Posts on Simon Duchastel

Why Train Aesthetics Matter

Mon, 12 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was recently on a work trip in the Bay Area and took the Caltrain from San Francisco to San Jose. When I last took Caltrain in early 2024 I rode one of the last diesel-powered trains, but by this trip they had fully moved to the new electric ones (some diesel trains are still being used south of San Jose but not on the route I took).

Review: The Dispossessed

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Overall Review: The Dispossessed is a deeply political book that manages to take a nuanced view of both the anarchist and capitalist societies of the novel’s respective planets. It’s a very intentional choice by Le Guin to make Shevek (the protagonist) critical of his anarchist society while also having him discover the horrors of capitalist society. Le Guin uses vivid imagery of the planets and people to immerse you into Shevek’s world. The characters are compelling and the story complex and intriguing, if somewhat highbrow. The book feels very philosophical and political, and as long as that interests you I highly recommend The Dispossessed — even if science fiction isn’t usually your kind of thing.

MTA Data Visualizer

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

View the code

Check out the website

Back in September, the MTA announced their first Open Data Challenge. The idea is that they publish a lot of data online for free and want to encourage people to make use of it, so they announced a challenge where the most creative uses of their data after a month would win MTA memorabilia.

For my submission, I built a website that displays the real-time number of people that have ridden the subway so far today. While I didn’t win, I had a lot of fun building the project. The other submissions were super impressive too - I highly encourage you check them out on the MTA’s blog. My personal favorite is Noah Gunther’s Lately on the MTA, which is frankly a better version of my own project.

Review: Imperial Earth

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Clarke

Overall Review: While not as grand nor epic as the name implies, Imperial Earth is nonetheless a fun science fiction exploration of love and rivalry in a futuristic Earth of the 23rd century. It’s a great book for those looking for a casual read by one of the greats in science fiction.

Synopsis: Duncan Makenzie, heir to the powerful Makenzie hydrogen mining family on Saturn’s moon of Titan, must travel to Earth to ward off the coming threat of a new technology which risks making hydrogen fuel for space travel obsolete. Along the way, he reconnects with his lost love Calindy and rekindles his fierce rivalry with childhood friend Karl from the rival Helmer family.

Review: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard Hamming

Overall Review: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering is a dense and technical book that outlines an actionable philosophy for having an impactful career. The book is dry yet filled with anecdotes from Richard Hamming’s life. I’d only recommend it to those who enjoy reading academic books. That said, if you’re interested in how to be a more effective scientist (or technologist or engineer) and find detail-filled stories of engineering discoveries interesting, then this textbook is for you.

Review: Fall of Hyperion

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

This review contains spoilers for “Hyperion”, the first book in the series. This review sort of acts as a review for both, but be warned that this also means there are spoilers for both below.

Overall Review: Dense and filled with complexity, Fall of Hyperion nonetheless feels more cohesive than its predecessor, Hyperion. This is science fiction at its best — expansive and highly technical while exploring the social, technological, and personal implications of humans branching out across time and space with futuristic technologies. While not very accessible to non-fans, I highly recommend the Hyperion Cantos series to anyone who loves science fiction. I especially encourage people to read through to Fall of Hyperion, as I enjoyed it more than Hyperion.

My Advent of Code 2023

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

View the code

I finally got around to writing about how I used Rust 6 months ago for the 2023 Advent of Code. I’ve been meaning to try out Rust in a small personal project for a few years now but have never gotten around to it.

What is Rust

Rust is a new(ish) systems language often touted as a replacement for C++. It’s become very popular in the developer community over the last few years. Notably, Amazon announced that they were moving to Rust for a lot of their systems.

Review: Annihilation

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Overall Review: Annihilation is a horrifying yet thought-provoking book about isolation and self-discovery. It’s a well-written story with thoughtful world-building that keeps you turning the page.

Synopsis: Five scientists are sent on a mission into the government-controlled “Area X” to study its mysterious properties. The story follows the Biologist as she explores the abandoned landscape and reflects on her life leading up to the mission. Together, the scientists find inexplicable phenomena and uncover secrets about Area X.

Review: This is How You Lose the Time War

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Overall Review: This is How You Lose the Time War is a heartwarming and intriguing book that uses the setting of a time-travel war as the backdrop for a love story. The book is well-written, smart, and a joy to read.

Synopsis: Two secret agents fighting on opposite sides of a time war fall in love with each other. On each side of the war is an advanced civilization far in the future working to modify past events in order to bring about their society while simultaneously preventing the opposing society from doing the same. After encountering each other in a battle, the agents exchange notes via convoluted sci-fi means and through this develop feelings for one another.

Review: Destination Void

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Destination Void by Frank Herbert

Overall Review: Destination Void is overly dense and filled with esoteric philosophy that doesn’t pay off. Nonetheless, it’s a fun book with interesting ideas for hardcore science fiction fans.

Synopsis: A group of clones onboard a ship bound for a distant star loses its human navigators in a malfunction. As they unexpectedly scramble to build an artificial consciousness in order to survive their journey, they learn that not everything is as it seems and must discover the truth about their mission.

Review: All Tomorrow's Parties

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

All Tomorrow’s Parties by William Gibson

Overall Review: Exhilarating and punchy, All Tomorrow’s Parties is another excellent cyberpunk book from William Gibson. It’s fast-paced and immensely fun, filled with techno-jargon and dystopian near-future scenarios that still hold up 25 years later. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dense, action-packed science fiction, especially if you like the cyberpunk genre or any of Gibson’s other work.

Synopsis: In a futuristic cyberpunk setting, three people are trying to navigate a looming technological event. Laney is a man with uncanny data abilities who is plugged into cyberspace from a homeless encampment in Tokyo. Chevette is a scrappy young woman from a large self-governing slum on the Bay Bridge. Rydell is a disgraced former cop sent to San Francisco on a mysterious mission. Together they must navigate the strange world around them as they are swept up in the power struggles of cyberspace.

Review: Atomic Habits

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Overall Review: A fantastic self-help book providing pragmatic strategies for building positive habits and quitting negative ones. It’s enjoyable to read and practical to follow. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to improve themselves.

Synopsis: James Clear shares four straightforward strategies to help build habits: 1) make the trigger for the habit obvious 2) make it desirable to perform the habit 3) make the habit easy to perform 4) make the habit enjoyable. He gives easy-to-implement tactics for following each strategy and shares scientific evidence as well as personal anecdotes to reinforce them.

Building my website with Hugo + Go

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

View the code

Twenty years ago, my family bought the domain duchastel.com (our family’s last name). Initially my family used it to host some bios but it hasn’t been updated in years. I’m thankful to them for buying and holding onto that domain though, as it now gives me an opportunity to build and manage my own website.

Goals

I had a few high-level goals which motivated me to build this website:

My Advent of Code 2022

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

View the code

View the website for computing solutions

This year I participated in the Advent of Code for the third year in a row. I wrote my solutions in Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) like I did in 2021, but this time using with the Javascript compiler and Jetpack Compose to render a website written in Kotlin.

I shared some thoughts on Kotlin Multiplatform last year. My thoughts mostly haven’t changed. The ecosystem appears to be maturing, which is good. There’s still a ways to go before it’s at a point where I think it will be ready for broad adoption but I’m excited for KMP to continue to evolve.

My Advent of Code 2021

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

View the code

This year (or should I say last year now), I wanted to use Advent of Code as an excuse to try something new. I thought of using Rust since my coworkers are using it on their teams and it seems like a cool language, but I decided instead to use Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) since I’m more familiar with Kotlin and wanted to try out the Multiplatform compilers. Maybe I’ll do Rust next year.

Some old software projects

Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As the first post for this website I thought it would be cool to reflect on some software projects I did in high school and college. None are particularly spectacular, but my philosophy is that the things you do in your free time don’t have to be spectacular. I had fun doing them, and I also enjoy the opportunity to write some thoughts down on them in retrospect.

Advent of Code 2020

View the code