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ArjinFerman  Tinfoil Gigachad  25d ago (text post)   540 thread views

Tinker Tuesday for January 20, 2026

This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service

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Same as last week - no progress this time. How are you doing @Southkraut?

Not much time. I'm mostly chweing through some new collision issues. I replaced the default gravity with radial n-body gravity, and presto, everything's falling through everything. Not sure why, yet.

I got a Comma autopilot for my car. AMA.

Well, is it any good? I recall seeing footage from a year or so back (an LTT video?), and thinking it seemed pretty solid. I'm curious if it's "Waymo-like" (you can pretty much stop paying attention and trust in the machine) or if the error rate is high enough that you're on edge throughout.

How difficult (or easy) was installation?

They advertise a 15 minute installation process and I think that's pretty accurate.

Basically, your car has a camera for its stock ADAS under a plastic cover behind the rear view mirror. You pull that cover off and patch in a wiring harness that lets the Comma override the signals from the stock ADAS and replace it with its own. Then you close that up, loop a wire out of the harness you just installed into the Comma device that you mounted on your windshield, and voila.

It ships without the autopilot software, you have to connect it to wifi and download it. This is pretty easy, though the process for connecting to wifi was slightly unclear.

The first time the autopilot software boots up it asks you to drive manually for a bit to calibrate itself to the way it is mounted in your car (pitch and roll angles mostly). Then you just activate cruise control the way you normally would, and the Comma starts driving.

Well, is it any good?

I am impressed with it. A solid upgrade over my car's stock ADAS (2021 Toyota Prius).

I'm curious if it's "Waymo-like"

Very much no. The device only has forward-facing cameras, so it is not aware of your surroundings, so it would be impossible for it to autonomously do things like make turns that require checking for traffic, merge or change lanes on the freeway, etc.

The way to think of it is an upgraded ADAS, like the automatic lanekeeping and assisted cruise control that comes with the car, except significantly upgraded.

(you can pretty much stop paying attention and trust in the machine)

The Comma has a camera pointed at you that has its own machine vision algorithm checking to see if you are paying attention to the road, and if you're not, it complains at you and turns itself off. So no, you cannot stop paying attention.

On the flip side, it is very trustworthy.

It feels sort of like riding a horse. A horse knows how to follow a trail, you don't have to micromanage it, it just needs you to nudge it sometimes to indicate where you want it to go.

When I last looked at it, there was no navigation. They had disabled it as an experimental feature, because apparently it was really bad, and the rumor was that they were going to focus on other features with no estimate for when it might come back. So it's not a system where you can set, "I'd like to go to X," and then sit back and let it take you there.

I don't expect navigation to ever be a truly solid part of Comma, simply because it only has forward-facing cameras, so it can't merge on freeways or make turns that require checking for traffic by itself.

The other complication is that navigation databases are so bad that they even make humans make wrong turns. Google Maps is constantly telling me to turn onto roads calling them by names that don't exist on any road sign anywhere. For example here in Minneapolis, a certain road leading out of town to the south is called "highway 65" by Google Maps. Zero actual road signs call it that.

Maybe an autonomous navigation system will have a better time just because it cares a lot less about what roads are called, but unless the navigation databases include things like which lanes of freeways fork off into which directions, it still needs to read those signs.

Is this actually legal? I'd expect regulators be somewhat vary of some code off the internet controlling the steering on a car driving over a public road. But maybe not, no idea what's the regulations are in this area?

You, the driver, are 100% legally responsible for the trajectory of your vehicle. It's legally no different from the ADAS built into your car.

I can play the rhythm guitar part for "This Mortal Coil" pretty much perfectly.

Next up is "Phobophile" by Cryptopsy.

I've been writing and re-writing my query ad nauseum for about a month and a half, and in the process developed what feels like a genuinely new skill: the ability to take a sentence, and determine what sentence should logically follow. That might sound like table-stakes literacy, but it genuinely feels like I've turned on my mangekyo sharingan. Before, I would look at my writing-- now I can see it. I can consciously identify what elements of a sentence demand elaboration, put them together with explicit goals for where I want the succeeding sentence to take me, and finally identify possible sentences that satisfy all relevant criteria.

Right now, I'm very slow at applying this skill. It takes me about an hour to edit 100 words, and frankly the cognitive load is so high I don't think I'll ever get more than a 2x or 3x speedup. Whenever I get back to actually writing (as opposed to editing), I'll need to retrain my brain to think in flow-state vibe-coder first-draft mode. But whenever I reach a particularly high-stakes passage, I'll have my dojutsu waiting in my eye sockets.

If anyone wants to copy my technique, I would suggest briefly focusing on a type of art that's hyper-constrained in word count. Flash fiction, light novel titles, slam poetry (but not the irritating kind), song lyrics, elevator pitches, and of course query letters. Write and re-write as many times as it takes to be perfect-- and get iterative feedback.

Props to /u/FtttG for introducing me to qtcritique, I wouldn't have gotten here without that.

Happy to help! FYI if you want to tag a user, just put an @ before their username.

On QTCritique, the feedback on the latest draft of my query has been fairly positive. Over on /r/pubtips, it's been very harsh, with people coming away saying they have no idea what my novel is even about. I was tempted to dismiss this as just typical Reddit behaviour; on the other hand, many of the users and mods of that subreddit are (or at least claim to be) published writers and other people working in the publishing industry, which suggests that their feedback ought to carry more weight than the feedback from my fellow unpublished novelists over at qtCritique.

Given that a consistent criticism is that my novel is too long (even after chopping out a good 20k words from the first draft), I reckon I have no choice but to create a fourth draft, aiming for it to be at least 8k words shorter than the third.

slam poetry (but not the irritating kind)

Such a thing exists?

I thought your query largely made logical sense, with its main problems being misplaced emphasis-- both spending words on things that didn't really matter, and and not spending words where they'd count the most. I am particularly genre-savvy so it have an easier time extrapolating compared to more naive readers, but I think the same is true of agents so you should weight my advice higher. (Do the opposite if I ever review your actual text, though-- that needs to be intelligible to everyone except the bottom 10% of your target audience.)

In general, pubtips seems to have more variance than qtcritique since more of the qtcritique people are regulars. You'll get some really good advice from veterans, but also some really clueless (though well-intentioned) advice from total noobs. In comparison, the main problem with qtcritique seems to be that the star rating system encourages sycophancy, so there are a few power users that give lots of fairly middling advice while visibly making the same errors over and over again in their submissions.

I would suggest looking at the profiles of the people who gave you feedback to survey the other queries they reviewed. Without reading their reviews, identify what you think are the biggest problems with the 3rd party queries. Then, compare those things to what the reviewers said. If you're largely in agreement with them, then their complaints are probably accurate. If you disagree with their points, it might be a difference in genre preference that you can take into account. If you think their overview is facile, you can safely ignore them. If they surprise you with the depth of their insight, cut out their eyes and transplant their kekkei genkai.

This is all great advice, thanks a lot.

Recorded a (trial) episode for a podcast (more like long form video).

Have the gimmick down. I cook, I talk. Effectively an ill-prepared and long-form version of Adam Ragusea.

Episode 1 is an hour long video of me cooking. I cook TomYum soup. Active time involves instructions and basics dos-and-donts. I fill passive waiting time by covering the history of tom-yum soup & the history of Thailand. I was there for vacation this Christmas, so the details are fresh in my mind.

On reflection, the recording is surprisingly decent. I expected it to be unwatchable. Need to say fewer 'ums'. I had previously beaten (literally) that habit out of me. Turns out it can always come back. But generally, it's alright. Haven't uploaded it yet. May never upload it. Still, technically, I followed through on a 2026 resolution. Good enough for me. I used to perform skit-comedy in university. It's been a decade since I did something like this. Did not expect it to be so nerve-wracking to be facing a camera again. I'm conditioned to find podcasting cringe. First minute was odd, but it felt natural once I got into the groove.

For future episodes, I want to decouple my cooking from my yapping. Cooking is a neat visual gimmick and hard-limits the runtime. The topics are meant to be outlets recent chat-gpt spirals.

[intended reply]

Been teaching myself how to crochet. Right now I'm working on a scarf. I had bought a """beginners""" crochet a stuffed animal kit a while back. Instructions were pretty much impossible so I'm starting with something easier.

What brand of kit? Woobles are more expensive than similar offerings from other companies, but they have extremely detailed step-by-step instruction videos for n00bs.

It was the "Kawaii Krochet" Sloth DIY Crochet kit. Thanks for the rec I will strongly consider.

Coasters and dishcloths are also good starting projects. Small enough that you can do a few and see improvements in each one, and circular coasters will let you practice the cast-on for the stuffed animal project.

Every since I dabbled in chainmail fabrication, I've been tempted to learn crochet, but I can't offhand think of a less manly thing for a man to attempt, including having sex with other men.

Sailors did it on long whaling sailing. But, you know, also the other thing.

I've been on hiatus with TRON bike lighting since I had a bunch of everything else going on. Mostly discovering mathacademy.com and making myself do the adult courses for fun.

Though I'm still dabbling. One thing that I wish I had known about a year ago is that they make LED strips that run on 5V instead of 12V (WS2812s instead of WS2815s). Combined with an ESP32 that runs off of 5V, it means I can dispense with 12V power sources and just run everything directly off of a USB-C power source. This allows me to delete a lot of fabrication nuisance: no need for a PCB with shitty buck converters to step down from 12V to 5V and wiring it up accordingly. I understand voltage sags at 5V can discolor LEDs on longer runs, but for my bike wearables project this should not be a concern. I might even be able to get away with not having to make an enclosure at all for the helmets!

I'm annoyed to be discovering this so late. They really should teach LEDs in school. I feel like I'm mostly fumbling in the dark (ha).

Sorry about that. I should have mentioned NeoPixel (or DotStar) USB-level voltage strips as an option, so used to students starting a shopping list at Adafruit that didn't think to mention it. Voltage drop can be a problem with higher currents across thinner wires in surprisingly short distances, but if it makes it less bulky that's probably a fine tradeoff.

I will caution that mixing 5v LED drivers and 3.3v logic levels can be finicky. The WS2812s technically run on a percentage of input LED driver voltage. This usually works well enough anyway because the tolerances are so broad on newer chip production, but I have had benchtop setups stop working when moved to a longer data line, because the input battery was high one day and not the other, when in new locations, or even just because of temperature swings. By contrast, WS2815s regulate their logic-driver voltage down to 5v and specify 2.5v as logical 'high', so you have to be running a very long data line over thin wires before they start acting up, if it's possible at all.

I'm annoyed to be discovering this so late. They really should teach LEDs in school.

Agreed. I really wish science classes would have a short electrical engineering breadboard-style class. It's about a five-hour block to teach typical middle-school students batteries, capacitors, voltage, resistors, diodes, LEDs, and switches, and even for those who never touch electrical components again, the fundamentals of 'too much voltage burns things up' is literally a penny-a-student and extremely valuable to internalize. And just giving people a coin cell and an LED tells them a ton about voltage and electrical components having 'directions'.

LED drivers are more an early high-school thing, but they're just so much better at teaching for loops, modulo operators, and fundamentals of processor timing, to too many students that otherwise get bored out of their gourds dealing with Scratch.

Sorry about that. I should have mentioned NeoPixel (or DotStar) USB-level voltage strips as an option, so used to students starting a shopping list at Adafruit that didn't think to mention it.

Ha, no worries at all dawg. You've helped me so much already.

I'll probably still use what I learned about 12V for non-wearables projects. I'm looking forward to getting a new place and really ricing out my man cave.

LED drivers are more an early high-school thing, but they're just so much better at teaching for loops, modulo operators, and fundamentals of processor timing, to too many students that otherwise get bored out of their gourds dealing with Scratch.

What do you normally teach, exactly?

What do you normally teach, exactly?

Sorry, it's not a school program - I don't have the credentials or interest in dealing with the .edu sector in any more constant form - just a set of outreach programs I've helped with.

I've been doing about a lot of STEM outreach, typically one- or two-week programs focused for 'underprivileged' students, FIRST teams, and home school collectives. A good number of the students are just getting thrown into things as a glorified daycare, but you do get some that are interested despite themselves.

Topics cover a variety of materials in shallow entry-level, so we'll have a block for circuit design, a block for CAD (usually only at the TinkerCAD level), a block for programming, a block for hands-on fabrication, and a more general 'art'-ish one, centered around a main project. Done ESP32 wheeled robots, a line-follower robot, a sensor-driven infinity mirror, and a macropad.

Circuit design is just really a basics-of-electronics. We'll start with giving people a CR2022 and an LED, show how the LED works one way and not the other, and the move to a dual-AA and show what happens when too much current goes through electronics. Resistors to talk up how power can be limited and what the math behind that is, how multiple LEDs in parallel and series work, bring in quad-AA batteries to show what changing voltages do. Explain multimeters, and correct (and safe) use. Potentiometers as a way to control resistance directly, then capacitors as a well to store small amounts of power, then direct drive motors, then how and why BJT transistors were used to control motors through switches. Older students we'll try to get into more complicated circuits like a metastable circuits, inductors, or very basic op-amp usage, but it tends to be pretty hit or miss.

Programming, start with computers versus microprocessors, how to compile and deploy code in Arduino, what the chips we're using even are, start with the simple blinking onboard LED and how to change time and pattern, add three or four breadboard LEDs, talk variables and types, the difference between assignment and comparison, and the fundamentals of flow control through if statements and for/while loops. Review what the arduino setup and loop functions are, why they exist, and introduce the idea of custom functions, move code from previous lessons into discrete functions for reuse and simplification. Move from standalone LEDs to a neopixel strip, introduce libraries, explain that Arduino is a library, explain that libraries can hold functions, review for loops and while loops in a neopixel context. Younger students tend to cap out there. Older or more dedicated ones, we'll get into the introduction of recursion, modulo, break/continue/return, switch/case, and enums.

So far we've mostly used C++ because it's the only really financially practical way to get the students something they can take home. Python's available, and been for a while, and I've got a stack of MicroBit's from a dry run, but just absolutely can't get people to handle the whitespace once you get to flow control. Been trying to get a Java or ROS option together, but cost per board was impractical even back pre-COVID and it's only gotten worse since.

Art side's been one of the weaker bits. Had a couple times where we had to fall back on papercraft and stickers stuff, but usually try to get some interface with manufacturing or less-traditionally-available stuff: older students got to go through simple woodworking to plotting out CAM for a CNC run, younger ones got to do powdercoating and lasercut, and this summer's program we'll looking at some sublimation prints on metal plate and mousepads if I can get signoffs on a safe process for it.

I also do lessons for FIRST FRC and FTC teams, but that tends to be more variable, and it's just the standard Basics Of Java / C++ / Python / LabView (bleh) mess.

Well, I signed on the line that was dotted. I received a life changing offer I couldn't refuse, and I couldn't be happier about the total compensation, or the work I'll be doing.

Reflections on the process:

  • The interviewers were just happy I actually prepared. Read all the prep material they sent, did the leetcode problems they suggested, etc. Apparently most people just come in off the street expecting to YOLO into a job. I suspect this is downwind of my area being awash in people used to being a butt in seat that can be billed to the government, whether work gets done or not.
  • Having the proper qualifications to be a butt in seat still gets you a pretty good offer. The moment my resume went up on the board people advertise such availability, I had one of the regional megacorps cold calling me with an offer that was already generous beyond my previous employer. Was about 72 hours between the cold call, quick technical screening, offer, counter offer, and approval. They could have probably scooped most people with that approach. I had to stretch it out way longer to make sure I gave other opportunities a chance.
  • My wife is a former recruiter, and I think I did absolutely every single thing she told me not to do. I said almost everything she told me not to say. It all worked out in the end, far better than I could have ever dreamed. I donno, maybe all that "Just be yourself" advice isn't complete bullshit after all.

Congrats!

My wife is a former recruiter, and I think I did absolutely every single thing she told me not to do. I said almost everything she told me not to say. It all worked out in the end, far better than I could have ever dreamed. I donno, maybe all that "Just be yourself" advice isn't complete bullshit after all.

ha, example? Was she like "make sure you know what your greatest weakness is! make it relatable but not terrible and spin it into a positive" and then they asked you and you were like "I have no weaknesses" with a yeschad.jpg smile?

Congrats!

Congrats ! Hope it is a role that you're able to thrive in.

Apparently most people just come in off the street expecting to YOLO into a job.

It's pretty much everywhere. People just hate reading stuff. Users don't read the docs, no matter how good they are. Coworkers do not read meeting notes and pre-meeting materials, no matter how many times you ask them to. That's just how people are. Exceptions, when they happen, are surely appreciated.

Congrats on the successful completion of your mission.

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