Newsletter: Tools I loved in 2025

I picked up a bunch of great tools last year, all of which have helped me make cozier, personalized physical and digital spaces for myself.

Sharing to help you get cozy too =D

kevinlynagh.com/newsletter/2...

I just want to copy blog-ready, resized and compressed images from Photos.app, so I vibe-coded a menubar app: github.com/lynaghk/copy...

The famous semiconductor fields of North Holland.

I love that someone had this website idea and (presumably) a bunch of teams worked together to actually pull it off so well!

www.incommonwith.com/collections/...

I CNC'd myself a bed. Details, along with musings on a constraint programming language, NYC, and battery-powered air handling in my latest newsletter: kevinlynagh.com/newsletter/2...

You might enjoy this academic work: "RodSteward: A Design-to-Assembly System for Fabrication using 3D-Printed Joints and Precision-Cut Rods" arxiv.org/pdf/1906.05710

Why I shop via print catalogs in 2025: kevinlynagh.com/catalogs/

Web designers: Our drop-down can't show more than five things.

Print designers: Here's the entire product family in one table, how the table works, and how it relates to the physical packaging.

I'll pick up that project again soon now that I've moved into my new apartment. The factory I ordered these custom springs from is also eager to hear how things are progressing.

3M promotional photo of the Versaflo system, showing a guy grinding metal while wearing a helmet with full face visor and ear defenders

An annotated photo describing the components of a powered air respirator blower assembly consisting of a fan, usbc power bank, filter adapters, and a hose.

3M's Versaflo powered air respirator is the most comfortable integrated eye/ear/lung protection for woodworking, but it starts at $1650. So I just bought the helmet for $225 and threw together the rest for $50 with a bit of 3D printing. kevinlynagh.com/papr/

Oh cool, thanks for letting me know! Yeah I vibe coded all the Mac / Swift stuff and have no idea what's going on in there. I considered rewriting in Rust so I can implement other features (streaming; turning the music down when I'm speaking), but good to know clj is an option too.

GitHub - lynaghk/whispertron Contribute to lynaghk/whispertron development by creating an account on GitHub.

My free, minimalist Mac speech-to-text app now transcribes even faster.

Ever since I started talking to my computer, my typing (~130 WPM) feels slow.

Talking also feels more relaxed and exploratory, which is useful when designing new stuff.

github.com/lynaghk/whis...

A technical drawing of an AirTag with many, many callouts describing the curvature of an AirTag.

Find someone who cares about you as much as Apple cares that AirTag holders fit perfectly.

(From developer.apple.com/accessories/...)

close up of a wooden joint where two small rods are attached to a large rod using a 3d printed connector

a wood and felt desk partition containing an extremely bright uplight, illuminating the white ceiling and surrounding walls

Newsletter: 3d-printing a TV stand, making bright office lights, and thinking about graph-directed autocomplete

kevinlynagh.com/newsletter/2...

Here it is — very happy to officially release the book that @marianoguerra.org and I have been working on for the past 2½ years.

If you bought it in early access, thanks for your support! 🙏

If you haven't bought it yet, please check it out!!

The Stingray system The Stingray system combines salmon lice treatment, lice counting, and monitors biomass and fish health in one fully automated system.

> The laser unit is autonomous and will continue shooting salmon lice as long as it receives electricity, even if Internet access is broken.

www.stingray.no/delousing-wi...

Reading about superellipses and ran into an offhand reference to "squigonometry". I assumed it was a joke, then I found the Wikipedia page and a Springer textbook. I still can't tell.

Me: I wonder how DIY keyboards are going since I goofed with them during the pandemic? (kevinlynagh.com/keyboards/)

Them: We compiled a BRep CAD kernel to WASM so you can generate complex keyboard geometry in your browser. Also you can scan your hands using computer vision. (ryanis.cool/cosmos/)

A photo of a computer screen showing a coil perpendicular to and partially embedded in a cylinder.

Functions accidentally relying on global variables, CAD edition.

Reversibly Sticking Metals and Graphite to Hydrogels and Tissues We have discovered that hard, electrical conductors (e.g., metals or graphite) can be adhered to soft, aqueous materials (e.g., hydrogels, fruit, or animal tissue) without the use of an adhesive. The adhesion is induced by a low DC electric field. As an example, when 5 V DC is applied to graphite slabs spanning a tall cylindrical gel of acrylamide (AAm), a strong adhesion develops between the anode (+) and the gel in about 3 min. This adhesion endures after the field is removed, and we term it as hard–soft electroadhesion or EA[HS]. Depending on the material, adhesion occurs at the anode (+), cathode (−), or both electrodes. In many cases, EA[HS] can be reversed by reapplying the field with reversed polarity. Adhesion via EA[HS] to AAm gels follows the electrochemical series: e.g., it occurs with copper, lead, and tin but not nickel, iron, or zinc. We show that EA[HS] arises via electrochemical reactions that generate chemical bonds between the electrode and the polymers in the gel. EA[HS] can create new hybrid materials, thus enabling applications in robotics, energy storage, and biomedical implants. Interestingly, EA[HS] can even be achieved underwater, where typical adhesives cannot be used.

Need a fun holiday activity? Consider Reversibly Sticking Metals and Graphite to Hydrogels and Tissues.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

CHO cells originate from 20 Chinese hamsters evacuated from Nanking in 1948, avoiding "roving bands of communists" on an 11-hour station wagon trip driven by a physician "armed with a bottle of brandy, a book of common prayer, and my old .45 Colt"

biomanufacturing.org/uploads/file...