This is not a blog, tyvm, although it started out that way and I haven't gotten around to un-blog-ifying it all. Not everything needs a date-stamp! Or maybe I'll leave the old date stamps, what difference does it actually make?
I will however try to organize things by general categories. For now, these ..
OK, going to change this over from reverse chronological sorted dated entries (i.e., 'blog') to just a flat out old-school HOMEPAGE .. pretty soon now.
Blarf. Format be hanged! I just have something on my mind, which is this: Why is it (or is it truly) impossible to find a display module in the 13-inch size class that doesn't have a b'zillion pixels? I seriously only want maybe 512x384 or 640x480, something in that zone! Sure, 13-inch with 1024+ horizontal abounds, as do 512-ish pixels crammed into less than 2-inches. And fwiw, since exactly nobody is listening, I don't even want color. Literally like 1-bit black-or-white would be *awesome*. Why do I want this? On the physical size end of things, I'd like to be able to see the darn thing w/o having to break out Unusual Lenses, on account of I don't see 1200 dpi anymore. On the pixel end of things, I want to drive it from a relatively (well, hell, quite) underpowered SBC, and I'd like to keep the frame buffer down to something under 32K. Oh well.
Looks like I need a format change here. Trying to fit everything to a couple of categories would be fine for tracking a couple of projects, but when projects stall there's no fresh content to post and things start looking dead here about. Therefore, maybe I'll just post whatever's on my mind.
Ok, here's something: Things I Do Not Want In My Computers: "secure boot", UEFI (let's pronounce that "yoofy", rhymes with "goofy"), TPM, "systemd". Why not? Pretty much all of that is aimed at one goal - to turn the good old personal computer into a vendor-locked vendor-controlled appliance. The PC market has been a wild west for a long time, impossible to tame, but it sure looks like someone had a vision that, if you introduce the right pieces into the commodity hardware, and make theyone's seem indispensable, you can eventually get to where you /can/ flip a switch and take over everyone's PCs, even though the individual items seen harmless. Did we /need/ a mini OS hypervisor to control boot? No, but it seemed harmless so people accepted it. Did we need secure boot? No, "it's just an optional thing, so, ok". You get the idea. It's all fine until the 600lb gorilla says "ok, peons, you're going to need a TPM to run our next update"
The Zenith is kind of on hold, have been messing around building RF amps, mixers, 455kHz amplifiers using discrete transistors. That and longer spring days mean less free time to play with RF relics. One of these days ..
No, haven't forgot this is here. Still tinkering with the TO Y600. Wondering why February seems so long. Yankee Doodle where did you go? Searching the Skies ..
Back for more, eh? Well, I am. Still not sure how to organize this stuff. Going to roll with the low-tec blog format until I get a better idea.
Just started this today. Should I dig up one of those animated stick man construction workers like it's 1993? Hmm ... maybe not.
But what will it be? Idk. It'd be pretty easy to just collect ramblings and date stamp them and voila! instant blog! But that seems a tad too banal. Time will tell. Expect reorgs.
Topics likely to be
Here's the obligatory test link: