Jim’s Blog

Memory Debugging in C

C

With a massive existing codebase, along with a talent pool with many decades of experience, what steps can we take to improve the quality and safety of code in older languages, C in particular?

CGI Programming

Retro

C

Perl

In computing, Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is an interface specification that enables web servers to execute an external program to process HTTP or HTTPS user requests.

The Dark Forest

Astronomy

The Dark Forest Theory is a fascinating concept that delves into the reasons behind the apparent silence of the universe. It suggests that the cosmos is akin to a dark…

Evaluating Zig

Zig

The results of the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey were recently published and I noticed that interest in the Zig programming language is rising. I’d heard of Zig, but…

Learning Fortran

Retro

Fortran

I recently caught up with an old friend who asked about the personal projects I’ve been involved in. I shared that I’ve been working on my Practical Astronomy language ports …

Observing Plan for the April Astronomy Program at Garber Forest

Astronomy

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT Sadly, the weather got us again. With rain and thunderstorms in the forecast, we’re forced to cancel the astronomy program for 4/5.

Implement a REST Service on a Nano RP2040

C

Embedded and IoT

The Nano RP2040 is an Arduino Nano board with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller that supports Bluetooth, WiFi, and machine learning. It has an onboard accelerometer…

ESP8266 MicroPython Project with OLED

Python

Embedded and IoT

In my last post, we walked through setup of an ESP8266 project managed with UV. Now we’ll construct a more complex project, adding a simple OLED display.

Using UV To Manage a ESP8266 MicroPython Project

Python

Embedded and IoT

Following up from my previous UV post, today I’ll walk through managing an ESP8266 microcontroller project with UV. I’ll stick to the basics with this one, but I’ll…

Single-File Dependency Management in Python Script Using UV

Python

UV deserves a comprehensive overview post, but today I’m going to discuss a specific convenience feature that I love.

Total Dissolved Solids Measurements Using Arduino

Embedded and IoT

Total dissolved solids (TDS) refer to the combined content of all inorganic and organic substances contained in a liquid, typically water, that are present in a molecular…

Observing Plan for the November Astronomy Program at Garber Forest

Astronomy

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Due to the forecast of clouds and showers on Saturday evening, I regret to inform you that I must cancel. So sorry! I’m hoping that I can re-schedule next…

Detecting the Voyager Spacecraft in Green Bank Telescope Data

Python

Astronomy

Breakthrough Listen is a project to search for intelligent extraterrestial communications from deep space. The project uses radio wave observations from the Green Bank…

Modern Perl

Perl

Last year, I wrote an article detailing my experience re-creating a Python script in Perl. This was a pretty cumbersome exercise, but I didn’t use many of Perl’s newer…

6502 Programming in C

Retro

C

Assembly

Would you like to learn about programming on a very old microprocessor?

Think Async

.NET

Usually, when writing asynchronous code, benefits are incremental. It can be difficult to see significant results at the micro level, unless you’re willing to dig in with…

DuckDuckGo AI Chat

AI

When you execute a search on DuckDuckGo, you’ll now see a new option at the top of the results:

Practical Astronomy Algorithms in Various Languages

Astronomy

For several years, I’ve worked off-and-on to implement astronomical algorithms from the Practical Astronomy book in various languages. I’ve just completed a JavaScript version…

Modern .NET Tooling in VS Code

.NET

Visual Studio Code

.NET / VS Code session incoming! I’ve covered this topic before, but now there are some interesting newer features in the “C# Dev Kit” extension. Come to the Innovation Hub…

.NET IoT and Terminal GUI

.NET

Embedded and IoT

I gave this talk for the Dayton .NET Developers Group at the Innovation Hub (in Dayton, Ohio) on August 8th. I’m really happy with how this one turned out! We were able to…

Perl: Is It Really That Bad?

Perl

I have a simple Python script I wrote years ago that simplifies using rsync to maintain a copy of important data on a second hard drive. I decided to refactor the script and…

Sci-Fi Recommendations

My son-in-law recently asked me for science fiction recommendations. I read quite a bit of sci-fi when I was a teenager (mostly pulp), but once I started working I switched…

James Webb Space Telescope

Astronomy

Primary source: “JWST: NASA’s Amazing Next Generation Observatory” by Simon Steel (Senior Director of Education and Outreach, SETI Institute), designed by Jasmin Arriaga…

Rust In the Linux Kernel

Rust

Update: It looks like Rust won’t make it for 6.0. Hopefully we’ll still see it fairly soon!

Program Like It’s 1982

Retro

Grab your parachute pants and hair spray. We’re headed back to the 80’s!

Supporting Material for ‘.NET and Linux’ tech talk

.NET

On December 9th, I gave a talk about cross-platform development in .NET for the Dayton .NET Developers Group. These are the links and the sample code I referenced during the…

The Upcoming Lunar Eclipse: Real-World Application of the Practical Astronomy .NET Library (+ Python!)

Astronomy

.NET

Python

Over the past few years, I’ve been porting the algorithms from “Practical Astronomy with your Calculator or Spreadsheet” to various languages.

Early .NET 6 Observations

.NET

Not meant as a comprehensive review of .NET 6. Just a few items I’ve encountered so far. I’ll update this article as needed.

Create Extension for Visual Studio Code

(This is a follow-up to a question asked during my recent Visual Studio Code talk)

‘Visual Studio Code: The Swiss Army Knife of Editors’ (tech talk)

Visual Studio Code

My talk covering Visual Studio Code, for the Dayton Web Developers group. Big thanks to Allen May for organizing, and for his fine work editing the end result.

Speak with Elegance (or not)

Python

When we’re speaking, we have an overwhelming compulsion to fill ‘dead air’ with words. So, we tend to inject lots of ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’.

Running a Mainframe Emulator on a Raspberry Pi Zero (Lunch-n-Learn)

Retro

Mainframe

Embedded and IoT

I led a lunch-n-learn session detailing mainframe emulation on a Raspberry Pi Zero. Topics covered:

Enumeration Scoping in C++

C++

I spent way too much time trying to figure out what was wrong with this code:

Python and XML

Python

A friend shared this:

Fossil Hunting in Central Kentucky

Paleontology

I made a trip to Tennessee a few days ago, and on my way I checked out a few new fossil-hunting locations in Kentucky.

Traditional Programming on Hobbyist Microcontroller Boards

Embedded and IoT

If you’re looking for a friendly path to using microcontrollers, there are plenty of boards available that offer an easy path to get started.

Rust in the Android Platform

Rust

More good news contributing to the legitimacy of Rust, as Google announces that the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) now supports the Rust programming language for…

Fossil Sites Map in Leaflet.js

Paleontology

I recently started learning the open-source mapping library Leaflet.js. My first effort was a simple map of Native American historical sites, and you can find that here. The…

Geology of Jezero

Geology

Astronomy

It’s unlikely that Mars currently harbors life. It has a very thin atmosphere, it’s extremely cold, and the lack of a magnetosphere means the surface is unprotected from a…

Rust Foundation

Rust

The Rust programming language has a new home! A collaboration between Amazon Web Services, Huawei, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla has resulted in creation of the Rust…

Cleveland Archaeological Society Lecture Series

Archaeology

Each year, the Cleveland Archaeological Society hosts a series of lectures. This year, because of the pandemic, the lectures are being conducted via Zoom.

Venusians, Perchance

Astronomy

Update on Wednesday February 3, 2021 – Looks like a new study has come to a different conclusion.

The Trinity Mineral

On July 16, 1945, at 5:29 a.m., our world entered the nuclear age. As part of the Manhattan project, a Plutonium-based nuclear device was detonated in the Jornada del Muerta…

Going Viral

Biology

COVID-19, a type of coronavirus, has been declared a pandemic. There’s a lot of panic, and also a lot of misinformation about it, and viruses in general.

A Dim View of Betelgeuse

Astronomy

Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star, about 650 light years away. It is enormous; imagined at the center of our solar system, its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt…

Scientific and Critical Thinking Omnibus

Critical Thinking

Taken from here.

Show Me What You’re Made Of

Astronomy

There are a small number of meteorite samples known to originate from the moon, and Mars, and large asteroids like Vesta. But, how do we know where they came from?

Homeopathy

Pseudoscience

Critical Thinking

Homeopathy is a system of alternative medicine created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann. It’s based on the principle of “like cures like”, with the premise being that a substance…

Visitors From Space

Astronomy

Our solar system contains lots of large, (relatively) obvious things, things like planets, asteroids, and comets. There also happens to be a lot of smaller fragmentary…

‘Astronomy for Beginners’ Program

Astronomy

Everyone loves a beautiful night sky.

Coordinate Systems: Finding Your Way Around the Sky

Astronomy

The night sky has many observable objects. Some, like stars, nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies, are “fixed”. That is, they don’t change position relative to other fixed…

Natural Selection At Work

Biology

Natural Selection refers to the process by which favorable survival traits are propagated within a species.

Like Water For Gravity

It’s well understood that melting polar ice is contributing to the rise of global sea levels. But did you know that if all the ice in the Greenland ice sheet were to melt…

2018 AIA/SunWatch Lecture Series: Science vs. Pseudoscience

Archaeology

Mark your calendar for the 2018 SunWatch Lecture Series: Science vs Pseudoscience.

How Firefox Got Its Groove Back

Mozilla Firefox was my browser of choice for years. It was the fresh and clean alternative to Internet Explorer. It just worked. But then, something happened: Google Chrome.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Pseudoscience

Critical Thinking

Today I attended an event at the Eaton branch of the Preble County District Library entitled “Southern Ohio Supernatural”. Southern Ohio Supernatural (SOS) is a father…

Cleaning Fossils

Paleontology

Here are some tips on cleaning fossils, from least- to most-aggressive. Try the least aggressive first: You may get the results you want with less risk of damaging your…

March For Science

Our current administration, and Congress, deny facts and reject reason on a broad range of scientific topics, including climate change, vaccinations, GMOs, and fake medicine.

The Dating Game

Paleontology

Archaeology

This is information I’ve pulled from my notes, specific to dating methods. Unfortunately, I was negligent in noting my sources when I first collected these notes, so I’ll…

Printing the Past

Paleontology

It used to be that the only way to share copies of rare and delicate fossils was through casting. It’s labor-intensive, messy, and can damage the fossils being cast.

SETI@Home

Astronomy

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (“SETI“) is a blanket term used to describe a number of activities performed for the purpose of finding compelling evidence for…

Early Humans in the Americas

Archaeology

I attended an interesting lecture at SunWatch today entitled “Early Humans in the Americas: When Did They Arrive and Where Did They Come From?”

What is a fossil?

Paleontology

Here’s a question from a friend, which I’ve paraphrased just a bit for clarity:

Why do I not believe?

Critical Thinking

Although I declared myself an atheist many years ago, I generally don’t make it a point to explain the reasons for my position. I am by nature a non-confrontational person…

Sleep Well, Philae

Astronomy

On March 2, 2004, the European Space Agency launched the Rosetta robotic space probe on an Ariane 5. It reached comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014.

Lunar Eclipse

Astronomy

The skies cleared out in time for the lunar eclipse this morning. I managed to get a couple of decent pictures.

A New Meteor Shower Is Coming

Astronomy

UPDATE, MAY 24 Sadly, the shower did not live up to expectations, producing no more than 5 - 10 meteors per hour. Not surprising, with the variable predictions, but still…

Chelyabinsk Meteor

Astronomy

On February 15, 2013, shortly after dawn, a superbolide meteor descended over the Ural mountains, traveling at 34,000 MPH.

‘Andean Gold’ lecture at SunWatch

Archaeology

On Saturday, April 19th, I attended the last of this year’s AIA lecture series at SunWatch entitled “4000 Years of Andean Gold”. The speaker was Dr. Mark Aldenderfer.

Duck and Cover

Phil Robertson is a reality show star on the popular television series Duck Dynasty. He recently made some interesting comments. In a GQ interview, Mr. Robertson was asked…

Martian Exopaleontology

Astronomy

The latest data from the Curiosity rover indicates a lack of methane in the Martian environment. This comes as a surprise, as previous studies seemed to indicate the…

Duct Tape

A few years ago, a colleague and good friend of mine described me as a “magic bullet” programmer, in that I tend to spend insane amounts of time trying to find the “right”…

Idiocracy is Upon Us

Critical Thinking

After my father retired, he and my mother purchased property in London, Kentucky, and moved there in 1985. As I was a teenager and still living at home, I moved with them.…

Firefox OS

Firefox OS is a Linux-based open-source operating system for smartphones and tablet computers. It’s developed by the non-profit organization Mozilla (best known for the…

SunWatch Video Podcast

Archaeology

This is a video podcast I created as one of my assignments in the “Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets” course on Coursera.

It’s Just a Theory

Critical Thinking

Today I attended the “Sacred Spaces and Human Sacrifice: The Nasca Lines in their Cultural and Religious Context” lecture at SunWatch in Dayton, Ohio. This is the last of…

Tech Generation… not?

Much is said about the “tech-savvy” generation. Kids raised with computers, cell phones, high-end video games, etc. But what, exactly, is tech-savvy? To me, that means…

…from the Moon and Mars

Astronomy

I purchased a couple of nice items from the Hupe collection.

Ken Feder and the Myth of the Ancient Astronauts

Pseudoscience

Critical Thinking

Archaeology

On Saturday, January 19th, it was my distinct pleasure to attend the first of the 2013 “Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology” lecture series at SunWatch entitled “Amorous…

Pale Blue Dot

Astronomy

In 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and take a photograph of Earth, at the request of Carl Sagan. At the time, Voyager 1 was at…

Rigorous Logic and Amelia

Critical Thinking

Anyone who knows me knows that I am highly skeptical regarding pseudo-scientific subjects. But, alas, I recently found myself falling prey to the very same.

Chick-fil-A

Everyone else on the planet has weighed in on the Chick-fil-A issue. I guess I will too.

Interesting Fossil

Paleontology

My son Chris located a very unique fossil in the Camden, Ohio area.

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview

I can’t think of a public figure who instills more conflicted reaction in me than Steve Jobs. I’ve read and watched so much about Mr. Jobs that has made me feel that he was…

Choosing a First Telescope

Astronomy

First of all, if you want a decent, dirt-cheap starter scope and don’t want to spend a lot of time evaluating and comparing, check this out. (I have no personal experience…

Theism and the Thinking Mind

Critical Thinking

I often find myself reflecting on the co-existence of rational thought and religious belief. Simply put, how is it that an intelligent person, possessed of a formidable…

Science and Youth

Paleontology

Once a year, I visit the 3rd grade classes at Twin Valley Community Schools in West Alexandria, Ohio. I do this to share my interest in fossils. I talk about fossils and…

Unhitched

Critical Thinking

Time, in its unrelenting drive to eventually claim us all, occasionally takes one whom we really can’t afford to lose. Such was the case with Christopher Hitchens.

Fake Science Makes Me Angry

Pseudoscience

Critical Thinking

I’m not a scientist. But I do believe that science, and the rigorous application of the scientific method, is the greatest tool that mankind has for stripping away ignorance…

Genetic Material from T-Rex Decoded

Paleontology

Until recently, it was thought that the preservation of protein did not extend beyond a million years or so. However, protein sequences have now been recovered from the…

Vacuum and the Nature of Mass

I heard a fascinating story on NPR this morning, a story describing the “Large Hadron Collider” (an underground ring of superconducting magnets, designed to study subatomic…