(2024-08-26) Helping retro meet modern
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I have reinstalled everything on my main PC, the Asus PN41 nettop. Now,
instead of Arch + OpenBSD, it's only running Alpine Linux. That's what I
spent the main part of the week on, and the results satisfied me. By the
way, I've migrated from WindowMaker to Fluxbox and it still is perfect for
my needs. My weekend though has also been rather interesting, and that's
because of two things. First, I got a VoIP ATA gateway, namely Grandstream
HT802. Second, my 12-watch waxed canvas roll by Bertucci finally arrived,
alongside the watch I'd been hinting about before: Seiko SBDC091 (aka Seiko
Prospex Alpinist Green). And yes, that's SBDC091, not SPB121, although one
couldn't probably tell any difference without the original packaging. What
do these things have in common? They bridge modern and retro technologies.
As for the HT802, I'd been planning to purchase something like this for some
time. It's only powered by micro-USB, drawing 1A of current at most, hence
its maximum power consumption is 5W. But it's capable of serving two phone
lines via different SIP accounts simultaneously, and more importantly, it
supports pulse dialing. Yes, one can hook an old rotary phone to this small
box and have it talking to the Internet in no time. This is how I got
interested in the purchase. I was initially planning on buying an even older
version (HT502), but it turned out to be out of stock when I ordered it, so
I got this one. And didn't regret it.
The firmware upgrade process (the recent version is 1.0.55) wasn't as
straightforward: Grandstream had changed the main update URL to
firmware.grandstream.com, so it had to be adjusted in the admin dashboard,
making sure plain HTTP is being used. Afterwards though, even an option to
configure routing all traffic through OpenVPN appeared, and I might put it
into some use in the future. But what am I using this device for? Well, I do
have a SIP number reachable from normal PSTNs, and I do have some old wired
phones lying around. With this device, I can create a fixed line phone for
my room that would be using that SIP number, and actually use it for calling
instead of any of my cellphones, since I've been spending most of my time in
this very room anyway. And yes, I'm going to get an old Tesla rotary phone
from a friend of mine within this week, so the process is going to be much
more fun than I can imagine.
Now, to the Seiko SBDC091. I've immediately put a different strap on it
(dark-green canvas with quick-release bars) but, other than that, it looks
much cooler than it costs. Time will tell how accurate it is out of the box,
but, unlike the Certina DS Action Diver (which still had been running well
under +1 spd, by the way), the 6R35A in this one is regulatable, so it
shouldn't be a problem in the long run. I probably will write a separate
post with my impressions about this watch some time into the future, but for
now I can say one thing: those who keep comparing it to the SARB017 are
doing so in vain. In fact, SARB017 had no _real_ advantages over this one
besides probably a white-on-black date window. SARB017 didn't even have
anti-reflective coating whereas this one has. Here though, where they
returned the date magnifier (and I say returned, not added out of nothing),
I understand why they implemented a black-on-white date: this new model is
all about improved legibility under any conditions. And believe me, all of
us start appreciating this when we grow older. Again, the only thing I'd
really like to see is a titanium cased version of the very same watch.
Finally, the Bertucci watch roll. I must admit, that's one of the things one
can never understand until trying it out. The concept is so simple yet so
efficient that I wish I had bought one before even buying any of the
"traditional" watch boxes. It's extremely convenient for securely packing
the entire watch collection into a bag or backpack without taking a lot of
additional space or weight. As I only have 13 watches left in my entire
collection (including SBDC091), this roll perfectly fits my purpose: twelve
watches packed and one on the wrist. And the collection is probably gonna
shrink even more in the years to come, so it's future-proof enough for me.
