- Lalande 21185 (also known as BD+36 2147, Gliese 411, and HD 95735) is a star in the south of Ursa Major. It is the apparent brightest red dwarf in the northern hemisphere. Despite this, and being relatively close by, it is very dim (as are all red dwarfs), being only magnitude 7.5 in visible light and thus too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. The star is visible through a small telescope or binoculars.
- Fixing the Ethernet board from a vintage Xerox Alto (righto.com)
A Xerox Alto system on the East coast had Ethernet problems, so the owner sent me the Ethernet board to diagnose. (After restoring our Alto, we’ve heard from a couple other Alto owners and try to help them out.) This blog post describes how I repaired the board and explains a bit about how the Alto’s groundbreaking Ethernet worked.