This project began as a quick hack to make use of the cool Pimoroni Inky Pack. I was quickly nerd-sniped into exploring the depths of micropython and power optimization on the Pico.| flurries of latent creativity
On June 4th Leopold Aschenbrenner dropped a 165 page PDF – “Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead” – a comprehensive essay series exploring the future trajectory of artificial intelligence, particularly focusing on the development and implications of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).| flurries of latent creativity
Warning, if you plan to complete Advent of Code 2023, this post contains spoilers so don’t read it until you’re done. My last post on Advent of Code spurred a bunch of discussion which inspired me to optimize my 2023 solutions in python even further.| flurries of latent creativity
Warning, if you plan to complete Advent of Code 2023, this post contains spoilers so don’t read it until you’re done. This was my second year completing Advent of Code live during December.| flurries of latent creativity
Irish stew There are many recipes for irish stew on the Internet, but not a single one that comes close to the stew my mum makes. This is her recipe.| flurries of latent creativity
Lamb al asador is a classic Patagonian method of barbecue with a whole lamb flayed and hung on an asado cross over an open fire. I had the good fortune to be able to eat lamb al asador in Chile in early 2020 (pre lockdown!| flurries of latent creativity
The contest Advent of Code is an advent calendar of programming puzzles made by Eric Wastl. It’s been going since 2015 and really gained popularity in 2020. I’d heard about AOC peripherally (is… peripheral hearing a thing?| flurries of latent creativity
I recently took delivery of a new replacement logic board for the ubiquitous classic Casio F-91W from Sensor Watch. The F-91W needs no introduction. It’s probably the most popular quartz watch in the world with something like 90 million total units sold.| flurries of latent creativity
As you’ll know if you follow me on Twitter, I’ve been kindof obsessed with the text-to-image GPT models OpenAI released as DALL-E recently. I’ve enjoyed generating art and even collaborating with DALL-E to riff on paintings I’ve made myself.| flurries of latent creativity
Yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and neighboring areas. Ingredients 500g strong white bread flour (plus a little more for dusting) 360g lukewarm water 3 tsp instant dry yeast 1 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil Steps Bloom the yeast in the water and sugar, 10 mins.| flurries of latent creativity
Delicious Japanese savory pancake. Okonomiyaki Ingredients 3 tbsp vegetable oil 100g green cabbage, finely sliced 2 rashers smoked streaky bacon 100g plain flour 4 large eggs 300 ml milk kewpie mayonnaise tonkatsu sauce 1 nori sheet 2 scallions bonito flakes Steps Fry the cabbage and bacon in 1 tbsp oil.| flurries of latent creativity
If you’ve ever enjoyed a Luau in Hawaii, chances are that the pièce de résistance was delicious melt-in-the-mouth Kālua Pork which is often served as the centrepiece of the Luau feast.| flurries of latent creativity
Olive and rosemary focaccia Ingredients 7 grams (1 envelope) active dry yeast 625g bread flour 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water 2 tsp honey or caster sugar 5 tsp salt for dough 2 tsp flaky sea salt 8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil bunch fresh rosemary 10 fresh olives Steps Bloom the yeast (10 mins) in the water plus honey or sugar.| flurries of latent creativity
Aloo Gobi Indian spiced potatoes and cauliflower. Ingredients 2 potatoes 1 whole cauliflower 1 onion 2 diced tomatoes 1 tsp turmeric 1 tbsp minced ginger 3 cloves minced garlic 1 minced serrano chile 2 tsp cumin seeds 1 tbsp garam masala 2 tbsp chopped coriander / cilantro 1 tsp red chili powder salt to taste oil Steps Break the caulflower into small florets (~6 cm in diameter) Chop the potatoes into 1cm cubes Fry the cauliflower pieces with salt and turmeric ~3 mins Add the potato and fry a ...| flurries of latent creativity
Brioche burger buns Ingredients 7g active dry yeast 1 tsp sugar (to bloom the yeast) 50g water (lukewarm) 80g milk (lukewarm) 300g all purpose flour 1 large egg for the dough 1 egg for brushing 45g sugar for the dough 100g butter (room temp) 5g salt sesame seeds Steps Combine the water, milk and tsp of sugar with the yeast and allow to bloom 10 mins.| flurries of latent creativity
TLDR? You can find the code and a bunch of examples on GitHub at dps/rust-raytracer. Over the holiday break, I decided to learn Rust. Rust is a modern systems programming language which has a really interesting type system. The type system can catch broad classes of common programming mistakes - e.g. ensuring memory is accessed safely - at compile time while generating tight, performant machine code. I’ve heard a lot about Rust from friends and colleagues over the past several years. Their ...| flurries of latent creativity
I’m David Singleton. This is my personal website / blog. You can find my professional profile on LinkedIn. I grew up in Belfast, spent more than a decade in England and now live in San Francisco, CA.| flurries of latent creativity
I’ve had an idea kicking around at the back of my mind for years and finally spent a few hours over the last couple of weekends building it. It’s a probabilistic spreadsheet.| flurries of latent creativity
I saw these amazing jellyfish clouds at sunset over Sea Ranch, CA last week. Their shape - with solid bodies and flowing tentacles - together with the beautiful sunset colors (each photo is completely unfiltered) really grabbed me.| flurries of latent creativity
😍🎸 Vintage Radiohead concert - Live at the Astoria (May 1994).| flurries of latent creativity
Visicalc, the world’s first spreadsheet, was also the original killer app. Steve Jobs said that Visicalc “propelled the Apple ][ to the success it achieved”. As one of the first mainstream digital tools, I’m fairly sure the first spreadsheet inspired Jobs’ later quote that “…the computer is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” – and that quote often inspires me.| flurries of latent creativity
I have a Computer Science degree. I attended a whole course of lectures on compilers (and have a certain fondness for “the red dragon book” as a result). However, I had never actually written a compiler from start to finish until a rainy day last weekend.| flurries of latent creativity
BBQ Ribs (a continuous work in progress) Ingredients 2 racks baby back pork ribs For the rub 1/2 cup brown sugar 4 tablespoons chili powder kosher salt black pepper 2 tsp oregano 1 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder Steps sous vide method| flurries of latent creativity
Amid the pandemic and California fires, September saw a flurry of activity on the wine-making front. We bottled our 2019 primativo and picked, crushed, fermented and pressed our 2020 vintage - a (tricky) pinot noir.| flurries of latent creativity
Authentic Chicken Tikka Masala. Authentic to British takeaway curry houses, that is.| flurries of latent creativity
I’m trying to make something better than seedlip. August 15th 2020, “Summer Sun” Ingredients Zest of two lemons One largish jalapeno two lime tree leaves 20g coriander seeds 1/4 cup sugar 16 oz water Steps toast the jalapeno seeds and coriander seeds mince the rest of the jalapeno macerate in a pestle and mortar simmer ~15 mins, dissolving the sugar chill Tasting notes Grassy and bright with a spicy aftertaste.| flurries of latent creativity
I happened upon Bret Copeland’s awesome 20 minute talk from 2016 this week. Landing the space shuttle is an amazing feat. Delightful talk, you won’t be disappointed.| flurries of latent creativity
Bagels, the way they make them in the Big Apple. Recipe makes 8 bagels. Ingredients 500g bread flour 23g baker’s sugar 7g packet of instant yeast 297g water at 32C/90F 6g salt 1 egg Seasoning if desired (e.| flurries of latent creativity
Absolutely inauthentic, but yummy. Ingredients 1/2 cup red lentils 2 carrots, grated 20g finely diced cilantro stalks handful fresh cilantro 2 tsp honey 1 tsp cumin salt and pepper to taste Steps Fry diced cilantro stalks with cumin.| flurries of latent creativity
Bill Gates’ TED episode “how the pandemic will shape the near future” is the most lucid overview I’ve heard of where we stand with respect to fighting COVID-19.| flurries of latent creativity
This recipe is a great way to use roast chicken leftovers. Hearty umami flavor. Guaranteed to make you smile.| flurries of latent creativity
I asked my son what he wanted to do for his fourth birthday and he said “make concrete”! I suppose this was to do with my having waxed lyrical about how incredible concrete is. Stone! That you can make wherever you want, in any shape that you desire.| flurries of latent creativity
Work in progress. Ingredients 2 lb pork loin 1 apple (optional) for the stuffing 1/2 cup dried apricots 1/2 cup dates 1/2 cup cashew nuts (unsalted) 1 cup breadcrumbs 1/2 cup olive oil 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp black pepper Steps Combine the stuffing ingredents in food processor and blend until finely chopped Butterfly the pork loin and tenderize Spread the stuffing evenly across the loin (about 1/2 inch thick) Roll the stuffed loin and tie with kitchen string Fry in an iron skillet to seal.| flurries of latent creativity
Weird but delicious. Ingredients 1 onion 8 oz brussels sprouts 1 sweet potato 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp chilli powder 2 tsp paprika 1/2 oz hot honey 1 tbsp olive oil 4 flour tacos Steps roughly chop onion dice brussels sprouts peel and grate sweet potato toast the spices then add olive oil and fry the onion add the brussels sprouts and grated sweet potato, fry until slightly caramelized add 1/4 cup water to the pan and cover, cook 2-3 mins add the hot honey, cook 1 min Serving Serve on tacos| flurries of latent creativity
When COVID-19 hit, my kids’ school, like many others around the world, moved over to a fully remote/online learning program. The school and some of the other parents were looking for ways to help the students keep in touch during lockdown. Over the course of a couple of weekends back in April, I built a little web app for them. It collects availability and matches kids for 1:1 online video playdates and allows them to sign up for extra “recess” classes facilitated by teachers. This was ...| flurries of latent creativity
This is #NotAnAd - Duolingo is my favorite app of the year. Duolingo is an app for learning a new language at your own pace and in your own time. I recently achieved a 100 day streak on Duolingo, part of the way to my New Year’s resolution to do 365 days of French this year. I’m un peu fier (a little bit proud) of myself, but I’m also a little bit in awe of quite how polished, delightful and rewarding an experience Duolingo-the-team has produced. If you haven’t tried it, even if you d...| flurries of latent creativity
Sweet ribbons of grated carrot make this simple risotto sweet and delicious Ingredients 1 1/2 cups arborio rice 3 large carrots, grated in fine ribbons 300 g cherry tomatoes, halved 1 large onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 pint vegetable stock or broth 3 tbsp olive oil 1/3 cup vermouth or white wine salt to taste Steps In a large saucepan, Fry the tomatoes until blistered, set aside Add the diced onion and carrot, fry in the olive oil until browned, 1 - 2 mins Add the rice and...| flurries of latent creativity
For the month of February, friends challenged me to produce a piece of art every day. I’m a little surprised but quite proud to report that I did! In 29 days, I produced 25 pencil sketches, 2 photographs, 1 piece of graphic design and a study for a large art project I hope to complete later in the year.| flurries of latent creativity
Sri lankan eggplant curry Ingredients Eggplant (salted), deep fried (veg oil) black mustard seeds cumin seeds roughly chopped onion curry leaves green chili garlic ginger chopped tomato cinnamon (optional) dried chili flakes lemon juice sugar (optional) black pepper Steps Cook Serving Serve with rice and sprinkle with coriander.| flurries of latent creativity
I made this stew for my kids. It contains many of their favorite ingredients. My daughter Emily named it and promises you that it is scrumdiddlyumptuous. Ingredients 1 red onion 1 yam 1 sweet potato 3 large carrots 300g split red lentils 600ml vegetable stock 1 tin (400g) kidney beans 1 tin (400g) chopped tomatoes tomato paste 2 tsp ground ginger 2 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp cumin 1 bay leaf Steps Toast the spices.| flurries of latent creativity
Apple recently released SwiftUI, which is a new declarative system for building user interfaces across Apple platforms. When Mac OS X came out, Apple introduced Objective-C and Project Builder including the NeXT-inspired Interface Builder tools (since integrated in XCode).| flurries of latent creativity
a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes Ingredients 1 red onion 1 1/2 bell peppers 3 cloves garlic 2 tbsp cumin 1/2 jalapeno pepper bunch of cilantro 1 large tin tomatoes (800g) tomato paste 8 eggs (optional) feta cheese Steps Toast the cumin, finely slice the garlic and dice the onion and jalapeno, fry in olive oil with the very finely diced stalks of cilantro.| flurries of latent creativity
I’m making wine. The process is a delightful combination of craft and science. I had no idea where this mission would take me - from harvesting grapes in bucolic Sonoma, to exploring the micro-biology of malolactic fermentation.| flurries of latent creativity
The mainstay of California’s culinary heritage, apparently. Also, very tasty. Ingredients 3 lbs beef tri-tip (Costco is great for this) 1 tsp sea salt 1 tsp ground black pepper 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder 2 tsp paprika 1 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp dried rosemary 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 3 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard 1/3 cup red wine vinegar Steps Mix the marinade in a bowl Cut the tri-tip into 3 - 4 pieces Rub the meat in the marinade and place in vacuum sealable bag ...| flurries of latent creativity
My daughter recently learned to play Tic-Tac-Toe (that’s Noughts and Crosses for all the English readers and “exie ohsies” for the norn-iron crew). I made her a wooden board using our Glowforge which came out so well she wanted to give one to her friend for their birthday.| flurries of latent creativity
Last year, Ivan Wise interviewed me for his Better Known podcast, where each guest names six things they think should be better known. Here’s a transcript of the episode.| flurries of latent creativity
More than a decade ago I had a Psion 5mx. A great little palmtop computer with a mechanical keyboard. I used it to take notes in meetings, to write stuff on trains and on beaches.| flurries of latent creativity
When I was a kid, the apocryphal! story of the fire at the library of Alexandria, the supposed loss of most human knowledge acquired to that date, was something that made me sad.| flurries of latent creativity
I’ve been using dokku to host the majority of my personal projects for the last few years. It’s a delightful little self-hosted Platform as a Service, offering a Heroku-like workflow with all the flexibility of hosting on your own hardware.| flurries of latent creativity
Wonderful spicy persian/gujarati stew. Ingredients 1 green bell pepper, diced 1 large onion, finely chopped 3 x chicken breast or equivalent amount chicken thighs, diced 2 garlic cloves, pressed/finely diced 20g ginger, grated 1 tbsp garam masala 1-4 serrano chilli pepper(s), finely diced 1: mild, 4 (incl seeds): spicy 400g tin chopped tomatoes 600ml chicken stock 150g dried red split lentils, rinsed and drained 2 bay leaves Juice of 1 lime 20g sugar Steps Toast the garam masala in a large fr...| flurries of latent creativity
This is my current method, it’s approx the proving steps from DO/Sourdough and the baking steps from Tartine Bread. Production sourdough 150g wheat starter 100g wholemeal flour 100g white flour 120g water @ 35°C/95°F mix knead briefly prove 4 hours Proving complete small drop production sourdough floats in water put 150g production sourdough back in starter vessel Final dough 300g production sourdough 100g wholemeal flour (if baking "brown" loaf) 300g white flour (or 400g for "white;" loa...| flurries of latent creativity
sundial.singleton.io - Laser cut a sundial customized for your very own corner of planet earth 🌍. I had fun building an SVG sundial generator in python and cutting the designs on my Glowforge.| flurries of latent creativity
Delicious, cozy meatball dish. Ingredients 500g lean ground beef 3 zucchini 1 red onion 2 cloves garlic 2 stalks celery 300g closed cup mushrooms 2 bell peppers 1 fresh chilli 250g dry farfalle pasta glug red wine 200g fresh cherry tomatoes 300g passata 4 tbsp olive oil Steps Mince one clove of garlic and combine with the beef and 2 tbsp olive oil.| flurries of latent creativity
I’m a Software person, I spend 80+% of my waking hours in front of some kind of computing device. I love it. Building software products is fun and creative - virtually anything you imagine is possible, sometimes things that seem impossible are just difficult.| flurries of latent creativity
Delicious melt in the mouth lamb dish. Ingredients whole lamb shoulder 3 stalks celery 3 carrots 1 white onion 1 bulb fennel 75 cl white wine 1 l stock Steps Rub salt and rosemary generously over the lamb Brown the lamb in a very hot skillet.| flurries of latent creativity
This recipe is apparently unique to Northern Ireland and uses soup/herb celery which is hard to find outside the area, but regular table celery can be substituted (including the leaves).| flurries of latent creativity
On 24th Apr, my birthday! I was lucky to be invited to visit Armenia [thx @raffi] to share my perspective on organising eng teams. The video of my talk is now available on YouTube.| flurries of latent creativity
Recently I read this old WIRED article linked on a dicussion forum. It kindof blew my mind. For a while in 2004, a man in Germany wore a belt which continuously gave tactile feedback indicating which direction was north, and he developed a sixth sense of direction.| flurries of latent creativity
The mother of all chilis. Serves 6 Ingredients 3 lbs beef brisket 2 red onions 4 jalapeno chillies 1 habanero chilli 1 large cinnamon stick 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 tbsp paprika 1 heaped tbsp dried oregano 2 fresh bay leaves 2 red bell peppers 2 green bell peppers 800g chopped tomatoes 400g kidney beans 400ml beef stock 1/2 bunch coriander Steps Place the cinnamon stick, cumin, paprika and oregano in a pestle and mortar.| flurries of latent creativity
Some guacamole recipes call for many ingredients and can be a pain to prepare. This super simple guac can be thrown together in a couple of minutes and tastes great.| flurries of latent creativity
Things have been kindof busy lately but I’ve been on-again / off-again working on a little project to wirelessly track the temperature, light level and soil moisture of my bonsai tree, so I can track its progress and know when to water (and more importantly, when not to).| flurries of latent creativity
I’m working on a project (more soon!) which needs to sample a few sensors and send data wirelessly at low power. After testing out an Arduino Uno + Bluetooth shield (too flaky, too bulky) and deciding that all the BLE solutions out there are not quite ready yet (though some look promising), I discovered the Pololu Wixel.| flurries of latent creativity
I’m excited to introduce you to a project I have been working on for a few weeks in my spare time: PiUi. A lot of folks asked how to use my RPi Timelapse Controller without the LCD Plate - which is kindof expensive and not everyone is comfortable to solder one up themselves.| flurries of latent creativity
You just made a funky neon sign flash in my living room. How? I have just completed my latest project which is a neon lamp which lights up every time someone visits my website.| flurries of latent creativity
A few weeks ago, I found this beautiful video on Youtube – a timelapse video of stars and the Milky Way. Seeing the stars appear to rotate overhead (due to the rotation of the Earth) and the intricate structure of our own galaxy gave me a profound feeling of the scale of the universe that we move through on spaceship Earth.| flurries of latent creativity
Here's a quick and easy first project for new [Raspberry Pi](http://www.raspberrypi.org/) owners - turn your Pi into a webcam, and learn about Linux's ability to run repeated tasks at scheduled intervals with the `cron` utility.| flurries of latent creativity
The awesome folks over at devslovebacon have made my talk available on youtube. It's a pretty good quality recording, hope you enjoy it.| flurries of latent creativity
Paul Graham’s latest essay - How to get startup ideas - is a great read. I was struck by the Bucheit/Pirsig conjecture: "Live in the future, then build what's missing." and the following paragraph regarding ideas that come out of folks' experience at college.| flurries of latent creativity
I’ve recently been messing around with the XML dumps of Wikipedia. These are pretty huge XML files - for instance the most recent revision is 36G when uncompressed. That’s a lot of XML!| flurries of latent creativity
I was extremely fortunate to get access to a Raspberry Pi alpha board for the past couple of weeks. For those of you who haven’t already heard about it, the Raspberry Pi project was started to provide a tiny computer for kids to learn to program.| flurries of latent creativity
Peter Burns wrote a great post earlier last week about timescales as they might be “perceived” by a computer’s CPU… “your CPU lives by the nanosecond” [and humans live by the second].| flurries of latent creativity
Recently, I have been refreshing my knowledge of Machine Learning by taking Andrew Ng’s excellent Stanford Machine Learning course online. The lecture module on Neural Networks ends with an intriging motivating video of the ALVINN autonomous car driving itself along normal roads at CMU in the mid 90s.| flurries of latent creativity
<p> <a href="https://github.com/dps/unhumanize">https://github.com/dps/unhumanize</a> </div>| flurries of latent creativity
In 2011, Smartphones are ubiquitous and everyone and his dog is writing mobile apps, but using apps when you're not in range of a fixed wifi hotspot or standing still in an urban area is often extremely frustrating.| flurries of latent creativity
This graph shows the result of my weekend project - it's the temperature in my living room, logged to an app running on Google Appengine every 30s via an Arduino UNO with ethernet shield.| flurries of latent creativity
I spent the weekend learning how to hack hardware with Arduino - I built this mouse controlled RC car. Fun to build and fun to play with! Read the detailed HOWTO| flurries of latent creativity
On my latest trip to San Francisco, I was privileged to be able to drop in to the DODOcase factory and got a guided tour from chief DODO - Patrick. DODOcase use traditional bookbinding techniques (at a long-established local book binder) to produce a really neat book-like case for iPad and Kindle 3.| flurries of latent creativity
I love reading on my Kindle, but as anyone who has been using one for a while knows, it feels too delicate to drop straight into a bag and really needs a case.| flurries of latent creativity
I spent some time at the weekend getting my iPhone Chess game up on Amazon EC2. On Ubuntu. It was kindof a pain, so I’ve written up some tips on working with Ubuntu on EC2 here.| flurries of latent creativity
Since joining twitter, I haven’t written a single blog post - my old blog became defunct and is now available only via the magic of archive.org’s wayback machine. I love twitter - it’s really changed the way I consume media.| blog.singleton.io
Coding agents have crossed a chasm| blog.singleton.io
Coding agents have crossed a chasm (2025 Jun 14| blog.singleton.io
Coding agents have crossed a chasm Somewhere in the last few months, something fundamental shifted for me with autonomous AI coding agents. They’ve gone from a “hey this is pretty neat” curiosity to something I genuinely can’t imagine working without.| blog.singleton.io