ch00f

I hate the cloud.

This requires either multiple trips or a quick view theough your gadget into the new future.

Since 2016, I've had a fileserver mostly just for backups. System is on 1 drive, RAID6 for files, and semi-annual cold backup.

I was playing with Photoprism, and their docs say "we recommend placing the storage folder on a local SSD drive for best performance." In this case, the storage folder holds basically everything but the pictures themselves such as the database files.

Up until now, if I lost any database files, it was just a matter of rebuilding them by re-indexing my photos or whatever, but I'm looking for something more robust since I'll have some friends/family using Pixelfed, Matrix, etc.

So my question is: Is it a valid strategy to keep database files on the SSD with some kind of nightly backup to RAID, or should I just store the whole lot on the RAID from the get go? Or does it even matter if all of these databases can fit in RAM anyway?

edit: I'm just now learning of ZFS caching which might be my answer.

I’m working on driving a very finicky lcd. I have it working now with an FPGA dev kit. I had to use an FPGA because some of the timing requirements are in the tens of nanoseconds.

At the end of the day, I wrote a block for a one shot/continuous clock with a programmable duty cycle and initial delay. This block was repeated six times for the various clocks with their specific values.

Moving to the final product, this feels like overkill. In the past, I’ve managed to make this kind of thing work with a Rube Goldberg collection of on-board timer/counters on the microcontroller.

I’d like to avoid that mess this time around. If I can generate the clocks externally, I can have the host MCU send the data quickly using DMA.

An FPGA works great, but they’re expensive and there’s the issue of licensing for FPGA and and CPLD software.

I’ve seen this problem solved with a lookup table, but there aren’t a lot of cheap/small rom/ram options for what I’m trying to do.

Basically, what I’m asking is is there a component that can be easily programmed to generate a number of clocks, doesn’t need any costly software licensing, and comes in a very small package? (Like wlcsp)

Just finished 12 Minutes and Indika with my wife. Enjoyed the tight 5-ish hour gameplay with decent not-too-challenging puzzles and great story.

Basically 5-hour date night that’s more engaging than a movie.

Any other games that you can recommend in this category?

Back in my day, you could usually sip a few mA from a USB2 port without any trouble.

When I try that now, Windows pops up with a “device not recognized” error. I know you can draw up to 150mA before enumeration, but it looks like after some time, Windows will complain that you haven’t enumerated yet.

Is there an easy way to keep from getting this error without having to actually make the device smart?

I’m hoping for something dumb along the lines of USB-PD but facing the other direction. For the record, it has to work on a USB-A port, so USB-C hacks won’t work.

Just curious because I don’t see people talk about it a lot.

Like why do I feel like I’m supposed to be able to name the seven boroughs? I can’t tell you anything about L.A., Chicago, Boston, etc.

Edit: to clarify: I mean that everyone in America are expected to know NYC. Not just New Yorkers. Obviously everyone should know the layout of where they live.

I'm working on a mod kit for a popular item, but my target audience isn't likely to have a soldering iron. The majority of the project connects to an exposed ribbon connector, but I need to short two terminals to force a power supply on.

Any ideas on a method I could provide for people who can't solder? Maybe a strip of copper tape?

I dumped the ROM out of a piece of retro-tech and have been working through the code in Ghidra. Unfortunately, I can’t exactly decompile it because I don’t think it was originally written in a higher level language.

For example, the stack is rarely used and most functions either deal entirely in global variables, or binary values are passed back using the carry or other low-level bits. Trying to turn it into C would just make spaghetti code with a different sauce.

So my current plan is to just comment every subroutine as best I can, but that still leaves a few massive lookup tables that should be dropped into a spreadsheet of some sort to add context. Not to mention schematics.

My question is what’s the best way to present all of this? I’d like to open-source the result, so a simple PDF is not ideal. I guess I should make a GitHub project? Are there any good examples or templates I can draw on?