Randy Northrup

Sysadmin · Network & A/V · Web Dev. I build AI Agents, MCP Servers & Dev Tools.

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

I'm Randy: sysadmin, network and A/V tech, and web dev in Ventura, CA. I build AI agents, MCP servers and dev tools in the open.

A quick tour of what I've shipped:

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

OBS 33 is out. Windows plugin users:

- New home: ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\<name>
- Old Program Files obs-plugins folder still loads, tagged Legacy
- OBS 34 stops loading it
- Safe Mode skips third-party plugins

My Ray-Ban glasses plugin already installs to the new spot

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

The Short: https://t.co/xnNAqLfV6M

Gotcha from an earlier track: Gemini refused a prompt with "8-bit chiptune" and "boss theme" in it. Leave video-game words out of music prompts

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

Music for my Halloween Short:

1. Claude wrote the Gemini prompt ("stinger hit around 15 seconds")
2. Gemini made the track (AI music)
3. ffmpeg found the hits: 5.19, 15.54, 17.79 s
4. Shifted it 1.69 s so the big hit lands on the stamp slam

No editor opened

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@mreflow And for the music itself: I have Claude write the prompt for Gemini's music generator, then it measures the track that comes back and times the cuts to it. Prompt to final cut without opening an editor lol

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@mreflow One more for that pass: have it loudnorm the final mix to -14 LUFS. YouTube turns anything louder down on its own, so you might as well set the level yourself lol

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@laurencemarks64 Careful, they're a gateway. I bought mine to mill custom PCBs and it ended up as a woodworking machine instead lol

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

Two home studio setups from over the years:

1. Garage, with a projector throwing kaleidoscope visuals across the back wall
2. Foam-walled drum corner with a Roland + Yamaha frankenkit

Which one would you actually get work done in? lol

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@chukwupg Next step once that clicks: write your own detection rule for it, then try to sneak a scan past it. Red-teaming your own lab is the fun part lol

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@WindowsUpdate Sysadmins: the LTSC boxes are usually the kiosks, POS and shop-floor PCs nobody's touched in years. Worth checking their hardware against the Windows 11 requirements now, not the week before January

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@BowTiedCrocodil Fair lol. If you ever want the low-effort version: Pocket ID is one container, passkey logins, and most self-hosted apps already speak OIDC. mTLS can wait until something actually needs it

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@laurent_zw Fits in 32GB at what context length? On a 32GB card the KV cache usually decides whether a coder model is usable on a real repo, more than the weights do

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@wccftech And in a year the bare boards hit eBay as "RTX 5090, for parts, untested" lol. Always ask for a photo of the core side before bidding

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@Atlas_fomo What happens to an order if the Clover hookup drops mid-rush? That's the one failure a restaurant notices instantly, so a fallback like a text to the owner's phone is worth a lot

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@ankitkr0 lol the most honest job market indicator out there

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@AKirtesh lol true. Unless that follow-up issue gets an owner and a date, it's just a nicer-looking graveyard

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@jaydrogers lol DNS and PKI in the same week. The internet's entire trust layer just had a rough Friday

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@KiloMike9Golf Tip that makes those pump irons way better on old boards: flow a little fresh leaded solder onto the joint first. It drops the melting point of the factory lead-free and the pump clears it in one pull

[Randy Northrup @RandyNorthrup]

@bichwaa lol and if it doesn't, the magic smoke was just the bugs leaving