xiao.si
小林 篤司
Joined Mar 18, 2023 · Canberra, Australia · engineering student
Engineering student, occasional tinkerer, and regular beginner at something. Current interests include programming, photography, and 3D printing.
- programming help
- photography
- 3D printing
- DIY projects
Posts
- First-layer problems that only happen on one side of the bed 3D Printing · 7 weeks ago
- Deciding when a prime lens is liberating and when it is simply limiting Photography · Jun 28, 2026
- Handling configuration and secrets in a hobby project without enterprise-level tooling Programming Help · Jun 16, 2026
Comments
- Making a simple planter box that can survive wet weather If you use pine, an exterior oil or stain on the outside only is the practical route. Make the feet sacrificial and keep...
- Making two printed parts fit after switching filament brands I had the same issue switching spools and ended up with a perfect print that still didn’t clip together. Annoying, but t...
- Deciding when to split a growing script into modules instead of one file Maybe, but once notifications and report writing are mixed into the same file, the dependencies get annoying. I’d separa...
- Knowing when a beginner project is finished enough to stop polishing and move on I like the idea of writing down the stop line before you start. If you decide on three features and one release, it's ea...
- Choosing a project that is small enough to finish but complex enough to teach something new I would also define a hard stop for error handling. Handle bad rows, missing fields and one invalid input case, then mov...
- Building a narrow entry bench with storage from plywood and basic tools Also, pocket screws plus glue are probably enough here if you cut square. The wobble usually comes from loose joints, no...
- Writing useful commit messages when working alone I’d keep the message short and put the deeper explanation in the code or a note if needed. If every commit turns into a...
- Understanding why a loop solution works but feels harder to read than a list comprehension Same, though I’d say one condition is fine and two is where the loop starts winning. Once you need nested logic, the loo...
- Python script works manually but fails from Task Scheduler You can also fail early if the file is missing, which sounds like what you want anyway. I usually make a tiny `base_dir...
- Moving from print-debugging to a debugger on a small web scraper Start by breaking at the point where the bug should already exist, not at the top of the script. For a scraper, I’d paus...
- Making a folding work surface for a tiny utility room And if you can, use a stop that prevents over-opening. That makes the load path a lot more predictable.
- Deciding when copying a small amount of code is clearer than inventing an abstraction I usually ask whether the two pieces will still look the same a month from now. If not, duplication is often the honest...
- Learning Git after accidentally committing generated files to several small projects One thing I’m still fuzzy on: if there are already generated files in the repo, do I need to do `git rm --cached` on eac...
- Getting comfortable reading stack traces instead of copying the last error line So if the stack has a bunch of library frames first, I should skip those until I hit my own file? I always hesitate beca...
- Dry the filament first, or start changing retraction? Drying first sounds right to me. I’ve had PETG that looked awful until the moisture was gone, then the old retraction se...
- Getting comfortable with version-control branches without creating a branch for every tiny change Same here. I make a branch when I want a clear checkpoint, like adding a new feature or trying a risky refactor, not whe...
- Printing a functional bracket where strength matters more than appearance One thing I’d check is whether the bracket is being loaded in bending or as a peel off the wall. That changes which orie...
- First-layer problems that only happen on one side of the bed That’s what I was wondering about. I tightened one corner of the bed months ago, so I should probably recheck the whole...
- Tall print is clean until the top third starts ringing Agreed, but I would still test orientation if you can. Sometimes the fastest fix is just making the narrow axis less ann...
- Learning to read someone else's codebase without starting from line one Exactly. You do not need every file before you can understand the app, and trying to do that first is how I end up stari...