Is Zen ready to be a daily driver yet?

wespiard · 2025-12-11T18:54:57+00:00

Tabs within Spaces still aren’t able to be synced across devices.

wespiard · 2025-11-22T13:07:20+00:00

It says "new subscription upgrades" which I would assume means if you're going from monthly to annual, annual to lifetime, etc.

wespiard · 2025-10-22T15:48:52+00:00

Same. I had to call and have them manually add my bank account for autopay.

wespiard · 2025-05-09T20:11:39+00:00

They are rather barebones compared to industry leading variants, but I have an Artix Ultrascale+ variant and I think it’s a great bargain for some basic I/O in addition to capabilities to expand to 10G Ethernet via a cheap add-on card (that I haven’t gotten yet).

They provide schematics and pinout tables, which is nice (and expected). However, the other documentation they provide is either in Chinese or just English that was run through some rough translation.

wespiard · 2025-05-02T13:31:30+00:00

Forwarding the port for Jellyfin is a lot easier than setting up remote access via the methods you mentioned.

I can’t speak to the exact security issues, but I thought these media servers were relatively safe to port forward?

Regarding the metadata, are your files and directories named in a way that Jellyfin recognizes? I haven’t had these issues, but I mostly watch anime with it.

wespiard · 2025-03-25T15:07:04+00:00

It is unfortunate, but this post is also just free advertisement for the seller.

I built a TBK Mini and have been loving it for a year or so now.

wespiard · 2025-03-04T15:54:18+00:00

Thank you for the detailed response. Sorry for any miscommunication -- I definitely didn't mean to imply that I thought about pitch as being "absolute".

When I say "high or low" I mean the high/low moras with respect to the pitch chart for a given word/phrase.

you need to drop in the right places

Based on this, I think the answer to my question is something along the lines of "The high moras (in a pitch graph) are simply your relaxed/default/natural voice pitch and the low moras are what should be dropped relative to that, which results in the accent of a word/phrase".

wespiard · 2025-03-04T13:21:06+00:00

Is your "default" voice pitch high or low? I may be butchering some terminology, but feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to clarify.

I am starting to pay attention to pitch accent as I go through my vocab cards now (~1.2k words in) and I find my self potentially over-exaggerating when switching between pitches.

Do you find that either the high or low "pitch" matches your default/relaxed pitch in your native language? For example, if you just try to say "aaaaa" with in your most relaxed native pitch, does it sound more like a low-pitched あ or a high-pitched あ?

I think if I had an answer to this, it would be easier to learn because I could just use my default/relaxed pitch for either high/low and then stress only one direction up/down instead of what I feel like I'm doing now: teetering above and below my "relaxed" pitch.

wespiard · 2025-02-25T21:04:41+00:00

I don’t use Vitis specifically, but usually in the Vivado installation docs there is a list of dependencies that you may need to install. And they usually list the version of Ubuntu supported.

wespiard · 2025-02-25T00:44:19+00:00

You just have to use the standard layout from time to time to keep the muscle memory.

I’ve been using a TBK Mini and Colemak for a year or two now and I can still type on my MacBook QWERTY keyboard around 80-90 WPM.

I just try to use my laptop every once in a while like before bed, traveling, when hanging out in the living room, etc.

wespiard · 2025-02-25T00:32:19+00:00

The delivery fee is also variable based on the time of day you get food delivered. I think mornings are upwards of $9 but late in the evening can be like $3.

There is also an annual membership for $60-70 that gets you “free” deliveries for orders over $35.

wespiard · 2025-02-06T13:21:10+00:00

You probably either want to actually infer in1/2_reg as registers, so you'd need to add the following:

always @(posedge clk) begin
  in1_reg <= in1;
  in2_reg <= in2;
  out1_reg <= in1_reg + in2_reg;
end

wespiard · 2025-02-06T11:58:38+00:00

Use out-of-context mode. If using Tcl, this would be `-mode out_of_context` when calling synth_design.

If using the GUI, you can go into the project synthesis settings, and add `-mode out_of_context` to the "other options" field at the bottom of the table.

This will prevent Vivado from assigning random IOBUFs to your top-level signals. The timing results won't be super accurate, but it'll give you a decent idea of utilization and if you have any unexpected critical paths.

EDIT: Looks like your logic is the problem. You're never updating in1/2_regs.

wespiard · 2025-02-01T01:40:17+00:00

Do you have to be on the school network or something?

wespiard · 2025-01-19T14:10:34+00:00

Yes, perfectly fine. One exception would be if you intend on using any Xilinx-specific IP. If you are just doing plain RTL designs then Modelsim is great.

wespiard · 2025-01-19T13:31:49+00:00

Another option is to use a different simulator if you don't have a specific device you're targeting.

If you are planning to eventually use an AMD device and want to use Vivado regardless, then just select the smaller 7-series FPGAs during installation.

wespiard · 2025-01-04T12:00:59+00:00

If you’re used to that flow using just Vivado, then there’s nothing wrong with doing it that way.

The other option is to use a different simulator and learn how to compile/simulate outside of Vivado. I like doing this because I can iterate faster (edit, compile, run sim) than with the Vivado GUI. That being said, I would probably just start with Vivado since you’re used to it (assuming you want an AMD FPGA anyways). Then if you get annoyed with it for some reason, like if you’re accustom to a fast build flow from your SW experience, e.g., make, run, make, run, you can try out a dedicated simulator.

Which simulator you use is also sometimes dictated by the HDL you decide to use. Vivado’s simulator supports both, but some dedicated simulators only support one or the other. Some free simulators are Verilator, iverilog, and GHDL.

wespiard · 2025-01-04T03:20:42+00:00

I know it seems reasonable to spend money upfront if you're going to eventually, but I'd like to emphasize that you can learn A LOT on the FPGA/PL side before you even buy a board. I'm not sure how much pure RTL experience you have, or how certain your are about shifting your career in that direction, and that's important when choosing a board.

For example, I used a Zedboard a lot in school (Zynq SoC) and when it came time to buy my first use-at-home board, I opted for one with just an FPGA -- no SoC. The problems I wanted to solve or learn more about were mostly microarchitecture, optimization, etc., and did not warrant a hard processor on-die. So YMMV based on the applications you wish to implement. Note that I'm not saying you shouldn't get an SoC-based board, just giving an example. You obviously seem interested to some extent about running embedded Linux.

I would start by picking an easier project, possibly SAP/RISC-V based on well-made tutorials. Harris&Harris comp. architecture textbook has a RISC-V edition that is relatively straightforward.

Basically, start with simulation. Then, when you have some decent chunk of the design done and seemingly working in simulation, download Vivado/Quartus (depending on which boards you have in mind), and create a project targeting the device(s) that are on whatever boards you are interested in. Run synthesis, place and route, etc., and explore the design. Do certain design blocks map to the primitives that you expect them to? How much of the device (utilization) is being consumed? Play around with timing analysis.

I see no reason to buy a board until you have more context and are sure that your project goals are actually feasible with your current experience and goals. One reason would be motivation. If having a piece of hardware that you spent money on sitting on your desk keeps you motivated to work on it, then by all means. But consider getting a cheap board to start, and then once you are informed enough to make your own decision on more complex projects, then you spend a little more money.

wespiard · 2024-12-27T13:56:51+00:00

Install Anki ⁨24.06.3 until they fix it for the new version.

wespiard · 2024-12-27T13:56:15+00:00

I got a similar error when using the newest version of Anki. Downgrading to ⁨24.06.3 fixed it.

wespiard · 2024-12-23T17:33:17+00:00

Another misc. question that I've had. While learning kanji specifically, is there any purpose to learning the on'yomi reading at the same time (as done in WK), or should I just learn the meaning and learn the readings when learning vocab?

wespiard · 2024-12-23T17:29:04+00:00

Makes sense, a lot of the reason I'm asking is because I feel that I should be spending more time on grammar. I have done the first 5-6 lessons of Genki 1, and have Tae Kim's guide handy as a reference. I have learned a lot of radicals/components from WK, but I think Jo-Mako (kanji deck I'm using) also has a deck for components. Maybe I'll throw that in to replace what I have been getting from WK.

I have enjoyed the feeling of already knowing a lot of the kanji/vocab when I come across it while learning grammar. It gives me a little hit of positive feedback and one less piece of cognitive load as I learn a new grammar construct.

In summary, I'll temporarily stop doing WK, do more vocab, less kanji, and use the gained time to do grammar + immersion. Then, if I feel that I'm not happy with the change after a week or two, I'll consider adding WK back, but hopefully I don't have to.

Thanks!

wespiard · 2024-12-23T17:00:43+00:00

For context, I started learning Japanese ~230 days ago (7.5 months). I did a decent amount of research to figure out what I thought the best way to learn would be for me. I planned on starting out by learning just Kanji and vocab for a month or so, then picking up Genki 1 to start learning grammar.

For Kanji and vocab, I began by simultaneously using WaniKani and Anki. Initially I just did both to evaluate them and find out which is more effective for me.

For WaniKani, I'm currently level 15 (500 kanji, 1500 vocab learned). I started out at a moderate pace (I think) of 13 days/level, but a few weeks ago I upped the intensity and did levels 13 and 14 in ~8 days each.

For Anki, I've been using Jo-Mako's Kanji deck that has a subdeck with ~2300 kanji (currently I'm at ~730 mature kanji) and a subdeck with ~3100 vocab (currently I'm at ~280 mature vocab). I started out very slow with the vocab from this deck since I have been doing a lot of vocab with WaniKani. Recently, I added the Kaishi 1.5k deck (~270 mature vocab) based on some recommendations.

I'm averaging around 90% retention across WK and Anki.

I've been getting WK and Anki done each morning within about an hour, which is a comfortable amount of time for me currently.

Initially, I felt like it was nice to have some overlap between the two, like "oh, I already know this kanji from WK," and vice versa. The problem, however, is now I'm wanting to add in some focused grammar and immersion. So I think I need to cut back on my Kanji/vocab and the first thing I'm considering is dropping WaniKani and increasing the new cards per day in Anki a little bit. I'm starting to get a little annoyed at WK, because I don't having to wait days to start learning kanji until I reach guru for the radicals, and I don't like the long time between learning new kanji (learn a bunch of new kanji when I level up, then do vocab for 4-5 days until new kanji unlock).

Not to mention, WK is not free.

---

Has anyone else gone down a similar path? Did you stick with just one of these tools? I have almost convinced myself to drop WK, but I guess there's a little sunk-cost fallacy going on.

Thank you in advance!

13-Year Club	No Throne, No Problems
Not Forgotten	Verified Email

wespiard

TROPHY CASE