A Geek Goes Flying

A random post on a vintage computer group, and a find while cleaning out a closet, reminded me of a bit of my computing history: Travan tape drives. These were relatively inexpensive back when hard drives and removable media were not, and had (compressed, claimed) capacity more or less sufficient to do a full system backup of the multi-user Linux systems I was running. The drives we used hooked up via the floppy interface; the kernel had built-in support for these ftape mechanisms, but typically required a kernel build. (Spent a lot of time compiling kernels in the mid-90s.) The last one we deployed was an Exabyte Eagle TR-3, with 1600 MB (~1.6 GB) uncompressed capacity (claimed 3200 MB compressed capacity), which, nowdays, is smaller than the smallest thumb drive I have handy, but back then, was the /home directories, email, webpages, etc., for a community of more than a hundred people. (When I left, we’d just upgraded the main server to a software RAID mirroring 2x 10 GB UDMA IDE ha...

Shelf over the Schiit Jotunheim amplifier Bedside. I got a great price on an older Jotunheim (not the Jotunheim 2) with the AK4490 DAC card installed, that I couldn’t pass up. This is for more casual listening; music while reading before bed, maybe the occasional TV show or online lecture series or whatever before bed. (I know I maybe shouldn’t , but, here we are.) But my bedside table is getting a little crowded. At first I put this shelf over the amp, but that put my Belkin charger a bit too high for my iPhone in ___ mode to be effective, so I returned to the well and picked up another 10" square aluminum plate to build another small aluminum shelf to put over the amp. This time I used 4" legs for air flow ( 2/7 x 4 inch Sign Standoff Screws ), since the Schiit is passively cooled and the vents are on the top (the mac mini has a fan and vents out the back, so I wasn’t as worried about leaving space above it). Drill bits to poke holes in the aluminum. It’s a little wobb...

I can now confirm (with my shiny new iPhone 16 Pro in “natural titanium”), hooking up to something like a Schiit Jotunheim amp with an internal AK4490 DAC card via a USB C to USB B cable , is all you need to do to listen to the portable through the beefier amplifier. No “camera kit” or anything else required. iPhone screenshot

My “adult LEGO” projects continue; this time I’m adding hookups to my desk in my office for a modern (Apple Silicon) laptop, KVM-shared with my existing workstation (a heavily optioned and upgraded Late 2012 Mac mini ‡ ). I’m trying to do this kinda on the inexpensive, while still going with quality gear. Here goes. Mac mini USB to KVM (below) Mini DP to KVM USB to APC BE600M1 UPS Ethernet to GS305 (below)  Laptop USB-C to CableMatters Mulitport Adapter (below) CableMatters USB-C Multiport Adapter ($33 less a coupon) USB-C pigtail (about 10") to Laptop USB-C port to Anker Mac Book Pro Charger, 100W USB C ($24 including a 5' cable) USB 2.0 port to KVM DisplayPort to KVM (via a 3' DisplayPort cable ) Ethernet to GS305   KVM ($51 less a 25% coupon) PC1 IN (USB/DisplayPort) from Mac mini PC2 IN (USB/DisplayPort) from Laptop (Multiport Adapter) DP OUT to Dell U2412M display ( matte goodness ) (via a 1.6' DisplayPort cable ) USB 1 to Dell U2412M built-in hub USB 2 to clam...

Using the OpenVPN Connect app on a MacBook, I wasn’t able to connect to my office VPN. Opening the app revealed an error message: Error calling protect() method on socket OpenVPN Connect error message The fix was easy; from Terminal: % sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.openvpn.client.plist

I was already a fan of the fuelrod chargers available at the Disneyland parks, as I’ve discussed before . But the old ones, with the USB A port for charging and a USB B Micro port for recharging the fuelrod, were compromised devices: Good in a pinch and easily swapped for a fresh battery inside the parks, but with the caveats of a slow 5 W charging speed and relatively small capacity. A few weeks ago, trying to swap the old fuelrod for a new one resulted in a notice that the old device would be upgraded free of charge to the new kit, which comes with a redesigned fuelrod itself (“Mobile Power Bank Model R32A/B”), USB C to Lightning, USB C to USB C, and USB C to USB B Micro and USB A to USB C adapters. The rod itself now has a single USB C port used for both charging other devices and recharging itself. Four green LEDs display the state of charge (full to empty). And, critically, the batttery appears to be larger capacity (11.52 Wh, 3.6V 3200 mAh), and the charging speed is greater, now...

Going to try this. Doubt I’ll win. But it’s a start. Created an account on https://nanowrimo.org/ . As of this writing, November starts in 7 hours, 21 minutes, and 55 seconds. 54. 53. You get it. NaNo Prep 101 . Create a project: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/<username>/projects For this round, I just want to see if I can knock out 50,000 words, so I’m setting it up as a Memoir. Next time, I’ll prep something fictiony. But I’ve got a bunch of stories I can tell, so why the hell not. No one’s ever going to read it, but it’ll be good mental exercise and should be an easier hill to climb to get to that 50K. Deep breath. Here goes. This sets up the goal name, the type of goal (“writing”), the word-count goal (50,000), and the start and end dates (11/01/2024–11/30/2024). Update: I’m behind (shocking). Got off to a decent start on the 1st (984 words), made less progress on the 2nd (736 words), and nada yesterday (Dapper Day at Disneyland). There‘s always time to catch up though.....