iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

2.6 KW now on the roof of the Nomadness 24-ft mobile lab, getting closer to launch. This is arranged as a pair of 2S2P split longitudinally, each with a Victron MPPT controller (no wires cross the unserviceable center line)

2.6 KW solar array on 24 ft cargo trailer

Detail of solar panel cross members and longitudinal rails on cargo trailer lab, with ladder in place

View of solar array support structure on mobile lab

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Mobile lab folding cooktop, powered by the Lithium bank with 2.6 kW solar, tow vehicle alternator, and shore 30A connection. This completes the little galley area, and saves the butane cooker with potentially scarce bottled fuel for emergencies.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Animated from still newspaper photo in 1983. Loops well once saved. Ahhhh memories... 43 years ago and i can feel it !

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Forgive my posting about posting, but I'm trying to decide where to do fine-grained progress reports on mobile lab and Bionode. They get lost in Substack notes, I've dialed Facebook use down to almost zero, and I've not used Twitter/X whatever for years. Here? Little tech details and bits?

Memtest 86 passed on 48 gig RAM in TrueNAS on Terramaster f8 with crash problems, used as graphic in post about moving daily detailed updates here

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

The most honest USB-C connector labeling I've ever seen. Is this a real standard?

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

I decided to be open about the bionode project... History, architecture, and mostly why. I've been coming to realize that we're nibbling around the edges of a new kind of information appliance... open.substack.com/pub/microshi...

open.substack.com

A Cloud on Wheels

Meet Bionode - archivist, production studio, info survival pod, comm center, and geek workstation built into a hand truck

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

@nudibranch.bsky.social #Nudivember A Melibe leonina from a few years ago, invited aboard my boat while docked in Anacortes....

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

My dad was on the maiden voyage of the liner America in August 1940 and did some beautiful 8mm film of this part of the world... Including shore time in Port-au-Prince, Havana, and St Thomas. That's what started my digitizing business. This is a postcard that was in the collection of memorabilia

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

In insane times, we have to refine our tools. I've never thought of myself as a "prepper" per se, but building all my geek systems onto a hand truck feels like a really good idea. A distant descendant of BEHEMOTH now under construction in my lab... microship.com/meet-bionode/

microship.com

Meet Bionode - Nomadic Research Labs

A Mobile Minilab by Steven K. Roberts Nomadic Research Labs Introducing an information toolkit and cognitive prosthesis built into a hand truck… with 14TB of NAS, video and audio production, sensor su...

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

Bionodal branding, using a beautiful artifact from about 30 years ago -- something that began life as quarter inch stainless steel plate and was cut with wire EDM at a friend's machine shop in Chicago, attached with 3M High Bond to the soundbar.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

I know I haven't talked about the big picture of this project yet, but here's another close up... The PiKVM is great at some things but not so much at local console. Fixed this with series connected cheapie for "manual and auto" modes, selecting local console devices or complex network stuff.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

More blinkies! Third Pi in the cluster now alive - installed to SD and then cloned image to 1 TB SSD and changed boot order. And the KVM is working after lots of hair pulling.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

PiKVM headbutting this weekend, complex and counterintuitive. But it is well clamped to a rack shelf and now blinking.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

Observing elevated plasma concentrations of Atrial Natriuretic Peptide after nocturnal AFib episodes, correlated with my cat's refusal to engage with adhesive CPAP-adjunct lip tape residue, I created a retrospective study on potential Jacobsonian diagnostic modality. 🧪 microship.com/feline-afib-...

microship.com

Feline AFib Detection - Nomadic Research Labs

Retrospective Atrial Fibrillation Detection via Feline Jacobsonian Substrate Analysis of Nocturnal Adhesive Artifacts Steven K. Roberts, Nomadic Research Labs, with Isabel and Alice Abstract In a long...

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

A random moment from 40 years ago, east Texas, on the road with the Winnebiko

Sign in texas, 1984, road construction next 5.051 mi.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Current state of the Winnebiko 2 console, which I moved into the shop yesterday while clearing a workspace for the new project. I've always really liked this version, which covered about 6,000 mi on both coasts of the US.

Current photo of console from the Winnebiko 2 computerized recumbent bicycle, circa 1986

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Been swamped with a new project (still in stealth mode), digitizing, and reacting with dread to the goings on that dominate the news. Now and then, we just need a bit of sanity preserving humor. Isabelle, who is now 15, wrote a book. Lead photo AI, writing biological. microship.com/feline-exist...

microship.com

Feline Existential Angst - Nomadic Research Labs

Isabelle the cat is writing a philosophical trilogy about individual autonomy and the cat's view of self, summarized here along with a photo.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Making things with 20/20 t-slot extrusion... Geek Tinker Toys!

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

I just parked my "prehistory of a technomad" on YouTube, a little under 7 minutes. Plan is to do additional videos spanning the whole adventure epoch (including Deep Geekery), with the main body of the story continuing in text. youtu.be/-RzBPcDYCF0 (And I'm back to work on Substack!)

youtu.be

Prehistory of a Technomad - 1963-1983

YouTube video by Nomadic Research Labs

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

1984. Cold, cold, snow on the banks, tires rushing, trucks changing lanes, ears popping. Deep chill, violent shivers, insane grins, teeth frozen, all lost in the blast of wind. Headlight off to save the battery. If I’m going to kill myself, it might as well be with dramatic intensity...

The beginning of a long day pedaling across Utah in 1984, 100 mi between services. Flying down the pass in the darkness, the wind chill was minus 18.

Map showing riding days in Utah on Computing Across America adventure, 1984

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Fun digitizing some of my own photos for a change... old slide binders and carousels are turning up treasures from those halcyon days. This one is from sometime in 1987, during the Winnebiko 2 era.

Winnebiko 2 computerized recumbent bicycle at a shore, parked in front of an END sign. Taking some time in 1987, about midway during the technomadic adventures.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

A moment on the road in 1991 with Macintosh Portable in the BEHEMOTH bicycle console (controlled by ultrasonic head mouse and handlebar keyboard).

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

It was a treat getting off the rock for a day in America... I have gotten jaded about ferry trips over the past decade. I took a break from working on system design to play tourist. (In the looming darkness of the age in which we find ourselves, the little moments count... I must do more of them.)

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

This is Isabelle, who's now 15. She helps with everything, including lab overload, pain, the dread of imminent autocracy, existential angst, procrastination followed by despair, unkempt adulting, and the annoyance of being biological and finite.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I made the Sunday funnies on September 30th, 1984... With more details in their monthly Enter magazine. Good times.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Another shipment of home movies trundling up I-5 for digitizing...

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Roberts Law of Non-Triviality: “There is an inverse relationship between the number of words required to describe a task and the amount of time required to complete it.” Something to do with the What-How spectrum…

Working on the structural bulkhead in a 30 ft folding trimaran, 1996

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

The Roberts Law of Fractal To-Do List Complexity: “Each item on a list is merely the title of another list.”

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

The Apollo AIR-1 keeps an eye on air quality in the mobile lab, with the VOC level (SEN55) spiking from film cleaner when I scan old movies. I'm adding an automation to turn on the new ventilation fan whenever it decides things are getting unreasonable. this amazing ESP32 box is about 2.5" across.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

I've been noticing how quickly CO2 levels build up in the lab, especially with more than one person in there... not uncommon to push 2000 ppm with visitors (450 is normal outdoor level). This fan retrofit replaces the original equipment piece of junk, and dropped 1700 to 700 in about 15 minutes.

Vortex 2 fan retrofit in cargo trailer mobile laboratory bathroom vent fixture

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Parts of this story are difficult, with relationships, life choices, and a cultural shift that demands surgical precision. I just posted chapter 6, in which our technomadling finds that the shakedown is more complex than expected. open.substack.com/pub/nomadicr...

open.substack.com

Rolling into Dataspace

6 - Geographic and emotional states - a shakedown (October, 1983)

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Just hung this in the mobile lab window for times when I'm recording. This 48 ft trailer is basically a big metal box that would be a Faraday cage if it weren't for this tiny window... and it already has a Zigbee hub, cellular antenna, and security camera. Time for a roof platform!

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

I've been so busy with Nomadic Research Labs editing, digitizing, and election horror that I had not posted a digitizing report since April! Fixed that today, with a piece about the wire recorder including sample audio. Fun paleogeekery... microship.substack.com/p/the-wire-r...

microship.substack.com

The Wire Recorder

Recover audio treasures from the 1940s

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

From real estate to wheel estate, on a micro scale... The adventure begins, shakily in places, but moments on the road are already setting the tone. "Are yew with NASA?" 41 years ago... open.substack.com/pub/nomadicr...

open.substack.com

The First 200 Miles

5 - A creaky beginning with moments auspicious - Columbus-Indianapolis (Oct 1, 1983)

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Rebranded the publication project to Nomadic Research Labs, since that really was the focus through the '80s... and just posted the launch! Enough with the agonizing and planning, now on the road (September 1983), with a send-off in the CompuServe parking lot. open.substack.com/pub/nomadicr...

open.substack.com

The Launch

Chapter 4 - Columbus - Sep 28, 1983

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

New chapter just posted... on the eve of departure. Raw emotion, sleeplessness, and the first loaded test ride at 3 a.m. A blend of excitement and WTF... open.substack.com/pub/nomadicr...

open.substack.com

Poised for the Leap

Chapter 3 - Dublin, Ohio - Sept 27, 1983

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

I have naturally avoided the color orange for the past year or so, but that's not the fault of this Dirona pellucida who was hanging out on a piling here at the port. #nudibranchs #gardenslugsindrag

Dirona pellucida bright orange nudibranch at the Port of Friday Harbor

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

I've been thinking in terms of running Computing Across America chapters on Substack weekly, but that would take 2 years! No reason to not let them run asynchronously... life is short. As a teaser, this photo is from 1987 -- a demo of the bike while visiting GEnie in Rockville, Maryland.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Photo processing across 50 years. Enlarger is from my apartment darkroom (with cheesy line printer art) in 1974-5; copy station with mirrorless Sony is in my current digitizing lab, capturing RAW for Lightroom. I remember dodging and burning in the olden days... versus AI and Photoshop magic now.

Sony mirrorless camera on Kaiser copy stand with fixtures for slide and negative handling, against CRI99 backlight. This is in my media digitizing lab, with a dedicated Mac Mini for Lightroom.

My apartment darkroom in 1974-75, a half century ago. Polishing drum for glossy prints, chemicals, enlarger, and primitive line printer wall art.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Sunbreak at the lab compound today. (Gratuitous filters, but Puppette was murky in all that backlight and the photographer was lazy.) The 48 ft "Delta" media digitizing lab is the one on the right.

Golden retriever in dramatic light on gravel between mobile labs

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Chapter 0 is posted... with notes about the primitive online communities that were coming into focus in the early '80s, as well as the technological context that made the idea compelling (hardwired to the wall, chained to desk, mountains of paper...) nomadicresearchlabs.substack.com/p/prehistory...

nomadicresearchlabs.substack.com

Prehistory of a Technomad

Chapter 0 - a life of paleo-geekery (1963-1983)

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Next in the Computing Across America series on Substack, my six and a half minute video called "Prehistory of a Technomad." This was my DaVinci Resolve learning curve over the past few months, and I'm quite pleased with it, although I now know it's too much work to create video of the entire book.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Feels surreal to be posting stories about freedom and technomadic adventure from 40 years ago... hopefully an occasional antidote to the orange nightmare ahead. Brief intro posted today: nomadicresearchlabs.substack.com/p/the-first-...

nomadicresearchlabs.substack.com

The First Digital Nomad

17,000 miles aboard a geeked-out recumbent bicycle - 1983-1991

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

The point of my Nomadness boat projects was open-ended global voyaging... but I didn't reach escape velocity (despite writing a book by that name). This dreamy photo taken while enroute to Princess Louisa Inlet in 2018 gives me a pang... especially the Canada part. Missed the launch window.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

This is a peek into the passion that drives makers, hackers, and other victims of chronic gizmological obsession. If I could be said to have a “geek manifesto,” then I suppose it would be this. (From 2004, writing about the Microship project...) microship.com/gonzo-engine...

microship.com

Gonzo Engineering - Nomadic Research Labs

A geek manifesto - the passion that drives the hack, the mad bliss of invention, and the engineering process in a nutshell.

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

"The artist steps into the canvas of macro and micro to remind us of scale, giving a high-five to the hyphae while drawing attention to the vast gulf between the ambient humidity in which mildew thrives and the explosive intensity of the blast that sweeps it away." microship.com/artspeak/

microship.com

Artspeak: A Linguistic Showcase - Nomadic Research Labs

Adventures in artspeak, with a playful exploration of installations

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Steven Roberts @nomadness.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

40 years ago in Texas, pushin' west on mah trusty steed, Winnebiko. I was posting tales on CompuServe, writing on a Model 100 and hitching up to pay phones. And now it's time! I am bringing the adventure story back while I still can, with a newsletter from the time machine and video mini-features.

Steven Roberts aboard Winnebiko recumbent bicycle in Texas, 1984

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