index.md (8941B)
1 --- 2 title: "Dispatch #37 (March 2026)" 3 date: 2026-03-15T00:26:29-04:00 4 draft: false 5 tags: 6 - dispatch 7 references: 8 - title: "Time, Tools, and Permission to Experiment: A 2026 Pointless Palooza Recap | Viget" 9 url: https://www.viget.com/articles/time-tools-and-permission-to-experiment-a-2026-pointless-palooza-recap 10 date: 2026-03-15T04:25:38Z 11 file: www-viget-com-wnwjaw.txt 12 - title: "Pointless Lessons: How We Built Scooter Commuter | Viget" 13 url: https://www.viget.com/articles/pointless-lessons-how-we-built-scooter-commuter 14 date: 2026-03-15T05:16:42Z 15 file: www-viget-com-wetov6.txt 16 - title: "Everything is awesome (why I'm an optimist)" 17 url: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/everything-is-awesome-why-im-an-optimist/ 18 date: 2026-03-10T19:48:59Z 19 file: www-joanwestenberg-com-3uezea.txt 20 - title: "The Productive Afterward" 21 url: https://www.chrbutler.com/the-productive-afterward 22 date: 2026-03-10T19:49:00Z 23 file: www-chrbutler-com-avdt2j.txt 24 - title: "Dan Simmons Is Dead, So It's Time To Read 'Hyperion' | Defector" 25 url: https://defector.com/dan-simmons-is-dead-so-its-time-to-read-hyperion 26 date: 2026-03-10T19:48:53Z 27 file: defector-com-mj4bn2.txt 28 - title: "How AI Wreaked Havoc on the Lo-Fi Beat Scene | Pitchfork" 29 url: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/how-ai-wreaked-havoc-on-the-lo-fi-beat-scene/ 30 date: 2026-03-10T19:48:49Z 31 file: pitchfork-com-30jzgl.txt 32 - title: "Musical Beings Tembo: this magnetic drum machine turns the whole family into beatmakers - SYNTH ANATOMY" 33 url: https://synthanatomy.com/2026/02/musical-beings-tembo-magnetic-this-magnetic-drum-machine-turns-the-whole-family-into-beatmakers.html 34 date: 2026-03-10T19:48:57Z 35 file: synthanatomy-com-xthm71.txt 36 --- 37 38 February was quick but full. We had a few things hit all at the same time -- some good friends visiting from Canada, our company hackathon, and an extended visit from my family. It was hectic but we made it all work, and the month went by in a flash. 39 40 <!--more--> 41 42 {{<dither IMG_9858.jpeg "782x600">}}Four kids, one couch, absolute chaos.{{</dither>}} 43 {{<dither IMG_9914.jpeg "782x600">}}A child clings to their grandmother on a swing at the playground.{{</dither>}} 44 45 ### New Car 46 47 As mentioned [last month][1], our faithful Honda CR-V gave up the ghost in January, and we bought a new (to us) Toyota Rav4 Prime in early February. It's cool -- about 50 miles of electric range before the gas motor kicks in. We don't presently have a way to charge it at home, but there are chargers near our office and [Central Park][2], and between those, we were able to go an entire month before needing to fill up. 48 49 I'll avoid thinking about what percent of my life is keeping things charged. Claire calls me "the charging fairy," flitting around the house, plugging things in. 50 51 [1]: /journal/dispatch-36-february-2026/ 52 [2]: https://durhamcentralpark.org/ 53 54 ### Pointless Palooza 55 56 We did our annual [company hackathon][3], and for the first time, I pitched an original idea and lead a team instead of contributing to someone else's concept. We built a pretty cool thing, a 3D printed keychain that contains a QR code and two [AprilTags][4] that make up a sort of public/private key pair. The QR code launches a web app, and then uploading a photo of the two tags lets you claim a profile. Then, scanning your private tag with someone else's public tag lets you connect with them. We built a [Diablo][5]-esque inventory/leveling system where each connection you make grants you an additional level and a piece of gear. 57 58 [3]: https://www.viget.com/articles/time-tools-and-permission-to-experiment-a-2026-pointless-palooza-recap 59 [4]: https://docs.wpilib.org/en/stable/docs/software/vision-processing/apriltag/apriltag-intro.html 60 [5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_(series) 61 62 {{<dither dmp-render.png "782x600">}}Early CAD render of a compact two-part enclosure, shown exploded to reveal the internal cutouts and mounting features.{{</dither>}} 63 {{<dither dmp-screenshot.png "782x600">}}A work-in-progress character screen for my dungeon crawler, featuring a very good hat and exactly one equipped pair of pants.{{</dither>}} 64 65 This was fun to build, and pretty novel -- a web app with no real notion of login state; your identity is solely a physical thing you have in your possession. The team is going to continue iterating on the concept and roll it out to the company at large at our big event in May. More to come on that. 66 67 The whole hackathon was pretty nuts in terms of what folks were able to do with AI. In years prior, a team's success (in terms of ability to ship a working product) was pretty closely correlated with how many developers were on the team. Not so this year -- every team was able to ship polished, working software. [Claire built this game.][6] I'm glad I was able to make something a little bit different. The ability to come up with original concepts and execute on them will be increasingly important as AI gets more capable of building the sort of CRUD apps that defined my earlier career. 68 69 [6]: https://www.viget.com/articles/pointless-lessons-how-we-built-scooter-commuter 70 71 ### 3D printing 72 73 Still loving the 3D printer. Valentine's Day is a big deal at my kids' school. We printed a bunch of [these stegos][7] for Nev's class, [these cars][8] for Nico's, and some custom stencils made with OpenSCAD. Otherwise just making stuff for the office and kitchen, toys for the kids and their friends (check out [this robot][9] and [motorcycle][10]), and generally just the little plastic bits and bobs that make life run a little more smoothly (like [this buckle][11] to secure the straps on Nev's bike seat). 74 75 [7]: https://makerworld.com/models/2289111 76 [8]: https://makerworld.com/models/2140731 77 [9]: https://makerworld.com/models/117513 78 [10]: https://makerworld.com/models/203899 79 [11]: https://makerworld.com/models/857121 80 81 ### This Month 82 83 * Adventure: Baltimore for a friend's concert; Vegas for my annual basketball trip 84 * Project: make some new music + rework one of my old tracks into something I can perform live 85 * Skill: live performance; perhaps some 3D modeling 86 87 ### Reading & Listening 88 89 * Fiction: [_The Strength of the Few_][12], James Islington (the [first book][13] in this series was a bit of a slog -- I've read too many books about magic high schools for one lifetime -- but the ending got me pretty good, and this one's a pretty big departure) 90 * Non-fiction: [_The Magic of Code_][14], Samuel Arbesman ([via][15]) 91 * Music: [_Polymood_][16], L'Eclair 92 93 [12]: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Strength-of-the-Few/James-Islington/Hierarchy/9781982141233 94 [13]: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Will-of-the-Many/James-Islington/Hierarchy/9781982141189 95 [14]: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/samuel-arbesman/the-magic-of-code/9781541704480/ 96 [15]: https://interconnected.org/home/2025/11/14/arbesman 97 [16]: https://leclairband.bandcamp.com/album/polymood 98 99 ### Links 100 101 * [Everything is awesome (why I'm an optimist)][17] ([via][18]) 102 103 > I'm going to argue that the pessimists have the best narratives and the worst track record. The doom scenarios require assumptions that don't survive contact with economic history, and the psychological posture you bring to this moment actually matters for how it turns out. 104 105 * [Dan Simmons Is Dead So It's Time To Read 'Hyperion' | Defector][19] 106 107 > All that stuff (besides The Terror, which I truly love) might be an acquired taste for non-genre fans. Which brings us to the entire purpose of this blog: me telling you to read Hyperion, and then you coming back later and saying thank you. 108 109 * [How AI Wreaked Havoc on the Lo-Fi Beat Scene | Pitchfork][20] 110 111 > It’s likely that as AI advances and makes reasonable facsimiles of even more genres, there’ll be a reverse push for realness—akin to listeners obsessing over vinyl or obscure formats, the human touch could become a boutique feature, like raw milk at the farmer’s market. Lo-AI hasn’t won the battle yet; it means too much to these people. “When things get so bleak with lo-fi or just the world, right, it’s very easy to enter a state of nihilism. Like, why should I do any of it, when it’s all so fruitless?” Reade said. “You do it for yourself. That’s the core thing with art and music for me.” 112 113 * [Musical Beings Tembo: this magnetic drum machine turns the whole family into beatmakers][21] 114 115 > Musical Beings Tembo is a new family-friendly drum machine with real-time sampling capabilities, programmed with magnets. 116 117 [17]: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/everything-is-awesome-why-im-an-optimist/ 118 [18]: https://www.chrbutler.com/the-productive-afterward 119 [19]: https://defector.com/dan-simmons-is-dead-so-its-time-to-read-hyperion 120 [20]: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/how-ai-wreaked-havoc-on-the-lo-fi-beat-scene/ 121 [21]: https://synthanatomy.com/2026/02/musical-beings-tembo-magnetic-this-magnetic-drum-machine-turns-the-whole-family-into-beatmakers.html