- Open Sauce and GPS time served as a refreshing antidote to the AI slop revolution, providing a break from rising costs, summer heat, and online divisiveness.
- The author used Claude to 'vibe code' a Tufty GPS Time Badge, a 2141-line MicroPython app for Pimoroni's Badgeware ecosystem, without editing a single line of code.
- The GPS Time Badge disciplined the internal RTC using GPS time data, but accuracy was limited to milliseconds due to lack of a PPS pin and reliance on MicroPython's rough timing.
- Data visualization of GPS satellite fixes throughout the day was created using Claude, highlighting the utility of AI for turning datasets into interactive graphs.
- GPS reception was good throughout the venue except in areas with RF interference, with most buildings having RF-transparent roofs.
- The author valued the 8+ hours of direct human interaction at Open Sauce, describing it as refreshing to have no screens or AI present.
- Notable exhibits included a 3D-printed solar system, multiple piano/Raspberry Pi setups, a functional 737 cockpit, Apollo-era hardware, and various robots and droids.
- The author admits to feeling imposter syndrome when talking to exhibitors and attendees, and notes that Hacker News visitors constitute the majority of the blog's readership.