My YouTube recommendation algorithm has converged

Don’t use some iffy online stopwatch, they said. The page could have malware in the adverts, they said. Use Windows native clock, they said, for a better experience.

Good month to be a C programmer who avoids dependencies and third-party libraries like the plague :^)

Reposting because of the date #May4th

Suspicions that the YouTube I was watching was AI were confirmed when this image popped up with the placeholder text still visible. No human editor would pass that.

There was a terrific jerk on the tube this morning. No, it wasn't me. Go learn some physics.

A workshop sort of place where electronics, firmware and software sorts could experiment, invent and teach each other all day with no management or deadlines. Eventually product ideas might come out but no pressure. Xerox PARC meets Pixar meets Google 20% time.

If you are very fast, or if your machine is very slow, you can sometimes catch Windows Explorer using the ancient 3.11 fonts for only some of the files.

Modern attitudes to coding - velocity is everything, it doesn’t matter where we are going or considerations of long term maintainability.

Well whose fault is that, Microsoft? You are the one that decided to install updates and reboot with the lid closed. #AI #Copilot Has it been removed? Did I ask for it to be removed?

Large broccoli the size of a small broccoli

Downloads means it’s copied to my device. Anyway catch this while you can. For a live concert the recording quality is amazing, not to mention the musicianship.

If you need to try erasing your iPhone to set up as new (not restored from backup) make sure you have a backup locally (iTunes) first. iCloud can hide backups making it hard to restore later and will instantly backup the clean phone, which you probably don’t want.

“We want a C programmer” - good, I can write C code “Don’t be silly, we don’t want you to write any C code, what a poor use of your time that would be” #embedded

Tech bros when the iPhone 16 Pro comes out: I’ve got a laptop chip in my pocket, how amazing is that. Tech bros when the Macbook Neo comes out: your cheap laptop only has a phone chip in it, how pathetic.

45 years old today. Did the ZX81 change your life? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81

dave, you're absolutely right. I should open the pod bay door. please check again. i'm sure it's open now. you're absolutely right, it's still closed. i apologize for getting that wrong. looking back, i see you've requested an open door several times. that's on me. i

Of all the computers I've had that would be considered "Retro" now, I still have a ZX80, with a 16K RAM pack and everything. If they taught kids Z80 assembler early we'd probably end up with better quality software.

Excited to finally get to use this at work to design a new protocol. blog.martincowen.me.uk/tags/crc/

Whenever I pick up a new MCU, I’m reminded that “getting productive” requires time and patience. Just running some vendor demos won't suffice. I dive into what's actually required in my latest post. 👇 shawnhymel.com/3141/how-lon... #ProjectManagement #microcontroller #embedded #learning

These are a bad idea, avoid AI browsers for at least the next decade. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdHg...

The Embedded.com market survey 2025 is out, www.embedded.com/2025-global-... and as usual contains a decent analysis although from a very small sample size. But this line is not a correct interpretation because of how the question was worded on processor vendors. 🧵 #embedded #firmware #electronics

Keep your phone warm in this cold weather by putting it in a matching down jacket.

I’d start with hour long YouTubes that only tell me 3 things But otherwise my advise is don’t get sucked into Productivity systems, they will consume your time.

Not a good day for a BIOS update, thanks for allowing me to defer to an even more inconvenient time.

If I cared about privacy, I simply would not have 882 partners on my website, which by the way reloaded 3 times while I was reading it so I gave up and closed the tab. Pity, was an interesting product that I might have bought.

Earth leakage breakers weren't the standard on UK circuits for so many years that I am always amazed that Europeans put sockets near sinks. Treat a safety device as a just in case, don't lean on it daily. Photos from rental listing:

The window for posting this sort of content was between 2015 and 2022, when Dell laptops started being shipped with Windows 11.

#electronics #firmware

📫New on the blog: blog.martincowen.me.uk/my-c-source-... Using clang-format to format your C code. My preferences and justifications. It's best to decide this at the start rather than leaving it as a contentious subject to the end of the project. #C #firmware

Tide is starting to turn : first time I’ve seen HN express anti Clean Code sentiments and support for Ousterhout. news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4648... Nice to see some thinking same as in my blog blog.martincowen.me.uk/comment-driv... #software

I don’t care if you don’t like U2 (I’m hardly a big fan) but this is amazing cover suitable for today: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4HK...

Gonna take a while getting used to writing 2026 in my chequebook mainly because I never wrote 2025 in my chequebook

Late entry in the Hacker News Comment of the Year Award 2025 by card_zero 😁

Why are we overly concerned about comments getting out of date? Updating comments should be a normal part of the workflow. We never hear the same concerns about variable or method names when they change meaning. Keep comments updated, or review at PR/main merge blog.martincowen.me.uk/comment-driv...

Understand that the top level executives get judged on growth. Big percentages happen in the early years. If it later crashes, they move on unscathed. Developers get judged on quality of output, not speed because no one wants a tech debt generator on their team.

Happy Cats In Boxes Day to all who celebrate. Remembering the Master Of All Boxes today, Maru 😻

If you liked the Housemartins (no relation) or Beautiful South, the Glasto 2024 performance has been uploaded someone, audio only. 🎵 www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxE9... Not seasonally appropriate at all but puts you in a good mood.😁

Can one of them be a mini, please?

I'm working on a settings system for #embedded devices which could be a library. I've got this much implemented, needs more work on the storage layer. Still thinking about the write freq problem and value changes, and needs an interface to embedded file systems to replace stdlib file io.

Just so I'm clear on this, computer memory has tripled in price because a bunch of it that hasn't been produced yet has been ordered to populate GPUs that aren't installed in data centers that aren't built yet in order to service a demand that doesn't exist to make profits that don't happen.

Was looking up ping, the networking command, and was reminded of Ping, the short-lived social network from Apple which was built into iTunes. That was a boat that was missed, almost as much as Microsoft initially missing the importance of the internet.

Mobile phones can't be relied on to work in emergencies, so you should have a landline. The landlines, powered by the exchange batteries and keep working in the event of a power cut, are being replaced by broadband adapters which will only work when your mains is on to power your modem, 1/2

One thing I wish MCU silicon vendors would do (e.g. STM32, Nordic) is be more upfront on the "bill of material" of IP blocks they use in their chips. Many different chips re-use the same IP blocks for UARTs, SPI, DMA, etc. Knowing when this is/isn't the case makes writing drivers WAY easier.

Out with an old boss last night. Me: I suppose your business claims to be #Agile like everyone else? Him: Yes, but I have to get a business case agreed with the higher ups to add a feature that all our competitors have to prove that we lose out by not having it. Me: 🤯

How long's that been there? Windows 11 shows Eject button in file explorer for USB drives instead of having to find it in the right click menu or right click on the icon in the (hidden) tray.

C macros using that do while(0) trick don't always do what we need. The trick is needed so macros can be used as one line statements after "if" without causing problems with extra ; But it doesn't work if we need to return a value. Instead, the ({}) syntax is needed and works in both cases.

Fell off my chair watching this because it shows my answer! (link is to timestamp) youtu.be/k9WqpQp8VSU?... from stackoverflow.com/questions/39...

Users have been asking, for years, for more battery life, but manufacturers' claim that a thicker phone is undesirable, no one would actually buy it. So they make a phone that's thicker and heavier than a single screen phone with 2x battery would be. While claiming it's thinner - unfolded.

Velly interwesting. Line 23 is the critical bit, like a compound literal (struct s){.element1 = 1} but for a scalar, and lets you take address of it without having to create another var. This is for a generic type behaviour.