https://whitebeard.blog/tags/making/Recent content in Making on WhitebeardHugo -- 0.166.0en-gbSun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/a-better-dnd-character-sheet/Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/a-better-dnd-character-sheet/In which the author, asked by his youngest for help with a cleric, finds the official character sheet wanting and resolves, with some indignation, to print a better one.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/teaching-my-crossword-page-to-solve-anagrams/Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/teaching-my-crossword-page-to-solve-anagrams/In which the author, defeated by a fifteen-letter anagram, builds a solver that is fast, plain and deliberately unhelpful, and then discovers that zip is cleverer than he is.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/learning-about-myself-through-elm/Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/learning-about-myself-through-elm/In which the author explains why Elm gives him joy, confesses to a memory that once won a national competition but cannot manage a shopping list, and learns a bit about how his mind works.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/theres-a-star-man/Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/theres-a-star-man/In which the author, between jobs and stalling magnificently, builds an AI coach to drill the STAR interview method instead of actually applying for any.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/introducing-uruk/Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/introducing-uruk/In which the author admits to a nagging feeling that computing has gone wrong somewhere, points at a tiny algebra that maybe gets a part of it right, and starts building yet another programming language. Sorry.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/make-your-own-interactive-fiction-client-in-elm/Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/make-your-own-interactive-fiction-client-in-elm/In which the author extracts a library from his interactive fiction app, and walks the curious reader through the making of their own Z-machine player in around 100 lines of Elm.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/introducing-planedrift/Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/introducing-planedrift/In which the author at last unveils a quiet corner of the web for playing classic Infocom adventures, and reflects on the peculiar inhumanity of an AI that cannot quite abide pure play.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/ask-the-vm-where-is-the-player/Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/ask-the-vm-where-is-the-player/In which the author hunts through virtual memory for a player whose whereabouts the machine no longer remembers, and settles on a layered heuristic that is almost certainly good enough.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/building-a-z-machine-in-elm/Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/building-a-z-machine-in-elm/In which a 1980s virtual machine for text adventures is reimplemented in a pure functional language, against all better judgement, and somehow emerges working.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/playing-interactive-fiction-with-an-ai-companion/Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/playing-interactive-fiction-with-an-ai-companion/In which an old text adventure is rediscovered with the help of an enthusiastic, slang-slinging AI companion, and a z-machine yak awaits its shave.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/building-a-better-crossword-page/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/building-a-better-crossword-page/In which the daily cryptic crossword becomes a source of frustration, and a solution is fashioned from an old Elm project dusted off.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/what-ai-is-doing-for-me/Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/what-ai-is-doing-for-me/In which we discover that a half-an-entity can be something like a prosthetic for the mind.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/its-your-turn-a-prompt-deck-for-new-roleplayers/Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:57:51 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/its-your-turn-a-prompt-deck-for-new-roleplayers/In which we introduce a comely new tool for new roleplayers who find themselves suddenly called upon to act.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/youve-been-pawned-now-with-a-snazzy-new-look/Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:11:41 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/youve-been-pawned-now-with-a-snazzy-new-look/In which the standee-making tool is rebuilt from scratch, acquiring a coverflow carousel, a proper PDF export, and a somewhat snazzier countenance.https://whitebeard.blog/posts/an-online-tool-to-make-playable-paper-pawns/Sat, 06 Apr 2024 17:29:04 +0000https://whitebeard.blog/posts/an-online-tool-to-make-playable-paper-pawns/In which we introduce a simple tool for printing paper standees, born of desperation before one too many D&D sessions.