https://www.williamivy.com/ Recent content on Portfolio Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/goa-trance-from-scratch/ Mon, 08 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/goa-trance-from-scratch/ The Idea Thanks to my dad’s good taste in music, my childhood had a killer soundtrack: classic rock, 70s folk music, and 80s new wave. At home or in the car, a constant rotation of The Beatles, Cream, Simon and Garfunkel, Talking Heads, and The Human League. Things were off to a good start. Then in 1995, I encountered something completely different - techno: I had never heard music like this: blatantly artificial sounds at a blazingly-fast BPM. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/garage-sem/ Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/garage-sem/ The Idea Every nerd remembers the first time they saw a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a fly’s compound eyes, or the scales of a human hair: As a newly-graduated engineer, I stumbled on an eBay listing for a vintage AMRAY 1000 SEM and impulsively made an offer which was (luckily, in retrospect!) declined. I lived in my parents’ house with no attached garage, in a different country, and lacked the knowledge (and means) to import, install, repair, and operate such an advanced device. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/back-side-of-the-moon/ Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/back-side-of-the-moon/ The Idea Pink Floyd’s “Back Catalogue” poster has a great composition: 1990s Sailor Moon has a great aesthetic: What if I combined the two? The Tools Stable Diffusion (sdxl_1.0, ComfyUI) IP-Adapter (sdxl_vit-h) ControlNet (sai_xl_depth256, sai_xl_canny_256) Adobe Photoshop The Process I wanted to recreate the Pink Floyd poster with Sailor Moon characters in a retro 1990s anime style. I achieved this in a controllable way using Stable Diffusion. There are three problems which had to be solved: https://www.williamivy.com/posts/sem-landscapes/ Mon, 19 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/sem-landscapes/ UPDATE: I now have a scanning electron microscope in my garage. The Idea I have been fascinated by electron microscopy since I was a child flipping through Popular Science and stumbling upon an image like this: I love using things for things they were never intended for. So, what if I used an electron microscope to make landscape images? The Tools Stable Diffusion (sdxl_1.0, ComfyUI) LoRA training (Kohya’s GUI) ControlNet (sai_xl_canny_256) Adobe Photoshop The Process My personal scanning electron microscope was still in transit across the Atlantic Ocean, so until it arrived I had to get creative. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/japanese-citypop-landscapes/ Sat, 23 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/japanese-citypop-landscapes/ The Idea I was scrolling through my Instagram feed one morning and was presented with a series of Japanese citypop images: Beautiful images, but they are all of urban environments. What would landscape images look like in this style? The Tools Stable Diffusion (sdxl_1.0, ComfyUI) LoRA training (Kohya’s GUI) The Process My goal was to take an established painting style and create imagery that is not typically found in that style. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/wackbar/ Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/wackbar/ The Idea I have always loved the chaos of public-access television. Amateur camera work, rough greenscreen abuse, unscreened phone calls, a general sense of overwhelm and confusion. Let’s Paint TV is as close to perfect as the medium gets: Platforms like Twitch and YouTube are clearly the spiritual successors to public access television, but their content doesn’t scratch the same itch for me. It’s all a little too polished. Public access television was distinctly wack. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/posters-based-on-dreams/ Sat, 18 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/posters-based-on-dreams/ The Idea I have always found the text I see in my dreams to be interesting - it often looks like English, but isn’t. When I first started playing with Stable Diffusion, I noticed that the text it generates is very similar: A local art gallery was accepting pieces for an exhibition of visual art based on dream imagery. My dreams often play out like movies. This gave me an idea: movie posters for three of my favorite types of dreams: https://www.williamivy.com/posts/dragonwars/ Sun, 10 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/dragonwars/ The Idea For many years my tabletop-gaming friends and I have made the pilgrimage to Indianapolis for Gen Con, North America’s biggest tabletop gaming convention. Over 70,000 nerds from all corners of the world gathering for 4 days of wargaming, boardgaming, and roleplaying. For me, Gen Con is all about one thing: the miniatures hall. Endless tables with scale miniatures in every possible variation: tanks, ships, planes, Napoleonics, battalion-scale warfare, wild-west shootouts, and more. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/laser-spiked-jacket/ Sun, 16 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/laser-spiked-jacket/ The Idea As a lifelong fan of Mad Max, I’ve got a soft spot for double rider leather jackets. I had never had an excuse to own one, until I saw Shih Wei Chieh’s Laser Jacket made for Japanese musician Kazuya Yoshii: Nothing could be cooler than that. I had always wanted a leather jacket, and I’ve got some experience with lasers, so why not combine the two and make my own? https://www.williamivy.com/posts/aliens-laser-scanner/ Sat, 31 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/aliens-laser-scanner/ The Idea Ridley Scott’s Alien was a life-changing experience for me, one of the most influential movies in my life. So when I finally saw James Cameron’s balls-out sequel Aliens you can imagine my reaction - the Alien Queen, the marine smartguns - perfection. But it was a simple effect in the opening sequence that has stuck with me the longest - the laser liquid sky effect: I wanted to understand how this effect was achieved, then recreate it. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/solid-state-tesla-coil/ Sat, 10 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/solid-state-tesla-coil/ The Idea As often happens, I stumbled upon an interesting video: I knew about tesla coils, but had never seen one that could play music. I needed to know how it worked. The answer: by replacing the traditional spark gap (acting as a crude switch) with a transistor, I could switch the coil on and off at a rate modulated by an audio signal. As an added bonus, with this design the device can be shrunk considerably - since a transistor provides the alternating current to the coil’s primary winding, a small DC power supply can be used in place of a bulky mains transformer. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/codemiko-done-cheap/ Sun, 02 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/codemiko-done-cheap/ UPDATE: I have taken this project much further. The Idea Deep in COVID lockdown (December 2020), I stumbled upon a trending clip of a fascinating livestreamer named “CodeMiko”: I could not believe what I was seeing. Real-time motion capture with face-tracking and live audience interactivity? I had no idea this was possible. I needed to know how she was doing it. And more importantly, I wanted my own. The Tools Chordata Motion Kicad T-962 Reflow Oven T-8280 IR Preheater Atten ST-862D Hot Air Rework Station Eakins Stereo Trinocular Microscope Creality Ender 3 Raspberry Pi 3B+ iPhone Xs Face Cap OSC Blender OBS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 The Process I began watching every CodeMiko stream I could. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/gamma-spectroscopy/ Sun, 21 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/gamma-spectroscopy/ The Idea In the fall of 1998 I played Fallout 2: It permanently altered the course of my life - I have been obsessed with radioactivity ever since. The ability to detect/see radioactive particles feels like a superpower. I had already built a geiger counter and a cloud chamber, what was left? A lot. The Tools Kicad 3dsmax Creality Ender 3 The Process Whenever I start a new hobby or interest, I take the same approach: https://www.williamivy.com/posts/infinity-cube/ Wed, 03 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/infinity-cube/ The Idea At some point in everybody’s life, they get their first taste of infinity. Thanks to my dad carrying around an enormous VHS recorder on his shoulder in the 80s, I have footage of the moment I first saw it in a hall of mirrors at the Ontario Science Centre: Infinity mirrors incorporating LED lighting are ubiquitous at this point: As life goes on it gets harder to experience the surprise of something completely new, luckily all roads lead to hypercubes: https://www.williamivy.com/posts/cloud-chamber/ Sun, 21 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/cloud-chamber/ The Idea At some point in physics class I learned about ionizing radiation and found myself staring at this image: Somehow, people were able to take photos of radioactive particles over 100 years ago using this apparatus: Surely with advances in modern technology (and AliExpress) I could achieve the same at home? The Tools 8x TEC1-12706 Peltier Cooling Modules (max 6A current) 4x TEC1-12709 Peltier Cooling Modules (max 9A current) 3dsmax Creality Ender 3 K40 40W CO2 Laser Cutter The Process Before building anything, I needed to understand how a cloud chamber works: supersaturated vapor is produced in a chamber, so that when a charged radioactive particle passes through the vapor it ionizes gas molecules along its path. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/hallucination-goggles/ Wed, 06 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/hallucination-goggles/ The Idea As a life-long Star Trek fan (and enlisted Starfleet Officer) I have always been fascinated by sensors. Of particular interest are the sensors used by the human brain (eyes, ears, skin, nose, mouth). Messing with these inputs is a common human past-time, but one form is particularly interesting due to the difficulty in inducing it: sensory deprivation. The Ganzfeld effect is a phenomenon where feeding a uniform visual input to our eyes causes the brain to “fill in” the missing input with hallucinated visuals. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/keyled/ Thu, 05 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/keyled/ The Idea My dad played classical guitar when I was growing up, so I never learned to play piano. I also never learned to play guitar, but it is the piano negligence I regret the most. In the following decades I have studied music theory and synthesis to obsessively analyze my favorite genre of music, but my lack of foundational keyboard-playing skills has been a constant thorn in my side. I want to improvise and make music with my synthesizers, but I don’t have the time or inclination to learn scales via discipline and practice. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/toblerone-done-right/ Fri, 24 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/toblerone-done-right/ The Idea As a Christmas tradition each year, I consume my favorite form of chocolate - an oversized Toblerone bar: As a lifelong fan of Pimp That Snack, I have an appreciation for candies that are made bigger and better. The fine people at Kraft Foods certainly understand “bigger”, they now sell an enormous 9lb version of the Toblerone bar: But when it comes to “better”, UK’s Poundland understood the objective - Twin Peaks is their version of Toblerone with double the mountains: https://www.williamivy.com/posts/agricola-p-deck/ Fri, 29 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/agricola-p-deck/ The Idea Like all nerds who have spent too many waking hours in front of a computer, my friends and I like to play (and make) tabletop games as an excuse to get together and argue. Many games have made an appearance, but for 16 years one game has remained a constant presence: Agricola. After 16 years of farm-building experience, with exposure to all the existing expansion packs and variants, we were chock-full of ideas to improve our favorite game. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/ash-vs-army-of-darkness/ Mon, 17 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/ash-vs-army-of-darkness/ The Idea All roads lead to Raimi. Growing up, my weekends were often spent devouring Hercules and Xena episodes, hoping for an appearance from my favorite character: Autolycus, the King of Thieves. As time went on, I developed a new obsession - the Build Engine shooters: Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Blood. The larger-than-life heroes of these over-the-top games fired off perfectly timed one-liners while causing mayhem and destruction: “Hail to the king, baby! https://www.williamivy.com/posts/super-ultra-monster-smash/ Tue, 19 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/super-ultra-monster-smash/ The Idea Coming of age during the golden age of PC gaming, my childhood was a never-ending stream of incredible experiences. My report card, however, was not. For the sake of my future, I stopped playing games in my final year of high school - but not before I got a glimpse of the latest technical marvel that John Carmack and his team at id Software were brewing up: The real-time lighting and shadows, the detailed texture maps: I fantasized about the potential I saw in that game for the next decade as I focused on university and employment. https://www.williamivy.com/posts/high-altitude-photography/ Wed, 05 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/posts/high-altitude-photography/ The Idea Send a digital camera as high as possible, have it take photos (and collect atmospheric data), and retrieve everything after it parachutes back down to earth. The Tools Arduino Uno R3 BMP085 barometric pressure and temperature sensor DHT22 humidity sensor ADXL345 3-axis accelerometer HMC5883L 3-axis magnetometer / compass Kaymont HAB-600 weather balloon (600g) Canon Powershot SD1100 IS CHDK The Process With digital cameras and smartphones being ubiquitous, sending and retrieving a camera from space is a fairly common hobbyist project. https://www.williamivy.com/blogroll/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.williamivy.com/blogroll/ Here is a list of YouTube channels, newsletters, and feeds I regularly follow. If you enjoy what I create, you might find something interesting here. Date last updated: October 6, 2025 YouTubers Tech Ingredients - extremely competent projects mikeselectricstuff - the king of the teardown The Signal Path - detailed teardowns CuriousMarc - detailed repairs Applied Science - exploratory projects EEVBlog - teardowns, mailbags, explanations Stuff Made Here - excessive projects AlphaPhoenix - fundamental projects Technology Connections - retro technology Sam Zeloof - silicon fabrication at home styropyro - powerful lasers 3Blue1Brown - visual math explanations Adam Savage’s Tested - workshop and tool inspiration Newsletters TLDR - daily technology brief TLDR AI - daily AI brief Money Stuff - entertaining finance news Internal Tech Emails - court-leaked emails Chips and Cheese - semiconductor news Dan Wang’s annual letter ChinaTalk - chinese technology and politics Sinocism - chinese politics PLA Bulletin - chinese military analysis Feeds Hackernews Hackaday