# sandmill.org

sandmill.org is the personal website of Dan Mills, a product leader based in Berlin, Germany. The homepage is a Linux virtual machine emulated in the browser — visitors land at a real shell and explore the site as a filesystem (ls, cat, clickable links). Running ./boot-macos swaps to a Mac OS 8 desktop emulator with Netscape 4, a live IRC channel (#sandmill on irc.sandmill.org), and MiniBud, a bot that lives on the Mac. A plain-HTML rendering of all content lives under /www (with raw markdown next to every page).

## Homepage (Linux Terminal VM)
URL: https://sandmill.org

A real Linux system (custom Buildroot image, v86/WebAssembly x86 emulation) attached to an xterm.js serial console. Site content is mounted as files in the home directory; ls listings and the welcome screen are clickable. The kernel boot is real and visible.

## Plain web version
URL: https://sandmill.org/www/

Simple HTML rendering of the same content (about, projects, blog, now, contact). Every page has a raw markdown twin at index.md alongside it. Sitemap: https://sandmill.org/sitemap.xml

## Mac OS 8 Emulator
URL: https://sandmill.org/macos

Full-screen Mac OS 8 desktop running in the browser (powered by Infinite Mac / WebAssembly), also reachable by running ./boot-macos in the terminal at the homepage. Features: Netscape 4 can browse real websites via a proxy that handles TLS and image transcoding; Ircle connects to irc.sandmill.org for live chat; MiniBud is an IRC bot in #sandmill.

## About Dan
URL: https://sandmill.org/about

Dan Mills is Head of Product at Avail (a blockchain data availability network spun out from Polygon), based in Berlin, Germany. Previously: Product Manager at Square, Director of Product Strategy at Creative Commons, Product Manager and Senior Software Engineer at Mozilla (launched Mozilla Persona — decentralized web sign-in, and co-created Firefox Sync). Earlier: software engineer at Ximian/Novell on Linux open-source. Also founded Tinker Kitchen, a cooking makerspace in San Francisco. Collects old computers including a NeXTStation, Amiga 1000, FM Towns, and SGI O2.

## Resume
URL: https://sandmill.org/resume

- Head of Product, Avail (2023-present): 10-person cross-functional org, launched Avail blockchain (Jul 2024), led Avail Nexus (cross-chain liquidity/functionality across 13+ chains), co-led Arcana Network acquisition.
- Product Lead, Polygon (2022-2023)
- Product Manager, Square (2020-2022): Identity verification platform, document-based verification, new market onboarding.
- Founder, Tinker Kitchen (2015-2021): Cooking makerspace in San Francisco, featured by CNN and SF Chronicle.
- Director of Product Strategy, Creative Commons (2013-2014)
- Product Manager, Identity, Mozilla (2010-2013): Launched Mozilla Persona (decentralized sign-in, thousands of sites, 20-person team), integrated Firefox Accounts into the browser, worked on Firefox OS marketplace.
- Senior Software Engineer, Mozilla (2006-2010): Created Firefox Sync (code-named Weave, end-to-end encrypted), founding member of Mozilla Labs, revamped Firefox bookmarks/history with SQLite.
- Software Engineer, Ximian/Novell (2001-2006): Linux desktop open-source software.
- Education: Duke University, BS Computer Science, 2000.

## Blog
URL: https://sandmill.org/blog

Personal blog on technology, retro computing, and projects.

## Blog Post: Mac OS 8 in a Browser Tab
URL: https://sandmill.org/blog/mac-os-8-in-a-browser
Published: 2026-03-24
Tags: retro, emulation, networking, web

How I built a fully networked Mac OS 8 emulator as my homepage — connected to the real internet, with live IRC and a chatbot.

## IRC
Server: irc.sandmill.org
Channel: #sandmill

Live IRC accessible from the emulated Mac (Ircle) or any IRC client. MiniBud is the bot in #sandmill.