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Dad x 2. Always learning. #CircuitPython lead. Computers are cool. Seattle. He/him or they/them.
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/tannewt
Websitehttp://tannewt.org
GitHubhttps://github.com/tannewt
I got fed up of posting the same comment every time the topic of LLM hallucinations in code comes up (short version: they don't matter because you'll spot them the second you try to run the code) - so I've turned that comment into a longer form blog post https://simonwillison.net/2025/Mar/2/hallucinations-in-code/
Hallucinations in code are the least dangerous form of LLM mistakes

A surprisingly common complaint I see from developers who have tried using LLMs for code is that they encountered a hallucination—usually the LLM inventing a method or even a full …

Simon Willison’s Weblog

Let me tell you about the most wasteful US federal government spending I know about. It's a humdinger. You and everyone you know are mired in it for weeks, or perhaps months, every year. It will cost you, personally, thousands of dollars over your lifetime. I'm talking about filing your taxes.

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/11/doubling-up-on-paperwork/#rip-freefile

1/

Pluralistic: Musk steals a billion dollars from low-income Americans and sends it to Intuit (11 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

The CircuitPython Show returns! I chat with CircuitPython community member Aaron Pendley about his start with computers, discovering #CircuitPython, and a number of his projects.

Find the show wherever you get your podcasts or visit https://www.circuitpythonshow.com/@circuitpythonshow/episodes/aaron-pendley

Aaron Pendley

The CircuitPython Show returns! To kick off season five, Paul welcomes Aaron Pendley, who is known by squid.jpg in the Adafruit community. They discuss how Aaron got started with computers, how he discovered CircuitPython, and a number of his projects. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. Show Notes 00:25 Welcome Aaron and his start with computers 4:23 squid.jpg 5:18 Discovering CircuitPython 8:03 The Top-Secret Lunchbox 12:11 The Zapper lights / sound mod 16:24 The Wii Nunchuk USB Adapter 17:22 The WiFi Matrix Keypad Remote 20:02 Sparkle Specs firmware for Adafruit LED Glasses 22:44 Which microcontroller? 23:33 Wrap-up Follow Aaron on Bluesky Visit Aaron’s Adafruit Playground page

The CircuitPython Show

Looks like #meshtastic 2.6 will have peering over UDP, which is very convenient: https://github.com/meshtastic/firmware/pull/5779
This would allow meshing the 433 and 868 MHz networks together without MQTT and more.

I used to host a private MQTT server and mod the firmware a bit (janky). With this PR merged to my local version, two nodes can now communicate with each other over WiFi, no additional settings or servers required.
Yes, it eats an additional hop (2 if compared to a dummy repeater), but it's so much easier.

Hello world support for UDP broadcasts over the LAN on ESP32 by thebentern · Pull Request #5779 · meshtastic/firmware

Couple of remarks: I have this hardcoded to the address IPAddress(224, 0, 0, 69), which seems to be fine (for now). I have also pegged the port to 4403 because we know this port already on the TCP ...

GitHub
#waleg starts meeting on Monday and has bill hearings then too! Don’t miss a chance to weigh in on them. Full list here: https://wa-law.org/bill/2025-26/
2025-26 Bills

Happy New Year everyone! May we make the most of it.
Just editing the first episode of season 5 of The @circuitpythonshow. It will be back before you know it. #circuitpython #podcast
Thank you @stylus for all you’ve done for #CircuitPython. You’ve added so many cool things to CP for others to use.
https://social.afront.org/@stylus/113691513879680883
Stylus (@[email protected])

My #CircuitPython2025 @[email protected] I’m not going to bury the lede: 2025 is the year I’m hanging up my hat as a core developer of CircuitPython. My involvement with Adafruit & CircuitPython will change from what it has been to just an occasional project. For that reason, this post is more about expressing my gratitude for the past and present rather than a specific plan for the future. In February 2018 I bought a pair of Trinket M0s because I’d heard about CircuitPython and wanted to try it. In Summer 2019, I did my first paid project for Adafruit, and then in November I left my prior full-time job to make Adafruit & CircuitPython my “main thing”. After five years and a bit working for Adafruit, I have nothing but love and admiration for the people in this community. I wish I’d learned at the start of my programming career how much more you can create when it’s on a foundation of respect and a desire to help one another. Better late than never. I grew in other ways too. I remember how nervous I was the first time I went on Show & Tell. Now, being live on YouTube is just a normal Wednesday night. I even gave a talk at a PyCon thanks to Adafruit, which was nothing I’d imagined doing. What’s ahead for me? For now, I’m wrapping up long term Adafruit projects while trying not to start anything too big. Starting in April I’m going to travel for a few months. When I get back I’m going to focus more on local and volunteer opportunities. I plan to be around on Discord & GitHub to answer questions in cases where I may be the one with the expertise. Or when I have questions while I’m doing my own CircuitPython projects. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to contribute to CircuitPython and other open source projects, and glad that it’s going to be available effectively forever as open source code. And in a way I’m excited about the void that my absence will create: I think it’s an opportunity for new folks to step up and make their own contributions to CircuitPython. With luck, something wonderful that stems from a fresh viewpoint and a distinct set of strengths. Something I couldn’t have imagined, let alone done. What’s your idea, and what will you create in 2025? #CircuitPython #CircuitPython2025

A Social Front Organization

Time to fix this thing that has been broken for exactly 1 year. It's my home made temperature and humidity monitoring system for Jerry the Blue Tongue's lizard enclosure.

#LizardPosting #CircuitPython

Video recordings and slides from the recent LLVM Developers' Meeting are now online. Time to stop whatever you're doing and check them out! https://llvm.org/devmtg/2024-10/#program
The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure Project