Elektrine
Log in Register
Paige Chat Timeline Gallery Friends Email Drive DNS Private DNS Domains VPN Kairo Nerve
Remote

Sean Coates

@sean@scoat.es
mastodon 4.7.3
  • Open on scoat.es

Tricking software into working since the 1980s.

I do all kinds of tech things. Here you'll find: rants, ops/devops, microcontrollers, electronics, food, beer, opinions, and whatever else is on my mind + in the conversation.

Backend, infrastructure, web, and iOS. Swift on server, AWS. Twenty-five years of small teams, tight budgets, and systems that stay up without being watched.

Currently taking client work.

I've opted in to making my posts searchable.

727 Followers
215 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 04, 2022
Twitter:
@coates
Location:
Montreal
Web:
https://seancoates.com/is
GitHub:
https://github.com/scoates
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 1w ago
Replying to
Here’s an interesting part of the cross-country #meshcore experiment that I wasn’t expecting: my contacts list has been full since the GTA. I haven’t made time to prune it, and didn’t realize the importance of this. I just received a message from “Claire in PDX”, just outside of Chilliwack. (I knew the PNW mesh was strong but I wasn’t expecting this much reach (it’s 400+km to PDX)). But the tracing tools think the same-prefixed repeaters are the ones I captured at home and earlier on the trip!
8
3
5
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2w ago
Replying to
First #meshcore contact along the journey, in #Winnipeg. (Edit: I mean first north/west of say… Barrie. Lots of mesh traffic in the GTA + sprawl.)
10
6
5
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2w ago
Replying to
Slept through Saskatoon but saw some #Meshcore repeats at #Edmonton station. And some friendly Public channel chatter while walking the length of the train on the platform, and getting some fresh air.
8
5
3
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 1w ago
Replying to

Nearing the last of the #meshcore reports:

  • no repeats but direct replies in Jasper (sorry I didn’t see and reply in time @HUTT-6BD)
  • saw contacts but no messages going through Kelowna (while sleeping)
  • repeats but no response in Chilliwack; unrelated chatter from 8 hops away!

Probably one more check-in, in Abbotsford if I’m near my radio when we pass through, and we already know there’s a big mesh in Vancouver.

6
4
2
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2w ago
Replying to
Not quite even to Manitoba yet. Ontario is huge. (And running almost 10h late now.)
3
1
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 1w ago
Replying to
@sesivany@social.vivaldi.net Yep; definitely not realistic. We’ve been discussing disallowing vanity prefix generation on the #montreal mesh, too. This is interesting data. (We also recommend 3-byte, but the tyranny of the default is real indeed.) I like that closest-match strategy. It’s imperfect but better than this for sure.
1
1
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2mo ago
When the local drive-thru answers you in AI voice, it's your societal duty to red-team that thing until you get a human handoff. “Oh, could I add an order of triple salted uncooked fries, extra small, and a diet water with no ice, but make the ice extra cold? Plus a sundae with double pickles and make sure I don't get the same toy as with the fries. What's your favourite flavour of ketchup?”
17
3
7
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

A while back, I was mostly-lurking on a regional #Meshcore (like #Meshtastic , but different) discord, when someone on there tried to update a repeater and accidentally soft-bricked it. They needed to climb up to where it is to get a physical connection. But there's a raven nesting near where they've propped up the device, so they're lamenting the chore of climbing up to it.

I replied “Nevercore.”

It barely got a reaction. I am sad for this community. (-;

scoat.es
24
6
9
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

It is 2037.

You are being paid $7250/hour for your services. (Before you get too excited, a can of cola costs $129, and so does 15 seconds of LLM tokens.)

There are not many left who can do what you do. You are the tradesperson of your time. It's messy work unclogging these metaphorical pipes, but someone's got to do it.

A decade of nothing-but-vibecoding (artisanal “acoustic" performances aside) has left the world in tatters. The Y2K38 problem looms.

The day’s task: fix the bug in here.

25
4
16
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 3mo ago
Highly Available Home Assistant HAHA
12
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago
Replying to
I am a little biased because of it being here in #montreal , but the real gold standard of this kind of store (that I've ever seen, anyway) is Abra Electronics. They have probably 500x as much inventory, it's all just sitting there on the shelves, usually at a reasonable-for-in-stock price. https://abra-electronics.com/
abra-electronics.com

ABRA Electronics, at your service since 1990

ABRA Electronics is a trusted distributor to schools, manufacturers, makers and hobbyists, of electronic components, test instruments, electronic kits, Arduino, sensors, 3D printers and robotics.

7
0
7
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

This stage of capitalism where we've let companies become so big they can buy everyone around them to get even bigger is absolutely exhausting.

> As of April 1, 2026, EssilorLuxottica Canada Inc. acquired the eyebuydirect.ca website from EyeBuyDirect Inc. As a result, EssilorLuxottica Canada Inc. now holds and processes your personal information.

7
0
3
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

I'm at @foulab@chaos.social for Mesh Night tonight. We'll be here for at least a few hours. Stop by if you're in Montreal and curious about #meshtastic , #meshcore , or #reticulum .

scoat.es
7
0
7
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 3mo ago
Replying to
To misquote @pluralistic@mamot.fr quoting Jean-Paul Sartre: “Hell is other people’s code.”
3
1
2
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago
Replying to
This is not to say that alternatives might not even exist. Just more that Google has successfully embedded themselves in our children's education and lives so deeply that it will be really difficult to change at this point. I've been this kind of tired for a decade.
7
1
4
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

There's a chain of #Montreal chicken sandwich restaurants…

Whoever called it “Madame Poulet" and not "Chick Poulet" really missed an opportunity. They should also offer waffle fries.

(There's no Chick Fil-a here.)

scoat.es
6
2
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 3mo ago
The topic of pirate television in Montreal came up, today, and I made this. For the 8 of you who understand both niche jokes… I think it's pretty good!
3
1
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2mo ago
Replying to
@preinheimer@phpc.social Mine was definitely AI based on its over-sharing of information and dodging pointed questions. It switched from french to english, and had a french accent. Really weird.
2
3
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

The surge in solid state storage pricing seems to have caught up with the premium that Apple has been charging us for the past decade…

7
1
2
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2mo ago
Do I know anyone who [knows anyone who] works at Grafana Labs? I promise: not a support request.
1
1
3
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

If something on your computer/phone were to make a joke about slapping you around with a large trout, would you get the reference?

3
6
8
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

Even as someone who has only ever used SwiftUI (not AppKit or UIKit) as my primary macOS/iOS dev toolkit, this article rings so true.

There's a whole bunch of stuff that #Apple could fix, pretty easily, and they just… haven’t. It's sad.

A big part of what keeps me on macOS is the platform itself—letting everything become mushy web-pages-pretending-to-be-apps makes it much easier to entertain the idea of Linux as my daily driver, if I have to endure that mess, anyway.

https://pfandrade.me/blog/mac-assed-swiftui-app/

scoat.es
3
0
2
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

The deluge of recently-discovered (more like: recently-disclosed) --Linux-- EVERYTHING vulnerabilities got me to finally shut down a ~10 year uptime box that I should have shut down two full `tN.micro` generations ago.

So… thanks I guess?

Also, webadvent.org (phpadvent.org) is static now, like it should have been since before 2012 when it was last published. 🤷‍♂️

3
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2mo ago
Replying to
@preinheimer@phpc.social I imagine this has been appropriately guard railed now.
1
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

I just discovered and used @geerlingguy@mastodon.social 's `rpi-clone` and it worked perfectly. Now I've got a new RPi 5 booting from the [PoE hat's] NVME.

3
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

If I didn't have the experience to know better, and if I was a new user of the AWS Console, I'd swear that the performance of their cloud offering is terrible.

It's just really slow/heavy browser code, plus WAY too many requests, but that *must* make a bad impression on new-to-AWS folks. (…if there are any of those left? maybe that's the problem…)

3
2
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

First world problem of the day: would be great if you hose nozzle manufacturers could make internal seals and springs that… y'know… withstand *water* for more than a season. These *rarely* work when I dig them out after winter. I never let them freeze; I manually drain them when they come in for the winter…

Anyway, adding Stanley Fatmax to my never-going-to-buy-again-because-you-cheaped-out-on-the-spring list. Next up… Dramm? Lee Valley brass twist? (prefer lever to twist, but… desperate times)

3
4
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 2mo ago
Replying to
Extremely mild Silo spoiler that you’ve probably already seen.
@preinheimer@phpc.social @schmalliso@glammr.us
1
1
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

Looks like this got rolled back, but… if you use VSCode for source control… Microsoft has a new chore for you. (check your commits, I guess? this is bonkers.)

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/pull/310226

GitHub

Enabling ai co author by default by cwebster-99 · Pull Request #310226 · microsoft/vscode

Visual Studio Code. Contribute to microsoft/vscode development by creating an account on GitHub.

3
0
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

Didn't get my phone/camera out in time, and very hard to make out in the bright sky, but I saw SNBD4 as 3 or 4 planes flying in a cluster, north of the field (and above the pattern) at CYUL. @yulalerts@scoat.es

scoat.es
2
1
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 3mo ago
RBC has been emailing me for the past few weeks to get me to fill out a survey. This feels like work to me. I expect to receive no benefit from doing this work. I already pay RBC a lot of money every month; I'm certainly not going to willingly do free work for them. Today they (my bank) emailed “FINAL REMINDER” which got my attention… until I realized it's just for this survey I’ve obviously been ignoring. k.
1
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

IMO it's going to get *much* worse before it gets better. The cost of discovery has gone from “months of expert time” to maybe “hours of expert time" with this new wave of tools; and most of the experts *might* not even have access to the “best" tools, yet. (citation needed on that one, but… there are power-multiplier tools, certainly, for people who use them).

I think we've barely scratched the surface on software that is exploitable (spoiler: nearly all of it).

@ello@void.ello.tech @ello@void.ello.tech

void.ello.tech
2
2
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

The wailing siren at the local chemical processing plant reminds me that #Montreal is testing the emergency alert system today. Hope this helps. (-:

scoat.es
2
0
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

Snowbird; thought this was YMX when I first got the alert. Looks like it's setting up for YHU now.

Probably in town for Grand Prix this weekend? @yulalerts@scoat.es

scoat.es
1
1
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

Lazy Web of Real People (maybe, hopefully): is VictoriaMetrics good? I'd like to hear real-world experience only please.

1
9
3
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago
Replying to
@ello@void.ello.tech Absolutely! “They don't work" is no longer true. Also, the real-world-red-team sure doesn't care whether *we* are pro- or anti-LLM.
1
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

Today's #Swift lessons:

1. the `switch` version of `consuming func …` on `variable` is `switch consume variable` (`consuming` is a good way to disarm some footguns)
2. The compiler gets REALLY confused when I do optional chaining with an otherwise-consuming call.

I continue to enjoy this language (though I do take issue with no visibility keyword that indicates "private but extensions within this same module can access”, even though "private" + extension *in the same file* works that way).

scoat.es

scoates

1
0
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

Had to add a `repeat…while` to our #Swift code this morning.

So, that's how it's going today.

scoat.es

scoates

1
0
1
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@evan Thanks for mentioning this. I missed it before now. (Also, it maybe doesn't matter at all for my solo instance…)
1
2
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago

Last night I had to do some above-the-OS work on a machine that's in the homelab "rack" (read: shelves).

I plugged in my @jetkvm@mastodon.social and it was actually really helpful. Last time I tried this, it was right after the kickstarter (and shipping), and it was definitely not-quite-ready then. But with the updates in the meantime, it was actually really nice for accessing the BIOS and providing a virtual disk image over USB.

It's worth another fresh look if yours has been collecting dust like mine had.

0
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago
Replying to
@anthill@mstdn.ca No; I've never been there, but I'm interested. "Surplus" stores have mostly become Amazon Returns, it seems, and that's sad. This looks fun.
0
1
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 3mo ago
Replying to
@mcc@mastodon.social Not the answer to what you're asking, but in case it fits your workflow/problem domain: I use Restic for this.
0
2
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago
Replying to
@anthill@mstdn.ca Ah yeah. So many stores like this are gone.
0
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 5mo ago
Replying to
@ocramius@mastodon.social 😴
0
0
0
0
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago

Canadians with any sort of online fluency, please read + sign: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7416

ourcommons.ca
0
0
4
1
Open post
Sean Coates @sean@scoat.es
· 4mo ago
Replying to
@sushee@ohai.social Thanks; appreciated. I saw it as an alternative to Prometheus storage and hadn't actually run into it before, and a lot of what I found with some very quick research seemed to be marketing materials. Nice to hear that it's as good as it sounds.
0
3
0
0
Back
313k7r1n3
Elektrine

Tor hidden service

elekhj7afj4qnrr4yd3bkzslsyo5jgfxw3orgjkhlcxifueodybyiiad.onion

I2P eepsite

j6b6cyk6gjmepjih7jjadxgxvvf3lzzujljuu2v4biemzpg3naya.b32.i2p

Platform

  • Email
  • Chat
  • Timeline
  • VPN
  • DNS

Company

  • About
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Lite (no JS)

Legal

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Transparency Report
  • Report Abuse
  • Warrant Canary
  • VPN Policy

Support

  • support@elektrine.com
  • Report Security Issue
Mail client setup IMAP mail.elektrine.com:993 POP3 mail.elektrine.com:995 SMTP mail.elektrine.com:465
© 2026 Elektrine. All rights reserved. Server: 22:06:59 UTC