About

About Ethan.

I'm Ethan, a programmer in Hawaii. I write code for fun, lead programming for a FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team, and build websites for real businesses. Mostly, I like doing things in a browser that people say can't be done in a browser.

What I build

The project I'm best known for is Webuntu: a real Ubuntu 22.04 desktop that runs inside a browser tab. It is an unmodified Ubuntu disk image running on QEMU compiled to WebAssembly, restored from a pre-booted snapshot so it reaches a live shell in seconds. Networking is off until you turn it on, and named instances keep their whole disk between visits.

Other projects include Make a Leaf (a pixel-art game made in Godot), Alignment Atlas (a quiz that settles whether a hot dog is a sandwich), the Dimension Visualizer (0D to 5D hypercubes in real light and shadow), a self-hosted email server, EditCat, and discourse-bot, a library for building Discourse forum bots without an API key. The code is on GitHub.

Robotics

I am the lead programmer for Robo-Techs Hawaii, FIRST Tech Challenge team #23562. Every season brings a new game; we design, build and program a robot to compete head-to-head against teams from across Hawaii. I write the code that drives the robot, moves the arm and runs the autonomous period on its own. In three seasons the team went from brand new to the top of the Hawaii circuit. Our public results are on FTCScout.

Client work

I build websites for small businesses: Hawaii Film & Wrap (architectural film on Oahu), Momi Pearl (a handmade jewelry store), OfferEmails (job-offer negotiation emails) and Switch Worth It (a job-switch comparison tool).

Work with me

If you want a website built, or just want to talk about something strange you'd like to run in a browser, email hi@ethan-codes.com. The contact page has the other ways to reach me.