EE. Making computers control physical things. Into embedded rust, running, mountains, digital fab, unfinished projects.
I've been described as smart, capable, and bored.
Grateful to do whatever it is that I'm doing.
| Website | https://jeffmcbride.net |
| Github | https://github.com/mcbridejc |
For over 6 months now, I've been using #Immich as a google photos replacement for phone backup, sharing, browsing, searching, and have to say: I'm pretty impressed. Stuff like searching for "landscape with snow", or "dogfood" to find that photo of the type of dog food I'm supposed to buy just works.
It lacks some of the photo editing features I'm used to, but has actually better searching tools than google. I can edit with other tools. It also regularly continues to improve. I'm impressed.
This was all laid out by hand! On the purple sun workstations running Solaris in the "VLSI lab".
I wonder if I can reverse engineer the pinout. Would that be a better use of my time than finishing the closet clean out? Probably not. But more fun? maybe.
No wait I spoke too soon! I also found the IC I designed in college and it's in a 40-pin DIP package! I have no idea what the pinout is though...
It was an N (?) channel PWM generator with a parallel databus for configuring.
Thought occurred to me tonight: If you wanted a system for deciding where you should live, and you have a website, you could probably do worse than "move to the country which generates the most per-capita traffic to my website". This is based on the idea that those places will have the highest density of like-minded folks.
If I apply this to myself, I should live in #Switzerland, #Netherlands, or #Germany. Which...to be honest feels sort of right to me.
Yesterday I rode another CX race, and I plotted the field average lap times for curiosity. This is the season closer and is in Seattle (not a farm) -- I think that helped bring out more beginners / casual riders -- so I DID do some passing. Buuut I was also on the track with the Cat4 and HS guys and they are so much faster than me.
I sort of expect to get beat by the 17yos, but the dozen or so 10/11yo kids faster than me is... humbling.
It was a blast though, so I might be hooked...
I rode my first #cyclocross race today in a corn maze and pumpkin patch. Was crazy muddy after the heavy rains the last couple days. I've never worked so hard to ride so slow on flat ground. I...did not place well, but it was a lot of fun.
The combo of pushing hard through mud and struggling to stay upright on every turn* was exhausting and I pretty much lost steam on the 3rd lap.
*I was not completely successful at that
Had some great fall #hiking this weekend, up Carne Mountain in #Washington, not too far from #LeavenworthWA. Amazing fall color with lots of larches and vining maple and more -- and crowd not too bad because it's kind of a slog to get to, and a slog to hike up. This was a really great fall trail, if you don't mind a lot of climbing.
Felt good to get the first snow hike done already in October. I am always a bit sad when winter comes and the days get short, but some snow is fun!
