philpem

philpem, 8 hours ago to random

This project needs a better name, but the dragon looks GOOD. I might see if I can tweak the eyes in png2svg, he shouldn't look that scary...

philpem, 1 day ago to random

My favourite RISC OS error message (though technically an Econet Fileserver one) is "Who are you?"
You get this when you're logged into a fileserver, but the FS is rebooted. The FS thinks you're logged out, but your local station claimed to be logged in.

philpem, 1 day ago to random

Anyway, thanks to the invention of RCBOs, I'm not going to be a footnote in Tim Hunkin's EMF talk on the history of electrocution this weekend.
Is your hedge trimmer truly broken-in without at least one waterproof splice on the power cable?
(I have a rule, maximum one splice: if the cable gets cut again, it gets shortened or replaced)

philpem, 2 days ago to RaspberryPi

Tonight on "what the frisk?", a Raspberry Pi device tree overlay that works fine on 32-bit Pi OS, but on a 64-bit Pi Zero 2W it kills the WiFi. I have no idea where to even start figuring this out. #RaspberryPi #RaspberryPiZero

philpem, 2 days ago to random

I'm doing a talk on DIY cable TV at @emf next weekend, if you're into #AnalogCable TV please feel free to pop by, or find me in the ECHQ (EMF Hams) village :)
https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2024/203-being-elliot-carver #EMFcamp

philpem, 3 days ago to random

Well it's eleven o'clock on a Saturday,
The regular crowd's sneaking in.
There's a young man sittin' next to me
Makin' love to his Club-Mate drink
He says "Son, can you find me a zero-day?"
"I'm not really sure how it goes."
"But it's easy, a treat, and I knew it complete"
"Before it was called 'out of scope'."

philpem, 3 days ago to random

In case you missed it, I've got a spiffy new logo for my slides and PCBs. This is Chaos the dragon!
https://meemu.org/@quesadillawizard/112493013282894564

philpem, 4 days ago to random

I really need to break out of my habit of bodging stuff together out of whatever cheap Sparkfun- and Adafruit-style protoboards I can find. My old job put me off doing electronic design for a while and I'd like to get back in the groove.

philpem, 6 days ago to retrocomputing

Folks of a certain #retrocomputing persuasion might enjoy this :) Play with sound.

#riscos #fox #WaveSynthBeep

Credits:
Fox video: @a1ba (https://elk.zone/suya.place/objects/84de9001-7eab-4bd7-91c4-0383d4dea126)
Beep sound: @Gammitin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hobeufw0bao)

video/mp4

philpem, 6 days ago to random

I'm starting to think that "too big to fail" is a synonym for "needs to fail", or at least "needs restructuring". Nothing and no-one should be too big to fail, there's always room to admit you were wrong and learn from it.

philpem, 8 days ago to random

Alas, it seems the rackmount Acorn A4000 I built is dead, at least for now. During the LAN party, the Arduino (which runs the soft power off) came loose and touched the +12V test point on the power supply. Turns out it put 12V straight up the I2C Bus SDA pin and has blown that I/O pin on the SoC. Feck.
It still "boots" but the I/O pin appears to the CPU as being permanently low, i.e. I2C Ack and all data bits low.

philpem, 11 days ago (edited 10 days ago) to random

Small repair project this morning. This is a Northern Electronics UV141 UV EPROM eraser. All it needed was a bit of a clean and some fresh ESD foam. The bulb inside looks almost new. Full ballast and starter setup. I might swap in an electronic starter from one of the old fittings in the garage - they tend to go easier on the tubes.

Edit: it also needed some fresh rubber feet.

philpem, 11 days ago to random

C++ senses twitching. #emfcamp

philpem, 11 days ago to random

The joys of CrossCountry rail: I've spent my whole lunch break staring at XC seating plans, RealTimeTrains data, and Trainsplit's seat booking... and I still have no idea whether I'm going to have a table seat or power socket for the trip to EMFcamp later this month.

Somehow Arriva manage to run the best buses around here, and the worst trains.

Sounds like packing the Charles Stross novel @orman surprised me with might not be such a bad idea, if there's a chance of a Ryanair-class trip
#ukrail

philpem, 13 days ago to random

Sometimes it's hard to figure out why a server is moving like hot wax down a cold lead pipe. Other times you run GoAccess against the logs and it becomes very, very clear.
Fail2ban configured, StopForumSpam blocklist imported, and now that problem is solved.

philpem, 16 days ago to random

I've been playing Tempest and Asteroids and my wrists hurt. I probably deserve this.

philpem, 16 days ago to random

This is garlic bread, I'm told

philpem, 17 days ago to random

OH: nanotechnology was hard, who knew?
Me: We taught sand how to think...
BF: This made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad idea

philpem, 18 days ago to random

Sometimes it's fun to unlock all the soft options, even if you have no use for them.

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philpem, 18 days ago to random

Globaltalk (the internet-based Appletalk router) is making me want the same thing for Econet... hmm...

philpem, 19 days ago to retrocomputing

Does anyone have a raw image (DD, sector image) of an "Iomega Tools" Zip disk? I'm curious how they implemented the dual Mac/PC format.

Beware: don't put it in a PC or Mac with the Iomega Tools software installed. If it sees a Tools disk, it'll delete the other partition and 'reclaim' it as free space. Guess how I ruined mine!
Imaging on Linux with "dd" should be safe.
An unmodified disk will report as being read-only.

#retrocomputing #iomega #ZipDrive

philpem, 19 days ago to random

My KVM has WiFi control now :D
The Belkin SoHo switch is really well-suited to this. LED status is two-bit binary coded. That and four GPIOs for the switch. All works with Companion too!

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philpem, 19 days ago to random

Seems like a night of successes. The E4406A works again, after reseating the boards. Whatever, I'll take it... Another instrument that's as fussy as my mother's cat. Doesn't purr though.

philpem, 25 days ago to random

Technicians: "I'm an engineer!"

Me, an engineer: "twitch"

philpem, 25 days ago to random

A line of pepperoni. How dare you.