Eyeball #2 is done enough to be functional and has much better motion tracking!! https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/05/atronachs-eye-2026.html #robotics #3dprinting

Haha (the circle is a motion detection target).

Trying out my new I2C-equipped solenoid drivers and ADCs I got for the hydraulic robot. I am ready to control a bajillion valves ... #robotics #hydraulics

On the blog today, a brief reflection on why I value spaceflight. https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/05/dreams-of-frontier.html #Space #spaceflight

Who's moving jobs to Blue Origin and is over the moon about it? It's me! I start May 18.

A friend of mine is developing this slick little space trader sim MMO that you can play in your browser: https://everestdrive.io/ I think you can even invite friends to be on your ship and run some of the stations. This is an early access game; there's a Discord for bug reports. #videogames

I worked on improving Acuitas' trial-and-error learning algorithms this month, so he can get better at playing "guess my rule" games: https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/04/acuitas-diary-96-april-2026.html #ai #artificialintelligence #ChatBots #nlp #SymbolicAI

Success #2: I do seem to be able to heat-fuse 3D-printed polypropylene with my polyethylene film. Despite being technically different materials, these are a lot more willing to be friends than PLA and PE. #robotics #hydraulics

My Verification of Autonomous Systems book is finally out! In addition to contributed chapters on theoretical and practical aspects of verifying autonomy*, the editors contributed an introduction on stakeholder perspectives and a chapter on the specific challenges autonomy introduces to […]

First try sealing polyethylene film to a polyethylene tube, and it worked out! Besides matching materials, I needed pressure - the heat gun alone won't do it. Had to use the soldering iron behind aluminum foil. #robotics #hydraulics

It's too bad I'm missing RMRRF this year, but unrelated business (that I can't disclose yet) has been sucking up too much of my time and energy. I'm not up for a day-trip to Loveland this time around. Whoever's tabling or attending, have fun!

Friends #sketch #sanguine #startrek #art

Read: "Beneath the Rising" (Premee Mohamed). This was fantastic. It's the first good modern treatment of cosmic horror that I've read, and definitely my favorite of the books by new-to-me authors that I picked up to try recently. The pacing is excellent; the […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

My buddy and I watching Artemis come back

Shout-out to this ancient (I think it's 50+ years old) soil test kit I inherited from my dad's junk collection. All the reagents still worked. I'm a little low on nitrogen and probably more alkaline than a lot of plants prefer, but the garden is in good shape otherwise.

The year's indoor potato starts, before I put them out. I also planted some straight outdoors, so this year the two groups can race. #gardening #plants

Atronach's (second) eye, without wiring. Building up the first one gradually left me without an appreciation of how much tedious effort goes into assembling one of these. Not sure if I can really do anything about that in future iterations or not. #robotics #3dprinting

Finished a new story today. "Mirepower" is about a trio of alien plant farmers who use their knowledge of the local flora and fauna to kick invaders off their planet. (Yes, the title is a pun.) Also still working on publication of various others. #writing #writingcommunity

This month's Acuitas diary concerns more bugs and enhancements in the Conversation Engine. It's been a tangled mess, but I am slowly refining it ... https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/03/acuitas-diary-95-march-2026.html #SymbolicAI #artificialintelligence #ai #ChatBots

Progress is slow, but in the background I am still gradually working on this year's robotics projects (these are ACE's gearboxes for the better motors, which I still need to buy). #robotics #3dprinting

Read: "Draw One in the Dark" (Sarah Hoyt). Kyrie is just staying in control of her "hallucinations" about turning into a panther, when she learns one of her co-workers turns into a dragon - and is in big trouble with a lot of other dragons - and might've […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Details of how I got the high-sensitivity scale working: https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/03/microbalance-progress.html #electronics

Read: "Unexploded Remnants" (Elaine Gallagher). The last living human stumbles on a superweapon containing an uploaded sapient mind, and must run a race across the galaxy trying to "defuse" it/him before power-hungry enemies catch up. I was excited about this […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

It WORKED - for a few minutes. I had the needle oscillating around an equilibrium point and generating a PWM voltage as the phototransistor clicked on and off. I could drop a little carpet fuzz on it and see the avg voltage change. Then the op-amp mysteriously […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

In this developer diary I revisit the Episodic Memory system and figure out how to observe its results so I can actually debug the thing ... https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/02/acuitas-diary-94-february-2026.html #artificialinteligence #ai #nlp #SymbolicAI #ChatBots

RE: https://mstdn.social/@Jorvon_Moss/116133078596443497 Seriously watch this one, it's so stinking cute!

Recent work on Acuitas includes the slightly awkward debut of what I call the "self-teaching activity." The gist is that I want Acuitas to look for his own new reading material. Read about it here […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

I haven't had the spare energy to chatter on social media much lately, but I've still got lots of projects moving ahead. Here's the mount and circuit prototype for the high-precision scale.

The new cat's propensity for climbing on all my shelves and messing with stuff is finally forcing me to declutter, lol

The thing about vibe coding is, I was never really on board with my IDE closing my brackets for me.

Read: "The Infinite and the Divine" (Robert Rath). My friends are making me read 40K books again, and I'm gonna be hard on this one. No disrespect to the author's skill, he did a good job on this *thing.* But it's definitely not my thing. "Brothers of the […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Exciting news - my short story "Roots' Remembrance" is on contract to appear in a future issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact! I'm not clear on the date yet but looks like it could be this year's May/June issue. This is an extrasolar colony story about a man who thinks his garden is sending […]

New long-form book review: "Autonomous" by Annalee Newitz. On the whole I don't recommend this one, but it's fun to consider how well its perspective on AI holds up. https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2026/01/book-review-autonomous-by-annalee-newitz.html #ai #amreading #bookstodon

Read: "Wool" (Hugh Howey). This was a re-read, and it felt just as good this time as it did many years ago. Howey builds a superb thriller out of the bizarre social dynamics of a society confined to an underground bunker. An interesting quirk is that the […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Had some of the last of my hot chocolate that I was saving, so I'm all set for a wild night. Happy new year, all!

This year I accomplished a lot, and it was exhausting. Join me as I appreciate what I was able to do and reassess my time management: https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2025/12/year-in-review-2025.html #ai #robotics #writingcommunity

This month, I worked out how to tell Acuitas the simplest detective story I could think of. https://writerofminds.blogspot.com/2025/11/acuitas-diary-90-november-2025.html #ai #artificialintelligence #ChatBots #nlp #SymbolicAI

#caturday seems like a good time to introduce Gwydion, my gift from the Cat Distribution System. I took him in on Wednesday and have confirmed with the neighbors that he's a stray who gets fed at several houses. I've been rather distracted by seeing to his needs since.

Christmas presents complete! This is a seven-letter build of Cees' Cryptex (https://www.printables.com/model/28937-cryptex-5-6-7-8-or-10-letter-wheels). Tougher than I expected (a little elephant foot will throw off the letter wheel/encoder tolerances), but amazing once I got it right. #3dprinting

I finally review the other Steve Grand book, "Creation," which is about how he made his video game "Creatures." Unlike Lucy, this project got finished, so it's more resolved and less speculative. The book still ends up in very philosophical territory […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

I took apart an old tachometer and got the needle movement I wanted for the high-precision scale. It's a delicate little device.

Me, whenever I see the word 'tribology': ah yes, the study of tribbles.

I love it when people make my designs, I love it so much. This looks like a beautiful print too. #3dprinting https://www.thingiverse.com/make:1243487

Finished early, a little Christmas gift for my adopted brother, as a tribute to one of his old cars. (He is not on this site and won't see it.) Model is "Foldable Pontiac Firebird Trans AM 1982" by GOODesign on Fab365, printed and painted by me. #3dprinting

Carrot harvest round 2! I got a full five pounds this time. They couldn't get long because the bed wasn't very deep, so some of them decided to get *wide* ahahaha #gardening #plants

In Acuitas news, I dust off episodic memory and try to unify it with the more recently developed narrative architectures. These open new possibilities for methods of summarizing, characterizing significance, and selectively forgetting memories […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

Potato harvest round 2 (from the tires)! Got another 4.8 pounds to add to the late-summer harvest from the other beds, which pushes my total for this year over 11 lb. Some nice big ones in there too. #gardening #plants

First time I've printed silk PLA, and it was, uh, a learning experience. The lowest recommended temp is 190, but I have to print it at 175-180 to control the strings. Makes me wonder if my hotend temperature is off.

Read: "Lord Jim" (Joseph Conrad). This is the first Conrad novel I've read. It's an extended character sketch of a young sailor who loses his sense of honor through a personal failure, then simply can't get over it - the event rules the rest of his life […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]

I decided to make some of the "text adventure" games I've been using with Acuitas (specifically, the Zoombinis-inspired ones) publicly available, just in case anyone else finds them interesting as a benchmark […] [Original post on sigmoid.social]