• a list of issues
• a list of ideas
• a change log
• and a journal of what you did.

Another nice feature of having a constant prototype you are using, is you are able to compare what you have against other things you see, and then figure out how to update your prototype with those new features. For example, this post is a prototype (everything is a prototype), and when I see another post that has words in a more prettier layout, I can update this prototype post with that format; this gives consuming other media more purpose since you are on the lookout for things to improve your things.

Best of all, when your prototype breaks, you know how to fix it (I would hope) since you built it. You aren't at the whims of some company to fix your stuff, or just charge you for a new one. You just figure out why it broke, and make the next version that much better.

This line of thinking also got me thinking about the kind of stuff I buy. Don't buy stuff you can't tinker with; if you can't take it apart and tinker with it experiment with ideas, you are just putting yourself in some consumer mindset instead of a maker/experimenter/explorer mindset. This is where the initial idea of prototype everything came from; if everything is a prototype, then you'll be able to constantly tinker and fix the things you have instead of only having the option to buy a new thing every time you want something.

Prototype 1

This is a great prototype to have sitting around as I can test whatever I want to do on V2 on this first. Poor little thing is beaten up, but it's a great place to test out ideas.

Prototype 2

The initial placement of the magnetic clasp was in the wrong place (as you can see from the hole at the bottom). I ripped out the old bottom part and went to install the new one a few cm higher, and then I was like, "Hey, I can't use my tools in this configuration (unless I had a really tiny hammer I could use on the inside of the pouch)." So I came up with the great idea of putting everything in place, and then using a clamp to squish it all together. It actually worked pretty well.

Not sure if i'm 100% happy with the new placment, it actually works now but might be too high. Also the the top bend might just be too short and will need to be lengthened in the next version, but I want to actually use this version for a bit to see what other problems could have popped up.

I needed a simple ASCII editor with a light table element to it for a different project I'm thinking of. So here we have a simple editor that allows you to drag in images for reference. Click on help will bring up an ASCII chart to pick from.

Launch Editor

Simple app to show guitar scales for people into said things; Not sure about the CAGED views. I had them there to see if it would make the system click at all, still nothing.

Launch the App

Building a shared fridge

The best part of going to work is looking at the fridge to see what new fridge poetry has been made. So I made a version for the internet. The neat thing about this version though, is it's real time; it uses websockets to show other people moving words around.

The application is live HERE. It's a single shared board: open the page and you get the same scatter of words everyone else is looking at. Drag a word and everyone else watching sees it slide across their screen too.

How it's built

The backend is a small Go server using gorilla/websocket. There's one Board holding the magnet state (word, position, rotation, z-index) behind a mutex, and a Hub that fans out updates to every connected client. The wire protocol is two message types — move for dragging a single magnet and init for the initial snapshot or after a reset. When a client moves a magnet, the server bumps its z-index so the most recently touched word floats to the top, then broadcasts the new state to everyone else.

The word list lives in words.json so the vocabulary is easy to swap without touching the binary. Board dimensions are flag-configurable. The whole thing is small enough to run on a hobby box — which is the point; it's meant to live somewhere quiet and accumulate weird little poems.

and the sticker that goes with it