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Software for One

ajwaxman.com

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Re: Software for One

#161

Post by mattm »

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 this is what I did. All my personal services are running on one EC2 instance and I use subdomains to separate them. If I need more memory it's easy to scale up. I just use sqlite on the instance for my database. You don't need a postgres service if it's just for you.

Hosted services are only great for setup and scaling. You're not going to need scaling. Infra setup can now be done easily with AI and terraform.

Re: Software for One

#162

Post by ben_w »

tptacek wrote: post #15

Things I've built in the last month or so: * 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". * A calorie/protein tracker that takes 1-liner summaries of meals, resolves them to macros with GPT5 calls, and tracks them in SQLite. * A macOS menu…

> I feel like I'm not doing this enough yet, it hasn't fully sunk in, and I'm going to be building a lot more stuff when it does sink in. I haven't yet gotten to the point of writing my own note-taking application (still Bear.app for that), but how long can that last?

Indeed.

I'm not sure when, but at some point after I saw Claude Code, I realised what I wanted for my next OS was basically an LCARS-themed* thing, where the "desktop" is a TUI and whenever I needed an app I didn't already have, I'd ask an LLM to write it for me instead of downloading it (benefit: the app would never have an update pending (which might break my flow) that I had to install before use, unless I'd specifically asked for a new feature to be written); and if I wanted to browse something on the web, the browser would use something like an LLM to strip out everything that wasn't content.

LLMs aren't quite good enough for that yet. They're interesting, I've also made a bunch of apps this way that was an easier experience than even figuring out which offering on the app store was right for me**, but still, the LLMs are not quite good enough; I'm pining for the OS equivalent of a car with a self-driving mode so good there's no steering wheel and the windows have black-out shutters so you can sleep while it drives you and your insurance is fine with this.

* because I'm that kind of nerd

** e.g. rhythm action game that takes midi files for the songs and listens for a midi keyboard for your input: https://benwheatley.github.io/Piano-Trainer/piano-trainer.ht...

Re: Software for One

#163

Post by jeef_berky »

eloisius wrote: post #142
nonameiguess wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel on the opposite side of a divide when I see these kinds of comments here about people creating bespoke software to address deficiencies they perceive in their daily lives. There's an engineer mindset that tools can solve any and every problem, but do they? Are you quantifiably any fitter than you were before? Better bloodwork, BMI, body fat percentage, anything? Are you creating better wooden goods? More woode…

> There's an engineer mindset that tools can solve any and every problem, but do they? No. These people just spend more time fiddling with their computers instead of doing the parts of life that it supposedly frees them up to enjoy. It's IoT lightswitch automations all over again. There's no reason anyone would ever need to calculate their smoothie according to their Strava data and the positions of the planets on th…

As someone fiddling with computers trying to solve "every problem," the only actual solution for me is making tools to assist with being aware of the state of your body. Overly simple example, but give someone a heartrate monitor for the first time and they won't be able to guess their current bpm all that accurately. If they pay a little attention to it for a month, you'll get much more closer guesses for instantaneous rate. If it becomes easier to be aware of your current state, you get a more accurate model, and can start to predict basic cycles etc. Eventually, without the tools.

Re: Software for One

#164

Post by IanCal »

jedbrooke wrote: post #50
tptacek wrote: post #15

Things I've built in the last month or so: * 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". * A calorie/protein tracker that takes 1-liner summaries of meals, resolves them to macros with GPT5 calls, and tracks them in SQLite. * A macOS menu…

> 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…

Recommendation algorithms are, frankly, weird as a user. Something watches your tiny interactions and, with zero concept of anything happening, gets surprisingly good at predicting your next interactions.

It’d be like eating and having an alien with no concept of food or taste staring at how much your facial muscles change and making notes. Then recommending places to you based on the other people they’ve been studying.

> how is AI (or a human for that matter) supposed to know what “woodworking-appropriate music is”?

Well someone is going to be concentrating, but it’s a long period, with loud activity. maybe you’d guess at decently active music, not relying on careful complex listening, probably fairly steady rather than sudden dramatic changes.

Maybe it could save previous playlists and what you’ve said about them, or ask questions like “so like, really calm or techno or what?”. Adding just a bit of common sense makes an enormous difference with this kind of thing.

Re: Software for One

#165

Post by IanCal »

ofjcihen wrote: post #158
tptacek wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is going to be a funny thread to show my doctor. I think something that isn't getting through to people is: I'm not taking The Internet's advice on this stuff; I hired a person to handle these questions for me. Highly recommended!

I quite literally, right at this moment, am sitting next to a friend who is a doctor with a focus on nutrition and they are saying that whoever told you that fiber doesn’t matter is going against almost all of the modern understanding of health science and research. His advice is literally “He needs to just Google it.”

They didn’t say fibre didnt matter. They disagreed they should care more about fibre than any other.

Re: Software for One

#166

Post by IanCal »

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #140
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…

Almost $2000 a year is beyond ridiculous and would make me question the author's ability to write software on his own (but I'd get downvoted for insulting him or not realizing some kind of time savings they help with). I spend $2/month on my VPS, write my code in HTML/CSS/Javascript with Posgresql along with other Unix (FreeBSD) tools and the standard languages and get similar things done.

Tbf if I don’t enjoy that aspect and it saves me a day or so per year that I can use for consulting instead it makes sense to do that trade. Two and a half perhaps including taxes.

Re: Software for One

#167

Post by mattm »

nonameiguess wrote: post #114
tptacek wrote: post #15

Things I've built in the last month or so: * 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". * A calorie/protein tracker that takes 1-liner summaries of meals, resolves them to macros with GPT5 calls, and tracks them in SQLite. * A macOS menu…

I feel on the opposite side of a divide when I see these kinds of comments here about people creating bespoke software to address deficiencies they perceive in their daily lives. There's an engineer mindset that tools can solve any and every problem, but do they? Are you quantifiably any fitter than you were before? Better bloodwork, BMI, body fat percentage, anything? Are you creating better wooden goods? More woode…

I've had a personal health dashboard tracking my metrics for the past four years. Yes I am quantifiably healthier than I was.

Re: Software for One

#168

Post by xyzelement »

swiftcoder wrote: post #81

> sleep consultant I'm not sure I believe this is a real job. Do we really need to pay consultants to tell us that babies need naps?

I would have thought so too until our third kid was impossible to out down.

We managed the first two so we are not completely incompetent:) so no it turned out very useful to have a "sleep coach" give us strategies that we hadn't thought of.

Nothing as elaborate as what's above but not completely ridiculous.

Re: Software for One

#169

Post by camgunz »

LtWorf wrote: post #135
wojciii wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around here (Northern Jutland, Danmark) this is the norm. But do doubt away. :) Please see the official guidelines: https://www.sst.dk/vidensbase/graviditet-og-smaaboern/barnet...

Perhaps just say "here in northern jutland" next time?

No one knows where that is. I've also heard this is very common in the northern Scandinavian countries, there are even little "houses" you can buy.

Re: Software for One

#170

Post by camgunz »

what wrote: post #29
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.

This person seems insane. You don’t need to pay a “sleep consultant” to make a plan for your child’s nap times. It’s really not that complicated.

My partner is a sleep consultant, and most of the time the families she works with are at their wits end and their marriage is hanging by a thread. Having young kids is incredibly hard on people and relationships.
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