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Software for One

ajwaxman.com

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Re: Software for One

#71

Post by latexr »

tptacek wrote: post #56
jedbrooke wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A personal music player for Apple Music with an embedded agent loop, so I can say things like "I'm going to work in the wood shop, play woodworking-appropriate music and keep the playlist full and non-repeating indefinitely". how is AI (or a human for that matter) supposed to know what “woodworking-appropriate music is”? I had the same thoughts when spotify released their “let AI make a playlist for you”. Like, we…

Because I played a bunch of music while doing woodworking stuff and asked for more like that. Things like this are easy with a simple agent loop. It's not picking random music out of the sky; it's working from my Apple Music library (and then expanding on it from the Apple Music catalog).

> Things like this are easy with a simple agent loop.

To be fair, they’re also easy (trivial, even) without one. It’s not like “play more music like this” is something we ever needed AI for.

Re: Software for One

#72

Post by wojciii »

goosejuice wrote: post #62
wojciii wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every so often, you get a glimpse into a whole world you never knew existed. I had no idea that people did this. This sounds expensive. Just like other people have no idea that we (Scandinavia) let babies sleep outside in a baby carriage wrapped in a tiny sleeping bag. Fresh air is awesome. Cold air is even better. This works for some babies and is not universal in any way.

Awesome. How cold?

There is no limit really. The baby is in warm clothes and in a sleeping bag during winter. Less clothes when its warm.

My children slept outside while it was below zero C. The only time they were not sleeping outside was while they were ill.. having a cold or something.

Edit: the limit is -10 C according to https://www.sst.dk/vidensbase/graviditet-og-smaaboern/barnet...

This is well known around here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988

Re: Software for One

#73

Post by aryehof »

rpdillon wrote: post #36
fny wrote: post #2

This is such a romantic idea, but unfortunately Apple and Google are hostile to this model. Of the two, iOS is /worst/ for running vibe coded apps. You need to pay $99 a year to be an Apple developer if you want your app to live on your phone for more than a a week. Distribution is a also pain in the ass even for personal use alone (you can't just toss around an IPA). Finally, so many useful APIs are totally locked u…

I ran across WebXDC this past weekend, and I'm intrigued. I've built a few apps on it already, and I'm very pleasantly surprised by how cleverly inverted the whole model is (in combination with ChatMail). Delta Chat is available on iOS, I believe. I use Arcanechat on Android. https://webxdc.org/ https://chatmail.at/ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/delta-chat/id1459523234 https://arcanechat.me/ The beauty of the ecosyst…

Interesting. What apps have you built? How/where is state maintained?

Re: Software for One

#74

Post by SyneRyder »

chrysoprace wrote: post #4

I'm building a podcast app just for me, because the podcast app I typically use (PocketCasts) is really good but there's just a couple of features I'd like and they don't bring out a lot of new features since it's not a monthly SaaS. LLMs are a good help here because side projects typically slow down for me when I run into bugs / troubleshooting. So while I genuinely believe struggle is necessary for learning, being…

> ...they don't bring out a lot of new features since it's not a monthly SaaS.

But it is! The Patron level of Pocket Casts is $15.99 / month!

I used to love Pocket Casts, but it didn't have the ability to easily add an RSS feed URL locally without submitting it to their index - which I don't want to do with my AI's personalised morning podcast (and that's another category, Podcast For One). I've had to use AntennaPod for that, but it's missing all the silence clipping and audio normalising features that Pocket Casts has. I'd love to see someone improve on it, and I've been tempted to do it myself too. Good luck!

Re: Software for One

#75

Post by ymolodtsov »

Same thoughts here.

About four years ago I started building an RSS reader that was supposed to use an algorithm. The problem is, I didn't code in years and wasn't familiar with the modern web stack. I had to drop it, although was still able to sell the domain I got for $500 (nice).

And then, with Codex and Claude, I finally built it this year and enjoy it every day, along with 30 other strangers, since I made it public. It's a great feeling.

I now finally have an app that I use to save both links and articles to read, sort of in-between of Readwise Reader and Raindrop (and it does sync with Readwise).

I write my blog posts in a little browser-based note-taking app with sharing. It's minimal and looks great but has all I need.

I built a few Chrome extensions that I really wanted but couldn't find (well, couldn't find beautiful options).

I don't think everyone will do this. And getting the audience is a major pain, always has been, but now most of your early adopters just go and build their own things just like you. I'll still take it.

Re: Software for One

#76

Post by ymolodtsov »

rrvsh wrote: post #30

Side note, why not just deploy onto a VPS and save the money from using hosted services, as well as protecting yourself from when they inevitably go down? The CBA clearly shows that while active development is going on its trivial to have hosted service subscriptions because the AI sub is way more, but what if that sub disappears? You're left paying (relatively) exorbitant amounts compared to $1-10 per month per VPS…

That's what I did after I realized how much I'd pay for managed databases and auth.

I now have 3 VPS on Hetzner that run about $14/month in total (the old pricing, thankfully). I mostly got three so I wouldn't worry about wiping one if something terrible happens.

Works like a charm. Even with the new pricing, Hetzner or DO would be cheaper than what OP uses. And the maintenance isn't that hard.

Easier to leave vulnerabilities but you can also do it on Vercel and Neon.

Re: Software for One

#77

Post by ymolodtsov »

fny wrote: post #2

This is such a romantic idea, but unfortunately Apple and Google are hostile to this model. Of the two, iOS is /worst/ for running vibe coded apps. You need to pay $99 a year to be an Apple developer if you want your app to live on your phone for more than a a week. Distribution is a also pain in the ass even for personal use alone (you can't just toss around an IPA). Finally, so many useful APIs are totally locked u…

For most people I believe it's a good exchange for the value of a more secure device.

But yes, I don't really want to pay Apple $100 a year just to run my apps. So I just have them as PWAs. Wouldn't work for many use cases, like when you need Apple Fitness data, but works for me and it looks fine.

Re: Software for One

#78

Post by ymolodtsov »

farfatched wrote: post #26
tim-projects wrote: post #23

"building personal software won't require a developer's stack for much longer." I will if you are building anything good. What even is this statement?

They're suggesting you won't need an IDE and a VM to build a service, for example. You'll just prompt your LLM provider and they'll provision your software. It'll do testing, dependency updates, monitoring, and regular audits. If you want fixes/features, you'll prompt your LLM and it'll make it so.

Which is completely right. For my latest several apps I never even looked at the code.

Re: Software for One

#79

Post by LtWorf »

ymolodtsov wrote: post #75

Same thoughts here. About four years ago I started building an RSS reader that was supposed to use an algorithm. The problem is, I didn't code in years and wasn't familiar with the modern web stack. I had to drop it, although was still able to sell the domain I got for $500 (nice). And then, with Codex and Claude, I finally built it this year and enjoy it every day, along with 30 other strangers, since I made it publ…

wait for the hackers to find it

Re: Software for One

#80

Post by LtWorf »

wojciii wrote: post #49
JeffRosenberg wrote: post #27

This was really interesting, but I admit I bumped on this throwaway detail: > Our sleep consultant's plan arrived as a PDF full of conditional logic: wake windows, nap caps, what to do when a nap fails Every so often, you get a glimpse into a whole world you never knew existed.

> Every so often, you get a glimpse into a whole world you never knew existed. I had no idea that people did this. This sounds expensive. Just like other people have no idea that we (Scandinavia) let babies sleep outside in a baby carriage wrapped in a tiny sleeping bag. Fresh air is awesome. Cold air is even better. This works for some babies and is not universal in any way.

I've been living in scandinavia for several years and I've never seen this happen in person. Just on reddit and now here.

I kinda doubt it's something widespread.

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