joey castillo

texan by birthright, but not like this.
purveyor of Oddly Specific Objects.
he/him/🏳️‍🌈 if it helps.

Objects: https://www.oddlyspecificobjects.com
Words: https://www.patreon.com/joeycastillo
Book: https://theopenbook.is
Watch: https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-watch

Public Key

npub1pf3pjhet6ny6flptvfpehk5a35v69rlk73x2nupqm7ckqf00m40s2nuep8

NIP-05 Address

joeycastillo_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsq5csetu4afjdyls4kysumm2wc6xdz3lm0gn9f7qsdlvtqyhha6hcprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyv8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnndehhyapwwdhkx6tpdsuae562

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

relay.snort.social

Author Public Key

npub1pf3pjhet6ny6flptvfpehk5a35v69rlk73x2nupqm7ckqf00m40s2nuep8

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Last Notes

2026-07-09 15:18:51 UTC

AT LONG LAST! Open Book Touch is LIVE on [@crowdsupply](https://hachyderm.io/@crowdsupply )! I'll have a LOT more to share soon, but for now I'll just say this: literacy is arguably the original technology. The written word and its ability to share ideas across continents and centuries, changed our minds forever. We shouldn't cede that tech to the billionaires and the bastards. We deserve open source e-book hardware, and I want to make it happen. https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/open-book-touch/updates/six-years-in-the-making-open-book-touch-is-here

2026-03-03 01:41:14 UTC

open book book cover work (in progress)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/162/681/657/362/443/original/d4322ac9af8cb91f.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/162/688/427/291/791/original/47f573a630667f1a.jpeg

2026-02-25 19:01:57 UTC

true HOLY FUCKING SHIT moment this morning: over the holidays, my sticker guys were having a special on red octagons, so I designed and ordered 250 "Slop Sign" stickers — but while I was in China, someone stole them out of my mailbox. Bummer, I figured; they probably trashed them as worthless. anyway while walking to the subway I FOUND ONE OF MY STICKERS STUCK TO A MAILBOX! Whoever swiped my stickers is sticking them up around the neighborhood! This is the best thing that could have happened!
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/132/808/134/609/335/original/d7ffcae9303d7db4.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/132/808/571/614/507/original/474ccc8775eb8082.jpeg

2026-02-13 01:25:16 UTC

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I'm going to be honest: I felt intimidated when I saw that product launch. But now I can say quite honestly, working with the prototype Open Books I have here and the firmware I've been building for them: I'm not the least bit intimidated anymore.

2026-02-13 00:32:57 UTC

this is going to be vague, but I don't know how to offer details without explaining everything, which would take a lot more words than I have available on a platform like this. in short though: Open Book Touch is going to blow your freaking mind straight out the back of your head. Even if you know to expect it, I promise: you may think you're ready, but you're not.
Watch this space. https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/open-book-touch

2025-12-29 22:27:45 UTC

in the future there will be no 404 pages. instead, a statistically derived hallucination of what might have been there, had the page existed

2025-12-02 23:17:40 UTC

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(previously in the lab window)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/652/509/393/076/872/original/b96b9dfacf12f429.jpeg

2025-12-02 23:06:52 UTC

when I get home I'm going to print this out and put it in the window of our lab https://existentialcomics.com/comic/629
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/652/465/398/578/574/original/b82740ead71c5b07.png

2025-11-27 00:50:25 UTC

I’m headed to Tromsø in Norway this weekend to chase the northern lights. To start to acclimate myself, I’ve been wearing a Sensor Watch on Tromsø time, and following the shortening days. Today my watch is showing something I’ve never seen before outside of testing: sunRISe on the 27th: None.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/618/903/761/115/886/original/02c68cf16ff1ede5.jpeg

2025-11-26 19:40:36 UTC

what a great lede: “OpenAI is a money pit with a website on top. That much we know already, but since OpenAI is a private company, there’s a lot of guesswork required when estimating the depth of the pit.” https://archive.ph/PyLnT

2025-11-09 07:23:39 UTC

The first rule of tautology club, is the first rule of tautology club.
The second rule of tautology club is the second rule of tautology club.
The third rule of tautology club: if it’s your first night at tautology club, it’s your first night at tautology club.

2025-10-23 18:09:19 UTC

This is maybe the biggest FINALLY in my career as a purveyor of Oddly Specific Objects: The Open Book is in prelaunch at Crowd Supply! But it's not the same old Open Book; we're launching the all-new, completely reimagined Open Book Touch with WiFi and Bluetooth support, a higher-resolution display, capacitive touchscreen, and frontlight with adjustable color temperature. Subscribe for updates here! https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/open-book-touch

2025-10-22 04:49:35 UTC

sometimes i think about the fact that unicode, our single repository for encoding the fundamental components of all human language from cuneiform and hieroglyphics to english, persian and esperanto, had to reserve space for and subsequently standardize a code point for “face melting emoji” in 2021, because that’s a thing we needed to express ourselves, y’know, as a species.

2025-09-12 19:58:12 UTC

I love getting to present slides like this to master's students.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/193/082/583/550/116/original/c6984a4058ba6643.png

2025-09-11 22:17:41 UTC

wow okay there are dark patterns and there are DARK patterns…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/187/975/999/429/027/original/760785d0988593ec.png

2025-08-26 04:41:09 UTC

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I hope this email finds you saying to yourself: my god, what have I done?

2025-08-26 03:06:53 UTC

I hope this this email finds you asking yourself: how did I get here?

2025-08-04 18:10:32 UTC

“One of my chefs mentioned that if they could cook the steak on the grill they could get it right the first time. This is not an acceptable attitude in the microwave era. Also they’re worried I’m planning on firing all of them. That’s true, but not relevant here.” https://www.colincornaby.me/2025/08/in-the-future-all-food-will-be-cooked-in-a-microwave-and-if-you-cant-deal-with-that-then-you-need-to-get-out-of-the-kitchen/

2025-05-27 03:48:18 UTC

Would you like to pair with our lord and savior Jesus Christ?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/577/744/433/239/664/original/bf77bc1e236eba69.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/577/744/976/022/454/original/68c52fe42bfeb66a.jpeg

2025-05-22 21:04:26 UTC

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Update: I have severely improved my predicament.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/553/503/705/795/592/original/4f9be39ebe265c64.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/553/505/370/958/673/original/401712f053d85cfe.jpeg

2025-05-21 22:53:31 UTC

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By way of explanation: I have shipped four variants of #SensorWatch over the years, and this is me testing the release candidate firmware on all of them. Because you can’t test a wearable on a workbench alone. You have to wear it.

2025-05-21 21:09:52 UTC

This is me now.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/547/863/253/084/402/original/209c519d0b4a28e0.jpeg

2024-12-13 01:04:46 UTC

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As a side note (and not to get too political): I paid a tariff bill of $1,000 to get these 2,000 boards into the country. That was money paid by me, a small U.S. business owner, not by China — and it’s a cost I’m passing on directly to you, my customers! Because that’s how tariffs work! I’m just relieved I paid it on December 11th and not January 21; it’s been a mad dash to get everything I need imported before the tariff fairy turns my dreams into so many pumpkins.

2024-12-13 00:56:59 UTC

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tho they do look nice under the (Pixelblaze’d) tree
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/642/792/734/743/343/original/dee876ad12e355d9.jpeg

2024-12-13 00:44:54 UTC

crap, I think my finger may have slipped. Did I click “200” on this order, or “2,000”?
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/642/743/375/425/403/original/e71d214c6fd1fe65.jpeg

2024-10-28 18:43:11 UTC

I will be bringing a couple dozen of these with me to Hackaday Supercon. The “Sensor Watch” SAO is not Sensor Watch — hence the quotes — but it is an I²C segment LCD driver that’s easy to control with MicroPython. To get folks started, I have once again put copious documentation on the back side :)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/386/519/537/077/459/original/20cf73bd51c94511.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/386/519/772/511/011/original/5e55358489709484.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/386/519/964/530/200/original/8e8b686a9bc14b4e.jpeg

2024-10-20 15:06:00 UTC

Last night I finished the most rudimentary activity tracking proof of concept for Sensor Watch Pro: it counts the number of orientation changes the watch experiences per hour, and the number of times the accelerometer was “awake” at the top of the minute. This adds 600 nA to the power budget, and the data strongly hints that sleep tracking should be possible. Sensor Watch data at left; Oura data at right. Note that period of Deep Sleep, and that period of low motion counts from 1:00-3:00 AM…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/340/334/448/142/892/original/a8b4a68cb9be63c9.jpeg

2024-09-30 14:39:08 UTC

okay I am emphatically not an AI guy, but I decided to try out google's new AI podcast generator on NotebookLM, and it's very unsettling that it… kinda works? To be clear I'm absolutely not going to integrate LLMs or GPT's into my practice. But it worries me that this is where we're at.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/226/989/568/539/307/original/1afa44b14bd7012e.mp4

2024-08-27 04:38:10 UTC

said this to someone on my discord on the topic of making open hardware products; felt relevant to share:
it's hard to do these things at all, it's excruciatingly hard to do them well, and it can be overwhelming, in every sense of the word, to do these things in the open. at teardown another maker told me that making open hardware is a lot like getting punched repeatedly in the face, so, yeah: i have mad respect for anyone who braves all that and gets an actual product over the finish line.

2024-08-26 01:28:48 UTC

finally upgraded Manager, the accounting software I use, after ten months of coasting on an old version, and I could not be more thrilled with their tweaks to inventory management. If you're a small maker-oriented business, I recommend it highly: free as in beer, runs locally and offline on Windows/Mac/Linux, and it seems to be made by folks who just _really_ love accounting. https://www.manager.io/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/025/716/782/311/517/original/1b67e62e447ba764.png

2024-07-31 05:13:20 UTC

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on the one hand, this was a colossal waste of time and money. on the other hand it wasn't that much time. (or money.) https://www.enemy.lol

2024-07-31 04:26:53 UTC

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i have too many things to do to be wasting time on this
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/879/201/293/186/848/original/11776abc78fbfd2f.png

2024-07-31 03:30:01 UTC

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wow okay apparently it’s real, and they raised $2.5 million dollars, AND they spent $1.8 million of those dollars buying the domain name friend-dot-com, which is downright hilarious. I just spent $1.99 on the subway ride home buying the domain “enemy.lol”; anyone with web design chops wanna get in on this? I think “enemy” is a AI pendant that texts you to poke at your deepest insecurities. (with a premium plan it'll send your friends recordings of you talking about them behind their backs)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/878/955/567/756/297/original/f66d162a6b7a4b62.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/878/955/569/433/609/original/bff13e73da1c00bc.jpeg

2024-07-31 02:53:39 UTC

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“Your order includes a white friend device and a white case.” I mean, the jokes write themselves. https://www.friend.com/product.html

2024-07-31 02:52:18 UTC

a (human) friend texted me this link with the question “is this real?” and maybe I’ve been in the mountains for too long but it can’t possibly be real, right? Like as a critique or a satire it’s both incisive and clever, but as an earnest attempt at a product it’s just… deeply unhinged?
“When will I receive my friend?”
“Pre-orders will start shipping Q1 2025.”
Questions frequently asked by the utterly deranged. https://www.friend.com/product.html