Timchi Thoughts

"Testing, Testing: From Emacs"

2026-11-14T00:00:00-05:00

Just testing the new post/public cycle from emacs.

Final Fantasy 2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

2026-08-21T00:00:00-04:00

I loved this one, I only give it one less star for two reasons: the miserable dungeons and the horrible levelling system. Trying to beat this without the 4x exp and a guide would have been, ugh, well beyone my patience levels.

But the story was much better. A crazed emperor trying to use magic to take over the world. You're normally a party of 3, with one rotating cast member throughout the story.

Final Fantasy 3 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

2026-08-13T00:00:00-04:00

I'm sorry, you had an airship built by Cid, using a literal ancient artifact, a perpetual motion machine and you just kinda...forget it?!

Actually, throughout the whole game you burn through a bunch of flying ships. You'll have a total of 4 in the game, even though two survive the story.

The map is much better. When I accidentally flew off the flying continent and saw the actual world map was actually surprising! I loved it. Even though the new land area had basically the same amount of POIs as the flying continent, it was nice to see such an expansive world.

I liked the job system, even though it felt like there were too many, nor was I really sure if one was better than the other. I fell to having a Knight, Bard, Geomancer, Blackbelt line up. The bard provided free healing, and everyone else could just pound the enemy relentlessly. I do love my auto-battle setups.

I really wanted to use the sage, because catgirl, but even with the "ultimate forbidden healing staff" that you get another one of in a random chest, it only cast Cure and couldn't keep up, where as the bards song was healing 800+ per turn.

I loved the ending, where you team up with the Warriors of Dark (who had to defeat the rampaging light long ago). It's not a good vs evil story, it's a hope vs void tale. I liked it.

And the final boss sprite art, stunning.

Final Fantasy 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2026-08-11T00:00:00-04:00

I really enjoyed this one. It was fairly straightforward, the story was fun. The marsh cave difficulty spike was enjoyable, as it felt like a real challenge but still surmountable.

Even playing the Pixel Remastered versions, I didn't use the 4x exp and gil, until the very end (to nab achievements). Even still, my party was quickly overlevelled and basically spamming attack/attack/Healing Staff/Gauntlets made them unstoppable with unlimited magic use.

None of the achievments were missable, which greatly contributed to my enjoyment. The bestiary was simple to complete, all areas could be reached again, the map told you how many chests you got. I'm sure that a lot of these UI niceities are due to PR, but it really made FF1 feel like a solid, self-contained game. I didn't need to search for guides.

Summer is hot.

2025-08-06T00:00:00-04:00

I went on a NYC trip this past week, and what a lovely experience it was. A fun concert (who can resist a pretty girl singing), and an extra surprise. My friend happened to also be in the city, and in the hotel next door of all places.

Of course, talking to her always ends in a self-reflection session. Which means that I'm faced with some harsh truths and am going to be making some more life changes. Sooooo, all I need to do is renovate a house, build up the business more digtally, and blow up my relationships! Ezpz.

Another rainy day

2025-06-06T00:00:00-04:00

It's wet again. Not even rain really, so I lied in the title. Just kinda damp.

The new chickens are now outside, so more eggs in a few months! Woo.

My new posts aren't showing up for some reason, and it's annoying that I'm going to have to spend all this time digging in trying to fix it.

This also highlights how user unfriendly this software is. How is anyone who doesn't know what the term 'cli' is, expected to fix it?

Madness. The whole thing.

I'm also working on my advance war, but makes you sad game again. LLMs are just perfect for the letter writing that I wanted. Since it'll have to use the internet, I'm hoping to have a sight that highlights letters players have written. Still a lot of design work needed though, but hey, progress I guess.

Cozy in the rain

2025-06-05T00:00:00-04:00

It's a bit of a cooler, rainy day out today, and I want to write some, even though I don't really have a lot to say. I would like to find my voice and style, even though I don't feel like I have one.

I speak and too much like an engineer, always hedging my words and actions. This is great for stability! But also means that I never quite give 100%. That's bad.

My writing has a lot of [statement], [clarification] and I feel like I need to change that to vary the structure of my sentences. I also don't do a lot of editing or rewriting. Mostly just bash it out and hit the send button. So much for hedging my words and actions :p. Can't even be self-consistent.

Comfort in computing

2025-05-17T00:00:00-04:00

I'm feeling comfortable in my computing. With tools like nixos, restic, vim, emacs, and obsidian, I feel like I'm in control to start making things.

I can hop from computer to computer with Tailscale, the age of hardware is nearly irrelevant because lots of it uses so few resources. I can write code, write little rambles, and it just works.

Better yet, it's extremely low cost, and super resiliant. I can have a hard drive die, and entire system fail, and be back up and running with just a couple commands. The backups have even been tested!

Of course, now I need to take this comfort and make shit, and I'm trying!

Starting over.

2025-05-15T00:00:00-04:00

I'm going to write more here. Be a bit more vulnerable and open I guess. This is supposed to be a personal blog ofc.

It's been a rough couple years, I feel like just now I'm only getting back on my feet. But I'm feeling lost. I feel directionless, mostly because I feel torn between opposing sides.

I've said before that I flip between wanting to live in a cabin in the woods, away from everything, and in the middle of a city. The pull of those opposing things just....keeps me in a state of inaction.

Even though it's late in the year, I'm still going to list my goals. Trying to really concrete some sort of plan that gives me an option to pick the cabin or the city.

Build my business back up. Stalkers and blackmail ruined it. And I'm only just now getting back on track.
Learn enough Japanese to be as literate as a kindergartener.
Fix the house, and have enough saved investment income to pay for my base bills.
Get back down to a healthier weight.

I've actually been pretty on these goals this year, which I'm happy about. A lot of them are just recovery goals, but that's okay. Being back to where I was is good enough for today.

Japanese Input on NixOS

2024-11-07T00:00:00-05:00

Feels like a bit of a rabbit hole, and there seems to be a lot of tidbits scattered about.

This solution worked for me and might not work with your particular setup. I'm using Hyprland on NixOS, with kitty as my terminal and firefox as my browser. These two pieces of software (along with Obsidian) are the vast majority of my text input.

Here is what I added to my configuration.nix

i18n.inputMethod = {
    enabled = "fcitx5";
    fcitx5.addons = with pkgs; [fcitx5-configtool fcitx5-mozc];
    ibus.engines = with pkgs.ibus-engines; [mozc];
  };

##snip

environment.systemPackages = (with pkgs; [
    mozc
  ])

##snip

There was a warning that enabled = "fcitx5" would change in the future, so sometime in the future it might look like

enable = true;
type = "fcitx5";

And the changes to my hyprland.nix, as I configure hyprland with Nix

input = {
      "kb_layout"="us,jp";
      "kb_options"="grp:win_space_toggle";
    };

I originally wanted to use cap_lock as my toggle, however the Japanese keyboard layout actually moves the caps loc button to the LCTRL of a qwerty, and it never was able to toggle back.

Win + Space works fine enough for me though.

Now, how do we get all our kana and kanji to pop up? By adding the keyboard mozc to your list of keyboards, not the "official" Japanese keyboard, as shown in the screenshot

A toggle popped up in Waybar magically. I click it to switch between modes. It works well enough as is, even though it's missing an icon, so I haven't explored that further, but hopefully it's enough to get future me, or someone else a good way of the way good.

Godot, Android, NixOS

2024-03-08T00:00:00-05:00

Exporting Android project from Godot was an interesting experience, as it covered a lot of the "essentials" in using NixOS day-to-day. Here's the general thought process I went through.

I didn't want to install the whole Android SDK simply to...not really use it and just export APKs. I'm not exactly sure if that would have made things easier or harder since I didn't even go down that path.

But I added:

android-tools
sdkmanager
godot_4
openjdk17-bootstrap

to my home.packages in home.nix

home.packages = with pkgs; [
   # ... other software ...

   #Godot stuff
   android-tools
   sdkmanager
   godot_4
   openjdk17-bootstrap

   # ... other software ...
];

I then ran

sudo sdkmanager --sdk_root="android_sdk_path" \
                           "platform-tools" \
                           "build-tools;33.0.2" \
                           "platforms;android-33" \
                           "cmdline-tools;latest" \
                           "cmake;3.10.2.4988404" \
                           "ndk;23.2.8568313"

Yes, as root. Yes literally --sdk_root="android_sdk_path" I just copied it from the Godot website, I'm not even sure that half of that is needed or wanted?

sudo chown -R <username> /opt/android-sdk

More reckless sudo usage.

Then added

  programs.nix-ld.enable = true;
  programs.nix-ld.libraries = with pkgs; [
    # Add any missing dynamic libraries for unpackaged programs
    # here, NOT in environment.systemPackages
    aapt
    gradle
  ];

into my configuration.nix file

I had initially just added aapt, since that's what Godot was choking on during the export. I then added gradle. I'm not sure if I still need the aapt line, but I'm too lazy to delete that line. It works, and that's all that matters.

Game Review - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney ⭐⭐⭐⭐

2024-02-22T00:00:00-05:00

I love visual novel type games, and PWAA is no exception. I will admit sometimes the clues can be a bit...obtuse, especially when some fact or flaw is obvious, but you need to present the right thing at the right dialog to move forward, but otherwise it's great fun. The characters are....characters, and everyone is enjoyable. Even the annoying ones like Meekins haha.

On to the second!

Randdo LLM thoughts

2024-02-22T00:00:00-05:00

LLMs and their ilk are just the "wisdom of the crowd" or a betting market turned into an algorithm.

Their biggest threat isn't that they'll steal jobs, it's that they consistently do an average job. And since they always do about average, the floor has risen to this new average. And everyone who wasn't always above average (which is more than half of all people) are now second fiddle to some sand. It sucks, and it's frustating that we as a society still haven't really figured out how to prevent this oncoming wave of suffering from loss of purpose and identity.

Google Support Chat

2024-01-04T00:00:00-05:00

Ew. Support.

While I don't think Google's support chat is any worse than other companies (low bar), one interesting thing that I found was that their text input on the support chatbox...barely works. It just doesn't want to take focus and let me type half the time. Which is just the silliest thing ever.

TV Review - 24

2023-12-22T00:00:00-05:00

Recently Watched the DougDoug "Previously on 24" and that inspired me to rewatch 24. It's a fairly exciting show, even if the technobabble is egregious in its use. Fun little break while I'm ending the year. We're def going to try and do a post a day again!

Caddyfile to run Godot XR

2023-11-13T00:00:00-05:00

Basic Caddyfile to run an exported GodotXR game.

I only have a Quest 2 for testing, because sometimes exporting for android and sideloading onto the quest can be a pain, so I'd like to use WebXR to output projects and hopefully speed up the development cycle. And have things be more flexible. But a Godot web export needs to have certain cross-origin settings to properly work, and the Quest browser requires SSL to view non-local web projects, which makes things a little trickier. The below Caddyfile will fix those problems.

{                                                                                                                                        
        http_port 7999                                                                                                                   
}                                                                                                                                        

https://:8000                                                                                                                            

file_server browse                                                                                                                       

tls internal {                                                                                                                           
        on_demand                                                                                                                        
}                                                                                                                                        

header {                                                                                                                                 
        Strict-Transport-Security: "max-age=31536000; preload"                                                                           
        X-Content-Type-Options: "nosniff"                                                                                                
        X-Frame-Options: "DENY"                                                                                                          
        X-XSS-Protection: "1; mode=block"                                                                                                
        Referrer-Policy: "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"                                                                               
        Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy: "require-corp"                                                                                     
        Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy: "same-origin"                                                                                        
        Etag                                                                                                                             
        cache-control: public, max-age=3600                                                                                              
}

Just put the above in a Caddyfile in the same directory as your Godot export and you're all set to go! The server lives on port 8000, and the entrypoint should be named index.html

Computers are tools

2023-06-08T00:00:00-04:00

Just as a quick thought

People use computers, hammers, cars, whatever to make things. They want to go from brain to thing as easily as possible. VR can help close that gap by providing an infinite space to make things, and reduce material waste when iterating through the problem space. A killer feature will be then connecting the VR space into automated manufactuing machines, like 3D printers, or CNCs. Hmm, I wonder what kind of sofware would help facilitate that?

Basic Unit of VR

2023-06-07T00:00:00-04:00

Like many others, I watched the Apple annoucement of their headset. I think it's great!

The cost

I know many are balking at the cost, and I'm not sure if I think it's really all that high. You're mixing a high quality laptop, which on their site starts at 1300, and strapping on a headset. Is their VR headset worth 2k? Probably. I saw many others say they were expecting it to be around there. Either way, it is a great deal of money.

The focus.

However, there wasn't a lot of mention of actual VR experiences. There was a lot of 2D content, but in VR. Which made me, and many others, question, "What is VR good for?"

So...

Computers are tools. They are "people amplifiers". They let you express yourself in ways faster, better, etc etc. It's easier to build a bridge when the calculator is assisting you, balance a budget. But tools have places, and they have their unique strengths and weaknesses. Your desktop/laptop is very good at text. There's a reason the keyboard has been the primary input mechanism for decades. It's why spreadsheets started the computer revolution. Websites, games, software all benefitted from this text first format. Then came phones. Horrible for text input, okay for text output. But, they quickly gained their own strenths with photos and videos. The absolute explosion in the consumption and creation of pictures and videos is driven by everyone having a high quality camera in their pocket. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok would not have blown up as they have without phones.

So...what's the base unit of VR? What does VR excel at? And I think Apple is on the right track with the name 'Spatial Computing' in that the main element is you. This is a space that amplifies your movements, your gestures, and eventually your thoughts on an infinite canvas to create and express yourself. They dedicated a processor to hand and eye tracking essentially. This is a much closer step to go from brain to thing than ever before.

How much automation is good automation?

2023-04-04T00:00:00-04:00

Automation is wonderful, it reduced the need for people to work, and that in turn lets more people pursue their true interests, without having to worry about doing unpleasant tasks to simply survive. But all machines for automation take investment, time and resources. And, reasonable enough, you'd like some sort of return on your investment. And the best way to generate a return on your investment of automation equipment is to use it, to produce whatever it is that it produces. And sometimes that leads to an overproduction of certain good, worse when combined with using cheap inputs to further increase your rate of return. A proliferation of junk just good enough to pass a quick glance but too low quality to be of any long term use.

So, what's the solution? Banning or not using automation is nonsense, we want machines doing our work for us. Two things come to mind. First, shifting our focus from 'more' to 'better'. Not necessarily a call to consume less, but to consume higher quality. The only way to do that of course is to make high-quality cheaper, but that's a different matter. Items like good, life-time warranties should be the norm.

The second should be a greater investment of automation that is flexible. A machine that produces a million rubber ducks (that don't float) does reduce human effort, but is of limited utility, whereas a 3D printer is significantly more flexible, and can also output not only rubber ducks, but other items as well.

Unfortunately, you can only pick two of the following: fast, cheap, good. And people time, and time again, choose fast and cheap, and are left wondering why everything they own is junk. That's not entirely their fault, they are, after all, imbued with constant screaming of "my product is the best". Best being a vague marketing term with no real meaning or substance.

I'm not sure this is a problem that you can government your way out of. The people who have been selling you pennies worth of product for a dollar have all the money to buy government now. I'm not sure that you can have a cultural shift either at this point, so many people's dollars have been sucked away that they cannot afford quality anymore. The only real solution is to make high-quality cheaper, and I'm not entirely sure how to achieve that.

FastAPI - love it.

2023-03-24T00:00:00-04:00

I just discovered this library, and wow, it is nice. I was able to build a full example, with test coverage, in only a few hours. It's a perfect fit for harp too, since it allows me to break apart the 4 main functions better. Yay for progress.

Improving my helper script.

2023-03-09T00:00:00-05:00

It's really nice being able to write and build your own custom tools to help you out. I updated my little helper script to be able to write posts in other dates other than today, and add the title in the cli prompt if wanted. I'm writing this post for the future!

And maybe I'll write a few posts ahead too.

But, code

#!/bin/python3
from datetime import date, timedelta
from subprocess import call
from pathlib import Path

import click

@click.command()
@click.option('-n', default=0, help='Number of days ahead to create this post, default being 0 (today)')
@click.option('-t', default='x', help='Sets the title. Defaults to x.')
def make_post(n, t):
    d = date.today() + timedelta(days=n)
    filename = str(d) + ".md"

    frontmatter = '+++\ntitle = "{0}"\ndate = {1}\n+++\n\n'

    frontmatter = frontmatter.format(t, d)

    empty = True

    if Path(filename).is_file():
        empty = False

    with open(filename, 'a') as f:
        if empty:
            f.write(frontmatter)
    call(['vim', filename])

if __name__ == '__main__':
    make_post()

Just nice little improvements, like giving it an actual cli interface with click.

Failure

2023-03-08T00:00:00-05:00

I've totally failed the write a post challenge. Not too much has gone on. Most of my time has been spent either working, playing guild wars, or reading. It's been a quiet time.

Thankfully playing guild wars has really helped me in a work setting, allowing me to better conceptualize HARP stuff, so there's that.

Godot, VR, tiny shooting gallery.

2023-02-15T00:00:00-05:00

I found this video on Mastodon, demonstrating a basic VR test game, so I decided to make it myself, and post some of my thoughts.

The good.

The framework is super easy to work with, and has a lot of batteries included to making a VR game. I didn't have to write or design anything VR specific, all of that was handled for me. The closest thing I had to do was align some hands to the toy gun. This was really nice.

I could basically design my game scenery and interactions without worrying about the VR specifics. 10/10. I'm sure that a larger/more complex project would have to delve into the weeks a bit, but I think that's the case for any medium.

Personal Challenges.

My only VR headset is a Quest 2. While I've done previous Godot and Android stuff, someone who doesn't have this experience might have some stumbling points getting the tool-chain setup. Once it is setup, it's extremely easy to export to the Quest though.

Debugging is an issue though. I made an error, and when testing the game on the Quest, I got...nothing. No input, no log, and no good way to find them. Debugging a larger game on just the Quest will be an issue. Luckily I could run it on my desktop and hit the issue and subsequently fix it. But...anything more subtle and I'd be really stuck.

The bad.

The worst issue, and this is an issue that plagues other projects, is where to put stuff. Organization is a large aspect, and I don't feel like Godot really helps. It can be hard to move scenes around to cleanup due to references breaking. I think this is getting improved/fixed in Godot 4 though, so yay.

TV Review - Lockwood & Co.

2023-02-14T00:00:00-05:00

Overall, I really liked this show, it was fun, it was exciting, and I looked forward to watching as many as time permitted each day. I'm sad that there were only 8 Episodes.

The Good

The actors meshed well together, the story flowed between episodes. I originally expected it to be more episodic. Ghost of the week kind of thing, however it dealt with 2 major stories during the eight episodes. I felt like it covered it well, wasn't rushed and it was the perfect amount of time for everything to develop.

The Bad

The technology was weird. Like a weird mix of of 1960s to 2010s tech. LED lights, mixed with old through-hole circuit boards, very little radios, and absolutely no internet. Weird mix, it bothered me.

Wholesale

2023-02-06T00:00:00-05:00

I've been trying to expand my Cat toy business into wholesale. It's been a challenge, but I'm hoping that the rewards will be worth it. I'd much rather do large, bulk orders to a company than managing the endless stream (and issues) of customers. Less, but bigger baskets.

Life continues on.

2023-02-02T00:00:00-05:00

While being vague, the events of the past few weeks have really rocked me. It's been hard to focus and be productive, and I've spent way too much time on the couch consuming TikTok to try and distract me.

New year, new me though. And I'm going to spend it making the best of it and me.

So! To recap.

The rest of the year.

The goals remain the same. Grow cookiecreate. Grow Catnipporium. Try and make/sell gridfinity compatible desktops. Write VR software. Play Guildwars. Those 5 things should be the focus of the next year for me.

Until Tomorrow. Tim

x

2023-02-01T00:00:00-05:00

Definitely had some life changes. Need to focus on completing more small projects.

Payment, cost of living, and fairness.

2023-01-31T00:00:00-05:00

A lot of this has been inspired by Madeline Pendleton. It's really helpful having a working example of a more equitable work structure.

The basics

A few key guiding principles:

Everyone gets equal pay.
Business decisions are voted on democratically.
Unlimited sick/vacation time.
Full-time is 7 hours, 4 days per week.

The general idea here is that a job should be able to support a family. Everyone's cost of living (for an area) is/can be the same. Everyone as a group contributes, in their own way, and only with the groups contributions will there be success.

This has obviously lead to some interesting discussion on TikTok, with both trolls and eager Capitalists. In my opinion, the most valuable portion is the recognition that business is group work, and it's only through the group that any individual can succeed.

One example was from a TikTok about student loans. A lot of people didn't like the idea that a Vet should be paid the same as their receptionist. They went to school, had to take out all these loans, spend years learning and refining their craft. And they're going to be paid the same as the receptionist answering the phone?

But here's a counterpoint. The only reason they could become a vet was through an army of workers and helpers throughout that training period. The barista at the late night coffee shop while you were studying, the janitor keeping your university clean, your professors, your TAs, the person working at the fucking powerplant keeping your lights on. All of them helped, you don't deserve more because it was a group effort. You worked hard, as did they.

In addition, the receptionist is a multiplier for you. They do essential work that's needed to run your business. Your Vet work output would be diminished if they weren't helping. Same reason you have an accountant, or a photographer, or any other cog in your business that keeps it running. Would you be able to treat as many patients (the thing that brings in the money?) if you had to do your receptionists job too? Of course not.

But

I don't know how well this system works against malicious actors, and with larger groups. A lot of the logic is common sense and obvious. Of course we should all be paid equally, of course we should be safe, and treat others with respect. But shit happens, accidents happen, and some people are assholes. I don't know how well this system hold up against that. Of course the current systems in place don't handle it too well either, so eh.

This also works well for close-knit groups, especially with democratic hiring/firing. But there are projects and goals that are much larger than the <20 people she works with. Can you really have a democratic vote for firing someone in a group of 1000 people? They don't know each other well enough to even make that decision.

Of course you could break that up into a cell-system, with each group of 1-20 people managing themselves like this, with layers of management to coordinate it. That's not too dissimilar to corporate structures now, but leads to a hierarchical structure that we're trying to avoid. I don't know the answer to this.

Benefits of a franchised manufacturing system.

2023-01-26T00:00:00-05:00

I've been thinking of the strength and weaknesses of having a Pizza Hut model of small, associated manufacturing shops.

Pros

Fast and agile
Many items have small fixes
Builds community
Resilience, shops in the next town over can help with overflow.
Hub for teaching

Cons

Larger items are impractical
Some items are impossible/difficult to fix.
Cheap + Crap is often more tempting than Inexpensive + Good

Obviously these are just high-level items, but that's a rough draft overview of items.

Making Bearsif Industries into a manufacturing hub.

2023-01-25T00:00:00-05:00

The idea.

A franchisable repair/manufacturing hub. Like a pizza chain, but able to build a large variety of items, or outsource to other franchises.

What the hubs are to provide.

Local, walk-in location.
Repair services.
Custom manufacturing.

Local, walk-in location.

Allows people to come in, talk to a knowledgeable rep. See if their item can be repaired, or if replacement is a better option. In addition, this gives the possibility of quick turn-around. Simple fixes can be fixed soon, pick-ups are readily available.

In addition, smaller hubs are able to leverage the flexibility of CNC machining, while diminishing the downsides of slower turn around. It doesn't matter if it would take forever to print a million of something, because you're serving a smaller community you only need a few. A thousand people don't want a thousand of the same thing, but they do want a thousand variations of the same thing, and this is where the hubs can excel.

Repair services.

Many things can be repaired fairly inexpensively with some know-how. Some fixes are easy and can be done with a flexible, knowledgeable employee in a short amount of time. In addition, with multiple hubs scattered about, each of these people are able to build off of each other knowledge.

The idea is to carefully document each repair process, and by utilizing the in-house manufacturing capabilities, provide replacements.

This also allows us to gather data on stuff that just doesn't work, and gives us a unique insight into pain points that customers have. Allowing us to design our own product lines that focus on items like sustainability and repairability. In house manufacturing when possible allows for larger items to be constructed at a hub, rather than shipping.

Custom manufacturing

People love custom stuff. It's some of the most profitable and largest categories on website like Etsy. In addition, as noted with repair, being able to make our own branded items gives each hub enormous flexibility. Franchising each location, allowing local people to cater to their unique local markets while the larger organization handles items better suited to centralization.

Personal Drama, missed days.

2023-01-23T00:00:00-05:00

My goal was to write a post every day, which hasn't gone to well. I've missed the past few, mostly due to personal drama, which has effected my ability to think and be productive.

I'm mostly worked through it, and I'm ready to be back on track.

What I'm working on.

Fixing up cookiecreate.com, trying to get that up and running. I need to work on fixing the categories and tags pages. It's an unorganized mess the the moment.
Work on doing Pokemon posts on Reddit, hopefully they work well. I need to focus on my videogame/anime interests and roots and focus on that.
Catnipporium needs to have all of its products added to the inventory, and them I'm going to move to Woocommerce. It's cheaper, it's under my control. I just have to get it to look good. That's going to either take time, or money.
Since I'm doing a big ground level restart, I'd like to hit $1k from the updated sites by the end of the month. Hopefully.

Short post, writing up a UI list

2023-01-18T00:00:00-05:00

After doing some research, I've been wanting to design my own universal UI toolkit. Something theme-able, gives basic elements and help developers conform to good UI practices. I'm going to aim to have this library available in both A-Frame and Godot.

Learning more about UX

2023-01-17T00:00:00-05:00

Learning more about UX, going through Ultraleaps XR Guidelines

Ultraleap XR-Guidelines

Terms

Affordances - characteristics about an object that guide a user to their use. Interaction - Any touching of an object. Interactions should not require abstract gestures or poses. Poses and Gestures - Needs instruction, less effective than skeuomorphic design elements. Interaction Zone - Area that can be tracked. Occlusion - An unclear view of the users hands.

Designing for hand tracking

Make interactions physical. People have been touching things for years, utilize that experience. Isn't this exhausting though? Am I going to be able to be physically handling things for hours on end? Or am I just out of shape?
Curved UI Panels Keeps everything in reach for a user. This would actually be really nice IRL honestly. I've had control panels that are wide and keeping it curved would have been awesome.
Use poses and gestures sparingly Very true, I have a hard time remembering even the Oculus home gesture.
Provide as much feedback as possible. Physical buttons have an inherent buttonness due to them being physical objects. All that inherent button stuff must be designed in, (and more!) to be effective.
prioritize features when designing interactions Physical first, gestures for very important things, menus last.
Make use of context Adjust menus for where the user is. This though should be used sparingly, as a consistent menu allows power users to thrive.
Consider user comfort. No gorilla arms. Don't make the user perform large motions, hold positions, raise high, or raise out. I wonder if you could have a kink dungeon that breaks these rules to intentionally cause discomfort to your users?

Gives specific measurements. Things interacted with their fingers, like buttons should be ~60cm away. Items that should be grabbed should stay ~50cm away. Can we better enforce these? Always keep grabby sections this distance away, no matter how far the actual thing is?

Use appropriate scaling One finger targets should be minimum 2cm in size. This seems...small? The button in the A-Frame example was 11cm and that felt too small.

Designing Instructional Information

Use as few tutorials as possible, use short text snippets, users don't like to ready. Prioritize users doing required things instead of just showing. Use positive feedback when a tutorial is done correctly. Use a grid or some other design medium to indicate depth, which can be hard in the vast formless space of an empty VR room. An additional option is the use a pre-recorded avatar to demonstrate to the user.

Designing Menus

Virtually wearable menus Menus that are present on your hand or wrist. Keep them sparse and simple. Don't spawn them ON the hand, but off to the side, or on the wrist. Bette tracking, less chance of occlusion.
Opening menus This one seems pretty standard, but a twist to bring up the palm is def a common gesture.
Selecting menu items. Easy, push it.
Dragging menu items with pinch/release I'm not sure I've seen this, but this is a subtle item, where dragging a menu item out leaves a visible void, for it to be reset or put back. It's very clean, and very nice design.
Submenus Can bring them out, but don't go too deep. Especially if someones arm is shaky, they'll wobbly too much and be too hard to interact with.
Detachable panels. Give the user an option to put a world anchored panel out there. I wonder if it works well to have it be a simple button that then expands outwards? Then again, should we be using world anchored menus, or designing the environment to avoid those. Going back to that dragging menu items, the new world menu should leave a void in your menu so it can be closed or put back.
World anchored menus Like real world control panels, but curved. The curve aspect (all elements 60cm away) is kinda changing my mind about not having large menus. Think nuclear reactor, or airplane. Lots of dials, lots of buttons, but all within reach, as opposed to the usual flat panel that the irl ones have. Def making me consider them. There's a time and place I suppose.

Selecting items is done with a push of a finger. Needs to be distinct enough that the user is immediately away of it being pushed. Visual, audio, mechanical (vibration) need to all be used.

Moving world anchored menu ImmersedVR does a horrible job of this. The GIF below shows an amazing and natural example of a good control for moving a panel. The anchor to move this should be the right size or shape, think a round knob, that looks like it can be moved around. Anything that's going to use a world anchored panel needs to have this, and needs to do this well.
More on panels Three main ways to open a panel. Via virtual button, dragging an button out, or virtual pockets, such as a toolbelt. Closing is similar, with dragging it back into your wrist, hitting an 'x' button (be careful!) or dragging into a trash area. The last requires dragging, but could be done with a world anchor into some shaded area. Repositioning can be done by either a visible anchor (best!) or holding a specific part of the panel (requires tutorial!). Resizing as well, with a two finger gesture, which requires another tutorial. I wonder if we can utilize the world anchor to allow for resizing as well.

Maybe two handles on the size that can be grabbed? One hand for repositioning, or two hands for resizing? Or can be use the same anchor to instead resize. Turn it like a volume knob to make it bigger. I'm not sure if we have enough fidelity to do that, you'd need x,y,z motions for movements, yaw, pitch, roll for rotation, I'm not sure how you'd differentiate to do a clockwise twist and make a panel bigger.

Virtual Objects

Virtual objects are important (duh). But they need to have certain aspects that help guide the user to properly using them. Designers should take real world inspiration. Chairs should be sit-able, tables should table properly. The more interactive objects, the better IMO.

However, some aspects need to be taken into account for VR. Their example is a simple ball. While a round cue ball is perfectly usable in the real world, not so much in VR, as different people grabbed it differently. Some gingerly held it, others made a fist around it. This caused some problems with collisions. Thus they added divots to guide the user to 'correctly' holding it. Markers and physical distortions will help with that.

Everything interactive should react to a user. Any casual movement should do something in response to a user, even simple brushbys.

Manipulating objects should be very similar to how they are moved in the real world. Try and emphasize people ingrained intuition to properly move things. Users can push or knock and object around, and objects should react both spatially and visually. Pick up objects with a pinch or grab, then they can be translated or rotated. Rotations tend to come with translations as the center of rotation is in the wrist, not in the object itself. Resizing is done with a two handed gesture, like a pinch to zoom deal.

That's it!

Emphasis on interactivity and skeuomorphic designs. I wonder if in the future we'll move away from physical skeuomorphisms like we did with smartphones. Who knows!

UIs in VR

2023-01-16T00:00:00-05:00

I made some nice progress with a terminal in VR, and that combined with the OS in the quest, means that I'm actually able to edit and create projects in VR, which is neat! But, I had some UI difficulties, and I'd like to explore some of the state of the art when it comes to VR UI/UX.

Before

Before I do any extensive research, I'd like to express my current beliefs and thoughts. I think there should be a reduction in 'normal' UI elements. Flat panels floating around make for a terrible UX in VR. VR is a new medium, and we shouldn't be aiming for feeling like the person is next to us, just how we don't feel like the person is next to us when play World of Warcraft. We are together, without being together, or tricking us being together. VR UI elements should be larger, physical and more tactile.

What I read

UX Planet Has a focus on closer physical presence and and emphasis on testing. Also explains that UIs should be active, like Minority Report, because that's exhausting. Emphasis on using the center of the field for viewing, and a step away from lots of text, mostly due to limited resolution of today's headsets. Buttons should be large, and spaced well apart.

uxdesign.cc Heavy on the word metaverse, but that's probably the best path. UI/UX designers tend to be super corporate, and there's nothing more corpo than metaverse, thanks to Meta. But, raises some good points. Namely:

It's not 2D, it's a large and flexible space.
No buttons, no screens, you're supposed to be there.
Alternative and a multitude of different interaction methods, voice, gestures, touch.
Again, immersive, and should apply real world feedback to the user.

This article focuses on being immersive, which I agree is a very important takeaway. This article also lists 5 areas of focus for designing in a VR space.

*. Functional objects. Objects has presence, and can use used as their real world analogues. Objects aren't just set pieces, but are expected to be interactable.

*. Navigation Questions like how big is the space, how far apart should things be, when and how should people be visiting them. This is much more analogous to designing real world spaces. These things carry over. Interior designers could probably make a killing designing VR spaces.

*. Interactivity There is a change for nearly endless interactivity. However as of now, both voice and gestures have won out. In my personal experience, gestures have won out, I don't see much voice interactivity unless I'm directly communicating with another person.

*. Immersion Again, this leads back to designing just like a real world space. Going back to skeuomorphic designs.

Collectibles The NFTs have reared up, but it raises a good point. People like collecting things, and people like having mementos of their travels and visits. I'm not sure that NFTs are a good choice, but the idea behind them, namely the collectibles are a good starting point.

Adobe Lots of similar points, with one addition that's very true. Don't expect users to read text instructions. Sigh.

https://www.uxofvr.com/ Awesome site detailing dozens of videos and articles. This where I'll end today, since there's just so much for me to got through in this site alone.

Terminal in VR.

2023-01-13T00:00:00-05:00

Success!

Heavily inspired by both https://github.com/RangerMauve/aframe-xterm-component and https://github.com/cs01/pyxtermjs I've build my own up to date xterm in vr.

Very cool, I'm excited to add working hot-refresh and beable to edit the webpage I'm in VR, in VR.

Minor complaint.

Node sucks. I find it very difficult to find an older project, hit node install, node run and have the project just work. The installation just seems to always fail, due to old versions. What's the point of package management if having the same version of stuff breaks 3 years later?

I don't seem to have this problem with python/pip, which is another reason why I tend to gravitate to it.

Up next.

Building a basic room, and being able to spawn objects. I'm looking to be able to have a generic object, and attach code to it that runs.

Floating menus suck.

2023-01-12T00:00:00-05:00

Floating menus suck in VR. It's really hard to interact with them, they don't have a good tactile feel, and don't feel VR native. Instead of menus, there should be things we touch and interact with. Knobs, levers, switches, etc.

I believe this will require us to completely rethink how UI/UX works though. How does an inventory work in a VR game? My first thought is to have a case/drawer pop up when interacting with an inventory showing chibi versions of your items, and allowing you to pull things out, rather than trying to scroll through some menu.

Items could be something similar to those capsules in Dragonball.

Self Editing in VR

2023-01-11T00:00:00-05:00

Working in complete VR

One aspect that I think would help make more VR content is self-editing. I should be able to load up a world, and while in that world, edit in place, or even design and build new worlds, or connect to completely new places.

How

A-frame. I'm still not entirely sure if A frame is dead or not. There are a lot of packages that were last edited 3+ years ago, which isn't a great sign. But, the discord is fairly active. There was even a relevant article to this blog post (https://mirror.xyz/avirtualfuture.eth/xZCmIXKfmi6vnoWzmP0KuG31XkyFw8eSg5Pe138-JMM)[here]. So not super dead.

Ideally I'd like to be able to both edit the source of the room I'm in to change the environment, so I'd need a terminal. I'd also like to change the environment through more 'traditional' means, such as place block in a game. I should be able to produce portals, both locally to expand my environment, and externally, to other sites.

I should be able to copy paste code and objects, and have objects that are script-able as well.

Final thoughts

I think this would be a cool environment to play and build into, coming closer to a more viable virtual world system, especially if it becomes easier for people to construct stuff inside VR.

400 Unique Cookie Cutters

2023-01-10T00:00:00-05:00

Cookie create has a lot of cookie cutters. Recently I've been putting it into a (https://www.nocodb.com/)[NoCoDB]. Enough information on each SKU that I should be able to easily export/transform it to be uploaded into any other internet catalog. Upload on Etsy, Woocommerce, anything really. It's (hopefully) worth the time.

But what a huge amount of time. I didn't realize just how many items cookiecreate has. And then, then it gets doubled for their digital twins. Quite a few hours of work, and I didn't realize this when I started.

The why.

I'm moving to Woocommerce for cookiecreate.com, which means that I have to upload all the products. I could either do it all manually, or build out a separate db and import it all in. Since I already have to upload everything, I may as well have a local, flexible, copy that can be used in any other place.

The how.

I love Airtable. It makes things easy to manage, looks pretty, and non-technical users can use it. But, it's not hosted on my stuff, and who knows how long Airtable is going to be around. They've already had layoffs. Nocodb is locally hosted, and thus it'll always be there for me. No limits, available anywhere, love it.

Conclusion

Lots of work, I'm probably at 10 hours of working so far, with ~8 remaining. But I'll be more nimble for it.

More library thoughts.

2023-01-09T00:00:00-05:00

General vision.

What I'm envisioning: A hallway of decent length, with some tables down the center aisle. Lots of wood, lamps with those green shades on top of the tables. Along the hall, arched openings, with shelves through them. Each section corresponds to a general topic. Similar to Dewey, if not that. DDS is a bit wonky, giving precedent to certain categories, but I'm not sure if the categories are an issue. No matter, I'll probably make up the categories as I want. It's my library.

Books

Ideally, I'd like many, many books there. There are plenty of free sources of legal books to fill a library. I would love for every book to be an actual book that I can then pull off the shelf and read. I'm not so sure about the bottom shelves though. Bending down is a pain in VR. Maybe shelves that start higher, and have some decoration on the bottom? I'm not entirely sure yet.

Butler

For times where I don't have a book, or don't feel like searching through the stacks, I'd like a librarian cat to help me find what I'm looking for. This agent should be able to locate any material I need, and have the ability to download and turn it into a VR enabled book.

Closing

I think this is a manageable project. Will stretch my skills (especially through 3D modeling), but still limited enough in scope that I should be able to complete it.

VR Library

2023-01-08T00:00:00-05:00

A small project I'd like to make, in my spare time, is a small VR library. One where you can sit, read books, and have a helpful cat assistant fetch you books.

Missed a day.

2023-01-06T00:00:00-05:00

Of course, I go to all that trouble of making a nice script to create blog posts, and immediately miss the next day. I was busy though. I've been putting all of the products into a Nocodb (like an Airtable) so that way I'm able to easily upload products into different services. So it will contain items like title, description, photos, and digital files. Hopefully after I'm done entering in all of them, I'll give it a test by adding all my cookie cutters onto the new site in one go.

I'm also trying out Woocommerce again. I'd like to try and self-host as much as I can, especially after the Etsy issues that I had. After I enter in all of products (over 1000 including digital ones) I should be able to upload everything in one shot.

Writing a simple script to create blog posts

2023-01-04T00:00:00-05:00

I've been trying to write more and more scripts to automate as much as possible. That is the point of technology after all, isn't it? Plus I'm lazy, and have a bad memory, so I always forget what the YAML frontmatter is supposed to look like. And then I have to type in the date. UGH.

So, just a short python script to create the file, and then bring up vim so I can edit the file.

#!/bin/python3
if __name__ == '__main__':
    from datetime import date
    from subprocess import call

    d = date.today()
    filename = str(d) + ".md"

    frontmatter = """+++
title = "x"
date = {0}
+++

"""

    frontmatter = frontmatter.format(d)

    with open(filename, 'w') as f:
        f.write(frontmatter)
    call(['vim', filename])

Nothing fancy, nothing special, but just something I wanted to share. Saves me a few seconds, but I'm planning on using it every day, so it's worth it.

Movie Review - Casino Royale

2023-01-03T00:00:00-05:00

I haven't watch many Bond movies, but I decided I wanted to watch the Daniel Craig series. I liked the movie, and it maintained a good pace. The first half hour flew on by. My main gripe is the love story just seemed to come out of nowhere. Yes, they had some personal moments, but not nearly enough to convince me that he'd throw it all away for her like that. Felt too rushed, felt too fast.

Human travel speeds

2023-01-02T00:00:00-05:00

Random quick thought, but in the book Where is my flying car the author mentions how average travel speed has plateaued out. And also mentions the benefits of personal travel. But how much faster can an unaided person really travel? I don't expect or want someone driving more than 75, they can barely do that. I don't want the average person flying. Personal aircraft are already the most dangerous form of flying, and that's with a self selected and motivated group of people who want to take the time and money to be properly trained.

Human travel speeds are going to remain at a standstill until more automated travel is available.

A post every day.

2023-01-01T00:00:00-05:00

In the spirit of Terence Eden, I'm going to attempt to write a post every day, even if it's small, or meaningless. I need to work harder to increase my output.

Quote on Nature

2022-12-30T00:00:00-05:00

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Francis Bacon

Humans are a part of the natural world, and just because we are good at manipulating our world, doesn't make us any less a part of nature. However, nature still rules. Rocks still hurt, the sun is still hot, water is still wet. We need to respect those fundamental aspects of nature in order for us to do anything.

Rough Draft of Retargeting Animations

2022-07-13T00:00:00-04:00

Output that's buggy

Some examples, using a standard prebuilt animation, and an attempted transferance of the animation to a vrm file.

Pre animated

Transfered, but buggy, animation

Retargeting with Blender and Rokoko

2022-06-30T00:00:00-04:00

Blender and Rokoko

Apparently Rokoko comes out with a blender plugin that will allow you to retarget animations. Plus it's LGPL as well, which is very helpful in building a fully open source pipeline. Main inspiration comes from this video. Hopefully I'll have a working example done soon.

Going from premade to sprite sheet.

2022-06-21T00:00:00-04:00

Skipping a step

Here we will make a spritesheet off a premade walking character. We'll be starting off with this tutorial to import a vrm file into blender.

The first roadblock.

Cats (the plugin used to properly import a VRM model) has an error when trying to 'fix' the model. So looks like we'll be investigating this first.

Bug #449 Someone else had the exact same error on May 9th, so it's not just me unfortunately. Thankfully it was an easy fix, so fixed and PR added.

The second roadblock.

I cannot for the life of me get Mixamo to show the textures. They aren't upload properly for some reason. I'll have to continue on another day.

Blender Sprites, methods and approaches.

2022-06-20T00:00:00-04:00

Automatic conversion of VRM files to 2D sprites.

What a can of worms. There seem to be several issues with allowing automatic sheet generation.

Issue One

VRM files that come directly out of VRoid Studio don't have any animations. Thus we need some sort of animations to apply to a given VRM file.

Issue Two

Lack of available animations. As we're using Blender, we'd like some sort of animations to be imported in, and it doesn't seem to be an easy way to do that. Lots of animations are made for each model like so. This presents an obvious issue.

One common alternative I've seen is using Mixamo Great on the surface, but it's proprietary and online. We're looking for a standalone solution. Once you have the Dockerimage, you're set forever.

Next Steps.

It feels like we can import mocap files and retarget it to an animations. Something similar to the workflow shown here

Blender script to convert a VRM to a 2D spritesheet automatically.

2022-06-19T00:00:00-04:00

After being on the M3 discord for a bit, I saw an article on converting 3D models to spritesheets. It's a long involved process, involving multiple step.

Amazingly enough, I do something similar with both my work on CookieCreate and at ThirdAct. So, I'm hoping that I can come up with a fairly universal script to create animated spritesheet for avatars. This would be super awesome in reducing the overhead in sprites that don't need to be fully rendered.

I've also learned how far behind Firefox is. It's rather sad. Downloading and building Firefox now to hopefully remedy it a little bit.

Stop using money.

2019-07-22T00:00:00-04:00

Stop using money.

Or, at least the word. I see a lot of hatred for money in some of the anticapitalist circles I watch. Claims of "everything being about money", or "companies would rather see you die if you can't pay them", or varients like so.

And, I can't say I really disagree with those notions, it also masks the problems that they're are trying to solve.

Money is a pretty abstract thing, and using that word can impart a bit of negative meaning due to the implications.

Maybe try using the word resources instead.

I spent a lot of my money fixing my house.

VS.

I spent a lot of resources fixing my house.

It has a broader meaning to it. You didn't just write a check and you were done. You spent time and energy doing those things. I think it captures the broader meaning of doing things, rather than just a number with a $ in front of it.

A new type of guild.

2019-07-15T00:00:00-04:00

A new type of guild.

I've been thinking about old style guilds lately, and they used to dominate production and manufacturing in the past.

Of course they would do that through extreme protection of their intellectual property. And now, hundreds of years later, they have methods and techniques lost to time, possible never to be reproduced again.

In other words, wasted.

I've been thinking about starting a 'guild', something that's geared toward it's members sharing their knowledge. Maybe not a guild but a society like IEEE.

To join (maybe free, maybe tiered)?, you would have to pledge a couple things:

Ideas, alone, are without value.
Implementation of said ideas are the only thing that gives them any meaning.
Ideas and knowledge should be free, and shared as widely as possible, to ensure that they can be brought to life.

Or something along those lines. The idea being that people who join pledge to basically open culture/open source their work.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with asking for resources for your work, otherwise, you'd disappear, and not be able to implement your ideas.

But locking up ideas and thoughts isn't a good thing.

A belief in digital manufacturing.

2019-07-08T00:00:00-04:00

A belief in digital manufacturing

My goal is an end to worldwide shipping of items, and Renaissance of local manufacturing. The ability to buy or create a digital design, and walk down to your local manufactorium to pick it up next day.

Complete customization, complete control over all aspects of your product. Now.

Of course just because a design is "digital" doesn't mean that you just click start and out pops your item. Shit happens, finishing steps need to be done, feedstock runs out midpart. Shit happens.

The idea that you can order something made halfway across the planet, and have it at your doorstop the next day, for less than picking up and identical item made next door is, just, utterly ridiculous.

We need a large globally spanning network to ferry around digital designs and have them made nearby. It's the only way to ensure a high standard of living at a sustainable rate.

Adventures in resin.

2019-07-01T00:00:00-04:00

Adventures in resin

I've recently been playing around with some uv resins. They're pretty neat in what they can do, and how flexible controlled curing can be.

I've learned some nice lessons and tips from a couple of trials though.

I used to start with adding a clear base layer, curing that, and adding my pattern on top of that. Unfortunately, due to surface tension, and the fact that the resin shrinks as it dries, it doesn't dry completely flat. It curves upwards on the edges of the metal pieces I am putting art into. This lets light around any colored pieces, and looks rather meh.

Secondly, I used to add powder into my charm frame, then add resin and mix it all up. Sadly... My mixing isn't always all that great, and I'll get pockets of unused mica. Ew. I'll start mixing and adding the fully mixed color into the frame.

Lessions learned though.

People need to be more specific in their tutorials.

2019-05-04T00:00:00-04:00

Last week I wrote a tutorial on how to make a cat pillow. It's a simple tutorial on something that is admittedly pretty basic. It is a pillow after all.

But writing that was inspired by my searches for fabric needed for a cat bed. I was curious to see what fabrics people were using, so I looked up some tutorials on different cat beds.

I had a general idea of what to use, but, maybe there was something different? And just about all of them described the materials as just... Fabric.

Which isn't helpful at all! What if I was a beginner, and had no clue? Canvas? Felt? Fleece? Denim? Is there some drawback I don't know about? Experimentation is nice, and certainly provides a learning experience, but sometimes I just want to make a cat bed, not further the field of cat preference material science.

This all draws back to the motivations of HARP. Clear, specified materials, and clear, and specified instructions. Want to go off the beaten path? Break the rules. Just want something made as is? Follow the directions.

Directions should be clear enough to go from nothing to product.

Catnip pillow tutorial.

2019-04-08T00:00:00-04:00

Making a catnip pillow that your cat will love is super easy. All it takes is a small section of fabric, stuffing, catnip (of course!) and a needle and thread.

First start with a 4" by 7" piece of fabric. I generally use 100% cotton fabric.

It gets folded in half, wrong side out.

Then, we sew 3 and a half sides around.

Any type of straight stitch is fine. Typically the fabric fails before the stitching does.

Fold it right side out

Now we add some catnip! Typically, for normally stuffed pillow, I use three (heaping!) scoops. If you're feeling extra generous, fill it all up with catnip, and skip the stuffing step. Your cat will love that! 💏

If your pillow isn't stuffed to the brim with catnip, it's time to add stuffing!

You can get polyester stuffing from any craft store, or even many grocery stores!

Once it's stuffed, pin it closed, to aid in sewing in the next step.

And then, sew it shut!

And finally, remove the pin and let your little rascal play with it!

Don't feel like buying fabric, sewing, and stuffing? Well, you can purchase pre-made pillows from us!

Opensource must focus on money.

2019-04-01T00:00:00-04:00

Open Source must focus on money.

Recently there has been talk of how Open Source Software isn't designed to make money, plus there has been talk in the past of how Open Source shouldn't be making money.

This is not a sustainable practice, as now we have larger companies piggybacking off of this existing work, making literal billions, while not truly contributing back.

Heartbleed comes to mind. Two people working on this software, that larger entities used to attain literal billions, was an essential portion of their business practices, and they got nothing.

Sure, their situation has improved, but how many others are out there? This situation needs to change. FLOSS needs resources to maintain itself.

KittyKube

2019-03-28T00:00:00-04:00

Work has slowed a bit on HARP, mostly due to lack of real 'projects' to place into it. Legos are fine, but they aren't real items, and I'd like to have actual utility to make it worth using HARP.

Thus, KittyKube was born. A DIY Cat tree builder, with the option to have it printed and shipped to you. All items are open sourced, meaning if you have means (a sewing machine, 3d printer, and pipe cutter), you can build your own, not dependant on others.

Of course, the whole premise around WorldsProject is that we work more efficently when working with others, and that most people don't want to maintain a sewing machine, 3d printer and pipe cutter. Information is free, atoms cost money.

Lye and PLA

2018-10-09T00:00:00-04:00

Lye and PLA

I was reading some old nophead blog posts and I found a small part on how pla dissolves in lye. Which is interesting because it would be nice if there was an equivalent to acetone smoothing for pla.

I'll have to do some tests later.

Kratky Hydroponics.

2018-08-30T00:00:00-04:00

Kratky Hydroponic method in Mason Jars

I've wanted to try out some different hydroponic methods. One of them was the Kratky method. No pumps nor recirculation at all. Basically just some contained water and light. Awesome! Sounds simple.

So, to simplify things, I've went and painted some mason jars black, and printed out some net pots to hold some catnip plants. I've started some catnip in my planters outside, and I'm hoping to get some growing inside as well. I'd love to put my own catnip inside of the pillows I sell.

The net pots I got from thingiverse <https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:790339>__ and for the parameters I came up with the following STL: Mason Jar Netpot <https://worldsproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/parametric-net-pot_mason_jar1.stl>__

Print one out today! Grow some plants!

Spoonflow GIMP and Inkscape Palette.

2018-07-17T00:00:00-04:00

Spoonflower Gimp and Inkscape Palette

I've been playing around with some of Spoonflower fabrics. One of the small challenges that I've had is matching the colors they've picked as their fabric palette. They have a palette file (a .ase, used for Adobe products), but since I try my best to use FOSS, I can't directly use those. I tend to use either GIMP or Inkscape for all my graphical work. Most of the convertors I've found are old and unmaintained, so they didn't work well. Then I found gpick, which worked wonderfully! Certainly saved me the trouble of having to write something that converted from ase to gpl.

But, if you don't feel like downloading it, I've also attached the converted Spoonflower palette!

spoonflower_colormap.gpl

Cat pillows with bells.

2018-06-25T00:00:00-04:00

Cat pillows and bells.

New option!

Some ideas are obvious after they've been thought, including the fact that cats love jingly things!

But their owners don't always, and that's why it's an optional add on to all cat pillows! If you're cat loves bells, but you don't, you don't have to order them with it. We'll keep it between us.

All about catnip.

2018-06-07T00:00:00-04:00

Catnip

About

Catnip is the most familier plant used for cat enjoyment. Also called catmint, about 70% of cats enjoy it <https://www.gwern.net/Catnip>__.

Can be dried and saved for later, as well as buds saved for maximum cat enjoyment.

Growing

Catnip enjoys well draining soil, and moderate sunlight. Does extremely well being grown via hydroponics. Enjoys a wide range of ph from 6.5 to 7.8. In soil the cat likes approximately 25x25 cm of space per plant.

Very flexible, and very hardy.

Propagation

Catnip blooms from July through October. After the flowers mature, seeds form. I am not entirely sure if the blooming and seeding process is time or temperature dependant. Most likely both.

Seeds take 7-10 days to germinate. It can be easily started indoors due to the plants flexibility.

Sustainability

Catnip is essentially a weed. It will grow in most conditions, and loves to spread. Easy to grow, dry and prepare for all cats. Uses a similar nutrient blend as any lettuce, so any hydroponic project will be successful as well.

Learn More

http://herbgardening.com/growingcatnip.htm

http://herbgardening.com/howtogrowherbsinhyrdoponics.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/catnip/growing-catnip.htm

https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-grow-catnip-plants-2132328

Mushrooms and harp progress.

2017-09-18T00:00:00-04:00

Mushrooms are growing! Little tiny baby ones, which is pretty neat. Hopefully, they'll be full grown, or nearly enough, by the next update.

There's been some pretty major updates to harp, with the materials having a proper webpage. Hopefully the first print will be done by the weekend.

Filanew

2017-09-12T00:00:00-04:00

One of the goals of WorldsProject is long term sustainability. Like any deep space vehicle, we need to recycle our resources so that we can use them tomorrow.

As a result, Filanew has done a soft launch. This service allows people to send in their used, potentially discarded, filament, and have us reprocess it into brand new filament.

Moving away from hydroponics, selling on Etsy, HARP.

2017-09-04T00:00:00-04:00

It's been a while since there has been an update. Silent but not motionless. There's been a small pivot from hydroponics. Due to high energy costs, it's not very profitable to grow and produce just about any food crop. The only real option is something like pot. Sadly, I don't really have an interest in drugs, only food, so that's out of the question. Plus, it's a crowded space, and that's never any fun. So, I've been taking my plant systems and slowly converting them to growing a variety of mushrooms.

A crop is starting, not using my hardware, but more traditional methods, as I've never grown any mushrooms before, and I'd like to get some experience doing it the traditional way, before I start changing things up.

I've always hated the name "AquaCedar", and I'll hopefully be searching for a new name that I like.

Etsy has been pretty successful, I've been shipping out lots of cat pillows. It's not the most glamorous work, but it buys mushroom kits, so who am I to complain? Plus, they are super cute. I've been trying to work more towards marketing my stuff. It's pointless if it just sits there, unsold.

I've finally started writing code for my SKDB redo. I've called it Harp, short for HARdware Packager. It's a decent chunk of work, but hopefully we'll get something up in running in a bit. Lots more to do in that department.

I have some repairs to do to the knitting machine, but hopefully I'll have it running and pumping out scarves for the winter, and charity.

New Etsy products, knitting needles from the UK.

2017-04-03T00:00:00-04:00

New Products!

We have some earrings up for sale, along with some bulbasaur planter/thing holders. They're all very cute!

Bulbasaur Pencil Holder and Hlanter Green Flower Earrings Orange Flower Earrings Green and Blue Flower Earrings

Ive also added an Instagram. Because many of the items are visual in nature, having pictures is quite nice, and I do have to admit, the filters are kinda fun!

Instagram

The knitting needles have shipped! I can't believe that I forgot to buy them, so that kinda stalled assembly. There have been some minor build issues during assembly, with items juuussssttt being slightly off. I'm not sure what parts the issue lies with, but I've been documenting everything as I go along, so hopefully we see a nice big picture at the end.

Thanks for reading!

IPFS, laser cut parts shipped.

2017-03-13T00:00:00-04:00

Skipped a day, simply because not much to update.

Laser cut parts ship tomorrow! That means lots of picture taking of the circle loom, as assembly can finally start.

Lots of new Etsy stuff, from the finished Bulbasaur planter/pencil holder, earrings and 3d printed objects, starting with cookie cutters.

I've also competed an ipfs pinning service, which should be deployed before next update.

Redesigning circle knit electronics case.

2017-02-27T00:00:00-05:00

Worked on the electronics case for the circle knit so that it no longer requires to be laser cut, and can now be 3D printed. Since laser cutting is so much more expensive than 3D printing, this does save on some cost. Of course the original files are still there, so if you feel that laser cutting is a better option for you, it is still there.

As was reported last week, there was a decent push to add some more Etsy products. They've been made, and will hopefully be up before the next update.

Soon, there will be some tutorials on all the products that are on the Etsy shop. While they are simple items, one would wonder why bother putting a tutorial up for something like that?

The answer is simple. There is an advantage in more prople having 'maker' skills. From doing crafts, or fixing items around the house, a population that can create is a valuable and productive one.

And simple tutorials for simple items can help someone who is new to doing things. These simple tutorials can help give them confidence, and hopefully enable them to explore other things.

Small update on feather board, circle knit, and Etsy.

2017-02-20T00:00:00-05:00

The Feather hydroponics board is nearly designed. Hopefully by the end of March a working prototype will be complete and ordered.

A quote for the circle knit laser cut parts has been sent out. That plus a small power supply are the only missing parts. Assembly should be complete in March.

All of the open knit parts have been printed. Further part purchases will wait until the circle knit is complete.

Also, there will be a big push to add more products to the etsy shop, with an end of month goal of 25 separate products.

Working on: Hydroponics and Knitting Machines.

2017-02-13T00:00:00-05:00

Currently working on two main themes, hydroponics and knitting machines.

The Feather board has been coming along nicely. The only portion of the design that remains is the integration of the pH sensor. This is mostly because the work that was done with it was several months ago, so there's 2 pages of math and equations, and zero English. Comments are just as important in doing math as in programming it seems.

The Circular Knitic has the majority of its part in, all that remains are the laser cut part and the power supply. The existing documentation is, incomplete, at best. So it seems that a portion of time will have to be dedicated towards redocumenting everything.

The Open Knit has had more of its parts printed out, but that's all the progress on that section.

Also been working on making some 3d printed molds for casting items for sale. Hopefully soon it will be complete and I'll have some pictures up. Another goal is to get tutorials up for all the etsy items that are for sale. While many of the items are fairly simple, it may not be so simple for others, and hopefully can serve as a good starting point.

Hydroponics and Knitting.

2017-02-06T00:00:00-05:00

Currently working on two main themes, hydroponics and knitting machines.

Designing a Feather compatible board that will let you monitor parameters essential to hydroponics, namely EC, pH, humidity and temperature. The overall goal of this board to to get all these sensors at a BOM under $5, with a sale price of around $10-15 dollars.

Also constructing both the Circular Knitic and the Open Knit. Sadly both projects seem to have died. Which is a shame, since the soft side of makers (sewing, knitting, etc) seems to have very little intersection with the hard side of makers (electronics, software). Not to say that it doesn't exist, but very little overlap is there.

Boards ordered, recipe db 'promoted', noiselib coming along.

2015-06-09T00:00:00-04:00

Great news! A small EC sensor has been designed and boards have been ordered. Hopefully they'll come in soon (although the eta is the 20th). Next up is the design of a pH sensor. This will require a bit more "experimental" work, but the concepts are sound and it should work out okay.

Essentially, a voltmeter will be designed. It's just a matter of finding the correct voltage range.

The recipe database has gone up on Assembly, although there hasn't been too many takers. I haven't tried to promote it much, which is probably why this hasn't gone anywhere.

Work has begun on making a small DSL for noiselib. Not exactly sure the correct approach to this, if this means using something like lex and yacc, or if there is some other way to devise this. We'll see soon in the future.

Designing inexpensive pH sensors.

2015-05-17T00:00:00-04:00

Can we trade accuracy for cost?

Looking at many of the pH sensors, with their $10 (or more!) probes, along with supporting electronics, I begin to wonder if such accuracy is really needed...

Many plants have a decent pH range in which they are happy, most plants have at least a 0.5 range, and some up to 1.0.

So, the real question is, can we throw some electrodes and supporting electronics and come up with a pH sensor that costs much less, but isn't nearly as accurate?

Hopefully, in the coming week, I'll have an update.

And what about EC?

EC is s/cm. Again, most plants have a nutrient range that they're happy with. Assuming that measure the resistance between two points moderately accurately, measuring EC (without a $10+ probe) should be feasible. Again, hopefully this week will tell.

Designing sensors for hydroponics.

2015-05-10T00:00:00-04:00

Additional materials purchased. Need some copper tape, for sensors, 0.1" headers to facilitate making breakout boards. Additionally, purchased pH strips and calibration fluid to help construct low cost pH sensors.

Also, required some bags that were made. Hopefully those, along with two other panels that have been made can be sold soon.

I'm also reopening the inventory project, and procedural project. As I'm having some issues with the sensors, these are nice, productive breaks.

Tim

Finally building hydroponic sensors.

2015-05-04T00:00:00-04:00

After much time gathering materials, and some planning, work has finally begun on farm automation using internet connected computers and hydroponics.

Weekly highlights, recipe database.

2015-03-08T00:00:00-05:00

What was accomplished for the past week.

Upgraded the Recipe database to have cleaner, more ordered directions.
Remove text size restrictions on many fields of the Recipe Database.

Highlights of the week.

2015-03-01T00:00:00-05:00

Some quick highlights of items accomplished over the week.

Creation of this blog.
Ingredient scripts, to clean up scripts.
Implementation of new spiders.