iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

an old concentrating solar plant, with a complex history. I might write an article on it some time.

J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Back when Safeway and Albertson's were merging, it seemed like a bit of a non-event here in New Mexico where we only have Albertson's. I was peripherally aware that this wasn't always the case: at Central and Tennessee, and at 4th and Cutter, are two buildings that I was told years ago were […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Other elements of BSG, like their references to a CIC rather than a bridge, illustrate how Star Trek was based on naval practice by someone who didn't know all that much about the Navy, while BSG was based on naval practice by someone who was a huge nerd.

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

you know what series is great about this? Battlestar Galactica. We *know* they're on SSB because they put the radio dialog through a duck fart filter. Bravo!

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

think about it, narrowbanding the Federation must have been a huge hassle. You think they're on FM or still preferring SSB?

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Star Trek elides or fudges a lot of technical details for the sake of the narrative, like the number of torpedoes on board Voyager. Well, we can all forgive some liberties for the sake of a good story. But something that always bothered me is radio procedure: what does "hailing" mean? how do […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

love these ilustrations on this old informational sign. screenprinted?

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

when you are temporarily working with the 800GB disk image in your Downloads folder, that is always when your backup tool decides to run.

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Today on Computers Are Bad: from plesiochronous to synchronous. We try to make some sense of the messy evolution of digital telecommunications over fiber. computer.rip/2026-10-12-plesiochron…

computer.rip

from plesiochronous to synchronous

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

🤔 why do people so often describe the backrooms as under halogen light when it's clearly fluorescent?

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

A loop extender or pair gain system or something of that nature.

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

hey, if you are ever in a position to procure or install a bike rack: please for the love of god just put in the big metal staples. I realize it's more expensive if the slab is already there, but you know what, I've seen people weld the metal staples to some flat stock and bolt that down, and […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

@robey I wondered the same thing, maybe a union rule that they need to have air-conditioned shelter at fixed work sites? this is adjacent to the Mojave where daytime temperatures can definitely get into hazard territory even if someone is just on site temporarily.

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

@ocdtrekkie ohh I run into this so much with my Weird Thing-Programming VM, always having to watch device manager when I attach/unattach USB serial adapters to see what they're showing up as. And then I still screw it up because tools like to default to COM1 which exists for some reason […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

this is metering station for natural gas going to a power plant. I love the fiberglass hut with air conditioner, perhaps dating to some era when this station was attended all day.

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

how does Windows deal with this? that's a real question for someone else, I'm really out of touch on Windows these days. Windows also has these bus-position-based identifiers for things, you can see them in the device manager. does it use them for recognizing network interfaces? I think maybe […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

"But JB," you ask in my mind, "what about other types of devices on removable hardware?" Yes! there are all kinds of weird problems here. My Thunderbolt dock has two identical monitors plugged into its two HDMI ports. This may *seem* like a totally normal thing to do, but it induces all kinds […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

This joke toot also brings up something interesting about Linux™. Back in the good old days when enbies were enbies and had real jobs as "webmxsters," our interfaces were named eth0, eth1, etc. These were memorable and easy to type. The problem is that it meant that the naming of your […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

I get the utility but, still, "enp25s0u1u4u4u3" doesn't exactly roll off the gonue

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

lol 2 out of 2 times I have said that I don't like ZFS on lobste.rs, it's gotten flagged as "troll" I love how lobste.rs has a very similar opinion-driven moderation dynamic to HN, except for it's weirder and more niche

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

hit up polymarket for a contract on "how many attempts will it take to join a Microsoft Teams meeting from Firefox on Linux"

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

youtu.be/nnPGC2xNWAk Lately I've been experimenting with a camera on the truck when we're out in the desert. Maybe you'll enjoy this footage of driving in the hills above Kern Canyon, taken a couple of months ago.

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

the most substantial "artifact" I found from the former site of NAS Hawes. It used to be a big one!

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

An interesting call to the payphone line today: the first time I've seen a caller ID name of "PACIFIC TELEMAN" (Pacific Telemanagement Systems, who operate a LOT of the remaining payphones).

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

UNM's Mechanical Engineering building was designed by Pacheco and Graham and 1978. Jesse Pachecho studied architecture at Cornell before moving to Albuquerque around 1960 - perhaps just chasing the population boom. He found work at the BIA, where he met "Chan" […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

I'm leaning towards Austin Livingston being a real person because I scrolled through his X profile and it is... profoundly depressing. I guess what's really reassuring is seeing that a Peter Thiel-backed startup can be this lame and shambolic.

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

and I'm not even going to opine exactly on whether or not these photos are real, but pro tip: if you photograph three people in the same outfit against the same background, maybe don't compose them right next to each other this way unless they're really […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

so the iLand stuff was kinda weird, but here's one weirder: I get an email *at work* from Austin Livingston, senior reporter at "Primary News," who is "writing a story on my recent launch update" ??? I get spam like this sometimes and I was about to totally ignore it when I noticed it has a […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

what is this supposed to be, the pacific northwest?

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

In the access control industry, you have doors that automatically latch but you want to keep them unlatched some of the time. This happens a lot with exit doors with panic hardware, that need to be auto-latching when a business is closed (for fire code reasons) but should be easy to pull open […]

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J. B. Crawford @jbcrawford.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

Went to the auction house to pick up two USFF PCs (one has storage! SSD alone worth more than I paid for it) and a $1 box of telephone equipment. There's a Panasonic voicemail, but the PBX sadly did not make it. yet the thing I'm having the most fun with is the NMDA Received date stamp […]

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