Raspberry Pi 5 as a development machine

 

This morning I replaced a noisy cooling fan on my Raspberry Pi 5.  The replacement fan cost a reasonable $10 with free shipping and only took me about 10 minutes to replace.  Only a small screwdriver and a pair of needle nose pliers were required for the job.  The fan noise had been most noticeable when it booted up as the firmware runs a fan check.  It will be nice not to have to endure that any longer.

One of the small ARM based embedded systems which I build firmware and software for at work uses the same Linux Debian Bookworm 64-bit release as I have running on the Pi which makes building code much easier.  The cross compile environment we had been using on Intel based Ubuntu servers took much longer to build our application software.  Plus having a Unix like environment readily available automatically makes me so much more productive.

It's so easy to install software packages on the Pi and there's such a wide variety of software available that I can use the Pi for almost any task I need to accomplish.  It's become my second favorite development machine of my lengthy career, marginally behind a Sun Workstation I used in the early 1990s.

This machine was affordable when I built it two years ago but AI's endless thirst for computing hardware has driven the price of memory and flash storage devices up a lot.  I think duplicating this machine at today's prices would be close to twice the $200 this originally cost to build. 

 

Passing fancies #18

I used to call these posts with collections of links "link dumps" but I recently found another blog which also included books and television programs which the author enjoyed and I liked that idea.  I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often.  As you can see, I find a wide array of topics interesting.

Books

This week I've finished two books.  The first was World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters.  It's the final book in The Last Policeman trilogy.  This was my second time enjoying this trilogy, the first time started in 2013 shortly after the first book was published.  I loved it on the first read and even more this time.  I'm often so keen to find out what happens in a book that I don't take enough time to fully appreciate the writing itself while reading it for the first time.  This series is about a policeman who continues trying to solve crimes even though the Earth is doomed to be struck by an asteroid.  It's an interesting tale about human nature under extraordinary circumstances.

The second was God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.  This was at least the second time I've read this as I'm a big Vonnegut fan.  It's hard to summarize what most of Vonnegut's books are about because they tend to cover so much territory.  They're always fascinating reads though.

Music

Somewhere I found a mention of Andrew Strong, the actor who played the lead singer in The Committments (which is an outstanding movie if you haven't seen it).  His voice was perfect for singing old soul classics.  After the movie he sang in a band called The Bone Yard Boys.  Apparently their music isn't available for purchase in electronic form which is a pity.  At least I was able to find a few Youtube videos of him performing like the one below.
https://youtu.be/QN43ZXivDa0?si=UC-GE4TU-nyz_dyU

I also found an intriguing mention of a band called Newen Afrobeat which I hadn't heard of previously.  I discovered I enjoy their music. 
https://youtu.be/YCZZWu9WR5s?si=3uU2h5mF4QHn-Vls

Television

We watched the first episode of Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics on Netflix this week and are anxiously awaiting the next episode.  I knew parts of the story but there's so much I hadn't heard and it's fascinating.

Links

Like many people, I get tired of being pushed to secure my online accounts with passkeys.  While they may be convenient, I'm not convinced that they're more secure than the traditional username and strong password.
https://www.makeuseof.com/why-im-still-not-giving-up-my-password-for-passkeys/

When Quentin Tarantino states a preference for reading books over most of the movies being released, I know I'm not alone in finding most new movies insufficiently compelling to bother seeing them in a theater.  Project Hail Mary is the only film I was anxiously awaiting in the past few years.
https://brandons-journal.com/post/these-days-i-d-rather-read-a-book

Here's an interesting article which references Chesterton's Fence, a term I'd never encountered previously.   In it G.K. Chesterton states that changes should not be made until the thing being changed is fully understood.  The article below complains that changes to software are often made with insufficient documentation for the software in question to be properly understood.  In my experience this is true.  There are too many engineers who don't adequately document changes they have made. 
https://www.arp242.net/chestersons-finger.html

It makes me happy to hear that the producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation granted famous physicist Stephen Hawking's request to sit in the Captain's chair on the Enterprise bridge.

I'm not sure exactly how to feel about the news that Denmark has a Mullet Championship.  I had thought that questionable hairstyle was uniquely American.
https://apnews.com/article/denmark-mullet-hairstyle-festival-competition-ea0c4b66b1eb9f133983ea4d6f44f37c

Kentucky's economy is dealing with a huge downturn in demand for Bourbon.  The final line suggests that the same may eventually be true of Data Centers.
https://a.wholelottanothing.org/kentuckys-bourbon-problem/

Why doesn't it surprise me that Richard Feynman (famous physicist) had a method for optimizing food choices at restaurants?  If you haven't read any of the books about Feynman's life (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character or What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character), you'd probably enjoy them.
https://www.futilitycloset.com/2026/06/06/eating-out/

A pulp magazine from 1912 containing the first appearance of Tarzan recently sold for $58,560.  I have fond memories of reading old books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the Tarzan and John Carter of Mars books while I was in high school.  At that time I was hell-bent on absorbing all the genre books I could get my hands on.  The best part is they were often available cheap at area used bookstores.
https://boingboing.net/2026/06/11/the-first-tarzan-pulp-sold-for-58560-at-a-record-setting-auction.html

I was a little surprised to read that old iPod models are making a comeback thanks to Gen-Z and then I remembered that our granddaughter had asked for a portable cassette player similar to a Walkman.  Apparently cassette tape players have made a comeback as well.
https://www.engadget.com/2196894/ipods-comeback-gen-z/

Editors I've been fond of at some point

I've used a number of editors for programming during my nearly 50 years in the computer industry.  Once I discovered vi in 1990, it or some variation of it has remained been my primary editor.  The learning curve for vi is steep but once you spend enough time with it to become productive, it's really hard to justify the effort required to learn another editor.  Vi has always been extensible thanks to its ability to define key mappings which gave it macro capability.  I'm still using a few vi macros which I created in 1990.  These include simplified syntax for marking, copying, deleting, and pasting portions of text, both within a single file or between files.  Once I started using Linux, I discovered Vim which has remained my editor of choice ever since.  The builtin color syntax highlighting makes code more readable for me.  I really love its ability to split and resize windows.  And my fingers remember the commands so well that I rarely need to think about how to do anything.

The first programming editor I liked was IBM's Personal Editor 2, aka PE2, which was only available for MS-DOS.  I used PE2 in the 1980s while working at General Electric and continued using it for about 6 years.  One feature I really liked was its ability to operate on columns of text.  Once a column or multiple columns were marked, the text could be replaced, have its case toggled, copied, or moved.  That capability seemed unique until I figured out that WordStar for DOS had a column mode as well.  Until we discovered that capability of WordStar while I was working at the Washington Navy Year, my colleagues would occasionally bring me a file on floppy disk to have me perform some column magic on it.  Recently I was surprised to read that a number of authors are still using WordStar for DOS.  I understand why they choose to continue using WordStar since it performed well, had a great feature set, and never crashed for me.  A bonus for me was a few other programs like Borland's Turbo Pascal used the WordStar command set.  The company which made WordStar created a new version called WordStar 2000 which had a number of interesting features but ultimately failed because it couldn't read files created by the older versions of WordStar.

I also used Brief for a while after I got my first Mac.  I chose it because it ran on multiple OSes/machines.  That didn't last since Brief was a bit expensive and most companies I've worked for have been unwilling to spend money on tools for software engineers.  I also tried Emacs but it was so feature rich that the executable size was too big for most personal computers of the time.  In contrast, I think the first vi clone I used on an IBM PC was only about 40K and fit easily on even the smallest floppy disks.

So I continue to prefer using Vim.  Most of the time I prefer the GUI version which is sometime referred to as GVim or MacVim.  It allows me to resize the Windows which makes it easy to tailor my workflow to how many windows I need access to at the time.  GVim supports X11 which gives me the ability to log into a Linux system via ssh and display the editor window on the Windows laptop I'm forced to use at work by running VcXsrv (a version of the X11 server compiled with Visual-C for better Windows compatibility. At home, I can do the same thing by running the Mac version of X-11 server.

 

link dump #17

I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often.  As you can see, I find a wide array of topics interesting.

We live on former farmland which gives us some lovely views of the sky.  Here's some interesting clouds from yesterday morning shortly after sunrise.

 

AI modified photos from houses for sale would irritate me were I convinced to spend time looking at a house with features which didn't really exist as shown.  I've also seen some terrible close captioning on Youtube which was done by AI.  I make notes of creators who use that and don't watch their content a second time.  It irritates me more than a misprint in a book which is saying a lot.
https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20260623-generative-ai-impossible-homes/#gsc.tab=0

My stepfather died of ALS ten years ago.  Since he came down with symptoms, I've followed technologies which could have helped him like the brain-computer interface described in this article.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't have helped Pop for very long since he had a faster progression of life threatening symptoms than many do.
https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/brain-computer-interface-enables-independent-accurate-communication-for-man-living-with-als/2026/06

I don't think I'd want to drive a vehicle as distinctive as this banana shaped car if it meant being inconvenienced by frequent traffic stops.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06/18/giant-banana-pulled-over-in-montana-driver-says-cops-have-stopped-him-100s-of-times/ 

It's been a while since I've heard about races on Pikes Peak.  It's kind of cool that Corvette has the record for the time being since I've had a few Corvettes in the past when I used to drive fun cars.  I opt for boring but comfortable cars these days which are easier on my aging knees.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/06/pikes-peak-2026-was-a-battle-of-propulsion-with-an-ev-and-a-hybrid-winning-out/

Sid Caesar is considered to be a comic genius and assembled one of the finest comedy writing rooms of his or any other time.  There's a new book about his career in comedy which looks like something I'd enjoy reading.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n11/john-lahr/relatable-as-a-jellyfish

When I first heard about drones using fiber optic technology to prevent their radio signals from being jammed, I was skeptical but apparently fiber optic cable spools really work.  To disable one of these requires severing the connection or a direct hit of some sort.
 https://www.army.mil/article/287737/fiber_optic_drones_posing_a_significant_c_uas_challenge

Apparently I could take a more natural approach to my soldering tasks if I wanted by making my own resin flux.
https://northcoastsynthesis.com/news/homemade-traditional-resin-flux/

I found this article about early attempts of shrinking transistor radios fascinating.  The ability to listen to music outside the home has made life more enjoyable for most of us.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/in-1954-engineers-shrank-a-transistor-radio-into-something-people-could-carry-and-music-stopped-staying-at-home/articleshow/131742031.cms

I've backed several of Cory Doctorow's books via Kickstarter including his latest, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.  This article features an interview with Cory about his new book.  He's a thoughtful analyst of technical topics and one of my favorite authors as well. 
https://jacobin.com/2026/06/ai-bubble-layoffs-workers-copyright

I have fond memories of ThinkGeek.  This Stonehenge pocket watch is something which fascinated me but not quite enough to want to carry.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060627053213/http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/watches/7d2b/ 

Speaking of watches, I've had several smartwatches but ultimately abandoned them for a more traditional analog watch.  The smartwatches require frequent charging and those which monitor your health typically need to be worn tighter than I find comfortable.
https://www.engadget.com/2197565/reasons-why-people-ditch-smartwatches-something-simpler/

I've heard from multiple sources that using AI is degrading our skills and causing stress to people forced to use it often like software engineers being strongly encouraged by company management.  It makes me happy that my impending retirement will let me avoid it completely soon.  I've had to watch while a coworker tried to get ChatGPT to recommend changes to some low level code I had written and the process was painful.  A few of my colleagues send me little snippets of commands which ChatGPT tells them should work which rarely bears more than a passing similarity to something which would actually work.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01947-1

Apparently Massachusetts has legalized haggis since they're hosting Scottish soccer fans for the World Cup.  Who knew it wasn't previously legal?
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/haggis-massachusetts-legal-scotland/

 

 

link dump #16

I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often.  As you can see, I find a dizzying array of topics interesting.

We live on former farmland which gives us some lovely views of the sky.  Here's a particularly nice sunset from a few days ago.

 

My second job in the computer industry was as a field engineer at a company which maintained systems built around the DEC PDP-11.  During the 7 weeks of training, I found that I loved the instruction set of the DEC PDP-11.  At other jobs, I discovered the Motorola 680x0 series of CPUs which had a very similar instruction set.  Both machines have orthogonal instruction sets.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/a-brief-tour-of-the-pdp-11-the-most-influential-minicomputer-of-all-time/

I was surprised to read that Apple AirPods may cause cardiovascular implantable devices such as pacemakers to malfunction.  Apparently AirPods create a magnetic field strong enough to affect pacemakers and other implantable devices.
https://www.engadget.com/2193554/airpods-pacemakers-magnet-interference/

Stronger magnets are also harmful to other types of electronic devices.  Since I've been working with computers for so long that I keep my devices away from magnets primarily out of habit.  Apparently there's good reason to do so with some types of devices.
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/21/magnets-are-bad-for-hardware-again/

I enjoy watching Rick and Morty because their humorous takes on science and science fiction make me laugh.  One of their episodes features a lightsaber which was dropped with the point down and which proceeded to burrow its way through the Earth.
https://laughingsquid.com/dropping-light-saber-vertically/

I've been finding the growing number of terms which end with "maxxing" such as "sleepmaxxing" annoying.  I'm glad to see others feel the same way.  I ignore the output of influencers but it becomes hard to do when it gets embraced by popular culture.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/p/just-be-normal-about-st

I've been a fan of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings books since high school 50+ years ago.  That caused me to find the fact that a newly discovered species of cricket has been named after the Balrog amusing.
https://thedebrief.org/you-shall-not-pass-scientists-identify-new-balrog-cricket-species-in-greek-island-tunnel/

I'm not at all surprised that listening to music promotes mental health.   I find listening to music while I'm working helps me to achieve a deeper level of concentration particularly when audio distractions are present.  It only works that way if the music is something I'm quite familiar with.  I also watch videos of live musical performances regularly.
https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/en/newsroom/news/news-article/article/is-there-a-link-between-listening-to-music-and-mental-health.html

In modern military conflicts, GPS jamming and spoofing is becoming increasingly common.  It's also being used as a form of economic warfare since it's so disruptive.
https://boingboing.net/2016/08/04/spoofing-gps-is-surprisingly-e.html

I've long felt that most technical interviews are a terrible way of choosing talented engineers.  Bad technical interviews are something I'm happy that I'll never face again since I'm so close to retirement. 
https://fagnerbrack.com/technical-interviews-reject-the-wrong-engineers-a8e78ca04b2e?gi=46f57f353ef1 

There's a new proposed theory for how the objects commonly known as black holes form.  I'm not sure I can get used to the term gravastar.
https://thedebrief.org/black-holes-arent-real-astronomers-propose-elusive-formation-mechanism-for-gravastar-alternative-that-is-easier-to-accept/

link dump #15

I follow a number of RSS feeds to make it easier to find interesting articles without having to regularly visit my entire list of interesting blogs, many of which aren't updated often.  As you can see, I find a dizzying array of topics interesting.  This leaf with water droplets on it is one of the things which caught my eye while walking the dog around the yard.

 

Apparently craft beer continues its sales decline.  The competition from hard ciders, hard seltzers, and THC infused beverages has continued making this a tough business to be in now.  I'm particularly worried about Firestone Walker which is my favorite brewery.  I love them for their barrel-aged imperial stouts and other styles I find interesting.
https://www.beervanablog.com/beervana/2026/6/5/are-big-craft-breweries-viable-anymore

I found this article about Edward R Murrow's reporting during WWII fascinating.  I'm too young to have watched his reporting but I enjoyed the play Good Night, and Good Luck written and performed by George Clooney about Murrow's clashes with Joseph McCarthy.
https://ww2ondeadline.com/2020/04/11/edward-r-murrow-cbs-berlin-orchestrated-hell/

Bumblebees are capable of solving problems in ways similar to how humans and primates do.  Given their small brain size, it makes me curious about how they accomplish these feats.
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/07/nx-s1-5846947/bumblebees-problem-solving-research

Ant colonies seem to have a collective memory and intelligence which is more capable than any individual member of the colony.  I find collective intelligence fascinating since it's so different from human intelligence.
https://aeon.co/ideas/an-ant-colony-has-memories-that-its-individual-members-dont-have

It's a bit hard to believe someone stole the transmission line from an FM radio station which was still transmitting.  That's extraordinarily dangerous and it's a wonder that the thief wasn't killed or severely injured.
https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/an-ohio-valley-100000-watt-fm-signal-is-severed-in-broad-daylight

Scammers have started showing up at people's offices in person to steal data and install ransomware.  I can't believe it's necessary as it's not uncommon for people to insert a USB flash drive which they find into their computer to see what's on it.
https://www.theregister.com/cyber-crime/2026/06/05/if-you-dont-fall-for-these-extortionists-calls-theyll-show-up-with-usb-sticks/5251891

There's danger of GoPro going bankrupt because memory chips have become difficult to obtain and expensive to boot.  I've heard some car companies are having similar difficulties with procuring electronic components.
https://thenextweb.com/news/gopro-going-concern-ai-memory-crisis-default

I've had a soft spot for AC Cobras since I first caught a glimpse as a kid.  They're loud and fast which is what used to catch my attention.  Since my knees started bothering, I've started preferring comfort over sportiness.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/ac-cobra-gt-coupe-puts-a-fixed-roof-on-the-classic-for-the-first-time
 
Apparently photons behave strangely when someone tries to cut them into smaller pieces.  I was surprised that they can be divided into pieces at all.
https://thedebrief.org/physicists-tried-cutting-a-photon-in-half-then-things-got-really-weird/

I've encountered floppy disks which degraded while in storage before.  Here is a guide to what it might take to restore one which has stopped working.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/floppy-disk-data-preservation-archives

I've long suspected that many CEOs gained their lofty position thanks to the Peter Principle.  Many of them seem to have little knowledge about their company's industry aside from a few buzzwords.  This theory about them suffering from AI psychosis isn't hard for me to believe.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/tech-ceos-are-apparently-suffering-from-ai-psychosis/

Speaking of AI psychosis, hearing that AI technologists are talking about having virtual children strikes me as somewhat unhinged.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/31/are-mind-children-the-future-of-reproduction

Choosing a new surge protector

We had a severe thunderstorm this weekend which caused the power to flicker quite a bit for a few minutes.  We had a number of branches come down as a result.  Here's a picture of the biggest one which fell.

I've got surge protectors protecting my computer, our Internet router, and our TV, satellite TV box, and other entertainment equipment.  I shut off all the surge protectors once the power starting flickering as that can be very bad for electronic equipment.  Once the storm ended, I found 2 circuit breakers had been tripped and 2 of our surge protectors had died.  One expired in spectacular fashion, throwing some sparks when I tried turning it back on.  The one which failed was an Anker surge protector with a 4000 joule rating which had lasted 7 years.  Given the fact that it had survived a number of other storms during that time, I thought it had done its job admirably.  As you can see below, our dog found the smell of burnt electronic components interesting.

 

That could have been worse had we not had whole house surge protectors installed when we first moved into this house 12 years ago.  That was primarily intended to protect larger appliances where it's not feasible to use individual surge protectors.  Computers and entertainment equipment contain electronic components which are more susceptible to damage from power spikes which make it through the whole house surge protectors.

So I quickly needed to choose a few replacement surge protectors.  Fortunately, my RSS reader had picked up a story about surge protectors a few months ago.  As a temporary measure, I picked up a GE model which was available at Walmart.  Its joule rating was lower than the Anker model it was replacing which will only suffice as a temporary measure.  I've ordered a new Anker surge protector and will move the GE model to replace the other failed surge protector once that arrives.
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-check-surge-protector/