nerding – snand.org

latest projects..

snand is exploring meshtastic. end goal here is to integrate it into the Chamboard, no idea how yet but I’ll either get there, or figure out why it’s a terrible idea. either way, super fun tech to play with and cheap; I’m less than 20 bucks into the hobby right now and I have successfully connected to about 30 nodes so far. I highly encourage anyone to pick up something like a Heltec v3 and join me in the fun. no need for a case, you can print one (or I can print one for you), but a battery wouldn’t be a bad idea, I had one of these leftover from another project, worked perfectly and gives me about a day of runtime. so, first run out of the gate for off-grid communication has been a wild success. I might even build some devices for Many Point this year so our whole family can stay in touch even if cell signal sucks.

snand is also working on our backup platform. I previously build a lego housed Raspberry Pi backup server but it fell off the shelf and did what legos do. clearly I needed a better case, but then once I had it put back together, I found that for some reason I put ubuntu on it, which let’s face it, is completly unacceptable. really needs to be debian or raspbian, so I might as well formalize it as a project. let this be the formal introduction to snand’s newest project, theirhouse – named for TheOffice (since all my home infrastructure is Dunder Mifflin themed), warehouse was just too obvious and generic and theirhouse captures the spirit of the project. watch snand and/or the repo for project status, just starting it right now.

additional things going on:

basement continues – I’m getting close
job hunt continues – ditto*

all in all, things are going pretty well in the snand house right now; not perfect, but considering the world situation right now, we are pretty ok.

update- *job search has just taken off. I feel great.

WOW!

I stumbled across a youtube video called “The end of mechanical optics – the game changer.” normally these sort of hyperbolic statements mean I won’t watch it. this time though, introduced me to something I haven’t seen before. WOW! this is really amazing, had a little trouble understanding what it’s all about but some further sluething and I found this:

this is pretty astonishing.

I still don’t know how they are recieving the beam without optics (as shown in the original video) but since they control the emission, they probably have the bare sensor just picking up everything, and then filtering down to the specific wavelength that the beamform non-optic is sending out:

“Basically, you send the light, and you measure when it comes back, and when it comes back, you know exactly where everything is.”

oh man..

this Deepseek R1 stuff is banannas. I mean, can’t say they weren’t warned. AI is great, I’m a big fan but the hype train it’s been riding had nowhere to go but off the rails.

we’ll see where it goes, going to be interesting anyway.

update- been having fun with Ollama on my machine, wonder if I should give it a try. probably be good for more python learning.

update- a good article worth sharing on the topic from The Linux Foundation:

what a weekend.

a wonderful weekend away with my wonderful wife, kiddo’s team has won 8 in a row, got myself some boots, and a new Chris the Brain video?!?

well worth a watch. no matter what, this is.a fun and engaging series that really makes you think

what have I done?

I work in crazyland. today feels like I’m close to a break from reality.

beyond the usual dumbassery of working in IT, I joined a meeting today where the sales guy had a weird beard filter on his video. his beard kept migrating off his face, I had no idea what to say. was it intentional? I’m assuming it was the “beautify” filter gone wrong.

then just now I ran into a well dressed man who had the most unusual hairstyle I’ve ever seen. it can only be described as a mustache on his head. the whole thing was short, except for two ‘wings’ of hair curled up where his forhead and hairline met. truly unusual and a style I have yet to run into in the wild.

this is a strange world we live in. I’m officially old and out of touch.

update – looks like I’m going to have to get used to all the TPS Reports to my multiple bosses.

hey snand kids..

it’s good to have ambitions and a plan… just sayin’

the Chamboard lives!

this was super fun, I built an epaper based digital message board for my mom. this thing is hilariously hacked together and insecure but it does what I need it to and it does not need to be secure. yes, this means the messages are all out in public, including the WiFi password I posted to it 🤪, but that’s ok, security was not part of the design principals. hackability, easy and fun were the goals here and this one checks all those boxes.

pictured, where it currently lives. right next to her TV so it’s hard to miss.

progress

might as well stick with keeping it positive.. on a roll lately:

made a nifty lamp

projects galore!

happy thanksgiving

there’s a lot I’m thankful for still, less than usual but I do get to see some family today, and head up north for a small break, and I just started a new job that at least feels familiar and is going well. I’m also grateful that I’m able to continue my projects and work. on that note, here’s the current positive update:

gave into black friday and ordered some stuff (I mean, I was able to do it before the hellday and entirely online because I refuse to partake in the retail horrors otherwise).

replacement doorbell – new video doorbell, no subscription necessary (stupid ring)
tv mount – telescoping, adjustable angle mount for basement
mom board – raspberry pi and e-paper screen components for a momboard type project (only much cheaper and simpler since yours truly is setting it up)
new office gadgets – replacement bluetooth speaker (lost my “work” one in the flood), a cheap docking station (I hate plugging dozens of cables in and out)

I also managed to find an old iPad and setup my office christmas decoration (playing Christmas Vacation on repeat for the entire month of December). I also discovered my work laptop has some bad ports so a brand new one has been ordered (new job, new computer and they are worried about the coming tariffs so are slightly more willing to replace hardware right now). this morning I spent a little more time in the basement, chiseling off the junk the builders left adhered to the floor (I don’t want bumps telegraphing to the surface with the new floor). finally my snand project is taking shape, and with the learning I have been putting into it for my new job, I’m getting pretty close to an official release.

so, much going on, things going in the right direction (for me and this family anyway). lots to be thankful for.

the future is meh..

https://www.spacebar.news/new-slop-just-dropped-from-openai

I imagine it will get there someday but we’re so desperate for shortcuts that we’ve convinced ourselves that this is quality stuff. AI produces drivel, guided by people it can be cool, heck, it’s only due to AI that I was able to build my little junky personal site. In that case, it you look at the history, the little hamfisted site I created took over 100 commits as I tried one marginal improvement after another. eventually I gave up and now I have it work on tiny small pieces here and there but there is simply no way I could create a prompt that would spit out what I’ve got, this is hundreds of prompts.

so, imagine trying to build out a non-static piece of media, every frame can have more errors or hallucinations, I just cannot imagine the workflow necessary to create a feature length, much less even 2 minutes.

let’s hope they can figure it out but I’m starting to wonder when we’re going to hit a wall.