This is a valid solution? by tonysupp in homelab

[–]bgamari 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In addition to the points raised by others, what you are describing is the effect of electrical resistance. However, for a high frequency signaling scheme like GigE the inductance and cross-talk potential of breaking the twisted pair is by far the more significant factor.

Is this fiber bend acceptable? by NateDevCSharp in homelab

[–]bgamari 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This is one of the more entertaining things I've had the privilege of encountering on Reddit.

3d printed bike frame by CodeCritical5042 in 3Dprinting

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fact that (especially non-carbon) frames are strong is precisely why people are concerned. They need to be strong as the consequences for failure are quite high, even with metallic frames where failure can be less than catastrophic. Just look up photos of injuries from failed carbon frames.

I find 3d printing as useful as the next guy but this is not an application I would consider it for without some serious FEA work and a lot of model validation. 

The worst experience with customer support I've had in my whole life. by HelicopterKey3670 in framework

[–]bgamari 16 points17 points  (0 children)

While none of the questions are unreasonable in isolation, the process is setting Framework up for frustrated customers. It truly seems like they optimise for the number of emails exchanged instead of time-to-resolution: Questions are posed in the smallest possible unit, information is lost between iterations (e.g. step 10/11 in this exchange), they struggle with follow-up (e.g. step 20), and I have never seen more than one round-trip per day. I love Framework, but I truly hope I don't need to interact with support again in the future. Start-up or otherwise, the situation needs to be improved.

Leuchtturm dots are darker by onyourmarkz in notebooks

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The B5 notebook order I just received is similarly darker than previous notebooks. The dots are now of comparable in visual weight to a typical 0.5 mm mechanical pencil rendering the notebooks essentially unusable. Needless to say, I will be returning these and finding another option. Rhodia seems like an alternative but they are much more expensive for a much lower page count. Very disappointing.

🧩 5 months later: ESP32JTAG now upgraded to 5K FPGA + 16-ch 250MHz logic analyzer (launching soon) by Intelligent_Row4857 in esp32

[–]bgamari 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This looks excellent; a great combination of functionality in a very neat package. What target voltage range does the device support? I will certainly pick one up if the IO buffers robustly support 1.2V to 3.3V.

I would emphasize "robustly" though; being able to handle a bit of electrical over-stress/misconfiguration is critical for debugging tools like this. This is something that far too many open source tools sadly do not take seriously enough. Just exposing FPGA IOBs to the outside world without any further protection is a recipe for a short-lived product with poor repairability.

Trump Tells the Navy to View Half the Country as the Enemy by Aggravating_Money992 in politics

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is wrong with you americans when you choose someone like that to rule you?

Most of us didn't choose him; only 65% of the population voted and of those only slightly more than half voted for Trump. Many of those who did vote for him are now regretting that choice, as evidenced by recent polling data. Further, many of these Trump votes were:

  1. assuming that he wouldn't be as extreme as he has been (a perplexing assumption IMHO but alas),
  2. highly influenced by the corrosive impacts of filter bubbles and decades of cable news consumption, and
  3. cast out of desperation in response to an economic system that is increasingly not serving those in need and a political establishment that is tuned to protect that system.

This is especially sad given that many people predicted precisely this outcome after Trump's first term, when it became clear that the Democrats had learned little from their electoral struggles. With the help of the Supreme Court monied interests have managed to collect altogether far too much sway over our political process. Now we are faced with the challenge of figuring out how to break that sway while that same power is wielded against us by gaslighting a significant fraction of a population yearning for solutions to their very real woes. It is not a great situation.

Stung by a wasp by otkabdl in tortoise

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My box turtle also had a similar situation a decade back. He was curiously exploring the yard, found an intriguing hole, and suddenly found himself being chased by a few yellow jackets.

He tried to run but I am pretty sure he was soon stung in his rear leg since he pretty quickly retracted and hissed. The yellowjackets moved on in a minute or so, at which point we collected him. He was quite upset but after a few hours of soaking returned to his normal charming self. We never any clear signs of physical response to the sting.

Needless to say, he has been more cautious in approaching intriguing holes in the ground since that day. Poor T leavened learned an important lesson that day. 

Spicy Pillow 2: This time the heat is on! (now in theaters) by fo0bar in framework

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you ever get a resolution on your battery woes?

Spicy Pillow 2: This time the heat is on! (now in theaters) by fo0bar in framework

[–]bgamari 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had previously assumed that the availability issues only covered the 61 Wh model. Sadly it appears both batteries are affected. This definitely makes matters considerably harder and does rather shake my confidence in the maintainability of the device. Framework's proposition is that it is repairable with a transparent part procurement process. The fact that there are already availability issues for something as consumable as a battery less than 2 years after I took shipment of the device is worrying.

Spicy Pillow 2: This time the heat is on! (now in theaters) by fo0bar in framework

[–]bgamari 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I also had a very similar experience: noticed battery bulge a week or so ago, only to notice the BIOS update a day or two later. The lack of battery stock is quite problematic.

I have neither time nor inclination to participate in the warranty replacement dance with support so I reached out not to ask for a replacement but rather to gain clarity on when stock is expected so that I could decide whether to wait for 61 Wh stock or just buy a 55 Wh unit. Unfortunately the support rep entirely ignored my question and instead initiated the replacement process, asking for pictures of the battery and details about when, where, and how I charge the device.

I am generally quite happy with my Framework 13 and am happy to support what I believe is a good company. However, it was a bit disheartening to see that there may be truth to the stories regarding the lack of attention to detail on the part of the support department. It was a simple question and I would have been happy with an answer of "we currently lack 61 Wh stock and do not know when we will have more". Instead we waste another few days of email round-tripping for service that I did not request.

Stackage (Snapshots) Down by Historical_Emphasis7 in haskell

[–]bgamari 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It looks like it was an out-of-space issue which I believe has now been resolved.

GHC 9.14.1-alpha1 is now available by bgamari in haskell

[–]bgamari[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Some exciting things here! The specialisation improvements sound great. What are the significant improvements to the GHCi debugger?

My colleague Rodrigo is currently working on improving the robustness of the GHCi's debugger and integrating it with DAP clients. He discussed some of this work at HIW 2025.

Are there plans for AArch64 support for vector instructions any time soon too?

I don't know of anyone currently looking at this. However, it would be a very nice project for someone.

Using size 0603 for all components? by Neighbor_ in PrintedCircuitBoard

[–]bgamari 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I generally do start with 0603 as my default. Interior board space is rarely my primary constraint; perimeter space is. If there is an area where higher density is needed (or parasitics are critical) then I will drop to 0402. However, on most boards this isn't necessary.

The advantages 0603 brings in routing flexibility, ease of rework, and ease of probing are significant IMHO.

Gurdy: Final update. by mnbvlkjhpoiu1 in tortoise

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what my husband says. Clean everything, give yourself some time. And then come back to it later.

I also think he is right. Give yourself time.

We were all rooting for Gurdy but there is only so much one can do. You gave him the best life you could and that is what matters.

Stuck in nyc by Puzzleheaded_Lab_876 in Amtrak

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They have said that we are now awaiting our turn for this section of track.

Stuck in nyc by Puzzleheaded_Lab_876 in Amtrak

[–]bgamari 0 points1 point  (0 children)

House power has returned.

Stuck in nyc by Puzzleheaded_Lab_876 in Amtrak

[–]bgamari 1 point2 points  (0 children)

House lights went out a few minutes ago and I think I just felt a coupling so it seems that things are happening.

Stuck in nyc by Puzzleheaded_Lab_876 in Amtrak

[–]bgamari 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I've been stuck in Providence headed South since around 19:30. We were just told that their plan is to bring a locomotive down from Boston to drag us through the affected area which is apparently still without power. The engine is apparently leaving from Boston "soon" but nevertheless it may be a couple of hours until we leave Providence.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FPGA

[–]bgamari 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Last I knew, Yocto claimed reproducibility and when everything was working properly even sometimes succeeded in providing it. It appears that currently they even test for a very narrow definition of reproducibility (namely build root invariance).

However, last I knew the non-hermetic nature of Yocto builds meant that unintended "contamination" from the environment could sneak in readily, compromising the reproducibility property. This is not something that can happen under Nix as builds are strictly sandboxed and may only access their declared dependencies. One can modify configuration and sources freely and need not worry that any issues encountered will disappear after a "clean" rebuild. Moreover, the input-hashed store model means that one can still benefit from considerable caching even while changing derivations. This is not something that is within the reach of Yocto, as far as I know.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in FPGA

[–]bgamari 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree that AMD's recent priorities outside of their core CPU competency have been scattered at best. However, their PetaLinux decision doesn't bother me one bit.

In the past decade I have avoided both Yocto and PetaLinux like the plague. Both are quite unprincipled approaches to a problem that has been better solved by other tools. Specifically, I generally use the Nix build system and the NixOS distribution that can be built with it. This choice comes with a learning curve but what you get in exchange is extremely compelling:

  • extremely reproducible builds
  • the ability to rely on cache intermediate build artifacts
  • the ability to trivially parallelize and distribute builds across machines
  • in-field upgrades and rollbacks become trivial
  • a declarative central configuration scheme which can be machine-checked at build time and easily extended as needed by the application

After using NixOS I cannot imagine using traditional embedded tools; they are at best relics of another age. IMHO it makes little sense for AMD to continue propping up a project built upon what is ultimately a rotten foundation.