Chris Smith
@chameth.com
Made a little app that transforms all the album art for my music so it looks like it's in a CD jewel case. It makes me irrationally happy.
September 8, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Made a little app that transforms all the album art for my music so it looks like it's in a CD jewel case. It makes me irrationally happy.
I’d drifted away from board games a bit. That turned around in August!
September 1, 2025 at 2:09 PM
I’d drifted away from board games a bit. That turned around in August!
Picked up a new board game: Cosmoctopus, by Henry Audubon.
Just had a very enjoyable first play. It has Splendor vibes, but with more depth and a fun theme.
I'd collected 7 tentacles and was poised to win on my next turn when my opponent got their 8th and successfully summoned Cosmoctopus.
Just had a very enjoyable first play. It has Splendor vibes, but with more depth and a fun theme.
I'd collected 7 tentacles and was poised to win on my next turn when my opponent got their 8th and successfully summoned Cosmoctopus.
June 23, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Picked up a new board game: Cosmoctopus, by Henry Audubon.
Just had a very enjoyable first play. It has Splendor vibes, but with more depth and a fun theme.
I'd collected 7 tentacles and was poised to win on my next turn when my opponent got their 8th and successfully summoned Cosmoctopus.
Just had a very enjoyable first play. It has Splendor vibes, but with more depth and a fun theme.
I'd collected 7 tentacles and was poised to win on my next turn when my opponent got their 8th and successfully summoned Cosmoctopus.
Yesterday I added a little wave pattern to the edges of some boxes on my website. Last night I woke up questioning why the waves didn't actually wave. Now they do!
I remember first learning CSS 20+ years ago using examples that came on a CDROM attached to a magazine. It's come a long way!
I remember first learning CSS 20+ years ago using examples that came on a CDROM attached to a magazine. It's come a long way!
June 4, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Yesterday I added a little wave pattern to the edges of some boxes on my website. Last night I woke up questioning why the waves didn't actually wave. Now they do!
I remember first learning CSS 20+ years ago using examples that came on a CDROM attached to a magazine. It's come a long way!
I remember first learning CSS 20+ years ago using examples that came on a CDROM attached to a magazine. It's come a long way!
![An edited XKCD comic strip.
Panel 1:
[Megan and White Hat stand next to a nuclear bomb. The bomb has a hatch open on top, and a small blinking screen. The two people are shouting off-screen.]
Megan: Rob!
Megan: You use GitHub!
White Hat: Come quick!
Panel 2:
[Megan, White Hat, and Rob look at the screen on the bomb. Rob peers closely. The screen is on the bomb, but is shown at the top of the panel in black with white letters, except "ten" which is black but written in a white box. The text reads:]
To disarm the bomb,
simply commit an
action workflow
that works first time.
You have ten minutes.
~# _
Panel 3:
[They all stand in the same position, but without the text displayed. Beat panel.]
Panel 4:
[Still in the same position but White Hat becomes impatient.]
White Hat: ...Rob?
Rob: I'm so sorry.
Based on XKCD 1168 by Randall Monroe, released under CC BY-NC 2.5: https://xkcd.com/1168/
Transcript based on Explain XKCD: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1168:_tar](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dqehxkfb3kv6bx7tfkvyzdt4/bafkreifvhxuvn5g2v74g4natzz4t3zpcgrbhz3344r3lb4vm7it54mt46e@jpeg)
Well that was a fortuitous time to check how much I’d used @kagi.com. This is more-or-less 10 months of searches, so <$0.01 per query.
(And I just did my 10,001st query this billing period to make sure it wasn’t just rounding!)
(And I just did my 10,001st query this billing period to make sure it wasn’t just rounding!)
May 20, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Well that was a fortuitous time to check how much I’d used @kagi.com. This is more-or-less 10 months of searches, so <$0.01 per query.
(And I just did my 10,001st query this billing period to make sure it wasn’t just rounding!)
(And I just did my 10,001st query this billing period to make sure it wasn’t just rounding!)
Made a chocolate cheesecake yesterday. Today it's almost entirely gone. It is so amazingly good. I'm just not going to think about the sugar content...
Recipe over here: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/malt...
Recipe over here: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/malt...
May 19, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Made a chocolate cheesecake yesterday. Today it's almost entirely gone. It is so amazingly good. I'm just not going to think about the sugar content...
Recipe over here: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/malt...
Recipe over here: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/malt...
Came across this nice Go library for interfacing with Bambu Lab printers: github.com/torbenconto/...
I already had a Go service doing home automation stuff, now it has printer support. It turns the light off automatically, reports metrics, and even notifies me of state changes via @pushover.net.
I already had a Go service doing home automation stuff, now it has printer support. It turns the light off automatically, reports metrics, and even notifies me of state changes via @pushover.net.
May 12, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Came across this nice Go library for interfacing with Bambu Lab printers: github.com/torbenconto/...
I already had a Go service doing home automation stuff, now it has printer support. It turns the light off automatically, reports metrics, and even notifies me of state changes via @pushover.net.
I already had a Go service doing home automation stuff, now it has printer support. It turns the light off automatically, reports metrics, and even notifies me of state changes via @pushover.net.
Today I baked a parsnip and maple cake. It tastes a lot nicer than it sounds!
Grating parsnip is a pain in the ass, it turns out.
Grating parsnip is a pain in the ass, it turns out.
May 6, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Today I baked a parsnip and maple cake. It tastes a lot nicer than it sounds!
Grating parsnip is a pain in the ass, it turns out.
Grating parsnip is a pain in the ass, it turns out.
Is there a rule that if a product comes with a tool, it is invariably the worst possible version of that tool?
Case in point: this horrible little spanner that comes with rotary tools. Pictured next to its slightly better replacement…
Case in point: this horrible little spanner that comes with rotary tools. Pictured next to its slightly better replacement…
May 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Is there a rule that if a product comes with a tool, it is invariably the worst possible version of that tool?
Case in point: this horrible little spanner that comes with rotary tools. Pictured next to its slightly better replacement…
Case in point: this horrible little spanner that comes with rotary tools. Pictured next to its slightly better replacement…
Today's adventures in baking: key lime pie.
Much less effort than the apple pie, but also much longer to wait between finishing and eating...
Much less effort than the apple pie, but also much longer to wait between finishing and eating...
February 25, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Today's adventures in baking: key lime pie.
Much less effort than the apple pie, but also much longer to wait between finishing and eating...
Much less effort than the apple pie, but also much longer to wait between finishing and eating...
My recent netrunner plays bumped by board game h-index up to 18. I don’t deliberately try to raise it, but it’s always fun to get the notification in bgstats.
19 looks like it’ll come relatively soon, but 20 seems pretty far off.
#boardgames #bgstats
19 looks like it’ll come relatively soon, but 20 seems pretty far off.
#boardgames #bgstats
February 20, 2025 at 12:26 PM
My recent netrunner plays bumped by board game h-index up to 18. I don’t deliberately try to raise it, but it’s always fun to get the notification in bgstats.
19 looks like it’ll come relatively soon, but 20 seems pretty far off.
#boardgames #bgstats
19 looks like it’ll come relatively soon, but 20 seems pretty far off.
#boardgames #bgstats
Been playing some netrunner while visiting a friend. Such a good game!
February 17, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Been playing some netrunner while visiting a friend. Such a good game!
Had an urge to do some baking. Hadn’t made a pie before, came out pretty good!
Might just buy pre-made pastry next time and cut out a lot of work, though…
Might just buy pre-made pastry next time and cut out a lot of work, though…
February 2, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Had an urge to do some baking. Hadn’t made a pie before, came out pretty good!
Might just buy pre-made pastry next time and cut out a lot of work, though…
Might just buy pre-made pastry next time and cut out a lot of work, though…
Me: “Today I’m going to make a web interface for my smart home controller”
Also me: “I’m finally finished making a pixel art animation to show the blind closing”
This was definitely a sensible starting point, rather than implementing a web server or doing any actual functionality. Yup.
Also me: “I’m finally finished making a pixel art animation to show the blind closing”
This was definitely a sensible starting point, rather than implementing a web server or doing any actual functionality. Yup.
January 24, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Me: “Today I’m going to make a web interface for my smart home controller”
Also me: “I’m finally finished making a pixel art animation to show the blind closing”
This was definitely a sensible starting point, rather than implementing a web server or doing any actual functionality. Yup.
Also me: “I’m finally finished making a pixel art animation to show the blind closing”
This was definitely a sensible starting point, rather than implementing a web server or doing any actual functionality. Yup.
I treated myself to an Omnifixo (omnifixo.com/en-gb) to replace my old helping hands thing. It's so nice. The individual arms attach to the base with magnets, the jaws are parallel to each other and have a good range, and it has some nifty features for passing power through.
January 8, 2025 at 8:50 PM
I treated myself to an Omnifixo (omnifixo.com/en-gb) to replace my old helping hands thing. It's so nice. The individual arms attach to the base with magnets, the jaws are parallel to each other and have a good range, and it has some nifty features for passing power through.
Slow progress, but I designed a PCB to connect the Pi Pico 2W to an IDC header (because I couldn't face dealing with 16 tiny wires). First PCB I've ever designed and had made!
Next steps: 3D print a way to mount everything together, then make it show something other than Bad Apple on repeat...
Next steps: 3D print a way to mount everything together, then make it show something other than Bad Apple on repeat...
January 8, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Slow progress, but I designed a PCB to connect the Pi Pico 2W to an IDC header (because I couldn't face dealing with 16 tiny wires). First PCB I've ever designed and had made!
Next steps: 3D print a way to mount everything together, then make it show something other than Bad Apple on repeat...
Next steps: 3D print a way to mount everything together, then make it show something other than Bad Apple on repeat...
Happy new year!
Didn’t get many board games to the table in December, but very much enjoyed the ones that we did.
Apparently 7 is the magic number for the family games we played over Christmas.
Didn’t get many board games to the table in December, but very much enjoyed the ones that we did.
Apparently 7 is the magic number for the family games we played over Christmas.
January 1, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Happy new year!
Didn’t get many board games to the table in December, but very much enjoyed the ones that we did.
Apparently 7 is the magic number for the family games we played over Christmas.
Didn’t get many board games to the table in December, but very much enjoyed the ones that we did.
Apparently 7 is the magic number for the family games we played over Christmas.
My plans for the evening didn't include "sink 6 hours into a new MMORPG" but there we go...
Haven't really encountered much of the MMO side of things yet, but the story is interesting, combat seems decent enough, and trade skills look exciting.
Haven't really encountered much of the MMO side of things yet, but the story is interesting, combat seems decent enough, and trade skills look exciting.
December 27, 2024 at 1:28 AM
My plans for the evening didn't include "sink 6 hours into a new MMORPG" but there we go...
Haven't really encountered much of the MMO side of things yet, but the story is interesting, combat seems decent enough, and trade skills look exciting.
Haven't really encountered much of the MMO side of things yet, but the story is interesting, combat seems decent enough, and trade skills look exciting.
Happy new board game day to those who celebrate!
December 25, 2024 at 2:39 PM
Happy new board game day to those who celebrate!
![A graph titled "All time stats", covering the years 2020 to 2024.
It shows three series of data: two bar charts, one labelled "finished" and one labelled" dropped", and a line graph labelled "pages read".
The data is:
Finished: 77, 134, 125, 104, 124
Dropped: 14, 11, 21, 8, 13
Pages: 31k, 52k, 53k, 39k, 43k
[One value per year, starting at 2020 and finishing at 2024]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dqehxkfb3kv6bx7tfkvyzdt4/bafkreiezu76gu2u5a6kmhpg62zsp6lxg77jz3anjwat6c62lxfqrjosdby@jpeg)
FYI your sidenotes become ontopnotes with a reasonably wide browser window
Screenshot is from ~3000x800, but they start overlapping at anything wider than 1920 by the looks of it
Screenshot is from ~3000x800, but they start overlapping at anything wider than 1920 by the looks of it
December 20, 2024 at 1:39 PM
FYI your sidenotes become ontopnotes with a reasonably wide browser window
Screenshot is from ~3000x800, but they start overlapping at anything wider than 1920 by the looks of it
Screenshot is from ~3000x800, but they start overlapping at anything wider than 1920 by the looks of it
"What's more important, our AI OKR or the user's muscle memory and ability to quickly navigate where they want to?"
December 16, 2024 at 2:48 PM
"What's more important, our AI OKR or the user's muscle memory and ability to quickly navigate where they want to?"