paulrpotts

Joined 18 years ago

Karma

538

Submissions

272

Member since

Mar 21

http://thepottshouse.org

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Recent submissions

Comment · 8 months ago

I have a 2008 Mac Pro that was my daily driver for video and audio production for 16 years before I had to give up on it. The only real reason I had to give up on it was that I couldn't upgrade the software and all the certs were expiring. I was using it for a network music server as well, until Apple broke iTunes home sharing functionality. It's sitting in the hall in my basement. The hardware still functions perfectly. It had four hard drives in it, and I've got all that stuff on a Synology now. It remains the most reliable computer I have ever owned. It literally only was ever off when there was a power outage. I might wind up installing Linux on it for my kids but we already have several little i5 NUCs that are far faster and quieter and easier on our electric bill, so I'm not sure there's much point to that.

Comment · 1 year ago

Location: Southeast Michigan

Remote: Yes (available for remote work only)

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: ARM Cortex-M, Agile, Bootloaders, C, C++, Device Drivers, Embedded Systems, FreeRTOS, GNU/Linux, Microcontrollers, Microsoft Windows, Python, QEMU, Tech Writing, Test Automation, Testing

Résumé/CV: https://thepottshouse.org/paul/portfolio/Complete_Resume.htm...

Email: [email protected]

I am seeking fully remote work in low-level embedded or related software development, ideally working with a team in Central, Mountain or Pacific time zones. I would prefer to be a full-time direct hire, but will also consider hourly contract work full-time or part-time.

I have decades of professional experience designing, implementing, testing, debugging, documenting, and maintaining software projects in a variety of languages, on a variety of platforms. Since 2000, I have specialized in embedded development. I also have experience writing documentation and training materials, leading small teams and projects, and mentoring junior engineers.

Comment · 1 year ago

I will not forget Argo AI trying to convince me that if I stayed with the company for four years, by then my equity would be worth an estimated $700,000. I made it just over a year in stressful, high-pressure environment, with a toxic manager; I knew it was time for my weekly one-on-one because my heart rate monitor would start giving me warnings. He loved to humiliate individual employees in our scrum team meetings; at one point I called him out on it and demanded that he apologize for his unprofessional bullying. He actually did, but our working relationship was never good after that.

Anyway, my enormous efforts and long hours got me a "meets expectations" review. The company imploded just after I completed that first year, and so my equity was worth nothing. Good times!

Comment · 1 year ago

Location: Michigan

Remote: Yes (available for remote work only)

Willing to relocate: No

Résumé/CV: https://thepottshouse.org/paul/portfolio/Complete_Resume.htm...

Email: [email protected]

I am seeking fully remote work in low-level embedded or related software development, ideally working with a team in Mountain or Pacific time zones. I would prefer to be a full-time direct hire, but will also consider hourly contract work.

I have over 30 years of professional experience designing, implementing, testing, debugging, documenting, and maintaining software projects in a variety of languages, on a variety of platforms. I have developed software for platforms ranging from the Apple Macintosh, to Microsoft Windows, to Linux, to the Apple Newton, to embedded devices. Since 2000, I have specialized in embedded development. I also have experience writing documentation and training materials, leading small teams and projects, and mentoring junior engineers.

Comment · 2 years ago

Let's say by "didn't need money" you mean I have an income that is enough to fully support my family and keep my home in good repair and even make home improvements (we need some big repairs to gutters and fascia, deck, HVAC, etc.) That's not a small number especially factoring in health care... but let's assume it's taken care of and all our needs are taken care of, and I even have a little disposable income for IT, music stuff, books, etc. I could continue with the things I've done in my limited free time for decades:

- writing non-fiction and fiction - making original music and podcasts - developing educational hardware/software projects - developing my own programming languages - continuing to refine and catalog our large home library - gardening and transitioning towards growing more of our own food.

I'd spend much more time involved with my kids since my wife and I already homeschool, but I can't put very much time into it now.

Comment · 2 years ago

It’s always disappointing to me when articles describing a sound don’t include an audio clip. Someone must have a hydrophone recording!

Comment · 2 years ago

It's a funny dunk on the language but I was hoping for some actual root cause analysis. It sounds like the change actually uncovered a pre-existing bug which was not (yet) causing a crash (but may have been silently overwriting memory). In that case, the root cause was the existing code's failure to use memory safely. There's not much point blaming a 50-year-old language, which was never designed with modern type safety but instead has features that allow deliberately throwing away safety to make low-level systems programming possible, for not having modern type safety. The generation of programmers who learned to use it as safely as possible (which I belong to) are getting old and cranky. We're now inclined to say that the person who wrote the pre-existing bug needed more experience. We'd all love to use Rust for new code but there's an awful lot of legacy C code that needs fixing.

Comment · 2 years ago

Bob's Red Mill steel cut oats is fantastic. In recent years I've been making it as a savory, not sweet, breakfast - topped with grass-fed butter, a fried egg, and some thyme from our garden, sea salt, and black pepper. Energy for hours!

Comment · 2 years ago

When Apple Logic becomes enshittified, my #1 reason for still owning Macs will go with it.

Comment · 2 years ago

iTunes was a complex mess with too much functionality in one app, but for many years it worked really well for me. Replacing it with the new apps has been a process of removing functionality I relied on, obfuscating and making less user-friendly existing functionality, and pushing people into using cloud services. Some examples:

- Older versions of iTunes had a great "home sharing" function that allowed sharing the library with devices running iTunes on the LAN. I used this very extensively. iTunes running on my 2008 Mac Pro still runs the server, and there is kinda-sorta client functionality in Apple Music, a bit hidden, but it is not reliable (constantly disconnects mid-song). Also, there was never an iOS client which would stream from this server. There were some half-baked attempts at open-source apps that would do it, but Apple broke them by encrypting the streaming across my own LAN.

- iTunes stored podcast and audiobook files in a simple and transparent way. Now podcasts (accessed using the separate Apple Podcasts app) are stored buried in Library subdirectories with long gibberish filenames. Although they're really just MP3 files with extra tags, it's now very difficult to just grab an episode by filename and save it elsewhere or forward it to a friend.

- iTunes had best-in-class tag editing. Apple Music's tag editing is buggy.

- Don't get me started on the "iTunes Match" debacle. https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/05/itunes-match-users-repo...

Jobs had a vision of the Mac as a media hub for managing your collection and I liked that vision. Apple even (eventually) removed DRM from iTunes downloads. Forcing me into DRM and subscription services? No thanks. What I've done instead is, gradually, buy many dozens of used CDs and rip them, to replace any lossy iTunes files I purchased years ago. My entire library is now CD + ALAC (lossless) + purchased FLAC files that some vendors offer (and which were never supported on iTunes or Apple Music, but play flawlessly from the Synology). I use rsync to sync my iTunes library to my Synology NAS, and use Synology's free iOS apps to stream the whole library on our iOS devices, or on laptops and desktops, just use the web player. It works great and I can stream to stereo receivers without any difficulty as well using an AudioEngine B-Fi. No streaming services, no monthly bills.

Comment · 2 years ago

I'm not informed enough to come up with a good question, but I love your work! And I love the concept of chips built on sapphire, even if it didn't win in the marketplace. Could we get Ruby running on ruby? :P

Comment · 3 years ago

Just FYI, Intel NUCs are being discontinued so if you want a new one, look for Asus models:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/19/23800006/intel-nuc-comput...

Comment · 3 years ago

Father of eight kids here. I wouldn't really speak of SUVs and minivans in the same breath. SUVs really aren't very suitable for transporting a bunch of kids. They generally don't have extra side doors so kids will have to climb over seats. And despite being so huge, they often hold a shockingly small amount of cargo, unless you add a cumbersome cargo container to the roof rack. We had a Tahoe with a painfully small third row seat and could not even bring a whole load of groceries home in the space remaining in back. It was not possible to use it for camping unless we brought a second car (a Honda Element) to actually hold the stuff. Older minivans like the (now radically redesigned) Dodge Grand Caravan were far better and had far better visibility. I have really not kept up with current minivans - a lot of the models which would hold more passengers have disappeared - but I do think they are designed with better safety features, not to mention better mileage. It's easy to say "just get a Sprinter," but they are shockingly expensive even on the used market.

Comment · 3 years ago

My family got it from a brief, outdoor, masked exposure to a kid who was in public schools. My kids are all homeschooled but the public school still facilitated our infection and my long COVID. I don’t have much confidence in that study.

Comment · 3 years ago

Interesting... thanks. I was not aware these existed. Also, the mainboards are expensive, but not as expensive as I thought.