The Firstbober's Den

2016isback.com

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 11:55:00 +0100

It was 1st of January, I was travelling back in the train to home from my friend’s place after New Year’s Eve. While I lifelessly looked at the black void in the window, I had an idea. A simple idea inspired by Instagram Reels and this trend of living like we’re back in 2016, so doing random stuff, having as much fun as possible etc. The plan was simple. I wanted to relive 2016 radio. Not a static playlist, but a living, breathing radio station that plays exactly what was topping the charts in Poland and the US exactly ten years ago. It was supposed to be a weekend script at worst.

Partially Resurrecting the GearVR Controller

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:57:50 +0100

You ever dig out some old gadget from a drawer, think “hey, I could totally use it for something”, and then three days later you’re deep in a Rust code you never signed up for?

Yeah. Me neither. Until recently.

It started with a Samsung Gear VR Controller. It’s a nice piece of technology, a trigger, a decent touchpad, and enough sensors to be a VR controller, also some handy buttons. My goal was simple: use it on Linux (and Android) as a mouse/shortcut remote.

Home Audio on a Budget: Digitally Controlled Waves™

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:50:00 +0100

The “Remote” Problem

In Part 1, I put together a decent budget audio setup: Sony STR-DE495 receiver, DVP-NS330 DVD player, and a salvaged remote subwoofer with some tweaks. It sounded good, cost almost nothing, and worked fine.

Except there were no remotes.

Buying original Sony remotes would’ve been the boring, logical solution. They also cost money. But getting up to manually adjust volume or switch inputs requires physical movement, which is strictly against my religion (although I enjoy the gym, the universe works in mysterious ways).

The Hunt for the Lost Compiler: Descend

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:40:00 +0100

Last time, we have confirmed the app was compiled on Windows, this gives us advantage and disadvantage at the same time. It may be as easy as downloading some `MinGW` windows builds and checking them one by one, or as hard as searching for lost in time zip.

It is the second one.

Package Manager Ghost

It turns out my friend, the original creator of 3DWalker, didn’t just use a vanilla MinGW installer. He used something called Win-builds. It was a project that aimed to be a package manager for Windows, you know, easy installation of GCC, libraries, the works. Awesome tool for developers.

Building Fuse Filesystem on Discord for Fun and Profit

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 11:11:11 +0100

My “important backups” folder was getting full. We’re talking gigabytes of anime girl pictures, and my hard drive was starting to sound like it was about to throw a read error and die.

It’s too easy to buy a new drive. I’m also too paranoid to just dump my stuff onto a regular cloud provider. But mostly, the idea of building something this pointless was just too funny to ignore.

The Hunt for the Lost Compiler: Humble Beginnings

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 12:52:02 +0100

You know that feeling when you finish a major life milestone, like exams, and suddenly have too much free time? Most people go on vacation or play games, whatever. I watched a MattKC video about reverse engineering Lego Island and thought, “Yeah, I could do that.”

What a great way to wind down after real intense time…

My target? 3DWalker. An old project from around 2016 made by my friend Sandy.

Home Audio on a Budget: Subwoofer Lullaby

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:00:00 +0100

Well… you want a home theater, you have some pieces, but missing something. I’m in the same boat. I already had my Sony STR-DE495 receiver and a decent set of L/R speakers, but the setup was… underwhelming. It needed weight. It needed that low-end rumble that makes you feel the movie and juicy maid music.

yes, subwoofer.

My hunt began with a budget. A very, very small budget (I am still learning about audio setups like this, so I don’t want to spend much). I was looking for an active subwoofer in the 25-50 EUR range. Welp, it might be hard.

Freedom To Not Do

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 22:00:00 +0200

Well, this is a pretty interesting blog post, which is in making in various forms for a few weeks already. It is something I realized pretty recently, after being at the entirely other spectrum, fully believing that freedom is the ability to do something. And yeah, it is, but also it is a pretty far off the center of what freedom can be.

Let’s start with what freedom means for people. This can’t be easily assessed, maybe if we get the popular concepts and ideas from the mainstream. But ultimately, freedom for each of us is a little different. It all comes down to the beliefs, current situation that you are right now, and everything that influences your options and your thinking.

Take the journal for your... journey.

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 13:30:00 +0200

An excellent joke. One that your dad could have made when he was still alive… I am sorry. Real sorry Gregory. I am just in the mood for this kind of jokes. But yeah, seriously do it. Everyone told you to long ago, mainly because it works. (Though more often than not they just heard it somewhere and telling you, so they can feel like they’re helping)

After this arguably great start, let’s clarify something. I wasn’t always journaling, and I am not always writing 20 pages of what had happened every day. I just don’t have time. Many self-help gurus will tell you to write literally everything. While this may be helpful, it usually isn’t.

What I've Watched: Practical DOD

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 23:30:00 +0200

So yesterday I have watched this presentation which was hosted by Andrew Kelly at Handmade Seattle.

Practical DOD presentation

Yeah yeah, nothing big, everyone watched stuff from time to time, yet, I just need to write a few words about it, especially in recommendation department.

What is it about? Programming, duhhhh. Data Oriented Design, specifically, which focuses on delivering the best memory layout for the processor for our current task. This also means that we usually speed up things via reducing the amount of requests made to main memory etc. Overall, great philosophy.

Roamie, Cleverly Markdowned

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 20:24:15 +0200

So, I’ve been working on something for the last few days, nothing big really, but I think it might become useful in the future…

You probably know what Logseq and Obsidian are, and even if you don’t then it’s one search away. In short, a great software for creating your own digital brain. Storing notes, information etc. without much of a hassle.

I really like both these solutions as they make my life really easy (well, I am using Logseq mainly, and I just explored Obsidian from the curiosity). All my notes, plans, routines are composed in these tools. The concept of digital brain in itself is beautiful, but the lack of standardization doesn’t help much.

Please, Clean Your Room.

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 14:00:00 +0200

‘Cause I don’t. Well, it is a little of an overstatement. I do, but… not very often. For my defense, it keeps itself pretty clean most of the time. Like, yeah, there is some dust here and there, some dead rat is in the corner…………………………….

And now, he is in the garbage can! Fortunately, he’s body is very fresh, so it didn’t rot or anything. I am just so lucky!

Tools To Easily Track Your Habits, So You Won't Lose

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 15:00:25 +0200

Yeah, you heard me right. This is it. The blog post that the entire population of the New Orleans and San Diego (this claim is purely fictional, and it isn’t fact-checked) was waiting for through the last few years.

To be honest, I should have done this post before Logseq Tips Series, but now is better than never I guess. The system I use went through many iterations over the last year; from multiple physical designs to efficiency tracking methods and finally simplification and going digital.

Can You See It Just Like I Can Feel It?

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 21:30:00 +0200

I had this feeling, so deep, yet not painful. It was just there, arriving without any notice, and disappeared the moment I stopped thinking about it.

This happened yesterday. Well, it is going for weeks really, if not months. Every time I think about life, death, goals, progress, plans. It comes and goes, always leaving something behind. Big or small, doesn’t matter. This time, it was larger than expected. The legacy that will come and that it left behind me to fulfill.

Logseq Tips: Live you life as planned, track years, weeks and days

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 22:00:00 +0200

Another day, another collection of useless tips from a scary website. Black, black, everything all black, only thing your eyes can see is the text. Paragraphs of pixels, laid down in the exact sequence, so you can letter after letter after letter….

But, letters aren’t real? Are they? Couldn’t we use something different, like ancient runes or pictograms? They are the same things as letters, we have just grown accustomed to this type of visual communication.

All the Books I've Read Through 2022 and 2023

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 20:00:00 +0200

So, we meet again. In the same place, but at a different time (I don’t know in which time zone you are, and I don’t really care, but if you really want to say then write it down in the comment zone. The same curiosity (or smth like this) brought you here, so you can read this post and maybe get to know something in your ever shortening lifespan.

Well, here is the table with all the books:

Logseq Tips: How I Organize My Books and Movies

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 11:00:00 +0200

Can you hear me?

No? I wonder why… Well, we might never get to why you don’t, but, atleast, I know one thing. Logseq¹ is a pretty good tool for what it’s made for.

Crazy, right?

If you don’t know what Logseq¹ is, then you might want to learn more on their website (which looks fantastic), or read this tl;dr: word documents combined with some clever programming for making a world of difference in your personal or professional organization.

A Blast From the Past Yet Strangely Fresh

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 19:07:43 +0200

A strange introduction to a seemingly simple blog for a common person. I wanted to do it for a long, long time now. First, I started with WordPress, but it didn’t stick at all, then I tried to hack a blog on GitHub which is also a history, and here we are.

One can say blogs are now popping everywhere, and I think they always were. The turbulent times at Reddit don’t help in keeping everything in one place. Everyone wants their own part of the floor, or the internet for that matter. And so do I.