@squarism I'm an absolute newb, but it's worked out pretty smoothly for me so far! Assembled from kit and got it producing nice output with barely any tweaking so far

@quinnanya Way back when I was in college (circa 1995), I was in a course kind of like that as a cross between the comp sci and art departments to play around with interaction design in CD-ROMs and this new "web" thing. Kind of invented the syllabus as we went, it was great

@quinnanya As a former CS major, we definitely need more mandatory humanities credits 😅

Huh, these folks sound like a poppier Blonde Redhead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUliW4zu8sQ

Oh hey, Zack Freedman did the thing from @pluralistic 's Makers (2009) where Lester made a light-up searchable smart chest of drawers with bins and RFID tags.

Except with little parts bins, instead of roommates' books & underwear. And with an Oracle sponsorship, rather than something self-hosted.

But it's sorta close? (I've always wanted to make that system but never got around to it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WAhquGQq3o

If you don't know what I'm talking about, the novel's in Project Gutenberg!

Just do a find in page for "smart chest of drawers" and scroll up a bit. (wish I could link to a paragraph 🤔 )

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34527/34527-h/34527-h.htm

Now I'm kinda wondering how feasible it would be to make a little microcontroller widget with wireless network, a decently bright LED, a piezo buzzer, and a battery that lasts years and/or can recharge from dim ambient light or something neglectful?

Make a few dozen with unique IDs, toss each into a bin or a drawer, associate contents with ID in a database. Have the widgets occasionally wake up and check a message queue. Ping one of them on a successful search result hit to light up and make noise until silenced so that I can find whatever it is I'm looking for around the house.

This feels like something someone really must have already made?

Not necessarily wifi, maybe BLE or some IoT radio protocol. Should be tolerable for it to only wake up like once or twice per minute, just long enough to check if it's go-time for noise & light. Would like to not have to change dozens of batteries annually like smoke alarms

(Although, that might be a forcing function for reviewing what's squirreled away around my house periodically and updating the database)

@cabel Whoa, no kidding!

@jrconlin Feels kind of adjacent to - but not the same as - something like an AirTag?

Oh, and I guess whatever this widget is, it would ideally survive 125F temperatures in my attic in the summer and below freezing in the winter. Maybe that's too big of an ask? Also I should keep fewer things up there 🤔

Printed an itty bitty squirrel

https://www.printables.com/model/550233-low-poly-sqirrel

@ArtifexUmbra @c0debabe There's a part of me that wants to put all my things on little flying drone platforms that follow me around Snow-White-style because I forget everything everywhere around the house

An eye-wear / optometrist shop near me periodically emails me a newsletter with a "Sight Club" header image. Today my brain suddenly asked "are they gonna throw lye in our face?"

Falling down a bottomless rabbit hole of 3D printed closet organizer and wire shelf add-on widgets

Also we have an old house with picture rail everywhere, so that's a very interesting interface for hanging things

Also also thinking I may become very interested in aluminum extrusions soon

Really, I'm just now catching up on a decade or so of DIY engineering of which I've been vaguely aware but didn't have a 3D printer to take advantage

@emma Picture rail is surprisingly handy for frequently changing ideas about things to hang on various walls, along with other interesting attachments, all without making & patching lots of holes

@c0debabe @newt It's delightful because I keep forgetting I have it installed and yet I keep discovering that it's doing the thing I want to have happen

@kellogh my city & state were apparently burned to the ground a few years ago

Frankly the only thing that threatens the institution of my marriage is if I’m a severe dumbass

@jalefkowit Sounds like things are going swimmingly

Another belated birthday present has arrived: a folding walkpad treadmill for under my desk.

Just spent 45 minutes on it and feel my ass is rather more kicked than a usual walk, between trying to keep pace with the machine and also still get work done.

I can see becoming accustomed to it, though. Which is good, because I have sunk into great sedentary habits since the Age of the Panini.

Really, I should be taking more walks and bike rides, but I've found that to be an aspiration often foiled by weird work meeting times and sometimes weather

This just in: Elon Musk hates money? Didn't see this one coming

https://deadline.com/2023/11/elon-musk-advertisers-twitter-x-antisemitism-1235643232/

If someone has already shrunk into a corncob, can they further shrink into new modes of corncob along different hidden dimensions? There's got to be some theoretical physics which covers this

@mav holy crap you ain't kidding

@MishaVanMollusq @chris @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social hey now the Monarch had some redeeming qualities