Feed

I read (listened) to Nick Harkaway's Karla's Choice recently and then went back to the BBC audio versions of a bunch of the George Smiley novels. It's fascinating Harkaway can write Smiley so well when the tone of his own novels (which I also like) are so different. read on scrawl


Working on bringing scrawl back

GIF workflow and Niri

My Linux GIF workflow is back up and working, and I've been enjoying Niri.

Opening and moving windows in NiriOpening and moving windows in Niri

Dynamicland


Carly Ayres writing about Danger TestingCarly Ayres writing about Danger Testing

From https://carly.substack.com/p/is-it-a-product-or-a-performance

This is interesting - seems good to place next to 'homecooked meal' apps - apps as cultural artifact...

Scrawl

As part of my general blog tidying-up I'm revisiting this website for rough writing I put together: https://scrawl.grantcuster.com

Screenshot of ScrawlScreenshot of Scrawl

In some ways I think this is the precursor to the Tabletop series I've been doing. The design of it really did make me feel like it was OK to write quickly. I think maybe I want to start writing in it again, though I'd want it to sit nicely along with garden.

Prompting and writing

Moving the Garden

Post editor with live previewsPost editor with live previews

Making steady progress on moving this blog over to a React app built on Waku for server-side rendering. Finally I'll have live post previews that look exactly (not 98%) like they do when published.

Process

Ghibli

Vibe-coding and mental models

Communication & Latency

Thinking about the One Unbreakable Law video from Casey MuratoriThinking about the One Unbreakable Law video from Casey Muratori

Constraint Systems

Did a little reset of the https://constraint.systems page. Using gruvbox and Departure Mono. Switched off Hugo and redid it with React/Vite because I'm just much more used to it these days. I'd kind of like to do a similar revamp of this site and grantcuster.com... Spring cleaning.

Tabletop

Tabletop used with a tabletopTabletop used with a tabletop Crop and download images from your webcam.

https://tabletop.constraint.systems

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Computer aesthetics

Custom desktop panel

I've been searching for a reason/excuse to try Clay (and by extension C), and I just realized making a custom Wayland desktop panel (like this Rust-based one) is plausible.

This weekend

New desk backing, overhead camera setup and spot for extended monitor.New desk backing, overhead camera setup and spot for extended monitor.

Clearer shot of the expanded overhead camera setup. It nees more light. Realized I could use magnets to attach light backing board. Will probably do more experiments with that.Clearer shot of the expanded overhead camera setup. It nees more light. Realized I could use magnets to attach light backing board. Will probably do more experiments with that.

Curious to try some digital/physical combos with the monitor-as-desktopCurious to try some digital/physical combos with the monitor-as-desktop

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How the Clay layout algorithm works

fantastic explainer videofantastic explainer video

https://youtu.be/by9lQvpvMIc?si=ltSrPIZ0q9h3oJO_

Workspace design inspiration

Bakeries and ceramics workshopsBakeries and ceramics workshops

Bin color coding

Labeled bins now with circle color markersLabeled bins now with circle color markers

Trying out a color coding system

Color keyColor key