> You can even load an existing 3D mesh and operate on it as an SDF. Great for hollowing, chopping, eroding/dilating, etc. existing models.

This has my instant interest. Multiple times I have wanted to take an existing .STL file and cut a hole on it or add another object to it and have never had success.

I've tried things like Meshlab, but while the interface has what appears to be a hundred different functions, attempting to use anything returns some error code that requires a PhD to understand and none of the "repair" functions seem to help.

I mean seriously: Mesh inputs must induce a piecewise constant winding number field.

How the hell am I supposed to accomplish that on a STL file?

Related (and on the frontpage): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46239177

Probably not practical. Definitely not advisable. But deeply satisfying to read.

that was an enjoyable read! loved reading stuff about smartphones on forums, especially symbian ones where the die hard fanboys absoultely believed that this device was better than the iphones and htcs had to offer (including me). too bad maemo / meego died off, we may have seen more interesting devices. loved the "Contains no LLM-generated content" bit.

I think OP wants it to be an always-on device. The last sentence in the post is

> Nokia N900 enjoying its new life as an online radio device using Open Media Player.

But I agree with your sentiment. Using supercaps seems overengineered to me if the device is connected anyway.

Sincere question: Can someone explain how you develop the skills and knowledge required to pull this off?

I'm no genius, but I'm reasonably sure I'm not a slouch either. I've got a masters in theoretical physics, I've worked with and written software for four years, I take an interest in anything techy I come across. I've picked up the basics of population genomics and molecular genetics without assistance.

I still find that projects like this are essentially black magic to me. Why are supercapacitors necessary to emulate a battery? How the hell does someone know how to mess with a bootloader in order to get past an internal partition corruption? How do you even tell if an internal partition is corrupted?

This is all stuff that I find massively impressive and enviable, but unlike essentially every other topic I've turned my attention to, there doesn't seem to be any readily identifiable path to mastery.

Can I broadcast my own 3G cell inside my house with some magic radio device?

I recall there was a project to revive the N900 with modern internals, anyone know what happened to it?