March 2019

Keycasting

I have been spending most of the month trying to cast a key in epoxy. It’s an interesting project to be sure, even if I’m doubtful as to its actual success. Learning lots, making mistakes, making discoveries.

Housing

I also moved on the first of the month. I now live in a much larger place than before, although still by my lonesome! (I’m not complaining, I like it, it’s why I chose it.) It’s got no carpet anywhere, fake-wood laminate plank and dark tile floors, two storeys, ample parking space, in the middle of town but also in the middle of greenery (although none I have to tend to), and honestly I like it a lot. The rent is a bit high, but it’s not outrageous, either.

Consequently I’ve spent a while finding furniture and making things work. Stuff is expensive! Sheesh. I did get some good deals, and with a bit of DIY and low-key restoration I think I’ll get a nice setup out of it all. And it keeps my hands busy!

Work

After 10 months of work we’ve finally released a new customer website. Won’t really say much about it here, but it’s good to be done, even if we’ll keep on working on features. Relief and accomplishment.

We worked pretty hard to get it ready and launched before April, as no-one wants to seriously release a new product around April Fools! Google can do its thing, we’ll keep to not trying to surprise and upset our customers (yes I’m still bitter about the Inbox thing).

Notify

I’ve been preparing for a breaking release of the main branch. In the last few days I’ve finalised the feature list of what I want in there; I’m taking the opportunity to bundle a bunch of changes into it. I’m aiming for a mid-April release, but plans do go awry around this project, so who knows.

This will be a good way to test how fast the adoption is. I’m expecting a few months of earnest transition, followed by a long tail… maybe by the end of the year it will be over, but I’m not holding my breath.

Armstrong & Reasonable

On hold for now.

Trebuchet

A new little project on the same proto-framework as I made for Armstrong. I want to use a few features of Btrfs around volumes to make a lightweight deployment & artifact system. Aimed at small deployments of a few machines or projects, for small teams or individuals. A lot of stuff in the space is made for super large scale, and doesn’t make sense — despite hype — otherwise.