Did you actually read the article? Doesn't seem like it, the author says he literally talked to Peri in it.
Readit Newspolpo commented on A Retro YouTuber Wants to Take over Commodore. Yes, He's Serious tedium.co/2025/06/19/peri... · Posted by u/shortformblog
polpo commented on High tariffs become 'real' with our first $36K bill blog.adafruit.com/2025/05... · Posted by u/ptorrone
But once you run out, will you screw the community over or eat the costs?
That's a very uncharitable way to put things. Since my original posts it looks like things have cooled and the worst of the tariffs have been walked back, but at the sky-high tariff rates from before today, my options would have been:
- Raise prices to account for tariffs.
- Not raise prices, therefore not make any profit, therefore not make it worth my time, therefore not make any hardware at all.
I'm not operating at big margins but I do make a profit because I want to balance supporting the community and keeping things at a sustainable level for my sanity. Those tariffs would have wiped those margins out completely.
polpo commented on High tariffs become 'real' with our first $36K bill blog.adafruit.com/2025/05... · Posted by u/ptorrone
Has anyone tried ordering a prototype PCB lately? Holy fuck. Prototype and small-run PCBs are effectively dead if you're in the US.
I switched to Aisler who are in Germany. They're certainly more expensive than China but still way less than quick turn options in the US. There will still be tariffs but they won't be nearly as high. There are also smaller PCB vendors in China other than the "big two" of JLCPCB and PCBWay that are willing to be a bit more flexible and not charge the max possible duty upfront via DDP incoterms.
polpo commented on High tariffs become 'real' with our first $36K bill blog.adafruit.com/2025/05... · Posted by u/ptorrone
If you’re curious about how the DIY open-source hardware market for Chinese-made goods is reacting to the recent 145% tariffs, check out the eBay sales data here: eBay Sold Listings:https://www.ebay.com/sh/research?marketplace=EBAY-US&tabName...
Spoiler alert: There hasn’t been any noticeable reaction yet. You might expect to see price increases or higher order volumes when searching for items like the ESP32, but that hasn’t been the case so far.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the potential impact of removing the de minimis threshold on shipments. It’s hard to imagine how the postal system could efficiently handle tariffs on a dozen small $1 packages from AliExpress landing in the mailbox. I suspect we’re moving beyond that point, with private companies likely clearing these shipments in bulk before they reach USPS—if they even make it that far.
As a maker of open source hardware, I and others in the US selling my projects stocked up before the de minimis threshold was eliminated on May 2. We're not increasing our prices until those stocks run out and we have to reorder - we don't want to screw the community over.
polpo commented on Why is there a “small house” in IBM's Code page 437? blog.glyphdrawing.club/wh... · Posted by u/m_walden
One more theory - it could be a tabulator or cursor symbol (for word processing applications).
That's what I always assumed it was, too.
Easy way to remember it: Never both together (NBT)
I use this to remember what it does and also like thinking of XOR as an operation you can apply with a mask to flip bits (the linked article mentions this).
polpo commented on Investigating an “evil” RJ45 dongle lcamtuf.substack.com/p/in... · Posted by u/zdw
RJ45 nazi here: these should be called 8P8C
I’ll show myself out
I don't mind calling the connector an RJ45, but calling this thing an "RJ45 dongle" makes my eye twitch. It's an Ethernet dongle - RJ45 can be used for a lot of other things. For example I've seen "RJ45 dongles" that convert USB to RS232 serial for the console ports on a lot of networking equipment.
polpo commented on Inside a Ferroelectric RAM Chip righto.com/2024/09/ramtro... · Posted by u/chmaynard
Are the parts pin-compatible with parallel sram? I've always thought it would be nice to replace the battery-backed SRAM in old video game cartridges with MRAM or FeRAM
I’ve replaced battery backed SRAM in several game consoles and other devices with FRAM (Neo Geo CD, Sega Saturn, an HP oscilloscope) and for some it’s drop-in, and in a few you have to bodge some lines.
polpo commented on Inside a Ferroelectric RAM Chip righto.com/2024/09/ramtro... · Posted by u/chmaynard
polpo commented on DOjS – A DOS JavaScript Canvas with Sound github.com/SuperIlu/DOjS... · Posted by u/AlexeyBrin
> LPT or parallel port access
Last time I tried I couldn't get this working with DOSBox. Can someone who knows this stuff well comment on whether this represents an extension of DOSbox capabilities or if I've just missed what DOSbox can already do?
This is a framework for building things that run on DOS (yes, that means running JavaScript on DOS). If what you’re running DOS on has a working parallel port, DOjS can use it.