Sam is
making stuff
Hello! My name is Samuel Fialho.
I'm a software developer, currently working at Hyland.
Nine Projects, One Developer, Zero Excuses
An ESP32 busy light, a flaky test detective, a GitHub dashboard on a Pi, a parenting app, generative art, a prank for my wife, a screaming boot, and a local AI server. All at once. Here's the full inventory.
I Frankensteined a Hand-Me-Down PC Into a 24/7 AI Server
A hand-me-down PC, a new GPU, a replaced PSU, and a USB-C ethernet dongle holding it all together. How I built Titan: a local AI server that processes knowledge bases while I sleep.
Eight Rules for Delegating Real Work to a Local Coding Agent
Twenty tickets shipped through a local AI agent on my home server. The protocol around the model matters more than the model.
Two Lottery Tickets
Two lottery tickets I didn't buy. A family I'm building, and eleven colleagues who became a second one.
The App I Built Because I Couldn't Stop Checking GitHub
A desktop app that watches your CI runs and tells you when they're done. Also repeats them 20 times and tells you which test is flaky. Built with Electron, vanilla JS, and no patience for tab-switching.
The Boot That Feels Pain
A rubber boot wrapped in aluminium foil, stuffed with an Arduino, a speaker, and a pressure sensor. It screams when you step on it. It was a hit at Science Week.
The Cupboard That Plays James Brown
An Arduino, a light sensor, and a speaker hidden in a kitchen cupboard. Open the door, get James Brown at full volume. A prank built with my son Vasco and his cousin Ary.