Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)

https://mastodon.longlandclan.id.au/@stuartl

Software developer, electronics enthusiast, Amateur radio operator, lover of classic rock.

Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia (QG62ln)

Blog: https://vk4msl.com
Github: https://github.com/sjlongland
Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/sjlongland
Matrix: @vk4msl:matrix.vk4msl.com (experimental)

Public Key

npub12n5weher8thl0qlj398tvw2rmwpr33z8j443lpg28xyuzkef9dksnd9dex

NIP-05 Address

stuartl_at_mastodon.longlandclan.id.au@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9f68vmu3n4mlhs0egjn4k89pahq3cc3re26cls59rnzwptv5jkmgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsdu6jue

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relay.damus.io

nostr.mom

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub12n5weher8thl0qlj398tvw2rmwpr33z8j443lpg28xyuzkef9dksnd9dex

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Last Notes

2025-10-23 21:06:16 UTC

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"Ohhh, but it's too expensive for us to shift away from Microsoft!!!"
It's a drug effectively. With a pushy dealer that's got them over a barrel for every shot.

2025-10-04 06:35:00 UTC

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Every phone has a mindfulness app built-in… even the ancient AMPS phones from the 80s.
It's called the off button. 🙂

2025-10-03 07:51:07 UTC

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30V doesn't really arc very far… air dielectric strength is in the order of 3kV/mm, or is there something I'm missing?
I could understand it being a problem if this was a typical solar installation for mains-grid generation, in which case panels are wired up in series for 600V DC or more. A 600V AC fuse won't like that.
While 100V+ DC might be a problem, I think an AC fuse rated at 250V should cope with 30V. https://forum.digikey.com/t/under-what-general-circumstances-can-ac-fuses-be-directly-used-in-dc-circuits/50746 suggests I can get away with it here.
One challenge I have is actually sourcing a DC "midget" fuse from the bigger suppliers, their offerings are all 125V and above, but AC.
I'd buy DC rated fuses if I knew where to get them from. This last lot came from Mouser, I've looked at Digikey, RS and Element14, they don't seem common.

2025-10-03 04:29:09 UTC

Silly question for the #ElectricalEngineering people here… I have DIN-rail fuse holders in my server's solar set-up which take a so-called "midget" fuse (10×38mm cylindrical).
The holders are rated to 30A, I've actually got two lots of holders, the original ones are 600V rated, the others are 1000V. I'm using panes with an open-circuit voltage of <30V and they wire up in parallel *after* the fuse holders.
I have 10A fast-blow fuses in there now (Littelfuse 0BLF010.T). The panels I'll be putting up on Monday have a short-circuit current of ~18A, so they'll definitely blow at midday. I have some new 20A fuses (Littelfuse 0BLN020.T) coming.
They're kinda pricey and I've got to order them. I was looking at a 5AG fuse today, which I have a stack of 40A ones in stock (I realise my holders are 30A and the panels won't even break 20A)… but really, what is the difference between a 5AG and a midget fuse?
The dimensions are reportedly the same. This is an extra-low-voltage DC install (<48V)… are the midget fuses just a higher rating for industrial use or is there some other gotcha I need to be wary of?
#CircuitProtection #Fuse #5AGFuse #MidgetFuse

2025-10-02 10:09:47 UTC

Just lugged (with my father's help) 3×350W solar panels from the front door up to the back deck ready for installation on Monday.
https://www.snowys.com.au/12v-350w-fixed-solar-panel-glass-roof-top ← 20.1kg a piece, 1850mm×1015mm×35mm.
Bloody exhausted.
I've got some homework to do first… a RPi Pico and three INA-219 featherwing boards turned up yesterday. I have to knock the 0.1ohm resistors off those boards and solder up some connectors so I can hook them and the Pico up… then write some firmware for the Pico that'll poll the INA-219s and give me voltage and current measurements.
The current shunts are already on the rack: one on the battery feed, one on the solar and one on the load. I'll then plug that into the TS-7670 and write something to poll it over USB and feed `collectd`.
Maybe Modbus/RTU, since I think `collectd` supports that… not sure. (I did find `collectd`'s support for Modbus was crap though, might look at better options.)
Means next week I may have some 120W used panels… still producing a decent amount of current … looking for a new home.
#SolarCluster

2025-09-28 21:34:19 UTC

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Is a pig really heavier than a bull?

2025-09-28 19:52:12 UTC

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Seems Viktor Orban would be a lot happer if Hungary were an exclave of Russia.
Not sure that's what their people want though.
In which case he should hold a vote to get a mandate for Hungary to leave the EU and join them. If the vote fails, he should resign his position.

2025-09-26 22:11:44 UTC

Dashboard tweak… I have a Raspberry Pi Pico and a couple of INA-219 "featherwing" boards that I plan to knock the shunt resistor off of and wire up to the current shunts that are already installed on the rack.
The plan is to make a firmware image that can poll the INA-219s and present the voltage/current/power readings over USB serial for the TS-7670 to read. Then I'll be able to plot that information here instead.
But for now, the information from the CET PMC-512 in the mains switchbox will do. GP1 is the mains circuit that the rack connects to, it shares that with the dishwasher, dryer and washing machine… so a big spike here isn't bitcoin malware — it'll be something else on the same circuit.
I should have the other bits in a couple of weeks.
https://mastodon.longlandclan.id.au/system/media_attachments/files/115/272/876/121/738/141/original/baa7d95c9e661503.png

2025-07-05 09:12:26 UTC

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Sounds like you're all revved up with no place to go.

2025-06-20 11:05:33 UTC

I was planning on doing a back-up of the #Ceph cluster today in preparation of migrating it to a later release… but of course, I've misplaced the PSU for my external 4TB back-up drive.
I noticed it was getting pretty tight on space too, and given it's now 5 years old, figured it was time for a new one. I've got a 6TB one coming.
In the meantime, I had another crack at the Ericsson F5521GW 3G module in the Toughpad.
If I boot with init=/bin/bash on the kernel command line, then modprobe cdc-acm, I see 3 ACM devices appear, and I can use `screen` with them.
I managed to remove the old PIN code on the SIM card I have in there but couldn't get the GPS going, most I got out of it was a "Operation not allowed" error.
Doing this in early init seems to be enough to convince the module to stay enumerated. Something though, tells it to go bugger off early in the boot sequence unless I talk to it first.
A bit of a nuisance to be honest… but I'm somewhat closer.
#ToughPad #EricssonF5521gw

2025-05-03 11:56:28 UTC

Yeah, AEC, that's not how you sort numbers… #AusPol
https://mastodon.longlandclan.id.au/system/media_attachments/files/114/443/766/294/484/384/original/c240dec7081b2f06.png

2025-04-02 21:18:46 UTC

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I made one final purchase from Amazon as there was a product I literally could not get anywhere else. (Or it was "available" but the shipping was horrendous.)
Really, the EU/UK need to work on alternatives to these marketplaces. I don't think we should outsource this to China as they are equally as authoritarian as the US is becoming.
- Browsers: I think both major engines have significant US-based development, Is there a viable alternative to Webkit/Blink and Gecko? Servo is promising but not ready yet. Dillo's too primitive. (At least they're both open-source.)
- Operating Systems: We can avoid commercial US operating systems (Apple MacOS X / iOS, Microsoft Windows, Oracle Solaris), in their place use open-source ones with international contributors (various Linux distributions and BSD flavours)
- Cloud hosting: Avoid Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Engine, Microsoft Azure, Vultr for cloud hosting, consider smaller local players instead (e.g. BinaryLane in Australia)
- Email providers: Avoid Gmail, either host yourself or consider local and non-US players. @npub1n8z…jgru and @npub1tk7…0m5c could be worth looking at.
- Travel: go local, most people don't explore their own back yards.

2025-03-16 01:40:20 UTC

I see the insects of The Gap decided to put the ANT into ANTenna… talk about upping the ante… time for some AM I guess… ant modulation.
#CycloneAlfred #AmateurRadio
https://mastodon.longlandclan.id.au/system/media_attachments/files/114/169/548/822/132/283/original/ca89a48a1e17c32b.mp4

2025-03-05 10:30:14 UTC

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-05/meta-blocked-facebook-searches-cyclone-alfred/105013014
This is why we can no longer rely on centralised social media. #Meta #CycloneAlfred

2025-03-02 21:04:29 UTC

Pet peeve… when you're looking at something on a web page, you're about to click/tap on a UI element… just as your finger hits the sensor… the element moves because some DOM element has been inserted or changed size above the UI element.
Consequence, you instead hit the UI element that has just been moved *under* the cursor (or your finger) now receives the click event.

2025-02-26 09:30:47 UTC

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Well, BlueSky certainly is a good half-way point if they add @ap.brid.gy to their followers… doing that they become visible here too.
https://fed.brid.gy/
We should encourage the federal government to set up an instance actually. If they're worried about electoral interference, running an ActivityPub server of some kind for all the government people would be a good way to side-step that.

2025-02-03 00:30:09 UTC

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We do not need to co-operate with the facist regime that is the Trump government.
We need to throw sand in the gears of facism. We do not stop on the 11th of November every year just to wave the nazis through on parade.

2025-01-16 02:25:52 UTC

I know this was written nearly 21 years ago… and at the time it was referencing the #SCO vs #Linux case… but I can't help but see the parallels between that, and #AI scraping our shitposts for profit…
https://www.theregister.com/2004/03/09/bofh_protecting_bodily_waste/

2025-01-15 22:08:27 UTC

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Does it bug you?

2024-12-02 22:12:37 UTC

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… and I just realised 2048 is a power of two…
```
stuartl@rikishi ~ $ echo $(( 2 ** 11 ))
2048
```

2024-12-02 22:10:22 UTC

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Apparently we'll see this again in 2031. A year before the Brisbane Olympics.
Now, 2020 and 2024 are both examples of this happening _on a leap year_. The next leap year that begins with WTF will be 2048.
The last leap year _before_ 2020 which began with WTF was 1992.

2024-12-02 07:03:26 UTC

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Actually, if you have a smart television or digital video recorder… I'd almost put money on it being a Linux machine beneath the covers.
If you have a home Internet router, the vast majority of those are Linux based. Some did experiment with other OSes like VxWorks back in the day, but those experiments died out.
If you're using Android anywhere, that's the Linux kernel running the show. Very different user-space stack, but still Linux at the core.
It hides in a lot of places you may not even realise.
Largely because it's a blob of code that people have already spent the effort in writing, that can light up a large amount of hardware including embedded devices, and with a licensing cost which many can stomach.
To make an OS that runs even a basic home router would be prohibitively expensive in terms of software developer time. It's cheaper to just accept the license of whatever's "on the shelf" and build on that.

2024-11-24 01:37:28 UTC

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I utterly hate RP-SMA.
Not to mention having to explain the difference to non-RF people.
"No, that thing is not a 'spacer', that's an adaptor because if you look, the antenna you just screwed on there has no centre pin and nor does the shaft you screwed it on to."
Maybe you get lucky and the two "sockets" press against each-other, but more likely you'll leave a 1mm or so gap… that's not a connection, that's a capacitor!

2024-09-02 05:47:07 UTC

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Not quite sure… I think momostr.pink might be a nostr relay? Don't know a lot about that system.
Looks like aus.social has not federated with that instance, so those replies aren't visible to you.
https://mastodon.longlandclan.id.au/system/media_attachments/files/113/066/369/433/124/131/original/bab79517ede38dda.png

2024-09-02 03:33:14 UTC

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Don't tempt me 🙂
(actually, my *own* laptop that I bring to work, *does* run Gentoo.)

2024-09-02 03:31:00 UTC

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To be honest, Ubuntu's standards have slipped here… it used to be a lot less of a struggle.
At least I was able to debug the hot mess I got into… if this had been Windows I'd be doing a full re-install now.

2024-09-02 03:11:52 UTC

So, today I thought… why not run `do-release-upgrade` on the work laptop? It was running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (no Windows install).
The machine is a HP Elitebook 640. A few quirks, but mostly seems to work fine.
- do-release-upgrade first refused because I had pinned Terraform to the last release under the old license (we're leery of the new license and aren't ready to jump to OpenTofu yet)… fine, comment out Hashicorp repo…
- then the PPAs and third party repos were causing issues… fine, rename the `.list` files to `.off`…
- eventually it installs, but then barfs right at the end
- I reboot, and `libnettle` is broken, taking /usr/lib/apt/methods/http with it
- Manually download libnettle .deb on another machine, `scp` it across, `dpkg -i` and I could finish up what `do-release-upgrade` had failed on (`apt-get dist-upgrade -y` mostly)
- reboot again, this time things are a lot happier
- run `apt-get autoremove` to clear out the old junk
- update and re-instate my old third-party repos, substituting `jammy` with `noble`
- `apt-get dist-upgrade -y` again
- boot out the `snap` packages for Firefox, Chromium and Thunderbird which crept in unwanted.
3 hours later, I have my workstation back.
#Ubuntu

2024-08-31 07:50:58 UTC

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Are those both strings?
Not a C# expert by a long shot, but `x = y = value` is a pretty common way of setting x and y to the same value…
C# isn't a dynamically typed language, but it may support operator overloading… so maybe adding -1 to an empty string is some ham-fisted way to set both strings to "-1"?

2024-08-30 05:57:35 UTC

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Question is, who next would go on that list?
The Beatles? (Revolution)
T. Rex / Marc Bolan's estate? (Children of the Revolution)
Rose Tattoo (We Can't Be Beaten)
Little River Band / John Farnham (Playing To Win)
Hot Chocolate (Everyone's a winner, So you win again)
Bee Gees (You Win Again)
Probably lots of other hits that concern these themes too.
I wonder if there was a way to make those artists aware and maybe get them to take preemptive action.

2024-08-27 06:17:37 UTC

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Let him… when he realises the airline industry decides it's too legally risky to fly an aircraft in US airspace, they'll soon get sick of having to drive to Canada or Mexico to get a flight off the North American continent.