Branden “Wax” Hall / W3XON

May you have a third space as cool as Maryland Meadworks! ❤️

Blessed are the meek and all, but just as rad are the people who post detailed appliance repair videos to YouTube. Thanks to them tonight I finished replacing the bearings, stator, and hub of my 18yo washing machine and it’s now running good as new! A new washing machine, in this economy?!

This project has been most of my day job for the last 6 months, and lighting it up was just the beginning. My team created a custom media processing and scheduling pipeline for this 16k pixel wide monster. Our next step is building a web-based visual content creation and preview tool to drive it.

I just learned (after breaking my glasses this weekend) that there’s a shortage of the materials needed to make high-index lenses. What materials? Petrochemicals and their byproducts. Trumps idiotic war continues to screw over Americans.

LOL at Fox turning up the music so it’s harder to hear the whole of MetLife stadium booing Trump!

ChatGPT-assed halftime show.

A few minutes ago the plug of our off-brand Instapot let off a big spark and loud pop as I plugged it in. I inspected it and discovered a badly frayed cord at the base. A few minutes to re-wire it and bam, good as new! I wonder how many appliances get tossed when a 5 min fix was possible?

We’re in Oklahoma City for USA Gymnastics Men’s Developmental Nationals and I’ve honestly the city is far more charming and pedestrian friendly than I was expecting. We’re near the Bricktown area and haven’t needed a car the whole time. Walking to a minor league game is pretty sweet!

"Fun" discovery this week - iPixel Color LED matrix signs, ($60+ devices commonly seen in ride share vehicles and the windows of local bodega-type businesses) can be programmed with the Web Bluetooth API using Chrome on a laptop or Android phone and they don't have ANY authentication.

The video is incredible and the comments are both supportive and hilarious! A morning balm for this world weary geek’s mind…

Truly proud to say I know FMWJ!

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. It’s an audacious Canadian indy comedy movie. Don’t learn more about it, just go see it. I haven’t laughed that hard in a theater in a long time!

This video on datacenter infrasound pollution from @bennjordan.bsky.social is great and anyone working to oppose new data centers should absolutely watch it. Also, Benn if you see this hit me up - I’ve built longitudinal study software I’d be happy to donate for longer term studies.

This is made by friends of mine and it's really, really rad. If you liked any of the Advance Wars games you'll LOVE WarBits+!

It looks like Github is returning errors and can't create new repos right now. So that's... fun.

In the United States, when you get an amateur radio license, your name, callsign, and mailing address, are made publicly available online, in the FCC's Universal Licensing System. I fail to see why amateur radio operators should be held to a more onerous level of transparency than federal agents.

I LOVE that @hankgreen.bsky.social and @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social have transformed their awesome educational media company, Complexly, into a non-profit. Putting mission before profit means they are truly thinking in the long term. Kudos and mad respect!

Well that was a roller coaster of a day… My wife was spared in a pretty big round of layoffs at her job, and then I found out a good friend accepted a role with my employer. Things are rough out there, it’s good to notice and be grateful when fortune smiles on you!

Step 1 - Trump hires new loud, sycophantic, unqualified asshole Step 2 - Said asshole embarrasses Trump Step 3 - Trump fires asshole Step 4 - Repeat

Now they want to build mini version of the Las Vegas sphere in National Harbor and our county is falling over itself to offer incentives now that we’re losing the Commanders. I’m so damn tired of these welfare queen billionaires. If your project is so great let it succeed on its own merits!

As someone who works in tech and identifies as a creative, I'm quite torn about generative AI. I find it fascinating and powerful but I'm horrified at how it's being marketed and utilized. I just took some time to write up my thoughts.

This video from @hankgreen.bsky.social REALLY resonated with me. I help run regional burns but I’ve been disinterested in Burning Man itself for many years and I think this speaks to why… it no longer feels authentic to me. youtu.be/EMWPs75q2_Q?...

I'm trying to start writing again. I'm mainly putting into text the broad sweeping thoughts about making things that I mull over in the shower or while walking the dog. I'm not sure if they'll be useful to anyone, but I forgot the simple joy of crafting my thoughts into words. waxpraxis.org/notes/

I desperately wish more people who are religious REALLY looked at this image and tried to square it with their political beliefs.

I sit here, still bleary eyed, in the Bahamian airport, heading home. I am suddenly roused by the PA. The combination of the gate agent’s accent, speaker attenuation, and my barely awake state leads me to hearing her announce that she’s looking for some missing ghosts for the flight to Orlando… 👻🛫

Oh no… I did a new thing, and it worked, and now I have IDEAS! 😂 I made my first antenna today, a simple vertical dipole for the 2m band. It’s literally a cheap broom handle, PVC, wire, and zip ties, but it works great!

@toomanyzooz.bsky.social were such a class act at The Atlantis tonight! They played a super energetic set, including both new stuff and old favorites. I even spotted them in the crowd supporting the opening act, Clejan (who was also awesome too!)

Due to the chaotic way I “organize” my tools, my wife bought her own (purple!) measuring tape a few years ago. She’s lost it though and, wanting to differentiate it from her sewing tape while also being a book nerd, just asked me to help her find her purple “hard bound” measuring tape. 😍

We were prank gifted four pink flamingo lawn ornaments over the summer. Yesterday I decided to give them a 🎃seasonal upgrade🎃.

Another piece I finished a while back, but I love it so much. It’s made from very precious mouth blown glasses that I am likely to never see again once I run out. They’re so rich and clear, with such perfect textures. The lead lines in this are the fold lines from the paper crane hanging above!

I finally moved personal website off of Squarespace and onto @astro.build hosted on GitHub pages. As someone who tested my HTML in Mosaic early in my career (yes, my beard is gray, why do you ask?) I have to say that Astro was a joy to learn and the full site was completed over the weekend.

I cannot properly express how cool it feels to own art created by @stonkers.bsky.social If you knit you should 100% grab one of these kits so you too can bask in this feeling!

There are days, as a developer, that I feel like a skilled craftsman honing ideas into elegant code. Other days, like yesterday, it’s more accurate to say I was a digital persistence hunter, bashing at the keyboard until the win32 API finally keeled over in exhaustion.

@alsobrooks.senate.gov can you please share what drove you to vote for the crypto scam GENIUS act? It does nothing to address the kind of scams and conflicts of interest issues at the core of crypto. The bill is a give-away and only helps a scam ridden industry with little redeemable value!