darthcloud

I was on gmail since the invitation too. Using their domain.

I started to use my own domain within Gmail 2 years ago. Transitioned things I cared about to use that email at that time.

Then this years I moved to Proton using that domain. And I'm forwarding Gmail to proton indefinitely.

I told my family, friends to start using that address going forward.

Slowly but surely as I get email into my gmail folder on proton I take the time to go change the address.

The big change is using an address from you own domain.

As a Canadian, I’ve been thinking since last year about migrating to non-US services and applications.

My main goal is simply to avoid giving money or data directly to US corporations. I have no illusions, these non-US services probably still benefit US companies in some ways.

They’re rare, but I’ve consciously decided to stay away from some Canadian alternatives. The main customers of most Canadian tech companies are in the US, and I feel they would happily move there if needed.

I started with this:

Gmail / Drive → Proton Mail / Drive

NameCheap / GoDaddy → Infomaniak

Google Maps → TomTom

Google Chrome → Vivaldi

Google Search → Startpage (Vivaldi default)

GitHub → Codeberg & Codefloe (for private)

I do like Proton Mail. The main thing I hate is how often the app and web versions get out of sync for read and archive states.

I’m really happy with Infomaniak, migrating all my domains was a breeze.

Vivaldi is based on the Chrome codebase, but I really love all the extra customization options. It was a very easy switch.

Startpage took me some time to get used to. It’s not as good as Google, but whatever.

TomTom isn’t great, but it’s not like Maps has been great over the last few years either.

Forgejo is much better than what GitHub has become.

Next, I’m thinking of moving away from Google Photos. I’m considering pCloud for that.

Bought the paperback, I really like curated anthology, it's best way to discover new talent. I would have bought Compelling Science Fiction too but look like its out of print.

I was curious how OpenZFS worked around that and found [0] & [1]

[0] https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/issues/8259

[1] https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/pull/8965

It's so straightforward that you can't comment on it without risking retaliation?

I worked for almost 10 years at HP/HPE in the 2010s on embedded systems. I don't remember if it was a memo from Dave or Bill, but it was about never sacrificing quality for a deadline. Needless to say, we loved to dig up that old memo whenever PMs pushed too hard to get things released too early.

A good free resource to learn is https://pysdr.org/

This is not a python module, but a guide to learn the basic of digital signal processing using python in the context of using a SDR. It also goes into the specific of using the most popular SDR HW.

I'm active in the retro game console modding community and we pretty much all jumped ship same time in early November.

I still log to Twitter once a week to check, there haven't been anything new in my following feed for at least a month beside the people cross posting.

So I can easily see myself do just that, I wouldn't miss anything anyway.

No I got panels with multiple pcb fully assembled from china. But I still had to program them, solder the connector and assemble them into the case. A very long process.

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console.

I guess I could update from my previous post in a similar thread. [2]

Long story short, my open source firmware is used by product makers and they make a voluntary contribution often base on how many unit they sell. It is also widely used by Chinese company on AliExpress.

I got one of those Chinese company to sponsor me a significant amount on GitHub sponsor since August 2022. I guess they forgot about it, still going ever since!

I still make 1000 USD a month from the various HW makers.

One new thing I made this year after 5 year of doing this hobby, is that I finally manufactured and sold one adapter base on this code myself for the OG Xbox console. [3]

Factoring all the expenses I made 7K for a batch of 300. I plan to do a 2nd batch next year, which should yield double that since I will only incur raw materials & shipping expenses.

It took me 48 hour of manual labor to assemble them and ship them. So it's doesn't make much sense TBH, but it's a good experience. Made me appreciate my desk job.

[1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35568543

[3] https://blueretro.com

I can't stand wearing regular glasses, imagine that bulky thing...

I consider donation what random user give me on patreon/gh sponsor/itch.io

I talked with the makers or manufacturer and we reached an agreement. So to me (and them) it's royalties.

I think it's really important to make it clear that the contribution is for what is currently there. I get often ask "Will $$$ make you work on that issues" and I always answer no.

What will help fix that issue is my wife going shopping with the kids long enough for me to figure what is wrong. ;)

Nintendo Switch SNES controller?

Otherwise personally my daily driver is PS5 DualSense

People are nice? But most likely they want a good relationship with me in case they get problems. Also they benefits from being able to tell their customer they support the project.

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console.

I made a gross income of around 3K a month last year out of Royalties on the soft for each device sold. It's Apache 2.0 software so people can do whatever they want.

I started making money when I decided to list on the GitHub README the list of manufacturers/makers that where sponsoring the project. (Only one person at that time) Soon after the others offered to give royalty as well.

I even got a Chinese company, notorious for selling "clone" of OSHW projects, to support the SW development as well via GitHub sponsor.

I've been working on it for the last four years. I entertained the idea to make and sell the hardware myself. But in the end I learned that's it's not something I'm interested to get into. What I really like is working on the software.

It naturally pivoted into a more community driven project where multiple makers are selling various variations of the HW.

I wrote a retrospective last years [2].

[1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro

[2] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/discussions/289

The most annoying thing for me is that a workflow_dispatch only workflow can't be launch manually until it's push into default branch as they are not listed. I can understand the Web-UI won't list them but even GitHub cli can't launch them. Once they appear in the default branch, only then you are free to launch them on any branch.

The thing I hate most in new car is clicking forever on the temperature button to get to the min or max degree setting. At time it's really distracting from the road. All I want is either maximum cold, maximum heat or off.

I miss the hold rotation knob so much.

I've build BlueRetro [1] an universal Bluetooth controller adapter for nearly all pre-USB gaming console. I've been working on it for the last three years. I entertained the idea to make and sell the hardware myself. But in the end I learned that's it's not something I'm interested to get into. What I really like is working on the software.

In the end this pivoted into a more community driven project where multiple makers are selling various variations of the HW and giving me a cut of their profit to support the SW development.

Recently I even got a Chinese company, notorious for selling "clone" of OSHW projects, to support the SW development as well via GitHub sponsor.

I wrote a retrospective of last 3 years [2].

[1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro

[2] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/discussions/289

I used to be a big user of Total Commander back in the Win9x days (then Windows Commander)

I was actually too much used to it and I had a hard time using my friends computer at all using the default Windows explorer.

I probably updated to WinXP at some point and didn't reinstall it. Never felt the need to to install a double windows file manager since then. Even if it's clearly better than the default option.

I love your blog, but was the end goal really getting a new website or getting a good story to tell ;)

I confirm that, I was pretty in same situation as OP contemplating going solo. I soon realized this would only make thing worst. I spend some time looking around for my dream job + dream team. I found it in another city, It is an old-ish small company (25 years, ~20 employee) got interviewed by Owner and CTO and it clicked right away between us. Quality of life is more important than growth for them. My wife was very supportive and we moved with the kids over there. Best decision of my life. My wife noticed a night and day difference in my general mood. I realize I got lucky but this is the real fix.

Similar to the blank tape story, around 7 years ago at a big networking corp a big customer needed the latest product to be in their possession before some tax related date. The new product software wasn't ready at all at that point, so we shipped them unit with a place holder FW that could do only one thing: FW upgrade!

Anyone interested in this subject should watch Radio-Canada/CBC excellent documentary Breaking Point part [1] & part [2]. It make a good job of showing both side motivation in the 95 referendum and also the international politics in trying to get France to recognize a Yes vote.

[1] https://youtu.be/Fl7lOundk4Y [2] https://youtu.be/nnF46gRSPig

I really wish Espressif would release a new chip with Dual BT (BR/EDR + LE) again beside the original one (which lack a USB phy). BT classic is still around for many application.

I got my BlueRetro [1] project which is a universal BT controller adapter for retro console.

I'm making a pretty bad job monetizing this TBH. I originally wanted to sell the HW myself but turn out that with real job + young family with the little energy and time left I can't do more than "here's the code".

Turn out a few makers pick it up and are nice enough to give me a cut on their sales. Adding user donation I maybe made 2K out of it this year, not much but better than nothing I guess.

I wrote a retrospective about the last three year working in this if you like more detail [2]

[1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro

[2] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/discussions/289

I didn't want to run a blog but I still want to write about stuff I did sometimes. So I personally got a Dev Journal thread in my GitHub repo discussion section. When I feel like writing about something I did I put it there.

Thanks! I haven't done such articles in a while, I need to start again!

Author here.

I wrote a retrospective that might be interesting to read to some: https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/discussions/289

In this article, I detail how my initial goal of leaning more about Bluetooth and sell a product turned into a software platform makers now use to sell their own hardware take base on my original design.

You can easily give the project a try without building a full adapter. If you got a dev board with the original ESP32 you can flash [1] the BlueRetro_pad_test.bin firmware, connect a Bluetooth device [2] to it and see the buttons inputs from a terminal [3]. You can also connect to the web Bluetooth interface [4] to take a look at the configuration.

To simply see the adapter in action you can look at my original Hackday Prize submission video [5].

[1] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/wiki/Flashing-firmwa...

[2] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/wiki/Controller-pair...

[3] https://github.com/darthcloud/BlueRetro/wiki/Getting-BlueRet...

[4] https://blueretro.io/

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj_Zbjb2_ms

I worked in a monorepo for the first 10 years of my career. That repo was pretty much a custom Linux distribution including userspace, various kernel version and various wireless drivers version. By the time I left the repo was close to 20 years old.

Due to all the legacy baggage this wasn't for sure the best example.

But I don't miss one bit being called to ssh on a machine to merge conflict in urgency to unblock some unknown project release. Nor the fear of blocking 1000+ dev if I f up somehow.