Replaces every user-visible use of 'VLSM' / 'Variable-Length Subnet
Masking' with plain descriptions of what the allocator is doing.
Everything already lives under CIDR; the separate VLSM label was an
extra name for the same mechanism and not helpful.
Retitles the post to 'what the slash actually means'.
Expands the reserved-ranges section with proper authority links:
IANA itself, the IPv4 Special-Purpose registry, the multicast registry,
RFCs for NAT, loopback, DHCP, OSPF, PIM, limited broadcast, CGN, and
whois, plus a pointer to the five regional internet registries.
Adds a fourth scene for route summarization: two /24s in a /16 parent,
slider to position each, draws the smallest supernet that covers both.
Demonstrates cleanly why only consecutive and power-of-two aligned
subnets aggregate without collateral.
Adds a prose section on reserved IPv4 ranges (RFC 1918 private,
loopback, link-local, multicast, limited broadcast, 0.0.0.0, RFC 6598
CGN space).
Fixes scene-samesubnet layout where the host title strips were
overlapping the bit rows; increases row gap so titles sit cleanly above
their rows. Clamps pill labels in scene-supernet so they stay on
canvas when subnets sit at the track edges, and fixes an off-by-one
tick label that read '10.20.256.0' at the right edge.
Also retitles the post.
Adds a draft of subnetting-ipv4 (scheduled 2026-06-05) with three
interactive scenes: bit/mask visualization with prefix slider, greedy
VLSM carving of a parent block into variable-size children, and the
same-subnet-vs-gateway decision every host makes on every outbound
packet.
Also adds IDEAS entries for layer 2/3 routing and IPv4 subnetting.
Enables Zola feed generation (Atom + RSS) and adds autodiscovery link
tags in the base template. Sets site description and author so feed
entries have a real byline instead of "Unknown".
Applies the dark rounded-rect pillLabel treatment to labels that overlay
graph content across nlos.js scenes (knife-edge, earth curve, LOS, ray
trace, duct, duct types, real terrain). Fixes the "deep shadow" label
truncating off the right edge of the J(v) plot by right-aligning it to
the plot frame. The readout annotation now flips to the left side when
the cursor nears the right edge.
Adds a plain-language explanation of PWAT (precipitable water) in
why-signals-bend.md so readers don't have to already know the term.
Rewrite the NLOS post to reflect what microwaveprop has learned:
M-refractivity and dM/dh as the actual duct discriminant, the four
duct taxonomy with radiation ducts as the North Texas mechanism,
binary duct detection as a coin flip, low pressure beating high,
shallow boundary layer winning, PWAT sweet spot, seasonal pattern
(spring worst, summer best), troposcatter as the floor, and real
numbers for the 65 km QTH-to-W5HN/B path.
New interactive scenes: N vs M side-by-side refractivity profile,
pressure/HPBL/binary-duct bar chart, band-vs-dawn enhancement,
PWAT sweet spot with draggable cursor, monthly ducting probability,
and a 10 GHz link-budget decomposition showing how the 36 dB
diffraction gap gets closed.
Polish pass across all scenes: softer palette, rounded stroke
caps/joins, prettier slider styling in scene.css and nlos.css,
signal-pulse animations on NF cascade / single-stage / LNA
placement, trail persistence on the ray-trace scene, animated
glints along trapped rays in the duct scene, and animated TCP
sequence diagrams.
Add local-serve preview mode so future-dated posts show up on
zola serve but stay hidden on the deployed build.
New post cascaded-noise-figure (scheduled 2026-04-29) with four
interactive scenes on noise floor, single-stage NF, the Friis
formula as a block builder, and LNA placement.
Upgrade the three static TCP scenes (data, sliding window, UDP)
to animated packet flow using a shared drawPartialPacket primitive.
Expand IDEAS.md with roughly thirty more post concepts across
electronics, networking, ham radio, microwave, and longer arcs.
Add outbound links to relevant first-mentions across posts:
Fresnel zone, effective Earth radius, atmospheric duct, HRRR,
BJT, common-emitter, TCP/UDP RFCs, slow start, QUIC, Friis,
noise figure, Boltzmann constant. Scrub Unicode arrows and
multiplication symbols out of prose and scene labels.
Filter future-dated posts out of blog/homepage listings and add a
daily 05:05 UTC rebuild so posts go live on their date automatically.
New interactive post on BJT amplification with five canvas scenes
(valve, load line, transfer curve, amplifier in action, gain).
Shared scene.css for future interactive posts. Post is dated
2026-04-23 and will appear in listings once the date arrives.
Also drop IDEAS.md with candidate topics for future posts.
New post "why-signals-bend" with ten hand-rolled canvas scenes
(LOS, Earth curvature, Fresnel, knife-edge and rounded diffraction,
refractivity profile, ray tracing, duct trapping, duct types,
and the real 65 km QTH-to-W5HN/B path with 4/3-Earth bulge).
Also drop QSO/em-dash conventions from prop1 and the
"written by humans" footer line.
