| I'm having a lot of fun making a virtual ant farm as a side project. https://meomix.github.io/antfarm/ I found some code written in 1991 for Unix (in C) and decided I would port it to React and get it running on the web. I have to implement persistence and iron out a few bugs, but it's at least functional at this point. I wrote the original coder and let them know I'm rewriting their code 30 years later. They're stoked to see it come back to life and I find that motivates me to do a good job. Plus, some of my friends' kids have started to take an interest in it. I'm not sure which direction I'll go with it long-term. I kind of wanted to get it running on an e-ink screen and have it sit on my desk or become more like a tamagotchi. I don't have any experience working with hardware and think it would a cool way to learn some of that stuff. I'm probably going to add some more features to it like a queen ant, food, pathfinding, etc. I saw this cool "ant-based solution to the TSP" https://www.theprojectspot.com/tutorial-post/ant-colony-opti... which I could see being solved by the ants over time and then introducing variables like weather or user-interaction which disrupt the path and then watching it get solved again, etc. idk! I just played SimAnt when I was young and impressionable and am taking it way too far now. :) |