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Software for One

ajwaxman.com

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Re: Software for One

#221

Post by NegativeLatency »

mynegation wrote: post #146
spot5010 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a new father, just using so many apps sounds exhausting, let alone building and maintaining them. I would have been very excited about these maybe 10-15 years ago. Now I just want the ability to do things with my phone when my hands are tied up holding the baby.

Tell me about it. Holding a 4mo old right now, nap trapped :-) Speaking of which - Claude Code wrote me a web proxy for HN that rewrites CSS for the dark mode - precisely for this situation. Written and deployed with Claude Code remote control too, also while nap trapped.

Haha amazing I’m doing the same thing

Re: Software for One

#222

Post by victorbjorklund »

monsieurbanana wrote: post #205
rpdillon wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was talking to my wife about this a little bit, that the promise of computers has never really been realized in the sense that we don't put power in the hands of the end user. Like one of the most obvious things that a computer can do is run a task periodically at a time to go maybe fetch information and process it. And yet, the average computer user using any commercial operating system does not understand how to…

The average user can and already does that. If they want to regularly fetch their emails and process them, they will install outlook or use the Gmail web app. If they want to regularly fetch and install updates for their games they will install steam. The "run a task periodically" isn't the difficult part, it's processing the data that is. And to be honest I don't think llms will empower that many people, the vast ma…

Those are just built in functions in the apps. I think we are more talking about custom automations like ”I want you to download the images on this site everyday and put them in this folder and send me a message on telegram with any new photos” or ”I wanna check this website for searches for X and when a match then message me”. An example I have seen is non-tech people before logging in to a saas app and manually copying numbers to a spreadsheet every single day forever. But with LLM:s they automated it to just work automatically in the background

Re: Software for One

#223

Post by mft_ »

rvz wrote: post #12
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…

> 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. No complaints over paying more than >$100 a month in subscriptions with coding agents but $99 a year is some how too much? Yet another reason why “developers” are just consumers that are selective complainers that want their tools to cost $0.00. Clearly as already stated in the article, hosting and…

> Clearly as already stated in the article, hosting and distribution is not free.

If I write an app for myself there is no need for hosting or distribution - it costs Apple absolutely nothing, and they don't need to be in the loop.

I've been able to run my own software on my computers forever, and still can on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It's just the mobile OSs that are different, and they shouldn't be. That's what sucks.

---

Related, I've been wondering if this issue will hit more and more consumers as vibe-coding personal apps becomes available to more and more people. Apple may have to change this aspect of its model, in time.

Re: Software for One

#224

Post by scotty79 »

eviks wrote: post #69
pornel wrote: post #13

This mitigates problems with LLMs' low quality code. For a single user, the bar is much lower. The app doesn't have to have all the features that work for everyone's edge cases, implemented in a way that other devs can maintain. It only needs to be good enough for one user, and can be discarded and recreated when it gets too messy.

> can be discarded and recreated when it gets too messy. That's the result of poor quality, how is wasting time redoing an app mitigate itself?

You do it better next time because you learned in more detail what you actually need.

Re: Software for One

#226

Post by zackham »

single author, single user software is the one place where there is no rev limiter on ai. i spend the vast majority of my time on the computer steeped in my personal software now. some i publish for others to use, or so friends can point their agent at to adapt/rebuild:

https://stepwise.run/ Portable workflow orchestration for agents and humans

https://github.com/zackham/aloop Embeddable Python agent loop for integrating LLM agents into your projects. Multi-provider (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq), built-in tools, hooks, ACP server, and persistent sessions.

https://github.com/zackham/plat An embeddable infinite canvas to build on. Bring your own node types; drag, zoom, edges, auto-layout, and undo come free. Host-agnostic storage, runtime API built for agents.

https://github.com/zackham/seance Shared live workspace for humans and agents — multi-pane terminals, notes, and a control plane for co-working in the open.

deep dive docs for my personal agent system i've been developing since dec, and using constantly: https://vita-docs.ham.xyz/overview/

browser replacement for stuff i control: https://vita-reports.ham.xyz/s/2119130b0b6b

a snapshot in time of the education system i run for my kids: https://vita-reports.ham.xyz/s/e7036ae931a7

if you want to talk about any of this stuff, or have a related project you think i'd appreciate, hit me up zackham@gmail.com or @zackham on telegram. abundance is here for personal software. take advantage of it and have fun!

Re: Software for One

#227

Post by scotty79 »

storus wrote: post #175

This is nice, but Apple essentially blocks sideloading (outside test flight environment) and Google is moving there as well. While it has never been easier to produce individualized software, it was never more difficult on the official platforms, unless one wants to create their own OS (at some point that might be possible as well).

GrapheneOS/LineageOS/e/OS is fine. And if I were to choose between ad infested cookie cutter app store and a handful of app crafted specifically for me the choice is really simple.

As for the banking and identity apps, I probably shouldn't be keeping them on my big cool phone that might eventually get stolen.

Re: Software for One

#228

Post by worldthruword »

jbjbjbjb wrote: post #181

It still sounds quite complicated because you’re creating all this stuff but there has to be some overhead of keeping it all running, repos, hosting, builds etc. I feel like there needs to be a mash up of agents-cloud-MSAccess to actually make this into an accessible way of building for the average person. People build spreadsheets to provide them themselves with “apps” all the time, so it needs to be at that level o…

I have two observations : We have so much compute power sitting idle, finally with the help of AI we can get what we need for solving personal problems. Most of the time, our problems require emphemeral solutions. e.g. building a complaint management app for my building. or something simpler.

Another observation : I expect in future the UIs could be dynamic, fluid, AI-generated and personalized. Old person, here's big font for you. You need to just know current balance, here's the number.

Re: Software for One

#229

Post by runarberg »

matusfaro wrote: post #190

Oh my this is so true: * I waited for Duolingo to support Mongolian for years, and in one evening, created my own DuoMongo https://github.com/matusfaro/DuoMongo * I wanted an LLM to mock up a server to speak arbitrary network protocols across any layer (e.g. http/tcp/bgp/snmp/arp) for protocol development/testing/cybersecurity and I got it: https://smotanacom.github.io/netget/ * I wanted a way to inspect/route LLM ca…

Did you want to learn Mongolian or did you want to play a video game where you pretended to learn Mongolian. Because if it was the former, plenty of resources have been available for you for years. You could have walked into your local bookstore and bought a textbook, hired a tutor on italki, downloaded an anki deck, listened to MNB broadcasts etc. etc.

I think LLMs are pretty similar to DuoLingo. It is a tool that makes you feel like you have accomplished something without you putting in the work you need to actually accomplish anything. Worse still, you still need to put in the time. So in effect you end up wasting a bunch of time without learning anything new. These machines, are dopamine generators, kind of like cigarettes, or slot machines.

Re: Software for One

#230

Post by callc »

erelong wrote: post #184
storus wrote: post #175

This is nice, but Apple essentially blocks sideloading (outside test flight environment) and Google is moving there as well. While it has never been easier to produce individualized software, it was never more difficult on the official platforms, unless one wants to create their own OS (at some point that might be possible as well).

maybe we need more like raspberry pi smartphone-sized tablets projects so people can sideload whatever they want like like "RasPad" (or other devices like the Pinephone)

s/sideload/install/g

Sideloading implies a subversive action, which we should not be primed to think.

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