voxel

Low bit and retro developer

itch.io: https://voxel.itch.io
blog: https://thomaspurnell.com
storage capacity: 1.44MB
pronouns: he/him

Public Key

npub1q6hhuente686t039lsj75cen650kufxyvyulufq2cv3ta0wegcwq8lkcxa

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqdtm7ve4uara9hcjlcf02vvea28mwynzxzw07ys9vxg47hhv5v8qpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsgtx7qc

Publishing to

relay.snort.social

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1q6hhuente686t039lsj75cen650kufxyvyulufq2cv3ta0wegcwq8lkcxa

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Last Notes

2026-06-17 02:56:52 CEST

Rosie #dog got a professional haircut and came home with a bow in her hair
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/116/762/717/872/535/444/original/0111bc3d7850872e.jpeg

2026-06-01 03:36:25 CEST

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looking forward to a guide on Shibari calculus

2026-05-30 02:38:58 CEST

Feeling extremely targeted by this gift that seems to be a boardgame about my life
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/116/660/732/978/024/402/original/a9425fcbfe79cc93.jpg

2026-05-14 12:27:49 CEST

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will the extra 110kg make a noticeable difference to sailing?

2026-05-03 17:34:05 CEST

Gemini is *almost* perfect for browsing on retrocomputers. The SSL requirement is a big hurdle though. I wanted to use AmiGemini to browse gemini capsules on my :amiga: #Amiga which doesn't quite have enough RAM for SSL support, so I modified a local nginx instance to proxy the requests and do all the SSL nonsense. I'd prefer to keep it all happening on the Amiga but this is a good compromise.
Blogged the config in case it's helpful to someone someday, but please read the whole article first if you plan on using it.
https://www.thomaspurnell.com/020_AmiGemini_nginx_forward_proxy/gemini_nginx_forward_proxy.html
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/116/511/368/528/220/759/original/a558424247b7893f.png

2026-04-25 04:15:35 CEST

Really pleased that #audacity audio editor can export :amiga: #amiga compatible audio samples in the year 2026
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/116/462/929/425/345/751/original/90aa10efcae26b42.png
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2026-03-21 02:46:13 CET

My second hand kobo from 2014 has always had miserable battery life but lately would randomly freeze, sometimes for *days*. Finally switched out the battery last night and found the culprit of the freezes, one of the chips was slightly dislodged and making intermittent contact. Currently my only functional soldering iron has a tip as thick as a thumb, but I managed to reattach the chip and can now hopefully enjoy weeks of books between charges.
Also I don't recommend trying to remove glued down lithium batteries at 2am because a possum started hissing outside my window and I thought the old battery was going nuclear
#righttorepair
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/116/264/608/670/490/242/original/59369188d7b405bf.jpg
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2026-03-16 00:37:06 CET

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this sounds a lot more clearcut than how I'd personally interpreted the rule. Maybe the jackpotmaxxing rule could be clarified to literally say 'no AI discussions on public local timeline', else I think this will be a recurring issue.
As currently written the rule reads to me as only 'AI promotion' or 'AI good' posts forbidden.

2026-03-04 01:23:10 CET

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ignoring the device for a moment, what the heck is going on with that bird?

2025-11-01 19:57:31 CET

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I read blindness and it gave me a real chill. What a great book - though I did have to stop to look up if it was intentionally written in such a strange style without punctuation, or if I'd downloaded the output of a broken OCR

2025-10-11 00:52:58 CEST

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two I've already read, so a well aimed list. Thanks!

2025-10-10 16:18:09 CEST

Travelling soon, please give me your #fiction recommendations! I normally read military flavoured hard SciFi, but I'm open to all suggestions. Normally I don't get much of a response to such requests, so PLEASE recommend me something to read, especially if you've written something yourself #bookstodon

2025-09-08 07:40:46 CEST

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even kobolds deserve to rave

2025-07-03 08:05:23 CEST

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this is the kind I have. Do the handles unscrew so you can adjust the leverage?

2025-05-11 03:47:30 CEST

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trying to imagine what elf's games would have actually been like if they'd had this kind of soundtrack 😳

2025-05-07 06:12:28 CEST

Had a #krita morning and drew a 90s scifi anime lady. 70% happy with her. #theWorkshop
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/114/464/560/650/809/484/original/9fd81fc234256c7e.png
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/114/464/573/735/374/485/original/898194f7a4bcbaff.mp4

2025-05-02 11:07:03 CEST

For reasons not truly known to anyone, one of our state funded free-to-air tv channels* broadcasts The Fifth Element, five times in a row, on May 5th. Last year they only showed it once and people were offended, so this year it's once again five times in a row.
*SBS Viceland.
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2025-05-02 06:28:30 CEST

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how do you detect zinc screws? I have some (supposedly) steel screws that barely respond to a magnet, so I've no idea how I'd work out which was which

2025-04-27 02:22:00 CEST

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thank you! I think I'd seen this before but somehow assumed it wouldn't apply to user avatars. I just tried it and it worked
For the record, the option I toggled is the last one shown here, which has disabled animated avatars
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/114/407/064/298/406/399/original/2700d4619f47dd2f.png

2025-04-27 02:14:11 CEST

The ability to hide media you don't want to see on #mastodon is one of my favourite features - is there a way to do this for user avatars too? I don't want to resort to blocking someone just for having a distracting animated avatar with a flashing background, but I'd prefer not to see it.

2025-04-27 01:22:45 CEST

I recently bought a 3D printer, which for most people is probably a solution looking for a problem to solve. Much like generative AI, I don't think 3DP is particularly useful to most people.
But as with genAI, there's a real authorial sense of proprietorship to the outputs for many people. Someone that downloads a model dragon, perhaps scales it a little, and hits print will act as if they've performed some kind of creative act. Just the same as the 'artists' who feel that they've really made art by tweaking their AI prompt for a couple of minutes.
Local markets and maker faires are slowly being overrun with stalls selling articulated dragons designed by an artist but then printed ad infinitum by printer owners who feel that by choosing which colour to print in, they've had transformative input into the design process.
👴✊☁️
#rant

2025-04-09 07:58:24 CEST

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I use and adore Mesen2, primarily for the incredible debugging tools. It's a multisystem emulator and so probably not the right choice for informing design of your own emulator, but for me it's an essential nesdev tool

2025-03-31 11:55:34 CEST

I have a bit of a #famicom collection. I don't chase the pristine cartridges and pay a fortune, I'm opportunistic and grab the cheaper 'well-loved' carts. Most of them are damaged in some way and have grime that can't be easily removed without risking cracking the shells. You can see that here on the side seams and how the label is peeling away at the top.
I'm planning a little web/video project to share my love of 'medium-condition game cartridges' and have been taking some test shots.
#nes
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/114/256/438/335/400/827/original/15398af55ccbfb7e.mp4

2025-03-30 10:05:58 CEST

Slow copying some files to an old laptop and decided to make some labels for my general use #floppydisks
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/114/250/339/482/408/588/original/5c644087fa263ac7.jpg
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2025-03-30 08:13:30 CEST

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did you know worlds-most-popular-kids-game Roblox 'borrowed' Bob's 'oof' sound from this game as their default death sound for many years? There's so many kids that recognise it as 'the roblox sound', and it even migrated from there into music and meme videos, until Tommy Tallarico finally got them to admit they'd taken it without permission

2025-01-30 18:44:28 CET

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but most importantly, did you manage to open the jar?

2024-09-08 07:46:23 CEST

Hah, today I learnt that the wireframe 'CGI' in Escape from New York, used for Snake Plissken to make a stealthy glider entry into the lawless prison island by air, was actually 'faked' by building a model of Manhattan covered in reflective tape. In 1981 this was the cheaper solution for a movie with limited budget
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/100/334/511/463/382/original/0aca30dee466eebd.mp4
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2024-09-04 06:55:50 CEST

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I was playing the #famicom port of #wizardry emulated on my 3ds handheld, but took a break from it after hearing a rumour that I might be getting a certain gift on father's day (September in Australia) and guess what just showed up today!
Once again I'm faced with save files potentially almost as old as myself. Tempted to keep ガイア (Gaia?) the 15 year old level 28 Dwarven Samurai with outrageous stats and loot
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/113/077/406/338/870/982/original/9037c5a107d05770.jpg
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2024-08-19 11:41:50 CEST

I'm trying to learn more about these (anti ESD?) thin tips on signal pads, full width on power pads. Any hints?
If you zoom in closely to my blurry picture, pins 1, 16 and 30 are wide almost all the way to the edge of the board, whereas the others are shorter, but then have a tinnny thin strip that extends to the edge
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/112/987/999/438/101/639/original/84dcbf9b4880ded4.jpg

2024-08-02 12:39:51 CEST

Started playing the #nes / #famicom version of Wizardry, an ancient grid based dungeon crawler. Though I'm sure there are more complete maps online, I'm making my own as I play and it's as much fun as the game itself. The game is pretty sneaky and has silent teleports, hidden doors, one way doors, and magically dark areas with zero visibility that require you to bump your face into the walls to map it out 😊
https://assets.merveilles.town/media_attachments/files/112/891/947/466/467/700/original/2557211e7d55f9a7.jpg
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