Dave Gauer's personal website. Mostly technical articles. http://ratfactor.com/ 2021-07-16T00:00:00Z http://ratfactor.com/atom 2021-07-02T00:00:00Z

I've finally added a feed to the site! This link is very meta.

Dave Gauer http://ratfactor.com/zig/browseable-standard-library 2021-07-16T00:00:00Z

Though much of it is sparsely commented, the Zig standard library is quite readable. Nevertheless, being told to "go read the source" is intimidating. How can we make it easier to explore the library source?

Dave Gauer http://ratfactor.com/siglent-i2c 2021-09-21T00:00:00Z

I figured out how to decode I2C serial data from a microcontroller to another device with my Siglent SDS1202X-E Oscilloscope and it was totally awesome! I put together this guide (with pictures!) for noobs like me.

Dave Gauer http://ratfactor.com/pi-zero-luggable 2021-10-17T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I made a cardboard "laptop" or "luggable" computer featuring a 7-inch LCD display and a Raspberry Pi Zero. It was a fun weekend project that scratched an itch I've had for a long time. Motivation and pictures in the article!

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/ 2021-10-19T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

***RSS Club*** Shhhh! It's a secret! This is my first feed-only article. Check it out!

http://ratfactor.com/humans.txt 2021-10-21T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

(RSS-Club: this missive is feed-only. Hello readers!) I'm getting in on this whole "humans.txt" thing. Anything to make the 'Web and 'Net a little more weird/personal/delightful!

http://ratfactor.com/timeline 2021-11-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

This is an idea I've been mulling over for a long time: keeping a personal timeline of history. By "personal" I don't mean a timeline of things in my own personal life. I mean a timeline of general history containing only events that interest me, personally. I finally started mine.

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/public-notes 2021-11-05T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*** RSS-CLUB EXCLUSIVE! *** I want to put more of my personal collection of notes up here on this website, right out in public. Here's why!

http://ratfactor.com/slackware/apache-php-fpm 2021-11-06T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I'm making good on my earlier promise to start publishing more of my notes in public so others can benefit from them and where I am more likely to find them myself! Here's my notes from today's excursion into getting Apache working with PHP-FPM (specifically on Slackware Linux, but the instructions are quite vanilla because Slackware doesn't mess with upstream packages.)

http://ratfactor.com/web-flow 2021-11-09T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Websites with designs that appear to end at the bottom of the screen have always been a problem. But I've run into some examples lately that have actually confused me.

http://ratfactor.com/multitimer 2021-11-28T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I'm very excited to have finished a hardware project: a productivity "multitimer" based on the Raspberry Pi Pico (PR2040 microcontroller). It has a keypad for timer categories and LCD display for elapsed minutes in each category. It is also very colorful.

http://ratfactor.com/assembly-nights 2021-11-29T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Over the last three months, I've developed an unusual little nighttime routine: after reading bedtime stories to the kids, I hop into bed and instead of reaching for a fiction book, I'm turning on my 14-year old Asus eeePC 701 miniature laptop and writing x86 assembly language. This is turning out to be an insanely good use of my time...

http://ratfactor.com/teardown 2021-12-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Really pleased with how easy it is to examine the parts of the voxel destruction physics game Teardown. Gotta "hack" games for the kids, you know. :-)

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/pain-books 2021-12-13T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

**RSS Club Exclusive** This is a bit of a rant, but I want to get it off my chest and I'm tired of unloading this stuff on my long-suffering wife.

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/nosurf 2022-01-28T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

**RSS Club Exclusive** Hi, my name is Dave and I have a Web surfing problem.

http://ratfactor.com/setup2 2022-02-03T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I had a dream: * A low power, always-on computer I could SSH into from any other computer in the house. * All of my projects and data in Git repos available for cloning and updating from any computer in the house. * My personal Linux/UNIX configuration ("dotfiles") available to any computer in the house for instant and granular installation. * No dependencies on any computer outside my home network. Time for a new setup!

http://ratfactor.com/notes 2022-02-18T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I call it my "log system" and I've been keeping it for almost a decade. Read all about my notebooks (96 and counting), the digital transcription, and the meaning of life. And pictures of notebooks!

http://ratfactor.com/cards/index 2022-02-27T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Okay, I've done it! I've started a Zettelkasten. Only, I'm not following anybody's rules. I'm just calling these "cards". I'm already loving this. (Oh, and just so you know, all content up there right now was plotted out on actual paper index cards. So it's *totally* legit.)

http://ratfactor.com/wordleshare 2022-03-24T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

After tiring of jumping through ridiculous hoops to privately share Wordle results with family, I created a really simple Perl CGI application to do the job... This is what software would be like in a utopia.

http://ratfactor.com/cards/phased 2022-04-29T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I already knew this, but sometimes it's really pleasant to turn yourself into a factory worker on your own project...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/computers-as-workspaces 2022-05-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

This was just a "shower thought", but it turned into into an IndieWeb "reply". For that reason, I'm adding it to this feed. :-)

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/nosurf2 2022-05-27T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*RSS Club* Exclusive followup to the previous "nosurf" post. Great news, everybody!

http://ratfactor.com/felting/index 2022-07-27T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I resisted the urge as long as I could. Because Dave Doesn't Need Another Hobby. But needle felting is cool! I'm updating this page as I make progress. (This post is mostly pictures with descriptions.)

setup2-update 2022-07-29T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I've made a big addition to my "Setup2" article about personal computer management with Git and Stow. A check-repos script now helps me quickly check for changes that need to be synced on each machine...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/hello-mastodon 2022-08-02T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*RSS Club* Hey, if you read my feed, I guess you care what I'm up to. So Mastodon is what I'm up to! Check it out.

http://ratfactor.com/openbsd/2022-08-02-install 2022-08-12T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

My OpenBSD exploration begins! Well, began a while ago, but now I'm SeRIouS about it. This first post is about the installation experience...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/ai-vs-art 2022-09-10T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

(OLD PERSON RANT WARNING) It turns out, I do regret posting this to my Virtual Box of Cards. But not for saying it. I stand by what I wrote here for now. Also, this new title isn't much better, but at least it's still pretty short...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/nosurf3 2022-09-23T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*RSS Club* Exclusive SECOND followup to the previous "nosurf" post. Getting closer and closer to the truth...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/linux-data-recovery 2022-09-25T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I was afraid I'd lost the beginings of a new project when my old EeePC (circa 2007) drive finally became corrupted. But I was able to do the simplest, stupidest recovery you can imagine to recover the project...

http://ratfactor.com/slackware/autologin 2022-10-02T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I now have two machines set up to auto-login and I love it. These instructions may apply to some non-Slackware Linuxes as well. Also, gnome-keyring-daemon needs some UI help...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/school-vs-wikipedia 2022-10-07T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*RSS Club* HATE-FILLED RANT: What the hell is going on at my local public school system?

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/hot-takes-too-hot 2022-10-08T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*RSS Club* Wow, I wasn't expecting yesterday's rant to appear HN. My only regret is that I didn't state my actual frustration well and I was clearly misunderstood...

http://ratfactor.com/nasmjf/index 2022-10-10T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Another FORTH interpreter roams the Earth! It's my NASM assembly port of JONESFORTH. Because I'm a human being, it was over a year in the making. "Unfortunately, no one can be told what FORTH is. You have to write one for yourself."...

http://ratfactor.com/assembly-nights2 2022-11-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

During Assembly Nights Season One (porting JONESFORTH to NASM), I kept having ideas for other Forth-like things I'd like to try. But I was good: I wrote them down and stayed the course with the port. But when the port was done, one of those ideas just wouldn't let me rest and I was compelled to start on it immediately! Now when the lights go out and everyone else in the house has gone to sleep, I start writing assembly code...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/aaron-swartz 2022-11-08T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

In one of those eerie "out of the blue" coincidences, I found myself thinking this morning about Aaron Swartz. It turns out today was his birthday: November 8, 1986...

http://ratfactor.com/meow5/ 2022-11-10T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

My Assembly Nights: "Season Two" project now has its very own page and maaaayyybe also a cute logo. If you just can't get enough assembly and Forth-like programming madness, or if you like cute logos, I've got what you need...

http://ratfactor.com/mrtree/index 2022-11-27T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Wow! I just self-published a real physical illustrated children's book. I did the watercolor illustrations in my sketchbook in 2017, but it took until now to assemble the book and publish it through Amazon. This is so cool...

http://ratfactor.com/openbsd/blog-03-more 2022-12-28T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

My guided book tour of OpenBSD continues. Highlights include the ports system and /etc info. Nothing too exciting...

http://ratfactor.com/openbsd/blog-04-servers-and-x 2022-12-30T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Two more OpenBSD chapters complete. The exploration continues...

http://ratfactor.com/openbsd/blog-05-tour-conclusion 2022-12-31T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Whoooosh! That's the sound of me getting this done in the year 2022 so I have one less thing on my plate for 2023! I review six more book chapters and give my conclusions so far...

http://ratfactor.com/mc2023/ 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Guess what? 2023 is The Year of the Microcontroller! Well, it is in MY house...

http://ratfactor.com/minslides/ 2023-01-11T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I'll be giving a presentation fairly soon and I needed something simple. So I made something simple in about an hour after work today...

http://ratfactor.com/mc2023/chapter1 2023-01-13T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

First follow-up to The Year of the Microcontroller. This "chapter" wraps up the first eventful week of my year-long foray into MCs. I think you (YOU!) will dig what became of that cardboard computer...

http://ratfactor.com/hoo/deck 2023-01-15T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I just finished drawing 78 Tarot cards in 52 days. I'm not gonna lie, it feels good...

http://ratfactor.com/humans.txt.2 2023-01-20T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

(RSS-Club: this missive is feed-only. Hello readers!) I'm taking a firm stand. There is NO "MACHINE LEARNING"-generated content on this website. In the year 2023, the /humans.txt file suddenly feels like a battle cry rather than a cute "hello". I'm not even slightly interested in a debate about this. Thank you! I love my RSS readers! You are all awesome. Hope 2023 is going well.

http://ratfactor.com/cards/vim-search-folding 2023-01-26T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Super happy with this little Vim thingy I've been wanting to make for a long, long time. It turned out to be way easier than I'd expected thanks to Vim's typically weird but flexible folding settings...

http://ratfactor.com/hoo/index 2023-01-30T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

It's done at last! I put my whole digital life on hold to finish this game jam entry...

http://ratfactor.com/forth/forth_talk_2023.html 2023-02-24T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I gave this talk at work today. It's full of amusing drawings and should still make a fair amount of sense without hearing my commentary. I've attempted to unlock what makes Forth *really* tick - from the what, to the why, to the how...

http://ratfactor.com/slackware/new-computer 2023-02-26T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I've installed Slackware 15.0 a lot in the last couple months. So I decided it was finally time to write up a page about the process (whether I'm qualified or not!) while it's still fresh in my head. This is how I install the only operating system that helps YOU get more life-giving SLACK and gain in POWER every day!...

http://ratfactor.com/zig/zignew-zigswitch 2023-03-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Just some scripts here. Nothing too exciting, but might give you some ideas for automating the tasks in your life. The *coolest part* is definitely using a fuzzy matcher (zf in this case; FZF is also very popular). There are *so* many uses for fuzzy search menus to take the pain out of common CLI tasks...

http://ratfactor.com/slackware/slackbuilds 2023-03-05T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Installing the Hare programming language on Slackware just got easier thanks to yours truly. But this is really a love note to the tireless volunteers at slackbuilds.org...

http://ratfactor.com/slackware/three-monitors 2023-03-06T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

A saga nearly a year in the making: Then a new Linux kernel and a new video card make the whole thing trivial...

http://ratfactor.com/retrov/ 2023-03-28T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

So I basically lost my mind for two weeks and the result is a new JavaScript VDOM library. This was a side quest I did not need in my life and the world probably did not need in general. But you know what? I'm proud of this little thing and I'm really glad I made it. The link here is basically a whole mini-site with tutorials, tests, demos, and articles. See where my nights and weekends have gone...

http://ratfactor.com/zig/help 2023-04-03T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Simply asking for help was the best thing I've done in a while. Scroll to the bottom for my t-shirt design. I can't wait for mine to come in the mail...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/dumb-first 2023-04-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I think it's usually a mistake to try to write a "correct" program from a blank slate...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/build-it-twice 2023-04-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I wonder what it would be like if we all approached software development with a "build it twice" mentality...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/nosurf4 2023-04-17T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*RSS Club* Exclusive FOURTH "nosurf" post. Distractions can't compete with these two techniques. The only problem is that they're both pretty indulgent...

http://ratfactor.com/mc2023/chapter2 2023-04-18T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I'm back on track! This second "chapter" of The Year of the Microcontroller is finally complete...

http://ratfactor.com/mc2023/chapter3 2023-04-22T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

It's alive! I did the math and made a thing move in the real world. Also dusted off the oscilloscope for this one...

http://ratfactor.com/mc2023/chapter4 2023-05-07T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

This was a really great "chapter" for me. I'd done some I2C with Micropython before, so I decided to tackle something more challenging with an OLED display. I ended up writing some tools in Zig to stream cat pictures to my device! Check it out...

http://ratfactor.com/papers/naur1 2023-05-12T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

It finally dawned on me that I should write up summaries of the [computer science] papers I read and put them somewhere so the thoughts aren't lost forever. Here's the first one. Prepare to raise your fist in the air as Peter Naur tells it like it is...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/project-balance 2023-05-25T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Have I reached peak time fragmentation? I knew I was doing a lot of different projects, but I had no idea I was juggling *this* much...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/temporal-workspaces 2023-05-30T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

That last entry felt a bit unhinged, but it truthfully describes the meta-task that has been occupying my head for weeks. Thankfully, I've found some peace with the idea of identifying "tracks" of time in my days and organizing my multitudinous projects into queues in these tracks. Huh? Perhaps some visuals will help...

http://ratfactor.com/zig/hard 2023-05-31T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

After a long hiatus, I'm back on the Zig train. Choo choo! You know, I don't see a lot of people addressing what I *personally* find difficult about Zig, so I've collected my thoughts here...

http://ratfactor.com/mc2023/chapter5 2023-06-26T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I have succeeded at plowing through a month's worth of failure to arrive at the next stop on my microcontroller adventures...

http://ratfactor.com/forth/the_programming_language_that_writes_itself.html 2023-07-16T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I started to write the spoken content for my little Forth talk and it just sort of...kept growing. I'm proud to announce the completion of this massive article about the past, present, and future of the Forth programming language.

http://ratfactor.com/slackware/software 2023-07-21T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I've almost certainly forgotten some of my favorite utilities, but at least I've got most of them here. I recently discovered Modern CSV and Scribus and I didn't want to forget about them (I don't need to edit CSV files or make print documents *that* often, but when I do, I wanna remember what I've picked). Anyway, perhaps others will enjoy from my list...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/ramp-down 2023-08-23T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I tried an experiment in intentional relaxation. Maybe it's kinda obvious in retrospect, but I think it's already changed my life. I'll definitely be doing this again in the future...

http://ratfactor.com/leaving-github 2023-09-04T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I've been deliberating it for a month. I know I'll be explaining this for a long time to come, so I might as well make a page I can point to...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/reply-guy 2023-09-12T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

*RSS Club* Exclusive follow-up and tell-all about the last post. Contains: Three positive personal outcomes reply-guys hate...

ziglings.org 2023-09-19T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Heck yeah we're doing this! So Ziglings is now on Codeberg in its own "Ziglings" organization. The ziglings.org domain takes you directly there. What's really cool is that you can even *clone the repo* from the ziglings.org domain. Ziglings will remain on GitHub in some sort of read-only fashion. We're not entirely sure what would be best and we're soliciting ideas in a new issue I just posted there. The best part of all of this is that my Ziglings co-maintainer did all of the work. I didn't have to lift a finger. Thanks Chris!

http://ratfactor.com/repos/reporat/ 2023-09-29T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

GitHub = history. RepoRat generates static mini-sites for Git repos. 10 hours of work spread over 7 days. About 300 lines of Ruby...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/retro-simplicity 2023-10-11T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

The best time for simple, retro-style computing is NOW. Revel in your time. Do not give in to the lure of Big Complexity...

http://ratfactor.com/repos/rubylit/ 2023-10-19T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Here's a fun one: I got this wild hare to make a simple version of Knuth's Literate Programming in Ruby. How small could it be? Turns out 35 lines (not golfed) gives you quite a bit. YES, it includes out-of-order source, so it's a *real* literate programming system (by some definition of "real") and YES, the final program is written in itself...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/literate-programming 2023-10-20T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Followup! My fresh thoughts (and FEELINGS) while I'm still all enthused about this Literate Programming experience...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/run-sh 2023-10-22T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Here's something I've experienced many times in the past, but most notably this week...the power of shell scripts to contain knowledge!

http://ratfactor.com/repos/zstd-browse2/ 2023-10-28T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Hi everybody! Another wacky night project I just had to make once the idea took hold. This is my _third_ shot (this time in Ruby) at making the Zig standard library easy to read. This feed item links to the repo, where you can find a link to the actual output of this tool...

http://ratfactor.com/repos/pumpkin.sh/ 2023-10-31T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Since I've been neck-deep in ANSI escape sequences while working on my ELF decoder, I thought I'd make this fun little pumpkin. Happy Halloween, for those who celebrate!

http://ratfactor.com/cards/asm-data-in-text 2023-11-08T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Made a fun little demo tonight while working on Meow5 and wanted to share...

https://www.ratfactor.com/repos/rat-tools/ 2023-11-15T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Tools I use to build and maintain this website...

http://ratfactor.com/meow5/done 2023-11-21T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Over a year later, it's done! Assembly Nights Season 2 has concluded and I proudly present my "thought experiment taken too far"...

http://ratfactor.com/hiss/log 2023-12-01T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

A low-key adventure! A little bit of progress each day on a project. There won't be an entry each day on this RSS feed. But I'm sure I'll post an update when it's done. So feel free to watch or not or somehow both.

http://ratfactor.com/nogdog/ 2023-12-10T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I just finished this epic drawing and I want you to look at it!

http://ratfactor.com/cards/if-else-stack 2023-12-12T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Just a quick little "discovery" during the aforementioned and ongoing December Adventure 2023 that I thought should have its own page...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/svg-min-ruby 2023-12-14T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Another thing emerges from the ongoing December Adventure 2023: a super simple Ruby utility for making super tiny SVG line art!

http://ratfactor.com/cards/archive-your-projects 2023-12-16T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Why and how you should preserve your projects for your future self (and possibly other people too) to enjoy!

http://ratfactor.com/cards/js-this 2023-12-18T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

A fable! And a drawing!

http://ratfactor.com/cards/fake-trees 2023-12-29T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

A UI programming "hack" in which your mileage varies and the dead return to extract vengeance upon the living.

http://ratfactor.com/cards/multiple-tools 2023-12-30T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

All of a sudden, I realized I never fully made the transition from Thunderbird to aerc for email and...I never will and...that's okay! If you're not sure if that's okay or not for *you*, maybe this page will be a comfort...

http://ratfactor.com/cards/leopard-free 2024-02-03T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

A short parable by Franz Kafka describes our crummy code? I think so and it feels good to escape this fate...

http://ratfactor.com/wrap-2023 2024-03-07T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

My first ever year wrap-up. Also, 2024 is happening, but not happening...

http://ratfactor.com/rss-club/ripoff 2024-07-27T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

Hey RSS readers! Time for another RSS-only article. I really need to vent about this because two days later, it's still bothering me...

http://ratfactor.com/mnt-pocket-reform/first 2024-09-03T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

It came! I like it...

https://ratfactor.com/tools/timerseq.html 2024-10-02T00:00:00Z Dave Gauer

I've finished a new tool to add to the site - I made this one to "do the counting" for my daily physical therapy exercises...