Lopaka Made It to the Big Screen (Sort Of)

Lopaka on TV! (well, almost)

Salim subscribed to Lopaka’s Twitter a couple months ago. And here’s his new video: 156K views! So far this is the most popular video featuring our editor. The production quality is pretty solid, by the way.

🚨NERD ALERT🚨 https://youtu.be/nZa-Vqu-_fU?t=407

My five seconds of fame, haha. Gets me excited every time!

And here’s the project in the gallery: https://lopaka.app/gallery/378/915

By the way, I came up with Lopaka when I was making a Pomodoro timer for Flipper 🤓

The LVGL Editor Dropped, But I'm Not Sweating It

The author of the most popular graphics library for electronics, LVGL, announced his own editor: https://youtu.be/ntAuLhuK3Ck

TL;DR: in the video he shows how you’ll be able to quickly and conveniently build LVGL interfaces using Lopaka (not yet) XML markup that gets converted to C code.

I’ve been waiting for this release for a while, thought it would be the killer of our editor. Turns out it’s just another abstraction layer for engineers.

He also offers a Figma plugin where you can conveniently copy element properties, paste them into XML, compile into normal code, and then flash to the device.

Phew, can relax now.

I’ve already started preparing an update for Lopaka with a full-fledged LVGL editor. But there’s still a ton of work ahead.

Calling all interested contributors to join the project. Hit me up anywhere.

We’re currently in second place on DevHunt, still have 10 hours to vote: https://devhunt.org/tool/lopaka Turns out it’s a pretty popular site, screenshot in the comments.

Launching Lopaka on DevHunt

Totally forgot I had a DevHunt launch scheduled for Lopaka

Filled out the application three months ago…

Didn’t have much in the way of expectations.

But what if it takes off? Vote if you want to support me: https://devhunt.org/tool/lopaka

lopaka.app is my pixel graphics and interface editor for Arduino, ESP32, and STM projects. It hurt me to see embedded developers suffering while drawing their interfaces, so I decided to make everyone’s life easier.

Vipassana Is Absolutely Insane

My impressions: Vipassana is absolutely insane!

Pros: can sit on my ass perfectly still without whining Cons: my ass fell off Bonuses: immune to being late, can wait for a bus forever

Unrealistically boring. Even more boring than playing Factorio. The process was incredibly tough — went through the acceptance cycle several times, got furious, cursed (to myself), and fell into despair. Constant sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, everything hurts while sitting, hungry every evening.

Unrealistically interesting and enlightening. At times I was literally glowing with happiness and gratitude. Worked through all my background anxieties, got tons of ideas. Your body adapts and by the end of the course there’s no discomfort left. And after finishing I walked around like a stoned alien. Very happy with the results.

Vipassana is radically different from basic techniques like observing your breath, body scanning, visualizations, or repeating words. Yeah, there are some similarities, but the depth of immersion is on another level. An enormous amount of emotional and physical sensations. I couldn’t imagine you could do this to your brain without substances.

Such a powerful digital detox is needed by everyone. The amount of sensory overload in the modern world exceeds the norm for a brain shaped by hunter-gatherers several times over.

I wish everyone could go through this experience. But it’s definitely not for everyone: there are contraindications. If you’re not mentally stable, you might lose your mind even more. About 2% of students drop out early.

Peace out! Gonna go meditate. And you should look for the nearest beginner’s course: https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/maps

My First Vipassana Retreat: 10 Days of Silence

Recently got back from a retreat where I learned to practice Vipassana. It’s a serious deep meditation technique where you sit completely still and observe sensations in your body. And I loved it!

About five years ago, I found out that meditation is good for your health and boosts productivity. Mindfulness practice was recognized by the WHO as an effective tool for helping with depression and anxiety. This whole self-development thing has kept me interested ever since.

I’ve had serious sleep problems for a long time — I sleep in 3-4 hour chunks. Sometimes there’s a sleepless gap of 2-3 hours between them. If I need to wake up early or at a specific time, I often don’t get enough sleep and it really messes me up.

I tried reading some mindfulness book, bought a Headspace subscription, tried other apps, and never managed to build meditation into my daily life. Yeah, I started using what I learned more often and it even helped me fall asleep sometimes. But it was never a system — just spontaneously remembering once a week or when things got really rough.

And then the stars aligned and I went on a retreat. Picked the nearest meditation center in Spain following S.N. Goenka’s program. Had no particular expectations, didn’t prepare for anything, didn’t read anything. I love getting a pure, unfiltered experience.

You have to strictly follow the code of conduct and behavior rules:

• vow of silence: no communication with other students whatsoever; even eye contact and touching are forbidden
• no killing (even insects), no stealing, no lying
• no sex
• no substances, cigarettes, alcohol

All of this lasts 10.5 days. Only on the last day is the vow of silence lifted, with a light decompression before returning to the regular world.

Men are strictly separated from women. You only cross paths during group meditation in separate parts of the hall. There were about 130 people total + 20 staff (the staff meditates with everyone three times a day)

Accommodation in small rooms, resembles a regular hostel. Surprisingly, the conditions are unobtrusive, you can calmly filter out the unnecessary. The author constantly emphasizes that the essence of the entire philosophy and technique is the FOUNDATION. Meaning it’s valid regardless of religious preferences.