@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

penguin42

@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk

Chocolate eating computer geek, Manchester, UK
[ searchable ]

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

b0rk, (edited ) to random
@b0rk@jvns.ca avatar

if you’ve written code to interact with a USB device (in userspace, not in the kernel), what tools/learning resources did you use?

right now I’m thinking gousb (and Wireshark to spy on USB traffic) but I’ve never done this before

the USB device in question is a USB-to-Ethernet adapter on a Mac

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@b0rk How about: https://libusb.info/

(Don't think I've actually used it myself, but I see lots using it).

johncarlosbaez, (edited ) to random
@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz avatar

Costa Talalaev gave me a fractal: a 3-dimensional Sierpinski gasket!

He made it using the 3d printer at the Hacklab, a makerspace here in Edinburgh. It was a bit hard to make since it's held together only at tiny spots. He had to build something with more plastic, a kind of scaffolding, and then tear that off. The end result is very light yet sturdy.

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@johncarlosbaez Oh that's nice - I did a mandelbulb years ago; but that sierpinski gasket is much harder! Now, try and get a good picture of it's shadow; shadows of 3d fractals are neat.

juliank, to random
@juliank@mastodon.social avatar

The whole "illegals vote I'm US elections" discussion is funny as a German because here

  • everyone needs to register their home address with the city within a week or two of moving there, you are automatically "registered to vote" by this and assigned the closest place to vote when an election happens.
  • to vote, you need to present ID and it's checked against the people allowed to vote in that place.
penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@juliank Yeh it's a little odd; in the UK there was a big backlash against the introduction of voter-ID; but I think that might be because we're very unused to needing ID for things; if you don't drive, then in the UK you often don't need a photo ID to get along.
(I think it's also because people politicsed it a lot, when it's not really)

gsuberland, to random
@gsuberland@chaos.social avatar

fun short presentation from OCP on the effects of immersion cooling on signal integrity.

the guy clearly isn't super confident on the SI and high speed design details (he's a thermals guy) so he says a few things that aren't quite right, but the presentation demonstrates the general problem of placing stuff (liquids, solids, whatever) directly on top of high speed impedance-controlled traces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8lZkLyjfik

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@gsuberland Thanks for the pointer; there' some fun random stuff in there - quantum connectivity standards, heat reuse, ceramic nano memory...and then the normal enterprise stuff, 'AI' and people begging to find a use for CXL.

philpem, to random
@philpem@digipres.club avatar

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

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@philpem Didn't schools have to do that to deal with standard teenage computer geeks?

penguin42, to science
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

Now this is some good news! Gene therapy fixing deafness in a kid before they even really know about it;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68921561

penguin42, to linux
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

I've just posted a pretty long request for thoughts on dead code hunting in - all thoughts welcome;
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/Zjy82Ja6G2iIHl75@gallifrey/T/#u

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@dick_turpin I was hoping for less painful thoughts.

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@dick_turpin Well I wasn't going to expect them from you was I?

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@andyc Neither gcc or clang warn on at least some of the ones I'm finding; while they'll complain about an unused variable, they won't complain about an unused struct definition; there are also some cases where it won't complain about unused static's - in the weird way I tripped over. People do run lots of scanning tools - and one thing I'm hoping from this mail is if someone comes along and says 'Oh yeh, we could add a check to ....'

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@andyc I've just posted a gcc bug request for one of the cases; I have sympathy it's not so much a bug as such since the value is kind of used:

https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=115027

avon_deer, to random
@avon_deer@dragonchat.org avatar

"Medicine shortages in England ‘beyond critical’, pharmacists warn"

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/09/medicine-shortages-in-england-beyond-critical-pharmacists-warn

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@avon_deer Not just England;
see the equivalent US https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/12/health/drug-shortage-record-high/index.html
story.
or EU:
https://think.ing.com/articles/why-there-is-no-end-in-sight-for-the-eu-drug-shortage-crab-carolina-lal-pharma/

penguin42, to random
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

I got lost in Wikipedia Transistor articles, and found out about two of the old types; Grown Junction and Alloy Junction; The Grown Junction in particular sounds quite fun in changing the molten source as you pull the crystal out of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grown-junction_transistor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alloy-junction_transistor

philpem, to retrocomputing
@philpem@digipres.club avatar

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.

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@philpem Hmm, I do have such a disk, still in it's bag, not sure whether it's ever been placed in a machine, but I doubt it. Hmm. I also have some drives, but not currently in machines...

datarama, to random
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

Where do people who self-host their websites, mastodon instances etc. actually host things these days?

(Hetzner are villains now, and so are DigitalOcean I gather?)

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@datarama I have a VM on Mythic beasts @beasts and one on scaleway. I also have one of the free Oracle cloud VMs (well hell, it was free).

stsquad, to random
@stsquad@mastodon.org.uk avatar

Currently getting the run around between #eon and #nationalgrid trying to work out who is responsible for the fact their is no #wan coverage for #smart meters where I live. Of the 2.5MWh the household has consumed from the grid this year alone I've sent 1.5MWh back into the grid. There are only so many free showers I can have by diverting the spare energy into my hot water tank!

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@stsquad What happens if you formally raise a complaint with Eon; after ~8 weeks you can then raise it to OFGEM. Eon will really beg you not to raise it, but make it an official complaint and ask for a reference.

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@stsquad I think if it was a complaint I think it's not to get Ofgem to sort that network out, it's to get Eon to do the leg work to get an answer. I take it there's no mobile coverage there - do they work with picocells?

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@stsquad I thought the idea was that they had a choice of radio kit to install, either for specialised radio, or just to use mobile; so if it uses the mobile, does the WAN provider matter?

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@stsquad It might be worth looking at exactly which kit you have; I do see something that says in some areas they default to the WAN stuff, I guess expecting most of Wales to have bad mobile coverage; but if you know you actually do have good mobile coverage I don't know if you can ask to use it.

penguin42, to random
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

Tech has reached the point where LED bulbs outlast the shitty switches in bedside lamps.
<sigh> as he wires across the switch.
(Probably about 7 years old, never had a bulb change, so I guess ~2500 switch cycles)

dick_turpin, to random
@dick_turpin@mastodon.org.uk avatar

FFS! Concrete Chess Tables!
£2,500 'levelling up' park chess tables placed around Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cprglvj820po

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@dick_turpin Lets face it, if they weren't concrete they'd get stolen. Or chopped down or....And I think that does include the seats.
Now I want to find one and play Draughts at it.

codewiz, to space
@codewiz@mstdn.io avatar

In about 40 minutes, ULA will launch a crewed directed to the International Space Station.

This mission has been delayed for 4 years due to technical and software issues. Good luck to NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams! 🤞

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI1u80rw5LY

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@codewiz The launch is actually in a few hours isn't it - just start of coverage in 20min??

penguin42, to random
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

Lovely day for trimming, ✂️

The poster trimming a hedgeball, back into shape after it's grown crazily in the start of spring. It's a light green coloured thing, against a darker hedge.

robhague, to retrocomputing
@robhague@mas.to avatar

Hi Fedi — I have a question. I recently acquired a couple of classics, a ZX81 and an Atari 2600 (both PAL). However, I've not been able to get them going, for the simple reason that the analogue tuner in my (relatively) modern TV can't pick up the RF signal.

While composite video mods are readily available for both, and I'll probably opt for that long term, I'd like to get them working in their original condition. Any suggestions? Would a simple RF amplifier help?

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@robhague An amp would be odd; when it's on a piece of wire >--< far away there should be plenty of signal.

halfy, to random
@halfy@half-shot.uk avatar

Look, I don't want to brag about my DIY skills but

penguin42,
@penguin42@mastodon.org.uk avatar

@halfy As you get more experienced, you'll collect many types of tape.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • Leos
  • InstantRegret
  • thenastyranch
  • mdbf
  • khanakhh
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • hgfsjryuu7
  • ngwrru68w68
  • rosin
  • kavyap
  • Durango
  • PowerRangers
  • DreamBathrooms
  • anitta
  • magazineikmin
  • cisconetworking
  • cubers
  • vwfavf
  • tacticalgear
  • everett
  • osvaldo12
  • ethstaker
  • tester
  • normalnudes
  • modclub
  • GTA5RPClips
  • provamag3
  • All magazines
    •