Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Mary

  • beacon

    you call me cute in a way I cannot fight 
    I call surrender 
    surrounded by cool August breeze
    safe in a warm nest of pillows and sheets
    

• Technology and Free Software

  • WCH Electronics' CH32V407 Packs Vector Extensions for a Speed Boost — Plus Optional PSRAM

    WCH Electronics has launched a new entry in its popular CH32 family of 32-bit RISC-V architecture microcontrollers, the CH32V407 — expandable to include additional RAM as the CH32V467.

    "CH32V407 is an industrial-grade interconnected microcontroller based on the QingKe RISC-V core," WCH Electronics says of the device. "It supports zero-wait operation at a 200MHz clock speed and the V-vector instruction set, making it suitable for applications such as accelerated computing and parallel processing."

  • BlackBerry

    Yesterday at the office, my team was tasked to clear out the cubicle of someone who had recently left the company. He worked in our asset protection department, and he had left piles of miscellaneous junk all over his workspace, from fingerprint dust to half a dozen desktop computers, camera equipment, 3D printers, and even a set of handcuff keys.

    A particularly interesting find for me was two boxes of mobile phones that had been turned into our lost and found but not claimed after three months. We found piles of iPhones, Samsungs, Motorolas, a few OnePlus models, and even a pristine Google Pixel 10. The phone I was most excited to discover, however, was a BlackBerry Bold 9780. As the phones were all consigned to disposal, I was allowed to take it for myself.

    The 9780 runs BlackBerry OS 6 and, instead of a touch-sensitive screen, features a trackpad just above the keyboard. At 109 x 60 x 14 millimeters, it was considered an ideal size when it first released in 2010, but the device is absolutely tiny by today's standards. I can easily reach the "A" key with my right thumb while holding the phone one-handed, and I find that despite the tiny key size, I can actually type on it fairly quickly. It was unlocked when I found it and in surprisingly good condition; even the battery holds up quite well.