iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Today in fun projects to cope with the state of the world: My #Nintendo (#NES) receives #MeshCore now. (#OneROM powered.)

Television display of the NES. These messages came in over the mesh.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Temporarily defeated by this #NeXTcube power supply issue. Running out of time before #VCF #Montreal. It works for about 15 mins, then shuts down. Fails to start a few times. Then starts and runs for ~15 mins. Motherboard battery is good. No caps look bad. No leaks […] [Original post on scoat.es]

The inside of the NeXTcube power supply.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

What in the Jobs? (Seems exercising it brought out the power supply gremlins, so now it’s a hardware problem before the networking problem… We didn’t know this was called yak shaving in 1991.)

The inside of the NeXTcube, back cover removed.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

Arrived at VCVR. What an amazing experience. 🚂 Also, while I was mostly offline for 4+ days, my favourite band, Hey Rosetta, got back together, announced a tour, sold all of the tickets (maybe some still available in the morning), announced more shows, and sold all […] [Original post on scoat.es]

Train #1 clearing a tunnel in Jasper National Park

A view from the dome, with the train bending ahead on the picturesque reflective lake and with the Rockies in the background

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

Here’s an interesting part of the cross-country #meshcore experiment that I wasn’t expecting: my contacts list has been full since the GTA. I haven’t made time to prune it, and didn’t realize the importance of this. I just received a message from “Claire in PDX” […] [Original post on scoat.es]

Screenshot showing a 9 hop message, but with repeaters from YUL (and other places).

Screenshot of a map showing this message bounced coast to coast (it did not).

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

I was going to post about how great of a place this is for reading, but frankly as far as the reading goes, it’s terrible. Constantly looking up to gasp at the scenery.

iPad with the Rust book, a train window, and the Fraser river. 😍

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

Slept through Saskatoon but saw some #Meshcore repeats at #Edmonton station. And some friendly Public channel chatter while walking the length of the train on the platform, and getting some fresh air.

Companion radio with Edmonton station sign out the cabin window

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

There’s an interesting (and unfortunate; I’ve been on some late VIA trains but never this late) cascading/compounding problem when a train misses its schedule and the rest of its required sidings and yields snowball. Delays + engine trouble yesterday even led to […] [Original post on scoat.es]

Screen shot of the VIA tracker:

• Major delay +15h00min
1(09-20) TORONTO → VANCOUVER
Next stop: Watrous

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026

Home for the next 97+ hours. Toronto to Vancouver. Excited to see the parts of Canada I’ve only ever flown over. #viarail #thecanadian

Skyline dome car still inside Union Station

A view from the dome, with the rest of Train #1 curving ahead (behind; we’re reversing).

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

Hey look, it’s Lake Ontario!

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Late last night (so I'm taking the liberty of reposting it when people are more likely to be awake), I finished up the first version of a silly little nerd-snipe project: a mini display board for #YULBBS. scoat.es/@sean/117239154383737412 There weren't […] [Original post on scoat.es]

The YULBBS pixel display showing AC867 landing and Flexjet 355 taking off.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Miguel got me good, today. Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W / RP2350 + 64*64 LED panel. Embedded #Swift. Here’s AC432 setting up for landing at YUL. Project: seancoates.com/blogs/yulbbs ( mini output: telnet yulbbs.via.sc 12323 ) #YULBBS mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/1172…

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026

Blueberry Grunt is a New Brunswick/Nova Scotia tradition. It’s dumplings (I used my regular biscuit recipe) steamed on a simmering blueberry compote of sorts (blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon).

Ready to eat blueberry grunt. With whipped cream but ice cream is also good.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026

Slow night at CYUL. I saw something about a tragic accident. #yulbbs #Montreal

Textual chart of landings/take-offs showing a slow night (to the right).

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 05/08/2026

It's mesh night at @foulab in #Montreal tonight. This is a casual in-person meetup of local mesh networking folks. If you're curious, drop by. foulab.org I'm going to be bringing a ridiculous personal project that lets my 8-bit Tandy Color Computer 3 from […] [Original post on scoat.es]

3D printed cart shell and the components inside: OneROM Fire 28 C, USB harness, HeltecV5, uart connection cable, antenna pigtail + mount

The assembled MESHCoCo cart. 915MHz LoRa antenna attached.

The “come here I want to see you” moment: CoCo sent a message that my iPhone received. iPhone (via MeshCore Companion) sent a message that the CoCo received.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

Now with the WS2812 LED via PIO (Programmable IO State Machine), and swift-mmio (because memory mapped I/O in #Swift is… weird). ```swift while true { morse.send(.s, in: .red) morse.send(.w, in: .amber) morse.send(.i, in: .green) morse.send(.f, in: .cyan) morse […] [Original post on scoat.es]

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

I made biscuit-based cheesy garlic and “pizza” rolls (think cinnamon rolls, but… savoury), and they’re so good (if I do say so myself) that I should not make these again for a while…

A pan of garlic cheese, and pizza rolls.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

I recognize that the global audience for exact kind of thing this might be just me, but… (I'd be truly surprised if THERE ARE DOZENS OF US!) I’m pretty excited that I just managed to build a rudimentary proof-of-concept plugin for #OneROM (onerom.org) in […] [Original post on scoat.es]

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 23/07/2026

This Cybertruck has been parked on my street for 6 days now and I'm not even sure who to call.

My empty street with an overflowing dumpster, on wheels, spotlighted by a street lamp.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 13/07/2026

@evert Had some VLAN tagging issues, but internal (LAN) is now: [SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 10.6 GBytes 9.13 Gbits/sec 202 sender [SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 10.6 GBytes 9.13 Gbits/sec receiver And speed test (limited by the 2.5GbE port on the UDM-SE for now) attached. These […] [Original post on scoat.es]

Screen shot of speed test results showing Download 2191.76Mbps and upload 2285.77 Mbps.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 04/07/2026

Pretty sure that’s the only time I’ve ever seen a trampolinist accompany a song at a show. (Patrick Watson, #montreal #JazzFest last night.)

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

The topic of pirate television in Montreal came up, today, and I made this. For the 8 of you who understand both niche jokes… I think it's pretty good!

Oh hello viewer of the descriptive text; indeed the answer to the jokes IS in here. This is a collage of a screen capture from the Max Headroom signal hijackings (in Chicago, November 1987), wearing the hat of Khn de Poitrine, current triangle band microtonal celebrity.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2026

Today in ADS-B: hot air balloon! #yulbbs picked this up; a lot of ADS-B aircraft types are misconfigured, but this one is moving slowly and drifting like a balloon. Fun. scoat.es/@yulalerts/116850345584294…

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2026

Guess I didn’t take any photos once it started, but the Angine de Poitrine show at the #Montreal Jazz Festival tonight was pretty great (despite the overflowing crowd). In fact it was the second best made up language lyrics show I’ve been to in the last year. (-; (Sugur Rós last fall.) 🔺

The scene at Place des Festivals before the show started, showing a huge crowd.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 26/06/2026

Siri (Beta) is really interesting. On one hand, I don't have to trust any new parties with my data. Apple already has it since they have my mobile devices, so if they were going to maliciously steal (e.g.) my email contents, they could already do that. This opens […] [Original post on scoat.es]

Screen shot “conversation” with Siri:

> What video card is in that Gaming PC I bought from newegg a few years back?

The Gaming PC you purchased from Newegg in November 2021 includes an
NVIDIA GeFporce RTX 3060 Ti video card. It is part of the ABS Master Gaming PC, which also features a Ryzen 5 5600X processor.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026

One of the NeXT Megapixel Display monitor stands at @foulab had feet that were rotting. The 36+ year old "rubber" roller feet were melting into some sort of goo. I measured, modelled, and 3D printed (in TPU) replacement feet. If you, somehow, find yourself in need […] [Original post on scoat.es]

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

The second of the CF-18s leaving CYUL for today's Alouettes game flyover (I think). #Montreal You can see them WAY before you can hear them. Also: moving too fast to get my fingers out of the way, I guess. It makes sense, but pretty bummed that they don't […] [Original post on scoat.es]

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 09/06/2026

Oh wow. It goes deeper. RecursiveIterableIterator next?

Screen shot from the same video showing “IterableIterator”.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 09/06/2026

Full circle happening to my developer career right now, friends! #Swift now has a disambiguating PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM! (and no, I did not look up how to spell that; it is burned into my mind from #PHP 25 years ago)

Screen shot from “What’s new in Swift” session at WWDS2026, showing “Rocket::SaturnV()” the :: is the paamayim nekudotayim, which means “double colon” in Hebrew.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 07/06/2026

Cleaned up a couple little beauties at @foulab today.

Two NeXT machines in the museum at Foulab

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2026

Weather-wise, this is my favourite time of year in #Montreal. It’s warm but not overheating, and the air is still dry enough to enjoy. Everything is coming alive. This guy is also a big fan of when it’s comfortable for me to work outside.

Stanley the lab lounging at the feet of my makeshift outdoor workstation.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2026

I did catch them this time, but terrible photo.

A very blue sky; probably can’t even see the 3 jets.

Cropped version showing the 3 clustered (loose formation) Snowbirds.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 25/05/2026

I was in #Toronto visiting the kid this weekend. Stopped by an #electronics store I had heard about, called "Supremetronic”… Really, it was a section in the basement of a Home Hardware, directly next to the paint counter. What a strange little nook of availability […] [Original post on scoat.es]

The mentioned basement. Mini bins of components and ICs on the left, bins of connectors etc. on the right.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 07/05/2026

It is 2037. You are being paid $7250/hour for your services. (Before you get too excited, a can of cola costs $129, and so does 15 seconds of LLM tokens.) There are not many left who can do what you do. You are the tradesperson of your time. It's messy work […] [Original post on scoat.es]

Wire-wrapped CPU backplane from a PDP 11 mini computer (actually from the ~1970s).

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

@evan Thanks for mentioning this. I missed it before now. (Also, it maybe doesn't matter at all for my solo instance…)

Screen shot of “Relay URL” for tags.pub set up and approved.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 25/04/2026

In 2026, I don’t often import American products via friends, but when I do it’s a bigass bottle of the best chili crisp…

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

Sure, it snowed on Sunday, but the asparagus proves that Spring is actually finally happening in #Montreal.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2026

I think this is the most I’ve used Untapped this year. 🍁 (That’s a #beer joke, friends.)

A sugar maple with tap holes, and the tap lines attached to the trunk line.

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Sean Coates @sean.scoat.es.ap.brid.gy · 13/04/2026

‘Tis the season. The very end of the season. 🍁

Maple sap evaporator, steaming. Laptop in foreground. Finishing stove in background. Lazy lab number two snoozing next to the fires.

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