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.
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Latest Updates
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).
Internet Highlights - April 2026 Edition
2026-05-04 00:00:00 -0500
As is tradition - but equally delayed by a few days because of The Circumstances - I’ve kept a hold of the most interesting things I discovered on our wild and occasionally-wonderful internet in April, and now offer them up to you as a curated offering with only some mild promotional affect. None of these items are on the list as a result of any kind of sponsorship or promotional agreement. I just think they’re neat.
Spring Growing Season = PETI Updates!
2026-04-06 05:00:00 -0500
I’ve had a particularly lucky break in my professional life, and I’m going to be starting a brand new position with a new-to-me company in a few days. One of the practical upshots of this, though, is that it’s suddenly practical to pursue finishing PETI again. I know I said that I wouldn’t completely abandon the firmware work while I waited for the hardware work to be practical again, but I guess I was mistaken in that regard. Apart for some pie-eyed speculations, the code has sat largely untouched since last October and apart from some git commit messages and very sparse notebook comments, I have no idea what the state of the project is.