ultrascience labs
This brand makes the thing which a consumer is satisfied with. - engrish.com
lab notes
Research articles and blog posts, some of it evergreen. Included archived blog posts restored from previous website incarnations.
r & d
Work logs for past and present hobby projects. Case mods, electronics, models, woodworking, vintage audio.
linkroll
A cultivated collection of link to sites of all types. Currently working on a linkroll and directories section - a linkroll of linkrolls.
current news
RSS headlines. Sources are subject to change. I try to use sources that are relatively resource light, and produce feed XML docs that aren't ridiculously boated. As usual, tread carefully in the comments sections, for example slashdot is a good source for headlines, but the comment section is full of Libertarians.
slashdot
- Should US Open-Weight AI Labs 'Distill' Frontier Models Too? - 2026-09-14 02:04
- 220 Million Traveler Records Exposed In Vietnam-Linked APIS Leak - 2026-09-13 21:34
- NASA and IBM Open Source Lunar Mapping Tools - 2026-09-13 17:04
- California's Gig Drivers Just Secured Collective Bargaining Power with Newly Certified Union - 2026-09-13 12:34
- Flock Worker Calls Police On Reporter - For Filming Them in Public - 2026-09-13 08:00
hackaday
- CircuitPython Goes Turbo With Precompiled Functions - 2026-09-14 03:00
- Dramatically Increasing Usable Closet Space - 2026-09-14 00:00
- Re-creating NASA’s Heat Shield Problem - 2026-09-13 21:00
- Hackaday Links: September 13, 2026 - 2026-09-13 18:00
- Rusting an E-scooter (In a Good Way) - 2026-09-13 15:00
neatorama
- Pac-Man Manhole Cover - 2026-09-13 14:44
- The Pilgrims' 1620 Voyage on the <i>Mayflower</i> was Pretty Horrible - 2026-09-13 12:31
- How to Make an Origami Typewriter - 2026-09-13 09:32
- You'll Be Surprised at What the US Might Have Been Named - 2026-09-13 08:20
- The Real Story Behind Those Giant Balls on Power Lines - 2026-09-12 17:02
NPR
- Indonesia searches for 129 people missing after ferry capsizes in the Java Sea - 2026-09-14 01:20
- Russian drone hits train near Ukraine-Poland border soon after dignitaries passed through - 2026-09-14 00:46
- Amazon suspends use of 21 Air, cargo carrier whose plane careened off Miami runway - 2026-09-14 00:26
- Pennsylvania says an unvaccinated woman has died from measles-related complications - 2026-09-13 18:23
- Trump downplays calls for AI slowdown - 2026-09-13 17:32
jacobin
- Americans Are Turning Against School Vouchers - 2026-09-13 07:30
- Economics Needs a New Approach to Inflation - 2026-09-13 07:00
- The Socialist Labor Unionists Who Took On Samuel Gompers - 2026-09-12 10:43
- Swing Voters Want Kitchen-Table Populism, Not a Sermon - 2026-09-12 09:35
- We Rely on Cleaners’ Work, So Cleaners Should Be Paid More - 2026-09-12 08:10
404media
- Mercury Is Shrinking Way Faster Than We Thought, Scientists Discover - 2026-09-12 05:00
- Behind the Blog: How to Talk About AI Doom - 2026-09-11 12:31
- Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg Claims He’s Back 'In Control' - 2026-09-11 11:33
- ‘We Did Not Invite You.’ Citizens Rage at Town Hall Over Proposed Nuclear AI Data Center - 2026-09-11 08:40
- Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg Put on 'Leave of Absence' - 2026-09-09 16:21
techdirt
- Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt - 2026-09-13 15:30
- This Week In Techdirt History: September 6th – 12th - 2026-09-12 14:00
- Microsoft Slaps Hours Limits On Xbox Game Pass Cloud Gaming - 2026-09-11 21:39
- Pro-Cop Red States Latest To Kick Flock To The Curb - 2026-09-11 17:35
- Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Duty Of Careful What You Wish For - 2026-09-11 15:05
sciencedaily
- Scientists find a new layer of Alzheimer’s hidden in the genome - 2026-09-13 08:56
- Physicists can’t agree on how the Universe works - 2026-09-13 08:15
- Most men don’t know dairy is linked to prostate cancer risk - 2026-09-13 07:58
- Global warming is breaking a 400-year climate link between two oceans - 2026-09-13 07:18
- Scientists are building a microscope powered by a quantum computer - 2026-09-13 07:03
space.com
- SpaceX launches 3 telecom satellites to orbit on 700th Falcon mission of all time (video) - 2026-09-13 16:41
- On this day in space! Sept. 13, 2007: Japan launches Kaguya spacecraft to the moon to map the lunar surface in HD - 2026-09-13 12:45
- The 10 best underground sci-fi movies to dig into now that 'Silo' season 3 has ended - 2026-09-13 10:00
- NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shares zero-G curly hair tips from the ISS (video) - 2026-09-13 09:00
- James Webb Space Telescope discovers the rings of tiny solar system body Chariklo are changing - 2026-09-13 08:00
space news
- LatConnect 60 Expands India Market Presence for SWIRSAT With NSIL Agreement and GeoSyze Partnership - 2026-09-11 00:32
- Galaxia Takes Next Step in Earth Observation with purchase of Simera Sense Hyperspectral Imager - 2026-09-03 08:00
- Agile Space Industries Celebrates Durango Headquarters Expansion with Ribbon Cutting - 2026-09-02 07:00
- Commercial Space Federation (CSF) Welcomes Two New Associate Members - 2026-08-31 10:00
- Speed to Field Starts Below the Prime - 2026-08-31 08:30
phys.org
- Japan's biomass energy boom threatens further deforestation in Indonesia - 2026-09-14 02:53
- No cities on the moon—there isn't enough water, scientists say - 2026-09-13 23:00
- Consumers demand transparency, but is it rewarded? - 2026-09-13 19:30
- JWST ruled out finding tiny moons around an exoplanet—that's great news - 2026-09-13 17:30
- Astronomers unmask a supernova impostor - 2026-09-13 16:00
onion latest
- Emmys Producers Warn Aging Stars Deadline For ‘In Memoriam’ Segment Midnight - 2026-09-13 08:00
- Sandra Bullock Regrets ‘Practical Magic 2’ After Realizing She Could’ve Just Had Dinner With Nicole Kidman - 2026-09-11 13:52
- Trump Promises To Take $5,000 From Every American If Democrats Win Midterm - 2026-09-11 12:03
- Wired For Performance: The Cutting-Edge Tech Of NFL Uniforms - 2026-09-11 11:47
- 25 Years Later, Nation Still Miffed - 2026-09-11 08:00
changelogs
April 2026
2025-04-03 - linkroll - added more links.
December 2025
2025-12-22 - r & d - Infrastructure worklogs updated in shop rehab redux
November 2025
2025-11-09 - updated the ticker links to open in new tabs.
2025-11-07 - updated yellow to version 0.9.16
July 2025
2025-07-15 - linkroll - added links to the esoterica, linkrolls, design inspiration, and woodworking sections.
March 2025
2025-03-10 - r&d - Added the "rei & asuka" entry under r&d -> case mods -> legacy case mods. I also realized that I also got my Dragon case work log entered but forgot to update the change log to document it. So check that out too, I guess.
February 2025
2025-02-26 - Spent a few days messing around with the site layout. Went crazy with the icons and integrated them into the nav areas of the site. I created new layouts to generate dynamic icon-based navigation. I also pushed the "about" sections to the bottom of their respective sections.
2025-02-20 - linkroll - Alphabetized the linkroll categories. Working on putting together a linkroll/directory category.
December 2024
2024-12-20 - lab notes - Taking advantage of the new lab notes blog format and manually importing content from the previous iterations of the site. I've imported both Greymatter versions of the blog (thanks to the Internet Archive) and I'm working through the Drupal blog posts pulled from the backups I restored in October. I'm including comment text inline with the post content - click "read more" under any of the older blog posts to see them. I should also note that since these restored posts are over 15 years old many of the links are dead. I'm linking to Internet Archive pages contemporary to the date of the blog post in question where needed and when possible.
November 2024
2024-11-18 - linkroll - Adding more links new categories over the last several days. A bit of styling on the headers to improve readability.
2024-11-02 - Updated the styling for the ultrascience_efc theme used on the lab notes pages.
2024-11-02 - lab notes - adjusting content sorting. Lab notes is now in a blog format, using tags to sort blog entries and logn form research articles.
2024-11-01 - linkroll - Added new links
2024-11-01 - Added ticker feeds
October 2024
2024-10-31 - Working on the front page layout. Rolling latest changes into the changelogs. Still messing with the ticker feeds.
2024-10-30 - Updated Datenstrom Yellow to version 0.9, installed ticker extension for displaying RSS feed content. Currently just dumping it on the bottom of the homepage. I also installed the blog extension. I'm also considering other structural changes to the site.
2024-10-22 - lab notes - new article "A Site Recovery 15 years in the making" created to track archived site recovery work. Article is live, but very under construction
2024-10-22 - Been working on recovering the circa 2005 version of the site from my old backups. At the time it was using Drupal 4.7 running on a typical LAMP stack. Recovery work will be logged in a new lab notes article.
2024-10-04 - homepage - added icons, refreshed intro copy, cleaned up changelogs
September 2024
2024-09-16 - r & d - Whitewings worklogs updated under paper airplanes
2024-09-16 - lab notes - Updated the "whitewings" lab notes entry in the "models, hobbytronics & programming" notebook. Added links for model and manual scans. Updated the History of Jet Fighters and Volume 1 worklogs to include a list of models with assembly and flight reviews. Work will be ongoing there as I build and fly models.
2024-09-09 - r&d - Started work on the "Whitewings - History of Jet Fighters 1992" worklog under the r & d section
August 2024
2024-08-01 - August was offline work
July 2024
2024-07-15 - r&d - Started work on the "Whitewings - Excellent Paper Airplanes Volume 1 1980" worklog under the r & d section
2024-07-01 - lab notes - Created the "whitewings" lab notes entry in the "models, hobbytronics & programming" notebook
April 2024
2024-04-17- homepage - Continuing updates - all experimental. Added a current research section as a kind of "now" page.
2024-04-16 - lab notes -New article published "why we are still using 88x31 buttons"
2024-04-04 - homepage - Cleaning up changelogs and latest changes on homepage, added intro copy.
2024-04-04 - linkroll - Added a "categories" list.
2024-04-04 - homepage - Adding icons and images for interest.
2024-04-01 - r&d - Completed the "mdportal elite" entry under r&d -> case mods -> legacy case mods
March 2024
- r&d - Started with restoring my 'ancient' case mod project logs and updating them for the new site.
Updated theming for the R&D section of the site.
2024-03-06 - lab notes - New article published "windows xp running on a vm"
2024-03-01 - lab notes - New article published "searching for search"
February 2024
2024-2-30 - linkroll - Added new category papercraft
2024-2-23 - linkroll - Added links to tools and resources I've been using to build this site.
2024-2-23 - Applied font sub-setting to drastically reduce font download size, played with header font styling.
2024-2-3 - Updated blue theme colors for the landing page and played with background images and styling in general.
January 2024
2024-1-28 - linkroll - Added more links to the.
2024-1-26 - Working on categories/layout for the linkroll.
current research
Web
Thanks to my restored backups and the Internet Archive, I was able to pull in the blog content from my pre 2010 Greymatter and Drupal versions of the site in the lab notes. Content is tagged with "greymatter" and "drupal" as appropriate. Old comments are included. I'm still working on old project logs.
Hardware
Workshop reorganization has continued through the fall and into winter. But along the way I've knocked out a few projects and made headway on others. Details coming.
Papercraft/Models
Paper airplanes made for some fun summer and fall flying, but wet and cold winter weather has settled in so I've been spending time on the model railroad layout. It's a mixed-gauge two-level layout consisting of HO and HOn30. The main HOn30 in-town streetcar loop track has been laid and wired, and I've laid track on the HO portion. Details coming.
Infrastructure
Shop re-org and updates continue. I still need to document the work so I can keep track of it in the future - if only I had a website for tracking projects...
about
Welcome to the labs. Back in the early 2000s I was playing with case mods and website design and I set up this domain as a homepage to share my projects and sandbox to play with various development tools and styles.
I dropped it after several years, but lately I've wanted a place to record and share my old and new project work again. So I re-registered the site and dusted off my old data files.
system status
Generator: Datenstrom Yellow version 0.9.16