iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I wonder if this place down the street is in danger.

A screenshot from a street view of the parking lot and restaurant named "Wildberries".

Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

For the last few weeks I've been working on a bit of prototype hardware - a low-end Eurorack digital oscillator based on the new low-cost STM32C542 MCU. I've published the hardware and firmware sources for that on Github: github.com/emeb/Cheep4

A 3D rendering of a printed circuit board tilted at an angle so both the front and back sides are visible. The board is dark green with gold flash exposed metal where the soldermask uncovers it. Dark gray integrated circuits and other SMD parts are visible on the left/front side while pots and jacks in green and gray are seen on the right/back side. The whole assembly is floating against a dark gray gradient background and colorful XYZ axis arrows are visible in the lower left.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

This thread on Mastodon has some interesting insights: dair-community.social/@emilymbende... This reply in particular is illuminating

@emilymbender

His position on subjects is distorted by his personal position in society.

It's a common side-effect of successful critics of society. He speaks, now, to the only people he thinks matter, but they are a narrow group of exceptionals, culled from the privileged, who he interacts most with.

Success has its isolations, and he hasn't confronted this yet . . .

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

And don't forget "Married with Children" and their 'assume Fox network viewing positions' gag:

A still image from the television program "Married with Children" showing a cluttered middle-class living room with four people. A woman with big hair is sitting on an ugly yellow sofa with a TV remote aimed off-frame while a man, girl and boy stand behind her with their arms waving about them.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Samwise is fine, but he'll always be Twoflower to me. Maybe he can bring the luggage along...

A color photograph of a light-skinned man wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt with random ten-petaled flower prints. He has a floppy hat, dark-rimmed glasses and a dark strap running from shoulder to hip. His mouth is open in an expression of excitement and he's pointing at his right palm with his left forefinger. The background is a neutral gray.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

If you see this, quote with a robot that isn’t from “Star Wars”, “Star Trek”, “Dr Who”, or “Transformers”

A color photograph of Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy showing a very rectangular, vaguely human-shaped silver robot standing in front of an eroded tan-colored landscape. The head has a prominent brow and nose with two downward-angled triangular red eyes. The thorax has a panel of indicators at chest-level and deep horizontal grooves. The arms are jointed and square-ish in cross-section with simple lobster-claw grippers for hands. The image cuts off below the waist.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

That turtle I saw. It was about to try crossing a street so I put it back in the grass, headed toward a pond.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

I see that we're in the process of moving beyond the beautiful moment in time when value was created for the shareholders.

A black and white cartoon drawn by Toro depicting a man in a ragged suit sitting near a fire talking to three small children. He says "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Meanwhile in Sandland you left behind:

Screenshot from the NWS Phoenix weather page showing current temp of 91F and forecast next day temp of 98F.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

I'm saddened to report that my friend and colleague Paul Schreiber passed away this morning. He was a consummate engineer with deep roots in music and technology and worked on the TRS-80, the Realistic Concert-Mate MG-1 synth, the MOTM modular system and many Eurorack modules. He will be missed.

Color photograph of a balding middle-aged man sitting at a messy desk with several computer monitors. In the background are wooden shelves loaded with books, CDs and test equipment.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Yesterday we had a wet weather system (first one in months) come thru the Phoenix area. It dumped some snow in the high country, including the Four Peaks area northeast of town. We took a drive up that way this afternoon and caught this panorama.

A panorama photograph of a desert scene. A gnarly dead tree on the left side, snow-capped mountains on the horizon and dry, grassy scrub in the near area. Saguaro cactus in the near distance and blue sky with little fluffy clouds above.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

I've always been impressed by this park - such a distinctive sight on the map satellite view:

Satellite view of the western coast of the northern island of Aotearoa showing the distinctive border of the newly named Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki. The park boundary of forest (dark green) vs grazing land (light green) is defined as a set distance from the highest peak and so is mostly circular. There is a an uneven protrusion of the park to the northwest due to a lower peak and lava flows and the western coastline of the island seems to follow a further circular pattern to the left of the park. Roads and geographical names are seen around the park in a mixture of Māori and English language.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

I did, but it hasn't made much difference in the climate.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Centurylink - tell me you want me to cancel my service without saying you want me to cancel my service.

Screenshot of an email folder with notices from Centurylink regarding repair appointments spanning Nov 7 thru Nov 18.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 13/10/2024

I was flying out of Seattle yesterday and caught this image of Mt. Rainier

Looking out over the wing of an airliner at a lone mountain framed by the wing below and clouds above. The mountain stands alone illuminated by the setting sun with a small cap of clouds on its peak and surrounded by lower topography and blue sky in the far background.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 16/09/2024

Wow - under 200k. A little late to the party, but not bad.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 20/04/2024

The deserts of central Arizona are being overrun by an invasive species - Globe Chamomile aka "Stinknet" was accidentally introduced from southern Africa. There's no known way to control it aside from herbicides that cause collateral damage. I don't think we'll win this one.

Cute yellow flowers that look like tiny balls on the end of long stalks amid a haze of greenery with a blue sky in the background.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 24/09/2023

Mine was an Ohio Scientific Superboard II like the one shown here. 6502 with 32x32 character monochrome video, 4kB SRAM, 8kB MS BASIC in ROM.

2-layer printed circuit board with DIP ICs and a QWERTY keyboard soldered on the front edge. Various connectors on the side and back edges and red & black power cables dangling.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 03/09/2023

If you ask this MMBT3904 transistor what its name is...

A SOT-23 transistor soldered to a green PCB seen through a microscope. Marking on the package is "I AM".

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 08/08/2023

That, or helmets. The ambiguity runs rampant.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 21/07/2023

Assembled PCBs back from JLCPCB - they did the SMT parts and I added the rest (pots, jacks, connectors, etc). It's a prototype Eurorack audio generator based on a CH32V003 MCU driving a PT8211 stereo DAC. Three CV inputs, one gate input and two audio outputs. A button and RGB LED for mode control.

Front and back views of a DIY Eurorack module showing pots, jacks, buttons and LED on the front and SMT components on the back.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 17/07/2023

New PCB project sent out for fab & assembly. My first try with a quick-turn offshore PCBA service - lets see how many dumb mistakes I've made. This one has a CH32V003 MCU too.

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Eric Brombaugh @emeb.bsky.social · 16/07/2023

I found this beautiful Green Darner expired on my driveway a few days ago. No sign of any trauma - perhaps it was the heat, or simply age.

A dragonfly with a green head and thorax and blue / black abdomen sitting on a white background.

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