Welcome to Arcana Labs

The best puzzles are those not intended to be solved.

-- Unknown

Providing Software, Hardware, and other Amusements, Arcana Labs is a small, independent technology exploration and development hobby shop operating out of Atlantic Canada. My past work has focused on security and disaster recovery, with present work focusing on creating toys, games, books and puzzles, such as through my flagship project, PETI. I’ve organized my projects into a few categories: hardware, software, writing projects, how-to guides, and a blog.

Consider adding our RSS feed to your reader for instant updates!

Latest Updates

New Short Fiction Zine "The Currie Mountain Repository" Released Today!

2026-07-18 00:00:00 -0500

Today’s new short fic zine release, The Currie Mountain Repository, is the first entry in a series called “The Tales of the Voyageur”. The series is an environmental science fiction adventure, focusing on locations throughout the province of New Brunswick in a future which hopefully never comes to pass - one in which infrastructural collapse and anthropogenic ecological disaster has dramatically reorganized life, but in which there is hope to be found in the actions of humans and the societies they form in the wake of the disaster that once laid them low. In this issue, a Librarian discovers historical references to a very complete collection of pre-Devastation technologies, so they hire a Voyageur and a Reclaimer to travel to the site and excavate it.

Finding Opportunity in Collapse: Arcana Labs from Unemployment

2026-07-14 00:00:00 -0500

As a general rule, I don’t talk much about my professional life on this blog - working in tech means the vast majority of what I do on a daily basis is wrapped up in enough layers of NDAs, Information Security Policies, and international regulatory language that even a lawyer would struggle to find the safe footing, and I have no delusions of being a lawyer. Today though, I’m going to break with that tradition in order to make a somewhat sad announcement.

Arcana Labs' New Forgejo Instance

2026-07-09 00:00:00 -0500

With how busy I have been with the new job lately, and my increasing push to focus on projects and uses of time that remove annoyance, unfortunately today’s announcement is not a shiny new project (of which there are a few in the hopper), but instead infrastructural news. I know, it’s so sexy. In a move surprising nobody paying attention, I have decided to announce that Arcana Labs Projects are moving to Forgejo. There are many good reasons for making this move and honestly I’ve been looking for the liferaft off the back of the sinking ship that is Github for over a year now; according to ticktick, I registered the earliest late last year. We’re going to get into it.

PETI's Indefinite Retirement

2026-06-18 00:00:00 -0500

In a move which more or less surprises nobody, I am retiring PETI, effective immediately. There are reasons for this that go past simple boredom with the project, but I know it’s something of a sad announcement, so let’s lay them out.

Introducing Zines from ALoF: This Machine Has No Gnosis

2026-06-09 00:00:00 -0500

With the release of a long-promised essay titled This Machine Has No Gnosis, Arcana Labs of Fredericton is now introducing a new series of mini projects which will be made available to you, dear reader, on our Zines Page as each becomes available. Manufactured in our sunny Fredericton office from recycled materials, real human ideas, and occasionally hand-rendered artwork, the zines cover a broad array of non-fiction and fiction topics. Zines will be available as physical releases shipped directly to you, or in PDF format, and depending on the issue may even be licensed for you to share (as this one is).