It’s been about 14 months since I last posted an update, and I want to check in here and let everyone know the the blog isn’t dead; I’ve just been incredibly busy.
Early in 2023 I started to realize that my job of ten years was just not a good fit for me anymore. I was stuck maintaining and extending old code and subject to the whims of what features the clients wanted. So, in the spring, I decided to jump ship, and took a position at a new startup called Positron AI. Like most startups the work hours are longer and so I haven’t had as much energy for personal projects. But,it’s also much more rewarding work and I don’t regret the decision one bit.
JRC-1
First and foremost, the name of the OS for this project was changed last year from JR/OS to jrcOS. The OS itself is not entirely “retro” anymore, being a Unix clone, so the new name is more fitting. I did have a brief blog post about this last year, but the rest of the post was so bad I ended up deleting it.
Though my new job has more or less destroyed my original jrcOS schedule, I have continued to work on it, albeit in small bursts. In fact, about three months ago I made a major decision — I decided to do the thing I said I wouldn’t do and start writing non-critical jrcOS code in C, using the Calypsi 65816 C compiler.
I thought about decision this long and hard, especially because I felt like I was giving up on my self-imposed challenge, and it’s the right decision. In the end, it wasn’t that doing everything in assembly was beyond my ability, but rather I just don’t have the patience for it (I’m rather neurodivergent). I’ve also had more time to look at the code Calypsi generates, and I’m decently happy with it. Changing over to C is going to let me meet my goals much faster and with less hassle.
Look for more jrcOS updates between now and spring.
XGS
This project, unfortunately, is now on the far back burner. I hesitate to call it officially dead, because I do have plans for the code base, but I’m not actively working on it at the moment. Tentative plans for some future date include a port that runs on a bare metal Raspberry Pi, with a native ARM CPU emulation.
Home Automation
“Wait,” you are probably now saying, “when did you ever blog about home automation?” The answer is I haven’t…yet.
Over the last year I’ve largely rebuilt my entire home network, with the goal of being more fault-tolerant of both power fluctuations and Internet outages. This is quite a bit harder than it sounds with so many products these days being cloud-based.
As part of my revamp I also wanted to delve more into home automation. I’ve dabbled in it before in the form of Phillips Hue light bulbs, but I wanted to start automating even more. I also wanted to add a voice assistant like Alexa, but without relying on a cloud connection.
At this point I’ve achieved my initial goals, thanks to Home Assistant and its large ecosystem of compatible hardware and open source projects. Even my voice assistant, Wintermute (IYKYK), runs on local hardware.
Throughout 2024 I’m hoping to start blogging more about the progress I’ve made and my future plans, including some of the products I’ve found that work with HA.
Closing Thoughts
I have some other, smaller projects mulling around in my brain that I may or may not get to this year. Anything I do I will try to remember to document here. Stay tuned.