Hi, I’m Vinnie Moscaritolo. I’ve been building things that need to work — sometimes at scale, sometimes with duct tape — for five decades. I started before home computers came in kits, wire-wrapping systems from scratch, because there was no other way.

This publication is part of my effort to resurrect a modern version of a magazine that inspired me as a lad, Popular Electronics — a place to document real builds, share practical knowledge, and encourage people to understand and own their tools.

You'll find:

  • Raspberry Pi, embedded Linux, and custom automation projects

  • Resilient systems for rural life and off-grid living

  • Farm tech, from controlling irrigation valves to logging weather

  • Radios, SDRs, CAN bus hacking, and vehicle interfaces

  • Code and schematics you can actually use

  • Hard-earned opinions and honest breakdowns of what works

I was one of the original cypherpunks, and spent a good chunk of my life creating systems in mobile encryption and privacy tech — tools built to protect speech, rights, and autonomy in a networked world. After a long run in the computer industry, I walked away from Silicon Valley to volunteer as a Search and Rescue professional and focus on problems that actually matter.

Now I live on a regenerative farm, where I build and write about resilient systems: hardware, software, and all the real-world friction in between. I’ve designed custom Pi-based hardware, automated environmental control, written REST APIs to talk to it all — and documented it so others can follow along or build their own.

I’m also trained in technical rescue, emergency medical response, and radio ops — including a GROL with ship radar endorsement — because making tools that actually work means knowing what happens when everything else breaks.

I still build. I still create. And I still believe the best systems are the ones you can understand, fix, and make your own.

Cypherpunks write code.
I still do.

If that sounds like your wavelength, pull up a chair.

User's avatar

Subscribe to Vinnie’s Views

It’s about independence built from code, steel, and stubbornness.

People

Adventure is where you find it.. After decades in the high tech industry, I have walked away and are now working on the stuff I like.