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Review of HackerBox 0122 - Ouroboros
This month's box includes a OVcam based camera board and ECG measurement board! Also, I got a lot of nice new tools from the holidays that help me out with the build.
I Read a Couple of Books in 2025
You should read books too. Turns out they are actually pretty good. In 2025 I covered a lot of ground: Cal Newport, Triathlon training material, Cory Doctorow and a book on solar power.
I Listened to a Couple of Books In 2025
Not only is reading books great, but did you know you can listen to them too? I listened to a nice mix of fiction and non-fiction in 2025: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Brandon Sanderson and some commodity history books.
(My) Second Year of the Linux Desktop (For Gaming)
A look back at what it took for me to reach 0% Steam play time on Windows, even though I've been using Linux since I was a kid. Spoilers: Valve and the FOSS community are what made this possible.
Review of HackerBox 0121 - MCU Lab 2025
An Ultimate Pico RP2040, ESP-WROOM-32, STM32F401CCU6 and NRF52840 SuperMini, oh my! This month's HackerBox is a cornucopia of MCU experiments.
NeurIPS 2025 Retrospective
The conference is over. I had a chance to go explore San Diego, relax and return here. The daily posts are pretty terse, so I've collected my thoughts about NeurIPS 2025 here.
NeurIPS 2025 - Friday Notes
Today at NeurIPS 2025 was a bit of a late start. This is common as conference go on. I saw some interesting medical data set talks, and posters... so many posters.
NeurIPS 2025 - Thursday Notes
On Thursday at NeurIPS 2025 I focused less on technical talks and more on some philosophical talks. There was a really good pool of sessions to attend. They dealt with democratization of AI, regulation, and our understanding of intelligence.
NeurIPS 2025 - Wednesday Notes
I'm back at another conference. This times NeurIPS 2025 in San Diego. I took lots of notes again to summarize and share.
Installing Jellyfin Tizen On Your Inlaw's Samsung TV In Just N Simple Steps
No. It was not simple. I like to self host Jellyfin. I like to use it when I travel. How hard could it be to install Jellyfin on a Samsung TV?
Finally Actually (Hopefully) Learning Rust
I have started and stop learning Rust more times than I care to admit. This time, I'm actually being more thoughtful about how I approach learning it: exercise and project based books like Rustlings and Command-line Rust for deliberate practice.
Using Self-hosting Language Models So You Can Evaluate Claude Code
Because why would I pay Anthropic when I could do this myself with Qwen3-coder, Ollama, and LiteLLM on NixOS. Especially if I just want to try the tool out and see if its worth using.
Assembling and Testing the SmartSpin2k On A Schwinn IC4
After much printing and procrastinating, I finally put all of the parts together for my SmartSpin2k and go for a test ride.
An ESP32 based beaconDB Scanner Prototype
I'm prototyping a design using the Tiny Yeti Locator for scanning for WiFi APs, and BLE Beacons. The goal is to make a small embedded device for contributing to beaconDB.
Review of HackerBox 0120 - Current Affairs
In this month's HackerBox, I haphazardly tear apart an extension cable and measuring current. Sadly, I did not wire into the mains on my apartment, since I do not own the place.
Testing Out BLE Beacons With beaconDB
A sub-project of a sub-project. I needed to better understand BLE Beacons and how beaconDB uses them.
I never thought I could be a Maker
Times are changing and now I want to be one more than ever. Not just taking apart or putting together, but making something wholly new.
Review of HackerBox 0119 - Geopositioning
Wherein I am extremely lucky and this month's box teaches me about the exact hardware I wanted to learn about: GPS, WiFi and BLE with an ESP32.
On Practicing Writing
I grew up disliking writing, but now find myself drawn in and wanting more. Thank goodness blogs are still around.
3D Printing the Smartspin 2k with an Ender 3 v2
Also, I was tired of bed leveling by hand, so I got a CR touch.
Review of HackerBox 0118 - More Human
"We do what we must, because we can." A some-what AI themed electronics kit where I use Raspberry Pi Pico 2W as an Arduino.
Pocket Casts, You Altered The Deal, So I Will Alter Your App
After all you made your apps open source, so I can remove your ads.
Learning About Municipal Open Data with a Cambridge Workshop
Information wants to be free and the city of Cambridge wants you to have access.
Fond memories of a high school personal project - cross country race analysis
Small project can end up being unexpectedly important over the course of our lives.
I appreciate that my high school had a senior project
When you're in school, you might not want to do your high school senior project. However, they can potentially create great opportunities you can only recognize when looking back.
I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13
It turns out I've always done weird things to my laptops.
Setting up my new Framework Laptop 13 DIY Edition with NixOS
Declarative partitioning with Disko, hibernate with LUKS, and Lanzeboote, oh my!
Framework 13 DIY Edition Hardware Thoughts
Framework did a really great job with the 13 and I'm excited to do terrible things with the laptop.
On Self-hosting, OpenTofu, and Formerly OSS Licensed Software
How a weekend project became a rant about OSS projects re-licensing.
Blog Paleontology - 15 years of Blogging
It's not easy to admit to the folly of one's youth.
Ghost 6.0 - ActivityPub Is a Go
I'm excited self-host Ghost 6.0 and hook my blog up to ActivityPub.
It's Weirdly Hard to Buy Music Now
How difficult could it be to give someone my money, and they give me music?