feedroll: kevinboone.me's Feed

Kevin Boone's website

2026-08-16: Who needs a dedicated portable music player in 2026?
2026-08-09: Using a Raspberry Pi Pico to control a large-scale model locomotive
2026-07-25: Command-line hacking: using find, sed, and xargs together for flexible filename transformation
2026-07-18: The crisis in refurbished, top-tier smartphones
2026-07-16: How to recover when the Android rooted De-Bloater app puts your device into a boot loop
2026-07-08: Praying to St Jude: counselling the re-Googlers
2026-06-29: Did aliens really talk to us in "binary code" at Rendlesham Forest?
2026-06-24: Why I don't really care if web content is AI-generated
2026-06-17: MBook -- a proposal for a new, simple e-book format based on Markdown
2026-05-22: Maps after Google
2026-05-18: keplerd: a new Java-based server for the Gemini protocol and others
2026-05-12: No more Lineage OS on Samsung cellphones
2026-05-11: Running a Java server application in a chroot jail
2026-05-09: In praise of HTTP
2026-04-27: Announcing md2gem 0.1 -- a cross-platform, best-effort converter for Markdown to Gemini Gemtext
2026-04-21: Self-hosting and steamrollers in the small net
2026-04-20: Is Fahrenheit 451 becoming relevant again?
2026-04-19: Trying to live without a smartphone in 2026
2026-04-19: Age verification and privacy: let's try to be objective
2026-04-19: Why I de-Googled
2026-04-19: Announcing Caztor 1.0 -- a browser for small-net protocols like Gemini and Gopher
2026-03-30: Announcing JGemini version 2.0
2026-03-29: JGemini -- a Java-based browser for Project Gemini protocols and content
2026-03-28: The "small web" is bigger than you might think
2026-03-08: A plug for the Spartan protocol
2026-03-03: Hosting a Gemini capsule on a virtual private server
2026-03-02: Small web, IndieWeb, Gemini... A guide to the retro-web
2026-03-01: Can Project Gemini rewind the Web thirty years?
2026-03-01: The Gemini Protocol in 2026: growing, but still not setting the Internet aflame
2026-03-01: This site is now webmention-aware
2026-03-01: They don't make them like that any more: the Cyclemaster
2026-02-20: Command-line hacking: a really simple console music player
2026-02-12: Rant: 2026 will not be the 'Year of Linux on the Desktop' -- and I'm glad
2026-02-04: Battle of the privacy-focused search engines: Kagi vs. DuckDuckGo
2026-02-02: Digital voice assistants vs. privacy in 2026
2026-01-11: Command-line hacking: Downloading a podcast to create an audiobook
2026-01-04: Using a Garmin fitness watch completely offline -- no accounts, no app
2026-01-04: They don't make 'em like that any more: filament fairy lights
2025-12-21: They don't make 'em like that any more: the Casio VL-1 pocket synthesizer
2025-12-21: Predicting eclipses with clockwork
2025-12-21: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard
2025-12-21: They don't make them like that any more: Denshi block electronics kits
2025-12-21: Google Pixel and Sony Xperia handsets for budget de-Googling
2025-12-18: Some thoughts on de-Googling Google Pixel phones
2025-12-04: 'Sideloading' restrictions on Android: how big a deal will they be?
2025-12-02: How to write a technical or scientific report
2025-11-30: De-bloating and de-Googling an Android device using Canta
2025-11-22: The privacy nightmare of browser fingerprinting
2025-11-21: Comparing Android alternatives: Lineage OS, ∕e∕OS, and Graphene OS
2025-11-20: Custom ROM versus extensive package removal, for de-Googling a Samsung cellphone
2025-11-17: Is it worth rooting an Android phone in 2025?
2025-11-11: Running the Google Pixel Camera app on a robustly de-Googled cellphone
2025-11-07: Two years without Google, et al. -- has it been worth it?
2025-11-06: How to get a dark background on the K-9/Thunderbird e-mail widget for Android
2025-11-05: The 2nd-generation Nokia 105: a smarter dumb phone
2025-10-27: Gâteaux differentials and Euler-Lagrange equations using Maple
2025-10-27: AppImage from scratch
2025-10-18: Lineage OS vs /e/OS in 2025
2025-10-14: USB-C headphone dongles: still sucking after all these years
2025-10-12: They don't make 'em like that any more: Playmobil RC model trains
2025-09-30: They don't make 'em like that any more: Honda's ATC110 all-terrain cycle
2025-09-26: They don't make 'em like that any more: Dyson Pure Cool-Me personal air purifier
2025-09-18: They don't make 'em like that any more: tone controls
2025-09-03: Creating an "animated score" for demonstrating musical compositions on YouTube, etc
2025-09-03: A failed experiment in laptop cooling
2025-08-26: Using thinkfan for fan control on Lenovo (Linux) laptops
2025-07-28: Using the Pi Pico with an L298N module to control a 12V motor
2025-07-24: FastMail -- still good value in 2025?
2025-07-20: No, eBay: it isn't "free to sell"
2025-07-19: antiX vs. MX Linux on old-ish laptops
2025-07-13: Why using crude PWM for sampled audio output on the Raspberry Pi Pico doesn't sound that great
2025-06-27: Law and small woodlands
2025-06-20: They don't make 'em like that any more: Sony DTC-700 audio DAT player/recorder
2025-06-18: Some thoughts on LoRa-based mesh radio technologies
2025-06-13: Raspberry Pi Pico: loading code into RAM and running it -- part 1
2025-05-23: They don't make them like that any more: the BMW C1
2025-05-23: Why do we use 'complex impedance' in electrical engineering?
2025-05-20: They don't make 'em like that any more: 3D movies
2025-05-20: They don't make them like that any more: the Raleigh Chopper
2025-03-04: Some thoughts on Pimoroni's "Pico GFX Pack" LCD module
2025-02-24: Fun with capital letters
2025-02-21: Social media: it's not me, it's you
2025-02-15: No good deed goes unpunished: can we now be sued over software we give away?
2025-02-09: ARM assembly-language programming for the Raspberry Pi
2025-01-31: Watch out: the Chinese domain registration scam is getting slicker
2025-01-08: Technical writing: what do we lose, when we write more readably?
2025-01-01: A USB power supply with a real on-off switch
2024-12-09: They don't make them like that any more: Sony PRS-500 e-reader
2024-12-08: They don't make 'em like that any more: things you can switch off
2024-12-04: They don't make them like that any more: Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer
2024-12-03: Using Windows is like smoking (?)
2024-12-03: Ten steps to becoming a Linux snob
2024-12-01: Wayland from the ground up
2024-11-05: Why systemd is a problem for embedded Linux
2024-10-18: Why are the variable names all wrong in my decompiled Java class?
2024-10-16: Log4J -- ask yourself: do I really need that library?
2024-10-04: Gentoo vs. MX Linux on old-ish laptops
2024-10-03: How de-Googled is Lineage OS?
2024-09-21: Fitting an NVMe disk in a computer with no NVMe support
2024-09-19: Getting back into C programming for CP/M
2024-09-09: Comparing Dropbox, pCloud, and rsync.net for off-site storage for Linux users
2024-09-05: They don't make 'em like that any more: the 3.5mm headphone jack socket
2024-08-15: Some notes on installing Lineage OS on modern-ish Samsung Android devices
2024-08-08: A few interesting features of Vim, part 1
2024-07-28: They don't make them like that any more: the Quad 306 amplifier
2024-07-17: They don't make them like that any more: the Xircom REX 6000 PDA
2024-07-05: One month with Gentoo
2024-06-30: Going back to ALSA in 2024
2024-06-27: Can you use ALSA to get 'bit-perfect' audio playback on Linux?
2024-06-22: Using Private Internet Access VPN with Gentoo Linux
2024-06-12: Gentoo Linux -- is this the solution to the Winux problem?
2024-06-04: Differential equations: how does separation of variables really work?
2024-05-20: Do you need to wipe that hard drive? And can you?
2024-05-11: Exploring Java 17's container-awareness features
2024-05-09: Using Keycloak for authentication with Apache Artemis: part 1
2024-04-18: When science and engineering are in conflict: the weird Whipple truss bridge
2024-04-14: They don't make 'em like that any more: how the Vectrex almost revolutionized video gaming
2024-03-18: Using Apache Camel to implement an IRC bot
2024-03-18: Adventures with Artix
2024-03-18: C development for Linux without a standard library
2024-03-12: The nuts and bolts of anonymous inner classes in Java
2024-03-06: Command-line hacking: countdown timer
2024-03-01: How Linux home directory encryption works
2024-02-16: Rudiments of Java concurrency control, part 1
2024-02-13: They don't make 'em like that any more: Borland Turbo Pascal 7
2024-02-04: Some thoughts on using a small cellphone as a media player
2024-01-20: Yet another desktop Raspberry Pi media player
2024-01-19: Making tab-and-slot boxes for electronic prototypes. Or: how I stopped worrying and learned to love the laser
2024-01-19: Getting started with Kafka Streams, part 2
2024-01-19: Getting started with Kafka Streams
2024-01-17: They don't make them like that any more: Garmin Nuvi 300
2024-01-11: RSS feed
2024-01-06: Command-line hacking: calculating the phase of the Moon
2024-01-01: They don't make 'em like that any more: Blackberry Bold 9700
2023-12-19: Kafka Connect from the ground up, part II
2023-12-19: Kafka Connect from the ground up
2023-12-01: Powering a Raspberry Pi from an attached Waveshare USB HAT
2023-12-01: Converting push-button events to keyboard events in the Raspberry Pi
2023-11-29: Rolling your own minimal embedded Linux for the Raspberry Pi -- part one: booting to a root shell
2023-11-29: Why the grammer snobs have it all wrong about the apostrophe
2023-11-29: They don't make 'em like that any more: Archos 605 media player/recorder
2023-10-22: ActiveMQ/Artemis or Kafka for Java messaging?
2023-10-22: They don't make them like that any more: the slide rule
2023-09-27: Is your fitness watch lying to you?
2023-09-22: Some thoughts on always-on OLED displays on smart watches
2023-09-18: Command-line hacking: displaying system temperature
2023-09-09: Does the use of custom Android ROMs improve or worsen security?
2023-09-05: They don't make 'em like that any more: NVIDIA Shield K1 tablet
2023-09-04: Snake oil: 4K displays on smartphones
2023-08-20: What you give up, when you opt out of the surveillance economy
2023-08-19: Adventures with RC2014, Z80, and CP/M
2023-08-05: Designing a dual 5V-to-RS232 serial level converter for the RC2014
2023-07-21: They don't make 'em like that any more: The Philips Pronto remote control
2023-07-21: They don't make 'em like that any more: a paean to the Cowon D2 DAB
2023-07-17: CP/M resources
2023-07-13: Getting to grips with JMS shared subscriptions
2023-07-04: Adding a floppy disk controller to my RC2014 Z80 system
2023-06-21: Using flash memory as non-volatile storage on the Pi Pico microcontroller
2023-06-20: Constructing and programming a YM2149 sound board my RC2014 Z80 system
2023-06-13: Updating, building, and flashing RomWBW on an SC130 CP/M system
2023-06-13: Exchanging files between an SC130 CP/M board and a Linux system
2023-06-12: Some thoughts on a DS1302 real-time clock board for RC2014/Z80 and CP/M
2023-06-02: Using a CP/M machine to log into a Linux server using an RS232 connection
2023-06-01: Serial device mapping in CP/M
2023-05-19: The vexed problem of generating delays in a CP/M program
2023-05-18: Is Collapse OS really a practical proposition?
2023-05-16: Getting back into C programming for CP/M -- part 2
2023-05-11: Using Keycloak for authentication with Apache Artemis: part 2
2023-05-10: A self-contained CP/M computer based on the Z80 Playground
2023-05-09: Why does my Raspberry Pi project keep displaying the 'lightning bolt' undervoltage indicator?
2023-04-30: Using an Oracle database as storage for the Apache Artemis message broker -- part 2
2023-04-29: Using an Oracle database as storage for the Apache Artemis message broker -- part 1
2023-04-23: Using the Qpid Proton C++ library to understand AMQP
2023-03-24: What exactly is 'saturation'?
2023-03-15: Yet another Darktable/Lightroom comparison
2023-03-03: Using media keys in a Linux console application
2023-02-02: Using the Linux framebuffer in C/C++ -- just the essentials (part 2)
2023-02-02: Using the Linux framebuffer in C/C++ -- just the essentials
2023-01-21: pico-photo-clock: an easy-to-construct Pi Pico desktop photo clock
2023-01-21: Using the Maxim DS3231 I2C real-time clock in C on the Raspberry Pi Pico
2023-01-17: Using ImageMagick to generate anti-aliased bitmap fonts for a microcontroller's LCD display
2023-01-13: The Pi Pico, two years on
2023-01-10: Some thoughts on the Waveshare 3.5-inch LCD/SD module for the Raspberry Pi Pico
2023-01-02: Why 'int x = 0' is uninitialized data to the GNU C compiler
2022-12-07: Raspberry Pi Pico: loading code into RAM and running it -- part 2
2022-11-13: Some thoughts on using a USB keyboard with the Raspberry Pi Pico
2022-11-09: Using the rdkafka library to integrate a C program with Kafka messaging
2022-11-02: Why synchronous write speed is likely to be the limiting factor in message broker throughput
2022-10-14: Why your cheap mains inverter could kill you
2022-10-05: Using Quarkus to provide a REST interface to a message broker
2022-09-29: Comparing a natively-compiled Java webservice with C
2022-09-21: Is dithering necessary when reducing the number of bits per sample in an audio waveform?
2022-09-15: The costs and benefits of software pulse-width modulation on the Raspberry Pi
2022-09-15: Using an HD44780 LCD display module with the Raspberry Pi, from the ground up
2022-09-15: Monitoring an INA219 chip in a Raspberry Pi battery-backed power supply
2022-09-15: Getting reasonably robust proximity measurements from an ultrasonic sensor on the Raspberry Pi
2022-09-15: Using a shift register to control eight digital outputs with three GPIO lines on the Raspberry Pi
2022-09-15: How flat-earthers use misrepresentations of scale to promote their ideas
2022-09-14: Why "RMS watts" is a useless measure of power
2022-09-08: Calculus of variations: a lunchbreak guide
2022-09-01: Sorting files and directories on a FAT-formatted USB memory stick
2022-08-31: A review of the Leak Stereo 130 and CDT
2022-08-18: Why is there a vinyl revival?
2022-08-18: Does it matter how we rip audio CDs?
2022-08-18: Is "high resolution" audio really worth the effort?
2022-08-18: Why you can't improve your hi-fi system by upgrading the mains cable
2022-08-18: Do different CD transports sound different?
2022-08-18: Snake oil: balanced headphones
2022-08-18: Why your vintage turntable could kill you
2022-08-18: A skeptic's guide to headphones
2022-08-06: Are Flatpak, et al., saving or drowning the Linux desktop?
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: timezone conversions
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: displaying a weather summary
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: creating a tide table
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: extracting audio metadata (tags)
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: querying an Internet radio database
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: paced breathing
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: displaying news headlines in the manual viewer
2022-08-04: Command-line hacking: Assigning folder icons to directories
2022-07-15: How Microsoft Windows killed the palmtop computer
2022-07-13: Using Podman to deploy an image directly to OpenShift 4
2022-07-11: Understanding Java's functional interfaces
2022-06-30: Using the new pluggable active/passive management framework in Apache Artemis
2022-06-24: Embedding resources into executables built using GCC
2022-06-23: You be the linker -- building "Hello, world" from scratch, in hexadecimal
2022-06-01: They don't make 'em like that any more: the Lenovo W520
2022-05-10: How problematic is resampling audio from 44.1 to 48 kHz?
2022-05-03: Using the Qpid Proton C++ library to create a server for monitoring or telemetry data
2022-04-21: Why we only see one side of the moon -- the odd phenomenon of tidal locking
2022-04-01: Why the energy cost or benefit of switching to DAB digital radio is hard to assess
2022-03-16: Why I won't be dumping DuckDuckGo over Ukraine
2022-02-18: cwordle -- A Wordle-like word-guessing game for CP/M
2022-02-11: The peculiar Benford distribution
2022-02-03: UTF-8 and the problem of over-long characters
2022-02-03: Juice-jacking -- it's a problem, but not because it's a problem
2022-02-03: How Unicode reading direction characters defeat source code inspection, and what it means for the open-source movement
2022-01-30: Multi-source Z80 assembly programming for CP/M
2022-01-24: Writing new interactive fiction games for CP/M using PunyInform and Linux
2022-01-15: Converting a floating-point number to a fraction (approximately) using continued fraction expansion
2021-12-13: Raspberry Pi as a networked storage (NAS) device
2021-12-03: Making a Raspberry Pi bootable SD card from a root filesystem
2021-11-30: Does it matter if amateur radio dies out?
2021-11-30: Why the Linux console is so awesome
2021-11-23: Making an 8x32 LED auxiliary display with a USB interface, from an LED matrix and a Raspberry Pi pico
2021-11-12: A very brief overview of Kotlin for Java developers
2021-11-10: An overview of finite fields
2021-11-09: Homeopathy: flushing science down the lavatory
2021-11-06: Samsung DeX -- the good, the bad, and the ugly
2021-10-22: Implementing a web-based music player for Android
2021-10-21: Conway's Game of Life in 3D perspective
2021-09-23: Using Apache Avro for passing Java objects through a message broker
2021-09-15: How does Camel-K actually work?
2021-09-01: Rolling your own minimal embedded Linux for the Raspberry Pi
2021-08-13: Audible's returns policy -- who wins, who loses?
2021-08-13: "Spy pixels" -- how worried should we be?
2021-06-30: Implementing Apache ActiveMQ-style broker meshes with Apache Artemis
2021-06-30: Deploying the Mosquitto MQTT message broker on OpenShift (part 1)
2021-06-22: Back to BASICs with a Pro Micro microcontroller
2021-06-22: Playing Zork 1 on a CP/M emulator on Linux
2021-06-17: Using a Pi Zero and throw-away parts to provide a serial terminal for retrocomputing projects
2021-06-10: Deploying the Mosquitto MQTT message broker on OpenShift (part 2)
2021-06-10: Capturing database change records using Debezium and Camel
2021-06-10: Using Apache Avro for passing Java objects through a message broker, with a schema registry
2021-05-22: Developing KCalc-CPM -- a scientific calculator utility for CP/M
2021-05-16: CP/M forty years on -- what it was, and why it still matters
2021-05-05: Running CP/M on the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller
2021-05-05: Why you can sometimes connect 3.3V and 5V I2C devices (and probably shouldn't)
2021-05-05: Controlling a chain of MAX7219 LED matrices using C on a Raspberry Pi Pico
2021-04-19: Building and programming a USB auxiliary display using a SparkFun Pro Micro, an HD44780 LCD module, and an PCF8547 I
2021-04-13: The tabular method for integration by parts
2021-04-13: Integrating factors from the ground up
2021-04-13: Using an I2C analog-to-digital for temperature measurement on the Raspberry Pi
2021-03-18: On master/slave
2021-02-17: More like Windows every day
2021-02-14: The planet Vulcan: a cautionary tale that deserves to be better known
2021-02-14: Building a custom mechanical keyboard from scratch
2021-02-13: Reviving old keyboards for Arduino
2021-02-03: Why the fascination with retrocomputing?
2021-01-21: Peli "Protector" case as a rugged enclosure for a Raspberry Pi-based field terminal
2021-01-19: Building and programming a USB keypad from the ground up
2021-01-19: Using Linux command-line tools for programming the SparkFun Pro Micro microcontroller (and similar)
2021-01-11: A Raspberry Pi and touchscreen case that anybody can make
2020-12-01: Rolling your own minimal embedded Linux for the Raspberry Pi -- part four: audio
2020-12-01: Rolling your own minimal embedded Linux for the Raspberry Pi -- part three: services and remote access
2020-12-01: Rolling your own minimal embedded Linux for the Raspberry Pi -- part two: early initialization
2020-12-01: Rolling your own minimal embedded Linux for the Raspberry Pi -- part five: X
2020-12-01: Switching a couple of amps with a Raspberry Pi and a relay
2020-11-30: Using an I2C analog-to-digital converter chip with the Raspberry Pi, from the ground up
2020-11-20: Using the FreeType library to render text nicely onto a Linux framebuffer
2020-11-13: Examining simple build and deployment operations on OpenShift 3/4
2020-11-10: Why pitch is not the same as frequency
2020-10-12: Why you can't rely on system calls to obtain limits, when running an application in a container
2020-10-12: Container from scratch: building a Linux container from the ground up
2020-10-02: The importance of enabling compiler warnings in C and C++ programming
2020-09-26: Why is covid-19 testing so unreliable? A pictorial view
2020-09-21: Java as a scripting language: new auto-compilation features in Java 11
2020-09-04: How to run a shell script from a Java application
2020-08-29: Making simple stop-motion animations using Linux and a DSLR camera
2020-08-29: Developing micro-microservices in C on Red Hat OpenShift
2020-08-19: Understanding the Hamming 'sphere packing' bound in coding theory
2020-08-19: Solving a quadratic equation in a prime (finite) field
2020-07-30: An introduction to joint, marginal, and conditional probabilities
2020-07-08: Using the Raspberry Pi official 7-inch touch-screen in embedded applications
2020-07-08: Handling GPIO-connected switches robustly in C on the Raspberry Pi
2020-07-08: Why switching high currents using a MOSFET and a Raspberry Pi is not as straightforward as it looks
2020-07-08: Extracting software from the Raspbian repository, for assembling a custom Linux image for the Raspberry Pi
2020-07-07: Bayesian statistics for dummies
2020-07-07: Night of the living differential equations -- modeling the zombie apocalyse
2020-07-07: Night of the living drag coefficients -- ballistics applied to zombie control
2020-07-07: The titles game: can you buy nobility?
2020-07-07: An introduction to steam locomotive technology
2020-07-07: Prototyping a large Raspberry Pi case
2020-07-07: Raspberry Pi 4 -- is it good news for experimenters and enthusiasts?
2020-07-07: Building a Lua extension library for Linux in C/C++
2020-07-07: Lua quick-start for Java programmers
2020-07-07: A Linux storage management cheat-sheet
2020-07-07: An introduction to Perl for Java programmers
2020-07-07: Why use of the @Override annotation is essential in Java
2020-07-07: A collection of Java curiosities and oddities
2020-07-07: Generating simple MIDI files using Java, without using the Java Sound API
2020-07-07: How to give a presentation
2020-07-07: A brief history of English land law
2020-07-07: Compiling a Java program to native code using GraalVM, from the ground up
2020-07-07: How the Fabric8 Maven plug-in deploys Java applications to OpenShift
2020-07-07: Making a Java JAR file self-executing (on Linux)
2020-07-07: Ten simple rules for passing an examination
2020-07-07: Why you can't play Bach on a piano
2020-07-07: An overview of character encoding for developers
2020-07-07: A ten-minute guide to electrical theory
2020-07-07: Unicode combining and graphemes -- how two identical Java Strings can be different
2020-07-07: Using an ammo box as portable 12V power supply
2020-07-07: Extending the bash 'cd' command in Linux
2020-07-07: The Argleton affair, and the Wikification of the World-Wide Web

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