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Software for One

ajwaxman.com

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Re: Software for One

#121

Post by swiftcoder »

hamdouni wrote: post #66

Genuine question: how will this "software for one" outlive its creator? I realize that if it were truly intended for just one user, it wouldn't matter, but in this specific case, the software is used by family members, so...

Yeah, this is a fear I keep bumping up against. Even relatively simple things like setting up pihole for my home network has pretty severe bus factor - if I get hit by a bus, no one else in the family would be able to fix the internet, short of chucking all the current hardware and asking the ISP tech to set up from scratch...

Re: Software for One

#122

Post by cyanregiment »

There’s software for one and then there’s “Apple Watch type shit” which is tech that is highly personal and seems useful on paper but is absurdly extraneous - like calorie tracking, step counting, and being able to check things that are already easy to check.

Not for me.

I like software for people, and in terms of affordances and utility mass buy-in and standardization is part of the point.

I can invent a new kind of key. I could…

Re: Software for One

#123

Post by Diogenesian »

satvikpendem wrote: post #28

I thought the opinion of this article was widely known by now, as every thread about AI here talks about personalized software built with vibe coding.

Even in early 2023 people were talking about this as a use case for ChatGPT copy-paste coding. Arvind Naranyan (AI As Normal Technology) used it to build edutainment applets for his kids.

Re: Software for One

#124

Post by morganf »

In my line of work, we convert words to numbers, and we have a codex that defines meanings for the numbers; that way, we can write publicly but (in making sure we choose words that, when converted to numbers, convert to numbers that have the second meaning we want) our public writing will only be understood on this second level with this second meaning only by those who use this system and codex. It's something like a form of real/human language cryptography: write for the world to see but only those who know the key will see what we're also saying to them. This was traditionally very hard to do for anyone who didn't grow up in a family that did this naturally from when they were kids. And I vibe-coded tools to make it easy. It's been amazingly helpful and worth its weight in gold :)

Re: Software for One

#125

Post by esskay »

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…

Yeah Vercels an awful service for stuff like this, paying $20/mo may not seem like a lot but its $15/mo or $180/year more than you need to be paying.

It still baffles me why the heck people pay for services line neon and supabase as well. Utter madness imo. If you add that on to something to get rid of OP could've saved $540 per year.

Re: Software for One

#126

Post by Diogenesian » 

  Thariq wrote "personal software was a bit early in 2020 but in 2026, it really can be as personal as a home cooked meal, or a handwritten letter."
Excuse me??? Vibe-coding personal software is not a homecooked meal or a handwritten letter! It is [at best!] more akin to tastefully combining microwaved ramen with microwaved veggies and toaster oven chicken, or using ChatGPT to write a letter then editing it afterwards. It's fine, maybe even very good. But it's not "homecooked."

Ugh. The most depressing thing about the AI boom is watching tech people devalue human experience.

Re: Software for One

#127

Post by penandledger »

The examples in this thread are all personal-life software (music, calories, thermostats). What I keep wondering about is the other end: the boring business admin that self-employed people carry — invoicing, chasing late payers, expense categorisation, tax set-asides, quoting. That's "software for one" too, except the stakes are money and most people seem to limp along with a spreadsheet plus a shoebox of receipts.

If you freelance (design, illustration, photography, writing, or solo dev): which part of that would you most like to never think about again, and what did you try that didn't stick? Genuinely curious rather than pitching anything — I don't have a product, I'm trying to figure out whether the real pain is the bookkeeping itself or the decision-making around it (pricing, when to chase, what to set aside).

Re: Software for One

#128

Post by reolbox »

hard_times wrote: post #84
mercutio2 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to pay Apple $99. You can make perfectly good apps that run great with a free account. They expire in a week instead of 3 months (for TestFlight builds). That's it. You can redeploy with minimal effort. You have to reauth with Apple every ~30 days. The reauth is the only part of that you can't have a cron job run (you need to authenticate the keychain). For normie folks, the hoops here are mildly annoy…

> You can redeploy with minimal effort every week No thank you

Indeed No thank you. Tried this with my personal habit tracker. Had to login again with my Apple ID so often and right when I needed my app it expired (good luck if you don’t have your laptop with you). Converted it into a PWA and be done with it. Weekly redeploys are a big PIA. A pity you cannot use an iPhone for personal projects.
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