Grok Bot beat Final Fantasy
My AI assistant played the original NES Final Fantasy start to finish in an emulator. I picked the shops, the routes and the fights. It did the rest, and beat Chaos on the first try.
A journal · since 1995
Zeros & Ones, and everything in between.
Networks and data centers, code and home automation — plus boats, backyard builds and good music.
“The tech community is extremely connected and small. Make friends! There are so many great conversations waiting to happen.”
Featured · suspicious.org
suspicious.org
A retro SGI IRIX-style desktop in your browser. My personal corner of the web, running since 1998: a working terminal, games and a music player on a nostalgic IRIX desktop. Built partly for my kids, and still growing.
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Grok Bot beat Final Fantasy
My AI assistant played the original NES Final Fantasy start to finish in an emulator. I picked the shops, the routes and the fights. It did the rest, and beat Chaos on the first try.
From the journal
All writing →
Time on the shed
The shed is nearly complete. What started as a simple shed to store some tools, turned into a pool house. If there was one specific thing that was accomplished during 2020; at least on the home front, it would be this shed. It’s a 10×12’ gabled roof wooden building that sits off the ground and…
March 9
As spring nearly arrives, I thought it was a good time to upgrade my desk, get some more standing time in — and treat work as a task: get it done, and get away from it. The standing desk seems to already set that in motion for me. Went all out with the Uplift desk…
New project · spin.truman.net
spin
A browser DJ studio. A cozy DJ room in the browser: two Tru 1200 MK3 controller decks and a Nova 9000 mixer with BPM sync, key lock, hot cues, loops and beat FX. There’s a Tru Beat drum machine and sampler, a mic with Daft Punk-style robot voice FX, and live radio (WBGO, WQXR and more).
Elsewhere on the web
spin
A browser DJ studio. A cozy DJ room in the browser: two Tru 1200 MK3 controller decks and a Nova 9000 mixer with BPM sync, key lock, hot cues, loops and beat FX. There’s a Tru Beat drum machine and sampler, a mic with Daft Punk-style robot voice FX, and live radio (WBGO, WQXR and more).
suspicious.org
A retro SGI IRIX-style desktop in your browser. A personal project running since 1998: a working terminal, games and a music player on a nostalgic IRIX desktop. Built partly for my kids.
Options for Kids
An anime-guided options-trading tutorial for kids. A beginner guide to options written for a 13-year-old, led by the anime guide Nova. It walks through real SPY examples, with quizzes along the way.
TDP-43 Research Tracker
A public TDP-43 research tracker. Follows the drug pipeline, clinical trials and new papers on TDP-43, plus nightly explainer videos.
trubird
An independent corner of the internet. A small collection of curious things and quiet ideas, with graphite studies of birds perched on improbable machines.
More writing
The full journal →- My First Month with Zo Computer: A Honest ReviewA personal server in the cloud with AI that actually does things — my honest review after a month.
- Partnering with Google Cloud Video1 pick to listen to.
- Random – Week Jan 23 2022It’s been a while since my last update. It’s a new year, and overall I am optimistic about ideas and new developments. Here are some things I have been up to / thinking about: Doing a lot more Home Automation with Home Assistant. This is a great system for automating all the smart things in…
- The Week AheadI am excited about the upcoming week. It is a pivotal moment, personally and professionally. The 117th World Series starts on Tuesday in Houston. We do all this work in technology, to get to this point. The see the season reach a climactic conclusion. To have winners. To have a reason to try harder than…
- Memorial WeekendManually trenched the backyard (with a shovel… ouch!) about 60 feet in length to have electricians come and install ridged metal conduit to my shed for power. A few of the electricians that came to quote the job tried to talk me out of using RMC, and instead going direct burial wire. That seemed nuts…
- Monday RecapSome random thoughts on things: Most of the SPACs that I followed in 2020, have had a rough start in 2021. EV companies have also pulled back and there is certainly enough to be said that most of them are not making profits. I continue to be a supporter of TSLA; actually ended up trading…
- Latest – 4/28/21Played The Last of Us Remastered and The Last of Us 2 on PS4. I rarely play games, but when I stumbled onto these games – and I had a brand new PS4 in a box for nearly a year, I knew I had something to try out. These games are incredible and have more…
- NFT PurchaseI was interested in the process of NFT purchases and how they work in DeFi transactions. Tonight I purchased The Kings of Leon, When You See Yourself NFT. The process worked well for me, as I have some experience with Ethereum, wallets, transaction fees, gas, mp3s and all the associated understandings. The album sounds great.…