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Case studies
Full write-ups
From a 1998 source dump to a clean-room Rust IRIX
The 6.5.7m kernel rebuilt from its source dump, the binary-only drivers relinked, and a Ghidra fork taught to read MIPSpro binaries.
jupiterOS
One declarative computer for a seven-machine home fleet.
TcXWave
Turning locked-down POS terminals into kiosks, and reading their firmware first.
RAID-0 recovery
214,000+ files from a pair of junk disks.
The household automation estate
Eleven n8n workflows that run my life admin.
Fourteen hours on one build
A microarchitecture mismatch and an NFS fix.
Incident response on a compromised Windows laptop
A method write-up.
Linfox
Linfox: tools and process in a brand-new 3PL warehouse.
Mobil: bringing a site back online in a day
Bringing a site back online in a day.
LG webOS TVs inside Home Assistant
Summary entries
Callisto iSCSI root migration
Moving a diskless host's root onto an iSCSI ZFS volume, with the runbook that made it repeatable.
model-router
One OpenAI-compatible endpoint pooling LLM upstreams, tested with five chaos drills.
Key-exposure incident
A blameless incident note and a fail-closed guard after a service credential reached an AI transcript.
ha-linux-agent
A Rust daemon with ten backends that puts Linux hosts inside Home Assistant.
Environments I've run
- t460s (CachyOS workstation)
- Proxmox host
- Home Assistant OS VM
- n8n automation LXC
- smokeping LXC
- UniFi network
- Cloudflare tunnel
- four TCxWave kiosks
- ZFS NAS (europa)
- iSCSI build/serving host (callisto)
- Kamatera cloud builder
Builds
6 public repositories, all built by directing AI tooling.
Lab notes
Wrote a blameless incident note after a service credential reached an AI transcript, then added a fail-closed launcher guard so the class of mistake cannot ship.
Dumped both SPI flash chips on the repurposed POS terminals twice, hash-verified the reads, and documented the firmware tree before trusting the hardware.
Moved a diskless host's root from NFS onto an iSCSI ZFS volume, and wrote the provisioning runbook.
Fourteen hours on one NixOS build: a microarchitecture mismatch, eleven failed closures and an NFS attribute-cache fix, documented in a 505-line handoff.
Reassembled a striped pair of junk disks and recovered 214,000+ files, then wrote up the method.
If you've got work like this, tell me about it.
I'll reply with something specific.
0
Open a window and its geometry shows up here.
No events yet.
The desk blanks itself after a quiet spell, then runs one of thirteen effects named after the IRIX screen savers. Move the pointer or press a key to wake it; lock it and only Unlock brings it back.
Settings load with the desktop.
The environment
About this desktop
jupiter.au is set up as a working desktop: the Toolchest, the objects, the status strip and the windows stay with you on every page. Drag a title bar to move a window, pull any edge or corner to resize it, drag it to the side of the desk to snap it into place, and right-click a title bar for that window's menu. Right-click the desk itself for the root menu.
Toolchest
The panel in the corner carries the classic seven menus — Desktop, Find, People, Applications, Shared Resources, System and Help — above the command field. Collapse it to the chip with the arrow in its title strip, or press Ctrl+K to bring it back.
Desks
Four desks, as 4Dwm kept them. Each surface belongs to the desk it was opened on — switch with the status strip, the Toolchest, or Ctrl+Alt+1…4. The Desks Overview window maps all four at once.
The catalogue
The Icon Catalogue lists every application the desk knows — click to select, double-click to open, right-click for the icon's own menu. The objects on the right edge can be dragged into a new order, and the one that will take the drop turns royal blue.
Customise
Desktop → Customise… holds the background (signal wash, flat or dim), the bevels (flat 2026 or the classic two-line), and the way to the Screen Saver. Choices stick to this machine.
Screen saver
Thirteen effects named after the IRIX screen savers, with a timeout, a Random mode and an optional lock. Open the Screen Saver window to change them.
Desks
Four desks, as 4Dwm kept them. Each surface belongs to the desk it was opened on — switch with the status strip, the Toolchest, or Ctrl+Alt+1…4.
Winterm
Type help for the commands — ls, open,theme, date.
Loading the desks…
12 icons shown; sorted by Name
No audio hardware on this host.
Background
Bevels
Screen saver
The timeout, the effect and the lock live in the Screen Saver window.