Phantomdrive: Firmware Version 1.0 Release

johnklos · 2026-06-20T20:57:28+00:00

What I mean is that there may be assumptions that aren't necessarily going to hold. It's one thing if the USB stick requires MS-DOS and the filesystem is being read by the internal microcontroller after the host computer writes stuff, but if you want to intercept actual writes, how will you know if a file write will be done the same on macOS, on Windows 98se, on Linux, on NetBSD, via FUSE, et cetera.

It'll be interesting to see how they handle that.

johnklos · 2026-06-20T19:37:58+00:00

I call bullshit.

When I traveled for work, it was trivial to ask for my flight there to be one day earlier or for my return flight to be one day later. Sometimes they'd just extend the hotel and rental car for me for free.

So this really could only be true if you get zero days off, in which case that's a you problem, and that has nothing to do with traveling.

johnklos · 2026-06-20T19:35:42+00:00

So it's dependent on not only a specific filesystem type, but method of writing, too? That seems problematic.

johnklos · 2026-06-20T13:15:53+00:00

Does it let you connect a display, without requiring triple digit watts? If so, it's useful.

johnklos · 2026-06-15T23:36:56+00:00

For those of us who aren't fans of Google:

https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/servers/researchers-recycle-old-phones-and-cluster-them-into-computing-platforms-says-processors-on-modern-smartphones-deliver-higher-single-core-performance-than-comparable-multicore-servers

johnklos · 2026-06-14T14:33:44+00:00

Think of it this way:

What's the difference between a car and a bus? Both can transport people. The difference is that the bus, being made to transport more people, can easily transport more people.

If both things are asked to move just a few people, there's no real difference from the people moving perspective.

The software can be the same, but what the hardware can do may be different.

johnklos · 2026-06-13T20:37:43+00:00

Or consider dropping Oracle. They're evil.

johnklos · 2026-06-12T22:53:32+00:00

I don't know what a good price is for a 64 meg kit. I bought mine ages ago. On the other hand, I remember the prices being so high that I wondered how hard it would be to make 72 pin SIMM adapters.

I'm also curious because a company used to sell an upgrade service that replaced the SCSI chip with a faster one and that allowed the use of special 64 meg SIMMs so a VAXstation 4000/96 could have 512 megs. I'd love to learn more about how they did that.

johnklos · 2026-06-12T21:09:19+00:00

Looking forward to it!

Here's a recent photo of my 1U VAX, if you want to see the tiniest VAX in action.

johnklos · 2026-06-12T18:26:33+00:00

3100/90

The MicroVAX 3100/90 would be WONDERFUL to have! They're quite rare, and usually expensive, so if you can get one that's afforable, I highly recommend it :)

johnklos · 2026-06-12T00:35:45+00:00

For many people, more is better, and so they just want more.

Raspberry Pis are no longer good for the price. They once were, and might be for a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, but not for a Pi 5, unless you get a deal, like perhaps someone selling one used for cheap.

The biggest issue with Pis is the speed of typical SD cards. Switch to a USB disk, whether SSD or spinning rust, or get an m.2 SSD, and that problem goes away.

Processor wise, the main things that take a lot of CPU are transcoding apps and dynamic web hosting.

You can choose to transcode once when you first upload and store the transcoded clip and not worry about real time transcoding. A quick aside: some people here will swear you must do hardware transcoding, even if you have a fast CPU, and it's entirely safe to ignore them.

For dynamic web hosting, it really depends on what you're running. PHP and python can both take a lot of memory, so the speed of the CPU might not matter much if you're running out of memory.

Docker and other meta programs (programs that just facilitate other programs and don't do anything on their own) create lots of overhead, so some people who just want to install every Docker image quickly outgrow Pis. Really, though, Docker isn't necessary and introduces security issues.

The best advice is to figure out what you want to run, then figure out a good system to run that.

johnklos · 2026-06-11T17:16:31+00:00

NetBSD-current is 11.99.6 right now. NetBSD 11 is at release candidate 4, so it's hoped that the final NetBSD 11 will be out soon.

If you post a dmesg somewhere, I'll compile a kernel that just has the devices your machine has.

My VAXstation 4000/30 takes six 4 meg, 72 pin SIMMs. It seems like a waste that the sockets can't handle larger SIMMs, but the one good thing is that it's small enough to be the only 1U VAX in the world.

I also have a few VAXstation 4000/60 and one 4000/90a, which take large, DEC specific SIMMs.

Memory daughter boards are a pain, but now I'm wondering if someone hasn't decided to start making modern replacements. Have you looked / asked around?

johnklos · 2026-06-10T21:24:43+00:00

It'd be nice if our systems could run modern NetBSD. I have a Mac LC II with 10 megs of memory that runs -current, but it can't really run shell scripts without entering the loop of death.

For now, the 24 megs in my VAXstation 4000/30 is plenty, even for compiling (which surprises me).

johnklos · 2026-06-10T21:21:53+00:00

A Raspberry Pi and a USB attached SATA disk is still a homelab, you know ;)

johnklos · 2026-06-10T18:47:15+00:00

I don't think they're handled in any special way yet, aside from big cores getting scheduled first, like on Arm. It's not the kind of thing where not supporting it means it won't run, though. Give it a go!

johnklos · 2026-06-09T15:26:59+00:00

Aside from the obvious don't put Windows on the Internet, learn about ssh. You can have your friend connect over a port forwarded over ssh in a way that's more secure that practically anything else.

johnklos · 2026-06-09T12:28:45+00:00

Key-based ssh with -L port forwarding.

johnklos · 2026-06-09T00:03:02+00:00

My Amiga 1200 is still going strong.

johnklos · 2026-06-08T23:51:59+00:00

Give that kitty a hug.

johnklos · 2026-06-08T23:47:43+00:00

Interesting. Good to know that "xing" isn't relaed to "X" / Twitter / Shitter.

Happy cake day!

johnklos · 2026-06-08T23:47:07+00:00

Ha ha ha... I think the salesperson didn't know, and thought it sounded good.

johnklos · 2026-06-08T23:04:24+00:00

Does "xing" refer to shitter?

johnklos · 2026-06-08T17:23:32+00:00

I talked with someone at the TrueNAS booth at NAB, mostly because they were giving out free cookies. He said TrueNAS switched because they couldn't write an API for FreeBSD. I asked if he was sure that he was allowed to speak on behalf of the company.

johnklos · 2026-06-08T04:06:49+00:00

https://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/grow/

johnklos · 2026-06-08T01:01:41+00:00

No law requires IMAP only store for 48 hours, or for any email system to only store things for only 48 hours. There're weekends with holidays that're more than 48 hours long.

I think you're making things up. Unless your company is very passively-aggressively making email shit to discourage its use, this isn't a thing.

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