datenwolf

@1000millimeter @brouhaha

I used to live in a rural area. The house I lived in got power and ISDN though overhead lines. Both got moved underground a few years after I moved away from there.

At least once a year I get to visit my relatives who still live in that village. Zero of the overhead stuff remains. They even buried the 16kV overhead lines that ran to the transformer huts within the village; for a time the original huts remained, they've replaced them since, too.

@brouhaha

Well, as a snobby European I can't help but notice, that we used to run our power and our communication lines overhead and on poles, too. Some of that even into the early 2000s.

But since then, most of that got burried. And that without any pressing needs, but just because maintining stuff, keeping it in good shape and bringing it up to standard by replacing outdated stuff saves you money in the long run.

@brouhaha

> GPON in my neighborhood is up on poles, …

🤨 … looks into bio… sees north american callsign.

Yep… checks out 😏

@brouhaha @purple @futurebird @fivetonsflax @oscherler @argv_minus_one @CursedSilicon

In fall 2025 / spring 2026 a lot of hollow channel conduit was installed under the sidewalks in the streets neighboring the house I live in. So I got a very good look at how those lowest-bidder-contractors handled it.

I was disgusted and appalled. And that was before they even got to running the fiber.

@brouhaha @purple @futurebird @fivetonsflax @oscherler @argv_minus_one @CursedSilicon

A lot of the engineering that goes into manufacturing optical fiber cables for outdoor and/or buried installation goes/went into the water barriers. Yes, it should be fine for the coming decades.

Just don't expect the same for 900µm buffer fiber pulled through burried hollow channel conduits. I mean the conduits by themselves are fine, but the way they're installed…

@dat

If I'm doing this, it'll become 4 PCBs of similar dimensioned pairs, instead of a single one with high aspect ratio, just for easier (=cheaper) manufacturing. Can then arrange the blocks in whatever way in a 3D printed chassis.

I'm getting annoyed with the asymmetry of the PC104/105 keyboard arrangement. I guess the time has finally arrived for me to design and build my own, custom keyboard.

Wishlist:

- movement block ( Ins, Del, Home, End, PgUp, PgDown, ←,↑,↓,→ ) and media control keys on the left

- Letters/symbols/digits and F-keys goes into the middle

- Split main block for angled ergonomics?

- TrackPoint?

- Numeric entry block on the right.

Also, I do enjoy writing gateware more than writing firmware → FPGA.