Mastodawn

When it comes to #computer #programming I firmly believe that making it human readable is one of the most important things you could do. This video from Computerphile eloquently demonstrates exactly the kind of programming style I strive for and consider to be beautiful code. The satisfaction of writing a test that reads like an English sentence is peak programming for me.

Computerphile https://youtube.com/watch?v=SJocPm2E8eQ

Human Readable Code - Computerphile

YouTube

Toby Kurien May 31

After a year and a half of daily driving #GhostBSD (which I love and recommend), I moved to base #FreeBSD on a new desktop machine. I wanted a lightweight desktop with XLibre. I decided to try #lxqt but found the default pcmanfm-qt to be quite buggy and uncomfortable. I finally found my happy place with lxqt + QtFM.

These are the packages I installed to get to a comfortable desktop:
xlibre xlibre-slim lxqt lxqt-qtplugin
oxygen-icons oxygen-fonts noto-emoji… https://tobykurien.com/post-1780220596

Toby Kurien May 31

Like the illustrated and animated watch website posted earlier, this is another beautiful exploration of some great #mechanical #engineering in everyday products.

Mechanical Pencil https://mechanical-pencil.com/products/zippo

Mechanical Pencil

Illustrating the Engineering Around Us

Toby Kurien Mar 24

Printed a very basic quick-and-dirty 3D model of a guitar pickup cover that clips onto the pickup bobbin, to make it easy to swap out covers without needing to remove the strings or pickups. Got lucky with the first try. Looks pretty good, I think! #3dprinting #diy #maker #guitar

https://tobykurien.com/images/microblog/post-1774357522-0.jpg https://tobykurien.com/images/microblog/post-1774357522-1.jpg https://tobykurien.com/images/microblog/post-1774357522-2.jpg

Toby Kurien Mar 17

I built a simple #DIY #oscilloscope and logic analyser using a #RaspberryPi Pico. It uses the pico-sigrok firmware, so I can capture and decode signals using sigrok on a laptop. Tested it by adding a basic analog frontend and then playing a guitar note through a tube overdive pedal and the results look quite good!

Toby Kurien Feb 15

Breaking the Spell of Vibe Coding - “People who go all in on AI agents now are guaranteeing their obsolescence." -- Jeremy Howard #ai

fast.ai https://www.fast.ai/posts/2026-01-28-dark-flow/

fast.ai - Breaking the Spell of Vibe Coding

Sinister variations on the positive state of flow

Toby Kurien Feb 1

First prototype of my #diy #handheld #cyberdeck powered by a #RaspberryPi Zero. Unlike my previous tablet designs, this one is aimed at low power for extended battery life, focussing on command-line use. It will be used mainly for reading ebooks/websites, e-mail, SSH, note-taking and some coding fun. It could work well as a #writerdeck too. It has a 2000mAh battery under the keyboard providing 13 hours of continuous reading time. Next I need to design and print a cover… https://tobykurien.com/post-1769934638

Toby Kurien Jan 24

Fun weekend #diy #maker project: Pi Zero Tiny computer! I was curious about how low power I could go with a #RaspberryPi Zero 2W with a super power-efficient (but puny) screen. I had a Waveshare 1.44 inch LCD HAT lying around, so I looked up it's chip and found an Adafruit driver that seemed close enough. I looked at the schematic of the LCD HAT to see which pins where connected where, and thought I'd give the following a try in config.txt (betting with myself that… https://tobykurien.com/post-1769257911

Toby Kurien Jan 15

Frontend Dogma Jan 15

Just the Browser, by @corbin.io:

https://justthebrowser.com/

#websites #browsers #chrome #google #firefox #mozilla #edge #microsoft

Just the Browser - Just the Browser

Remove AI features, telemetry data reporting, sponsored content, product integrations, and other annoyances from web browsers.

Just the Browser

Toby Kurien Jan 14

I've written an "Ode to elinks" on my #Gemini capsule before, and I recently stumbled upon this great article that goes into more details and reasons why #elinks is one of the best text web browsers out there. Excellent for when you want to access information from a #RaspberryPi Zero or other low-powered device.

Dion Moult https://thinkmoult.com/using-elinks-browse-web.html

https://tobykurien.com/images/microblog/post-1768403680-0.png