Top all-time · #20692
Circus Scientist
Personal blog · circusscientist.comprogramminghardware
Circus Scientist is a personal blog at circusscientist.com about programming and hardware. Since 2018, 3 different Hacker News readers have linked it 25 times, most often “Cutting GitHub Out of the Loop”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-05-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked in a thread asking why people blog when nobody reads it, as a possible example. The URL suggests a December 2022 post about Ubuntu snap updates. The comment says nothing about the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Tutorial and blog site – created by the DevSoft South Africa lead developer. Fun electronics and programming projects for kids and adults, with a sprinkling of magic and circus. Just released: Pinwheel Poi! Go check them out on their own website OR build your own. I am also currently focused on perf
Most-linked posts?
- Cutting GitHub Out of the Loop2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-07-23
- Ubuntu Snap update spoiled my World Cup Final2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-18
What Hacker News says?
This one perhaps? https://www.circusscientist.com/2022/12/18/ubuntu-snap-updat...
Comment linking /2022/12/18/ubuntu-snap-update-spoiled-the-world-cup/
on “Why blog if nobody reads it?”Submitted Google is dead. Where do we go now? as a story · 71 points
HN discussionLocation: Durban, South Africa Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: After this pandemic dies down, sure! Technologies: Processing, Arduino, Android (Java), Linux Résumé/CV: https://circusscientist.com/cv Email: tomjuggler [at] gmail [dot] com I am an ex-circus performer who got into programming many years ago by making my own I.O.T juggling equipment. Nowadays I make entertainment apps for the google play store and blog…
Comment linking /cv
on “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2020)”Submitted Ubuntu Snap update spoiled my World Cup Final as a story · 19 points
HN discussionNice! You might enjoy looking at my ESP8266 Wifi Streaming POV poi project, with emulator: https://www.circusscientist.com/smart-poi-overview/
Comment linking /smart-poi-overview/
on “Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?”Submitted The new Aider-CE fork of Aider is now official as a story · 14 points
HN discussionPet Detector, an Android app using machine learning to catch various animals if they stray in front of the camera lens. The app then takes a photo and/or plays a warning sound. Also made my first CV in 20 years because I need a second job to pay back all the money I'm losing - I previously made my living mainly from entertainment at large events... https://www.circusscientist.com/cv/
Comment linking /cv/
on “Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?”Submitted Show HN: I made an LED indicator for my portfolio site as a story · 14 points
HN discussionI made an Android app to do the same at the beginning of Lockdown for my country, South Africa. Was quite a cathartic experience. Just being an observer helped me to deal with the situation... Then the guys doing the data moved their table and broke my app. Lucky I found a more reliable source. The app still works, I check it every morning. Anyway I found an international api here: https://github.com/ExpDev07/corona…
Comment linking /parsing-online-corona-virus-data-into-a-map-with-processing/
on “Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?”Submitted Cutting GitHub Out of the Loop as a story · 7 points
HN discussionI run a successful entertainment business here in Durban, started off as a street performer (Juggling, Unicycling, Rope Walking and Magic) after dropping out of an I.T. degree course. Started off in tech just solving business problems, like the company website and booking system, making my own LED equipment for performance and also as a hobby for fun. Most of it is documented on my CV, and on my blog and tutorial si…
Comment linking /
on “Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection”Submitted US Govt Shutdown stopped my Desktop Wallpaper from updating as a story · 6 points
HN discussionLive entertainment is the least "Essential Service" of all. Most of the professional performers I know are making masks to try and survive. Hey, anyone looking to hire an ex-circus performer? My digital cv is here https://circusscientist.com/cv Mostly Android apps but I can do Wordpress, data input, server management, creative coding...
Comment linking /cv
on “Cirque Du Soleil Files for Bankruptcy Protection”Submitted The Magic of Open Source as a story · 2 points
HN discussionLocation: Durban, South Africa Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: No Technologies: PlatformIO, Flask, PostgreSQL, IOT, ESP32, Aider AI assisted development, MCP Résumé/CV: (old one) https://circusscientist.com/cv - more up-to-date stuff in the blog there. Main freelance website at https://devsoft.co.za Email: tom@devsoft.co.za I am nearing completion of a years-long IOT project and am interested in finding out if ther…
Comment linking /cv
on “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2025)”Submitted Hire a Juggler as a story · 2 points
HN discussionLocation: Durban, South Africa Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Not at this time Technologies: - Flask, JavaScript, Bootstrap, JQuery - Java (Android) - Processing (Java based creative coding) - Arduino - much more listed on my CV Résumé/CV: https://circusscientist.com/cv Portfolio site: https://portfolio.devsoft.co.za Tutorial and blog site: https://circusscientist.com Freelance development services site: https://d…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (April 2022)”Submitted Making a living during Coronavirus lockdown as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt may not have the best UI, but Kdenlive is really powerful. It's based on the scriptable editor called "melt" - which actually saved me during the early days of the pandemic (blog post here: https://www.circusscientist.com/2020/04/09/making-a-living-d... )
Comment linking /2020/04/09/making-a-living-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak-part-2/
on “Filmora and Adobe decide to use “Kdenlive” as a keyword in their online ads”Submitted Fritz.ai is shutting down their API at the end of August as a story · 1 points
HN discussionGreat thread, bookmarked this one! I started programming over 10 years ago so I could make my own circus equipment. I mainly blog about my IOT LED projects but there is a lot of creative coding as well which might be interesting to some. Actually hit the front page of HN once with a post about how Ubuntu Snap update spoiled my world cup final (that ddosed my site with HN visitors, site was down for 2 days) https://w…
Comment linking /blog/
on “Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?”Submitted Android Corona tracking app for my country made using processing as a base as a story · 1 points
HN discussionCool! I wrote a similar blog post last year when I decided to "Cut GitHub out of the loop" https://www.circusscientist.com/2025/07/23/cutting-github-ou... My motivation was mainly the fact that Bitbucket cut their free tier, and who knows how long GitHub will be free? So I tried and found out how easy git actually is to sync without third parties
Comment linking /2025/07/23/cutting-github-out-of-the-loop/
on “The bare minimum for syncing Git repos”Submitted Android for Africa as a story · 1 points
HN discussion