Solderlocks

Just shipped Scadder: a serverless web viewer & CLI package manager for OpenSCAD. Compile .scad files in-browser via WASM (shoutout openscad.cloud) or use the CLI to pull dependencies locally. No walled gardens or accounts. 100% open source. github.com/solderlocks/...

I've noticed that chefs often refer to people who will receive the final dish as a "guest", implying that their duty is to treat them well and care for them. It reminds me of how impactful language can be in shaping mental models, and the importance of reaching beyond the word "user"

Making progress on weather systems, biomes, seasons, night/day cycle, inventory, building interiors, local multiplayer, and performance optimizations.

Finally got my hypercube staff up and running again

I've been building a little sandbox procedural virtual world using three.js, and it's been fun to approach the game design process backward; instead of starting with specific game mechanics and building the world/engine from there, I'm fleshing out the space and discovering what's fun to do with it.

This looks like an amazingly accessible technique for creating resin 3D prints with features under 10 micrometers in size youtu.be/UvV2CH5il3Q?...

It's fascinating when technical problems can be solved with social rituals. I am working on a silent disco app and initially struggled to sync the audience to within 10-20ms of each other. We solved it with a "syncing ritual" where we spread a clock signal from a central device to all participants

I'm surprised that we haven't seen more educational content created for immersive media/AR/VR. Math, physics, chemistry, and history could be more memorable and fun with the right interface

Would a "Folding@home"-style initiative where people donate unused compute/tokens to a communal development pool be a worthwhile project? I'd love to see a system like this be used to generate open source alternatives to paid software

There are an incredible number of brilliant people who are untethered from a 9-5 job right now and looking for worthwhile projects. That feels like a huge opportunity.

Working on another batch of iridescent beetles to make more pins to give away

Brett Victor's "Inventing On Principle" lecture is one of my favorite talks of all time, and it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUv6...

How can we empower people with the tools we build rather than replace them? It seems like the fact that many tech companies view their mission as eliminating the need for workers rather than giving them superpowers is a large part of why there's a growing backlash to tech.

Anyone out there having luck with Qwen Code local models for agentic coding (using a harness like Cline)?

Just completed an LED dandelion build

More topographical map experiments

Playing with using a Raspberry Pi to control the output of a thermal printer

Reading The Big Picture by Sean Carroll and it's absolutely incredible so far. Curious about what he'd think of Jeremy England's work on the thermodynamics of life

3D printing some iridescent beetles with titanium filament

Given that the cost of developing software is falling, will the thousands of unusable government websites/apps finally be fixed? Could new ADA cases be won by citizens who have been blocked from accessing services?

I've been experimenting with 3D printing topographical maps lately, and it's neat how slicing the model along the z axis and using a color gradient filament results in a slope map where differing elevations are reflected by different colors.

I came across this #lighthouse image the other day and immediately knew who it looked like. original image by frodejansen.bsky.social

Finally doing some #watercolor painting again and just finished this one of #Greenlake

The entire ".io" domain was owned by a single guy until 2017. That's like letting a private citizen hold exclusive rights to large bands of radio frequencies for decades

Is open source software poised to grow rapidly? What are some good strategies for finding the gems amongst the mountains of raw material?

Cautiously optimistic about Antigravity 2.0, but the fact that it was released in such a buggy state is not a good sign. Really hoping that Google doesn't end up bungling it and killing the product

Is the demise of GitHub Copilot a sign of a larger LLM market shift? Is this an indication that companies are tightening their belts and trying harder to turn a profit?

Anyone able to comment on how Deepseek v4 compares to Gemma 4 for coding tasks?

Anyone out there using Gemma for local coding (via tools like Cline, Roo Code, etc)? Curious about how it compares to Flash 3.1 for coding tasks

What would software look like if we minimized engagement instead of maximized it?

What happened to live coding? Are there still people out there coding as a performance art?

I missed old Doodle polls, so I built a replacement. Instead of asking when you're free, it asks when you're not. Conflicts get marked. The best time reveals itself in the empty space. Free, open-source, no accounts ever: timeslot.ink

There should be app races where people compete to see who can finish a complex app fastest and best using whatever tools they have at their disposal

Looking to track down a lobste.rs invite if anyone out there is a member!

What's preventing the creation of a direct-manipulation development tool for OpenSCAD? I'm imagining something that breaks out the AST of the transformations like this model: scadder.dev?file=https%3... We need more intuitive UI for open parametric CAD software

Some funny insights from the Claude Code leak: - They detect user frustration with regexes that match strings like "piece of crap", "wtf", "f***ing broken" - The system hides that Claude wrote the code when submitting code to open source repositories Always double check your .gitignore

Sad to see that Firebase Studio is shutting down, but I understand the logic. Google AI Studio sounds like an effective alternative for browser-based development. Curious to hear how they compare from someone who's used both.

Would people use OpenSCAD more often if the tools for creating .scads were better? Pondering open source hardware and the barriers preventing it from being more like open source software (with vetted libraries of modular components, alternatives to paid products, etc). #OpenSCAD #Opensource #3D

Just released my first npm package for #OpenSCAD and it feels like a milestone! Run "npx scadder install [url-or-model-id]" to pull the respective scad (like the gridfinity-rebuilt-baseplate) from GitHub onto your local machine. #opensource #opensourcehardware #3dprinting #3dmodeling #npm #github

Roo Code + Openrouter > Antigravity

Google Antigravity is a great tool, but their sudden model quota change just squandered their goodwill with the developer community and pushed most of their users to look for viable locally hosted alternatives.

Moving from writing code, to designing a series of agents that can reliably write code, to writing a spec that others can use to contribute to an ecosystem of agentic nodes/solvers is dizzying. It feels like "integration" over the problem space when you zoom out to higher level abstractions

What would it take to implement a .f3d -> .scad pipeline? Could we analyze the parametric history of an object and find equivalent CSG transformations for each step? Maybe with fuzzing and AI semantic mapping we can actually interpret design intent and preserve the original parameter mappings.