types of flowers, and 8 vegetables (I let the kids choose the flowers; they let me pick the veggies). Next I ordered 2 different seed trays from amazon (one) (two). A few days later, the kids and I spent a couple hours after supper one night filling the trays with potting soil and planting our seeds.

The kids had more fun than I would have expected. Other than the fact that they didn’t like getting their hands dirty planting… They also helped with daily watering. And we were all so excited after a week or two, as little seedlings started to emerge.

Meanwhile, the second leg of my gardening adventure was to build a raised garden bed. I found a pretty simple design online, picked up some cedar at Home Depot, and, well, then I let it stand in the garage for a few weeks… But eventually I got to work with my mitre saw and drills, and after a few evenings, wouldn’t you know it, I had a raised garden bed to call my very own!

Finally, we just had to wait for the weather to get warm enough, and a pocket of time to open up, where we could transplant all our little flower seedlings into pots and other spots around the yard, and into the garden for the veggies.

We’ll see what happens next. I went ahead and bought a few more store-grown flower pots for the front porch, just to add some color while we’re waiting to see if any of these guys bloom. But, I think I achieved my real goals already: Lots of fun, and some good new memories with the kiddos.

Of course, the next day, I was reading a book and came across this line: