iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A bit of a full-circle moment for me today. Just ordered my first PCB after a 38 year gap. Amazingly from the same company I used 38 years ago (Newbury Electronics). Glad to see they are still in business. Here's a KiCad rendering of what I ordered.

Computer rendering of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) showing 9 vertical rows of pads where connectors will go, and much silk-screen text.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This is really not good. Not good at all 😟

Graph showing the global average sea surface temperature anomaly for 2026 (red line).

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

And there it is. The average sea surface anomaly temperature is now as warm as 9 January 2024 - which was the previous record high - and is still rising. New records set every day since the start of June. The oceans are now warmer than they've ever been since records began.

Copernicus Climate Pulse data showing the average global sea surface temperature anomaly, with 2026 highlighted in red. It shows that the anomaly is now as high as the previous record high in Jan 2024, and is likely to rise even higher.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Nice! Here's the output of the ray-tracer I wrote in about 1990. I seem to remember it took considerably longer than 13 minutes to run ...

A ray traced image of some geometrical objects (sphere, cone, cylinder, disc) floating above a reflective checkerboard floor.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

What are the parameters of this introspection? Are we talking PC-only games? Or do arcade games count? The first *ever* game for me was probably Tail Gunner. Then Defender on the BBC micro Followed by Star Wars, then Rise of the Triads.

Screenshot of the arcade video game Tail Gunner

Screenshot of the computer game Defender on a BBC micro.

Screenshot of the arcade game Star Wars.

Screenshot of the computer game Rise of the Triads

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Initial component placement for the second of the pair of circuit boards that will become the Floating Point Unit of my FP co-processor. I'm just so glad it all fits!! 😊

Computer rendering of a printed circuit board showing component placement prior to the start of trace layout.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Finished!! First of four PCB cards for a project I first thought of back in the 1980s. Only three more to go ...😬 @computinghistory.org.uk

A computer rendering of a printed circuit board with various integrated circuits and sockets.

Image of the layout of a 2 layer printed circuit board, showing the two copper trace layers as red and green lines, as well as the component side silk screen text in teal. Integrated circuit pads are shown in yellow.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Or ... (Part of my public outreach kit) Maybe not as fun as an orange, but certainly less messy 🤣

Painted papier mache representations of the Earth and Moon, along side a flashlight/torch and a 30cm ruler

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I'm about 75% the way through the first of a four PCB set that will realise a dream I had way back in the late 1980s. Can you guess what I'm making? 😊 (hint: it will be about 10x faster than an Intel product of the time, using period appropriate parts) FYI @computinghistory.org.uk

Computer rendering of a printed circuit board with a mixture of chips and sockets on it.

A partially completed printed circuit board layout with two layers (red and green). The white lines show where the unconnected nets are.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Heard on the 6pm news just now, when Chis was talking about smoke from wild fires in Canada causing red sunsets in Scotland. As if any more evidence were needed, that we're in deep trouble.

An image of text that reads "Parts of the ARCTIC are on fire" - Chris Fawkes BBC weather 11 Sept, 2026

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

This was my entry in today's competition at my art club today. I didn't win, but it generated some interest ☺️

An artistic representation of the moon Io above the clouds of the planet Jupiter. Also shown is Jupiter's Great Red Spot; a large storm system that is hundreds of years old. Watercolour pencil and watercolour paint.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Must be in the USA only. This is what I see here in the UK.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I made a home for my "Noo-Noo"* today. Now it's on the wall in the lab. and not cluttering up the bench. * by which I mean HEPA filter air cleaner for removing flux smoke before it can get into the air I breath.

Air filter with flexible hose and HEPA filter (in the box) for filtering solder flux.

HEPA air filter with flexible hose mounted on a wall.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I think you'll get even better results if you put the components this way round 🙂 The way you have it, the capacitors won't be as effective, since they are on the low impedance PSU side of the filter. By moving them to the other side of the inductor, they will more easy reduce transients.

Simple LC low-pass filter. High frequencies are blocked by the inductor which has a high impedance at high frequencies. The capacitor further attenuates high frequencies since it will have a low impedance at high frequencies, so more of the high frequency current will be connected to ground.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Yikes! I opened up the language parser of my ray tracer with the aim of doing some tidying up, and came across this. 20 years ago. I wrote my first ray tracer nearly 40 years ago. That makes me feel properly old 😞

A series of print statements from a computer program that interprets a graphical description language called Object Description Language.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Finished!! Or at least ... I'm tired of working on it. Turned out way more difficult than it looks. My choice of wire didn't help.

12 strut tensegrity sphere made of polished aluminium tubes and steel wire.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think I'm getting there!! 😊

Almost completed 12 strut tensegrity sphere made of polished aluminium tubes and thin steel wire.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Here's a clearer version of the weaving pattern for a 12 strut tensegrity sphere that I posted last night.

Weaving pattern for a 12 strut tensegrity sphere. Start at the yellow star and follow the paths marked with the small numbers in the direction of the arrows on the lines. There are 48 paths in total starting and ending at the star. The coloured bars represent the struts. There are four groups of three struts. Each group forms a loose triangle. The grey dashed lines represent where the map repeats. Lines that cross the dashed line on the right will then come in from the left side, and vice versa.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I think I've figured out the weaving / threading order for a 12 strut tensegrity sphere that I'm making. Tomorrow I'll see if I can make the sculpture.

Diagram that outlines the threading order for a 12 strut tensegrity sphere.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

@fotsn.bsky.social thanks Mr. Mould. I watched a video you made with Mr. Savage, and now I'm making a 12 strut tensegrity sphere, when I should be doing far more important stuff, like buying food ... (AKA "binary guy")

A jig for drilling holes in the ends of aluminium rods

Aluminium rods with small holes drilled in the ends to accept fine steel wire. These will be components of a 12 strut tensegrity sphere.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Are they your .... "companion" 😉

Still image from an advert for Maltesers with a man saying "'ello".

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Not sure that's a good idea .... You might end up like poor Laureline in "Valerian and the city of a thousand planets" 😉

The character Laureline, played by Cara Delevingne, in the movie "Valerian and the city of a thousand planets". Laureline is wearing a plate on her head and carrying a tray of lemons. The plate has a hole through which the top of her head is protruding, as if served up on a plate ...

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Achem ... I only have data from my rooftop solar, but here you go ... 😊 I think the fact that it occurred so close to the horizon means it would be difficult to see the post-eclipse re-bound. We will have to wait for one occurring near mid-day.

A graph of photovoltaic power output over time for an average of 11 and 13 August 2026 (dotted blue curve) and 12 August (black curve). There was a partial eclipse on the 12th, and the time of maximum eclipse is indicated by the vertical dashed red line. A dip in the power output can be seen, compared to the days before and after the day of the eclipse.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Finished my eclipse video. Yellow line is how much the Moon is covering the Sun (%), red line is the "in the sun" temperature, blue line is the shade temperature. Box at top right shows the view of the Sun through a telescope as the eclipse progressed. Times in Universal Time.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It is the reason my nickname is what it is ... and also because I designed those fiddly bits around Norway ... 🙂

$Computer generated image of some fractal fjords. This image dates from 1986 and consists of 131072 triangles and took many hours to render. The reflections in the water were pseudo-ray traced.$

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I think this is right?? 🤔

Workings showing the solution to a simultaneous equation problem

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I'm still processing the time lapse image data I took of the eclipse yesterday, but here's something a little different. I took the temperature during the eclipse; once sensor in the shade, the other in the Sun. It's not very "V" shaped because it was just before sunset, but I think it's pretty neat

A graph showing the shade temperature (black line) and sun-lit temperature (orange line) during the partial eclipse of 2026 August 12, as viewed from Gloucestershire, UK. The vertical dashed line indicates the moment of maximum eclipse (about 93% coverage).

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I assume that's shocking and thinly veiled rage bait, so I won't rise to it. Instead, I'll post this picture of the Sun and the Moon I took this evening. Enjoy - I did 😊

An image of the Sun being eclipsed by the Moon

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

A single image from the 300+ images I took of the Sun being eclipsed by the Moon earlier today. More to follow, and eventually there will be a cool time-lapse video, hopefully ... #eclipse

An image of the Sun being eclipsed by the Moon. It shows the texture on the surface of the Sun, as well as sunspots and lunar terrain along the silhouetted edge of the Moon.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

I thoroughly recommend Prof. Lucie Green's method of making a solar #eclipse projection viewer. I made one yesterday, and can confirm there was no eclipse yesterday (see picture). In contrast; today a very large bite will be taken out of the Sun Instructions : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

An image of the Sun projected onto a piece of white card inside a pin-hole projection viewer.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I had some left over Baader Astrosolar film, so I made a couple of eclipse viewers, just in case the glasses I ordered don't show up in time.

Black card pieces and silvery Baader Astrosolar film. These will be assembled into a solar eclipse viewer.

Finished home made eclipse viewer assembled from the parts in the first photograph

Image of the Sun taken through a home made eclipse viewer. Note that the uneven texture on the Sun is dirt on the window through which the picture was taken.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Serves me right .... 😭 Maybe there will be enough gaps ...

Cloud cover prediction for south west England at 7pm on Wednesday 12th August 2026, which is the time of greatest eclipse, for a partial eclipse of the Sun on that date.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Hmmm ... OK, I stand corrected. Nice work! 🙂

Two light switches, one on the right is set on a plain wall, the other is set on an awesome patterned wall by the very talented artist Bhaalspawn ;-)

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I'll be setting up two telescopes with solar filters (visual and photography) on the common where I live. You're welcome to visit 🙂 This is my forecast:

A map of the south west of England near Swindon showing predicted cloud cover on Wednesday 12 August 2026 at 7pm

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Just a small sample of my collection. Bought when they came out. 😊

Original boxes for five computer games in the Quake franchise.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

This photograph deserves to win a prize. It encapsulates the state of the world today. Absolutely brilliant, sad, and horrifying all at once. Photo by Maximilien Lamy / AFP

A photograph by Maximilien Lamy / AFP of a couple sitting on a beach with a parasol over their heads, watching a large wild fire rage on the horizon, filling the sky with a large plume of smoke, which is blotting out the Sun.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Rock climbing Slartybartfast Hot air balloon pilot Slartybartfast Astronomer Slartybartfast Slartybartfast after dark

Slartybartfast climbing a cliff face in Greece

Slartybartfast flying a hot air balloon *inside* Hanger 1 at Moffett Airfield, California

$Slartybartfast contemplating the universe standing next to the 36 inch refracting telescope at Lick Observatory after a long night showing the public the wonders of the night sky.$ Slartybartfast in his night form, with fangs dripping with Ribena :-)

Slartybartfast in his night form, with fangs dripping with Ribena :-)

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Today I learned about leaf cutter bees. I though I saw an odd looking bright green bee disappearing into a crack in my patio slabs. Turns out it was a bee carrying a rolled up piece of leaf it had cut from (probably) one of my roses. The leaf rolls become cells for growing more bees.

A leaf cutter bee carrying a piece of leaf it has just removed from a plant. It is flying into the entrance of its nest, which is under a paving slab.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Still breaking records (not good) after a month of breaking records. Credit : C3S/ECMWF

Graph of global daily sea surface temperature anomaly with the years 2023 through 2026 highlighted. It shows that from mid June 2026, the oceans have been the warmest since records began.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Have you seen the Belgian taunt to "Overturn this!!" after they won? At least someone has the balls (pun intended) to tell the person who's name shall not be spoken, where to go.

Screenshot of a post on X from the Belgian National Football team after they beat the USA team. The text reads "Overturn this" which is in reference to the red card received by a USA player in a previous match, which was overturned by FIFA at Donal Trump's request.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Wow! That's awesome! You might have found something. Here's the relevant bit in the errata, and the snippet of my code - which is identical to that mentioned in the errata. I'll try inserting a NOP in the loop. It won't make any difference to performance.

A section of errata for a PIC microcontroller.

A code snippet for a PIC microcontroller.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Show my a picture that captures your essence

A picture of a man soldering a circuit board in a secret underground laboratory, with strange signals on an oscilloscope and atmospheric backlighting that is completely useless for the job in hand but makes for a good picture.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Thanks! The fiddly bits I did are quite nice, aren't they? Here's an early prototype. (If you don't get the reference, read the image ALT text 😊)

A computer rendering of some snow-capped mountains surrounding lakes. It is reminiscent of the fjords around the coastline of Norway. This image earned the creator the nickname Slartibartfast after the character in the book the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. This image was created in 1986.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Today, I am retiring. after 2.5 years at 3Dfx, and almost 25 years at NVIDIA, I won't be architecting any more cutting edge chips. But this is not the end; I'll just be doing other technical things and not being paid for it, as long as my mind allows. It's been quite a ride, thank you.

Logos of the technology companies 3Dfx and NVIDIA

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I've just been outside to water the plants. Me on the way back in ..... 🤣 I can't imagine what Tuesday / Wednesday are going to be like ... 🔥🥵🔥

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Aaaand ... we're back to breaking records again (not in a good way) 😞 This is *global* average sea surface temperature. There are parts of the east Pacific that are now hotter than a warm family swimming pool. Crazy. Chart curtesy of : C3S/ECMWF

A graph showing the global average sea surface temperature anomaly, which is the temperature difference to the average across all years from 1991-2020 (dotted horizontal line). The years 2024, 2025, and the this year are highlighted in yellow, orange and dark red, respectively. It shows that the line for 2026 is now above (hotter) than all previous years.

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Wayne Young @slartyb.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

In contrast to my last post, here is a program I wrote a couple of months ago running on the exact same computer. The difference is this program is written in 6502 assembly language .. and about 44 years of experience 😊

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