Samantha Maria Dawson-Banks

Cooking Without Fear: A Human-Centric System

2026-04-21T00:00:00Z

This project is a bit less "tech" but deeply "human." I'm working on a cooking guide and system for people who find standard recipes overwhelming or stressful—specifically focusing on empowering those with ND/ASD/ADHD.

"Don't Be Afraid of the Food" #

The core philosophy is simple: promote food safety through clear guardrails while removing the anxiety and rigidity of traditional recipes.

Many people are scared of "doing it wrong," which leads to them avoiding cooking altogether. My goal is to build a system that:

Provides clear safety boundaries.
Encourages exploration and confidence.
Removes the "one right way" pressure that standard recipes often impose.

This project is a perfect example of my belief that powerful systems (whether in the kitchen or in the cloud) should reduce friction and make life easier for the people using them.

I'll be sharing more on the design of this framework and the "human architecture" behind it soon.

Persistent AI: Solving the LLM Context Problem

2026-04-20T00:00:00Z

I'm in the middle of creating a Docker image for self-deployed persistent agentic workspaces. If you've ever felt the "do I need to tell you this again" pain of working with LLMs, you know exactly why I'm building this.

The Problem #

Standard AI interfaces often treat each session as a clean slate, losing the deep context and nuanced history of a project. I'm using storage as a persistent context to ensure that my AI agents (like Gemini-CLI or Copilot-CLI) retain the information they need to be truly effective partners.

The System #

I've already integrated this into a nightly auto CI/CD pipeline to a local repo. It's working to the point where:

A new build and image redeploy doesn't impact my workflow.
A docker compose up --force-recreate only results in about 15 seconds of downtime.
I'm right back where I was, with full scroll-back and persistent context.

This project leans into AI not just as a toy, but as a practical, enabling tool for developers and knowledge workers.

Stay tuned for the architecture breakdown and Docker configurations.

Portable Linux: The Raspberry Pi Stem Drive

2026-04-19T00:00:00Z

I'm currently reworking a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W into a USB stem thumb drive. The goal is to create a "carry anywhere" low-power Linux environment that can be powered directly from a USB port.

The Vision #

A good tech worker shouldn't have to cart around a precious laptop to be productive. By configuring the Pi with:

Device-mode Ethernet
SSH access
Mass storage
(Potentially) an e-ink display

I'm building a system that can be plugged into any host and immediately provide a familiar, secure development environment. It dovetails perfectly with my preference for thin-ish clients and flexible, accessible tech.

More details on the hardware build and OS configuration coming soon.