This is an old project, but by some miracle it's still working and I woke up this morning wanting to celebrate the things I love more.
This Inkplate e-ink screen shows Conway's Game of Life, seeded from tarpits I have on the Internet. The tarpits are programs on my computer that superficially look like insecure Telnet and Remote Desktop services, but actually exist to respond super slowly and make bots scanning the Internet 'get stuck'.
When a bot connects to the tarpit, the data it sends gets squished into a 5x5 grid and 'stamped' onto a Game of Life board. Data from a bot at the IP address 1.1.x.x will get stamped on the top left corner, data from a bot at 254.254.x.x will get stamped on the bottom right corner.
Conway's Game of Life, a set of simple rules that govern whether cells should turn on or off, updates the display once per second. The result is that bot attacks end up appearing as distinct 'creatures', that get bigger and more angry looking over time (as their centre is updated with new data). After the attack finishes, the 'creature' eventually burns itself out.
Despite that description, it's a really chill piece of art that doesn't draw too much attention but I can happily watch for a long time.
Credit for the idea goes to @_mattata, I had been wanting to make a real-life version of XKCD #350 for years before seeing his Botnet Fishbowl project.
I finally packaged up all the design files from my ZX81 Mechnical Keyboard project and published them on github, should anyone else want to make use of them. Enjoy!
On Monday, I’m giving a #presentation to some #graphic design #university#students all about #sound, and how they might start to incorporate it in their #projects, so I put this little #demo together about how I make use of it as a #blind person. I have an hour to talk, so this is just what I’ll open with. the rest of the time will be live chat and Q&A.
In doing something like this with absolutely no visual aspect, I want them to start thinking about, and understanding the benefit of incorporating sound in new ways, how sound can help tell a story, and how together, visual plus audio can perhaps make something special.
Okay, this is kinda weird, but does anyone have just the case of an old Apple II display that they're interested in getting rid of? I've got a crazy project idea...
Ideally the case would be in good condition and the display would be dead (I wouldn't want to sacrifice a usable one).
So, it turns out that the Apple II VGA thing Just Works (tm). All credit to Mark Aikens who came up with the design and wrote the Pico firmware. I just did the PCB layout and assembly.
I wrote in a bit more detail about what's changing at #Reddit, why it affects you, and how you can archive your data into a searchable #SQLite archive with a #Python tool I built (one of my recent #projects) and #Datasette.
Looking at the ATF15xx 5v CPLDs and was going to just have some of @whitequark 's EVBs fabbed, but nobody has TQFP parts in stock right now.
The magic of open hardware meant that I could just grab the design files, fire up KiCAD, throw together a footprint, adjust the symbol for the PLCC variant, and widen and reroute the board to make room for the larger footprint.
Having a nice, clean original design to work from was an enormous time saver. Yay.
Got the Apple II Gamepad assembled and it works for playing Lode Runner, so it's looking good. The X/Y axes aren't quite at 128 in the center, but things work nonetheless.
Join us at @CCC 's #37C3 conference track "Sustainability & #Climate#Justice"! We're thrilled to focus on the pressing issues of ecological injustice and ecosystem collapse. If you're passionate about creating a sustainable, just, and #democratic#digital future, we invite you to submit your presentations by November 11, 2023. We're particularly keen to hear from underrepresented groups and those from the global south.
The @CCC is back, inviting #hackers#activists, #artists, and technology enthusiasts to the renovated #Hamburg Congress Center. Expect insightful lectures, collaborative #learning, #creative#projects, and vibrant discussions in a peaceful, respectful atmosphere.
Join us at the #37C3 conference track "Sustainability & #Climate#Justice"! We're thrilled to focus on the pressing issues of ecological injustice and ecosystem collapse. If you're passionate about creating a sustainable, just, and #democratic#digital future, we invite you to submit your presentations by November 11, 2023. We're particularly keen to hear from underrepresented groups and those from the global south.
Not too bad! The thumbstick is on a little breakout PCB that luckily had a mounting hole in the right place to try this out.
I may need to rethink the PCB mounting a bit. With the PCB sandwiched between the top and bottom standoffs, there is the risk of either a small gap or the PCB "floating" a bit.
Any time I meet someone that I really enjoy because they're into a lot of different fascinating things and they really seem to be excited about all their hobbies, I immediately feel a sense of kindred spirits.
Dark mode, image diffing/review in the diff viewer, mobile diff review, Microsoft Teams integration, and improved CI configuration are some of the improvements coming this month.