Self-hosting your own media considered harmful

I just received my second community guidelines violation for my video demonstrating the use of LibreELEC on a Raspberry Pi 5, for 4K video playback.

I purposefully avoid demonstrating any of the tools (with a suffix that rhymes with "car") that are popularly used to circumvent purchasing movie, TV, and other media content, or any tools that automatically slurp up YouTube content.

Jeff Geerling June 5, 2025

A limited-time flavor: Blue Raspberry Pi

The most unique Raspberry Pi I own is a limited-time flavor: blue raspberry. And no, this isn't the Brazilian version, or the red Chinese version. This blue version is one of 1000 blue Pis that were made to celebrate Raspberry Pi's first anniversary, 12 years ago.

Jeff Geerling May 30, 2025

Using GPS for the most accurate time possible on a Mac

I'm deep in the rabbit hole of all things time and timing. One step on any modern horologist's journey is GPS time.

NIST just put NIST-F4 online, accurate to within 2.2e-16 ppm (that's 0.00000000000000022 seconds. The clock is described in Metrologia thusly:

The fountain uses optical molasses to laser cool a cloud of cesium atoms and launch it vertically in a fountain geometry.

Jeff Geerling May 16, 2025

Installing an outdoor GPS antenna for more accurate time

I've been deep into time and timing lately (more shenanigans coming tomorrow), but today I posted a video covering the install of a PCTEL GPS/GNSS antenna at my studio.

I put up the antenna after realizing how indoor GPS reception is just never that great, due to a variety of factors (like multipath propagation and interference), even if I placed my antennas up in the plenum space right under the roof. Of course, it doesn't help that my studio has a metal roof :)

Jeff Geerling May 15, 2025

Radxa Orion O6 brings Arm to the midrange PC

...with caveats.

Jeff Geerling May 9, 2025

4x faster network file sync with rclone (vs rsync) For the past couple years, I have transported my 'working set' of video and project data to and from work on an external Thunderbolt NVMe SSD. But it's always been slow when I do the sync. In a typical day, I m...

Trying out a cheap USB VK-172 GPS dongle on a Mac

I've been getting into time, with my most recent project being a DIY PTP Grandmaster Clock with a Raspberry Pi.

For most civilians, the most accurate source of time available comes from satellites—GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, etc.—nowadays referred to as GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). Originally targeted at GPS only, even cheap dongles today cover multiple constellations adding to the accuracy and coverage of satellite-based positioning and timing signals.

Jeff Geerling April 24, 2025

The (almost) perfect mini NAS for my mini rack

The GMKtec G9 N150 4-bay NVMe mini PC is $240 and the nearly perfect NAS for my mini rack:

It has an Intel N150 4-core SoC with halfway-decent Intel UHD integrated graphics, 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, dual 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, WiFi 6, and the best part: 4 integrated M.2 NVMe slots.

Granted, splitting up the 9 PCIe Gen 3 lanes limits the performance a bit, but there are some things I love about this design:

Jeff Geerling April 17, 2025

It's easier than ever to de-censor videos Last month I asked people to hack part of my YouTube video, specifically to de-pixelate the contents of a folder I had pixelated starting at the 4:57 mark. Your browser does not support the video tag. For year...

Raspberry Pi cluster spotted inside $6k audio processor

People often ask me whether Pi clusters are useful besides just tinkering. I've built my fair share, including my most recent 'Lamp Rack' Kubernetes-in-a-Lamp cluster.

Well... I have a definitive answer: the Orban Optimod 5000-series audio processors:

Jeff Geerling April 9, 2025

BPS is a GPS alternative that nobody's heard of

I came to the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show this year with my Dad to learn more about time in broadcast and live production.

I was expecting to learn more about grandmaster clocks, AV sync, timing in protocols like Dante, Livewire, AES67, and more—and I have. But then on the first day here I found this odd little corner of the building with a completely empty booth:

When you see an oscilloscope that costs 3x the value of your car on a trade show floor... well, let's just say my interest was piqued.

Jeff Geerling April 8, 2025

Running the LAMP Stack in a Lamp Rack

I typically don't do anything for April Fool's Day, but this year I thought I'd unite a bit of a meme in the homelab community with something I wanted to make a video on anyway: a lamp rack.

What's a lamp rack? Well, you're looking at one! It's a floor lamp with an integrated mini rack!

I didn't want to make a video about a floor lamp, but more on the fact you don't need fancy racks or any new hardware at all to start a homelab.

Jeff Geerling April 1, 2025