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Mar 7, 2026


I’m posting these graphs for my own reference:

Climate graphs from Weather Spark (NYC, Arroyo Grande)

Ocean temperatures from Surf-Forecast.com (Asbury Park, Pismo Beach)


Mar 2, 2026


Relisten.net I just discovered Relisten (via a post about gapless.js on HN) a website with a slick multi-column layout for browsing live music recordings on Archive.org. I somehow missed this in my search for prior art while building my own Archive.org audio player.

Relisten is built by a different Daniel in Brooklyn. Hello, Daniel! 👋


Feb 23, 2026


XKCD 949 from September, 2011 still rings true 15 years later.

In my case, I want to share photos and videos with my friends, family, and strangers at full resolution. My experience is iPhone-centric. Here’s a quick rundown of my findings (as of March, 2026)

If I could impart one important point it’s that you cannot rely on file storage you do not pay for. If someone share something with you, download it!

Platform Pros Cons Verdict
Apple AirDrop 1. Full resolution files
2. Works with strangers
3. Can transfer large files (multiple GBs!) quickly
1. Everyone needs an iPhone (almost)
2. Sometimes fails without explanation
✅
Use this to get pictures from strangers!
Apple iMessage 1. Easy
2. Works with strangers
3. Acceptable resolution
1. Usually not full resolution
2. Have to give a stranger your phone number
3. Don’t have everything in the same place
✅
Use with strangers when AirDrop fails but be sure and save everything you want out of it becase it’s hard to find later
Google Drive 1. Full resolution files
2. Folders can be set to public upload
3. Video player works well
4. Videos can be saved to iPhones via “Send a copy”
Uploaders own the files they upload regardless of who owns the folder and it counts against their Google storage limit (unless they go through the non-intuitive process of changing ownership)

When the uploader invariably deletes their files to free up space in their Google account you will no longer have access to them
🆗
Okay for recieving files BUT do not trust that files uploaded by other people will stay around forever
Dropbox 1. Full resolution
2. More savvy users like it
Storage is limited so uploaders delete things to save space 🆗
Okay for recieving files BUT do not trust that files uploaded by other people will stay around forever
Slack DMs Simple 1. Full resolution
2. Available on desktop and mobile
3. Limited to 1GB per file
4. Hard to download lots of files
🆗
Okay for recieving files
Apple Photos Shared Gallery Easy, simple, integrated! 1. Everyone needs an iPhone
2. Videos resized to 720p, photos to 2048px (src)
3. Hard to download everything
4. Doesn’t work for strangers
âš ī¸
Easy for groups to quickly share photos but try and get higher quality copies some other way
WhatsApp Simple, wide usage. People who use it tend to be very familiar with it 1. SD & HD options but both are compressed.
2. Hard to download lots of files
3. Have to share your phone number
âš ī¸
Try other options first
SMS Simple Files are heavily compressed â˜šī¸
Prefer anything else
Instagram messages Simple Files are heavily compressed â˜šī¸
Prefer anything else
TikTok messages Simple 1. Videos not viewable on desktop
2. No way to download videos on phone except screen recording
❌
Avoid
Partiful gallery Simple, everyone already has access Images and videos are heavily compressed ❌
Avoid

Jan 20, 2026


1975 University of Connecticut Marching Band

01-The 1975 Pre-Game Show
3:40
02-1975 Street Series - UConn Husky
1:31
03-1975 Street Series - Old Connecticut
1:47
04-1975 Street Series - The Stars and Stripes Forever
3:26
05-1975 Street Series - The Star-Spangled Banner
1:80
06-Captain from Castile
1:60
07-The Stevie Wonder Show - Up Tight
1:53
08-The Stevie Wonder Show - Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing
1:54
09-The Stevie Wonder Show - Higher Ground
1:36
10-The Stevie Wonder Show - You Are the Sunshine of my Life
2:49
11-The Bruckner Show - Scherzo, Symphony IV; King David; Chorale; Nights in White Satin; Candide, Overture; King David, Finale
11:00
12-Knock Three Times
1:20
13-"The Bitch is Back" Show - The Bitch is Back
0:36
14-"The Bitch is Back" Show - How Can I Be Sure
2:60
15-"The Bitch is Back" Show - Call on Me
2:32
16-"The Bitch is Back" Show - Come Rain or Come Shine
2:26
raw_audio
55:36
Hosted by the Internet Archive ⓘ

This is a part of a series where I digitize vinyl records. More UConn records / all records!


Jan 10, 2026


1965 University of Connecticut Marching Band

1/21
Fanfare #5
0:12
2/21
Temptation
1:45
3/21
Joshua
1:27
4/21
Lover
1:90
5/21
Saints in Concert
2:55
6/21
Bugler's Holiday
1:30
7/21
Latin Prelude
2:40
8/21
Keep on Dancing
0:45
9/21
My Fair Lady
3:00
10/21
That's Entertainment
1:13
11/21
Moon River - Pink Panther
2:33
12/21
See You In My Dreams
1:10
13/21
Fanfare #1
0:39
14/21
UConn Husky
1:34
15/21
Old Connecticut
1:29
16/21
Fight Connecticut
1:00
17/21
National Emblem
2:59
18/21
Them Basses
2:55
19/21
American's We
3:19
20/21
On The Square
2:50
21/21
Hosts of Freedom
2:11
01
Raw audio
43:36
Hosted by the Internet Archive ⓘ

This album is notable for track 16, “Fight Connecticut”, which hasn’t appeared anywhere else yet.

This is a part of a series where I digitize vinyl records. More UConn records / all records!


Jan 8, 2026


Notable Local Bird Sightings from eBird I’ve made some improvements to my eBird TRMNL plugin that displays notable birds in your area! All you need is a free account and then you can generate an API key. The plugin will do the rest!

The API docs define “notable” as the following:

Notable observations can be for locally or nationally rare species or are otherwise unusual, for example over-wintering birds in a species which is normally only a summer visitor.

This is one of several TRMNL plugins I maintain! Find them all under the tag TRMNL


Dec 30, 2025


Lehigh University Jazz Band 1979-1980

01-Groovin' Hard
5:55
02-Gary
5:45
03-Tiger of San Pedro
4:54
04-I Remember Clifford
4:29
05-Wind Machine
3:13
06-West End
6:24
07-Jaberwocky and Titinium Blues
11:36
raw audio
44:40
Hosted by the Internet Archive ⓘ

This whole album is very fun. Apparently track 3 is named after a Sherlock Holmes story (Wikipedia)

The title is based on a character in one of the 56 short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes. Don Juan Murillo is a deposed dictator from Central America, formerly known as “The Tiger of San Pedro”, living in England, in the story “The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge”.

This is a part of a series where I digitize vinyl records. More Lehigh records / all records!


Dec 26, 2025


Converting records with a USB turntable and Raspberry Pi Peviously I left a laptop sitting by my record player running Audacity but that was inconvenient so I stuck a Raspberry Pi over there and run these commands via SSH.

I am not an expert, I’m just using the equipment I have so please don’t interpret this as “the best way to convert records”

You can hear some records converted by this process at by browsing posts tagged “vinyl”

Components:

  • Record player with USB output (AT-LP120XUSB)
  • Raspberry Pi (Using a 3B but probably anything will work)
  • NAS

Prior Art:

  • Hi-Fi analog to digital with IceCast
    Utilizes IceCast to stream audio around your network. Involves running several services and is primarily focused on streaming.

  • PiDeck
    A system for DJing with your turntable, not for converting

  • Z-LiveRec
    This is an interesting piece of software but is built as a desktop application. I’d rather run everything from the command line. If it had a web interface I would consider purchasing it.

  • Ripping Vinyl Records on a Raspberry Pi
    This is very close to what I am doing! Ed describes some issues writing to his local storage and file server but I haven’t noticed anything similar. Perhaps he was using an older Raspberry Pi? (I’m using a Raspberry Pi 3)

Update, March 2026:

  • Vinyl-Airplay Sending audio from a turntable to AirPlay and recording it with a Raspberry Pi! This is very cool!

My Setup:

  1. Connect Raspberry Pi to record player via USB

  2. Ensure mount directory exists and mount the NAS via SMB

    mkdir -p /tmp/nas;
    sudo mount.cifs //nas.local/home /tmp/nas -o user=daniel,nounix,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g)
    
  3. Change to the relevant directory

    cd /tmp/nas/my_new_record
    
  4. Identify the correct audio device

    arecord -l
    

    I’m going to be using card 2, device 0 which is indicated on the second line:

    **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
    card 2: CODEC [USB AUDIO  CODEC], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
        Subdevices: 0/1
        Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    
  5. Begin recording

    # Start a tmux session so the recording continues even
    # if the SSH connection gets disconnected
    tmux;
    
    sudo arecord --device "hw:2,0" -vv --vumeter=stereo -c 2 -f "S16_LE" -r 44100 raw_audio.wav;
    

    Explanation:

    • --device "hw:2,0" This means “card 2, device 0” that we found in step 4
    • -vv Double verbosity. Activates the VU meter
    • --vumeter=stereo Shows two channels in the VU meter
    • -c 2 Record two channels
    • -f "S16_LE" Record in Signed 16-bit little endian. I picked this simply becuase it matched the Audacity default that I was previously using
    • -r 44100 record in 44.1 kHz. Again, picked because it matched the Audacity default
  6. Finish recording by pressing ctrl-c on the arecord command

Future work:

  • Automatically mount SMB on startup
  • Detect the end of the record / the record getting stuck and send a Pushover notification
  • I thought about automatically recording when the Pi detects a record playing but I decided that it would be too confusing to have to deal with unlabeled files

Dec 21, 2025


Moonshine And Marches from Old South Mountain (1963)

1
Entrance Fanfare
0:33
2
Down the Field
1:10
3
Victory March
1:00
4
Lehigh Salute - Royal Fanfare / Men of Harlech / Glory of the Trumpets / Hail the College (Hail to Lehigh) / Lehigh Triumphal
3:27
5
Football Medley - The Old Silver Goble / Rearing, Tearing / Everybody Takes His Hat off to Lehigh (Lehigh Will Shine)
3:15
6
A Son of a Gambolier
3:35
7
The Foundation
3:31
8
On the Mall
3:10
9
Precision Drill - Fanfare / Invercargill / On the Square
5:20
10
Lehigh Drinking Medley - Fanfare / My Eyes are Dim, Eagles, Fireman Bill, Glorious, My Girl's From / Sunset in Bethlehem
4:30
11
Fanfare
0:41
12
The Black Horse Troop
3:25
13
Belle of the Ball
2:47
14
Class Reunion (from Alma Mater Suite)
1:46
15
Alma Mater
2:59
Hosted by the Internet Archive ⓘ

Moonshine and Marches from Old South Mountain This record is from 1963 and includes the first recording I have heard of the Lehigh Band at Carnegie Hall in 1962 (Track 7, “The Foundation”).


Dec 7, 2025


TRMNL Earthquake Recipe TRMNL devices now support 2-bit color palettes (announcement). It takes longer to draw the screen but I think the extra detail is worth it for the map on my USGS Earthquake map plugin.

You can configure your device to use the extended palette for everything or on per playlist-item basis.

For comparison, here’s the 1-bit verison

This is one of several TRMNL plugins I maintain! Find them all under the tag TRMNL