Today's outages, hacks, phones, gadgets and fixes, plus the tech you grew up with, picked daily by Chris Pirillo for the pros everybody calls.https://lockergnome.com/en-ushttps://lockergnome.com/10-dollar-usb-3-logic-analyzer-serial-debugger/https://lockergnome.com/10-dollar-usb-3-logic-analyzer-serial-debugger/WeAct Studio's Logic Analyzer V2 splits its flash into three firmware slots you swap with a two-second button hold or a magic baud rate. The catches are closed-source firmware, a desktop app for Windows and Linux only, and a shipping bill that can double the price.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTHardwarelogic-analyzerusb-cdebuggingweactsigrokhttps://lockergnome.com/1984-space-game-elite-ported-to-commodore-pet-block-graphics/https://lockergnome.com/1984-space-game-elite-ported-to-commodore-pet-block-graphics/The PET build starts from Mark Moxon's annotated 6502 source, ships as a disk image for a 2031 drive or an emulator, and its author is upfront that it plays slowly.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTGamingEliteCommodore PETBBC Microretro computing6502https://lockergnome.com/apple-homeview-smart-display-wall-mount-texts-catch/https://lockergnome.com/apple-homeview-smart-display-wall-mount-texts-catch/Apple's smart display pulls iPhone data onto a communal screen, and its pricier-than-listed wall version has one speaker fewer than the tabletop model.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTHardwareapplehomeviewsmart displayprivacyreviewhttps://lockergnome.com/apple-support-community-forum-shutting-down-november-20/https://lockergnome.com/apple-support-community-forum-shutting-down-november-20/Started in 1998 as the Apple Tech Exchange, the forum is where owners swapped fixes for problems Apple's own help pages never covered.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareApplesupportforumshttps://lockergnome.com/applygate-blocks-coding-agents-destroying-production-terraform/https://lockergnome.com/applygate-blocks-coding-agents-destroying-production-terraform/Flurit's tool installs with Homebrew, starts in observe mode so it can't block anything on day one, and says outright that it is not a sandbox. The scorecard it publishes comes from its own test set.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareapplygateTerraformcoding agentsguardrailsopen sourcehttps://lockergnome.com/arpanet-rfc-439-parry-doctor-chatbot-session/https://lockergnome.com/arpanet-rfc-439-parry-doctor-chatbot-session/Cerf filed the 1972 chat in the same numbered series as the protocol specs, and the paranoid program was the only one at the table that noticed the repetition.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTRetroARPANETchatbotsRFChttps://lockergnome.com/community-fork-revives-abandoned-million-dollar-personal-finance-app/https://lockergnome.com/community-fork-revives-abandoned-million-dollar-personal-finance-app/The original team quit in mid-2023 after the business side failed; volunteers took over the issue queue, and the repo now shows 4,125 commits plus a public dashboard of the demo site's slowest requests.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareself-hostingDockeropen sourcepersonal financehttps://lockergnome.com/cpp26-fails-national-body-vote-over-unenforceable-contracts/https://lockergnome.com/cpp26-fails-national-body-vote-over-unenforceable-contracts/A Polish committee member lists what ISO can do next, from a quick revote to cancelling the project, and the C++ committee meets in Brazil on November 16 to start deciding.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareC++ISOContractshttps://lockergnome.com/einstar-ez-go-3d-scanner-phone-is-the-screen-899-launch-price/https://lockergnome.com/einstar-ez-go-3d-scanner-phone-is-the-screen-899-launch-price/It is SHINING 3D's answer to Creality's Pika, it is in stock at a launch discount that ends December 11, and your phone has to be a recent flagship to run it.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTHardwareEinstar EZ GO3D scannerSHINING 3DCreality Pika3D printinghttps://lockergnome.com/epic-unreal-engine-5-9-megajam-preview-first-release-built-mostly-by-agents/https://lockergnome.com/epic-unreal-engine-5-9-megajam-preview-first-release-built-mostly-by-agents/A handful of engineers directed fleets of agents to port tooling from the UE6 branch and add a Web target, timed for Epic's AI MegaJam, which opened this week.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareUnreal EngineEpic GamesAI agentsgame engineshttps://lockergnome.com/free-browser-viewer-compares-13-releases-secret-of-monkey-island/https://lockergnome.com/free-browser-viewer-compares-13-releases-secret-of-monkey-island/The Paninos off-line, a two-brother team also remaking Sierra's The Black Cauldron, shot every scene in 1600x1200 and ported emulator CRT shaders to WebGL2 so an Amiga and a Sega CD can argue in one tab.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTGamingMonkey IslandLucasArtsScummVMretro gamesCRT shadershttps://lockergnome.com/free-windows-tool-rips-live-urls-from-running-process-memory/https://lockergnome.com/free-windows-tool-rips-live-urls-from-running-process-memory/It's MIT-licensed, ships as one exe with no installer, folds duplicate hits into counted rows, and refuses to kill Windows' core processes if you try to end one from inside it.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareWindowssecuritydebuggingopen sourcehttps://lockergnome.com/google-samsung-warby-parker-smart-glasses-face-redaction/https://lockergnome.com/google-samsung-warby-parker-smart-glasses-face-redaction/Nine frames from Gentle Monster and Warby Parker go on sale December 10, but only with a US or South Korean Google account, and iPhone owners miss two services at launch.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTHardwaregooglesamsungwarby-parkergentle-monstersmart-glassesprivacyhttps://lockergnome.com/lego-3d-printer-ninety-two-percent-classical-bricks/https://lockergnome.com/lego-3d-printer-ninety-two-percent-classical-bricks/The 92% counts parts in a bill of materials, the extruder needed non-LEGO gears after the bricks wouldn't grip filament, and the build log says it took 59.25 hours.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTHacks & Builds3D printingLEGOHack Clubopen hardwarehttps://lockergnome.com/luhn-1954-patent-check-digit-card-numbers-hand-held-mechanical-computer/https://lockergnome.com/luhn-1954-patent-check-digit-card-numbers-hand-held-mechanical-computer/IBM's Luhn built it to catch invoice typos, with belts, slots and a stylus. The same arithmetic is still running on card numbers, and one swapped pair slips straight past it.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTRetroLuhn algorithmIBMpatentshttps://lockergnome.com/open-source-ci-tool-rerecords-product-demo-videos-every-git-push/https://lockergnome.com/open-source-ci-tool-rerecords-product-demo-videos-every-git-push/It is in private beta, free for public repositories, and its source is available under a license that turns into Apache 2.0 after two years. Private projects are planned at $35 a month each.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareCIdemo videosGitHub Actionshttps://lockergnome.com/open-source-linux-shell-replaces-overlapping-windows-with-spatial-map/https://lockergnome.com/open-source-linux-shell-replaces-overlapping-windows-with-spatial-map/A funded Free Explorers project in Rust and Flutter, it ships through community packages for Arch, NixOS, Fedora, openSUSE, Debian and Ubuntu, with no vendor repository behind it.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareLinuxdesktopWaylandopen sourcehttps://lockergnome.com/rare-tim-stamper-conker-banner-manor-farm-barn/https://lockergnome.com/rare-tim-stamper-conker-banner-manor-farm-barn/Rare's founders kept their N64-era farm offices off-limits to outsiders, so the footage doubles as a tour, and Stamper's own question afterward is whether this is the last Conker banner.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTGamingRareConkerNintendo 64Tim Stamperhttps://lockergnome.com/regex-was-built-in-1968-to-never-hang-thompson-nfa-backtracking-engines-left-it/https://lockergnome.com/regex-was-built-in-1968-to-never-hang-thompson-nfa-backtracking-engines-left-it/Thompson's compiled-to-machine-code approach ran on the IBM 7094; the engines that left it cannot do backreferences cheaply, and that is the trade Cox says the industry got wrong.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareregexKen ThompsonReDoShistoryhttps://lockergnome.com/shebang-began-as-a-1980-ritchie-kernel-patch-limited-to-16-characters/https://lockergnome.com/shebang-began-as-a-1980-ritchie-kernel-patch-limited-to-16-characters/Dennis Ritchie announced it in a Bell Labs mail as a fix for ps, accounting and set-user-ID scripts, and Berkeley's own csh trick was never the same feature.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareUnixshebangDennis Ritchiehistoryhttps://lockergnome.com/skyrim-turns-15-bethesda-picked-11-11-11-and-shipped-10-million-copies-in-a-month/https://lockergnome.com/skyrim-turns-15-bethesda-picked-11-11-11-and-shipped-10-million-copies-in-a-month/ZeniMax's own December 2011 numbers counted copies sent to stores, not sold, and the PC version also became Steam's fastest-selling game of its day.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTGamingSkyrimBethesdaElder Scrollsanniversaryhttps://lockergnome.com/sms-160-characters-is-140-octets-packed-at-7-bits-per-character/https://lockergnome.com/sms-160-characters-is-140-octets-packed-at-7-bits-per-character/The standard never sets a character count. It sets a payload size in bytes, and the number people plan their messages around falls out of how many bits each character costs.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareSMS3GPPGSMUCS2protocolshttps://lockergnome.com/super-metroid-samus-in-castlevania-symphony-of-the-night-fangame/https://lockergnome.com/super-metroid-samus-in-castlevania-symphony-of-the-night-fangame/The modder behind it, BigSharkZ, shows the crossover running on a real PlayStation and says features are done, so the open question is how long testing takes.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTGamingMetroidCastlevaniaMetroidvaniafan gamehttps://lockergnome.com/traceroute-maps-routes-with-packets-set-to-expire-and-the-icmp-replies-they-trigger/https://lockergnome.com/traceroute-maps-routes-with-packets-set-to-expire-and-the-icmp-replies-they-trigger/Berkeley's version was written by Van Jacobson on a suggestion from Steve Deering. A 1993 RFC later proposed replacing the trick with a new IP option, and its first section explains what the trick had going for it.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwaretracerouteICMPTTLVan Jacobsontech historyhttps://lockergnome.com/united-airlines-bans-ai-agents-booking-flights-check-in/https://lockergnome.com/united-airlines-bans-ai-agents-booking-flights-check-in/Fares stay bookable on Kayak, Hopper and Google Flights, and an aviation analyst says the airline is also dodging the bill for bot searches and one more middleman.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTAIUnited AirlinesAI agentsMileagePlusairline policyhttps://lockergnome.com/unix-more-pager-exists-because-berkeley-terminals-had-their-bell-speakers-unplugged/https://lockergnome.com/unix-more-pager-exists-because-berkeley-terminals-had-their-bell-speakers-unplugged/A first-year student borrowed the prompt from MIT, got two friends to extend it, and BSD shipped the result.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareUnixmoreBSDterminalshistoryhttps://lockergnome.com/unix-v7-bourne-shell-mac-h-macros/https://lockergnome.com/unix-v7-bourne-shell-mac-h-macros/Bell Labs' shell author came from an Algol 68 compiler job and wanted that syntax in a C project, so he rebuilt the language with a header file. The shell's source also helped inspire a contest for the strangest C ever written.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareUnixBourne shellCAlgol 68tech historyhttps://lockergnome.com/usb-c-hub-nintendo-switch-2-dock-firmware-patch/https://lockergnome.com/usb-c-hub-nintendo-switch-2-dock-firmware-patch/A hobbyist who wouldn't pack the official dock for trips taught a Cable Matters hub to pass as one, and left the catches in his own write-up: no variable refresh rate, washed-out HDR on one port, and untested USB ports.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTHacks & Buildsnintendoswitch-2usb-cfirmwarereverse-engineeringhttps://lockergnome.com/wii-turns-20-249-99-with-wii-sports-in-the-box-against-599-ps3/https://lockergnome.com/wii-turns-20-249-99-with-wii-sports-in-the-box-against-599-ps3/Nintendo set the price in September 2006 and planned four million consoles for a launch across every region at once, which is how a motion controller beat a $349 price gap.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTGamingWiiWii SportsNintendoanniversaryhttps://lockergnome.com/windows-1-0-1985-compudata-oem-prerelease-archive/https://lockergnome.com/windows-1-0-1985-compudata-oem-prerelease-archive/Five 360K floppy images from one of the earliest OEM copies of Windows 1.0, uploaded November 11.Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:09:33 GMTSoftwareWindowsretro computingInternet Archivehttps://lockergnome.com/duke-nukem-forever-steam-page-unreleased-2006-build-clips/https://lockergnome.com/duke-nukem-forever-steam-page-unreleased-2006-build-clips/Fans spotted GIFs and a trailer from builds that never shipped, and the internet spent a long weekend deciding whether the Duke was finally coming back.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTGamingDuke Nukem ForeverSteamgame historyhttps://lockergnome.com/epic-games-cliff-bleszinski-jazz-jackrabbit-rights-dispute/https://lockergnome.com/epic-games-cliff-bleszinski-jazz-jackrabbit-rights-dispute/The Gears of War creator drew the bunny as a teenager, and Epic still pays him a share of GOG sales while insisting the character was never his.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTGamingJazz JackrabbitEpic GamesFortnitehttps://lockergnome.com/false-smoke-alarm-shut-off-datacenter-cooling-sprinklers/https://lockergnome.com/false-smoke-alarm-shut-off-datacenter-cooling-sprinklers/The engineer who lived nine minutes away sprinted to the building, and afterward wrote a monitor that watches the whole fleet's temperature instead of one sensor.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTHardwaredatacenterJane Streetwar storieshttps://lockergnome.com/free-local-server-revives-stadia-controller-wifi-mode/https://lockergnome.com/free-local-server-revives-stadia-controller-wifi-mode/Stadiacast works because the controller's firmware trusts Google's certificates without checking whose name is on them.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTGamingStadiaopen sourcecontrollershttps://lockergnome.com/home-assistant-connect-aux-2-smart-home-bridge/https://lockergnome.com/home-assistant-connect-aux-2-smart-home-bridge/A reviewer's two-day test: Bluetooth hygrometers kept a garage fridge reporting, and in-wall speakers finally got an amp, while a $35 rival and a $16 board cover parts of the same ground.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTHardwareHome Assistantsmart homeESPHomehttps://lockergnome.com/linux-kernel-patch-catch-ignore-sigkill/https://lockergnome.com/linux-kernel-patch-catch-ignore-sigkill/The write-up shows the kernel's two untouchable signals are protected by a handful of explicit checks, and that removing them behind a config switch broke nothing.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTSecurityLinuxkernelsignalshttps://lockergnome.com/mac-calendar-sidebar-nudges-windows-away-like-dock/https://lockergnome.com/mac-calendar-sidebar-nudges-windows-away-like-dock/A one-person Austrian app fakes the Dock's reserved strip with one Accessibility permission, then writes every meeting note into your Obsidian-ready folder.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTSoftwaremacOScalendarObsidianhttps://lockergnome.com/microsoft-media-producer-1996-archive-windows-10/https://lockergnome.com/microsoft-media-producer-1996-archive-windows-10/An uploader posted three versions of the program, including an untouched one for preservation, and says the patched copy works on Windows 10. The original ISO is still missing from the record.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTRetromicrosoftinternet archive1996multimediasoftware preservationhttps://lockergnome.com/zilog-z80-8-bit-cpu-secretly-used-4-bit-alu/https://lockergnome.com/zilog-z80-8-bit-cpu-secretly-used-4-bit-alu/Reverse-engineering the die photos shows the Z-80 does every 8-bit operation in two passes through four one-bit slices.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:47:08 GMTHardwareZ-80reverse engineeringretro computinghttps://lockergnome.com/motorola-signature-27-7000mah-battery-12000-nit-oled-no-qi2/https://lockergnome.com/motorola-signature-27-7000mah-battery-12000-nit-oled-no-qi2/The predecessor keeps the same rated wired and wireless speeds; the bigger cell is the clearest hardware change.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 18:10:00 GMTHardwarehttps://lockergnome.com/apple-silicon-usb-c-hidden-serial-reboot-pico/https://lockergnome.com/apple-silicon-usb-c-hidden-serial-reboot-pico/A custom service adapter exposes a recovery conversation that a silent screen cannot show.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTHacks & Buildshttps://lockergnome.com/clingon-markdown-cheatsheet-real-shell-confirmation/https://lockergnome.com/clingon-markdown-cheatsheet-real-shell-confirmation/A small Mac utility keeps the documentation beside the terminal, with a catch for anyone sharing command packs.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTSoftwaremacOSterminalopen sourcehttps://lockergnome.com/crayon-1995-personalized-newspaper-relaunch-90s-logins/https://lockergnome.com/crayon-1995-personalized-newspaper-relaunch-90s-logins/Dave Maher rebuilt the site Jeff Boulter started as a Bucknell student. Every outlet's version of an event now sits in one story, ordered by who got there first, and the maker says an old login opens your original paper.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTRetrocrayonnews1990s webrelaunchpasswordshttps://lockergnome.com/daemon-maxwell-background-process-name/https://lockergnome.com/daemon-maxwell-background-process-name/Fernando Corbató's surviving reply settles a bit of computer folklore that keeps acquiring extra capital letters.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTRetroUnixcomputing historyhttps://lockergnome.com/fortran-1957-compiler-monte-carlo-registers/https://lockergnome.com/fortran-1957-compiler-monte-carlo-registers/John Backus's team faced a practical sales problem: scientists wanted easier programming without slower results.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTRetroFORTRANIBMcomputing historyhttps://lockergnome.com/free-mac-app-runs-original-1987-hypercard-stacks-in-color/https://lockergnome.com/free-mac-app-runs-original-1987-hypercard-stacks-in-color/Labynet's HC reads 1987-to-1998 stacks without conversion and runs HyperTalk on a current Mac. Its Tetris demo is a single button that changes shape, and the maker lists what still breaks.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTRetrohypercardhypertalkmacosopen sourceretro softwarehttps://lockergnome.com/gestaltx-iphone-capability-flags-backup-restore/https://lockergnome.com/gestaltx-iphone-capability-flags-backup-restore/The project separates a device's region code from its sales region and records original values before changing them.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTSoftwareiPhoneiOSopen sourcehttps://lockergnome.com/iphone-controls-itself-through-loopback-vpn/https://lockergnome.com/iphone-controls-itself-through-loopback-vpn/A sideloaded app brings developer-device control back onto the phone, with VPN and privacy tradeoffs.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTSoftwaresoftwarehacks-cheatshttps://lockergnome.com/marc-andreessen-proposed-html-img-tag-in-1993-mailing-list-post/https://lockergnome.com/marc-andreessen-proposed-html-img-tag-in-1993-mailing-list-post/The replies in the 1993 archive show a browser maker with working code, a SLAC rival with its own icon tag and CERN asking for none at all. Andreessen's answer to one question explains why it says SRC.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTRetrohtmlmosaictim berners-leeweb historymailing listshttps://lockergnome.com/margaret-hamilton-software-engineering-apollo-overload/https://lockergnome.com/margaret-hamilton-software-engineering-apollo-overload/The computing pioneer died September 30 at 90, leaving a record of the arguments behind reliable flight software.Thu, 12 Nov 2026 03:43:03 GMTRetroApolloNASAcomputing history