whoami
I'm a lifelong hacker in the original sense, someone driven by curiosity to understand how things work and to build things that didn't exist before. Engineer by trade, tinkerer by nature, with a brain that jumps between obsessions with concerning (and sometimes unhelpful) velocity.
Manipulate Labs is where those obsessions get documented. Sometimes they become useful tools. Sometimes they become cautionary tales. Sometimes they sit idle for months until inspiration (interest?) strikes again. Either way, the process gets shared in the hopes that something I have done is helpful or sparks an idea in you.
Philosophy
The best way to learn is to build. The best way to understand is to break. The best way to contribute is to share.
I grew up on 2600, Phrack, and the belief that curiosity isn't a crime. The hacker ethic - real hacker ethic, not the venture capital corruption of the term - shaped how I approach technology and knowledge.
Information wants to be free. Build things. Share knowledge. Question everything.
Every platform we've come to depend on eventually turns against its users. The enshittification cycle is predictable: attract users with value, extract value from users, collapse under the weight of short-term thinking. The services we trust today will optimize for shareholders tomorrow. The only defense is to build and own the things that matter to you.
The early internet worked because people built things to solve problems and shared solutions freely. Communities formed around shared curiosity, not engagement metrics. Ideas spread because they were useful, not because an algorithm decided they'd drive ad revenue. The best projects became sustainable because they created genuine value, not because someone figured out how to monetize attention.
That spirit isn't dead, it's just harder to find. It lives in self-hosted infrastructure, open source projects, forums that refuse to become platforms, and people who still believe that building together beats building for profit. The work here is a small contribution to keeping that ethos alive.
Current Interests
(These change regularly. That's the ADHD feature, not a bug.)
How the Lab Operates
Everything here runs on curiosity-driven development. Projects start because something seems interesting, not because there's a market need or a deadline. Some become daily tools. Many get abandoned. All teach something.
The documentation philosophy: if I had to figure something out the hard way, I'll write it up so you don't have to. Expect technical depth, honest assessments of what works and what doesn't, and occasional tangents into why things are built the way they are.
Contact
PGP key available on request. I read everything, reply when I can.
Credits
This site and everything in it owes a debt to the communities and publications that shaped how I think about technology:
- 2600: The Hacker Quarterly
- Phrack Magazine
- Cult of the Dead Cow
- L0pht Heavy Industries
"This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch."