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Jonas Hietala
2023 in review This is my yearly review #14. Amazing that I’ve kept up with this for 14 years. Even though it’s not...
a year ago
22
a year ago
This is my yearly review #14. Amazing that I’ve kept up with this for 14 years. Even though it’s not anything advanced, I really like looking back at the year to see what has happened. Maybe it’s a very light version of a reverse bucket list, and I can see that it provides some...
Ken Shirriff's blog
Interesting double-poly latches inside AMD's vintage LANCE Ethernet chip I've studied a lot of chips from the 1970s and 1980s, so I usually know what to expect. But an...
a year ago
24
a year ago
I've studied a lot of chips from the 1970s and 1980s, so I usually know what to expect. But an Ethernet chip from 1982 had something new: a strange layer of yellow wiring on the die. After some study, I learned that the yellow wiring is a second layer of resistive polysilicon,...
Vitalik Buterin's...
Make Ethereum Cypherpunk Again
a year ago
Notes on software...
Make your own way Over the years, I have repeatedly felt like I missed the timing for a meetup or an IRC group or...
a year ago
20
a year ago
Over the years, I have repeatedly felt like I missed the timing for a meetup or an IRC group or social media in general. I'd go to a meetup every so often but I'd never make a meaningful connection with people, whereas everyone else knew each other. I'd join an IRC group and...
Electronics etc…
Remote Controlling an HP 1670G Logic Analyzer with a Linux PC X Server Introduction Reserving a fixed IP address for the logic analyzer Assign the chosen IP address to the...
a year ago
115
a year ago
Introduction Reserving a fixed IP address for the logic analyzer Assign the chosen IP address to the logic analyzer Allow the logic analyzer to access your Ubuntu X server Configure the X-window Settings on the logic analyzer Install and declare the HP logic analyzer font...
computers are bad
2023-12-23 ITT Technical Institute Programming note/shameless plug: I am finally on Mastodon. The history of the telephone industry is...
a year ago
101
a year ago
Programming note/shameless plug: I am finally on Mastodon. The history of the telephone industry is a bit of an odd one. For the greatest part of the 20th century, telephony in the United States was largely a monopoly of AT&T and its many affiliates. This wasn't always the case,...
latest projects -...
LED Industrial Piercing [Hardware] Illuminated circuit inside a hypodermic
a year ago
Lighthouse Blog
Updates December 22
a year ago
Ken Shirriff's blog
The transparent chip inside a vintage Hewlett-Packard floppy drive While repairing an eight-inch HP floppy drive, we found that the problem was a broken interface...
a year ago
21
a year ago
While repairing an eight-inch HP floppy drive, we found that the problem was a broken interface chip. Since the chip was bad, I decapped it and took photos. This chip is very unusual: instead of a silicon substrate, the chip is formed on a base of sapphire, with silicon and metal...
latest projects -...
Hand-cranked Flux Capacitor [Concept] Control the flow of time
a year ago
./techtipsy
My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter It turns out that you can’t trust any USB type A power adapter to be within spec. I have a Catit...
a year ago
123
a year ago
It turns out that you can’t trust any USB type A power adapter to be within spec. I have a Catit Flower Fountain for my two adorable cats. The idea of a water fountain for cats may sound odd, but having one really helps with cats staying hydrated and that alone avoids all sorts...
Posts on Made of...
Performance engineering, profilers, and seeing the invisible I was recently introduced to the paper “Seeing the Invisible: Perceptual-Cognitive Aspects of...
a year ago
43
a year ago
I was recently introduced to the paper “Seeing the Invisible: Perceptual-Cognitive Aspects of Expertise” by Gary Klein and Robert Hoffman. It’s excellent and I recommend you read it when you have a chance. Klein and Hoffman discuss the ability of experts to “see what is not...
Applied Cartography
Mass renaming files in fish on macOS One of many two-liners to come as I migrate things from the old site onto Obsidian: brew install...
a year ago
26
a year ago
One of many two-liners to come as I migrate things from the old site onto Obsidian: brew install rename rename "s/.mdx/.md/" **.md
Ken Shirriff's blog
Two interesting XOR circuits inside the Intel 386 processor Intel's 386 processor (1985) was an important advance in the x86 architecture, not only moving to a...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Intel's 386 processor (1985) was an important advance in the x86 architecture, not only moving to a 32-bit processor but also switching to a CMOS implementation. I've been reverse-engineering parts of the 386 chip and came across two interesting and completely different circuits...
latest projects -...
Smallest USB-C MIDI Synth [Hardware] The smallest and silliest MIDI synth yet
a year ago
Applied Cartography
Postgres batch enqueuing in ten lines of Django It hasn't failed me yet: BATCH_SIZE = 100 def batch_proess(queryset) -> None: count =...
a year ago
20
a year ago
It hasn't failed me yet: BATCH_SIZE = 100 def batch_proess(queryset) -> None: count = queryset.count() if count == 0: time.sleep(10) return with transaction.atomic(): batch = list( queryset.select_for_update(of=("self",),...
Jonas Hietala
Let's build a VORON: Filters I can print, but the printer is missing a very important thing that I alluded to in the previous...
a year ago
41
a year ago
I can print, but the printer is missing a very important thing that I alluded to in the previous post: filtering dangerous particles and fumes. This is mostly covered by the kit, but I was missing some parts from the print it forward and the kit didn’t include a HEPA...
Lighthouse Blog
Updates December 15: Rebranding to Lighthouse and complete redesign
a year ago
Willem's Blog
Backup Rotation Scheme Learn about the rsync-backup-rotator tool that helps you automatically rotate backups using rsync,...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Learn about the rsync-backup-rotator tool that helps you automatically rotate backups using rsync, creating and maintaining multiple recovery points from your backups.
Home on Erik...
Simple sabotage for software CIA produced a fantastic book during the peak of World War 2 called Simple Sabotage. It laid out...
a year ago
30
a year ago
CIA produced a fantastic book during the peak of World War 2 called Simple Sabotage. It laid out various ways for infiltrators to ruin productivity of a company. Some of the advice is timeless, for instance the section about “General interference with Organizations and...
./techtipsy
The simplicity of the modulo operator: how I scaled an inefficient solution on a legacy system Your service cannot process events fast enough during peak hours. There is no obvious quick and...
a year ago
109
a year ago
Your service cannot process events fast enough during peak hours. There is no obvious quick and dirty fix. Refactoring would take ages. People have been unhappy for a while now. What the hell do you do? Background I had the pleasure of working with a legacy backend system...
latest projects -...
Badge [Hardware] A RISC-V LED matrix
a year ago
Posts on Made of...
Advent of Code in C++ Template Metaprogramming This December, the imp of the perverse struck me, and I decided to see how many days of Advent of...
a year ago
46
a year ago
This December, the imp of the perverse struck me, and I decided to see how many days of Advent of Code I could do purely in compile-time C++ metaprogramming. As of this writing, I’ve done two days, and I’m not sure I’ll make it any further. However, that’s one more day than I...
Lighthouse Blog
Updates December 08: YouTube support
a year ago
Ken Shirriff's blog
Reverse engineering the barrel shifter circuit on the Intel 386 processor die The Intel 386 processor (1985) was a large step from the 286 processor, moving x86 to a 32-bit...
a year ago
29
a year ago
The Intel 386 processor (1985) was a large step from the 286 processor, moving x86 to a 32-bit architecture. The 386 also dramatically improved the performance of shift and rotate operations by adding a "barrel shifter", a circuit that can shift by multiple bits in one step. The...
Greater Still by...
Revisiting Borderless Payments What’s old is new again. By Gaby Goldberg & Bridget Harris
a year ago
computers are bad
2023-12-05 vhf omnidirectional range The term "VHF omnidirectional range" can at first be confusing, because it includes "range"---a...
a year ago
126
a year ago
The term "VHF omnidirectional range" can at first be confusing, because it includes "range"---a measurement that the technology does not provide. The answer to this conundrum is, as is so often the case, history. The "range" refers not to the radio equipment but to the space...
Abort Retry Fail
The History of the IBM 5100 IBM's First Personal Computer
a year ago
latest projects -...
POV Candle [Hardware] Tiny volumetric display
a year ago
./techtipsy
Control - how to make a game enjoyable for casual audiences I’ve decided to intentionally take more time to play video games this year, since it’s a relatively...
a year ago
181
a year ago
I’ve decided to intentionally take more time to play video games this year, since it’s a relatively healthy way to escape from the real world once in a while. A friend recommended one game in particular: Control: Ultimate Edition. During the Steam summer sale of 2023, I went...
Lighthouse Blog
Updates December 01: UX improvements
a year ago
Ken Shirriff's blog
Inside the Intel 386 processor die: the clock circuit Processors are driven by a clock, which controls the timing of each step inside the chip. In this...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Processors are driven by a clock, which controls the timing of each step inside the chip. In this blog post, I'll examine the clock-generation circuitry inside the Intel 386 processor. Earlier processors such as the 8086 (1978) were simpler, using two clock phases internally. The...
Jonas Hietala
Let's build a VORON: Printing & Tuning It’s up and running, and now it’s finally printing time! Less exciting—but necessary—tuning the...
a year ago
24
a year ago
It’s up and running, and now it’s finally printing time! Less exciting—but necessary—tuning the printer to make the prints better. Filament shipment Even though I’ve been building the printer for more than a month, I wasn’t ready for it being time for printing so soon. I don’t...
Elevation Lab - Blog
Introducing TagVault Magnetic for AirTag Wanting to easily, securely, and discretely keep an AirTag on our car, we designed...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Wanting to easily, securely, and discretely keep an AirTag on our car, we designed the TagVault Magnetic Mount. Testing many designs, we did not want to settle with anything that couldn't stand extreme vibration. So we gave our mount has an huge, thick Neodymium rare earth...
latest projects -...
3D Model Viewer Improvements [Software] Unlocking the embedded gimbals
a year ago
Vitalik Buterin's...
My techno-optimism
a year ago
Abort Retry Fail
The History of GM-NAA I/O and SHARE The Birth of Computer Operating Systems
a year ago
Electronics etc…
Analyzing the Monoprice Blackbird HDCP 2.2 to 1.4 Down Converter Introduction Some Words about HDCP Inside the Monoprice Blackbird 4K Pro The Test Digging Deeper:...
a year ago
130
a year ago
Introduction Some Words about HDCP Inside the Monoprice Blackbird 4K Pro The Test Digging Deeper: UART Transactions Decoding HDCP I2C Transactions The Legality of It All References Footnotes Introduction I got my hands on a Monoprice Blackbird 4K Pro HDCP 2.2 to 1.4...
computers are bad
2023-11-25 the curse of docker I'm heading to Las Vegas for re:invent soon, perhaps the most boring type of industry extravaganza...
a year ago
106
a year ago
I'm heading to Las Vegas for re:invent soon, perhaps the most boring type of industry extravaganza there could be. In that spirit, I thought I would write something quick and oddly professional: I'm going to complain about Docker. Packaging software is one of those fundamental...
Jonas Hietala
Writing lessons learned after writing a book A good writer isn’t born; a good writer is created It may sound dumb, but one of my reasons for...
a year ago
21
a year ago
A good writer isn’t born; a good writer is created It may sound dumb, but one of my reasons for writing a book was to improve my writing ability. Maybe I could’ve practiced on the blog instead, but putting things on paper gave it some added weight I don’t think I would’ve gotten...
Lighthouse Blog
Updates November 24: Content parsing improvements
a year ago
Abort Retry Fail
The History of Commodore, Part 4 The Amiga, The Decline, The Fall
a year ago
computers are bad
2023-11-19 Centrex I have always been fascinated by the PABX - the private automatic branch exchange, often shortened...
a year ago
111
a year ago
I have always been fascinated by the PABX - the private automatic branch exchange, often shortened to "PBX" in today's world where the "automatic" is implied. (Relatively) modern small and medium business PABXs of the type I like to collect are largely solid-state devices that...
Notes on software...
Exploring a Postgres query plan I learned this week that you can intercept and redirect Postgres query execution. You can hook into...
a year ago
24
a year ago
I learned this week that you can intercept and redirect Postgres query execution. You can hook into the execution layer so you're given a query plan and you get to decide what to do with it. What rows to return, if any, and where they come from. That's very interesting. So I...
Jonas Hietala
Let's build a VORON: Software The build continues, now in a little more familiar territory. Firmware flashing To flash the...
a year ago
22
a year ago
The build continues, now in a little more familiar territory. Firmware flashing To flash the firmware I had to order a microSD card reader. With that on hand the flashing wasn’t difficult. The VORON docs walks you through the installation very well. Mainsail I chose to install...
Lighthouse Blog
Updates November 17: Content classification and summary
a year ago
Good Enough
TIL: Listen for JavaScript events only once! A common thing I find myself doing in Javascript is adding some event driven behavior that I only...
a year ago
23
a year ago
A common thing I find myself doing in Javascript is adding some event driven behavior that I only want to happen once. Let’s say I have a big button that starts the process of lowering a certain spy into a pool of certain doom — I don’t want a second button press to awkwardly...
Christian Selig
Autonomous Standing Desk and Chair Review Autonomous was nice enough to send me one of both their Smart Desk Pro standing desks and ErgoChair...
a year ago
101
a year ago
Autonomous was nice enough to send me one of both their Smart Desk Pro standing desks and ErgoChair Pro chairs in exchange for posting about them on Twitter, and I wanted to cover them in more detail on my blog as well so I could give my full thoughts on them for anyone in the...
Simply Explained
How I Built an NFC Movie Library for my Kids When I was a kid, my sister and I had a tower of VHS tapes we watched endlessly. Fast-forward to...
a year ago
46
a year ago
When I was a kid, my sister and I had a tower of VHS tapes we watched endlessly. Fast-forward to today, and my children's movie collection is vastly different. It's completely digital and dispersed across services. I wanted to recreate the tangible magic of my childhood for them.
Vitalik Buterin's...
Exit games for EVM validiums: the return of Plasma
a year ago