Andy Toone

The oligarchs have been pursuing disenfranchisement of all but a select few for the last <n> years, starting with the labour force and working their way upwards.

Each layer thinking "But at least my job cannot be taken away."

Until we have complete crisis, this won't be challenged.

Mildly luke-warm take - I'm not that excited about the Firefly reboot.

Culturally, it's nostalgia for sci-fi that was about nostalgia. Right now we could do with sci-fi that's about a way forward.

I would argue they knew exactly what they were doing, which was deliberately sabotaging needed public works programs by offering snake oil they never had any intention of delivering.

Bonus marks for a good name for this thing, though we all know it looks like a frog.

If you were a 24 character LED module with a handy 4 pin interface (I2C + power) - where would you put your header socket?

Spent most of today revising a PCB to avoid a modern part that (rudely) decided to become obsolete since the first revision.

Doing this stuff part time is absolutely exhausting.

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Absolutely. Working hard to have something fun to show off!

I'm reliably informed bank robbery has tax advantages.

I had hoped to get to the next batch of projects before having to hunt. There's a couple of cool kits on the way to power up the Beasts.

To be fair to them, they've provided a positive and supportive work environment for nearly four years. In corporate terms, that's about three lifetimes.

But yeah, when you need the money...

I hope so - kids in college and a mortgage to pay!

For completeness, I'm Cambridge (UK) based, can work remotely and hybrid in London.

The bit in my bio about 'bytes to petabytes' is real - from micro embedded virtual machines up to 9-petabyte datasets being munched for real-time customer analytics.

Plus, I know CP/M!

Embuggerance - it's such a good word, isn't it?

After four very busy years building global identity systems for Sky, my team and I have all been let go as they restructure.

If anyone needs 'big iron' Java services, wants to build a startup or create something new - let me know.

It's definitely a Friday-news-day.

The Lords say AI should respect copyright and should not be free to 'learn' from other people's work.

This is a clear and explicit message to the government.

Will Labour listen? Would any of the others?

Besides getting our government to wake up, we actually need to start building the business models that disincentivise harmful results.

This is on us - not as helpless consumers, but as technologists, developers, creatives and people who have lived through the first time we built the online world.

The lad done good.

Yup. That's fine - it's what I use.

Bear in mind that this is bear metal and you'll need a eeprom programmer to update things. You'll also need to send it back to get glue logic updates.

Just a cost to cover the manufacture. Probably around £50.

The next set of prototype NanoBeasts is awaiting manufacture. Oh boy.

If anyone wants one, assuming they are basically functional, let me know... this is costly work.

It's remarkably easy to move, and to decide who deserves your support.

Its harder to build the services to provide those alternatives. That's our real challenge now.

That's the thing. The human brain is designed for pattern matching "human" behaviours. We see faces in car grilles, hear words in animal noises, and ascribe 'intent' to inanimate objects.

So AI is like human catnip - our brains desperately want to see reasoning and intent behind mechanical process.

It perhaps reflects that a lot of people, particularly in the tech industry, no longer have immediate community. Rather than doing the socially healthy thing of sharing experience and knowledge in person, we get obtuse 'techno-health' questions.

Stop obsessing about your gut, hang out with friends.

I saw Paul in Terry Pratchett's Guards, Guards many years back...

Well that's just showing off.

Cloudy here.

*marked safe from the sun*

Grr... my ISP rebooted my server a week or so ago, and killed one of the services... specifically the one that handles orders online.

If you've tried to order a Beast in the last few days - sorry! Things should be back to some sort of normal.

A MicroBeast Z80 kit, looking immaculate.

"Looking high grade cool" - another Beast springs to life!

A couple of years ago I spent nearly eight weeks in hospital for a heart condition. Now I do my best to eat healthily.

So why is it so hard to find heart-healthy savoury snacks? I like acidic, Asian influenced flavours but everything in the shop is fried roast beef with added saturated fat and salt

My strategy: don't have your phone by the bed. Wake up with an old school alarm, and be unable to receive news until you've left your bedroom.

If there's an emergency, they can ring the landline(!!). That helps to give you a space where your mind has a chance to turn off.

MicroBeast runs for at least five hours on this little battery pack.

PCB ordered for a cool new module I'm working on.

If you need to battery-power a project, this will provide dual-supply charging (e.g. USB and AC adapter - 5v to 16v), auto switchover, I2C battery level and charge/discharge estimates, power status and LED indicators.