I want to start by saying I’m not an influencer. I don’t get excited about new SaaS tools, and I don’t have a media kit. So when I say Zo Computer has genuinely changed how I work, I mean it.

What Is Zo Computer?

In the simplest terms, Zo Computer is a personal server in the cloud — your own virtual machine that you control completely, with a layer of AI assistance built right in. It’s not shared hosting, it’s not a VPS where you’re left to figure everything out alone. You get a Linux box with root access, persistent storage, and an AI agent that can actually do things — run commands, write code, manage files, search the web, and more.

The Core Features That Stood Out

Your Files, Actually Yours

I’ve spent years being frustrated by scattered files — documents in Google Drive, notes in Notion, spreadsheets in Airtable, photos wherever. Zo gives you a unified file system. I can drop files anywhere, organize things the way I think, and access them from anywhere. No more hunting through six apps to find a document.

The built-in search is genuinely fast. I’m not waiting for indexing, I’m not dealing with sync conflicts. It just works.

The AI Actually Does Things

Most “AI assistants” are good at answering questions. Zo is good at doing things. In my first month, I’ve used it to:

• Research and summarize technical topics, saving the results directly to files
• Manage my investments — I have a spreadsheet of stock tickers and Zo fetches current prices and adds them as a column automatically
• Keep a running notes file that persists across sessions (“take a note that I cancelled the Blink gym membership”)
• Run a full development environment, including compiling code and installing tools
• Research things to do around NYC and text myself curated recommendations

The key difference: it doesn’t just tell you what to do. It does it. It runs commands, writes files, sends texts, sends emails.

Web Access Without the Tedium

I used to hate tasks like “go extract my last credit card statement” or “check this website for updates.” Now Zo handles it. It can browse the web as part of a task — click buttons, fill forms, extract data. For someone who runs several online accounts and hates repetitive web tasks, this alone is worth the subscription.

No Lock-In

This is important to me. My data is on my server. I’m not locked into some proprietary format that only works in Zo’s ecosystem. The files are standard Linux files. I could move everything to another server tomorrow if I wanted to. Zo respects the idea that you actually own your data.

What Could Be Better

A few rough edges:

• The initial setup was a bit confusing — the terminology (workspace, host profile, agents) takes a few hours to internalize. Once you’re past that, it’s intuitive.
• Some tasks require context switching — if I’m working on something complex, Zo doesn’t always have all the context from earlier in the conversation. But this is a limitation of any session-based AI, not unique to Zo.
• The mobile app is functional but basic. For quick looks and edits it’s fine, but the desktop experience is where it’s at.

Who Is This For?

I’d recommend Zo Computer to:

• Technical users who want a personal server with actual AI integration
• Researchers and writers who want a persistent, organized workspace
• Developers who need a always-on Linux environment they can access from anywhere
• Anyone who hates context switching between a dozen apps and wants a central hub

It’s probably not for someone who just wants a better chatbot, or who is deeply invested in Apple’s or Google’s ecosystem and doesn’t mind the lock-in.

The Bottom Line

I’ve been computing professionally for over two decades, and I’ve tried virtually every “productivity” tool that has come and gone. Zo Computer is the first new computing paradigm in years that actually feels like it respects how I work — rather than demanding I adapt to it.

It’s still early, and there are rough edges. But the core premise — a personal server + capable AI agent — is exactly right. If you’ve been frustrated by the fragmentation of modern computing, give Zo a shot.

You can find Zo Computer at zocomputer.com, and reach me at truman@truman.net.

Published from Zo Computer — where the AI actually does the work.

Now let’s jump right into one of the best dancehall songs that dropped in 1982 on the label Techniques Records.

Sister Nancy’s track has become iconic with old school dancehall reggae. The track, while sampled by countless musicians, also contains a sample from an Ansel Collins’ track, entitled Stalag 17. Have a listen below:

Now check out General Echo with Arleen. That beat sounds familiar right?

Ansel Collin’s sample was then used in Tenor Saw’s Ring the Alarm, which dropped in 1985.

Enjoy the sounds, and enjoy the start of the year. There is a lot to be grateful for. Ring the Alarm!

Here are some things I have been up to / thinking about:

• Doing a lot more Home Automation with Home Assistant. This is a great system for automating all the smart things in the house. It’s quite feature rich, but it also needs a bunch of work to really get it going.
• I started adding more Zigbee devices into the house to complement the existing WiFi and Zwave devices. My only issue was that I needed more Zwave “routers” to help in extending the signal around the house. Lot’s of plaster and brick are blocking the RF from getting around the place. Why Zigbee? Well, it’s much simpler that WiFi and possibly more secure for outside devices.
• Been looking into LoRaWan technology and devices. Which then took me on a wild ride reading up on Helium (HNT) and other similar tech. I think LoRaWan is going to really be something for IoT. I am now looking to implement this on the boat.
• I ordered a Bobcat Miner for Helium. This should be pretty interesting to setup in our town, and possibly add another on the boat in Jersey City.
• I was reading up on Algarve, Portugal. Would be great place to visit with the fam.
• Had a great time out at Sushi by Bou in Nomad location.
• Looking at 5G CBRS and micro cell tech; primarily from JMA Wireless.
• Going to rewire all the DC/AC wiring on the boat. Ordered some good marine cable. It will be good to know all of the layout incase there is an issue in the future.

• Interesting Links and Articles from tabs that I had open:
  • https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/1074256096/even-babies-and-toddlers-know-that-swapping-saliva-is-a-sure-sign-of-love
  • https://medium.com/voskcoin/what-is-the-best-helium-hotspot-miner-to-buy-e26f3f4a0c37
  • https://www.amazon.com/Emporia-Monitor-Circuit-Electricity-Metering/dp/B08CJGPHL9/?encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=pk7gj&pf_rd_p=e3507245-c2c1-4f99-8b1e-89193a9e9975&pf_rd_r=BK2K12RSH4DGJX7S6187&pd_rd_r=cf6e6a36-8d5e-4dfc-8aa0-edd60bf0bfba&pd_rd_wg=iKCi7&ref=pd_gw_bmx_gp_kh2l6zin&th=1
  • http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc2.html

We do all this work in technology, to get to this point. The see the season reach a climactic conclusion. To have winners. To have a reason to try harder than ever to see an investment payoff.

I am traveling next week to get out to the games and to connect with some of our team and partners. Looking forward to the trip to Houston and Atlanta.

Seasonal Change

I snapped some pics of plants that are in full bloom outside our house. Brilliant colors and intricacies of their complex patterns.

Home Automation

For the longest I have had all different types of home automation technologies. In our old house I setup Insteon, which was a complex setup of new switches that communicated between each other in an evolved X10-like protocol. Over time, I switched to various things like Zwave and Zigbee devices that connected to a hub. Couple that with Google Assistant devices, some Amazon devices, a bunch of WiFi outlets — you get the point… it started to get messy.

I just recently started using Home Assistant (running a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB) to serve as the bridge between all the of technologies. So far, it’s really neat. There is a simple way to control nearly every switch in the house, to build scenes (ie. waking up, night, etc), and to interact with audio and sensor devices. Music can follow you where you go; lights can auto turn off; and certain events can trigger more complex automation scripts.

Other Interesting Findings

I now use a paid subscription of Koyfin. This is basically a Bloomberg Terminal for regular people. It’s amazing. You can research and chart nearly any equity with advanced queries and macros.

• Assembled an amazing trampoline for the kids. This thing is huge and they are going to love it.

After all this digging and work around the backyard, and jumping on the trampoline, I woke up with a painful back and felt like I was leaning in a crooked way. YouTube saved the day with this video:

I have taken a lot of different types of transit in traveling around over the last 20 years. Just found a really cool website to look at various methods of travel to get between places: https://www.rome2rio.com/

Planted a bunch of Fargesia Rufa Clumping Bamboo in the backyard to create privacy. Hopeful that this will slowly grow over time.

Read a fascinating medium article on someone attempting to reverse engineer the disk images from CompuServe.

At some point I want to try BE OS on a VM. I remember this Operating System coming out, but I think at the time I was really into Free/OpenBSD and Linux.

• Most of the SPACs that I followed in 2020, have had a rough start in 2021. EV companies have also pulled back and there is certainly enough to be said that most of them are not making profits.
• I continue to be a supporter of TSLA; actually ended up trading in the Model S P85 for a Model X P100D with FSD. It’s great for what I wanted — which was more space and plenty of options to carry a bike, more friends in the car, and the new tech is also pretty cool.
• Went out on the boat yesterday with family — way too windy and everyone was a bit freaked out with the healing and the accidental gybe. It’s hard to single hand the boat in the choppy water with wind. Lessons learned, will only take fam out when it’s calm. If I had some more experienced folks with me on the boat, we could have had a good time. The main issue is the gusts that were blowing at 20+knts and creating instability.
• BTC/ETH/and pretty much every crypto asset took a 30-50% dip. It happens. I have been through this plenty of times. New owners take over the assets as people panic sell. It’s OK. — it’s just satoshis.

My daughter was playing softball for the month. It was really great to see her have a good time hitting and fielding. She crushed some hits, and did well.

Watched some baseball with her late at night on a Met’s game going into the 10th inning. Loved hearing her questions about what was going on.

Figured out some strange electrical things that were going on after hooking up a pool heat pump. It didn’t power up the display. After grabbing a multimeter, I found the voltage was dropping way too low. Measured 170v, when it should read 220v. Turns out it was corrosion on the contacts. Cleaned them up with sandpaper, they sparkled, and then everything worked great.

Sail Racing Tonight

Getting a chance to learn to race. I have been sailing now for a year, but have only been on a boat once that was practice racing, and I had no idea what was happening. There was so much tacking and quick changes, that I didn’t entirely understand what I needed to do, other than trim the jib. I expect to understand the details over the next month or so.

Morning Sails

Planning on sunrise sailing during the month of May. It’s early, and might require that I spend a night on the boat in order to be there in time.

Other items of interest

• Polymarket – market for things that happen.
• Testing out lending Uniswap token on Gemini. APR looks decent. >3.5%.

The process worked well for me, as I have some experience with Ethereum, wallets, transaction fees, gas, mp3s and all the associated understandings.

The album sounds great. If these types of online only purchases and items that are collectible in a way that NFTs offer, then this will need to be easier. Additionally the Ethereum network is far too expensive to small items. There will need to be a rethink on how to scale computational costs to users of a network. There should never be a situation where the transaction fee costs more than the item.

It’s a strange thing to wrap your head around, that you own not just the album, but a specific entity of the album. A limited digital token of the album.

The setup needs a lot of cleaning up of the wires, and there is a little more to do — but it feels great and the quality of the desk is excellent. It’s heavy, the motors are smooth, and the adjustability is fully flexible.

The market has had some growth this week after free falling for the last week or so. It’s good to see JBLU and XRAY see some gains after all red across the board. I believe people want to travel — and when vaccines are reaching a broad part of the population, we will see travel rally. Jet Blue has some great routes and I think they will see some decent spring/summer revenue. (I have JBLU shares and long term options)

The Covid stimulus of $1.9T has passed. Pretty wild the things that were embedded into the bill. I am all for the necessary measures to aid people in this hard time with government assistance, but there are some bailouts that are a huge stretch and have nothing to do with covid. ie. $86B in pension bailouts. WTF is going on there.

I have too many subscription services around media. But some of them are so good. I love Spotify, but I have to say that SoundCloud is so awesome to hear new and emerging music, remixes, and just experimental music. I even use it natively on my Denon CDJs. It’s worth a subscription to support the diversity of music.

After spending time away from the cold (spent time in Florida), it was still a cold and isolating time back in NJ. Continued with walks around the neighborhood as a way to still get some outdoor time and the occasional sunshine that warms up a 30 degree day.

The market has been a wild place the last few months. Wild gains that seemed to reach nearly all the sectors. The SPACs that I would buy at $10 would go to $17-20. Everything was running full steam until the 10 year note’s yield started to run up beyond $1.50, and then the brutality of the pullback became clear. Massive sell offs in tech, even while stimulus money continues to be released, and jobs numbers grow back in time for spring. I think the pullback is temporary — there is still a lot of healthy things happening in the market.

Next week are some warmer days, and likely a good time for a real start of the year sail. There is plenty of work to do on the boat this season. Planning on cleaning up the wood, adding some repair to the teak handrails on the deck, and adding some more tech. Considering adding AIS, radar, and hardwiring in the temporary solar setup that I have for the house batteries. This is all in prep to taking her out on farther trips. Would love to cruise down to Sandy Hook or just cut back and forth outside Coney Island. Eventually I also want to get into some longer motor trips — up the Hudson — was looking at marinas or Anchorage up past West Point. I think this would be a nice trip past the palisades, and past some of the iconic bridges that cross the Hudson.

The room heats up decently with a gas wall mount heater that I had installed last year. This 30k BTU vent free heater works fantastic to quickly take the chill out of the air in the spacious (otherwise) non-heated room.

Bitcoin/USD crossed $28k over the weekend in one of the wildest bullruns this year. I have been fascinated with cryptofinance since around 2012 when all of this was developing. The global BTC market is now over $500B in market cap, which sets up a bunch of interesting dynamics, including the potential to be used for massively large transfers of wealth. Everyday there is nearly $50B in volume. I think we are still looking at inflows of cash into BTC as money is pulled from other areas including equities, gold, and real estate.

As far as real estate goes — I speculate that commercial real estate still has a significant bear market approaching and REITs that cover commercial/urban residential will be greatly affected by the pullback. Basically, I would stay out of high yield investments in real estate that have historically been doing great. They won’t for much longer.

I was looking into different types of materials in clothing design. There are some wild things on the market, including a Solar Charged Puffer jacket from Vollebak. Looks freaking awesome. I do wonder about the long term effectiveness of the charge and the material fading over time. I think we will see more items like this in the future. If there was a more cost effective production of light emitting clothing, I think we would see more of this in industrial applications. Construction and seaworking crews could be fully illuminated at night. Really neat stuff. I went down this rabbit hole while looking into Dyneema and Graphene.

Graphene is insanely tough. Apparently it has been around for a long time, but only recently started to have applications. There is apparently a market of about ~$150M for graphene for the application of batteries and semi-conductors. I have read some interesting discussions on how the graphene battery works. Tesla Lithium Polymer Graphene Composite battery cells manufactured by Panasonic have about 20% energy density than older models. It appears that graphene allow safer charging at lower temperatures, due to the strength of the graphene composite.

There is something therapeutic with taking things apart and putting them back together, especially when you have the right tools. That is always the way — when you have the time and the tools, pretty much any task is accomplishable. I was really happy when the snow blower started right up after nearly three hours of repair and cleaning.

• Started using Todoist for task management. Pretty easy natural language processing of recurring dates and tasks. I have used a lot of task software over the years, and the hardest part for me is investing the time to see how to really work with it. I have usually given up and switched back to Outlook tasks and Calendar. Todoist is really smart and I see a lot of potential.
• There is so much happening in the SPAC equity market space. I just keep seeing M and A activity creating huge market opportunities. Think about it, cash is plentiful in private capital, and there are plenty of ways to create mega companies by merging a few in a given sector.
• Bitcoin had a huge breakout last week and into the weekend. It has take time, but BTC, ETH, and alt-coins are powering many transactions beyond just speculation. I have been a long time Bitcoin proponent and have been buying weekly since 2012. At some point BTC will stabilize. On the other hand – we have yet to see this happen.
• Curious – will there ever be competition to LinkedIn? It’s interesting how they found their niche and brand loyalty. I suppose there are others for recruiting, but I hardly think folks will update their pages on multiple sites — à la Myspace / Friendster / Orkut. Ok I took it there. Found this interesting article on the subject.
• While I am on the topic of business — passive aggressive emails from biz dev or inside sales folks is just wrong. Writing a message like, “you probably don’t want to hear from me, or why are you ignoring me” will only get a small fraction of folks. I find it unprofessional and would not hesitate to block instead of delete.
• Had our Mercedes GL repaired at the local shop. On the last oil change from a different tech, they put a self tapping screw into the oil plug. No idea why, but a $3 screw nearly killed the car. The oil drained into the pan the engine had nearly no lubrication. Luckily I knew something was wrong and the local guy fixed it.
• Starting to plan some sails next year. Thinking of a few:
  • NJ to Block Island
  • NJ to Nantucket
  • Jersey City to LBI, NJ.

When weather permits I will fix up the snow blower. It really does make sense to winterize (or summer-ize) the gear when it’s not running.

• Google News on the web now has dark mode.
• Made it over to the boat to clear the snow and run the Diesel engine.
• Our swimming pool cover pump is frozen or the hose is. I wonder if there is a way to keep the hose from freezing. If the pump was able to blow air through the hose to drain it — that would work.

I used to have a Bloomberg Terminal for years ( I worked there ), and they are amazing. Since moving on, I have struggled to find decent investment analytics sites or applications. Lately, I started using Koyfin. It’s pretty amazing and the features and richness of data is more than most of the free and paid charting sites out there.

There is snow predicted for this week. Hoping to get over to the boat before the storm rolls in to ensure everything looks right.

• I heard good things about WakeOut – and app for doing exercises.
• Watched an interesting video from David Zhang about using a 4k TV monitor with a main workstation. Interesting. I use a AOG 49″ ultra wide monitor connected to my Mac Book Pro. I keep the laptop closed and use the Magic Trackpad 2 with a Vulcan keyboard. It’s a lot of space for chrome windows.
• Looks like iOS 14.3 is out. Will try this out on my iPhone X Max. One of these days I need to pickup the 12.
• The weather has been chilly and wet. Ended up setting up my old treadmill. It was great to get a good mile or two in this morning.

The range around towns for decent distance is there. It supports 70+ mile range assuming not too steep climbs, and some pedal assist. But what if I wanted to ride even further, and have an adventure?

I started thinking of ways to do this, and initially it involved looking around for places with AC outlets (libraries, public parks or buildings, cafe’s). The trouble is that it’s not that easy to plug a big battery inside a Starbucks. And even if you do, it means leaving your bike.

What I have always wanted was a way to get access to public level 1 and 2 chargers around the country. I charge my Tesla Model S mostly at Super Chargers, but on occasion I use public or private chargers with either J1772 or CHAdeMO plugs.

I saw some DIY boxes to support J1772 plugs for an ebike, but those looked pretty messy. Finally I found this J1772 to NEMA 5-15 EV Plug.

The opportunity is that I should be able to carry my auto switching 110/220v charger with XLR 2amp output, and then plug that into this 1772 to NEMA 5-15, and that should give me decent AC power on the go. Later, it might be possible to explore higher amp charging, since the battery itself supports 8amp. But picture if you will, you are riding from town to town, you find a public EV spot, you hook your bike up to it, eat a meal, stretch out, and come back with some more energy in your bike’s battery.

Interesting to see different takes on what this means to the world. Some folks have pointed out the potential impact on scarcity in water or traded water would create a potential scenario that implies worldwide risk to a basic resource (ie. rising price of the index means that people can’t afford water …). However another take is that this is purely a method of market transparency that reveals the aggregated rates. Market conditions could then be addressed through competition, regulation, or through technology/innovation.

I was also interested in the measurement of NQH20 being valued in US dollars per acre foot. (43,560 square feet, filled to a depth of one foot, equivalent to 325,851 gallons). Apparently, this is a standardized measurement format in the United States in relation to large-scale water resources. Water reservoir capacities are measured in TAF (thousands of acre-feet). Seems like in other locations outside the US, the measurement is simply in cubic meters or cubic kilometers.

Just based on viewing habits, I am so far behind everyone that I know. I still haven’t finished Game of Thrones, Ozark, etc. I really haven’t ever been able to focus on lengthy series of shows since HBO’s The Wire. That was my most favorite production of all time — although I haven’t watched it since it ended, and it may have been more temporal. Not sure what it would be like to watch it again.

I did notice that there is no easy way to share Amazon Prime Watchlists with friends. It would be cool if that was a native feature or if there was a good meta search site that allowed for shared content lists. I tweeted over to Prime and they assured me they would take this idea to their product team.

Last weekend I watched The Man Who Skied Down Everest.

Pretty wild to see how involved it was to get this skier up to the mountain and the sacrifices made by the sherpas. During the course of the climb, six sherpas were killed in a collapse of ice.

If there was one specific thing that was accomplished during 2020; at least on the home front, it would be this shed. It’s a 10×12’ gabled roof wooden building that sits off the ground and on a frame.

At some point soon I will write up the details on construction and how I finish it.

As the plastic pushed down on the trunk area of the fob, the key would emit the signal to pop the trunk. But since the button was also depressed for longer durations, it would also open the charge port repeatedly. Sometimes I would be able to stop it by pushing it manually and then tucking the key into the glove box.

In any case, I needed a few key fob, which costs $175/each.

This issue taught me that holding the trunk button down will open the charge port. This is pretty handy.

I had webpages online in 1995 but the oldest page that I can find dates to 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20010309024251/http://www.truman.net/

While I find twitter interesting to share and network with quick thoughts and commentary; complete thoughts are best positioned in longer form. I experimented with Medium, and in the past hosted my own WordPress installs. For simplicity and focus, I decided to get a paid account on WordPress and use the SaaS. So far, it’s been pretty awesome. The ease of use, and even the tech support is great. I had one issue that was resolved via a chat with support. [ Which reminds me — shouldn’t everything have instant online chat support to resolve issues? ]

Recast. Mashing up own feeds.

Skip Booth - Extensible Data Planes

• OCP, SAI. P4.
• Data Plane Programming Models - C based programming on CPUs. - SDK model. Broadcom and ICP SAI. Fixed Pipeline. - NPU , uCode, or C. ARM Open Dataplane IDP. - DSL, P4.

• P4_16

• Something to look at: ISTIO Service Mesh

• Steam of photons used to carry an encryption key.
• Individual key can be guaranteed.
• October 24/25 for NAG

Originally published on truman.net. See the archived copy.

Originally published on truman.net. See the archived copy.