Skip to content

Learn

How I turn chaos into capability. Everything I am learning, the repeatable recipes, the ingredients on hand, and what is parked for later. Filter by what stage it is at, or search the whole bench.

Today

What I am learning, building, or evaluating this week.

  1. From-scratch DnB token model

    Learning now

    Training a small pattern model on tokenized drum and bass instead of sampling. Tokens not audio, anticipation as the quality metric.

  2. Realtime voice personas

    Learning nowUsed in project

    A touchtone phone wired to realtime voice models. Latency, turn-taking, and persona switching are the hard parts.

  3. Canvas tear interactions

    Learning nowUsed in project

    Hand-rolled canvas tearing driven by a frame loop for the site threshold. Reduced-motion and fallbacks come first.

  4. Gaussian splatting for real objects

    Learning now

    Turntable capture to a viewable 3D splat. Still learning the reconstruction and the viewer side.

Tracks

Longer threads that could graduate into a course once they are ready to teach.

  1. AI Assembly Line

    Ready to teach

    People learning image workflows and ComfyUI from the ground up · Live

    A structured course built from actually learning the tool the hard way, then turning the confusion into something teachable.

    • Setup + foundations
    • Models, nodes, and workflow basics
    • LoRAs, datasets, and training
    • Prompting, cleanup, and production habits

  2. Creative Tooling

    Ready to teachLearning now

    Designers, animators, and tinkerers who want to build their own helpers · Drafting

    A practical track on making tools for yourself: panels, scripts, workflow helpers, and little systems that reduce friction.

    • Spot the friction
    • Small tool design
    • Prototype the helper
    • Make it useful enough to keep

  3. Workflow Notes

    Try later

    People trying to stay current without drowning in jargon · Planned

    Short, friendly lessons on AI workflows, systems thinking, and practical ways to make new tools less annoying to adopt.

    • Useful AI basics
    • How to evaluate a tool quickly
    • Building habits instead of hype
    • Glossary-first learning

Recipes

Steps I can run again, or hand to someone else.

  1. Local voice loop

    Ready to teachUsed in project

    A phone call answered entirely by a local model, no cloud.

    • Capture audio over SIP and RTP
    • Transcribe with whisper.cpp on CUDA
    • Answer with a local LLM via Ollama
    • Speak with Piper or Kokoro TTS

  2. ComfyUI image pipeline

    Ready to teach

    A repeatable image workflow I can hand to someone else.

    • Pick the base model and core nodes
    • Add LoRAs and control
    • Batch, then clean up
    • Save the graph as the recipe

  3. After Effects helper panel

    IngredientUsed in project

    A small panel that removes one repetitive motion task.

    • Find the friction in the timeline
    • Script the repetitive step
    • Wrap it in a panel
    • Keep it only if it earns its place

  4. Twenty-minute tool evaluation

    Ready to teachReference

    A fast yes or no on whether a new tool is worth adopting.

    • State what it must do
    • Run one real task end to end
    • Note where it broke
    • Decide: adopt, track, or drop

Ingredients

Models, libraries, and patterns held in working memory, ready to drop into a build.

  1. vasturiano/3d-force-graph

    IngredientReference

    3D Graph Libraries & Tools

    three.js + WebGL force-directed component. The library powering most slick Obsidian-style 3D demos.

  2. Obsidian 3D Graph (Apoo711)

    IngredientReference

    3D Graph Libraries & Tools

    UX patterns worth copying: per-type styling, physics sliders, filter queries.

  3. InfraNodus

    IngredientReference

    3D Graph Libraries & Tools

    Force Atlas layout with AI-flagged semantic gaps. Useful reference for surfacing the holes in a corpus, not just the connections.

  4. GraphRAG Workbench

    IngredientReference

    3D Graph Libraries & Tools

    Microsoft's community-colored 3D visualization for GraphRAG. Solid prior art on how to render retrieval-augmented graphs.

  5. Cosmograph

    IngredientReference

    3D Graph Libraries & Tools

    Raw WebGL alternative built for scale. 100k+ nodes without the framerate falling apart.

  6. AlexW00/obsidian-3d-graph

    IngredientReference

    3D Graph Libraries & Tools

    Alternative 3D-graph plugin for Obsidian. Different design choices than the Apoo711 version, worth comparing.

  7. Mark Kashef hive mind

    Ingredient

    Second-Brain & Agentic Patterns

    The closest public parallel to the voice-operator architecture I'm running. Multi-agent personal assistant with persistent memory.

  8. TheSethRose/Memory-Knowledge-Graph-3D

    IngredientReference

    Second-Brain & Agentic Patterns

    Memory-MCP plus 3D visualization pattern. Reference implementation for tying agent memory to a navigable graph.

  9. Obsidian + Claude Code via MCP

    Ingredient

    Second-Brain & Agentic Patterns

    Dominant 2026 pattern for personal knowledge management. Markdown vault as the source of truth, agent reads/writes through MCP.

  10. Physics tuning beats custom rendering

    Ingredient

    Principles & Insights

    Aesthetic principle. Most 3D-graph polish comes from the physics simulation parameters, not the shader work. Tune force strength, charge, link distance, damping before rebuilding the renderer.

  11. Karpathy LLM Wiki pattern

    Ingredient

    Principles & Insights

    April 2026 pattern: organize prompts, tools, and reference material as a wiki the model itself navigates. Less prompt engineering, more documentation engineering.

  12. UMAP precompute strategy

    Ingredient

    Principles & Insights

    For our constellation: precompute a UMAP projection of the embedding space, cache the layout, render fast. Don't run dimensional reduction at view time.

  13. PKM atomic-notes principle

    Ingredient

    Principles & Insights

    One concept per node. The temptation is to fold related thoughts into a parent note; the discipline is to split them and link. Atomicity is the property that makes a graph navigable.

  14. Frictionless capture beats rendering polish

    Ingredient

    Principles & Insights

    Industry insight. Tools that make capture trivially fast, then process with AI later, win against tools with slick rendering and friction at the capture step. Voice-operator over fancy graph editor.

  15. Agent quality first, viz second

    Ingredient

    Principles & Insights

    Mark Kashef specifically. The graph is a window into something; if the something underneath isn't good, no rendering rescues it. Build the agent, then visualize what it knows.

Reference

Creative-coding and web heritage cloned locally and cataloged for reference.

  1. dissimulate/Tearable-Cloth

    Reference

    dissimulate · 2013

    The original tearable cloth simulation. Verlet integration, point masses, and constraints rendered to canvas. Drag, pull, tear. The whole genre traces back to this.

  2. pushmatrix.github.io/tearable

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp (pushmatrix) · 2026

    The most-shared web reference of the cloth demo. Modernized React/Vite rebuild as 'Tearable UI' that brought the original interaction back to a contemporary stack. Source not public; the live demo IS the artifact.

  3. javeke/ripit

    Reference

    javeke · 2026

    A modern rebuild of the cloth simulation in the browser, with credits explicitly tracing back through pushmatrix to dissimulate. Useful as a study of how a single interactive idea propagates across thirteen years of web technology.

  4. pushmatrix/textstring

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    Physics-based text strings. Letters that hang, swing, and respond as physical objects on a string. The most-starred experiment of the bunch. Reads like the prototype for any 'words behave like objects' interaction since.

  5. pushmatrix/canvasify

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    Turns 2D artwork into 3D models on canvas. A small example of the 2D-to-3D extrusion technique that shows up later in tools like Spline and Rive.

  6. pushmatrix/audio

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    A step-sequencer driven by Google Maps markers. The pin you drop on the map is the note you play. An example of treating an unrelated input modality (a map) as a music interface.

  7. pushmatrix/earth

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    WebGL experiment for rendering earth. A small foundational reference for the now-ubiquitous globe-on-a-website effect.

  8. pushmatrix/moon

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    A multiplayer WebGL space adventure. Lightweight, client-rendered, multi-user web game. A working reference for browser-based shared 3D space.

  9. pushmatrix/glitch

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    Art project from Stockholm Art Hack Day. Corrupts data with plaintext input. An aesthetic of intentional damage as creative material.

  10. pushmatrix/film

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    A short demo of HTML5 webcam plus making a filmstrip. An early example of treating the live camera as a creative input rather than a video-call surface.

  11. pushmatrix/tron.js

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    WebGL implementation of lightcycle goodness. A reference for browser-based grid-trail games and the visual language of glowing-trail mechanics.

  12. pushmatrix/helloworld

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    A visualizer and tweet wall for international hackfests. Tweets land on a wall based on user input. Reference for live-feed visualization and event-driven canvas display.

  13. pushmatrix/marionettevr

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    Playing around with marionettes in VR. Built with UE4. An exploration of physical-puppet metaphors as VR interaction primitive.

  14. pushmatrix/virtualshopify

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    A 3D shopping experience. Direct prior art for the Whistle Stop project (workbook entry) -- different format, same instinct. Worth studying for what worked, what didn't, and what the form needs that the 2018 Web didn't have.

  15. pushmatrix/glTF-Sample-Models

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp (fork)

    A fork of the glTF reference-model collection. Useful as a known-good test set when standing up a new 3D pipeline.

  16. pushmatrix/aframe

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp (fork)

    Building blocks for the VR Web. Fork of Mozilla's A-Frame, the declarative HTML-style framework for browser VR/AR scenes.

  17. pushmatrix/fikascript

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    Swedish JavaScript. A whimsical programming-language localization that swaps English keywords for Swedish ones. Useful both as a joke and as a prompt for 'what does language look like outside its default tongue.'

  18. pushmatrix/mini-dashing

    Reference

    Daniel Beauchamp

    Dashing without the backend. Lightweight prototype for static dashboards. A useful pattern for status displays that don't need a server.

Review

Grouped terms I come back to.

  1. Core Concepts

    Reference

    The meaning-search and retrieval basics behind vector workflows, graphs, and modern memory systems.

    • Vector
    • Meaning-space
    • Vector DB
    • Graph
    • Graph DB
    • Metadata
    • GraphRAG

  2. Diagram / Explanation Stuff

    Reference

    The simple doc and diagram tools that make technical systems easier to explain.

    • Mermaid
    • Flowchart
    • Markdown

  3. MiroFish / Swarm / Simulation

    Reference

    The agent-simulation concepts behind building a fake social world from seed material.

    • MiroFish
    • Swarm
    • Seed Material
    • Simulation Round
    • OASIS
    • CAMEL-AI
    • Zep
    • Graphiti
    • ReportAgent

  4. MiroFish Stack

    Reference

    The practical app stack pieces sitting underneath the simulation product.

    • Flask
    • Vue
    • Vite
    • OpenAI-compatible API
    • Qwen-plus

  5. Jetson / Local Voice Stack

    Reference

    The hardware and system-level terms around running local models and voice tools on Jetson.

    • Jetson Orin Nano 8GB
    • JetPack
    • MAXN SUPER
    • tegrastats
    • NVMe
    • microSD

  6. Phone / Voice Tools

    Reference

    The telephony and local speech stack pieces behind an on-device voice system.

    • Asterisk
    • PJSIP
    • SIP
    • DTMF
    • ATA
    • FXS
    • whisper.cpp
    • llama.cpp
    • OHF Piper
    • Riva

  7. NVIDIA / Speech Models

    Reference

    The NVIDIA speech and agent-model names worth remembering from this thread.

    • NemoClaw
    • PersonaPlex
    • Moshi

  8. Google / Visual Tools

    Reference

    The image and research tools from Google that keep showing up in the workflow conversation.

    • Nano Banana
    • Gemini 2.5 Flash Image
    • Nano Banana Pro
    • NotebookLM
    • Google Slides Help me visualize

  9. Team Workspace Tools Mentioned

    Reference

    The docs, wiki, and lightweight-app tools that came up as candidates for team knowledge spaces.

    • Notion
    • Coda
    • Confluence
    • Slite
    • ClickUp
    • Fibery
    • Guru

  10. Web Design & Motion

    Reference

    The motion and web-design stack behind this site, in plain English. Smooth scroll, parallax, the fake-3D shelves, and the libraries that do the work, so I can explain any of it to a dev later.

    • Hero parallax
    • Parallax
    • Smooth scrolling
    • Lenis
    • WebGL
    • three.js
    • Rive
    • React
    • React Bits
    • Motion (Framer Motion)
    • GSAP
    • Scroll-velocity skew
    • CSS fake 3D (trompe l'oeil)
    • Next.js
    • View Transitions
    • GLB

Later

Things to add, compare, or try when there is room.

  1. React Bits text reveal

    Try later

    A restrained text-reveal component, restyled fully to Workbook tokens. One tactile moment, not a system.

  2. WebGL project constellation

    Try later

    A spatial map of projects you can move through. Only if it earns the depth, and always with a static fallback.

  3. Lottie web micro-interactions

    Try laterReference

    Lightweight vector motion for small web moments. Familiar from past web work, want to use it more deliberately.

  4. Kinetic language field

    Try later

    A full-bleed flickering wall of my own project fragments reading as abstract video. Atmospheric, never competing with the arrival.

Glossary

Full glossary →

Plain-English first.

  1. Prompt

    The instruction you give a tool so it knows what you want.

  2. Context

    The extra background an AI tool gets before it answers.

  3. Workflow

    A repeatable sequence of steps that gets a job done.

  4. Automation

    Getting a tool to handle repetitive steps for you.

  5. Agent

    An AI tool that can do more than answer a question, like take steps or use other tools.

  6. MCP

    A way for AI tools to connect to files, apps, and outside systems.

Learning principles

  • Plain language before jargon.
  • Useful first, impressive second.
  • Short modules with real examples.
  • Glossary terms tied to actual work, not theory theater.