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TLDR: Recently ChatGPT just started wildly lying, inventing bullshit and disregarding my instructions. The root cause seems to be that OpenAI has instructed it to reduce use of the search tool (you can see references to this in the chain of thought). I imagine this is to conserve resources, but without some factual context to go on ChatGPT hallucinates like hell.

But there is a better way: Use the command line version of your preferred AI tool. Watch NetworkChuck's video for details! These are available for Gemini (free), ChatGPT and Claude (both of which require a standard subscription). Why is it better? You can force the AI to remember rules and context for any given project, agent workflow, or output style, making it much more reliable.

According to the marketing materials, the proprietary Firewalla WIFI-SD USB dongle/antenna only works with their (excellent) hardware firewalls. But I needed an external WIFI antenna for a Raspberry Pi, so I inserted it into a USB port to see if it would work, and yeah it does. The downside is that the Pi only seems to have drivers to use it on the 2.4 GHz band, while the antenna is supposed to be a WIFI 5 device.

It is apparently based on the dual-band RTL8821CU chipset (802.11ac). Probably you could get it working on 5 Ghz if you were prepared to tinker with drivers but I'm told this chipset is notoriously difficult to work with, and kernel updates would probably keep breaking it, so I'll pass. Anyway, if you login to a Firewalla box via SSH the default username is 'pi', so you can probably guess why this works.

Tuskfish V2.2 brings a lot of improvements, including a group permissions system to control access to routes and individual content items, fourteen new colourful themes, and a new default theme preference for flipping the look and fee. of your site. All content types can now be set as 'static' with a new 'in feed' toggle switch, there is optional support for better thumbnail generation and colour space support with ImageMagick 6 available. The entire codebase has been reviewed with AI assistance for bugs, security issues, and compliance with PHP 8.4/8.5, Bootstrap 5 and HTML5. Core libraries have been updated. Note: I pushed a minor bugfix update so the current version is 2.2.1.

Here you will find instructions on how to upgrade the RAM and RAID on a QNAP TS-453D NAS box, which pretty much just gets used for mass storage.

Recently I started doing more video work, and the storage just wasn't enough anymore. I had 4 x 1 TB drives in RAID 10 for 2 TB of storage (yes I am a stinge). I was getting a lot of email complaints from the QNAP about low memory as well (I bought the 4 GB model), which rendered it unable to complete anti-virus scans. So I upgraded the drives to 4 x 6 TB Seagate Iron Wolf for 12 TB of storage, which was straightforward, and upgraded the RAM to 8 GB by swapping in a new memory module.

I so wanted to call this article 'RAM-RAID' :)

I like FontAwesome (I'm a backer), but I'm so over subscription services, there's only so much many times I want to pay for the same icon collection, you know? I'm also annoyed that they withdraw access to the subsetter app once your subscription expires. That's miserable, given that subsetting the icons is mandatory to control file size, as the full icon library is too large to use.

IcoMoon has a free online tool that lets you convert icon collections into a custom font. You upload your icon SVGs, select the ones you want to use, and export them back out as a font, which is trivial to incorporate into your project. The files are much smaller, and do not require any Javascript. I will probably remove the FontAwesome script from Tuskfish and re-implement the icons as a font. This will also allow other icon sets to be integrated, as you aren't limited to the FontAwesome set.

I could not resist buying the FR-AV2 when it finally came on market, and this week I had a chance to run it through five days of workshops in China. Basically, it’s great, and the 32-bit option is super useful. With such meetings I don’t usually have any idea what the local AV setup is like and have to improvise when I get there.

I left the recorder running unattended on the podium for the first workshop, relying on the 32 bit to accommodate anyone that got a bit loud. The second workshop was a discussion between 30 people over a conference microphone system, and I was able to capture the lot via a line in. Overall it’s a great device and highly versatile, as a field recorder should be, and the compact size is appreciated.

I do wish it had knobs for gain adjustment, like the new Zoom H5 Studio, but that’s probably another thing I won’t miss if I can get the remote monitoring via the Bluetooth dongle.

I upgraded to the Forerunner 965 from a 945. After using the 965 for a couple of weeks I would say there are two significant improvements, neither of which is a 'must have':

1. The new AMOLED display of the 965 is a lot better. It is very bright and clear compared to the previous MIP displays found on previous generation watches, including the 945. It also has  a much higher resolution (454x454 pixels vs 240x240). On dynamic apps like the compass it really does look great.
2. Touchscreen functionality. You can swipe to navigate through screens and select items, and on maps you can pan around and zoom with your fingers, which makes the limited screen far more useable for navigation. On previous gen watches like the 945 you have to use buttons for everything, which is slow and clumsy at least as far as maps go.

So: Is it worth the upgrade? If you use the mapping applications a lot then I would say yes. Being able to pan with your finger is a game changer.  Otherwise, the functionality is very similar to the 945. There are a few more apps but nothing that you are likely to miss.

I keep thinking there is nothing left to do...then I think of something. So here's the latest developments:

• Fourteen new colourful themes from Bootswatch!
• New 'default theme' preference for fast site-wide changes!
• Any content type can now be designated as static.

Release will follow an appropriate period of testing.

I've nearly finished the native multi-lingual branch of Tuskfish. It turned out to be much more complex than I thought, touching nearly every operation. Extensive review and testing will be necessary, as it is quite a large divergence. I found myself wondering if I really want to rebase future Tuskfish development on the multilang branch or not, and the answer seems to be that I need to think about it. Maybe I'll keep it as a parallel project that I wheel out when needed, for a while. We'll see.

I will add a couple more block options for V2.1 to enable placement of a feature video block, and maybe a feature audio block as well.

I will also add a few attractive open-source themes. I always thought that everyone would want to use their own custom theme, but turns out no, most people just want something they can use out of the box. The default bootstrap starter theme is a bit grim (black and white), so I'll add a couple of nice themes you can tweak without having to replace them. Shout out to Bootswatch and Start Bootstrap for offering open source themes, thank you!