Saigonautica

Ages ago, I had built a tool to monitor the mains power frequency with resolution of some microseconds. I looked at my old assembly code, and realized with better optimization and optocoupler choice, I could probably get that down to some hundreds of nanoseconds.

The original idea was to try and correlate phase jitter to space weather, essentially using the mains power system as a sort of radio telescope. I never did get it working (although I did not have much time to try, either). I was able to see interesting things like generators spinning up to maintain the frequency though.

Will open source the hardware when done. I am not an astronomer, just some random fellow that investigates things at depth for no particular reason.

I host a searchable database of my physical books so that family and friends can search what I've got. Also if they run the same software, I can authorize their instance to work with a primitive inter-library search feature (their library has a public key and signs their request). Fun for book clubs!

It also hosts e-books, primarily so I can load up the website in an ebook reader and download my own books, rather than worry about connecting my reader up via cable and so on.

Also when I'm out, and I find a maybe interesting book, I can check if I have it or (if the price is too high) add it to my wishlist. Similar for relatives who wish to buy me a book. I live in Asia but primarily read in English, so I do have to capitalize on opportunities to buy books when they arise.

It's open-source, I've been running it a few years, you can use it if you like. It runs on a potato, so your 5$ VPS will be able to host several other things at the same time:

https://github.com/seanboyce/ubiblio

That's a fascinating article! I live in Viet Nam, and it seems a bit like the section about us is overblown though.

There are some short fuel queues these last few months (about a 2-5 minute wait), and a couple of the sketchier petrol stations did some price speculation then shut down. It's more or less business as usual over here though.

My weekly fuel costs went from 50k VND (about 2$) to 60k VND (about 2.50$). My commute is pretty typical for Ho Chi Minh City. A lot (not all) of our taxis and gig workers also switched to electric vehicles some time ago.

Shipping costs, and the price of imported or fresh produce did go up noticeably though. Or the quality went down.

Not especially (I don't live in the USA though).

I do wonder if I could automate the expression of uncontroversial opinions in the public sphere though. For example things about movies, music, or sporting events. These are valid interests that I simply don't have. I have at times been regarded with (I think) unfair suspicion for not engaging with social media to a meaningful degree.

Nice. I tried to submit a project on the former. However CloudFlare seems to be blocking me from submitting the form.

This is a common issue for all of us in Viet Nam though, not sure if there's anything you can do your side. I'll figure out how to get my submission through later :)

After moving to Asia, it did seem that fewer of my colleagues remarked on my choice of SMT for everything. I hadn't really thought about it until now!

Custom PCBs are even cheaper here than in North America, and longer workdays meant I had less time for hobbies. That probably made me double down on my choice.

I don't own much fancy equipment, just a cheap hot air rework station. I've found that mixing in fresh gel flux into my solder paste to get the right consistency made a big difference, enough that I never really needed more tools.

After doing that, I just sort of smear some near-ish the pads (perversely, often using a THT resistor), drop the parts in approximately the correct position with tweezers, and heat it up gently. Surface tension handles the rest. Once in a while, an 0402 resistor shifts out of position, but otherwise it just works. I'd probably need better tools for BGA.

What I love best is that SMT microcontrollers can be very, very cheap. I like the attiny10 (36$ for 100 computers! What a wonder!). There are plenty that are under 10 cents each, but I rather like AVR assembler, and their datasheets are very good.

I mean, it caused me to emigrate to a growth economy. If I stayed in the West, I don't think I would have been OK.

I hear you.

I worked as a consultant for a company where the CEO one day, they just started using AI chat for everything. Every question you asked, they just forwarded it. Same thing for company strategy, major decisions, presentation content, and so on.

Initially, I was really annoyed. After I took a deep breath, and read through the wall of text they sent (to figure out how to respond), I eventually realized it was slightly better than their previous work. Not like, night-and-day better, but slightly better.

Since then, I've been playing with the idea of 'hiring' an AI to manage my freelance and personal work. I would not be required to do what it says, but I could take it under consideration and see if I work better that way. Sort of like the ultimate expression of "servant leadership".

I find this argument fascinating overall!

I don't really use YouTube, but when ads play on random videos and it irritates me, I just close my eyes, the simplest version of content-blocking. (If the ad is painfully loud, I may also cover my ears in contexts where this is not extremely socially awkward)

Can we say it's immoral for me to close my eyes? Can someone's business model be the basis of an argument that it's immoral for me to exert this simple bodily function?

Is there some contract that I've signed where people have the right to my attention in any context? If they've based their business model on the assumption that this consent exists, and it does not, is it fair to say that the business model should fail?

When I first visited Asia 13 years ago, this is the feeling I got too. It's wonderful and intoxicating and new.

It spoke to me so strongly, that I immigrated and started my first business. Not to China, but nearby (Viet Nam). It was a very tough road, I never ended up particularly wealthy, but I have no regrets.

I'm trying to make an RF lightning detector small enough to trivially add to my motorbike.

I live in Viet Nam, and driving through bad storms this time of year is pretty miserable, and they happen fast and are local enough that weather prediction is not terribly useful.

There are a lot of problems with EMI. Lots of ungrounded brushed motors everywhere that make the RF bits hard. If I succeed, I'll publish the PCB designs.

I've also got some educational products in production right now, about Vietnamese history. I'd share a link, but my website probably can't handle the traffic right now.

While I realize I'm not entitled to read this website, I'd like to report it seems to be geoblocking me in Viet Nam. I get a 403 Forbidden.

I was totally ready to consider blocking US IP ranges too, if there was a good reason. I run a small business and 0% of my customers are overseas.

Oh, I loved working on this problem years back.

My strategy was simulate my possible next guesses against all possible codes, then pick the option that had the highest number of possible outcomes (sometimes this strategy is called MaxParts). It looks like the author's approach works for similar underlying reasons.

Besides this, I applied some optimizations for the starting move, and some further optimizations on considering 'irrational' guesses -- e.g. choosing a code that had already been eliminated as a possibility, because it returned more information (this was rare, but possible).

I ran my code against all possible games of 4,6 mastermind (I win in an average of 4.2778 guesses), and found that some starting guesses were more optimal than others! The pattern "AABC" (e.g. red-red-yellow-green) was the best performer. Perhaps this is a way that the author can improve their algorithm just a tiny bit.

An ESP32 module suitable for hobby use is about 4$ here in Viet Nam. You can get the "raw" ones for maybe 0.50$ less. We're near China, so electronic component price is usually higher than Chinese prices by 1-20% (modules and hobby components on the higher end). If you're ever curious about prices, the good online retailer here is thegioiic ('World of ICs', we love naming businesses 'world of something' here).

Locally, 4$ is probably "more money" to us than 5$ is to you.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a marvel that we can have something so good so cheaply -- but correcting for cost of living, it feels less affordable for us here in Asia.

Anyway, not a criticism. Just sharing a slice of life from over here in case you were curious.

I can't help but imagine this is just a USB flash drive.

A while back I saw an RF lightning detector on HN (https://techlib.com/electronics/lightningnew.htm)

I redesigned it to be much smaller and cheaper (surface-mount), made it an IoT device, and various other changes. Will order PCBs in a bit, hopefully it works well.

We don't have anything like Blitzortung in SE Asia as far as I know, and it would be pretty useful to me to detect lightning storms before they hit. The obvious application is to add it to my motorbike (driving a motorbike in a heavy storm is a necessary but miserable part of life here).

Bigger picture, there's no market for it, simply because it's cheaper to not buy one (I live in a very cost-driven market). However it would be useful to me personally.

That reminds me of one. I had a PC that would fail to boot the first time every day. Second and subsequent times were fine, until the next day.

When it stopped happening in the spring, and started again in the fall, it became obvious -- my apartment was too cold. The heat from the first failed boot sufficiently heated up the system to boot the second time.

Canadian winter for you, I guess.

Oh, this brings back memories. I agree, the Japanese-grown rice in Japan is definitely different than the imported stuff.

I used to buy the rice grown in Fukushima prefecture because it was sold at a significant discount, during the short and financially disastrous period where I tried to immigrate there.

I built a hardware server monitor with LED display based on the ESP8266. I needed 8 fewer things to think about in the morning. If you want, you can build one yourself, I released the hardware and firmware: https://github.com/seanboyce/servermon

Next up is a small lamp for migraines. I noticed that dim red light is much more tolerable to me than anything else. I mean obviously, darkness is ideal, but you need to do other stuff like eat and drink eventually if it's a persistent one.

So I designed a quick circuit to use fast PWM (few Mhz, so no flicker) to control a big red LED. I'd like it to be sturdy and still functional in 50-100 years, so made some design choices for long-term durability. No capacitors, replaceable LED and so on.

A simple project, but it's a busy month and I need something easy this time.

As a courtesy, I used to check in on client servers every morning to alert them if services were down. Eventually it became a chore, so I made some hardware server status boards that monitor them for me (8 each).

Here in Asia they cost 5-8$ each to make depending on exact part choice (total cost including boards and components).

I open sourced the hardware / firmware if you want some: https://github.com/seanboyce/servermon

I used to use scripts etc to do it. However this tells me what I need to know in a glance, so I like it better.

I agree wholeheartedly!

I like to use the TM1640 and RGB LEDs. It's cheap, works well, requires a minimum of external components, and can convey a fair amount of information. It can also drive a 16x8 LED matrix if I do want something screen-like.

Usually I'll control it with a Wi-Fi MCU like the ESP8266 or Pi Pico W. Total component cost, including board, sits around 5$ each with a minimum quantity of 5.

I have a mildly entertaining story for you! We have something just a little like this in Viet Nam.

It's designed as a public good that lets you look up businesses by their tax ID. It's mandatory for the company owner to put their phone number and address there. The address is periodically verified by an actual person. It gets scraped heavily, and inserted into a whole sub-genre of similar websites with mostly identical features but with faster and better search. I've even seen people print it out to make "phone books" that are sold at trade shows!

As you might expect, the resulting increase in (fairly sophisticated) scam calls makes me unlikely to pick up my phone. So I'm not actually reachable there with a call, but I might get a text! For my websites, registrar info for those ties in to the system above using digital signatures. So using only a domain name, you get the company license, a theoretically valid phone number, and a very probably correct address.

It's a mix of good and bad, but overall I really like the system. Looking up other companies before doing business with them has saved me and my colleagues from a number of bad deals, e.g. not the real company owner, or misrepresentation of the scope of their company license.

Oh, it's quite OK! I haven't used it myself, but my wife has. We don't often head out the way it goes.

It's really great for tourists though, it does a good job of connecting one of the major tourist areas (Thao Dien) to the city center.

I'm hoping that later extensions will do more to alleviate traffic, e.g. head out towards Nha Be or something. Although I hope to move to a quieter city long before any of that.

I live in a developing Asian country so the numbers and brands in the equation are a bit different.

Anyway:

1. Good midrange Japanese cooking knives. I got one on a steep discount, and now I understand why people pay a premium for them. I even bought a second one.

2. Good brands of Chinese engineering equipment. I bought a Siglent oscilloscope instead of a Hantek / Uni-T one. Before that, I had only bought the cheapest tool sufficient for the job.

I found as I've reached middle-age, I just have a bit less energy to spend struggling with things I use daily. So in these roles I appreciate something that's better quality than I strictly need. I don't come from wealth, and am a notorious cheapskate even by local standards -- but those two things were able to change my mind!

I was thinking something similar, but much earlier along this timeline: what if the consultants that work for lobby groups that propose certain bills already use AI to write proposed laws? E.g. to make long, omnibus-style laws that very few of the people voting on it (or the public) actually read?

How will that erode laws that are undesirable to AI companies? Does AI take over, only because we no longer want to spend the effort governing ourselves?

Will AI companies (for example) end up providing/certifying these 'human representatives'? Will it be useful, or just a new form of rent-seeking? Who watches the watchmen, etc ?

I think it would make an interesting short story or novel!

In Ho Chi Minh City (and probably Vietnam in general but not 100% sure). Our commercial district is very concentrated.

The busses in general are some form of public-private partnership. Several private bus companies operate the city busses. There are some annoying edge cases. For example, pre-purchased tickets are a mess -- better pay cash. If another operator takes over your route, even temporarily, your tickets can't be used.

Mostly it seems to work though, I take the bus fairly regularly and it's quite nice. It's clean, has OK air conditioning, and arrives frequently enough that I don't have to check the schedule. There's someone to help elderly people and children on and off the bus. Elderly people ride free, reduced price for students, etc. It's pleasant.

Some of these busses are mini-versions for less popular routes. I think I've even seen a couple of other vehicle types, like some form of van (rarely). One or twice a sort of truck with benches.

I know someone in this space. The insurance forms are processed first-pass with AI or ML (I forget which). Then the remainder are processed by humans in Viet Nam. This is not for the USA.

I've also vaguely heard of a large company that provides just this as a service -- basically a factory where insurance claims are processed by humans here in VN, in one of the less affluent regions. I recall they had some minor problems with staffing as it's not a particularly pleasant job (it's very boring). On the other hand, the region has few employment opportunities, so perhaps it's good for some people too.

I'm not sure which country this last one is processing forms for. It may, or may not be the USA.

I don't really have an opinion to offer -- I just thought you might find that interesting.

Yeah, that's a good point. A colleague did offer to help, and then donate the results to some schools. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to just say yes!

If you have any ideas, please share! Design is not my strong suit.

I was thinking maybe some surface features, like craters (in silkscreen) and some "resources" -- tinned exposed copper / copper covered by solder mask.

Or some way to hold the boards together, like a magnetic clasp or even just velcro. It's not really a problem presently, but might be neat.

I made an electronic board game: https://github.com/seanboyce/Calculus-the-game

It's compatible with Settlers of Catan. However, I plan to make my own rulesets, artwork, manuals, etc. It will not be a commercial product, of course you can make your own with the files I provide.

Right now the boards, electronics, and firmware are in good working order. Although the routing is pretty YOLO.

It feels like there's a lot of unpleasantness going on in the world right now. I thought maybe I could put my other projects aside and try to make something that might brighten your day (It certainly has enough of LEDs).

A big TODO is to replace the 0402 SMT components with something larger and easier to work with like 0603. I'll find time within a week or so and push it to the repo. (I am notoriously cheap and only keep 0402 in stock)