2021 timeline – Marcin Juszkiewicz

2021 ended so let me try to mark some interesting moments.

Started looking for a new flat. This time to buy not to rent.
As kind of experiment I started working on I/O plate for APM Mustang as it never had one. After several hours and versions finally I got something usable. Not perfect but good enough.

Online FOSDEM happened. It was the best online conference so far.
Friend found me a nice flat. Went, saw, decided to buy.
Jon Nettleton from SolidRun asked do I have any interest in a HoneyComb. We discussed and few days later I got HoneyComb at home. Bought things like case and ram for it, used spare nvme and got it working. I use it as build machine for countless projects.
Replaced old Netgear router with EspressoBin. I got that SBC from a friend, printed 3d case and sorted out fresh firmware. Now it boots straight from SPI flash and reads operating system from microsd card.
After several discussions with developers I wrote how AArch64 perception change when all you used are SBC (compared to being used to AArch64 servers).

Another ‘let me explain’ post. This time on U-Boot and generic distro boot as it turned out to be hard to understand/decode for some people.
I got an offer of Ampere eMag system. But due to my flat move and shipping/customs issues nothing came from it.

Bought flat. Agreed with previous owners on moving date. They started painting walls.
Five years at Linaro passed. Still waiting for that glass award.
I wrote one tweet and it was enough to get extra AArch64 nodes for Opendev CI.
I got “Mars 2020 Helicopter Contributor” badge on GitHub. As one of ~12000 developers.
First dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Moved to my own flat. With help from my friends and moving company. Still have a few unpacked boxes.
As my daughter had 3 free days in a middle of a week we went for nice trip through museums.
Spent some time on designing new structure for home network. EspressoBin got replaced with very small x86-64 system (4 “igb” network interfaces). Finally reached 1Gbps speed on home link.

Organizing my new home. Looking for good office furniture ended with buying VS 901 desk and organizer.
Second dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Got two Sharp Zaurus palmtops: SL-5500 (collie) and SL-5600 (poodle) from a friend. First model was a device which brought me to working full time on FOSS.
My 13 years old daughter asked me what “that huge phone with printer” she saw in anime was. Took me a moment or two to find out that it was fax machine…
Crashed my car. No one got hurt. Insurance paid what they had to and I later sold what was left of the car.

Vacations! Rented Opel Astra combi and we went for a tour. Met some friends, visited new places (and some old ones). Good time.
Friends managed to organize demoscene party in COVID-19 times. So I went to Katowice, Poland and spent great time at Xenium 2021.

Programmers’ Day! So I wrote about programming languages I used so far.
Created Python package for system calls information. So far no one reported using it. I learnt few new things so mission accomplished.
Upgraded home wireless network from 802.11n to 802.11ax standard. Or WiFi 6 if you prefer new names.

Left some projects maintained by Arm employees. Open source with closed development process is not something I am fan of. Especially when there is no serious review done on code contributions.
I got information that moderators on “Arm Software Developers” Discord are not fans of my comments there. Went through history, dropped most of my posts and left server. Was asked to go back some time later. No longer taking part of conversations there.

I was positive! Too bad that it was result of COVID-19 test. 2 weeks of isolation as a result. Boring time with flu-like symptoms. Friends handled my shopping needs.
Migrated from Pocketbook Touch HD to Onyx Boox Poke 3. Just to migrate to Onyx Boox Nova 2 three weeks later. Reading books on 7.8” screen is the other experience.

Polish demoscene became official Polish cultural heritage.
Wrote post about 25 years of using the Internet.
Started playing with configuration of my router to get native IPv6/IPv4 setup working. Took far too many attempts and curses but got it done (in 2022).
Third dose of COVID-19 vaccine (this time Moderna instead of Pfizer).