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There was some light “popping” happening throughout this episode on Chris’s mic, due to new hardware configuration. Apologies.
- A train watching group posted a video of a train crash/derailment. There was also a YouTube feed of the cleanup.
- Chris was on vacation and visited the Wilmington Railroad Museum
- Model train gauges: XO gauge, N gauge, Z Gauge
- Train in a briefcase
- Dave has a video with his friend Doug Ford reviewing audio decisions on trains
- Intel will be building new fabs in…Ohio? Chris wonders about the talent factor given the lack of other chip manufacturing in the midwest
- Dave is upset about IndieGoGo campaigns that are fleecing people for money
- SigFox (a paid LoRa network based out of France) is filing for bankruptcy. What happens to people on their networks?
- The Apple AirTag is an ad-hoc asset tracking network that relies on a very prevalent network effect (iPhones everywhere)
- Other LoRaWAN networks are springing up, most notably Helium (which has a crypto currency associated with it) and Sidewalk (which has an Amazon associated with it)
- Wendover Productions explains cellular networks
- Eccentric Orbits was a book about building (and saving) the Iridium satellite network
- After posting last week’s episode on Twitter, we were asking “Can you reverse engineer an open source product?”
- Chris is now on Linux Mint 20.3, possibly the source of the popping sound during this episode (also stupidly had an external hard drive plugged into the same USB extender that may have impacted the USB mic)
- How is it that Windows based tutorials still show Teraterm as the best way to connect to serial ports for hardware?
- StrongBad Techno
You exemplified the primary problem with serial terminal programs on Windows: everyone wants to go straight for “free,” but unlike with mass-market programs like web browsers and video encoders, there isn’t enough market need to focus enough developer attention to get it to the same UI standards you’re expecting.
Give [SecureCRT](https://www.vandyke.com/products/securecrt/) a try. Yes, it’ll cost you a C-note, but speaking as one that’s been living in this program for the past two decades, it’s worth it. It’s primarily a terminal emulator which happens to speak serial, SSH, and more, which is likely why you aren’t finding it in searches.
As for HyperTerminal, that was bundled with Windows only thru XP. It’s now called HyperACCESS, and it’s pretty much a SecureCRT competitor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperACCESS
About the only place that can really do with a “make water from air” machine is the ISS, which already has one there, complete with filters to keep the water reasonably sterile. They use UV sterilisers and filters to remove all the particulates in the water they condense out of the recycled air in there, which mostly filters out skin cells, as that is the majority of the dust in there. then it goes through an ion exchange column, and from there through yet again more filters and UV steriliser, before finally being dosed with iodine to keep it sterile in the tanks, but not kill the occupants from excess steriliser. Thus the salt is iodine free, in all the foodstuffs, as they will otherwise get way too much in the diet, but guaranteed never to have any iodine deficiency while up there.
Done because water is heavy, and shipping up the extra 2kg per person per day that would otherwise be needed would work out rather expensive otherwise. So yesterdays pee and poo is tomorrows coffee, and your sweat from working out in the gym is also tomorrow’s breakfast rehydration agent.
MobaXterm is a decent choice for terminals. It also gives you a windows-like file browser when connected over SSH, which is a godsend instead of having to remember directory structures in command line. Even had syntax highlighting for certain sessions.
No doubt everyone will have their favourite and I don’t think that will ever change.
Regarding the new Intel fabs, Intel claim that the initial two fabs ($20B in spending) don’t depend on federal subsidies. This makes sense as it would be terrible PR for Intel to quickly back out due to “loss” of hypothetical subsidies.
But Intel does admit that further expansion (“up to” $100B) depends on federal subsidies.
By the way, maybe I missed it, but what is the “standard” serial terminal program in Linux?
Missing link this link in the show notes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JwZwkk7q25I
I can totally relate to the frustrations of finding a decent serial terminal application that covers all of the basics. Just when I thought all hope was lost, I stumbled across these standouts in the last couple of years that have changed my life in this arena:
Windows (Free): YAT (Yet Another Terminal)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/y-a-terminal/
OSX (Paid): Serial 2
https://www.decisivetactics.com/products/serial/
Lifelong Missourian here. Everybody I know says Mi-ZUR-ee. Politicians trying to sound folksy say Mi-ZUR-uh.
Hilarious that Chris uses screen which is basically the most featureless and simple terminal emulator possible, but both rail on about wanting some kind of modern replacement for PuTTy.
PuTTy has a simple and effective UI and is all you need for serial console access. It’s screen for Windows but has many other features too… Not understanding the complaint here. If you want fancy features there’s SecureCRT, but in this case there’s not really a Linux analogue at all.