aethopica

what arcade believes about computing

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I have very strong opinions...

log: 2026-09-13

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Design with LLMs.
Happened: They’re pretty ok. Not good at novel things, you have to encourage creativity
Means: Designers still have a job, and I’d trust a human more.
Next: Not much! Keep learning about design, especially graphic design, cough magic ink cough.

log: 2026-09-12

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Today I decided to carpe the diem!
Happened: Got a battery for my camera, got some film developed, went to the Art Hop, got new pants, ate a good lunch (finally good Arnold Palmer up here!), read a book, and played some video games with friends.
Means: I should leave the apartment on the weekends more, don't let the comfy bed command me!
Next: Tomorrow I have a little project lined up, which is good, given the weather looks meh.

log: 2026-09-10

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Folk again! I was thinking about how to implement some sort of "dynamic download" of other people's "books".
Happened: To this end, I was thinking that a set of "blanks" could be a good solution, and that eink panels would be a good type of blank. You can render code onto them, and tags, and have them be dynamicaly controlled by the system. I tried it out by putting an apriltag generator onto my XTEINK X3 running Crosspoint, which worked wonderfully!

Means: I'm probably onto something. A lot of other design decisions to be made, and eink doodad with a tag is not new for folk.
Next: More thinking about this, plan some other features...

log: 2026-09-09

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: A lot of slack botting today, but I got some work in on a nicer shapes library for folk
Happened: Slack bots are wierd!
Means: Eh not much.
Next: More folk, more WPs.

log: 2026-09-08

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Thinking about the future. What am I going to do in the next few years?
Happened: Googled like a bajillion things. UMN-Twin Cities has a History of Science, Technology, and Math major!!
Means: A place to apply to, of course. I love it. I've been to the twin cities! It's sick!
Next: Keep looking, school isn't the only option. Though I'm pretty excited.

log: 2026-09-07

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

NO TRYING NO HAPPENED NO MEANS NO NEXT
It's labor day and I'm hanging out with family!

log: 2026-09-02

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Architecture. I like it a lot. Do I wanna do a carreer in it?
Happened: Read a lot of papers, played with some software.
Means: Probably not, I like the software stuff, I like building systems, I like looking at the art, idk if it's something I can do daily.
Next: Keep learning!

log: 2026-09-01

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Today I started following the classic [Rust OS tutorial], mostly to practice [devenv] and nix some more.
Happened: Got through the first couple chapters! It's cool, I get the interrupt tables a lot more than the last time I did this.
Means: Shout out to my friend Willow, OS-dev extraodinaire, she's the reason I understand that stuff.
Next: More work on half-life, maybe I'll do something fun with the OS.

log: 2026-08-28

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: A lot of UI design today.
Happened: I am not good at UI design, picking colors, etc.
Means: I should probably practice this some more...
Next: I'm outsourcing to a coworker :P

log: 2026-08-27

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Today I actually got the drawterm thingy working!
Happened: It was because drawterm tries to derive a secstore address from your auth address, which just times out slowly. Just make it dial -s tcp!127.0.0.1!1
Means: I should read man pages more thoroughly next time lol. Also, I love the net dial strings from plan9, not enough software uses BANG!
Next: Friyay, working on UI design for Half-Life, and dealing with a lost ereader :(

log: 2026-08-26

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Today I gave a little demo of {Lamplight} @ the [August Feeling Of Computing meetup]!
Happened: I got through most of it without stumbling too much, but I didn't get to everything I wanted to do.
Means: I should probably practice giving talks before I do them, and I neeeed to give more talks.
Next: MORE TALKS MORE WORK MORE WORK THAT GETS ME PAID

log: 2026-08-25

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Doing some systems architecture for Half-Life today (a new YSWS)!
Happened: I forgot I don't have to split the backend and the frontend over two services, lmao that's funny.
Means: I should probably do this a bit more, just for practice!
Next: Launch page out by Friday??!??!??

log: 2026-08-24

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Today I'm trying out [the Gleam programming language]!
Happened: I wrote a little Atproto stream follower (websockets & json parsing).
Means: It's a real nice little language, and felt really good and intuitive to me. I want to write bigger things in it some day.
Next: Maybe for my next YSWS backend!

log: 2026-08-20

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Mostly work, and the game [The Message From Deep Space].
Happened: The game ate like, 6 hours of my time and kept me up wayyyy too late.
Means: I love math, linguistics, indie games, etc. I'm a huge nerd. More games should be like this! It's kinda fun seeing through the game to how the developer had to implement things.
Next: I will continue to play, and honestly it so worth 10 bucks.

log: 2026-08-19

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: I've been making [alternate history stuff] in Affinity (yet to be enshittified...), it's real fun!
Happened: People love it on reddit! Almost universally positive!
Means: My art skills are getting better (not evidenced by the thing I made tho lol, but that's on purpose). I like graphic design and text layout!
Next: I wanna make a magazine with essays from the space I occupy...

log: 2026-08-17

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Played around with plan9 again today.
Happened: Really love it. Wonder if I could do a YSWS with this...
Means: Mostly that I'm lacking on good ideas and am a nerd for YSWSs.
Next: Keep messing with it :)

log: 2026-08-14

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: I'm working on making everything I do better. So I got some feedback from friends about my {latest blog post}.
Happened: I got the feedback, and reworked some stuff. My tone was pretty inconsistent, and that's something to nail down. Also, not everyone know how my website works lol.
Means: I'm getting better at recieving feedback, especially creatively and from people I admire, but it feels way better.
Next: Keep working, keep getting feedback, keep writing!

log: 2026-08-13

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Today was a bunch of reviewing!
Happened: I helped Alex hammer down some UX stuff in the dashboard.
Means: No big meaning, but a nice experience.
Next: More abstract stuff to come...

log: 2026-08-12

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Refining our ideas here at the office to get to 200 WP/month/gap year!
Happened: The retreat was great, the lightning talks were great, and I have a much better idea now than a week ago.
Means: Ideating with other people IRL/online is extremely useful still, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Next: Finish up the ideas, and actually get to building!

log: 2026-08-11

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Still working on "pErSoNaL BrAnD", and I'm working towards projects for that 20 WP for this month.
Happened: Had a lovely chat with [Ivy Reese] and talked about how I can convey myself as a person through the things I make.
Means: I've got to actually start writing, y'all! Get something out there! Maybe ask Chee what she thinks...
Next: Dude I'm 19 I have so much "next".

log: 2026-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: Getting my WPs up. Currently I'm sitting at like, 4, which is not ideal, I want 25 by the end of the month.
Happened: This is mostly because I haven't been able to market my programs as successfully as other gap years, so I'm worse off.
Means: I'll have to try and get involved in bigger things, like [stardance] and whatever comes after that!
Next: I'm reaching out to coworkers, and getting involved in other programs :)

log: 2026-08-08

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: I'm trying to make the lamplight layouting engine feel really intuitive.
Happened: I think this is the kind of thing that needs to be prototyped with paper, I just can't use words to say how it should feel.
Means: Determinisitic masonary algorithms are needed, but I want to keep them as dumb as possible, so I need to figure out what the real constraints are...
Next: Prototype it with paper, and figure out what I'm actually doing when I play with it.

log: 2026-08-07

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: I wanted to load a real big note.
Happened: It overflowed :( So I did a big bug-fix pass
Means: Probably should let the Lamplight engine settle and play with it some more.
Next: More bug finding!

log: 2026-08-06

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: To Sleep
Happened: Didn't sleep, [book] too good :P
Means: I should go to bed sooner
Next: Go to sleep

log: 2026-08-05

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: I want to start marketting my work more, get more people to see it. I've put some little demo teasers in the FoC slack and on bsky.
Happened: Bsky isn't really taking off, the FoC stuff got some good reactions, that's nice!
Means: I need to connect more on bsky. It does have an algorithm, but it isn't as powerful as say, twitter's, so maybe some boosts and following more people will help.
Next: Try and figure out how to get that out there! This'll also help with YSWS marketting.

log: 2026-08-04

Tue, 04 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trying: I'm working on "what if [realtalk] and [Datalog] had a baby and it was a note-taking app. I wanted to make something in the system now that it works decently well.
Happened: The traditional "family tree" things have been surprisingly fun to play with, especially with the interactive "why" command.
Means: I think this means that the magic of this system is the magic of realtalk, when parts that weren't designed for eachother come together real well
Next: Find a workflow for this that actually is improved by using Lamplight, as I'm calling it.