dave

Hello! 

You might have noticed that the internet can be a difficult place to be right now between all the scary news and misinformation about said scary news. On one hand, it’s wise to stay informed, but being constantly bombarded with headlines is overwhelming for anyone. Especially for those of us who spend large chunks of time online. It probably goes without saying that all of us here working at Tumblr are extremely, painfully online now more than ever, just like many of you. Scouring the remote corners of the internet is our job, and if we’re being completely real, our lives. As anyone who is extremely online can tell you, nothing kicks up the anxiety like a particularly difficult news cycle, especially one that feels neverending. 

We didn’t solve the broad-sweeping problems of the world, but we did figure out how to steal a few much-needed moments of bliss. We’ve been coping with rough times by taking time to enjoy the softer, gentler spaces on the internet—the ones overflowing with adorable animal GIFs, beautiful plants, and cute comics. We thought, maybe, you’d like to join us. So we made something for you. For us, too:

@cozy

Think of this Tumblr as a weighted blanket for the soul. A corner of the internet that feels like a hug. Since we’re not ghouls, we’re not going to use it to promote a new feature or anything like that. We’ve just been coping by spending time down this cozy rabbit hole and wanted to extend the invite. The more the merrier, right? We could all use an escape every now and again. Especially now. 

Remember: Don’t panic. Keep yourself informed, but definitely limit your news intake if it’s affecting your well-being. Don’t listen to unverified misinformation (you can see more about that on our post from last week). Take care of yourself. Practice physical distancing. Keep washing your hands. Keep in mind your mental health is just as important as your physical health. 

okay this is a test!!!

For GIFs that are already compressed, the upload limit has been raised to 5 MB. Uncompressed GIFs? Just make sure you keep it below 10 MB, and we’ll do our best to compress the GIF down for you. You’re welcome.

autumn chill

yosemite valley, california

Come here  

I’ve been seeing magic mirrors around the internet for a bit now and have been thinking of making one for months.  With the pi 4 dual monitor support it seemed like a perfect time for a  project

Materials * 24″x36″ acrylic mirror * 2 monitors - I’m very happy with these monitors.  They’re very thin and light, I didn’t even need to remove them from the casing * raspberry pi 4, heatsink * wood frame kit - This is actually for an art canvas, so it definitely isn’t going to provide the necessary support we need, so we’ll have to build it in the back * 1″x3″ piece of wood to cut to build the support structure for the back.  You’ll need a total of 96″ to build out 4 24 support pieces.  I also cut the corners into smaller blocks that angle perpendicular to the top bar * black board - I got this at an arts and craft store, a sturdy light board painted black or painted cardboard would work, the lighter the better and easy to cut * black felt * clamps * handsaw - I hope you got a circular saw * Sandpaper - Most of my day was spent sanding and dreaming of power tools * Glue - wood + superglue or gorilla glue * Paint if you want * Right angle ruler * Power drill and screws

A picture of all the materials App * BaseApp * Spotify * Googlephotos * Systemstats * Webview - this runs all the tumblr tv which powers the gifs.  Webviews out to tumblr.com/tv/simpsons for example

The cutting of the wood and painting were done prior to the build.  The assembly and  installation of modules and the app were a 1 day build

Building!

Squaring things off to cut

Nothing like handsawing barefoot

Lots of sanding ahead…

Watching paint dry…

More drying paint… The white is the outer frame the black is the back structure pieces

I actually bought 2 of the 24″ frame kits to glue 2 sides together to act as one of the support beams.   The frame portion became a nice holder for the top monitor

Build the frame and place the mirror in.  Use wood glue on the  corners, mallet the plastic corners in that it comes with.  Dont skimp on glue

Theres a small gap around the sides of the mirror and the frame that I padded with felt

Start lining things up and marking off exact mount points, also removed the protective stickers

Add the bottom monitor reversed and cut out the black board, we will need to cover the entire area that isn’t covered by monitor with board

Add the two support beams,  Stabilize with wood glue and screws.  This should be packed such that the monitors won’t move. Where monitor meats board, cover with the black felt held to the blackboard with wood glue.  I left a gap near the edges of each monitor with felt flaps that I can lift up later to place a motion detection camera for future use Glue in the corner squares and clamp them in place

Add the middle supports

Use the pi as a template to cut out a board and drill holes where the pi mount screws go.  The board is about an inch or so bigger than the pi.  Its from some packaging material I had at my apt, any small board will due, this gets glued to the backboard

After all the glue has dried.  Added some metal hooks to help support some wiring

Final product Backside

Overall I’m pretty happy with how reflective it is and I’m very happy with how sturdy it is.  From certain angles you can kind of see the outline of the monitor but its not much.  One thing is I totally didn’t cover up the monitor lights lol, so theres 2 dots - so cover those, I just say it adds to the aesthetic :)

Future things

I need to push some code changes to the magicmirror because it doesn’t support dual monitors.  I’m actually running two apps on different ports for each monitor and some hacking of the js/electron.js to change the x position.  But the app itself should be able to support extended displays, doesn’t seem like much code change i’ll make a pr when I get around to it.  This was for hackday and I was running out of time, gimme a break

Add motion camera, not really sure what it’ll do but i imagine it’ll turn on different modules

Hookup to bluetooth.  I plan on automating turning on and off the monitors and apps when it detects my phone connects to its bluetooth or is in range of it or something along those lines

Cheers!