Blog - page 2 - CompuCat

Toots

Idle thought: a million thanks to everyone who bothers to author beautiful, clever subtitles. Quite the art.

2025-01-31 5:56

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Working on a PreSonus 24R - replacing the volume control pot.

To do that, you need to remove the mainboard - which requires removing the I/O subboard and front faceplate.

Which requires unscrewing every I/O jack - 67 screws - plus all the fasteners holding the chassis together, plus all the screws holding the PCBs in.

Ughhh.

EDIT: Oh, and they're in plastic, so no power tools allowed.

2025-01-21 21:30

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Context: FCC recently authorized WMAS devices for license-free operation. I wager you could build a one-way WMAS system pretty cheap/simply using parts intended for ATSC/DVB...and who says an MPEG-TS actually has to contain video?

If this doesn't work, last resort is a discrete tuner + demodulating in an FPGA, and that's no fun.

2025-01-16 21:56

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Shot in the dark: considering the Skyworks Si2151/Si2183 UHF tuner and DVB decoder combo for a project I'm working on. Skyworks has thus far refused to make any design docs available to me.

Any tips on acquiring them, or alternate part selection? Seems like Skyworks is one of the few companies still making these ICs; TI/NXP/Maxim's offerings are all obsoleted.

2025-01-16 21:47

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This year's Steam Replay just says how many times you lost the game. Add one more.

2024-12-18 23:06

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This is an experiment. Please boost.

http://mastoddosnt.ddns.net/

Here's the idea: This post is going first to my followers, then, if they boost it, to other people. This domain has been registered for only this experiment. I should see in my web server's logs when mastodon instances start crawling the site for info. Then maybe also some curious humans.

I just want to play with my monitoring a bit :)

2024-11-16 16:19

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posting yet another little thing, this time about a prevalent problem in the AP world: "view more replies on {origin instance}", AKA the "source of truth" problem (as I've dubbed it.

https://whtwnd.com/alexia.bsky.cyrneko.eu/3l7mnsf7p2s27

#activitypub #atproto #fediverse #tech #technology #protocols

2024-10-29 4:15

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i was on tumblr and suddenly i found @netkitty

(well, except i don’t think netkitty is this sad)

https://www.tumblr.com/juliannegriepp/709991442223906816

2024-10-13 0:53

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Saddened to find out today that apparently #Cohost, an indie nonprofit blogging site that was popular among artists, is shutting down. There was a lot of good content on there, and I know how it feels to see the place that you've been posting your thoughts and art for what could have been years suddenly evaporate, and for some people, I know it's just as they've been getting established there.

A shut down like this hurts everyone.

If anyone is coming over from co-host, or any other site that is going down, or a country like #Brasil / #Brazil that has banned your previous #SocialNetwork, or just needs help getting established on here in general, feel free to reach out to me. I am always an open volunteer for expanding the #Fediverse.

I also encourage anyone who has a Cohost account to go post on there to try and help the users find their way here.

We have until the end of the month to get them all over here!

#FediMigration #MastodonMigration #TheContentMustFlow

2024-09-09 21:22

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You do use the same safety protocols for both AI and Fae:

Never tell them your name. Always use a euphemism or pseudonym. Giving one your name will always end badly.
When you doubt of the authenticity of the presentation, always try to look at it from different angles and see if there are any cracks, seems, or defects. Rotating it is the easiest way to do this.
Never, under any circumstances, eat anything offered to you by one. Politely refuse as best you can.
Do not follow directions provided by one. They will lead you astray and into harm's way.

2024-08-14 1:15

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Followup 3 months later: turns out I was grossly mistaken! I simply hadn't migrated any photos from iCloud to the NAS since 2020...rookie mistake.

I constantly underestimate how many photos I take on iPhone vs. my "real" cameras.

Ken Rockwell's principle holds true - "Your camera doesn't matter."

I quite like my father's corollary to it, however: "The best camera is the one that's with you."

2024-07-21 16:22

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1990 Internet: You gotta be a hacker to find anything on the web

2000 Internet: Literally all the information in the world accessible to everyone so easy a toddler could do it

2020 Internet: You gotta be a hacker to find anything on the web

2024-05-24 17:06

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Interestingly enough, I think I took a photo almost every day in 2020. Never done that before or since.

2024-04-21 23:57

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Finally reorganizing my digital photo archive - and incorporating all the random DCIM directories scattered around my various disks.

There are some interesting trends over time - for instance, percentage of photos shot on camera vs. iPhone.

I've also taken fewer photos since 2020 for some reason.

2024-04-19 16:49

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Current mammoth task: unifying the hodgepodge Downloads folders on my various client devices into a single organized reference library.

Like I should've been doing all along, given how many datasheets and whatnot are mixed in there.

Also turned on "ask where to download" in my browser - feels like IE6 again, but forces me to think before just sending something to ~/Downloads.

2024-04-01 15:39

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Does anyone know if this exists? Looking for a Polaroid-esque camera that prints to thermal paper. Major bonus points for simplicity of operation and lack of network connectivity. It must have a reasonable telephoto lens, which pretty much rules out the cheap Amazon/AliExpress units.

A cheap phone plus AliExpress Bluetooth thermal printer is a consideration, but I don’t trust their bespoke ad-heavy apps.

Android POS hand terminal looks interesting, but again: I suspect the software side will be a hurdle. Building a custom app isn’t worth the time cost.

2024-01-03 15:43

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Mildly interesting realization: it's easy to create a stack of conversational tangents, but (for me at least, and I suspect others) it's an order of magnitude harder to traverse that stack backwards. (You start forgetting things more than 2-3 tangents deep.)

That's a podcast idea, actually: idle conversation, but with some gimmick to periodically force people to (fail to) remember the first thing on the stack.

2023-12-27 18:36

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tfw the uC module you're using is *one* pin short

2023-10-18 14:30

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Man, language-learning is frustrating sometimes.

I studied music seriously up until I went to college - at which point my engineering degrees took up too much of my time. (That, and figuring out how my brain works.) Listening to music voraciously developed my ear quite a bit, but my fingers are years out of practice.

More importantly, my sightreading has deteriorated horribly - which is the real frustrating bit. That's going to take some time to build back up.

2023-09-21 18:51

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Recent Posts

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From Ash’s blog: “I’m tossing up commiting to monthy or, uh, fortmonthy updates like my mate Alex did for a while…”
D’oh, I’ve been called out! I kinda forgot about these for far too long. Guess what: I’m back!

Hey again! Um…where did the time go? Finals are over, and I’ve spent a ton of time with family, that’s what! Almost forgot to post this :)

Hey again! Life doesn’t slow down, but neither will my monthly updates. I’m not giving up this time, hehe!

Hey again! Just a quick one this time, life’s kinda crazy right now.

Hey again! I’m a terribly slow writer, and I need an excuse to get some practice…that’s why I’m restarting these monthly update posts, I guess! (This one’s a tad late, apologies.)

Hey all! My new homepage is mostly up-and-running right now, so I reckon this makes it the perfect time to resume the “State of Affairs” monthly updates I stopped writing nearly 3 years ago. Here we go!

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Alex (CompuCat)