Building My Watchy — The Rat's Nest I'd been eyeing the Watchy for a while. It's an open source, Arduino-compatible, e-paper smartwatch you build yourself — which is either a selling point or a warning sign depending on your disposition...

I put the rest of the pics as well as a little write-up on my blog:

gadgetrat.com/home/2026/4/...

The epaper screen attached to the mainboard.

the epaper display with the SSID and the MAC address of the watch showing.

The completed epaper watch on my wrist with the time and date set. 18 steps on the pedometer, and for some reason, it says it's 9 degrees C.

I built a Watchy ESP32 epaper watch today. So far, I'm liking the aluminum case, and the custom faces are really fun. I need to find a MicroUSB cable to connect it with the Arduino IDE and change the location for temperature and weather.

A violet crumble bar in the wrapper.

Practically an Australian now.

Bondi effects 2026 compressor guitar pedal with a white enamel body and red lettering on the front.

I found a Bondi Effects 2026 compressor pedal at Caaaashiiies.

A compressor is really useful for an autoharp. It can help make sure every string is heard at a consistent level without having to constantly adjust playing strength.

PeopleSoft, Taleo, DynDNS, StorageTek, VirtualBox, OpenOffice, Solaris, SPARC, MySQL. They're basically the reverse Midas of the tech world. Everything they touch turns to loose tinfoil.

I still miss Sun Microsystems' purple servers.

Java. JavaBeans. ENTERPRISE JAVABEANS.

I just canceled my Spotify subscription after being a paid member for years.

I'm thinking of moving over to Tidal. Are there any other good alternatives?

The value is dual-use. Simple public mesh for community and gaming. Robust private encrypted comms riding the same infrastructure, densified by self-interest. Same device, same network, different keys.

Public channels use shared keys and a pub/sub model. Private comms use PSKs or whitelisted devices. Works during power outages, cell congestion, or any infrastructure failure. Message expiration/TTL optional. Use LoRA for long-range comms and Bluetooth-LE for local file transfer/media messaging.

Encrypted messages get fragmented, salted, and scattered across the mesh. Only the destination with the right public certificate can reassemble and decrypt them. Burn the private key into hardware, like an ATECC608. Allow community to blacklist certs/keys so compromised/bad devices can be fenced.

Nodes double as BBS servers with pub/sub capability, or with a little .plan-like file — local intranets, event boards, game leaderboards, emergency alerts. Think FidoNet but at RF, city-scale, with zero per-hop infrastructure cost.

Every device is a node. Every powered node is also a repeater. Coffee shops run nodes to post their menu. Hardware stores run them because the owner thinks it's cool. Self-interest densifies the mesh automatically. No civic duty required.

Someone needs to revive the Cybiko concept for 2026. A $60 US handheld with LoRa + BLE that creates a city-scale mesh chat and commerce network — no internet, no cell towers, no central authority. Just community-owned radio.

Nodes double as BBS servers with a little profile or .plan-like file — local intranets, event boards, game leaderboards, emergency alerts. Think FidoNet energy but at RF, city-scale, with zero per-hop infrastructure cost.

Every device is a node. Every powered node is also a repeater. Coffee shops run nodes to post their menu. Hardware stores run them because the owner thinks it's cool. Self-interest densifies the mesh automatically. No civic duty required.

None of this is novel. It's existing primitives assembled with the threat model in mind from the start rather than bolted on after. Nobody stops to write the threat model first, and instead, just recreates the same Cybiko over and over again. A device that did these things would be invaluable now.

Supply chain: device identity is a certificate burned at first boot into a hardware security element, fuses blown. Peer auth on the mesh rejects uncertified devices. A compromised node looks like a stranger — the network ignores it.

Forensics/confiscation: PSKs for private channels never stored on device. Messages have expiration baked in at the channel level. Fragments scattered across the mesh — no complete message ever sitting locally after delivery.

People keep pulling the 2000s-era Cybiko out of the trash, dusting it off without any new improvements other than range, and then declare it a new invention. The frustrating thing is that it would take a little more effort to make it secure and durable with existing concepts, but no one ever does.

The Boss RC-10R rhythm loop station. It is tuned to the blues shuffle setting with a beat of 116 BPM in 4/4

Rewarded myself for making it through another month and doing some chores today.

Just call me Joseph Gordon-Levitt because I got myself an old Looper.

(Boss RC-10R Rhythm Loop Station)

A golden retriever holding a stuffed cell phone in its mouth.

This phone call said that I could pay my tax bill with Milk Bones And I don't think that sounds legit but okay.

An elderly golden retriever sleeping on a colorful blanket on the floor.

Elderly golden retriever energy.

Pikachu topped yellow chopsticks with training holders in three steps. Used to teach kids how to use chopsticks.

Come for the lucky dips, leave with graduating Pikachu chopsticks.

A sushi bullet train for sale at a local shop

I can have my very own nigiri bullet train that operates on AA batteries.

A huntsman spider on the ceiling with its legs splayed out.

My first huntsman. It was the size of my hand 🕷️

CreepyLink Make your links look as suspicious as possible

Now and forever, putting all of my URLs through creepylink.com instead of a link shortening service.

An image of a particularly poorly constructed bridge that somehow passes the level in poly bridge 2. It is overlaid on the enjenir variant of the stonks meme.

Poly Bridge 2 is where good engineers learn "I don't know how it works but it's under budget so it ships."

Sure! I need to get my synth gear set up and get out the DFAM.

Well, uh, it sounds...fuzzy? Mission accomplished! What do you think?

The fries were not used. They actually came from a standalone Macca's. Just clarifying that important point because otherwise there might be substantive questions about food hygiene.

A micro pog and a big muff fuzz pedal, both by electro harmonix.

Who went to Cashies and got two legendary guitar pedals and Macca's fries?

👆👆