Adrian Chadd
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erikarn.bsky.social
Adrian Chadd
@erikarn.bsky.social
* he/him
* VR/AR prototype work at Facebook/Meta
* KK6VQK when RF
* Discord - therealerikarn
* FreeBSD, WiFi drivers/stack, Retro Computing, Random Electronics, and occasional kid/puppy stories
* https://erikarn.github.io/ for links to everything else
Pinned
Ceci n'est pas pinned post
why yes I did some more SGI Indy sins, this time finding an old Analog Devices DS1386 datasheet that's just FULL OF LIES

adrianchadd.blogspot.com/2025/12/inst...
Installing a 32k DS1386 into an SGI Indy that expects an 8k DS1386
The TL;DR is - you can't just plug a 32k DS1386 into an SGI Indy and have it work, as a bunch of stuff is wrong.  The longer version! Here'...
adrianchadd.blogspot.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:27 AM
.. what the hell is the turtle island liberation front? :p
December 15, 2025 at 8:38 PM
i can't believe i have to say this but

the answer to the gun violence in australia this week is not more guns, its not concealed carry. it's less guns. it's less hate. it's less allowing hate to fester for personal or political gains.

it's less guns. get less guns.
December 15, 2025 at 6:16 AM
A story about an SGI Indy motherboard in three parts.

First, a 47uF capacitor that exploded once I fired it up. (yes I checked the board for shorts first, no shorts.) Wow that smelled.

Second, the board didn't boot right.

Third, a 47uF capacitor which was a >150C, it had DEVELOPED a short.
December 13, 2025 at 8:40 PM
The best part of this SGI Indy IOC2 chipset datasheet so far.

IYKYK
December 13, 2025 at 8:32 PM
sigh, the DNCC is really scared, they're sending me so many "please donate" emails

anyway I donated another $25 to @katmabu.bsky.social like I said I would any time the DNCC tries to scare me into donating
December 13, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Adrian Chadd
To give you a sense of how big a departure this year, the government doesn't do this for wanted criminals.
SCOOP: The Trump administration is providing the names of all travelers passing through U.S. airports to immigration officials in search of people with deportation orders, a substantial expansion of government efforts to draw on data to hunt down immigrants.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...
Immigration Agents Are Using Air Passenger Data for Deportation Effort
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Adrian Chadd
The children who get measles because their parents are selfish idiots do not deserve this. This is why mandating vaccines is important.

When your child asks why they are suffering, why they have gone deaf, blind or died because you let them get the measles---I hope you know it is your fault.
Latest on South Carolina measles outbreak: "Of the 111 measles cases recorded in that area...105 involved people who were unvaccinated while three involved those who were partially vaccinated...At least 254 people had been placed in quarantine as of Tuesday"
Hundreds quarantined as South Carolina measles outbreak accelerates
A state epidemiologist said the spike in cases came in the wake of Thanksgiving travel and a lack of vaccinations. At least 16 cases were traced to a church.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Adrian Chadd
Your 4 year old doesn't know that you selfishly stole his vaccines and gave him a preventable illness that destroyed his immune system and led to years of suffering. But your 10 year old will google that shit. And they will never forgive you. And you deserve that hate plus more.
December 11, 2025 at 2:49 PM
why yes lunch was a bowl of cereal and half a bar of dark chocolate

(it's fine, i'm fine, i'm just being christmas holiday lazy rn)
December 11, 2025 at 9:28 PM
So, amusingly, I'm going to try and go to this next year out of interest in ATproto and the community as a whole.

(And I may be That Guy and write a C implementation of something low level in ATproto whilst I'm there...)
December 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
likely like the star trek articles of federation, tbh
I’m loving these answers!! Add yours!!!
omg. Kat Abughazaleh just posted that if she's elected, she'll swear in on a copy of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.

If you were elected to public office (never mind whether you'd ever actually run), what book would you swear in on?
December 10, 2025 at 3:21 AM
So whilst I'm debugging corner case stuff in the netbsd and x11 newport (XL) graphics drivers for the SGI Indy (and if someone wants to buy me an Indigo 2 with XL graphics, that too..)

.. does anyone know any of the old SGI chipset people? Graphics/GL programmers?

Because I have Questions.
December 10, 2025 at 3:03 AM
I'm watching Gene Simmons testify to the Senate on some stuff and holy shit he's not pulling punches!
December 9, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Adrian Chadd
As with everything he says, this is wildly uninformed. Formula keeps getting better and saves lives. And modern research indicates that outcomes are roughly the same. There are reasons to breastfeed but your child isn’t suffering if you don’t
RFK Jr: "All of the ingenuity of corporate America has not produced an infant formula that is superior in nutrition and all the qualities that we want to the infant formula that God made, which is the infant formula in a mother's breast."
December 8, 2025 at 10:14 PM
as someone who's kid is lactose intolerant and far outstripped my wife's production in week 2, i really want to say "robert, sir, what the fuck"
👋 Breastfeeding & infant feeding expert here! All babies need safe, accessible nutrition. Most people already want to breastfeed and 84% start out doing so but can’t realize their goals. What we need are *policies* that make it possible to breastfeed for all who desire to do so and…
RFK Jr: "All of the ingenuity of corporate America has not produced an infant formula that is superior in nutrition and all the qualities that we want to the infant formula that God made, which is the infant formula in a mother's breast."
December 9, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Reposted by Adrian Chadd
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.“

We’ll take the Statue of Liberty & these new U.S. citizens.

You can keep Stephen Miller and Donald Trump, and their small, cruel, heartless racism.
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...
Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide
Trump administration is pausing naturalizations for immigrants from 19 countries.
www.wgbh.org
December 7, 2025 at 4:14 AM
I have the best new idea for a PFP

(sorry @swiftonsecurity.com )
December 6, 2025 at 3:46 PM
[ 1.0000000] cpu0 at mainbus0: MIPS R5000 CPU (0x2310) Rev. 1.0 with built-in FPU Rev. 1.0

why yes i did just figure out why netbsd wasn't booting on the R5000SC I have here, complete with 512k of secondary dcache (but no secondary icache.)
December 5, 2025 at 8:06 AM
hey now this is my hashtag squadgoal when i retire /s
Think about how for decades, one of the ingredients of a crackpot was: retired engineer.

Retired engineers, for *generations* have been a fertile ground for crackpot theories in everything.

They get that golden watch and bam, incoherent manifesto about quantum archeology inbound.
December 5, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Adrian Chadd
“the USPS must turn a profit” makes me want to set things on fire

they put a clause in the fucking constitution about postal service, that’s how important it is

nothing in there about “only if you can make money on it”
🚨SCOOP: Amazon is preparing to sever ties with USPS and expand its shipping network as a true coast-to-coast rival.

It could cost USPS more than *$6 billion* a year in lost revenue, and lead Amazon to dominate yet another facet of the economy.

USPS posted a *$9 billion* loss in 2025.
Amazon explores cutting ties with USPS, building its own delivery network
Amazon looks into expanding its nationwide delivery network and giving up its longstanding partnership with the U.S. Postal Service.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:32 PM
WHAT THEY REALLY TOOK FROM US.

look at that *AESTHETIC*
December 4, 2025 at 12:09 AM
ah crap I figured out how the SGI Indy / Indigo2 monitor detection works and why colour maps were inconsistently programmed in under netbsd

(and yes I have a big ass diff to fix it all, once I test it on all the hardware combinations to be That Fucking Sure)
adrianchadd.blogspot.com/2025/12/reve...
Reverse Engineering the SGI Indy Monitor Detection, or "thank god someone added SGI indy / indigo 2 support to MAME"
I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for the SGI Indy and (purple, not teal, heh) Indigo 2. So imagine my surprise when NetBSD "almost" ...
adrianchadd.blogspot.com
December 2, 2025 at 4:36 PM