Vitorio Miliano

nfc.toys, meetup.design, narrativesearch.design
tapto.click
e-paper.name/tag
janvwhite.org, editingbydesign.org, editingby.design, mastering.graphics
austinux.org
canoncat.net
unrealty.net
fauxlexas.wtf
calzone.computer

This is a chronological index of work. For context, see my personal site at vitor.io.

2023

November

  1. Iteratively tested an inexpensive 4" SPI/HDMI touchscreen display which ran on older versions of Raspberry Pi OS, until it was able to run on the latest version, Bookworm, which had done away with most custom video and touchscreen configuration the display relied on. GitHub, https://github.com/goodtft/LCD-show/issues/352 (last updated December 12, 2023)

August

  1. Preserved the Flash-based museum kiosk for "Diatoms: One-Celled Wonders," part of the "Explore Evolution" exhibit in the Hall of Biodiversity at the Texas Natural Science Center in the Texas Memorial Museum building, circa 2005. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/diatom_exhibit

July

  1. Published a MicroPython 1.20.3 script to run a simple CO2 monitor using a Pimoroni Wireless Plasma Kit and an Adafruit SCD-40. The LED strings pulse as a stoplight, and the Pico's wifi access point name is the numeric value. GitHub, https://gist.github.com/vitorio/ced24738a2bf183be1680b5232d91f7d
  1. Published a MicroPython 1.20.3 script to run a simple CO2 monitor using a Pimoroni Tufty 2040 and an Adafruit SCD-40. The numeric value displays on the LCD. GitHub, https://gist.github.com/vitorio/a45e46eb9766b3dae3d8fae48e1421ed

June

  1. Published a CircuitPython 8.x script to force a kiosk-like appliance into the motherboard BIOS and make it boot from a USB drive. GitHub, https://gist.github.com/vitorio/01fc2ce8857012b5a0a7f6c1b014c08a

May

  1. Published a CircuitPython 8.x script to run a simple CO2 monitor using three parts from Adafruit: a Trinkey QT2040 serving as stoplight LED, an SCD-40, and an ST25DV16K to provide numeric values over NFC. GitHub, https://gist.github.com/vitorio/db818bcb21f29fae08892fff18a32dc3 (last updated May 23, 2023)
  1. Preserved the files on the driver CD for the Nexian NXC3100 NexiCam Digital Camera sleeve for HP iPaq Pocket PC. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/nexicam-ipaq-drivers

January

  1. Documented a method for publishing a legacy Lytro lightfield camera refocusable "living image" using archived versions of their WebGL viewer. This was work I originally did in conversation with a now-deleted Redditor in April 2018, but had never made public. Hackaday, https://hackaday.com/2023/01/25/unlocking-hidden-features-of-an-unusual-camera/#comment-6584936
  1. Began livestreaming Cats & Soup, Netflix Edition. This Android "cozy game" is the second game I've done ambient livestreams of, and required an all-new process. Twitch, https://www.twitch.tv/kittengoulash (last updated February 26, 2023)
  1. Completed a Python script using nxbt on a Raspberry Pi to pair a disused Stadia controller with the DK Bongos to serve as a complete controller for Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival on the Nintendo Switch. It works okay but inputs can pile up. GitHub, https://gist.github.com/vitorio/b92f3085041b055c0e0416545ddca598 (last updated January 19, 2023)
  1. Decompiled the device tree overlay for the Tingbot touchscreen from 2015, and applied it to 2022's new device tree stack, allowing it to work on an operating system three versions and many kernels after the one it shipped with. GitHub, https://github.com/tingbot/tingbot-os/issues/33

2022

November

  1. AirTags on Android, sorta

    The easiest way to set up and track AirTags from your Android phone is to not, and instead to buy a used iOS device, and use that when you need to check your AirTags.

    However, if you make a Mac stay powered on and take screenshots forever, you can use those to track AirTags from your Android phone (or from the web, or your Windows PC, or wherever).

    (You'll still need an iOS device to set them up, though.)

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/android-airtags (last updated March 15, 2023)
  1. Reverse-engineered the stock, out-of-the-box, Spotify Car Thing application to support running one's own HTML/JS/CSS on it. GitHub, https://github.com/err4o4/spotify-car-thing-reverse-engineering/issues/24

January

  1. Tested instructions to boot a Raspberry Pi directly into BBC BASIC using RISC OS, simulating the 2014 "RISC OS Pico" experience. Hacker News, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29829485
  1. Notes on the GTZS Pocket Book 7-X133 WOPOW 7-inch mini laptop

    On AliExpress, you can find a model of tiny portable computer. They're sold at various price points from various vendors, but they all look the same and have specs varying only in SSD size.

    I bought one to mess around with over the 2021 holidays, and it mostly fully works under Ubuntu 21.10 (Impish Indri). Here's how to get it running, and what's left.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/notes-7-inch-mini-laptop (last updated February 10, 2023)

2021

December

  1. Legal and technical notes on telling web archives of domain ownership change

    Web archives, libraries, and caches may have preserved content from your site, but they aren't tracking that it's your content, meaning a future owner can retroactively restrict access. Here's my personal work towards ameliorating this: a contract with a two-year crawlers clause, and attempts at a .well-known URI serving as a marker.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/archival-markers

August

  1. Finished v1 of turning a "Sawtooth" Power Mac G4 into a Raspberry Pi 4 case. Twitter, https://twitter.com/calzonecomputer/status/1432565041555968002 and GitHub, https://gist.github.com/vitorio/25282c8e0f11e75875349d7cc6217bc5

February

  1. Professional background and personal notes, 2021

    I've had multi-year careers in engineering, product management, design, and research. With traditional resumes, I'm usually leaving out large portions of my experience to make a cogent narrative. But, I'm not looking for a traditional, single function role. I'm looking for a role that takes advantage of all of my experience. So: select highlights from my career through the lenses of the IAC21 roles.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/professional-notes-2021

2020

July

  1. Notes on the Pi Book Pro laptop shell

    The Pi Book Pro is a DisplayLink USB 3.0 1080p monitor, keyboard, and trackpad in a laptop shell for the Raspberry Pi 3 and 4.

    It was originally the Sentio Superbook, an Android phone laptop shell, except Sentio went out of business. The Pi Book Pro is the leftover stock.

    These notes are based on testing the Pi Book Pro with an early model 4GB Raspberry Pi 4B and a late model 8GB.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/notes-pibookpro-2020 (last updated December 20, 2021)

2019

July

  1. Documented my work on the original cross-compilation infrastructure for JSMESS, which powered hundreds of emulated vintage computer and arcade machines on the Internet Archive for 2+ years. Twitter, https://twitter.com/vitor_io/status/1150798839294627842 (last updated June 24, 2023)

June

  1. For the 20th anniversary of a risque domain name, a thread documenting the time the FBI came knocking about it. Twitter, https://twitter.com/vitor_io/status/1141723299346624517

April

  1. Notes on the PocketCHIP handheld (if you're coming to it new in 2019)

    There's what's presumably new old stock of NTC CHIP chips and PocketCHIP handhelds circulating, and I picked up a PocketCHIP, having missed them the first time around. I had a CHIP and backed up much of NTC's information myself, so let's just put everything to understand the PocketCHIP in one place.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/notes-pocketchip-2019
  1. Notes on what one can do with a newly acquired NTC OTTO GIF camera, from my own notes, never previously published. Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/ChipCommunity/comments/ausq88/comment/ekp16z5/

March

  1. Pimoroni Inky wHAT with a Raspberry Pi Zero W as an e-paper name tag

    The formfactor is great. You can stick a Raspberry Pi Zero W on the back of a Pimoroni Inky wHAT to make an easy, commercial off-the-shelf, e-paper name tag.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/e-paper-name-tag-inky-what (last updated May 30, 2019)
  1. Notes on overlaying web content on HDMI video with the NeTV 1

    The NeTV2 is shipping, so here are my notes on working with the original NeTV, in case you want to play with an even more obscure (but cheaper) development kit that could overlay your opaque, web-based text or graphical content onto any 720p or 1080i HDMI video feed.

    (The NeTV2 is Raspberry Pi- and PCIe-based, and can handle 1080p60, and should be your first choice for new work.)

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/netv1-notes (last updated March 17, 2019)
  1. e-paper.name/tag

    This 4.2" e-paper name tag (the size of a normal paper name tag!) is an accessible, customizable, electronic badge for people who want a neat electronic badge, but don't want to learn multiple new electronics skill sets, and are comfortable downloading things from the Internet, carefully assembling some parts, cutting cardboard, and taping or gluing paper or fabric. It's just two parts that run around $40 and snap together.

    Hackster, http://e-paper.name/tag

2018

November

  1. Notes on a Samsung Gear 360 camera (2017)

    It's fairly straightforward to modify a Samsung Gear 360 camera (2017) to support a wifi remote shutter, and time-lapse photos (intervalometer), just by adding some files to your SD card.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/gear-360-remote-interval-timelapse (last updated March 11, 2019)

September

  1. Design Sprint Experience in the Enterprise

    This is a lightly edited copy-and-paste of my response to a question in the Designer Hangout Slack in September 2015. I write "we" throughout because these were common organizational practices, or because I was facilitating a team toward a shared understanding, but in this particular sprint I was the sole facilitator. I routinely run design sprints and facilitate other studio-style workshops as part of my practice.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/designer-hangout-product-discovery-design-sprint

July

  1. Owning NFC toys I own: a case study

    NFC toys are figurines with a built-in near-field communication tag, containing supporting data for games or play. Reading from and writing to these figures is restricted; you can buy the toy, but only special hardware or software can fully use it, not you!

    This introductory-level case study will explore the NFC tags found in three makes of toys, using off-the-shelf hardware and software. You’ll see how much can be learned with each different tool, and once read/write credentials are obtained, what some of the legal risks are under the DMCA.

    HOPE 2018 conference, https://nfc.toys (last updated August 12, 2018)

April

  1. Notes on a Dell Inspiron 5675

    After two years with a Razer Blade Stealth and Razer Core (May 2016, December 2016), I had outgrown the dual-core CPU, and the BIOS boot loop problem was just annoying enough.

    I wasn't thrilled about assembling a PC from components, and just before the launch of the Ryzen 2 CPUs, I picked up a pre-built Dell Inspiron 5675, with a Ryzen 7 1700X, 8GB RAM, 1TB rotational hard drive, a Radeon RX 570, and plenty of USB 3.0 ports, on sale.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/notes-inspiron-5675 (last updated November 18, 2023)

March

  1. Recovered ~200GB of JSON and image files from Lytro's CDN, provided them as WARCs to the Internet Archive, and verified they were successfully ingested. Lytro "living picture" embeds captured in the Wayback Machine prior to November 30, 2017 should be viewable once again. Archive Team, https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Lytro
  1. Research-Based Readability. Designing for Digital 2018 conference, http://sched.co/DM8M

February

  1. Thinking with things, designing with sensors, prototyping the Internet of Things, no programming needed (2018 edition)

    By request, I'm revisiting how designers can conceptualize, ideate, and prototype physical hardware devices, six years after my iPhone + ifttt = IoT wifi sensor platform talk, "Experimenting with the Internet of Things" workshop, and Distance essay.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/sensors-iot-prototyping-2018

2017

September

  1. Dynamicland, seeing spaces, and design studio

    The photos and video clips published by Dynamicland starting Monday, September 11, 2017, made me realize I might have missed an interesting — and perhaps the most immediately actionable — aspect of Bret Victor's 2014 talk "Seeing Spaces."

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/on-dynamicland (last updated October 1, 2017)

June

  1. Unrealty

    From 1998 through 2002, Unrealty used video game technology to let users explore real-world locations in full 3D on their desktop computers. Now, you can revisit nearly twenty-year-old technology and low-poly 3D architectural models in your modern web browser.

    Unrealty, https://www.unrealty.net/

2016

December

  1. A stable 🤞 configuration for the Oculus Rift with Touch on a Razer Blade Stealth with Razer Core

    The Oculus Sensors seem to work fine hanging off a single USB 3.0 port on the Razer Blade Stealth through a USB 2.0 or 3.0 hub, along with the Xbox Wireless Adapter and an SSD, rather than through the USB ports on the Razer Core.

    Using the Razer Blade Stealth exclusively through an external monitor plugged into the video card in the Core, and disabling the laptop LCD, makes the Steam VR desktop view and Virtual Desktop work.

    Disabling Intel Turbo Boost seems to prevent overheating and a WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR blue screen during long play sessions.

    vitor.io, http://vitor.io/razer-blade-stealth-core-oculus-rift-touch (last updated April 30, 2021)

July

  1. “But, all my work is under NDA!” A panel and Q&A about portfolios and IP agreements for in-house designers. Designer Hangout × IxDA Austin, https://www.crowdcast.io/e/but-all-my-work-is-under-NDA
  1. Advisory Board “User Research 101” presentation. vitor.io, http://vitor.io/uxr101
  1. Evangelizing the business value of user research (especially in enterprise software teams). vitor.io, http://vitor.io/evangelizing-user-research-enterprise

May

  1. Notes on my first 12 hours with the Razer Blade Stealth ultrabook, Razer Core external graphics enclosure, and NVIDIA GTX 1080 GPU. vitor.io, http://vitor.io/razer-blade-stealth-core-gtx-1080-12h

January

  1. Three archival recordings of Twitch and Chill with Alto: four hours of dynamic background scenery, similar to what was streamed; forty minutes of behind-the-scenes footage showing the Lego and meat stick "robot" tapping the iPad screen; and an abbreviated behind-the-scenes video, cut down to under three minutes. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCT44zrJpPY, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5uEeqk_0YA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uERZL2AdZo

2015

December

  1. Snarky screenings of holiday films, with comments from Skype being overlaid on the video playing. GitHub, https://github.com/vitorio/snarky-screening
  1. Twitch and Chill with Alto broadcasted over 100 hours of the animated background art from the iOS video game "Alto's Adventure" on the streaming service Twitch during the December 2015 holiday season. A simple "robot" "played" the game every 20 minutes to change the dynamic scenery. This was in the vein of modern "yule logs" such as "45 minutes of Nick Offerman drinking whisky" and the "Darth Vader funeral pyre," as well as slow television, ambient video, and video games as art. Twitch, https://www.twitch.tv/twitchandchillwithalto

June

  1. Introduction to the Austin Design Community, June 2015. General Assembly, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_0J8K--9XI

March

  1. Introduction to the Austin Design Community, March 2015. General Assembly, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D08xV-Fetk

2014

August

  1. Notes on bookmarks from 1997. Pinboard, https://notes.pinboard.in/u:vitorio/05dec9f04909d9b6edff

May

  1. How to get designers (or anyone) to work on your open source project. Open Source Design, http://web.archive.org/web/20140709193220/http://opensourcedesign.is/blogging_about/import-designers/

2013

August

  1. Completed a DIY Book Scanner at the Austin Hackerspace. ATX Hackerspace wiki, http://web.archive.org/web/20140929124543/https://atxhackerspace.org/wiki/Book_Scanner (last updated September 26, 2015)

March

  1. Participated in the SXSW 2013 Drone Games, with a Kinect-based game about keeping a quadcopter aloft by flapping your arms like a chicken (with David Massey). This was the only entry to support audience participation.

2012

December

  1. I gave the Internet Archive thirteen books, including books newly dedicated to the public domain by Jan V. White, funded their digitization, and made them available online. vitor.io, http://vitor.io/its-a-gift-never-lend-books and janvwhite.org, http://www.janvwhite.org/

October

  1. You and Your Designs. Distance, http://vitor.io/you-and-your-designs
  1. Prototyping a playground game: designing an unofficial pick-up game of Johann Sebastian Joust for smartphones in HTML5 and JavaScript. Music Hackathon, http://vitor.io/designing-johann-sebastian-joust-html5-javascript

April

  1. iPhone + ifttt = IoT wifi sensor platform. IxDA Austin, http://vitor.io/iphone-iot-wifi-movement-sensor

February

  1. Local Communities In Practice and By Design. Distance, http://vitor.io/local-communities-in-practice-and-by-design
  1. Designing Better Meetups. Refresh Austin, http://meetup.design

2011

November

  1. Design analysis of BERG’s Little Printer. vitor.io, http://vitor.io/little-printer-design-analysis

February

  1. A Better Company of Designers. vitor.io, http://vi.to/better/