There are so many things that I'd like to work on or play around with as time permits. My interests and focus are as mercurial as my personality.
Current Ideas
Things I either am working on, or really do intend to work on
sibilant
lisp dialect that compiles to python
I got a mostly-working version of sibilant going in 2020. It worked
reasonably well. The python importer was modified on load to spot
.lspy file extensions and pass them to the sibilant compiler. That
would then load the s-expressions from the module one at a time,
compile them to pseudops, compile the pseudops to version-specific
python bytecode, and then execute the expression in the namespace of
the module. The pseudop translation layer was an excellent
idea... until it wasn't anymore. Once CPython upstream started
releasing updates that removed opcodes it really broke things for me.
So lately I've been working on my own bytecode interpreter loop for sibilant, called sibilant-ceval. It's been a fun experience, since I've never worked on something like this before. It's still a work-in-progress, but it enables proper tailcall optimization without a trampoline, as well as bounded call/cc forms
rebuild home network
My home network is pretty well cobbled together from inexpensive nonsense. I'd like to resolve the tangle of wires and mismatched hardware into some unified wall-mounted rack. I'd also like to try out dedicated routing hardware instead of cheap SBC linux hosts!
Also, I'd like to get my VPN re-established, so I can connect back into the home from remote.
containerized preoccupied.net
I finally shifted off of the ridiculously expensive Rackspace onto a single image on EC2. In so doing, I collapsed three ancient hosts into three containers. However, I just sort-of threw those together in a hurry. I'd like to properly lay out a compose for them, so I can update or re-deploy without issues.
Archived Ideas
Stuff I'm not working on anymore, for whatever reason
mudblock
custom voxel adventure/simulation game
I started playing around in OpenGL a few years ago, using PyGame. I'd really like to combine that work with some of the minecraft server ideas I have and turn it into an actual, real game.
However, I'm also driven to make mudblock a simple and strong engine. Basically, I saw minecraft and have been bothered by it ever since. Missing chunks, bandwidth consumption, lag... there are all these little nigglets that I have which are all concerned with how the game and server deals with its data. I want to start from a solid base of how the world data is distributed (replicated?), then move on to how the event model can be cleaned up. Then we'll see if I can't mix in a "proper" physics engine (ODE).
It's a pipe-dream... but it's the game I want to play. Maybe minecraft will evolve more as time goes by and it will fill this space for me, but I still could end up hacking on it just because I flipping love reinventing things from my own perspective.
Status: I started working in OpenGL, and then read some books that made me realize my GL was really out of date. Then I started learning about pipelines and realized they weren't even in use anymore, it was totally different shaders entirely. I got so frustrated I gave up on it.
whoseaura
world of warcraft addon
I need to clean up the whoseaura addon. Ever since they introduced the consolidated buffs I've been annoyed that the tooltips don't show. I'd like to see who can provide a consolidated buff, if one is missing. And if it's not missing, I'd like to see who is providing it. Currently the tooltip index doesn't match up with the UnitAura index, so it's never getting the right caster. Bothersome!
Status: I stopped playing World of Warcraft
python call/cc
reified continuations in python
I've been meaning to look into this for years now, but I never get around to it. Depending on how the Python stack is constructed and implemented, it just might be possible to reify and capture the continuation at a point in execution... and then call it again later!
It seems like such a glorious hack, I really need to devote the time to it.
Status: After learning how the cpython ceval loop works, I don't think this can be done anymore.
workspace on GitHub
a meta git repo
Since I've got devel directories on a number of different machines, I wondered if it might not be a good idea to setup some sort of "workspace" concept, which was itself stored in git. The idea being that I could sync the workspace repo, and it would do some magic to automatically create all the other repos I use (perhaps with --bare by default). This would get me a common layout across the three machines I commonly use, and would make it easy to get setup on a new machine as well. Maybe there is already something that does this?
Status: This didn't really provide much of the benefit that I thought it would, so I stopped using it.
meanwhile
lotus sametime library
I've not worked on the meanwhile project since 2006 or 2007. After I left IBM, it just became less and less of a priority since I wasn't faced with having to use a Sametime server on a daily basis.
Before I effectively abandoned the only project I've ever owned that had actual users, I had been working on a meanwhile2 concept. GObject-based services, re-thought-out message structures, and a significantly more development friendly set of headers and functions. And Python bindings! Glorious Python bindings!
It would be very interesting to sit down with the current state of the Sametime protocol (I know that the Sametime devs abuse and misuse Sametime... the flipping thing has feature negotiation built-in and they don't actually use it, what's that about?) and see if I can't get up to feature parity. I'm sure the few remaining users would love that! And I'm certain the Sametime team at IBM would not! Win-win!
Also, and this one is a big one... I've always wanted to write a proxy from Sametime to XMPP. As in, a tool to allow an established Sametime user installation to seamlessly migrate off of Lotus and onto a Jabber server. Users could begin migrating to different clients, but the stubborn ones could continue using their Sametime client with the proxy. That would be quite a thing.
Status: IBM bought Red Hat, but it looks like nobody uses Sametime anymore, so it isn't relevant.
home message bus
personal internet of things
I really want to set up an AMQ server at home, and start having all my different machines and devices start talking to it. There are so many different notifications that I am interested in (temperature, weather, chat, mail, doorbell, electricity consumption, mailbox, motion detectors, landline phone, network status, my coffee pot...)
I want to observe and log EVERYTHING.
And encrypt the everloving shit out of it, because it's my data and nobody else's!
Status: I started using Home Assistant
triple-tree leather guard
what's better than a tux wrapped in leather
also it would be neat if I could put together some kind of cover or wrap for the top of the tripple-tree on the tux. Something that allowed access to the starter key and let the neutral and fuel indicators show through, but that kept the other key on that keyring from scraping things up.
Status: this would still be pretty cool, actually...