iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 20/05/2026

Fish gummies!!! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

schematic showing the process of creating gummies in the form of fish, which can then be used to determine the preferences of predators. This includes adding nutritional supplements and or dying the gummy with various colours.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 22/04/2026

A great example of how good alt text can save a post during these trying bluesky times. Use alt text, folks.

A screenshot showing a loading circle on a black background (it should have been an image, but it will just keep trying to load forever). The alt text of the image, however, shows up proudly under the floating white circle, carrying the message that the image failed to pass along. Thank you for using alt text!

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 08/04/2026

3D-printing continues to amaze me. I needed a holder for my new stylus, so this morning I designed something up, made two small test prints to get the sizes right, et voilà, a perfect holder for ~20 cents worth of material. With return info as a bonus. I love these things.

a 3D-model of a stylus holder built in FreeCAD

the stylus holder already printed, on my hand

different angle showing the back of the holder, which is engraved with the words "please return to hugoflavio.com"

the stylus holder in place by the tablet, already with the stylus inside

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 27/03/2026

Just tried out this new package and it is very useful! Quick beautiful plots with one line. The code line below was all I needed to make this plot. det_day |> ggauto(date, det_per_tag, SP, ylab = "Daily detections per tag") Looking forward to future compatibility with datetime variables!

A line plot of two variables progressing over time. The plot looks clean and professional, with a minimal theme.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 20/03/2026

If you don't have access to the journal, I would suggest visiting my website 😉 hugoflavio.com/portfolio Also, check out this cool photo of a juvenile sea lamprey inside a custom-made respirometer! 2/2

photo of a juvenile sea lamprey attached to the inside of a transparent respirometry chamber. The lamprey is upside down, looking at the camera, and you can see the inside of its oral disk. A very cool lamprey :)

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 22/02/2026

Larger respirometers means larger pump controllers! A quick test of the wiring says this box is ready for the final assembly steps 👍

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 17/02/2026

Me from my good old R console (absolutely understand the frustration though)

At the edge of a snowy path, a cat stands on its two hind legs and looks over a mound of snow, wondering what is going on over there. It is a well known meme :)

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 18/09/2025

I am again improving my respirometry controllers in prep for an experiment 🐟 Today, I learned how to use one arduino to control any number of others! This is a huge upgrade because now I can control _any number_ of flush pumps while using only 1 USB port on the computer.

A wooden tabletop with a white breadboard in the middle of the image (used to make simple wire connections between devices), two arduino nanos to the left, and one arduino uno to the right. The arduino uno controls the other two. The three boards have USB cables coming out of them, as all three are connected to a laptop for testing. In the final version, only the Uno will need to be connected to the computer.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 05/09/2025

This week we drove 4000km to collect giant floaters and tiny lake sturgeon and bring them back to Halifax. What a journey it was! Our new guests are now happy in their new homes 😊

A large freshwater mussel with the syphons facing the camera. The mussel is half-buried in sand, after choosing a good resting place.

A young lake sturgeon swimming in a holding tank. The head is rather large compared to the rest of the body, as is normal in these early life stages.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 14/03/2025

"One of the most significant challenges of using microtags is the scaling of the surgical operation. As the size of the animal decreases, the margin for error for surgeons also decreases"

Figure 3.

Surgical operations on small aquatic organisms using a scalpel and sutures present specific challenges for surgeons. (A) Small scalpel blades allow for better precision when opening the incision. (B) Larger scalpel blades increase the chance of accidentally injuring the internal organs of the organism. (C) Using a rounded tool (e.g., tweezers) to move the tag away from the incision and create an open space for the needle to pass will prevent injury to internal organs. (D) If care is not taken, the needle will puncture the internal organs, sewing them to the body wall.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 20/02/2025

Roughly a month ago I ended a presentation on my sea lamprey work with this slide. The fears regarding the last point have not gotten better 😔

A presentation slide on "Future Research", where the last bullet point asks "Will the GLFC (Great Lakes Fisheries Commission) survive Trump 2.0?"

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 10/02/2025

On the topic of presentation slides. I keep using 4:3 because it makes it less likely for content to be lost to e.g. zoom video boxes, but everything nowadays seems to be 16:9. Thoughts on this? I see a few #dataviz folks frequently on my feed, so perhaps I can get some cool feedback :) Examples:

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 24/01/2025

For a long time I clung to hope that twitter would one day be saved and restored. Today, I remembered my account still lingered there. Not anymore. Twitter was a good place, once. I don't think I would be where I am now without it. I am glad we have found a new, better place 😊🦋

Screenshot from X saying "Your account is deactivated"

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 15/12/2024

#rstats hack of the day: I recently added simple strings throughout the Cricket scripts that give me a sense of where a script has failed. Already allowed me to fix a few small things that were, up to now, just mystery crashes! (PS: cricket is my fish guardian R bot 😅)

A screenshot of a few slack messages by the homemade "Cricket" app. The messages read that one of the scripts has errored, showing the (admittedly not incredibly helpful) R message associated with the error. The second line shows the last checkpoint the bot had passed before crashing. It goes on to say it will try to recover, and recovers successfully.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 30/11/2024

A while back I asked a friend to build me an app that would go off when something requires our attention in the respirometry system. He built it, and made this the default (and only) notification text. Silly as it is, it sure serves the purpose! 😅 (The fish were ok! 🐟❤️)

A phone notification alert from a custom-made app called Mushu. The notification only reads "The fish are dying! You monster!" and makes the phone ring to call my attention. No further details on what is actually happening are given 😅

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 29/11/2024

After some delays caused by gas build-up in the chambers, we're finally off to the races! Always satisfying to see all the parts come together :) =[🐟]= =[🐟]= =[🐟]= =[🐟]=

A top view of an aquatic respirometry system composed of two baths containing four chambers each. The four chambers on the left are smaller than the ones on the right. These chambers are used to measure oxygen consumption in fish. There are a lot of wires and cables going around, in good crazy-scientist experiment fashion :)

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 23/11/2024

Past me had a fun sense of humour 😄 #Rstats I'll let future me handle this one.

A too-long line of R code containing back-to-back sets of square-brackets. Below it, there is a comment that says: "That's some unholy sequential bracketing but I don't recall why I did it so I am letting it stay" and a smiley face.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 22/11/2024

The progress on the new respirometers continues 🐟

Three respirometry caps fitted with O-rings and baffle plates. Only missing the tube connectors at the back.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 21/11/2024

Any day spent in the workshop with music in the background is a good day. More #respirometry chambers in the making!

A workbench with scattered tools and respirometry chamber caps at various stages of completion

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 15/11/2024

Here's a little video of the new menu in action 📽️

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 15/11/2024

Something I really love about building stuff up is watching ideas come to life. Today: Upgrading our #respirometry pump controller so it can reset itself for a new trial. Little demo below.

A conceptual drawing of the message that should be displayed before triggering a reset. it reads "Resetting will make cycles return to F0. Proceed with reset?" And then the options "No" and "Yes" show up below.

An LCD showing the same message text after it has been uploaded to the arduino board that powers the controller.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 12/11/2024

Starting a new job also marked the beginning of a renaissance of sorts for actel (the #Rstats package for #acousticTelemetry I coded during my PhD). So much more planned for the future! 😄

A trace plot of code contributions to the R package actel (y axis) over the course of one year (x axis). From January to the end of September, only small, occasional bumps in contributions appear. At the start of October, there is a big spike in contributions, with more moderate influxes continuing in the weeks that follow.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 01/11/2024

First test run of the new respirometry chambers was a success! 🥳

four respirometry chambers lined up on a table, with one of the caps open to dry. The chambers were built in-house.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 28/10/2024

Yep, remarkable only lets you work with what they give you. It is not the only manufacturer that does that, I believe. But boox is just an android underneath. The android version is not the newest though (mine's android 11), so you'd have to check if the app can run on that.

The e-ink tablet showing the play store homepage

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 28/10/2024

I was on this boat for the longest time. Eventually I picked a boox Note Air2 Plus after learning boox had an open play store and remarkable didn't. I've loved it ever since. Happy to answer questions, if that helps :)

The cover of my e-ink tablet, featuring a cute neuron sticker.

An example of a page zoomed in, showing the details of the pen strokes.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 19/10/2024

That's the same box model I used to make a temperature controller back in Waterloo, I think. Except mine had a transparent cover. They are pretty cool :D

A custom-made temperature controller. The box used here is the same model as the one in the post above, except this version has a transparent cover, so the components inside are visible. The controller is precariously sitting in a platform balanced between two large water tanks (no disasters happened, though lol).

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 19/10/2024

New job means rebuilding all the respirometry tools, which is the perfect chance for upgrades! This is the first model to use small pieces of pvc tubing to hold the baffle plate away from the rest of the cap.

an acrylic respirometer cap that is drying while sitting inside a wooden assembly meant to keep the parts securely in place.

the finished respirometer cap, showcasing the rubber o-rings that will seal the chamber, and the perforated baffle plate used to disperse the water flow.

a zoom in of the respirometer cap showing the space between the baffle plate and the rest of the cap. The baffle plate is held above the rest of the cap by three rings of pvc tube placed around the screws that keep the plate in place.

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 03/09/2024

First official day as a Dalhousie University member! Super happy to start this new journey. Looking forward to returning to the world of fish ecology and telemetry, but now with the added knowledge of physiology and respirometry! Exciting days ahead 😁

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 18/02/2024

Anyone who has ever worked with a cryofreezer has experienced the inverted Celsius parabola 😅

A vertical line starting at 80°C, going down to 0°C, and then back swerving back upwards in an arc towards -80°C. The word "High" is placed next to both 80 and -80°C, and the word "Low" is placed next to the 0, denoting a tendency to describe negative values closer to 0 as "low" and negative values closer to -80 as "high."

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 27/01/2024

Every time I need to grab this paper I chuckle at the title. High quality stuff 👌

A paper title reading: "Movements of dead fish in rivers"

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Hugo Flávio @hugoflavio.com · 16/11/2023

I raise you the best mud buddy ever ☺️

A shiny wooper pokemon wearing a beanie.

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