A Geek Goes Flying

Per Slashdot : Raspberry Pi is launching a new add-on board capable of running generative AI models locally on the Raspberry Pi 5. Announced on Thursday, the $130 AI HAT+ 2 is an upgraded -- and more expensive -- version of the module launched last year, now offering 8GB of RAM and a Hailo 10H chip with 40 TOPS of AI performance. Once connected, the Raspberry Pi 5 will use the AI HAT+ 2 to handle AI-related workloads while leaving the main board's Arm CPU available to complete other tasks. Unlike the previous AI HAT+, which is focused on image-based AI processing, the AI HAT+ 2 comes with onboard RAM and can run small gen AI models like Llama 3.2 and DeepSeek-R1-Distill, along with a series of Qwen models. You can train and fine-tune AI models using the device as well.   $130 is lower than I expected, based on the price for the other Hailo stuff. More on the Hailo H10 . Could probably put together a “play around with” setup for ~$200, a bit less than I ultimately have invested...

Solterra charging The cheap BLRENT charger lasted about a year. The cable started to separate from the charging box (I think just the insulation, but it was still unnerving to look at), and then one day I couldn't get the J-1772 plug to disconnect from the car charging port, it had become slightly separated and the push-button wasn’t providing enough leverage to disconnect the latch. Sigh. It was ... fine? ... while it lasted. (About the same price as a tank of gas for my old Jeep, so I can’t complain too loudly.) This time around I decided to go as inexpensive as possible while doing things “more right.” I also figured I’d future-proof a bit in the process. Folks recommended the Grizzl-E stuff (and the Mini looked like it could have worked, for $479), but I don’t see that it works with the L6-30 plug I have access to at the office. Primecom ships an L6-30 24A unit , but it too is $449. Instead, I went with a used Tesla Gen 2 Mobile Connector I found on Facebook Marketplace, fr...

Trying to create a folder on my WebDAV share, using Cyberduck , but couldn’t: The logs: # tail -f /var/log/httpd/ssl_error_log [Mon Feb 02 12:20:36.415327 2026] [dav:error] [pid 50869:tid 50979] [client 192.168.1.1:53060] The locks could not be queried for verification against a possible "If:" header.  [500, #0] [Mon Feb 02 12:20:36.415404 2026] [dav:error] [pid 50869:tid 50979] [client 192.168.1.1:53060] Could not open the lock database.  [500, #400] [Mon Feb 02 12:20:36.415412 2026] [dav:error] [pid 50869:tid 50979] (120002)APR does not understand this error code: [client 192.168.1.1:53060] Could not open database.  [500, #1] [Mon Feb 02 12:20:36.526440 2026] [dav:error] [pid 50868:tid 50966] [client 192.168.1.1:53061] The locks could not be queried for verification against a possible "If:" header.  [500, #0] [Mon Feb 02 12:20:36.526476 2026] [dav:error] [pid 50868:tid 50966] [client 192.168.1.1:53061] Could not open the lock database.  [500, #400] [Mon ...

Well, wrote it and then helped me tweak it. The prompts were easy. The code pretty straightforward. The functionality is very basic. It just takes the current page title and URL and, using the things:/// URL scheme , adds an item to the inbox. (Yeah, in Safari, the “Share ... Add to Things” option does the same thing in Safari. But I’m not using Safari.) This cleans up after itself, closing the tab that was opened to call the Things URL integration a second after it’s finished loading. I’m generally happy with it, with a couple of “punch list” items. https://pastebin.com/ckfftFfc ChatGPT: Original extension creation Modifying it to auto-close the newly opened tab  To do: Need to figure out why the keyboard shortcut isn’t working (“ keyboard shortcuts do work , but   only if the extension is installed as a permanent add-on , not as a temporary add-on via   about:debugging .”) Need to modify it to use the contents of the clipboard rather than the URL, if on certain cites (l...

Yesterday I stumbled across a great deal on an ESP LTD Deluxe H-1001 in “Violet Andromeda Satin finish.” ESP LTD H-1001 in Violet Andromeda Satin finish This thing is  sweet :  The first thing you’ll notice about the new LTD Deluxe H-1001 is its Violet Andromeda Satin finish. The Andromeda finish makes the guitar appear various shades of blue, violet, and even green as light is reflected from various angles. The H-1001 is the first LTD version of this outstanding design in a satin finish. It also features a set of direct-mount Seymour Duncan Sentient (neck) and Pegasus (bridge) pickups with push-pull coil splitting, a Hipshot bridge with string-thru-body, and stainless steel frets.   Maybe someday, this will be me?  Anyway. It checked  almost  all of my boxes:  ☐ Made in Japan ☑ Made in Korea ☑ Passive pickups ☑ Non-Floyd Rose (i.e., hard tail, Tune-o-Matic, EverTune [1]) ☑ Set-thru neck ☑ Locking tuners My (at this stage in life) dream g...

Over the weekend, I had the occasion to search Google for so much information, trying to troubleshoot and bring back online my main server . Not only were all of the AI answers just  wrong  (often subtly, but still, wrong), Safari on the iPad does not play well with the AI responses (the Google page would refresh a few times before the browser gave up). I had to append -AI to all of my queries, to suppress the AI output . Sigh. I did a plain language search on Google again today and the AI response was ... Humorous, if the implications weren’t so dire. The MH-100 QMNT has a  quilted  maple top (hence the “QM”) (nothing “quantum” about it), and the NT stands for “no tremolo” – it’s a hard tail with a Tune-o-Matic bridge. But that’s not the biggest issue. The MH-100 definitely does  not  have a 3+3 tuner configuration (the Les Paul-style EC series does); it has a pretty standard inline 6 angled headstock:   MH-100QMNT Headstock I have more to write on t...

Xeon Been  flogging an HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen 8 for a while now . But I think its time may be coming to an end. It can’t boot the “optical drive” (slot 5) SATA device directly, need to have a USB stick or Micro SD card installed internally to do that. (Which failed last week. Replacing the old  SanDisk Cruzer Fit   with a  SAMSUNG FIT Plus . Second SanDisk I’ve had fail recently; the other was a  120GB 2.5" SATA SSD . Hrm.) iLO sucks, the iPad app crashes constantly, it doesn’t send mouse activity to Linux, etc. I tried using the Comet remote KVM , but I couldn’t get an any active VGA to HDMI adapters to generate a signal the KVM would recognize. So I did most of this stuff using a wireless Logitech K400 keyboard with trackpad and a tiny Eyoyo monitor . Works, but awkward. Can’t boot a GPT partition scheme (it’s got a BIOS and no UEFI), if you try you’ll get a red screen of death with an inscrutable “invalid op code” error. The most recent LTS version...