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
- Students Around the World are Using AI-Powered Smart Glasses to Cheat on Tests - 2026-06-28 11:34
- 'Supergirl' Movie Criticized for Script, Poor Visual Effects - 2026-06-28 10:34
- Developer AI Token Costs Could Exceed Their Salaries in Two Years - 2026-06-28 06:34
- An Amazon Seller Says They Were Offered a Way to Bribe an Amazon Employee - 2026-06-28 02:34
- IBM is Getting Ready to Scale Quantum Computing - 2026-06-27 23:34
hackaday
- RF Hacking A Ceiling Fan Via The Remote - 2026-06-28 12:00
- Teaching An AI To Play A Racing Game Via Screen Input - 2026-06-28 12:00
- Accurate Split-Flap Display Can be 3D Printed - 2026-06-28 09:00
- Hack Improves Cheap Speed Controllers - 2026-06-28 06:00
- Make Your Own Loudspeaker From Scratch - 2026-06-28 03:00
neatorama
- Mel Brooks at 100 - 2026-06-28 08:50
- Nuigurumi Jinja is a Shrine to Stuffed Animals - 2026-06-28 06:29
- Black-footed Ferrets Need Protection from Bubonic Plague - 2026-06-27 21:13
- St. Thomas: The Resurrected Ghost Town - 2026-06-27 17:54
- Where Our Calories Come From Over a Century - 2026-06-27 15:19
NPR
- Trade tensions shake up Brazil's caipirinha spirit - 2026-06-28 10:45
- Three firefighters killed on Colorado-Utah border as wildfires intensify - 2026-06-28 09:46
- These church members disagree on politics. Together they're wiping out medical debt - 2026-06-28 06:00
- July 4th fireworks in Washington: What's different for America's 250th? - 2026-06-28 05:00
- Tips for taking care of your pets when fireworks are booming - 2026-06-28 05:00
jacobin
- ICE’s Private Prison Contractor Wants Police-Style Immunity - 2026-06-28 07:50
- To Decarbonize Quickly, Think Beyond Electrification - 2026-06-28 07:45
- The Gas Station Attendant Is a Poetic Take on Love and Class - 2026-06-28 07:40
- The Damage Caused by Private Equity Is No Accident - 2026-06-28 07:35
- Socialism Requires Work That Is Meaningful, Mutual, and Free - 2026-06-27 11:35
404media
- Scientists Think They’ve Uncovered the 15-Million-Year-Old Origin of Laughter - 2026-06-27 12:02
- Behind the Blog: Salesforce Beach - 2026-06-26 12:04
- Bodycam Shows Moment Cops Arrested a Man for Speaking Too Long at Data Center Meeting - 2026-06-25 08:47
- Vast ‘Structures’ In Space Reveal the Universe Isn't What We Thought - 2026-06-24 10:00
- The Trump Administration’s New Census Data Rules Are a Policy Disaster - 2026-06-24 09:39
techdirt
- This Week In Techdirt History: June 21st – 27th - 2026-06-27 14:00
- Whoops! Military Reverses Course On Flu Vaccine Requirements After Soldiers Got Sick - 2026-06-26 21:39
- The KIDS Act Would Require Age Checks To Get Online - 2026-06-26 17:07
- Ctrl-Alt-Speech: The Ctrl-Alt-Speech Reading List (Teaser) - 2026-06-26 15:03
- The EU Wants To Grow Homegrown Tech. Its Courts Keep Making That Impossible. - 2026-06-26 13:05
the register personal tech
- Classic ASCII game NetHack debuts version 5.0 just 11 years after last major release - 2026-05-05 01:32
- Bad news for OpenClaw stans: Apple’s Mac Mini now starts at $799 - 2026-05-04 16:46
- Ask.com, former home of search butler Jeeves, closes just as conversational search comes back - 2026-05-04 00:13
- Where to buy a non-Apple, non-Google smartphone - 2026-05-01 10:24
- That old phone in the kitchen drawer could save an industry - 2026-05-01 09:16
sciencedaily
- Hawaii is turning ocean plastic and fishing nets into roads - 2026-06-28 01:53
- Massive study links teen marijuana use to double the risk of serious mental illness - 2026-06-27 22:54
- Yellowstone’s supervolcano may be fueled by something unexpected - 2026-06-27 22:36
- Mountain lions changed everything in this tiny California preserve - 2026-06-27 21:12
- New vitamin B12 therapy shows promise against deadly brain cancer - 2026-06-27 17:38
space.com
- SpaceX sends 24 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit on Falcon 9 launch from California - 2026-06-28 11:21
- 'Superman Returns' at 20: Is it a sequel? Is it a reboot? Two decades on, we're still not sure - 2026-06-28 10:00
- Japanese probe set for super-close flyby on July 5: 'We're going to discover another beast to put in the zoo of asteroids' - 2026-06-28 09:00
- Watch China's Tiangong space station cross the moon in stunning amateur footage - 2026-06-28 08:00
- Watch SpaceX launch 15,000-pound SiriusXM satellite to orbit tonight - 2026-06-28 07:00
space news
- Rocket Lab launches 10th Synspective satellite - 2026-06-26 17:17
- Spain-backed fund joins FOSSA’s sovereign satellite communications push - 2026-06-26 15:59
- Starlink veterans launch startup to broaden megaconstellation ownership - 2026-06-26 07:00
- ISS repair spacewalk highlights concerns about station health - 2026-06-26 06:57
- Europe’s next security challenge is in orbit - 2026-06-26 06:00
phys.org
- Ancient algal defenses against UV may have helped plants conquer land - 2026-06-28 12:00
- Better unemployment welfare could curb rise of populism - 2026-06-28 11:30
- Australia boosts shark-spotting drone coverage at Sydney beaches - 2026-06-28 10:40
- Shining blue light on gold-graphene nanodots achieves wound healing trifecta - 2026-06-28 10:40
- NASA races to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth with daring rescue mission - 2026-06-28 10:23
onion latest
- ‘The Bear’ Ends With Continuous 45-Minute Shot Of Carmy Screaming While Stirring Tomato Sauce - 2026-06-26 14:14
- Prize Hog Drops Out Of Great American State Fair Due To Event’s Political Nature - 2026-06-26 14:06
- German World Cup Fan Can’t Believe How Different Real U.S. Is From Depiction In Pixar’s ‘Cars’ - 2026-06-26 13:14
- DC Fans Claim Dog From ‘Supergirl’ Not Even Hot - 2026-06-26 12:26
- All Mets Fan Asking For Is One Fucking Season Where Team Wins Every Single Game - 2026-06-26 12:23
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