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Patrick H Madden

@patrickhmadden.bsky.social
289 followers 199 following 275 posts

Computer scientist, EDA and optimization. I build guitars from kits and write apps in my spare time.

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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Thanks, @tomtomorrow.bsky.social — in this Long National Nightmare, it’s nice to not feel so alone, and to have someone share a dream of a better world.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Guitar wiring day. Firebird kit with triple P90s. I’m having to improvise a bit with some push-pull pots. We’ll see how it goes….
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
I added a kill switch to one of my strats (an inexpensive kit build). The current state of the world requires a bit of Tom Morello action (and some Henry Rollins too).
I drilled out a section of the body to fit the push-button switch, and then made a channel to the main control cavity, so that I could run the wires.  One wire goes to the pickup selector (ground), and the other is connected to the output wire.

The pick guard was something that I got from Amazon for $20.  Crazy.  Triple hum buckers, each with the ability to coil split, and then there's also a push-on-push-off ground button.The back side of the pick guard.  I've mounted the kill switch (a push button), but have not wired it up yet.The front side, after installing.  Push the jolly, candy-like button, to ground out the signal wire.  The careful alt text reader might get the reference for the jolly, candy-like button.

And the very careful picture viewer might notice a Shepard Fairey print of Andy Gill, looking down upon the guitar approvingly.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Recommended reading; the author is local. It’s relevant to the current moment, to put it mildly. TruthIsPublishing.com
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
What percentage of voters said that racism and misogyny were their main issues? Zero percent? Wow, that's great! So wonderful that everyone tells the truth about what motivates them, and that neither of these were concerns.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Building guitars from kits is a lot of fun. The kits themselves are dirt cheap, less than a hundred bucks each on average. With a bit of (very enjoyable) work, you can wind up with a unique guitar. I’ve got eight builds in the queue, which should keep me busy for the year.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
I got to meet Rosalynn Carter in the summer of 1976. We were driving through Plains, GA, on the way to Florida. Stopped in at a grocery store, and she was there getting bread. She signed a peanut bag. I have the deepest respect and gratitude for Rosalyn and Jimmy. They were the absolute best.
Rosalynn Carter's signature on a peanut bag.  She was awesome.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
It's been a while since I built an analytic placer. It looks like I still remember how to do it! Rust is making a lot of things very easy.
Analytic placement results for a simple mesh structure; given an initial random arrangement of the vertices, simple interpolation moves everything back the proper grid.

If you're reading this alt text...  I've been working on circuit placement for a heck of a long time, and there's been a lot of interest in fully automated mixed size placement lately.  I had a paper on this about 20 years ago, but I think I was ahead of my time.  Seems like the time is now.

The new tool combines a few different techniques.  I needed a simple analytic placer as a subroutine, so I knocked it together quickly.  On constructed test data, it's doing the right thing, so I'll assume it'll do the right thing on real circuits.

I'm rewriting everything in Rust; makes a whole bunch of stuff easier.  Really good programming language, the first meaningful step forward since K&R C.

C++ and Java can go take a hike.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
First big snow of the season. A good day to camp out at home with Rust, KaHyPar, and a new implementation of hill climbing with trees.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Onigiri assembled. There are a ton of things I miss about Japan, but picking up a snack at the 7-11 is towards the top of the list. Pocari Sweat and canned coffee were pretty great too.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
It’s Murakami onigiri time!
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Seems to work. What about a picture from my research? KaHyPar is pretty cool, and I'm splicing it in to a mixed size placement engine.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 06/07/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Day 17 Traffic, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 05/07/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Day 16 The Cars
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 04/07/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Day 15 Gang of Four, Entertainment!
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 03/07/2024
Traveling
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 03/07/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Day 14 Robin Trower, Bridge of Sighs
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 02/07/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Day 13? Maybe? Bill Frisell & Vernon Reid, Smash & Scatteration
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 02/07/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Day 12? Maybe? Wet Leg, Wet Leg
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 30/06/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Kings X, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska Day 11? If there's anything you can count on from me, it's that you can't count on me to be consistent!
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 29/06/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Blue Oyster Cult, Fire of Unknown Origin Day 10? I need to get better about spouting regularly. Spout 20 albums that have influenced you. Just the cover - no description. Join at any time. Please use alt text.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Emerson, Lake, and Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery Spout 20 albums that have influenced you. Just the cover - no description. Join at any time. Please use alt text. Day 8 (I missed earlier days, but will catch up)
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 26/06/2024
#20Albums20Days #20DayAlbumChallenge Laurie Anderson, Big Science Spout 20 albums that have influenced you. Just the cover - no description. Join at any time. Please use alt text. Day 7 (I missed earlier days, but will catch up)
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 04/04/2024
Water slide decals are on the headstock, and are getting buried in tru-oil. Pretty happy with how this guitar is turning out.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 22/02/2024
I'm working on software tools for integrated circuit design, and I've switched to the programming language Rust. Rust lets me easily generate graphics, so now I get to see what my code is doing. And you get to see it too!
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 05/12/2023
Testing images, uploading directly....
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 05/12/2023
Trying from the Spoutible phone app. Looks like image attachments don’t make it to Mastodon? BlueSky images are cropped and downscaled.
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 05/12/2023
Excellent. Looks like things go from Spoutible to BlueSky and Mastodon (or at least Mastodon.social... I'd prefer to use my ACM Mastodon account, but beggars can't be choosers!).
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 05/12/2023
Dual Spout from Spoutible time... Does this go BlueSky and Mastodon? Both? I'd buy that for a dollar!
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 04/12/2023
Over on the Bad Place, I can still find out news that I'm not seeing elsewhere. To get the word out, #Dada is back together and touring, and have some concert dates in 2023. Yay! dadaforever.com
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 04/12/2023
#GuitarOfTheDay is a Gretsch G2627T. Three humbuckers, Bigsby, made in Indonesia. I name all of my guitars, and this one is Jimmy (Gretsch calls this color "Georgia Green.").
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Patrick H Madden @patrickhmadden.bsky.social · 03/12/2023
#GuitarOfTheDay - I'm playing a Harley-Benton Les Paul kit that I built. The kit was about $80, and I spent another $50 on paint and whatnot. Lots of fun to build, and it plays pretty nicely too!
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