Links

MintySynth

mintysynth.com

MintySynth is an Arduino-compatible synthesizer/sequencer/audio experiment kit that fits neatly in an Altoids® tin.

Fun little design & kit for in-your-pocket music synth. Able to run on an Arduino UNO by following the schematic, too. Had a lot of fun messing with this.

On Parler and Amazon

iam.fahrni.me

I know services like AWS and Azure make it easy to fire up services, but they’re not a requirement. Anyone who says they are is plain wrong.

Is it expensive to manage your own data center? Yes, it is. Can you manage your own data center? Yes, you can.

While I generally agree with the ACLU’s positions and policies, I don’t think they are correct here — at a technical level. You don’t need infinitely-scalable services in order to get on the internet. To do it at scale, maybe, but it’s also a problem that is solvable on your own. We’ve come to expect access to commoditized on-demand infrastructure, but that’s doesn’t mean that it’s a right.

Inkplate 10 - Our Campaign is Live!

crowdsupply.com

We are excited to let you all know that we have now officially begun crowdfunding for Inkplate 10. After a very successful Inkplate 6 campaign, we received a lot of feedback about improvements we could make and additional features we could add. Most of you asked for a bigger screen, more GPIO, and an on-board RTC, all of which Inkplate 10 provides.

I have their Inkplate 6 and it is excellent. I used it as an air quality display during the fires in September and I have future plans of making a home thermostat/weather display. The dev tools are great. I’d strongly consider this one if I need a bigger display.

The coolest part about e-ink for me is the fact that it retains the picture even with no power applied, often for weeks (in my case, months so far).

The Duct Tape Programmer

joelonsoftware.com

He is the guy you want on your team building go-carts, because he has two favorite tools: duct tape and WD-40. And he will wield them elegantly even as your go-cart is careening down the hill at a mile a minute. This will happen while other programmers are still at the starting line arguing over whether to use titanium or some kind of space-age composite material that Boeing is using in the 787 Dreamliner.

When you are done, you might have a messy go-cart, but it’ll sure as hell fly.

I like this, especially because I like to think that this the mindset that I’ve repeatedly brought to the startups I’ve helped succeed over the years. I make things that work, as simply as possible, without bells & whistles, easy to approach and to iterate on. But they work out of the gate, blending things that maybe haven’t been combined yet. They show the possible and lay the foundation for a project’s future.