@mmastrac.bsky.social
I started working on a visualization of the VT420's Video RAM for anyone interested in how it works. The way that it packs data into 64kB is fascinating. _Most_ of Video RAM is fonts or line buffers, but it's not straightforward.
November 22, 2025 at 9:36 AM
I started working on a visualization of the VT420's Video RAM for anyone interested in how it works. The way that it packs data into 64kB is fascinating. _Most_ of Video RAM is fonts or line buffers, but it's not straightforward.
Short video this month: building a little JetKVM accessory to turn a computer on and off! www.youtube.com/watch?v=32uR...
What's that other port for on the JetKVM?
YouTube video by Paleotechnica
www.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Short video this month: building a little JetKVM accessory to turn a computer on and off! www.youtube.com/watch?v=32uR...
I think this VT420 emulator might actually be going somewhere.
November 5, 2025 at 5:25 AM
I think this VT420 emulator might actually be going somewhere.
There's a point in every emulator's life where you've got enough emulated that you can actually start to see the whole thing working together. Say hello to Blaze, a VT420 emulator written in Rust!
November 1, 2025 at 2:24 AM
There's a point in every emulator's life where you've got enough emulated that you can actually start to see the whole thing working together. Say hello to Blaze, a VT420 emulator written in Rust!
That's an ... interesting failure mode.
October 31, 2025 at 12:39 AM
That's an ... interesting failure mode.
Fully extracted the VT420 fonts via emulation... not really the end goal but cool nonetheless.
October 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Fully extracted the VT420 fonts via emulation... not really the end goal but cool nonetheless.
Could this be the VT420's font? Hmmmmmmm....
October 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Could this be the VT420's font? Hmmmmmmm....
I need to stop late-night eBay browsing.
October 21, 2025 at 3:59 PM
I need to stop late-night eBay browsing.
He's a little chubbier than nowadays, but that was a surprise Enterprise guest star...
October 18, 2025 at 1:57 AM
He's a little chubbier than nowadays, but that was a surprise Enterprise guest star...
Interview of (redacted)
"Well I'm sure you're familiar with my movie Titanic."
Gee, I wonder who.
"Well I'm sure you're familiar with my movie Titanic."
Gee, I wonder who.
October 18, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Interview of (redacted)
"Well I'm sure you're familiar with my movie Titanic."
Gee, I wonder who.
"Well I'm sure you're familiar with my movie Titanic."
Gee, I wonder who.
I've spent the last two months working on a secret terminal-based project for work and let me tell you: VT-based terminals are so utterly broken on the input side it's not even funny.
October 17, 2025 at 7:25 PM
I've spent the last two months working on a secret terminal-based project for work and let me tell you: VT-based terminals are so utterly broken on the input side it's not even funny.
How it feels writing open-source some days
October 16, 2025 at 5:03 AM
How it feels writing open-source some days
For being a central part of macOS, why does Spotlight seem to break so much?
October 12, 2025 at 5:07 PM
For being a central part of macOS, why does Spotlight seem to break so much?
I had a very specific, very tech nerd nightmare the other night that the US would kick everyone else out of NANPA.
October 2, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I had a very specific, very tech nerd nightmare the other night that the US would kick everyone else out of NANPA.
I started working on a little emulator for the VT420.
September 24, 2025 at 2:39 AM
I started working on a little emulator for the VT420.
Your Cat Wants A Massage!
YouTube video by Found Footage Fest
youtu.be
September 17, 2025 at 4:38 AM
I saw my first definitive cosmic ray bug of my life today. My son signed into an app with Google, and I got the un-deliverable email notification where they tried to send it to ______<tr> instead of _____<tt>.
Literally off by 0x02. Thanks, high-energy particles from space.
Literally off by 0x02. Thanks, high-energy particles from space.
September 11, 2025 at 3:40 PM
I saw my first definitive cosmic ray bug of my life today. My son signed into an app with Google, and I got the un-deliverable email notification where they tried to send it to ______<tr> instead of _____<tt>.
Literally off by 0x02. Thanks, high-energy particles from space.
Literally off by 0x02. Thanks, high-energy particles from space.
Going to be in London and Manchester next month!
September 7, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Going to be in London and Manchester next month!
I built a homelab monitor on top of Stylus and hooked it up to a cheap little 7" HDMI screen. It worked a lot better than expected. I love these glanceable displays that can give you a bunch of information in an instant
The video walks through how to set it up and monitor some unifi & other devices
The video walks through how to set it up and monitor some unifi & other devices
I built a realtime homelab monitor
YouTube video by Paleotechnica
www.youtube.com
September 3, 2025 at 6:18 PM
I built a homelab monitor on top of Stylus and hooked it up to a cheap little 7" HDMI screen. It worked a lot better than expected. I love these glanceable displays that can give you a bunch of information in an instant
The video walks through how to set it up and monitor some unifi & other devices
The video walks through how to set it up and monitor some unifi & other devices
I think this screen is a perfect fit for a Stylus live display.
Not my real home network status yet, but that's a good PoC
Not my real home network status yet, but that's a good PoC
August 10, 2025 at 10:42 PM
I think this screen is a perfect fit for a Stylus live display.
Not my real home network status yet, but that's a good PoC
Not my real home network status yet, but that's a good PoC
I can't believe this little 7" screen was only $50 (~35 USD). Working on a little video about homelab monitoring.
August 9, 2025 at 4:23 AM
I can't believe this little 7" screen was only $50 (~35 USD). Working on a little video about homelab monitoring.
These German air safety cards are pretty extreme
July 13, 2025 at 12:53 PM
These German air safety cards are pretty extreme
I've been playing around with using Isoflow to generate a network diagram that Stylus (github.com/mmastrac/sty...) can display. I think it looks pretty sweet.
July 6, 2025 at 7:56 PM
I've been playing around with using Isoflow to generate a network diagram that Stylus (github.com/mmastrac/sty...) can display. I think it looks pretty sweet.
Beautiful Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (taken from a bird-anxiety-safe distance).
July 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Beautiful Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (taken from a bird-anxiety-safe distance).
I spent a few days on and off debugging why my gstreamer/RTSP camera screen was failing. It turned out to be that the Pi was falling back to 100mbit because of a network cable issue. That shouldn't cause issues with 3mbps camera streams by itself, buuuuuuut....
June 28, 2025 at 3:32 AM
I spent a few days on and off debugging why my gstreamer/RTSP camera screen was failing. It turned out to be that the Pi was falling back to 100mbit because of a network cable issue. That shouldn't cause issues with 3mbps camera streams by itself, buuuuuuut....