espace ideate

October 2026

Projected Personalities: the FLAG device

Over the last two months my focus has been on the development of a prototype FLAG device. I'm basing the prototype on a Waveshare ESP32-C3 mini dev board, using the Arduino IDE and programming in C/C++. The good news is that I am making progress. Every FLAG device will advertise and scan - all good. They can advertise and they can read each other's adverts. They can connect and exchange their FLAG data packets. So at this very basic level, the idea is working.

That means that I have a vehicle to test some of the more complex ideas I want to incorporate into the device: the FLAG keys, the matching algorithms, the user interface.

What I have found is that the Waveshare offering is a bit limited and probably won't be the board for the next prototype iteration. The little built in antenna works but is not great. Two boards one meter apart give an RSSI reading of -85 dB - ideally I'd like to be seeing -40 to -65 dB. There is no built in battery charging circuit. But they've been great for getting me this far.

Getting a FLAG device to talk to a phone or laptop also means I'm going to have to get familiar with something like the Android IDE and Kotlin, which will be a challenge but good.

FLAG device prototypes using the Waveshare ESP32-C3 dev board

Projected Personalities: Connectedness Journey

I have had a couple of people review the Connectedness Journey. Generally the feedback has been positive although that came with a lot of questions too. So next steps are to do another review of the text and its structure, create a FAQ and provide a more detailed references section. There has been a lot written about loneliness and connection - I'm thinking it's a good idea to provide some links to those news stories and articles.

I've always believed that trust plays a huge part in our ability to form meaningful connections with people. It's obvious - if you don't feel like you can trust somebody, you are unlikely to want to form a deep connection with them. At best they may be interesting but will fall into the category of "dangerous acquaintance".

I agree with Simon Sinek when he writes in "Start with WHY" that it becomes easier to trust people when we share common values and beliefs - part of the reason this is included in the Connectedness Journey. But then just because somebody says they hold a value or belief, if you don't know them well, how can you be sure they are telling the truth? The internet is full of people who just casually and consistently lie. Trust becomes a very important issue and that journey of understanding continues with Jimmy Wales.

Further adventures with 3D printing

There is a chance I will drive the good people at the library, and their Bambu H2S 3D printer, quite mad with the Orlando Jax fighter model. We have managed to produce one good print but I wasn't happy with the way all the print scaffolding made such a rough surface on the hull of the ship. To land on water it has to be smooth! So I reworked the model again in Blender - added thickness to tails and wings, ensured it was manifold (no gaps in the mesh) then cut it half and changed the orientation.

A new reworked version of the Orlando Jax Fighter

Although that produced two printed pieces that I had to stick together, the finish on the hull was much, much better. But the Bambu threw another curved ball at me. For some unknown reason it left a slight ridge along the nose piece, and completely missed off the front of one of the wingtip floats. Why!?!?

Changing the print orientation improves the finish

And finally ...

Pagan Gods - who are they, but more to the point where have they all gone?