Introducing Spartina.io—my digital workbench for exploring AI, building practical projects like a community knowledge assistant, and documenting what I learn at the intersection of emerging technology and hands-on making.

A Personal Digital Archive is a practical way to gather, protect, and organize important digital and physical materials so they remain usable over time. This guide explains the problems it solves and walks through a clear, realistic approach to building one—with continuity and successor access in mind.

An examination of how AI image compositing turns multiple low-quality historical photos into a single plausible portrait—and why the result is inference, not restoration. Using early-1930s snapshots and a side-by-side comparison of two AI tools, it highlights both the promise and the limits of the technique.

A personal digital archive is more than a collection of files—it’s a long-term record of a life. This post explains how to establish a durable foundation for a personal digital archive using a simple 3-2-1 protection structure, ensuring that important photos, documents, and records remain safe, usable, and transferable over time.

A practical, data-driven look at common photo-scanning methods, comparing smartphones, scanners, and camera-based setups to see which best preserve old family photos for long-term archiving.

A thoughtful exploration of using AI to restore and revitalize old photographs—balancing powerful new tools with restraint, transparency, and respect for the integrity of the original images.

I built the same AI assistant four different ways before finding the right tool. Here's what I learned.

An AI Assistant that answers questions about Sun City Hilton Head using official community documents.