By the time the mechanism worked, the project had crossed an important line. It was no longer just an idea. It was no longer just a pile of Christmas parts. It was no longer just a CAD model, a 3D print, or a mechanism on the bench. It could tell time. But it still needed […]
Making Time Magical, Part 4: Wood, Brass, Acrylic, and One Very Bad Planer Pass
By the time the mechanism worked, the project had crossed an important line. It was no longer just an idea. It was no longer just a pile of Christmas parts. It was no longer just a CAD model, a 3D print, or a mechanism on the bench. It could tell time. But it still needed […]
Making Time Magical, Part 3: The Mechanism Behind the Magic
By this point in the project, the outside of the clock made sense. It would look like an old elevator indicator. The face would be a semicircle. The numbers would run from 1 to 12. The hands would sweep across the arc. The lighting would glow from behind the face. But the part that made […]
Making Time Magical, Part 2: A Clock That Doesn’t Go in Circles
The original idea sounded simple: Take an old elevator-style indicator and make it into a clock. That was the promise. That was also the problem. Old elevator indicators are beautiful because they are simple. A semicircular face. A row of numbers. A single pointer sweeping from one side to the other. At a glance, you […]
Making Time Magical, Part 1: The Promise
Several years ago, I took a daddy-daughter trip with Annabelle to Universal Studios. At the time, she was deep into Harry Potter. So naturally, we spent a lot of our trip wandering through that part of the park, taking in the details, the storefronts, the props, the atmosphere, and all the little bits of design […]
Something Big Might Be Happening 🤖 — @mattshumer_ was right?
A couple weeks ago someone sent me Matt Shumer’s post on AI. Instead of immediately dismissing it as hype, I decided to test the idea myself and see if it was even plausibly true. The first week was rough. I spent most of my time fighting with the development environment: ❓ Can I get this […]
The Value of Teachers: Why Respect Matters
There always seems to be a pecking order – a way to inflate our own egos while diminishing others, even those deserving of our respect. In college, a popular saying was, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” What an awful sentiment. Perhaps it came after a tough test, a confusing lesson, or when […]
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