A Geek Goes Flying

Emulate a classic Macintosh on an iPad:  https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2021/04/17/turning-an-ipad-pro-into-the-ultimate-classic-macintosh/ (You can do the same with an Apple IIgs, too:  https://github.com/ogoguel/activegs-ios ) 

Don’t you love it when everything aligns and you end up with a writing experience that’s just awesome ? That happened. Pen.   Lamy Safari Fountain Pen - Charcoal - Fine  with a Z24 converter . I’ve had probably half a dozen of these pens; they’re nothing fancy, but they’re durable and comfortable and write smoothly. (Not so much the Extra Fine nibs, though.) Ink.   Noodler’s Bad Blue Heron . I’ve had this bottle forever (long enough, I think I sourced it from the sadly departed Writer’s Bloc site). For whatever reason, it seems to write much more smoothly than the Noodler’s Polar Blue Eternal I’ve also used in this pen. Pad.   TOPS Docket Diamond . (And also, of course, a Moleskine .) If the thin-backed crappy yellow legal pads the office otherwise gets from I don’t even know where is freeze dried Taster’s Choice instant coffee, these pads are the local supermarket’s gourmet expensive stuff you can taste . Little luxuries.

Reading about the  Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (with my nom de plume , of course I was), I was kind of astonished to see an interview with Tim Canham , Mars Helicopter Operations Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he discusses how they used COTS stuff to build it: “[W]e literally ordered parts from SparkFun.” I love SparkFun, I’ve browsed it countless times. Never quite committed to start making stuff, though. Until today, when I discovered their Cherry MX keyboard switch tutorial . Oh, man, too many ideas! (Including one I’ve been toying with for a while, an unofficial “ ASOS ” type weather system I could build with, e.g., a SparkFun Weather Meter Kit .) AdaFruit is another good supplier; I have some of their pieces hanging off an old Apple IIgs. I have an old Arduino kit I picked up a while ago - I should really start playing with it. (An Arduino Nano 3.0 (clone, maybe, based on reviews), and a “ Sidekick Basic Kit .”) I remember fondly my old RadioShack “ 160 in One ”

I have a coffee mug from a job I had a long time ago. I still miss that job, the people I worked with, the cool stuff we got to do. (It was cutting edge.) That mug was my morning oatmeal receptacle, etc. A few years back, The Parasite™ (a couch surfer I was trying to help out), in a typical display of their trademark blend of Carelessness and Lack of Attention, shattered it into several pieces. I imagined they were intact enough to reassemble with super glue, but never got around to it until this past weekend. Turns out, yes, the pieces I had were large enough to glue back together, but the mug itself will never be useful for fluids (or oatmeal, really) again. So what to do? Preserve it by transitioning it into a planter for a tiny succulent . Apparently, I need: The succulent itself (I’m thinking Jade  (maybe this one ?), since apparently it can tolerate lower light situations). Update: Ordered this . A drain hole A 1/2" diamond tile drill bit A drill Soil (I have no idea if thi

Mocking up a holder for the Keychron K2   I’ve long been on a quest to find a decent keyboard to use with an iPad. A decade or so ago I tried the ZAGGmate case and then the ZAGGkeys Solo ; more recently, the Logitech K480 , a BrydgeAir , keyboard covers like the Logitech Canvas  or Focus  (used with an iPad Mini, they’re great for what they are, but the form factor precludes using them for much real work). I’ve even used an older version of the Handheld Scientific Bluetooth Keyboard Adapter to hook up my old Razer (before I modified it ) - not *quite* as messy as using an Apple Extended Keyboard II with an iPad , but close. But what I’m really looking for is a mechanical keyboard I can use with a 9.7” Pro, conveniently. (The less said anout the abominations that look like vintage typewriters, the better.) I could use the Keychron K2 - it’s almost the perfect size, and Bluetooth. But then I need a stand  to prop up the iPad - one more thing to tote around and keep track of, and you

So apparently I’m building a Royal Kludge RK71  (stock: White, RGB lighting, brown switches; found one in condition “Good - Acceptable” for pennies), with Kailh Hako Royal Clear switches. (Discontinued and on sale.) Found the switch tester I picked up a while ago, and it was - kind of as expected - between Box Royal switches and the Hako Royal Clear, and the Royal Clears felt just a little bit better. Night and day compared to the Box Browns  (and I’ve tried, and hated, “regular” brown switches from Cherry, Gateron, Outemu, etc). A full keyboard with the tactile switches should be interesting, the form factor is good for this application (and it has a Mac layout built in as a layer, with Command/Option legends on the meta keys). This board is soldered, not hot swap, so the soldering station gets a chance to continue to pay for itself. At least now I have experience and confidence ! Other peoples’ videos: Royal Kludge RK71 v2 Review How to Disassemble a Royal Kludge RK71 Update: It

I have an older Logitech H390 headset I picked up probably 6 years ago. It still works well and it’s remarkably clear and easy to use - I can even get Slack or Zoom running in a Linux instance under VMware to see it and use it (the same is not  true for the Creative SoundBlaster Play! 3 I use with a QC25 headset). But the earpads are disintegrating. (So is the headband, but it’s still in much better condition, and matters less to me.) For less than $10, replacements are available. And one less thing goes into the landfill.  Update: The replacements arrived. They’re smaller than the stock, and look a little funny, but ultimately they do fit and they’ll work. Side by side size comparison Replacement earpad stretched to fit, more or less Meanwhile, I picked up a Sennheiser PC 8 headset. From the photos, it appeared to be roughly comparable to the Logitech, but when I got it in my hands ... Different story. Feels very cheap in comparison. Everything about it. It’s very light weight, it’s

brew install cool-retro-term My first real exposure to UNIX was taking over administration of a weird network built by folks a lot smarter than I am, in a college dorm room. The main server was a full tower 80486DX2/66 with, if memory serves, 16 MB RAM and a 2GB full height Quantum SCSI hard drive. It was running Novell UnixWare and served a bunch of surplus DEC VT220 terminals via a DigiBoard and a pair of 16-port RJ45 serial port concentrators. Cool Retro Term takes me instantly back to that converted dorm room. You’ll need brew installed, but you need brew installed anyway.

I haven’t had great luck with ancillary hosting. ( Hosting . Deadpooled .) Now my “main” host seems to be offline. Not only is my server (a VMware instance that’s been handling my mail and other services since 2008 or so) offline, but I can’t connect to the vSphere management interface. Meh. Support doesn’t answer. Time to move. I have backups, but what a PITA. Years of accumulated cruft on a CentOS 6 base. So far I have DNS migrated (including the servers registered with the registrars), IMAP and Postfix configured, etc. Meanwhile, I picked up a cheap INPA setup I’m hoping will give me some insight into my aging Bimmer (I’ve gotten a couple of intermittent P0128 codes recently - clearly erroneous, as the temperature gauge, ODB2 info on my stereo, and hot air blowing out of the heater, all clearly demonstrate - and the other day I got a red alternator warning light that eventually went out by itself and hasn’t reappeared, but now I’m wondering what’s up...). 2021.04.21 1736Z: Postfix s

I gave it a shot. Back in 2015 I picked up some cheap pieces to revive a 2007-era MacBook. Cheap 60GB SSD, cheap battery, maxed the RAM to 3GB. It ran Lion and would sync music to my then-girlfriend’s iPhone 5C, and ran her Nintendo emulator. Success. Recently, I got  enough usable software running to keep it out of the eWaste bin, but then the battery gave up. Then, I nudged it and knocked the magsafe connector loose, and it instantly lost power. Hooking it back up to the AC adapter, I got the dreaded blinking questionmark. Tried burning a Lion install disc or a Linux installer (one of Matt Gadient’s excellent builds ), but the spindle of no-name optical blanks I had left over from who knows when, all burned coasters. Meh. Finally burned  Fedora-Xfce-Live-x86_64-31-1.9-mac-mattgadient.com.iso  on quality media and it worked ... And I learned the SSD is no longer recognized by the system. I have a 120GB SATA SSD I took out of the NAS box when I upgraded it, so I could  probably revive

Finished! The Das Keyboard (a Model S Professional For Mac , part no. DASK3PROMS1MACCLI) is no longer  naked , and the  practice I got in on the Razer was definitely time well spent: Everything worked perfectly the first time, and I’m not embarrassed by any of my solder joints. Total time was about 4 hours all told. Call it 1.5 hours to get it apart without breaking any of the plastic clips and desolder the Cherry MX Blue switches it was originally equipped with, two hours to solder in the Kailh Box Navy switches (pausing a couple of times to test things), and a final half hour to reassemble everything and put the keycaps back on (cleaning them as I went). I love these “thick click” switches! Definitely an improvement over the light, plasticky sound the board had before, and the feel is much better. I’m definitely a more accurate typist with these higher actuation force, gobs of feedback switches. It’s not quite a Model M or the Unicomp SpaceSavers I was using, but it’s pretty damned

Fin . File this project under “finished.” It started off as desoldering / soldering practice on a disposable board. Now I really like typing on it. Not as much as on a board with Navy switches, but enough to keep it and use it. Keyboard Switches: Mostly Kailh Box White switches (surplus from a GK705 that’s now setup with Pale Blue switches), with two surplus Kailh Box Navy and one Kailh Box Blue switch I had handy. The CapsLock, F9, F10, and ScrLk keys were installed with embedded LEDs so I left them as-is; they’re still the stock Razer Orange switches Keycaps: Mostly OEM, but having lost the F8 keycap I swapped in: A  Nuclear Cherry MX Keycap  and, for the hell of it, a  Red PBT Doubleshot Cherry MX Keycap  for the Esc key. (And, of course, shortly after ordering those, found multiple sellers on eBay and elsewhere parting out these keyboards, and ordered a replacement F8 key for about $7 shipped.) The two wasd keycaps (left) and an OEM keycap from a GMMK keyboard for comparison Th

I grew up in the era of the mechanical keyboard. Our first family computer was an Apple IIe with the built-in keyboard (ours was made before the “enhanced” model, and I believe used SMK switches), and I dabbled with an original Macintosh with the M0110 keyboard (Alps switches). The first computer I ever bought for myself was an Apple IIgs that came with the Apple Desktop Bus Keyboard  with Alps switches. After that came the Apple Extended Keyboard II , also with Alps. Eventually, I got into Linux and started using a surplus Model M with buckling springs. For Macs I was using MacAlly IceKey keyboards with scissor switches. About 10 years ago I started hearing about the return of the mech, in particular, the modernized Model M . Right about 2008/2009, discussion seemed to amp up everywhere, even on NPR! March 29, 2004:  The Majestic Alps and the King of Keyboards  (Matias Tactile Pro) May 7, 2008:  A Tale Of Two Keyboards: Apple Extended Keyboard II Vs IBM Model M  (Matias Tactile P

Last summer, I  picked up  a used Das Keyboard Model S Professional for Mac ($49 on eBay), which shipped equipped with Cherry MX Blue switches. (Side note, I have no idea how old this board is, but the PCB has a 2009 date on it...) The Blue switches never connected with me, and it’s been collecting dust for a while. But I like the board generally - it’s got a handy built-in USB hub, the key layout is Mac-standard by default (don’t have to remap anything in software), etc. So, I’m going to swap it to Kailh Box Navy switches ( Novel Keys or KBDfans ). Why? This: I don’t have the switches yet (they’re ordered, but haven’t shipped; the Navy switch in the above video is left over from another swap), but figured I’d get ahead of the game and strip out the Blues. I found this tear-down guide , which was handy. With the cheap tools I got (delivered on Friday), especially the thin plastic pointed 5" long spudger(?), I was able to gently pry up the “hooks” and, contrary to that guide, was

I have an old Razer BlackWidow Tournament Stealth Edition keyboard I picked up about 6 years when I was temporarily afflicted with an open office. The Razer brand orange switches were never quite to my taste, so it’s mostly been collecting dust. (I also lost the F8 key cap a while back.) Perfect sacrificial lamb while I learn how to desolder, solder, etc. (I'm waiting on some Kailh Box Navy switches to arrive and then I plan to modify a Das Keyboard Model S Professional For Mac - which I actually  do  care about). I had a set of Kailh Box White switches left over from a GMMK I swapped to Pale Blue; several of them went into a numeric keypad that was my first attempt at replacing soldered switches . With almost enough to swap everything on this board (especially since some of the orange switches have built in LEDs and would be sticking around), figured, more practice is never a bad thing. I  almost  got it perfect the first time, but borked pads at the space bar and the F2 switc

Filed under “duh, of course.” :) But seriously, interesting to have a study confirming what anyone with two or more dogs already intrinsically knew . Full paper:  https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620979149 Explanatory video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frMJ22hK0nM As covered on Reddit ( r/dogs post ; r/science ).

Way back in May of 2017, just before I flew out to Asheville, NC to pick up the Mooney M20E , I attended an FAA WINGS event, KSMO Controler GINA GARDNER at SMO EAA Chapter 11 . During that presentation, I learned we don’t have to read back IFR clearances in their entirety. For many, if not most, clearances, you probably want to do a full readback just to make sure you haven’t missed anything. But for the types of clearances you get constantly and can recite from rote memory (“cleared to <destination> via upon departure fly runway heading, intercept LAX 170 radial to LIMBO, Victor 64 to Seal Beach [SLI], then as filed ...”), simply acknowledging the clearance with a “roger” can save you and the controller some time and helps clear a busy frequency quicker. I tracked down the authority; it’s set forth in section 2-4-3 of  FAA Order JO 7110.65W , which requires only that air traffic controllers “[e]nsure pilots acknowledge all Air Traffic Clearances and ATC Instructions” (emphasis