Latest Posts

Planning for this year's solar eclipse

Instant's Blog by Instant - February 26, 2026

I decided long ago that I'd be there in Spain for this year's total solar eclipse, but I'm only just starting to finalize my plans for it because I kept putting it off. Not a smart thing to do, mind you, because the global interest around such an event is sure to bring lots of people to the country, making it harder to book a flight or find accommodation the longer you wait. General laziness on my part played a role in this of course, but also this event is also just not that easy to plan for. Even within …

Path of the elicpse shown on a map, taken from timeanddate.com

Digital preservation

Instant's Blog by Instant - February 16, 2026

I often think about how well the internet can preserve data. It's not that rare that I'll stumble upon some forum with messages from the early 2000s. Even when something does eventually become inaccessible, there's always a chance that the data is out there somewhere, resting on someone's hard drive and just waiting to be released again. I wonder if the things I've created will outlive me through the internet and if there are gonna be people who enjoy them even after I'm gone. As weird as it is, this is what gives me motivation sometimes to finish a project …

Finding random websites

Instant's Blog by Instant - February 15, 2026

When I do translation I'll often perform "exact match" searches on Google. This is a good way to gauge how common an exact phrase is and to find the context in which people use certain expressions and idioms. This is to make sure what I write comes off as natural, and that I've got the meaning right.

But occasionally I'll see a result that makes me pause because of how unexpected the context is. I'll stop what I'm doing and go check the website out. It's sites I would never find under normal circumstances: hidden forums with decade-old posts, …

PCBs with your 3D printer at home

800DV: Diy Venture by marv - February 14, 2026

Quick links: P3B editor | Blender


It's so easy and fast to print circuit boards using one of the well known factories. I could just upload my files and have it printed in a matter of days. However, I'm not in this project for easy and fast, but I'm also impatient. It's a weird space where I feel like printing a circuit board at home and spending hours preparing it gets me there faster.

To be honest, it makes little sense in this case but I feel drawn to making everything at home. So I looked into …

The appeal of live service games

Instant's Blog by Instant - February 13, 2026

Over the course of my life I always find myself returning to life service games — web-based MMOs in the past and gacha games in recent years. Yet when I look back on these games without the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, there isn't a single one I'd consider good. More often than not they are riddled with pay-to-win elements, predatory tactics or simply just lazy game design. So what gives?

I think I may be romanticizing the idea of a game that stays with you for a big portion of your life, one that grows and changes with you. …

My oldest file

Marv's Blog by marv - February 10, 2026

I got my first cassette recorder when I was 3 or 4 years old. It was small enough to be carried around so I naturally recorded everything around me. Two of those recordings survived and I still have them here, waiting to be listened to one day.

Cassettes taught me that information can be stored on media that you can't see with your naked eye. When I got my first computer at 5 years old, the concept of files stored on a computer came naturally to me. My mom's computer had access to the internet so we would sometimes …

Image of the mouse drawn in MS Paint.

I love emails and an update of the 800DV synth reconstruction

Marv's Blog by marv - February 3, 2026

I’ve been working on this project for a year and finally have a platform to host a website for it:

https://800dv.paperboat.website/

Follow via RSS or paperboat for all my 800DV posts.


Synths were much simpler in the 70s. No chips, only simple resistors, capacitors and transistors. To the point where it’s actually possible to draw and print the circuit boards, populate them with components and hopefully have a working synthesizer.

That’s what I’m doing right now. An invaluable resource have been photos of the back sides of the boards and lots of deep knowledge of …

How I cut down on smartphone screentime

Marv's Blog by marv - February 1, 2026

Sometimes life can be a lot and I often feel how important it is to have a way to escape. I'm about to finish my degree in Digital Humanities, have job, some other side gigs and a kid and a partner. More often than not things stack up and it can take weeks before I get to work on my projects, make music or build something.

It's hard to really dive into something if there's not much time. As my energy drains, the threshold gets bigger and bigger and I'm less likely to pick up a drum machine or …

Interesting Find: Architectural Model

Marv's Blog by marv - January 31, 2026

When I was in Rome for vacation, I found this interesting model in a thrift store.

It doesn’t seem to be particularly well made. The trees are made of moss and it’s coming apart in a few places.

Still, someone had an idea or an assignment for school. …

Snow Teleports

Marv's Blog by marv - January 9, 2026

It snowed a fair bit this night. Isn't it crazy how snow transforms the places you know and go to every day? It feels like I've been teleported to somewhere else entirely.