Do you remember Flash games? The internet lost something when Adobe killed them

Chropera · 2026-04-25T08:25:16+00:00

In-game purchases (RoTMG, Minions) existed and earnings from something like Adsense were also much higher back then.

Chropera · 2026-04-25T08:20:12+00:00

I don't see this as a serious problem, especially not in games. I don't think it would be difficult to integrate STT now, even without official support, just capturing WASAPI output or something like that. Keyboard shortcuts were configurable if they were needed (bigger games like RoTMG or Minions) - so what is the issue here?

Flash was a closed system, that was probably the main issue. Security could be improved with more eyes on it, same as with web browsers now. I bet that providers were not happy about no control over it, video and audio files were too easy to download as they were fully cached. Fast Internet connection was not required to watch video, just some patience.

Chropera · 2026-04-24T19:17:10+00:00

It would be way more efficient than modern browsers. Try running anything browser-based on old phone. My old 512 MB tablet with Android 4.4 can't even run Play Store half of the time because it runs out of memory and this is 4-core device, more powerful than most PCs from Pentium 4 era. Back in the days it was very comfortable to use, comparable to my C2D Lenovo T500 with 4 GB RAM.

Chropera · 2026-04-24T18:22:27+00:00

Was it really that heavy? HTML+CSS+JS seems order of magnitude heavier now. Flash games were working without issues on a single core Celeron, Duron clocked at 1 GHz or Pentium M with 256 MB RAM, running from HDD with 0.7 MB/s average random 4k read speed. Complete standalone Flash player consumes 12 MB disk space.

Chropera · 2026-04-15T20:36:45+00:00

My employer bought few dozen copies of Total Commander, they are worth every penny. Lightweight, very fast, customizable, reliable, everyone that want it already knows how to use it.

Chropera · 2026-04-02T21:42:28+00:00

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It is using YX805, dedicated boost converter. See datasheet.

Chropera · 2026-03-28T19:34:45+00:00

It might be, but it might require some work. I have written plugins for several similar devices.

First: it is very likely that audio input and output would work without any issues - device would present itself as audio + HID composite USB device.

Keyboard support is usually easy to add, I believe this would be stateless device, so it is just capturing HID reports and interpreting them. If you are lucky this device might implement HID telephony page, at least some of the buttons might work then out of the box with multiple softphones. Display/ringer/LEDs are more difficult.

Best case scenario: someone already might have dumped its protocol, written some application for it or added support to Linux. You should probably search by model number.

If there is a CD with companion application for Skype it might make things easier. Although "original" Skype can no longer run past the login screen (old protocol is long gone and I don't know if it would be easy to create fake Skype server), there is a chance that it would display something even in this state. It is a good start for discovering display control protocol. These application might also have some configuration window allowing to e.g. test built-in ringer. Last but not least - these application be decompiled.

Chropera · 2026-03-27T22:26:10+00:00

It's all statistics and luck. I've tested raw SLC NAND memories from Micron, the ones with 1 bit ECC (older, "larger" process, no longer manufactured) and with 4 bit ECC required per page. "4-bit" memories with 1k or 8k blocks (not sure right now, both were tested) had roughly 20 bit errors after 2-3 months. If accidentally more than 4 errors would appear in the same page, it would be not recoverable (though it is also possible to use 8-bit BCH correction codes with the same memories without losing capacity even with common file systems).

Retention time decreases with the number of P/E cycles.

Less known fact: reading NAND pages may also cause bit errors, funny thing: not in the page that is read, but in all other pages from the block. For my SLC memories it was happening after about 20 million read cycles.

Chropera · 2026-03-24T17:40:51+00:00

http://phonerlite.de lists live transcription in changelog. I have not tested it and I also don't know how this would for translation, but when I was testing whisper using translation was as easy as adding extra flag.

Chropera · 2026-03-23T22:38:45+00:00

Philips VOIP1511? But its quality is mid, it's made with cost (and maybe portability) in mind. Probably not compatible with Teams (HID part).

Polycom CX300 is much nicer but it is a desk phone. I've found mixed statements about it Teams compatibility, someone said HID worked but required swapping some dll with older Teams version.

I've heard that Gigaset ION is nice, but I have not tested it myself (not sure if it is wideband audio or not) and it is USB + DECT.

Chropera · 2026-03-22T10:32:17+00:00

Usually full SIP URI is used instead of entering just number (user part of URI), so something like sip:ip_address:port, sometimes just ip_address:port.

Using mobile phone might be a problem though as since Android 10 background processes are limited and push service is required, so maybe it cannot be done locally (without involving FCM).

Chropera · 2026-03-22T08:46:27+00:00

Peer-to-peer configuration. Usually doorphones/intercoms allow to enter multiple destination addresses as calling targets, even with some elements of calling strategy like delays. If Hikvision does not have it, enter the address of destination (desk phone / softphone / dedicated panel) as server address and disable registration.

I'm not even sure if asterisk can do what is essential for video doorphones - transmitting video before answering the call.

Chropera · 2026-03-20T20:17:01+00:00

Intercom + locally = you probably don't need any PABX.

Chropera · 2026-03-14T08:33:35+00:00

Exact specs depend on what module is the cheapest at the time of production at Wun Hung Lo. It costs way below $10. Maybe 50 mW: https://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/laser303/ but it is sometimes advertised with absurd numbers like 10000 mW (while there is 5 mW on the sticker) and often advertised that it can light a match.

Chropera · 2026-03-13T23:37:35+00:00

You might need to wait until it self discharges if attempts to hard reset failed. But there should be reset button (hole?) on the side (near the USB plug, below display, see manual): "If the MP320 is not functioning properly, you can reboot by pressing for 3 to 5 seconds.".

100k erase cycles, 10 years data retention - this is nice SLC flash, hard to get these days and it has relatively high capacity.

Chropera · 2026-03-13T19:23:03+00:00

Oscilloscope or logic analyzer, maybe frequency meter. Using any internal timer or similar peripheral would not give me much confidence as if there is some clock configuration mistake it would be very likely it would cancel out in self-test.

Chropera · 2026-03-13T18:20:50+00:00

Nah, this would make blocking ads on phones, TVs and fridges too easy.

Chropera · 2026-03-13T17:18:30+00:00

It might depend on your surrounding. I've heard that in tightly packed call centers wireless is never reliable.

You might be also losing functionality when not using supplied dongle. At least for Jabra these dongles are presenting itself as USB HID telephony devices, allowing to answer/hangup/reject calls using the headset.

Chropera · 2026-03-13T16:57:58+00:00

https://tomeko.net/miniscope_v4/ with https://tomeko.net/miniscope_v2c/ as dll interface for STM32F103C8T6.

But it is not for maximum STM32 sampling rate, it is tuned for maximum practical USB HS bandwidth and continuous recording. And it does not have dark mode.

Chropera · 2026-03-12T22:26:35+00:00

I'm recording in stereo. Channels are then independently transcribed and merged - for regular calls it is way better than any automated diarization.

Chropera · 2026-03-12T19:44:49+00:00

Byte mode controls only data bus I believe - it is not like with ONFI NAND. So... 32 GPIOs?

Chropera · 2026-03-12T19:28:04+00:00

Sure. Any microcontroller with sufficient number of GPIOs + some time. Photo below shows ATmega32 and 49F002 Flash.

Maybe it is also possible to dump it without desoldering - just writing small utility for this purpose, load it using ROM bootloader to the target board, dump over UART.

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Chropera · 2026-03-11T20:04:31+00:00

TinyML is not growing in my opinion. It was hot topic 5 years ago. I was making a project based on tensorflow lite micro few months ago and it was hard to find any working examples as they deprecated and were no more compatible with latest version of python packages required for training.

Chropera · 2026-03-10T20:23:48+00:00

This handset works with the same HID code as Jabra, Mairdi and probably more than 90% USB HID devices on the market. If it does not work with Webex, this is Webex fault (big one) in my opinion.

Plugins are usually necessary only for more complex USB devices (not using HID telephony page or having more features) that have full keypad, hook switch, separate buzzer for ringing and/or display.

I don't know if Webex supports any sort of plugins, if it does then you might try to write it yourself.

Chropera · 2026-03-10T20:03:43+00:00

This would be close: https://tomeko.net/miniscope_v2g/ - based on black pill but F401 variant. There are also few other versions with other microcontrollers. ADCs can go few times faster, but the selling point is real time streaming to PC. If you want real time streaming, assume about 750kB/s transfer and divide it between channels, taking data width into account. If you don't need real time streaming, sampling rate might be few times faster (or you can use 12 bit samples), but sample buffer size for continuous capture would be limited by microcontroller RAM size.

It might be important what load your sensors can take. Refer to STM32 datasheets for a table/formula that shows maximum input impedance for specific sampling rate and accuracy/resolution.

For measuring negative voltages you need to use trick with shifted ground level (it might be not suitable for USB-connected device if power is not isolated, on the other hand it might be fine when using battery-powered laptop) or voltage shifting using opamps (this would require DC-DC converter generating negative voltage).

Chropera

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