Update for the week ending on Friday, Nov 6, 2020

TinyPilot

• Forked vdesktop into customize-rpi
  • My use case is to just run a script in a virtual Pi OS, whereas vdesktop’s goal was to create an interactive virtualized Pi environment.
  • I cut out the code I didn’t need, and it’s about 1/3 the code as vdesktop.
  • I still need to document it because I think others might like to use it.
• Added native support for the TC358743 HDMI capture chip in ansible-role-ustreamer.
  • It always sort of supported it, but these changes mean that the user doesn’t have to do any extra tinkering on top of the Ansible role to make TC358743-based chips work.
  • These are a higher-quality, but slightly more expensive HDMI capture chip than the MS22109 ones that most HDMI dongles use.
• Polled twitter for names of a high-end version of TinyPilot

mtlynch.io

• Published my October retrospective.
  • It got a surprisingly big response on /r/SideProject.

Hacker News video course

I’m preparing a paid video course about how to write blog posts that resonate with Hacker News.

• Signed up to give a practice run of the talk to the Blogging for Devs community.
• Worked with my illustrator on a cover.
• Began making slides.

Beekeeping

• Wrapped up my hives in little hive jackets for the winter

Misc

• Joined Blogging for Devs
  • It’s a peer mentorship community for developers who write blogs.
• Bought new networking equipment.
  • I’ve long resisted becoming a networking nerd, but I feel like the last few consumer routers I’ve owned have been crappy.
  • @lloydw sent me down the rabbit hole of enterprise/prosumer routing gear.
  • I really like the idea of unbundling my network equipment into separate devices for router, switch, and wireless access point. It means I can upgrade different parts independently.
  • I ended up buying a Ubiquiti USG-3 router, a Ruckus R310 wireless access point, and a TP-Link TL-SG1008P switch.
    • On track for arrival this weekend.
    • Total cost is less than what I paid for my awful Netgear RAX80 that completely resets all network connections every few hours. Fortunately, it looks like Best Buy will fully refund the RAX80 even though I already threw out the box and manual.
  • Also, having PoE gear is making me want to more seriously explore creating a nice PoE experience for TinyPilot.
• Replaced my HP printer that was constantly having issues.
  • Had a bit of a surprise because the new printer is a Brother HL-L2300D. The DW version is wireless, but I was tired of wireless issues, so I wen with this one, assuming it was Ethernet instead of WiFi.
  • When I went to plug in the network cable, I realized it’s USB-only, so it expects to plug into a single computer, but I need it available on the network…
  • I keep my printer right next to my Synology NAS, which has a front-facing USB port. I thought, “I wonder what happens if I plug it in?”
  • It turns out that my Synology NAS natively supports sharing printers on the network, so now I just do that.
    • <3 <3 Synology <3 <3