-
Ikoku Nikki Watching Notes, Part 3
Asa and Makio visit the grandmother. She used to be fierce, but after her daughter's death, she became a lot nicer. Upstairs, sitting in her sister's old room, Makio tells Asa to keep liking the mother she knew. Don't let other people's opinions rewrite…
-
Ikoku Nikki Watching Notes, Part 2
One of the first things you learn about living with someone after a death is that even the most basic interactions become minefields. Asa's friend Emiri sends her a LINE message. Just a normal "how are you?" But how do you reply to that? Is it sympathy?…
-
Ikoku Nikki Watching Notes, Part 1
In a season with big names like Frieren and Oshi no Ko, Ikoku Nikki came out of nowhere and became my favorite. The premise is simple: a 15-year-old girl named Asa loses both parents in a car accident. Her aunt Makio, a reclusive novelist, takes her in.…
-
Yet Another AI Post
Unpopular opinion: I think the price[^1] of LLM tokens will go up in the future, not down. Because almost everything else in life (groceries, housing, cars, clothes, video games, streaming services, GPUs, RAM...) has gotten more expensive over…
-
When You’re No Longer One of Us
When Reddit forced Apollo to shutdown, its developer, Christian Selig, was one of the most beloved figures in the Reddit community. But after the shutdown, the tone shifted. The same person who had been celebrated for years was suddenly seen as a greedy…
-
We Can’t Have Nice Things
"Pffft a subscription app. I'd buy it if it were a one-time purchase." "Pffft a paid app. I'd download it if it were free." "Pffft proprietary software. I'd use it if it were open source." "Pffft the developer still hasn't shipped my feature despite the…
-
My Intern Al
Business update: I hired an intern. His name is Alfred, but he prefers to be called Al. After working with Al for a while, I realized that having an intern on your team tends to reduce overall productivity, because you need a senior member to guide them,…
-
Ah Chai the Chicken Rice Hawker
Ah Chai sells chicken rice at a busy hawker centre. For some reason, his stall is very popular. Every day, his stall is surrounded by a long queue of hungry customers. One morning, Ah Chai had an idea. "For one extra dollar," he called out, "you may join…
-
I Tried Making an AI App and It Made My Life a Living Hell
A while back, my friend who runs a wedding website came to me with an idea. He wanted to create a virtual try-on app so people could try wedding gowns, something not unlike Google's Doppl. I had no experience working with the OpenAI API, but out of…
-
The Age of Slop
"Advertising… Advertising… Fix Vista." We laughed at this ad in 2007 because (obviously) the best way to solve Vista's problems was to spend your budget fixing it instead of advertising. But eventually, companies decided that this wasn't just acceptable,…
-
Technotes
A few months ago, I posted this image on Mastodon, because the Apple documentation website sometimes feel… err, underwhelming. Many people have already pointed this out, so I won't repeat their complaints. When people complain about Apple's documentation,…
-
Rationalize into inaction
A few weeks ago, the fridge in my house started croaking. It didn't happen all the time so it's hard to troubleshoot. I know nothing about how fridges work, so I decided to leave it to the experts. Which experts? Well, I'll start researching when I have…
-
Then What?
Yes, you can vibe code a ChatGPT wrapper that turns users' photos into Studio Ghibli style. Yes, you can do this without learning how to code. Yes, you can do a lot of marketing to get people to pay. Yes, you can make tens of thousands of dollars before…
-
Weird Chinese Snow White Picture Book from 1939
In June 1938[^1], Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in China and quickly became very popular. But due to certain circumstances[^2], the release was limited. If you were not one of the rich people in Shanghai, the movie was probably out of reach…
-
Idea: A Modern Potion Store
Have you heard of Potion Store? No? It was made by Potion Factory. Still no? How about The Hit List? That's also by them. Still no? Oh gosh, now I feel old. Potion Store was a web app that let developers sell their apps online. It was built with Ruby on…
-
App Review Phobia
I think I might have a case of app review phobia. So a while back, I launched an app called Teleplayer. It lets you AirPlay a list of videos to your TV. It also has a feature where you can rewind twice with the Apple TV remote at the start of a video to…
-
Turning off Your Brain
There's a video from Technology Connections that's been making the rounds on the internet. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch it, it's worth your time: The video talks about "algorithmic complacency", where many people would rather let computers do the…
-
Yelling at the Cloud
Politics Since the new US administration took office, I've noticed a significant drop in activity on Mastodon. A few people switched to activist mode and mostly post political content. Others try to pretend everything is normal and keep posting about…
-
Why the Job Market Sucks Now
I haven't looked for a job or hired anyone in a long time, which means I'm pretty out of touch. But from what I can see, the job search process is broken on so many levels. I'm not sure why it's so broken, but I have some guesses.[^1] [^1]: The worst case…
-
Interview with Indy D. Loper
Host: Welcome to the first episode of our fictional show! Today, we have a special guest, Indy. Indy, could you introduce yourself and share what problems you're currently facing? Indy: Hi, I'm Indy D. Loper. I'm good at making apps. I have programming…