Pygmalion as a Software Developer
Nosdesk was perfect for about a year, because it only existed in my head. What happened when real people got hold of it, and an old Greek story about the same mistake.
Kyle Phillips
The personal site of Kyle Phillips, founder of Nosdesk. Writing on Rust, infrastructure, and self-hosting, plus technical notes and guides.
Latest posts
The Human Patch
Every broken system has a person holding it together. Replacing them with AI doesn't fix the system. It removes the only part that was adapting.
120,000 Lines of Rust: Inside the Nosdesk Backend
The engineering companion to why I built Nosdesk. How I built a real-time, offline-first backend in Rust: streaming pipelines, crash-safe queues, and pushing correctness into the type system.
The Helpdesk AI I Want Is the One I Barely Notice
AI should make the helpdesk smarter without making the interface more crowded. Here's how I'm building ambient intelligence into Nosdesk — and what's actually worth implementing.
Neuroscale AI
Contract work at Neuroscale AI — AI pipeline development, WebGL hero backgrounds, and interactive feature pages.
I Ordered a Minimal Phone. Here's What Happened.
I ordered a Minimal Phone in January 2026. Two months, four excuses, and a chargeback later, here's what happened.
Solution One
Infrastructure Engineer at an MSP. Observability migration from Graylog to Grafana, infrastructure-as-code foundations, a CloudLinux 7 to 8 fleet migration, and a lot of automation.
Paper-TTY Rust Project
Paper-TTY is a custom Rust application that drives the Waveshare 9.7" e-ink display inside the Macintosh Classic II mod. It started as a port of the IT8951 C dr
Sway Wayland Session Configuration
The Macintosh Classic II e-ink mod can run a full Sway Wayland compositor session instead of the basic terminal mode. Sway runs headless with a virtual 800x600
It's just public media now
At some point, social media stopped being social. It's just public media now.
Tangara Build
Build log for Tangara, an open-source portable music player with an iPod-style form factor. ESP32 brain, 1.8" TFT display, capacitive touchwheel, quality DAC. F
The Helpdesk Nobody Built, So I Did
Every helpdesk I used felt like it was designed by someone who'd never had to use one. So I spent a year building my own.
A Week with the Mudita Kompakt
After a week using the Mudita Kompakt as my primary phone, here's what worked, what didn't, and what you'll need to make it usable.
Secrets Managers
Secrets managers are for machines. Password managers are for humans. You put credentials, API tokens, certificates, and encryption keys into a secrets manager,
Tmux Command Reference
Working reference for tmux — the commands I actually use for managing sessions, windows, and panes over SSH. Grouped by what you're trying to do rather than alp
Rsync Command Reference
Rsync transfers only the differences between a source and a destination, which is what makes it good for backups and large transfers over slow or intermittent l
Network Commands Reference
Networking commands I keep reaching for: nmap for port scanning, screen/minicom for serial console work, and the usual diagnostics grab-bag.
Linux Command Reference
The snippets I'd otherwise have to look up. The basics I remember; these are the ones I don't want to.
PowerShell Command Reference
PowerShell commands I come back to on Windows. Same shape as the Linux reference: grouped by task, not alphabetically.
Database Options for Self-Hosted Applications
Notes on picking between SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, and PostgreSQL for self-hosted apps. Short version: if a single process and a single machine are writing, SQLite