iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 12/04/2026

Finally bringing Tessel hardware modules to modern embedded JavaScript. I’ll have a guide about writing the sensor driver on xs-dev.js.org soon, then I’ll add on the e-ink display example next.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 03/04/2026

With my recent site redesign, I finally added a feature I’ve wanted for a while: open graph images. I wrote a bit about how I integrated it into 11ty and build them automatically. hipsterbrown.com/training-dat...

hipsterbrown.com

Generating Open Graph Images in 11ty

Integrate automatic OG image generation into your 11ty site

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 31/03/2026

Project Hail Mary was absolutely fantastic. Great visuals and music to go along with a wonderful story. 💯

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 27/03/2026

In the meantime, it’s still so fun to see lights blink and stuff move after writing some code.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 27/03/2026

Working through examples in a guide to embedded JS using the ECMA-419 standard APIs running on a Raspberry Pi Pico or ESP32. Even after all these years, I still get tripped up by incorrect wiring 😅

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 24/03/2026

After a bunch of much needed internal refactors to xs-dev, it feels good to be shipping DX improvements again. Now I need to actually start using it in some embedded JS projects of my own! 😆

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 19/03/2026

OpenAI acquiring Astral (makers of uv, ruff, ty) is an odd pairing, especially with the motivation of integrating it into Codex. I suppose it’s similar to Anthropic acquiring Bun to support Claude Code. 🤨 astral.sh/blog/openai

astral.sh

Astral to join OpenAI

Astral has entered into an agreement to join OpenAI as part of the Codex team.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 19/03/2026

After years of overthinking, I settled on the solution to notifications from my washer and dryer using Home Assistant. As a bonus, they can now speak! hipsterbrown.com/training-dat...

hipsterbrown.com

Laundry Alerts with Home Assistant

Fixing the forgotten laundry problem, finally

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 18/03/2026

In a case of circular dependence, I wrote about my recent site redesign to seed the projects collection for my site. 😄 hipsterbrown.com/projects/per...

hipsterbrown.com

A decade-overdue redesign — new visual identity, new content architecture, same self-hosted stack.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 12/03/2026

Literally did the same today 😅 opengraph.xyz was helpful but never know until you post

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 12/03/2026

Every few years I find myself optimizing workspaces instead of just using the tools. Editor configs, Obsidian vaults, homelab dashboards. Now agentic coding tools. I wrote about recognizing the loop before falling all the way in. hipsterbrown.com/training-dat...

hipsterbrown.com

Productivity Theater

Reflecting on my experiences down the rabbit hole in the pursuit of efficiency

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 10/03/2026

Feels good to want to write and publish again. hipsterbrown.com/training-dat...

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 10/03/2026

Back on my blogging BS. I've deployed a full redesign, which I'll write about more in a bit, and feel more motivated to publish again. Starting with some recent experience improving my Home Assistant automations: hipsterbrown.com/training-dat...

hipsterbrown.com

Helpers in Home Assistant

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 03/09/2025

🤖I've been learning about robot arms this summer and have been fascinated by the SO-ARM101, a low-cost, 3D-printable open source project. I built support for it in Viam to make it easier for other folks to configure and program their robot arms. Full tutorial here: codelabs.viam.com/guide/so101/

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 10/06/2025

A remote presentation about remote-controlled robots! This talk has been a lot of fun to put together, so I hope folks enjoy watching it too. 😄

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Reposted by HipsterBrown

JSNation @jsnation.gitnation.org · 18/02/2025

💡Get a practical guide to taking hobby projects from desk to production at the talk by Nick Hehr, an invited expert with TC53. Learn how WebRTC enables P2P communication, interact with embedded hardware & robotics via JS APIs, & make programming devices more accessible.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 13/02/2025

🤖 I’m bringing real-time robots to JSNation on June 12th & 16th! You can register via my badge and watch the live stream for free: gitnation.com/badges/jsnation-2025/… What kind of robots would you like to see me demo?

gitnation.com

Nick Hehr's JSNation 2025 badge

Join 10k engineers worldwide at JSNation 2025 and meet 50 top speakers at June 12 - 16, 2025

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 30/01/2025

Feeling in my element this week at work. I’ve been hacking on hardware, 3D printing, presenting workshops, writing code, and generally feeling productive. 😎

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 27/01/2025

I backed every Pebble kickstarter and built various apps for the platform. I’m so excited by the potential of its return! 🙌 ericmigi.com/blog/why-wer...

ericmigi.com

Why We’re Bringing Pebble Back

Eight years later, you still can’t beat a Pebble

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 24/01/2025

That’s daring work 😂

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 23/01/2025

Modern parenting is watching Sesame Street with my son while being on a technical committee meeting call because scheduling is tricky. 😆

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 27/12/2024

Successfully migrated a project using Polymer v1 components to Lit and Material Web Components 🙌 Feels good to remove all the vendored Bower packages and legacy build tools.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 08/12/2024

Replaced some ceiling lights with remote-controlled fans, which mean my smart switches are basically useless. So now I’m working on embedding an ESP8266 into the remotes for ESPHome integration. 🤓

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 06/12/2024

🤔 Have you ever wanted to build your own vending machine that you could control with a web app? 🧙‍♂️One of my coworkers built one called the Sticker Wizard for our office! Check out the tutorial if you want to make it too: codelabs.viam.com/guide/sticke...

codelabs.viam.com

Make your own sticker vending machine

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 06/12/2024

Fair. For now, I can still have my house being cleaned while I sleep. 🤷‍♂️

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 06/12/2024

I’m not afraid of robots taking over because I still need to flip my vacuum over to clear all the stuck hair from the brushroll several times a year.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 02/12/2024

It is so humbling as a dev to try creating an embedded display driver, especially without a datasheet and the only implementation being for a C++ graphics framework. 😵‍💫

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 24/11/2024

Is this too much to pack for tinkering while on vacation? 😅How do I pick?

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 23/11/2024

I backed every Pebble Kickstarter and built apps for my watches. So I’m genuinely excited to develop for this new JS-based watch platform, powered by the Moddable SDK: www.kickstarter.com/projects/pocute…

kickstarter.com

Spectra - The hackable smartwatch built for developers by Pocuter — Kickstarter

Merging high end smartwatches with maker freedom and right to repair.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 22/11/2024

Last year, my knowledge of hardware was focused on microcontrollers & home automation with very little awareness about the wider world of robotics. Yesterday, I observed my first meeting of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA) where I was formally introduced as the representative for Viam! 🙌

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 20/11/2024

The first community contributed guide was just published to the xs-dev docs! This is a nice starting point for folks who want to use familiar JS tooling with embedded projects. xs-dev.js.org/guide/usage-with-type…

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 19/11/2024

The newly announced Prusa CORE One looks like an incredible next generation printer, and there will still be an upgrade path for MK4S owners! www.prusa3d.com/product/prusa-core-…

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 18/11/2024

Home Assistant ftw yet again. 🙌 I needed a physical remote for a set of Matter lights and I was able to pair an old IKEA Zigbee remote to control them all. The automations creator has come a long way.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 16/11/2024

Replacing a light switch and outlet without going back to the hardware store feels like such an accomplishment after a couple years of home ownership. 💡

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 14/11/2024

I’ve had just enough caffeine today to be engaged by all the multi-tasking I’ve been doing, instead of overwhelmed and distracted. 😅

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 14/11/2024

Should I create a separate account for xs-dev (xs-dev.js.org)? Or still just keep updates on my personal? Same with ECMA-419 content and changes? It would make for a good handle: embedded.js.org 🤔

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 13/11/2024

Speaking in the community track at ElasticON today! Brought a couple dev boards and mini rover to control. 🤖

Front signage of the Manhattan Center theater for ElasticON

View from a lower balcony, facing an open atrium and stage with tables and seating around.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 13/11/2024

Tonight felt like a classic BoroJS evening with art, programming, and great conversation. Love to see the next generation starting up. 💖

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Reposted by HipsterBrown

jenn schiffer 😎 @jennschiffer.com · 13/11/2024

“go start your own community events!” is my constant refrain, especially tonight as i got to join @jed.is and the chinatown.js community to talk about the history (and perhaps future - if the audience was activated enough🤞) of the boro.js family of meetups

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 12/11/2024

I’ve found my least favorite cloud development thing: figuring out the right cache control setting. Is it on the bucket? Or the file? Or the load balancer? Overwriting a file requires setting the metadata again? 🫠

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 12/11/2024

After not touching any severless products ever, I’ve found a reason to use two different functions platforms in the past week for separate projects. Nice for the quick use cases I’ve had recently, but I’m still an “old fashioned” HTTP server behind a reverse proxy kind of dev.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 10/11/2024

Migrated xs-dev to Stricli (bloomberg.github.io/stricli) this weekend. A relatively light lift coming from Gluegun with some immediate UX improvements.

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 07/11/2024

A year ago, I set out to bring together two platforms with similar goals of making hardware and automation more accessible: Viam and Home Assistant. Now I’m happy to share the community integration that brings on-device ML to your home! www.viam.com/post/home-assistant-io…

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 06/11/2024

My son continues to be my little ray of sunshine today. Happy to just be in the world. ❤️

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 04/11/2024

👋 Hello! For the folks that don’t know me yet, I’m Nick / HipsterBrown 🤓 - 🤖 build robots - 🏠 automate my home - 🛠️ program embedded devices - ❤️ contribute to open source xs-dev.js.org is my CLI for getting start with JavaScript on devices. Let me know what hardware projects you want to make!

xs-dev.js

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 04/11/2024

I haven’t had to spin up a new Node.js server project in a while. The requirements are so minimal, I almost want to build it with just the standard library, but that will probably make it harder to hand off. 🤔

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HipsterBrown @hipsterbrown.com · 03/11/2024

“Computers for Business” class in college. We had to make a website and it was my favorite assignment. The same year, Codecademy launched and I started learning JavaScript.

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