Joel Crane

I'm convinced that matchmaking on The Master Chief Collection is just broken. The games always feel unbalanced and one-sided. On @insignia.live, the population is much smaller, but games are consistently balanced and fun (as long as you can find players).

Here’s the top of the Apple AirPort Extreme A1034 with the can all sealed up. The shielding is impressive. It’s interesting to me that there’s a separate antenna diversity card in the RF chain, with a third cable for an external antenna.

Here’s the tip of the Apple AirPort Extreme A1034 with the 802.11g card and massive heatsink. It’s weird to me that the top thermal pad (which touches the top half of the can) has the plastic pull-tab on top of it.

Today I’m investigating the apparently dead modem on my Apple AirPort Extreme A1034. The modem is an Apple U01.029.C.00, which apparently shipped on some iBook and PowerBook models.

Here's a weird one: the 56k modem in my Apple AirPort Extreme has disappeared. The configuration utility doesn't show the "Modem" or "Dial-in" options anymore. Factory reset, firmware update, no fixes. Any ideas?

Day 3 of working on my #WLPC talk about transmit power. The only solid takeaway I have is that I am an idiot who can't seem to maintain a semblance of a train of thought or do basic arithmetic. Or transmit power is stupidly complicated. I'm learning pretty hard towards the former, though.

My time doing tech support at HP early in my career scarred me in a few ways, but in particular: bright white lights. 50+ hours a week under fluorescent lights broke me, somehow. All these years later, I struggle to work under bright white office conditions.

Last night’s project: replacing Original Xbox Controller S analog stick modules with Hall effect Xbox 360 replacements from Ginfull. The orange ones have the right pinout and magnet direction, so I swapped in all orange parts. So far, so good but I want to compare with OEM modules side-by-side.

Too bad Ginfull doesn’t sell the orange sensors and carriers separately. I don’t like having to throw every other analog stick module away (or in reality, keep them in my parts bin).

Something I don't get: How do normal people remember things? I'm always amazed at how people can keep track of 1,000 different things down to the tiniest details, and accurately recall them instantly without any notes. I have to meticulously write every single thing down to even have a chance.

I caught a tiny bit of aurora over Helsinki last night.

Small table service annoyance: "We'll take the check." "Ok!" *proceeds to clear table* Why not wait and clear the table after we leave?

Missing piece of the puzzle for my Finnish Retro Con showcase: a USB 56k modem. The supply of them online seems to have dried up. There are some random AliExpress ones, but they'll barely arrive in time and it's a total dice roll if they'll work. Not looking good.

I just had a moment where someone demonstrated that a manual process I was doing could 100 percent be done with AI. I don't know how I feel. Embarrassed that I didn't think to try it? Depressed that AI is the "answer to everything"? Why don't I feel happy that AI has taken something off my plate?

The skeuomorphism in my UI makes no sense, here. What are the drop-shadows on my buttons and tab bar landing on? The canvas is a 3D field, with depth!

I like my Meraki MX75 firewall, but since it doesn't support UPnP, but I haven't been able to get it to work with my Original Xbox and Insignia (Xbox Live replacement). It should just be a matter of creating a DHCP reservation for the Xbox and forwarding UDP on port 3074, right? Wrong... strict NAT.

When I do a PCAP, I see outgoing UDP packets on 3074 get answered from servers, also on 3074. But what I don't see are any unsolicited packets coming through on 3074. That worries me. I don't know how to get a PCAP on the WAN side, either. I suck at firewalls.

A PCAP on the WAN side revealed that my firewall is a Symmetrical NAT, which randomizes the port number on the outside on a per-destination and per-session basis. So, port 3074 becomes port whatever. Insignia can talk back to me on port whatever, but other hosts can't.

One of the kids is watching The Martian at school this week, so we did a speed-run of the book and movie last night. I loved the movie when it came out, but consuming them back-to-back made me realize how many problems the movie has. Spoilers ahead.

⏸️ That's all I can think of for now. To be clear, I love this movie, so did my kids. Ridley Scott kept Andy Weir on speed dial, which is unusual and awesome. The movie resonated well with audiences, and paved the way for more great hard-ish sci-fi like The Expanse and Project Hail Mary. Love it.

en.wikipedia.orgMars Pathfinder - Wikipedia

🐛 Pathfinder landing site. We literally have photos of it, and it doesn't look like that. To me, this is the most egregious error of the entire movie. Tricky for Mark to drive up to, though. Also no sand dune for it to get buried under. But c'mon! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pa...

✨ The Cisco videoconferencing systems. They are almost that good, and they basically look like that! No special stupid graphics, just a good ol' videoconference. This was one of the most believable parts of the entire movie.

🐛 Literal scanlines and analog video artifacts on video playback. These aren't CRT monitors. None of this is going through analog, anywhere. Hollywood is really terrible about getting this right, and we haven't used analog video at all in what, 20 years now? Why is this style hanging on?

🐛 Look/feel of the Pathfinder/Sojourner systems. CRT monitors, perfect, but they should have stuck with plaintext terminals. The way the images slide around to assume one image drove me nuts, too. No old system looks like that.

🐛 Basically all of the video screens and computer monitors. All kinds of fancy Hollywood graphics everywhere that would be horrible to actually use. Remember how The Bourne movies just had like... Windows NT? That was great. Also, circular progress indicators for things like oxygen...?

🐛 Having the commander go out after Watney. What? No. Another crewmember had trained and drilled for that, and was the EVA specialist. This change was just dumb.

🐛 Watney flying around like Iron Man. Actually, I thought this was a great feature, like an inside joke for those of us who read the book. Dismissed as a stupid idea in the book, "let's actually do it in the movie, for fun". Ridiculous, but fun. I'm all for it.

🐛 The Hermes rec room. It was just too big, ornate, and clean. A ship like that would take advantage of every nook and cranny of space for equipment and functions. Also, blinkenlights everywhere. Nah.

🐛 Vogel's bomb. In the book, it was triggered by a lighting panel. In the movie, it did a countdown and blink, as if it had and internal firing circuit? Plus, it plugged into a USB-A port. Lol. Although the sequence where he made it was great. Fast and jerry-rigged, just like the book.

🐛 Equipment in the Hab. There's just way too much of it, and it's all way too heavy and permanent. The bookshelf speakers on one of the desks was way over the line; no way they would have hauled that sort of thing to Mars. And the cheap AOC monitors, nope. Panasonic Toughbooks were right, though.

🐛 Lack of pressure against the jerry-rigged airlock seal. That's holding in 1 ATM on Mars, but it's flapping gently in the breeze? No.

🐛 The Hab canvas. In the book, it's an extremely sturdy material that can hold 1 ATM on the surface of Mars, and also blocks RF and radiation. In the movie, it looks like plastic from Home Depot.

support.apple.comUpdate your family devices to iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27Update your family’s devices to version 27 or later of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, or watchOS for the new parental controls experience and learn what to do if a device can’t be updated.

20 Sept

Hang on Apple, hang on. Are you telling me that I have to remove all non-iOS-27 devices from my family before I can get “Ask to Browse”? Because we have some iPod touches, and my 2018 iPad Pro kicking around that I really want to keep using. support.apple.com/guide/child-...

20 Sept

Apple’s parental controls are so, so close to being great, but miss a couple of tiny details that make it extremely difficult to use. “Ask to Browse” was going to solve one of the worst problems for us, but I can’t just throw perfectly functional devices away.

I'm seeing reports on Reddit that even for households with pure iOS 27, the new prompts just aren't appearing. This could just be a bug. Fingers crossed! www.reddit.com/r/ThatAppleG... www.reddit.com/r/iOS27/comm...

20 Sept

Wow, 56k modem prices have skyrocketed. Last time I did a DreamPi setup, the modem was like ten bucks. Now they're easily $50, and I can't even find one of the Dell ones I've used before. Of course, I have one. In storage in the US. 🤦‍♂️

retrocon.fiFinnish Retro Con 2026Suuri retrokeräilijöiden tapahtuma Tampereella 7.11.2026

16 Sept

Table secured! @jeffgeerling.com's NTP showcase inspired me, I think I'll do vintage Wi-Fi (BlueSCSI + PC cards) clients, connecting to an AirPort, going across 56k to get out to the internet. With my vintage gear in storage on another continent, I'm piecing together something with what I have. 👍

Joel Crane@potatofi.bsky.social

I somehow missed the Finnish Retro Con 2026 announcement! Stoked that they're back. It was hugely successful last year; the building was jam-packed. I'm hoping for a bigger venue, this time. I just fired off an email, asking if they need any more showcase tables... we'll see. 🤔 retrocon.fi

14 Sept

Pretty sure my old macOS Cache Server is working. iPadOS 27 update went from "40 minutes remaining" to "3 minutes remaining", and generated about 4 GB of served data (blue spike). I updated another iPad, saw another 4 GB, and a second spike. Neat. 📷

14 Sept

I think Linear is now approaching the "too bloated to be good" phase. What made it great is that it didn't do a lot. Now it does everything, and I don't think that's good.

13 Sept

I stay up a bit late on Sunday nights to play Halo 2 on Insignia, but had some problems tonight. My NAT was randomly strict today. Series S possibly stealing port 5074? Meraki MX75 not supporting UPnP complicates things a bit. I got into a handful of matches but it mostly just failed.

printables.comGridfinity Game Boy Cartridge Holders by PotatoFi | Download free STL model | Printables.comSimple staggered Game Boy cartridge holders for Gridfinity. | Download free 3D printable STL models

13 Sept

Since my Game Boy cartridge trays have been so popular over the years, I decided to make a modular Gridfinity version. They're wider than a single Gridfinity square, so I staggered them, which it turns out makes finding games easier. www.printables.com/model/184097...

retrocon.fiFinnish Retro Con 2026Suuri retrokeräilijöiden tapahtuma Tampereella 7.11.2026

12 Sept

12 Sept

Can someone confirm, are these wasps at VCF Midwest to scale?! If so, I'm really glad that I couldn't make it this year! geerlingguy.github.io/vcfmw21-map/

spliit.appSpliit · Share Expenses with Friends & FamilySpliit is a minimalist web application to share expenses with friends and family. No ads, no account, no problem.

11 Sept

I absolutely love designing and building apps. I haven't ended up being involved in that in my day job, so when I find a random app (like spliit.app) that doesn't have an Android app, I'm instantly drawn to building that. Android isn't even my daily driver. I have an iPhone. 🤪

11 Sept

Building native apps is super important to me, too. I want every app to feel as at-home in the host operating system as possible. No cross-platform code, and using the native UI/design wherever possible. Example: All of my @repebble.com apps are trying super hard to look like built-in Pebble apps.

11 Sept

I am continuously amazed with how often I ask access point and antenna vendors for a .CSV or Excel, showing gain values on the elevation and azimuth planes, only to receive an Excel file with some images embedded in it. It's like people don't understand what Excel is even for.