Guarding My Git Forge Against AI Scrapers
In August 2024, one of my roommates and partners messaged the apartment group chat, saying she noticed the internet was slow again at our place, and my forgejo was unable to render any page in under 15 seconds. i investigated, thinking it would be a trivial little problem to solve. Soon enough, however, i would […]
Smartphone Without a Battery (2022)
How to wire and run an old smartphone without a battery. Intro I have an old Samsung Galaxy S5 that I wanted to use to run my 3D printer. There is a great project called octo4a that runs OctoPrint on Android devices. octo4a Using an old smartphone for OctoPrint is a perfect fit – it […]
The tiniest yet real telescope I’ve built
Nov 18 2025 A “relaxation” project, mostly drawn on planes to and from Norway this month, where I had to travel to setup a digital art installation in Kristiansand with friends from the digital art collective Lab212. It has been drawn with one major constraint: it must fit in the inner pocket of my jacket […]
“Are you the one?” is free money
OK, so this is niche. One of my wife’s guilty pleasures is reality TV, usually ones centred around dating – the more American, the better. By extension, I absorb some of this noise and I’m happy to admit I can sometimes get invested. At one point, she was (let’s face it, we were) watching a […]
Jonathan Blow has spent the past decade designing 1,400 puzzles for you
For many independent developers, of course, spending nine years on a single game idea is an unthinkable luxury. Financial constraints mean many game ideas have to be shipped “as soon as you get to the point where it’s fun and shippable,” Blow said, leading to games that “kind of converge to a certain level of […]
Google De-Indexed My Bear Blog and I Don’t Know Why
07 Nov, 2025 Preamble: The whole affair is Google’s fault and not Bear Blog’s. Huge thanks to Herman—Bear Blog’s founder and dev—for his patience and help. A month after I started my first Bear blog at blog.james-zhan.com, my blog was entirely de-indexed by Google for no apparent reason: I have since migrated to journal.james-zhan.com (you […]
CRISPR fungus: Protein-packed, sustainable, and tastes like meat
November 26, 2025 Researchers used CRISPR to enhance a naturally meat-like fungus. A picture of Fusarium venenatum. Photo Source: Xiao Liu Researchers have successfully used CRISPR gene editing technology to create a fungi strain that is highly efficient, more nutritious, and significantly more sustainable than its natural counterpart. The fungus Fusarium venenatum already stands out […]
Laying out the 404 Media zine
I write a lot these days, but my path into journalism, going way back to J-School, was through layout. For years, I was a graphic designer at a number of newspapers—some fairly small, some quite large. I was a card-carrying member of the Society for News Design. It was one of my biggest passions, and […]
Nokia N900 Necromancy
Building a fake battery, adding a USB-C port, booting from SD card, and giving a new life to a classic Linux smartphone. My friend Dima sent me his old-school classic Nokia N900. The battery is very old, and it does not boot as-is. So naturally, I wanted to see if I can resurrect it. Step […]
Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. United States leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will promote United States national and economic security and dominance across many domains. Pursuant to Executive Order 14179 of January 23, […]