I’ve decided not to sweat trying to sell my applications (or even make them available) through the App Store. That is pretty freeing, really. It means I can stop trying to solve everyone’s problems and just focus on solving my problems. Given this new clarity, I’ve been thinking about what my problems really are, and the oneContinue reading “Framework: PowerSync”
Author Archives: pirateguillermo
App Publishing Tool: AltStore
This has come across my awareness a couple of times in the past several weeks, and it sort of entangles with some app development ideas I’ve been wrestling with. But anyway: AltStore. It’s a way to distribute apps to iOS platforms without (sort of) going through the Apple App Store. The easy way is onlyContinue reading “App Publishing Tool: AltStore”
My Creepy AI Tool
I recently spent some time with an LLM doing some brainstorming. Some people have observed that our current crop of AI models don’t so much create as they copy and remix. Let me just start out by saying that I’m not great at everything, and if there’s a way for me to ask the, I dunno, few hundred millionContinue reading “My Creepy AI Tool”
Bronze Age Brain Cloud
Discussions about the use of AI (specifically LLMs) in business are all around right now. Here’s some link soup, with fresh ingredients sourced over just the past few days: use of AI tools at work mandated vibe coding drops production database (but the question of not using the LLM doesn’t arise) AI generated music purportsContinue reading “Bronze Age Brain Cloud”
Static Site or Not?
Recently I’ve been interacting with Apple Help Books and, as a result, static site tools. I’m starting to wonder if maybe I should migrate my blog over to a static site kind of thing. The current site is a WordPress blog, but I’m in no way using all the whiz-bang options available there. What’s theContinue reading “Static Site or Not?”
MTBP: Take Two, This Time, With Guidance
Let’s try this again. This time around, I’ll start with a clear and simple statement of what I want to achieve with the program, and how I want the user experience to feel. There’s a clear use case, and it will probably exclude a lot of people, and I don’t care. I’m not trying toContinue reading “MTBP: Take Two, This Time, With Guidance”
I Made an Offline Thing!
I’ve built a bridge between my RSS readers (Vienna and Tapestry) and my web browser so that I can connect my laptop to the Internet, fetch updated news stories, then disconnect. Later, while looking through the feed, I can queue up individual articles to be downloaded fully. Even later, I can connect the laptop toContinue reading “I Made an Offline Thing!”
File Sharing Software: Syncthing
Okay, there’s this software project called Syncthing. At its core, what it does is synchronize files among multiple devices. This is the kind of thing that I’m currently using Dropbox and Box and, to a much lesser extent, Google Drive for.
Social, But Offline
I just saw a software update that mentioned GoToSocial so I looked it up to see what it is. And honestly, it’s kind of a thing I want, but barely. So, think about posting, reading other people’s posts, you know, that whole online conversation thing. What do I really want? I want to hear from peopleContinue reading “Social, But Offline”
Frameworks: Ensemble, Forked, Swift Data
I just learned about the existence of a framework called, “Forked.” The blurbs about it talk about “local first” application design and automated merging of concurrent offline editing. This seems very interesting to me. So I started looking at the source code and the example applications, and then reading about other stuff in the “localContinue reading “Frameworks: Ensemble, Forked, Swift Data”