<![CDATA[James' Audiolog: Indie.am]]> http://github.com/dylang/node-rss https://api.indie.am/upimg/32fa45f21718d0cdeeb9ce7bc3d5928f.jpg James' Audiolog: Indie.am Podcast for Node Tue, 14 Apr 2026 22:02:10 GMT Tue, 14 Apr 2026 22:02:10 GMT https://indie.am/ 60 Personal Journals]]> Indie.am Hey, I'm James, and welcome to my personal Audiolog. I mostly use this to share personal updates, via Indie.am. DM me for an invite! indie.am contact@indie.am false <![CDATA[US Steel and Aluminum Tariffs]]> US Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: A Rookie Mistake

Hello, everyone. Today's discussion centers on the US steel and aluminum tariffs. I must say, this seems like a real rookie mistake. Imposing tariffs on inputs rather than outputs is a flawed strategy. US consumers don't directly purchase steel or aluminum, nor the byproducts of imported steel and aluminum. Instead, they buy goods whose value has been increased multiple times by various companies after the initial input was taxed.

Learning from the Past

We've been down this road before. In 2018, the US imposed similar tariffs on the same countries. We have case studies available that detail the effects of those tariffs. What happened was that US producers overbuilt capacity, leading to a significant bubble. Demand only rose modestly, covering just a fraction of the additional capacity. Prices soared, outpacing the additional production created within the United States. The intended effect of shifting consumption by US manufacturers from imported, mostly Canadian steel to US steel did not materialize. Manufacturers simply moved down the list to the next cheapest alternative, finding esoteric supply chains to substitute Canadian steel.

This cycle created a boom and bust scenario, harming US steel producers and manufacturers, with the benefits never materializing.

Repeating Mistakes

Now, we're considering doing this again. Look at the shale industry. After experiencing a boom and bust cycle, prices rose, and they decided against building additional capacity. They learned from past mistakes and chose not to repeat them. Similarly, US steel and aluminum producers are unlikely to respond to tariffs by expanding capacity. They won't rush to build new refining facilities or start extracting iron ore in Alabama and Mississippi again.

Market Dynamics

US steel and aluminum producers have found a different market than imported Canadian steel. They have a comparative advantage in quality and time to market. An entire industry exists to provide overpriced cut steel pipe quickly. They charge high prices but deliver swiftly, serving niche markets that require specific products urgently. These producers won't abandon their market to shift to low-end, low-margin steel production. Instead, they'll charge more for the same services, maintaining their market niche.

Policy Implications

If policymakers would read the case studies, they'd see the flaws in their approach. This isn't a team setting goals and finding experts to implement policies effectively. They're experimenting with a multi-trillion-dollar economy and industries, relying on gut feelings and untested solutions. This approach is unlikely to enhance US competitiveness or yield material benefits.

National Security Considerations

There's an argument for increasing US domestic steel production for national security reasons. However, this argument is flimsy. To achieve this, investment vehicles and programs are needed to de-risk production expansion. It's similar to what was done with the CHIPS Act, which de-risked chip production in the US, incentivizing companies to take risks before demand was fully reliable. The US government showed a long-term commitment to purchasing US-made goods, even at higher prices.

Strategic Partnerships

For national security, it's beneficial to have Canada, our largest trading partner and ally, export all their steel, aluminum, and oil to the US. The US industrial policy over the last five decades has tailored supply chains to serve the US market. Forcing Canada to find alternatives would be counterproductive. We want to maintain strong trade ties, ensuring that Canadian industries continue to supply the US, enhancing both economic and national security.

]]> https://indie.am/james/96a54be3ebabd454578bd15abc3c8c6f https://indie.am/james/96a54be3ebabd454578bd15abc3c8c6f Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hello, okay. Today's rant is on the US Steel and aluminum tariffs. I gotta say, real rookie mistake. Putting tariffs on inputs and not outputs. US consumers do not directly purchase steel or aluminum, or even the byproducts of imported steel. and aluminum, what they purchase are goods whose value add has been increased multiple times by multiple companies after the initial input was taxed in tariffs. The other part of this is we've already been down this road . We've already put the same exact tariffs on the same exact countries. In 2018, we have case studies. You can go read. You can see the effects of those tariffs. What happened was US producers overbuilt capacity. There was a huge bubble. Demand only rose modestly. It was a fraction of the additional capacity that they added. And prices extraordinarily outpaced the amount of additional production created inside the United States. It didn't have the intended effect of shifting consumption by US manufacturers from imported mostly Canadian steel to US Steel. They just went down the list of the next cheapest and the next cheapest alternative and they found some esoteric supply chains somewhere else where they could substitute Canadian steel for you for some other steel for Canadian steel. And you created this boom and bust cycle. You hurt a lot of US steel producers. You hurt a lot of US manufacturers and the benefits just never materialized. Now, we're talking about doing this again. You can look at shale. What did shale do after they had a boom and bust cycle? And prices went up and they crossed their arms and said we are not building additional capacity. No, sir, we're not building any additional capacity. We've been through this before. We got screwed the last time we built additional capacity and we're not going to make the same mistake twice . And that's exactly what US steel producers and Aluminium producers are going to do. They're not going to see some tariffs which could come and go in a 24 hour news cycle and say, oh, let's build a bunch of new refining capacity or let's start extracting iron ore and Alabama and Mississippi again. They're not going to do any of that. Because US steel and Aluminium producers have a different market than imported Canadian steel. They found a different comparative advantage. Quality, it's time to market. There's an entire industry up and down the supply chain that all they do is they sell you overpriced cut steel pipe. And they get it to you yesterday. They charge you exorbit ant prices for it, but they ship it on semi-trucks in an inefficient way. They cut it locally. They charge an arm and a leg for it, but their entire industry is serving this niche for like you have a project that needs some small quantity of some specific product. You need it yesterday and they can get it to you in two or three days. They can get it cut today on a truck tomorrow and it'll be delivered ASAP. That's an entire industry with its own comparative advantage. And these producers are not going to just quit serving, they're not going to stop serving that market as soon as the tariffs are announced and shift their output to low end , low margin steel production. They're going to just charge more for the exact same services they've been delivering. They already have their own comparative advantage and their own niche in the market . And if these people would read the case studies, it's all there. So, what does that show you? That shows you. This is not like a team of people who set goals and they find experts to like smartly implement whatever policy will achieve those goals. They're mucking around with the internals of a multi trillion dollar economy and multi trillion dollar, multi billion dollar industries and just seeing what happens. They're going off of gut feelings and comments and solutions. And this is just not bound to increase US competitiveness. This isn't bound to have any material beneficial effect. So, why is it that, if you want to look at another angle, maybe it's a national security angle, there's an argument there, we should increase US domestic steel production capabilities for national security reasons. This is a flimsy argument too. You have to create investment vehicles and programs to de-risk the expansion of production. There's an entirely different set of things you do if you want to do that. It's like what we did with the chips act. We de-risk the process of increasing chip production in the United States and that incentivized companies to take risks before demand was 100% reliable. It showed that the US government had a long-term commitment towards purchasing US-made goods even if they were at a higher price comparatively. The other end of what you need to do, not to say that tariffs would have no effect in conjunction with this, but it's the other side of what you would be required to do to expand production. The other side of that is, if it's for national security purposes, we already had that sewed up. What you want is your largest trading partner, your biggest ally, I think it's the longest land border in the US. We share with Canada. You want them to export all of their steel and aluminum and oil to the United States. You want to go find other partners who they might trade with. You want to incentivize them to tailor their entire supply chain to serving the US market. That's what US industrial policy has done for the last five decades. We have tailored built this entire thing so that 75% of oil production goes from Canada to the US and steel aluminum. They're huge numbers like that. Basically, there's huge industries in Canada where the US is the only customer. They don't sell domestically. They don't sell internationally. It all just basically goes across the border on a train to the United States or a pipeline. And that benefits international security. If you force them to go find alternatives, if we end up in a situation where Canada is like, "Oh, we got to figure out how to put crude and ships and sell it to Europe." Well, you're doing the opposite. Right. [BLANK_AUDIO] false <![CDATA[Tariffs and inflation]]> Rant on Tariffs and Inflation

Hello, welcome to my thoughts on tariffs and inflation. Here's a bit of background: I sell a digital product online and have a significant number of Canadian and European customers, along with others around the world. My business extends well beyond the United States.

The Impact of Tariffs

When the idea of tariffs was introduced, I immediately started researching. I realized I needed to read the USMCA and examine Canada's list of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. I had to consider the implications if the U.S. imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, or the EU, and if retaliatory tariffs would affect my product.

Digital Goods and Tariffs

The good news is that the USMCA prohibits tariffs on digital goods. Digital goods are inherently difficult to tariff because they don't cross borders in the traditional sense or go through customs. It's challenging to imagine a scenario where digital goods are specifically targeted without a prolonged trade war or a significant effort from one side. Currently, neither the U.S. nor Canada has the mechanisms to impose tariffs on digital goods effectively.

The Real Issue: Customer Confidence

The real concern isn't the potential 25% tariff itself—I'd be willing to offer a 25% discount to my customers to offset it. The core issue is the impact on customer confidence in the EU and Canada when considering purchases from U.S. companies. If the U.S. starts imposing tariffs broadly, it could erode trust and confidence in U.S. businesses.

Marketing and Messaging

To address this, I need to develop a marketing campaign that communicates our stance against tariffs. We could emphasize that we absorb the tariff costs and offer discounts to our customers who are affected by them.

Broader Implications

Even if digital goods aren't directly targeted by tariffs, U.S. suppliers in Canada and the EU might face negative repercussions. Companies may instruct their procurement teams to be cautious about buying from U.S. companies if alternatives exist, due to the uncertainty tariffs introduce.

Inflation: A Misunderstood Term

Many claim that tariffs are inflationary. However, the term "inflation" is often misused. Inflation should refer to what we now call "monetary inflation," a purely monetary construct. It's important to distinguish this from price changes, as inflation is the result of market dynamics.

In conclusion, while digital goods might be safe from direct tariffs, the broader implications on customer confidence and international trade relationships are significant concerns that need addressing.

]]> https://indie.am/james/375e093fa4af54feee469616cfc88d78 https://indie.am/james/375e093fa4af54feee469616cfc88d78 Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hello, so here is my, this is going to be my rant on tariffs and inflation, a little bit of my thoughts going into this. So my background, I sell a digital product online and I have a lot of Canadian and European customers. I have customers around the world, significant business outside the United States. So as soon as the idea of tariffs came down, I started looking into it and saying, well, I guess I'm going to have to read the USMCA and I guess I'm going to have to look at Canada's list of retaliatory tariffs that they're putting on goods from the United States. I guess I'm going to have to really consider what do I do if the US puts a tariff on Canada or Mexico or the EU and the retaliatory tariff applies to my product. So digging into this, the good news, I guess, is that the USMCA prohibits any sort of tariff on digital goods and additionally digital goods are a tricky thing to apply tariffs to, they don't cross a border, they don't go through the regular customs procedures. So it's really hard to envision electronic goods without a prolonged trade war or a really, really strong effort from one side of the other. It's hard to imagine digital goods being targeted specifically because they'd be the most difficult thing to apply tariffs to, we don't have the agencies and mechanisms to tariff these goods right now. It looks like neither does Canada, Canada doesn't have, there's like a form you can fill out if you owe GST on goods, purchase to broad, so I guess there's kind of a mechanism, and it's not for other, there isn't a specific tariff on digital goods, so that's unclear how it would work. But the real issue isn't actually paying the 25%, I will discount my customers 25%, whatever. I can get around that, the real issue is the impact that it has on customers in the EU and Canada who are considering purchasing from a US company at all and they, the confidence in purchasing from US companies is going to road, if we start throwing tariffs up, will annoyingly to every single country, we have any sort of significant trade deficit with. It's more about confidence, so I think what I need to do is create some kind of messaging or marketing campaign around how we don't like tariffs and we pay the tariffs and also we give you a discount because you had to pay tariffs, I don't know. And the thing is, is the negative impact from to US suppliers in Canada and EU will happen even if digital goods are never targeted by tariffs. Companies will start to internally tell their procurement teams and tell teams that they need to be hesitant about buying from US companies if they 're alternatives because of tariffs. So as soon as we start a trade war, you're going to start seeing negative effects of this. And everybody says, oh, this is inflationary, small nitpick on definitions. The term inflation is widely misused. Inflation is supposed to refer to what we're now going to start calling monetary inflation. This is supposed to be purely a monetary construct. One of the important parts of it being a monetary construct and not a price construct is that inflation is the effect of market dynamics, I guess. false <![CDATA[How does Google Scrape library data from Itunes?]]> Google's Intriguing Access to iTunes Music Library

Hello! Today, I want to discuss something intriguing that caught my attention a couple of months ago and has been on my mind ever since. It appears that Google has found a way to scrape data from an iTunes music library on the same device through one of their apps. However, I'm uncertain which app is responsible, and it doesn't seem to involve any information sharing or consensual data sharing with Google.

The Mystery of Unrelated Music Recommendations

I have a specific set of music, primarily tracks I copied into my iTunes music library years ago, which are now part of my Apple Music library. These tracks have never left the app, and I don't search for these artists or songs on YouTube. Interestingly, this niche music from my library began appearing in YouTube notifications and recommendations around November or December, seemingly out of nowhere.

Unexpected YouTube Music Suggestions

YouTube started suggesting, "Hey, you don't listen to music on YouTube. Why don't you try YouTube Music? We already have all of your music from your library. You could switch right now and start listening." This was surprising because my music was siloed in iTunes and Apple Music. I'm unaware of how Google could access it without some OAuth mechanism.

Potential Data Access Methods

In iOS app development, there's a mechanism to add a "Sign in with Apple Music" button, allowing third-party apps to access data. However, it seems Google has found a way to scrape song names and artist names from the entire iTunes music library, possibly through one of their installed apps on my device. This data appears to be used to promote YouTube Music, a competitor app.

Apple's Potential Concerns

It's puzzling because one would assume Apple would go to great lengths to prevent a competitor app from scraping this data. Presumably, the only use for this data is to advertise within Google apps, encouraging users to migrate from Apple Music to YouTube Music. It's surprising that Google has managed to achieve this, despite Apple's likely efforts to prevent it.

Distinguishing from Common Misconceptions

Before jumping to conclusions, I've thought about this extensively. This isn't like those instances where people Google something and then see related ads elsewhere, not understanding how tracking works. I'm aware that phones aren't spying on us in that manner. While this situation might sound similar, I've considered it for months and can't think of any way Google could access this information except through an app installed on the same device.

Possible Methods and Speculations

Perhaps it's easier on macOS, and maybe Google used the Chrome binary to read my iTunes music library, which would be even more surprising. Whatever method they employed to obtain this data is likely interesting, and I imagine there are some Apple developers sending angry emails to Google about not adhering to developer terms.

In conclusion, I find this situation fascinating and worth pondering. How Google managed to access this data remains a mystery, but it certainly raises questions about data privacy and app permissions.

]]> https://indie.am/james/aa31eaf5514b7641cb9698438a59a2cf https://indie.am/james/aa31eaf5514b7641cb9698438a59a2cf Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hello! So something interesting I noticed a couple of months ago and I've been thinking about it ever since. Google seems to have figured out some way to scrape the data from an iTunes music library on the same device from one of their apps. I'm not sure which one. And it's not through information sharing and it's not through consensual data sharing with Google. I basically have a specific set of music, mostly stuff that years ago I copied into my iTunes music library. It's now part of my Apple music library. It's never left the app. I don't search for these artists or particular songs on YouTube. It's some pretty unrelated niche stuff that's part of my music library that has suddenly maybe it was November, December, maybe a little bit before that. Suddenly it started to mysteriously appear in YouTube basically notifications, recommendations, out of nowhere. Hey, you don't listen to music on YouTube. Why don't you listen to YouTube music? We already have all of your music from your music library. You could just switch right now and start listening. I thought it was very interesting because this is for me, siloed in iTunes, Apple music. I'm not aware of how you access it without some sort of OAuth mechanism. There is a mechanism inside iOS when you're developing an app. You can add a sign in with Apple music button and then the data you can access the data at that point through a third party app. But it seems that Google has somehow figured out how to strip the shiisley, scrape all of that data, song names, artist names from the entire iTunes music library. I'm guessing through one of the apps that I've installed from Google on a device and that data has made it over to Google specifically so they can basically promote YouTube music. We're just a competitor app, which is why I think, you know , wouldn't Apple got great links to prevent a competitor app from scraping this data and making off with it. Presumably, you know, the only thing that can do with it is basically advertise to you inside of Google apps to try to get you to migrate from Apple music to YouTube music. I just thought it was very interesting. It seems like something that Apple would go to great links to prevent Google from doing yet. They've obviously figured out a way to do it. Before you get down to this route, I've thought about this a while. This isn't like people who Google something and then they're surprised that they see an ad somewhere else on the internet and they don't understand how like double click works and they think that their phone is listening to them. Like, okay, I laugh at these people all day. I know that's not a thing that your phone is not like spying on you to. I know this has the same kind of sound as those stories. It has the same kind of feel, but I. For months of thought about this, I cannot think of a way that Google could have access and information except through having an app installed on the same device. I don't know, maybe it's easier on Mac OS, like maybe they used the Google Chrome binary to read my iTunes music library. That'd be even crazier, right? What I'm saying is like whatever method they employed to get this data probably is interesting and there's probably some people at Apple sending angry emails to Google developers about not being adhered. Being adherent to developer terms or something. I don't know. I think it's interesting. [BLANK_AUDIO] false <![CDATA[Did the AI bubble just Burst?]]> Did the AI Bubble Just Pop?

Hey, so the question on everybody's mind today is, did the AI bubble just pop? I think no. The stock market thinks yes. Let's explore why I believe that perspective is a bit short-sighted and doesn't consider the bigger picture.

The Expanding Role of AI

Here's how I use AI in 2025 for tasks that weren't possible just 24 months ago:

  • Writing and Editing: AI helps me write and edit blog posts.
  • Creative Arts: I use it to create music and generate fan art.
  • Content Summarization: It summarizes YouTube videos for me.
  • Transcription: AI handles a lot of audio and video transcription.
  • Language Learning: I use AI for learning new languages.
  • Search Replacement: In many cases, AI replaces traditional Google searches.
  • Database Queries: It assists in writing database queries, especially those not in SQL.
  • Calculations and Problem Solving: AI helps with back-of-the-envelope calculations and thinking through problems.
  • Translation and Coding: I use it to translate manga and even to code and build apps, just like this one.

Two years ago, these applications of AI were not possible because the models simply didn't exist. We're only a couple of years into this transformation, and the potential applications of AI are still largely untapped.

Limitations and Future Potential

Currently, AI can't handle tasks like doing taxes or providing legal advice. The training data exists—case law is just a collection of books that someone spends years understanding. While AI might not take over the legal industry, it could make knowledge of tax law or other legal fields more accessible through well-trained models, but we're not there yet.

Demand for AI Remains Strong

The demand for AI hasn't changed. Despite headlines claiming that a model was trained for $6 million to compete with OpenAI's cutting-edge model, I believe that's mostly propaganda. Significant advancements include activating fewer parameters per token and using a mixture of experts. In the coming days, OpenAI is expected to disclose how GPT-4 Turbo was made cheaper and more resource-efficient than previous versions.

Infrastructure Challenges

Building a data center to run these models still requires hundreds of millions of dollars. It's not like new models will suddenly run on different chips. They will continue to operate on H100s in data centers that require significant electricity and human resources to build and maintain. We are still not meeting the demand for AI infrastructure, as more people want to use tools like Stable Diffusion or ChatGPT than there is capacity for.

Conclusion

The assertion that AI demand has decreased is misleading. There are still new applications for AI models, and the infrastructure to support them is continually evolving. The claim that a model was trained for $6 million on half a billion dollars worth of GPUs is part of a larger story about the ongoing development and deployment of AI technologies.

]]> https://indie.am/james/d616945541dbb1002928db6ccab3269b https://indie.am/james/d616945541dbb1002928db6ccab3269b Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hey, so the question on everybody's mind today is, did the AI bubble just pop? I think no. Stock market thinks yes. We will go over why I think that's a little bit short-sighted and not really looking at the big picture. So, the way I frame it, here's the things I use AI to do in 2025, that weren't possible 24 months ago. Use it to write and edit blog posts, create music, generate fan art, summarize YouTube videos, do a whole lot of audio and video transcription. I use it for language learning. I use it to replace Google searches in a lot of cases. Use it to write a lot of database queries, basically , whenever I'm doing anything that's not in SQL. Use it to do back of the envelope calculations or I 'm trying to think through something. Use it to create music, translate manga, and even to code and build apps just like this one. I didn't use AI for any of those things two years ago, because it literally wasn't possible. The models weren't trained yet. The models didn't exist. We're only a couple years into this huge transformation and the amount of things you can apply AI to hasn't even scratched the surface yet. I can't use AI to use do my taxes. There's no legal advisor I can talk to powered by AI. The training data is all there. Case law is just 150 books on somebody's bookshelf that somebody has a decade reading and understanding. I'm not saying AI could take over the legal industry, but it seems like you could make knowledge of tax law or other law more accessible through a well-trained AI model, and that's not there yet. The way I'm framing it is demand for AI hasn't changed. The assertion is the headline that's running around the deep-seat claims that they've trained a model for $6 million that can help compete, open AI is cutting edge model. I think that's pretty much propaganda if you frame it like that. Their significant advancements are that each token activates fewer parameters and it uses mixture of experts. These are things that I believe in the next few days, what's going to come out is open AI is finally going to disclose how we made GPT-4 turbo, cheaper, and it runs on fewer resources than previous versions of GPT-4. We've been doing mixture of experts and we've been reducing the number of parameters activated per token generated as well. We just haven't disclosed those numbers previously. The us who have been working on this problem for years before this company even started, we were actually ahead on optimizing these models. The other thing is the demand for AI hasn't changed. It still takes hundreds of millions of dollars to build a data center to run any of these models. It's not like DeepSeek is suddenly going to run on a different chip. They're going to run on H100 and a data center in eight user servers that take huge amounts of electricity and human resources to build hyperscale data centers to deploy and operate and we're still not meeting demand for that. There's more people who want to type shit in the stable diffusion or chat GPT than capacity exists for right now. There's still new applications for the API for whatever model you choose. That's the other part of the DeepSeek story. How do you make the claim that you train a model for $6 million on half a billion dollars worth of GPU s that are escaped. false <![CDATA[Blogging, but with text again?]]> Indie.am Blog Template Update

Hey there, thanks for tuning in. I thought I'd share a little bit about what I've been working on for the past few weeks.

Project Overview

For Indie.am, I've been developing a blog template that allows you to publish a nicely formatted static blog. This blog is automatically generated from your audio logs recorded in the app. You simply post as you normally do, and those posts are transformed into a well-formatted blog that you can use as your primary blog.

Key Features

This project involves a few key elements:

  • Automatic Generation: Your audio logs are automatically converted into blog posts.
  • Editing and Customization: After generation, you'll need the ability to edit and add photos to these blog posts.

User Interface Considerations

I'm still determining whether the editing interface should be optimized for desktop or remain within the app. Since I'll be using this for my personal blog, I'll experiment to see what works best for me. Afterward, I'll share it with others to gather feedback and ensure it meets broader needs.

Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to refine this exciting feature!

]]> https://indie.am/james/aa9db4b41f7d9b0dc36947ae253aa53b https://indie.am/james/aa9db4b41f7d9b0dc36947ae253aa53b Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hey there, thanks for tuning in. So I thought I'd share a little bit about what I've been working on for the past few weeks. For Indie.am, I have been working on a blog template so that you can publish a nice static blog automatically generated from your blog, audio logs, so that you record in the app. Post, as you normally do, and then those automatically generated blog posts get turned into a nicely formatted blog that you can publish as your primary blog. Now, I know what that means. That means a few things. It means you're going to have to be able to edit and add photos to those blog posts after they're generated. And I'm not quite sure yet whether that interface makes more sense on desktop or in the app, but since I'm going to be using it for my own personal blog, I can feel it out and see what makes most sense for me and then share it with some other people and see if it works for them as well. false <![CDATA[New feature: Logo Idents!]]> Indie Maker Update

Hey there, welcome back. I'm James, and this is my indie maker update for Saturday.

New Audio File Format

What you're hearing is a new audio file format. Optionally, you can add a logo identity to the beginning of your personal podcast updates. This addition makes it sound a little bit more professional, a little bit more like a real podcast. However, right now, it's limited to one very generic, very inoffensive logo identity.

Customization and Ease of Use

I handpicked and edited the logo to be short and very easy to add to any spoken audio track without requiring many tweaks to the way you record your audio. It works best if you start your audio in a certain way, like "Hey, welcome back" or "Hey, I'm James," instead of the more typical, boring way I normally start my audio recordings.

Conclusion

Hopefully, if this test goes well, this will be the track that is published and introduces the new feature. Thanks for listening.

]]> https://indie.am/james/f42d5378b529befd96ca27a5092e18f6 https://indie.am/james/f42d5378b529befd96ca27a5092e18f6 Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hey there, welcome back. I'm James and this is my indie maker update for Saturday. So what you're hearing is a new audio file format. Optionally you can add a logo identity to the beginning of your personal podcast updates. That makes it sound a little bit more professional, a little bit more like a real podcast, but right now it's limited to one very generic, very inoffensive logo identity. I handpicked an edited to be short and, you know, very, very easy to add to any spoken audio track without much tweaks to the way you record your audio. It works best if you start your audio in a certain way. Like, hey, welcome back or, you know, hey, I'm James, you know, instead of the more boring typical way, I normally start my audio recordings. So hopefully, if this test goes well, this will be the track that is published and introduces the new feature. Thanks for listening. false <![CDATA[Streaming Apps get zero credit for success]]> The Challenges of Releasing a Music Streaming App

I've been working on a new app, a Progressive Web App (PWA) for music streaming. Despite its incredible performance and how much I enjoy using it daily, I hesitate to release it. Why? It's due to a counterintuitive principle regarding how users perceive utility apps.

User Perception of Utility Apps

From my experience at HBO, I've learned that certain types of apps are expected to function flawlessly, yet users don't necessarily care about the app itself. These apps often serve as conduits to other content, causing the app to fade into the background. Unlike video games or entertainment media, users don't love the app; they love what it delivers. Consequently, they rarely leave reviews or provide feedback. In essence, you receive zero points for a perfect experience.

The Negative-Sum Game of App Reviews

The app review landscape is a negative-sum game. On the App Store, I built a tool to aggregate reviews for our app at HBO and analyzed competitor apps. A common pattern emerged: users don't flood the platform with five-star reviews for a seamless experience. Instead, they leave one-star reviews for trivial negative experiences. These are users who have paid for the app for years, use it frequently, and generally have a great experience. Yet, a minor issue can provoke them to leave scathing reviews.

For instance, a user might complain about a subtitle color being slightly off-white, despite the app's overall success. As a developer, it can be baffling to see such minor issues result in negative reviews, especially considering the challenges overcome to make the app work.

The Reality of Utility Apps

When building a utility app or one that serves as a content delivery conduit, this is the reality you face. Users expect perfection because they've paid for it. You get zero points for excelling 29 days of the month; a single negative experience can render your app worthless in their eyes. The phrase "I'd give this app zero stars if I could" is a common refrain in reviews, often for seemingly insignificant problems.

These issues, while minor to most, are crucial to a small subset of users. Even if you assure them that a fix is underway, satisfaction isn't guaranteed. The app review scale feels like it ranges from zero to negative five.

Conclusion

This is why, despite building a music streaming app that I might use for years, I hesitate to release it widely. It may remain a personal project shared with only a few dozen people. I thought I'd share this insight into the challenges of releasing a utility app.

]]> https://indie.am/james/7131d0b44667333eb624eaafe094f89f https://indie.am/james/7131d0b44667333eb624eaafe094f89f Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I've been working on a new app. It's a PWA and it's a music streaming app. And I hesitate to release this. Even though it's turned out super incredibly well. I love using it. I use it every day. But I hesitate to release it. And why is that it's a counterintuitive principle of how users perceive utility apps. This got drilled into me by experience when I work at HBO. There's certain types of apps that people want to function incredibly well, but they don't really care about the app themselves. Usually it's a conduit to some other kind of content. The app kind of falls away. The negative aspect of this is it's kind of the opposite of a video game or entertainment media. Since users don't love the app. They love whatever it's a conduit for. They don't leave reviews. They don't give feedback. You basically get zero points for a perfect experience. It's a negative some game, I guess. I don't know if that's the correct usage of that term. But basically, you can only lose points in this game. If you go on the out store, I built a tool to aggregate reviews for our app at HBO. And I also used it for every competitor app. You go to any music streaming app. You're going to see this same pattern. You don't see tons of people leaving five star reviews saying, oh, I don't normal experience. Nothing weird. What happened? Five stars. Love it. All you see is the one star reviews from people who have a trivially negative experience. Like these are people who paid for the app for the last two years. They will continue to pay for it for the next 10 years. They use the app five days a week and 99% of the time. They have a wonderful experience. But something. Something has broken about the app. And it may only be broken in some minor way for a small audience. But they get so upset about that. That they leave these scathing ones to review garbage app, you know, and it'll be something like I tried to set the subtitle color to white and it was slightly off white and I hated it. And you'll read the reviews as a developer and be like, how is this in the grand scheme of like all the challenges that we had to make this app work? How is this, you know, worth leaving a review over and you don't even want to treat these issues when they come in. But then you go back to the reality of if you're building an app that's a utility or that's just a conduit for delivery of some other kind of content. This is the reality you have to pretend with. Users give you zero points for success because they gave you $10. They expected to work perfectly for the home on three. So you get zero points for knocking it out of the park 29 days of the month. It's that one experience they have. It's negative. Suddenly, you know , your app's worthless, you're terrible. It's irredeemable. Zero star rating if I could. I love that phrase. Whenever you go on the App Store, just search for reviews that say, I'd give this app zero stars if I could. I think everybody thinks they're being original when they write that. But you see that, you see that over and over and over and over again. And it's always some miniscule problem. And by miniscule, I mean, it's very, very, very important to like a small number of people. And in the grand scheme of things, it seems like it shouldn 't be that important and they should just, you know, if you tell them, oh yeah, we're working on it. We'll fix that. You know, they should just be happy with it. But you know, no, you get zero points for succeeding. The app review scale is zero to negative five. So yeah, that's why I built this streaming app that I might never actually release to more than like a few dozen people. And I might use it for years and never release it. Thought I'd share. false <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update]]> Indie Maker Update: Final Thoughts on Indie.am

All right, this is probably my last Indie Maker update specifically for Indie.am. This will be my Indie Maker update in general then.

Completion of Indie.am Features

I've basically completed all the features I wanted to complete for Indie.am. Most of this is around GPT and video generation, and those things are working fairly well. I'll continue to use the app and make little tweaks, but I'm pretty happy with where it is. This is more of one of those baseline things that I'm really happy that it exists again. I don't have to go through TestFlight, and I want it just so I can publish my own audio blog and see how it turns out.

New Creative Pursuits

Lately, I've been focusing on a different app to stream music and working on some different creative pursuits. I've been writing music, recording, and streaming a couple of games on YouTube, which has been a lot of fun. I'm trying to get in the mindset of creating content in different mediums, playing around with it, and seeing what I can learn from that. I'm having a lot of fun.

Development Insights

I've got like four or five of these Capacitor Framework 7 Vue apps, and each one I build feels a little bit more native and polished. I'm going back and forth between them, trying to re-implement the things I've learned from one app to the other and solving some issues.

For the PWA, I basically have to swap out Framework 7's Vue router for Vue Router to use Vue with Framework 7 in a way that works and feels good. I had to figure out how to get all the animations and swipe back functionality to work. I also usually swap out Framework 7 Store for Pinia and have moved away from any Capacitor APIs unless absolutely necessary. This allows me to build the PWA straight from Vue and only use Capacitor where I need the extra functionality. Building a PWA in Vue with Framework 7 versus a Capacitor build of that PWA results in a completely different set of little works to the app.

Future Plans

I need to go back and update the Mastodon client that I created. I want to get short video working for when TikTok shuts down in a couple of days. I have a TikTok-style video feed inside of that app, but I need to swap out Vue Router for a Framework 7 Router to fix a few bugs and glitches. Once that's done, I can put it back up.

Other than that, I've mostly been focusing on music right now. Maybe I'll share more of that in the next few days, but as far as my Indie Maker update goes, that's pretty much it.

Thanks for listening.

]]> https://indie.am/james/cdfe4c1225870a896f31b2502aa1795d https://indie.am/james/cdfe4c1225870a896f31b2502aa1795d Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am All right, this is probably my last Indie Maker update specifically for Indie.am. This will be my Indie Maker update in general then. So I've basically completed all the features I wanted to complete for Indie.am. Most of this is around GPT and video generation and those things are working fairly well. Little tweaks and polish I'll continue to use the app and then make little tweaks, but pretty happy with where it is. This is more of one of those baseline things that I'm really happy that it exists again. I don't have to go through test flight and I want it just so I can publish my own audio blog and I'll use it and see how it turns out. Um, what I've been focusing on more lately is I'm working on a different app to stream music and working on some different creative pursuits. I've been writing music and recording streaming a couple games on YouTube, so that's been a lot of fun. Just trying to get in the mindset of creating content in different mediums and play around with it and see what I can learn from that. Um, I'm having a lot of fun. I've got like four or five of these capacitor framework seven view apps and everyone that I build feels a little bit more native and polished and I'm going back and forth between them and trying to like re-im plement the things I've learned from one app to the other and solving some issues like... For the PWA, I basically have to swap out framework 7 views router for view router to use view with framework 7 in a way that works and feels good and I forgot how to get all the animations and swipe back and everything to work. And I also usually just swap out like framework 7 store for PINA and I've moved away from any capacitor APIs unless I have to have them so that I can build the PWA straight from view and only on apps where I absolutely need the extra functionality. And I do a capacitor wrapper because you get a different output if you build like a PWA in view with framework 7 versus if you like a capacitor build that PWA it's completely different set of little works to the app. So I don't know this has been a lot of fun. I got to go back and update the mastodon client that I created. I want to get short video working for when TikTok shuts down a couple of days. Basically I have a TikTok style video feed inside of that app but I need to swap out view router for a framework 7 router to fix a few bugs and glitches in the way it works and then I can put that back up and other than that mostly I've been focusing on music right now. So maybe I'll share more of that in the next few days but as far as my indie maker update goes that's pretty much it. Thanks for listening. [BLANK_AUDIO] false <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update: Create Sharable Videos!]]> Endmaker Update - Wednesday

Here's my update for Wednesday on the progress with Endmaker.

Polishing the App

I spent a couple of days focusing on refining the app. This involved:

  • Fixing various bugs
  • Adjusting visual elements
  • Correcting alignment and button positions
  • Addressing minor issues noticed during app usage

Share Video Feature

I developed an MVP version of the Share Video feature. This feature allows users to:

  1. Hit the share button.
  2. Create a video from a template.
  3. Preview a list of templates.
  4. Generate a video from the transcript that matches the selected template.

Currently, I've added six out of the first 15 templates. I found the process a bit exhausting, so I paused to polish the rest of the feature. I plan to add more templates later, which will keep me busy and I'm excited to see how this feature evolves.

]]> https://indie.am/james/b3a28144abb1c40abbf8cc35f76dd0cd https://indie.am/james/b3a28144abb1c40abbf8cc35f76dd0cd Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Ok, here's my endmaker update for Wednesday. So I spent a couple of days just polishing the app and fixing some bugs, visual things, alignment, button positions, little bugs that I noticed using the app. And then I built an MVP version of the share video feature. It's like a create shareable video from template feature. If you hit the share button then create video to get all a preview of a list of templates and then you can generate a video from the transcript and that video will match the template. I only added six of the first 15 or so templates. It's kind of kind of got exhausted adding those and I was polishing the rest of the feature but I'll add some more templates later. It'll give me something to do and looking forward to see how that feature turns out. false <![CDATA[Social Media broke Society. Then Elon broke Social Media. Now, There’s AI.]]> The Decline of Social Media: A Theory

The Erosion of Social Connections

Roughly, here's what I think happened: social media broke society. There's a statistic that's often tracked—it's the number of close friends the average adult has. In 1990, this number was around 13, but it has declined every decade. By 2020, it was down to something like one to three, which is quite alarming.

The Shift to Online Interactions

I believe what happened is that we replaced real-life social interactions with online social media interactions. These parasocial interactions with people online—whom we never actually meet or interact with, like watching YouTube videos—became even more prevalent during and after lockdown.

The Impact of Major Events

Elon Musk's influence on social media and the impact of elections further deteriorated the quality of these platforms. Twitter, for instance, used to be tolerable, but now it's filled with bots and garbage. The rise of AI is likely to exacerbate this issue. Not enough people have migrated to other platforms like Blue Sky.

The Rise of AI and Its Consequences

My theory is that AI models like GPT and LLaMA are becoming increasingly affordable. As they get cheaper, any platform based on text content will become completely unreliable. Websites where you scroll through a feed of text posts will turn into a mess, reminiscent of the early 2000s when bots would flood blog comment sections with spam.

The Future of Content Platforms

I think we're about to experience this bot takeover on any platform that gains traction and relies on text content. It will be more bots than humans. The only way to ensure that a real person is behind a post or piece of content might be to change the format to audio or video. Text and image content, which AI can easily generate, will become so cluttered with garbage that it won't be worth your time.

The Decline of Text-Based Platforms

Platforms that rely on text and image content will suffer. You'll open your feed, and it will be filled with garbage, leading to frustration and eventual abandonment. Platforms like Twitter and Reddit might struggle. Reddit has some human curation through upvotes and downvotes, but if comments become 80% bot-generated, the system will collapse. Text-based platforms like Twitter, Blue Sky, and Mastodon might not survive once AI becomes ubiquitous.

]]> https://indie.am/james/68037cb7abc2ec3b94eed04b07f844da https://indie.am/james/68037cb7abc2ec3b94eed04b07f844da Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Roughly, here's what I think happened. Social media broke society. There's this number that's tracked. It's like how many close friends does the average adult have and it's like 13 in 1990 and it declines every decade until like 2020. It's like one to three or something ridiculous like that. I think what happened is we replaced social media. media interactions in real life with social interactions online and these parasocial interactions with people online . We never actually meet or interact with like watching YouTube videos that got even worse during lockdown than after lockdown. Elon just broke social media and the elections came and broke social media even more. All I know is that Twitter used to be tolerable and now it's all bots and garbage and now AI is going to come along and make that even worse. And not enough people migrated to other platforms like blue sky. But anyway, my theory is that GPT and llama are just so cheap. They're getting cheaper. Anything that's based on text content on the web will just become unreliable completely unreliable. Any website where you scroll through a feed of text posts is just going to be garbage. Like you remember in the 2000s , you'd post a blog, you'd write a post and if you turned on comments, the bots would come in and just flood your whole comment section with spam from bots just copy pasted every website that can find a comment form on. And I think we're about to experience that with literally any platform that gets traction on the internet and relies on text content. It's going to be more bots than human. So the only way I think you'll know it's a real person behind a post or a piece of content is if you change the format, make it audio or video. So everything that's accessible using AI for content creation, simple images, text. It's just going to become such a garbage. It won't be worth your time even looking at . And so platforms that rely on text and image content, you 're not going to explicitly know this, but you'll just open your feed and they'll just be garbage. You garbage, you garbage, you garbage, you garbage, you know, hate it. And you'll leave. So I think about things like Twitter, Reddit. I don't know what you get from there. Like Reddit kind of works because you have upvote downvote, you have some kind of human curation happening through that system, but like comments, comments become 80% written by bots. Then that whole thing is going to fall apart. Twitter, even blue sky, Mastodon, like these feeds of text comments. I don't know where it goes. It probably just stops working once AI becomes ubiquitous. false <![CDATA[Indie.am Updates: RSS fixes, social sharing options]]> Indie.am Update for Monday

Recent Fixes and Improvements

RSS Feed Fixes

I've just published some fixes to the RSS feed. Years ago, I hardcoded 2021 as the year, which caused issues with all subsequent feeds. I've now corrected this mistake. Additionally, I'm using ChatGPT to format transcripts into blog posts, converting Markdown to HTML. This ensures that the content is nicely formatted when opened in podcast apps.

Custom Component for Podcast Apps

I've also worked on a custom component to integrate the old Podlog. This feature allows users to click an RSS icon in the app, redirecting them to their chosen podcast app based on their platform. It's a small but significant fix.

Background Work

Transcriptions with Whisper

Transcriptions are now handled by Whisper, which provides high-quality results. However, it's resource-intensive on the server. I've implemented a system that queues jobs as users browse older Indie.am podcasts, re-transcribing them with Whisper for more accurate timestamps, especially for subtitles.

Video Generation

I've reworked video generation but haven't integrated it into the apps yet. This feature will be complex, involving 15 video templates. Users will be able to:

  • Add a share button
  • Create a video
  • Choose a template from the gallery
  • Customize options

The video generation process will take about 10 to 20 seconds. If you exit, it will save back to the item and notify you once complete. This complex UI feature is still in development.

Social Media Sharing Enhancements

I've made several improvements around social media sharing, including meta tags and adding a share button. This is essential for sharing content to other social media feeds. You can embed it in Twitter (formerly known as X), but Blue Sky doesn't yet support audio posts. You can link to them, but playback issues occur due to their in-app browser.

Blue Sky Playback Issue

There's a peculiar issue with Blue Sky's in-app browser muting audio by default. If I share an audio post to Blue Sky and launch the podcast app via their browser, I can then return and play the audio file. It's a strange behavior, and I'm investigating why this happens.

Conclusion

I've accomplished a lot and thought it would be fun to share these updates. I'm also testing out the long recording feature. I'll stop here and see how this turns out.

]]> https://indie.am/james/3f4ef213e7b4d68fba0f4327431c2922 https://indie.am/james/3f4ef213e7b4d68fba0f4327431c2922 Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am All right, here's my indie.am update for Monday. So the thing I just published is some fixes to the RSS feed. It turns out that years ago I hard coded 2021 in as a year and that screwed up all the feeds after that. I just noticed it , so I fixed that and I now use chat.gp to format the transcript into a blog post. So that markdown gets converted to HTML. And long story short, it's nicely formatted when you open it up in the podcast app. I spent a while working a little custom component to integrate the old podlog pop up this little thing where you click a little RSS icon in the app and it redirects you to your podcast app based on the one you choose or what platform you're on. It's a little thing, but I fixed that as well. A few other things I've been working on the background, so the transcriptions now happen with Whisper, which are pretty high quality transcriptions, but kind of resource intensive on the server. So I've got a thing that cues jobs as you browse through older. In the AM podcasts to re-transcribe them using Whisper, it fixes the timestamps. They're a little bit more accurate for like the subtitles and I've reworked video generation as well. I just haven't gotten the chance to integrate that into the apps and it'll be a more complicated feature. There's like 15 video templates I came up with, so it's going to have to be some like process where like you had a share button, you create a video, you choose one from the gallery, you customize it possibly. There's a couple of options you could choose and then like you wait a little bit. So like 10 or 20 seconds for the video to be generated, so like if you exit that has to save it back to the item, maybe it has to give you a little notification, like it's a more complex UI feature, so I haven't started that part of it yet. But I did fix a lot of things around social media sharing, the meta tags and things like that added the share button, so that is something that needs to be done, the the whole flow sharing to another social media feed. You can embed it in Twitter, formerly known as X, but blue sky doesn't allow audio posts yet you can link to them, doesn't work perfectly because something about their in at browser breaks audio playback. It's specific to this app though, so it might be something I screwed up. I got it working once before. It's weird if I share the audio post to blue sky and then I tap to launch the podcast app using their in at browser, then I can go back and play the audio file. So it's something weird happening and I'm not really sure why it's like the audio is muted in their in at browser by default. I'll have to play around with it and see what happens when you share like a different link that plays audio inside the app. But anyway, I got a lot done. I thought it'd be fun to share and test out the long recording feature. I will go ahead and stop it and see how this turns out. false <![CDATA[Android PWA Test Post]]> Testing the NDAM Progressive Web App on Android

Hey, this is a test of posts that I'm creating using the Android version of the NDAM Progressive Web App. Let's see if it works.

]]> https://indie.am/james/0d97379440749faf2df0ba1df693b180 https://indie.am/james/0d97379440749faf2df0ba1df693b180 Sat, 04 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hey, this is a test of posts that I'm creating using the Android version of the NDAM Progressive Web App. Let's see if it works. false <![CDATA[Adobe Firefly]]> Understanding Adobe Firefly: The Future of Generative AI

What is Adobe Firefly?

Adobe Firefly is a generative AI model that Adobe has been developing for years. In collaboration with Nvidia, Adobe has been at the forefront of this technology, especially since the decline of crypto mining. Nvidia anticipated a shift in their product usage, predicting that as people moved away from buying GPUs for crypto mining, they would start purchasing them to train AI models. This prediction has proven accurate.

The Technology Behind Generative AI

Most large language models and generative AI systems don't have a unique "secret sauce." They rely on vast training datasets of images paired with text or text with classification, supplemented by human feedback. The key components are substantial financial investment, a large team, and extensive training data. This is why, shortly after the release of models like DALL-E, others like Stable Diffusion emerged. These models aren't created in isolation; they are developed by those who can interpret open AI research papers and gather the necessary resources.

Adobe and Nvidia's Partnership

Adobe and Nvidia, along with other companies, have been collaborating for years to generate AI services revenue. Nvidia is transitioning to become a services company alongside its hardware business. This shift isn't happening in secret; information is available through press releases and on their websites.

Adobe Firefly's Role in the Market

Adobe Firefly isn't designed to compete directly with models like DALL-E or Stable Diffusion by selling API access. Instead, it's part of a broader transition that every tech company will undergo. New spaces and markets are emerging, and companies must decide whether to build or integrate AI technology. This shift is akin to the rise of mobile and cloud technologies, offering a competitive advantage.

The Future of Creative Tools

Adobe's product managers are keenly aware of the competitive landscape. Most Adobe products cater to creative professionals, and the first applications of their Sensei AI will empower creatives to achieve previously impossible tasks. This technology isn't about replacing creativity but augmenting it. For instance, Adobe Stock's vast image library could be complemented by AI-generated images, offering a new business line.

Imagining the Future of Adobe Products

Consider a future version of Photoshop paired with a large language model, an advanced iteration of something like Stable Diffusion. This could enable in-painting and photo editing on the fly, without requiring users to master complex commands or tutorials. The ability to interact with such a tool through speech or simple typing could revolutionize creative workflows.

Conclusion

Adobe recognizes the importance of being at the forefront of this technological shift. By developing elements of these advanced tools, Adobe aims to preemptively compete against potential rivals. This strategic foresight ensures Adobe remains a leader in the creative software market, ready to meet the demands of the future.

]]> https://indie.am/james/1565fece57f79d3cda4c82351273327c https://indie.am/james/1565fece57f79d3cda4c82351273327c Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am What is Adobe Firefly? Adobe Firefly is a generative AI model, a set of models actually. Adobe's been working on for years. They've been partnered with Nvidia from about the time Bitcoin and crypto mining started to decline. Nvidia realized that the next shift that was going to happen using their products was going to be something like people are no longer buying GPUs to buy Bitcoin. They're going to start buying a 100s to train AI models and that turned out to be exactly right. The interesting thing is, most of these large language models and generative AI image generation models don't have any particular secret sauce. It's just a large training set of images paired with text or large language models just text with classification and some human feedback training data. But there's no secret technique. We all know the techniques. You just need a boatload of money, a boatload of people and a boatload of training data to produce something like this, that's why not very long after Dolly was released publicly stable diffusion and mid-journey pop up. They don't pop up out of nowhere. They pop up because anybody who can read open AI's research papers and understand them and get the time and resources and data together can replicate that on a few million dollars worth of GPUs. So Nvidia, Adobe, and about a dozen other companies have been in this partnership for a couple of years now to figure out how to generate AI services revenue basically for Nvidia on top of the hardware they build as they transition to become a services company along some hardware company. Now this is happening in secret. If you dig into it, you can find it. They have press releases. They have information on their website about all this. But anyway, how it affects Adobe Firefly. This isn't so much as a competing model for Dolly or stable diffusion. They're not going to sell API access to this. This is a transition that every company is going to go through. New space is going to be created, new market. It's not competing for market share with stable diffusion or open AI, they're not competitors. Every company in tech that exists is going to have to figure out how to either build or buy and integrate with AI technology because just like when mobile came out just like when the cloud became a thing, this is a competitive advantage that's going to wash over the entire market and you either get out competed by a competitor who employs that technology first or you figure out how to build it into your own products if you're an incumbent. This is exactly what Adobe is doing. They have a lot of smart product managers who can read the writing on the wall and see where the competitive vulnerabilities are in their product. Most products that Adobe make are for creative professionals and so the first applications of the Sensei AI are going to be things that empower creat ives to do things they couldn't before. This isn't replacing creatives. This is augmenting creatives. Think Adobe stock. This is thinking they have a library of millions of images. If you need an image that doesn't currently exist, you can either hire somebody to take that photo or a sufficiently advanced AI model can create it on the fly and that's opening up a new line of business, Adobe effectively competing against itself to build a better product before somebody else does. What does that mean later, though? Could you imagine a version of Photoshop paired with a large language model and a more advanced version of something like Stable Diffusion that could do in-painting and photo editing on the fly without a person that really understands how to drive it or control it? Imagine being able to speak or type with a Photoshop-like product that you didn't have to learn, you didn't have to watch tutorials for, you didn't have to remember where 80 different commands were in a complicated command palette or file edit menu type of situation. That's basically what's becoming possible and if Adobe doesn't build it, somebody will build it and compete for market share with Adobe, so from Adobe's point of view, if you can figure out how to build elements of that, you become that competing product before it even has a chance to exist, which is a pretty logical thing to do. [BLANK_AUDIO] false 00:06:21 <![CDATA[Stable Diffusion App: Pica.so]]> My Journey with AI Artwork Generation

In January, I found myself completely immersed in building an app centered around AI artwork generation. I dedicated about two weeks to this project, diving deep into everything related to Stable Diffusion. I experimented with running it on every laptop equipped with a GPU that I owned. The process involved creating an API for Stable Diffusion, generating images, and figuring out how to index and search them. I also explored existing open APIs that could facilitate this process.

Building the Infrastructure

To support this endeavor, I developed a new database service. I hadn't used Outfit.io before, but I discovered they offer some impressive PostgreSQL cloud options. It's quite neat! Additionally, I tried out Tinybird for the first time for ClickHouse. This was a game-changer for me because one of the major hurdles in using ClickHouse for personal projects, as opposed to work projects where I use it frequently, was the lack of an affordable and easy-to-use cloud hosting service for PostgreSQL. Tinybird seems to fill that gap nicely.

Developing the App

I built a Progressive Web App (PWA) and transformed it into a TestFlight Android app. The results were impressive, thanks to Capacitor. Although I don't regret the learning experience—it was genuinely enjoyable—I'm relieved to have moved past it. As exciting as it is to generate AI artwork and build apps, I realized I wouldn't want to start a company around this concept. The market feels very consumer-oriented and low-end, with unresolved copyright issues.

The Copyright Conundrum

There's ongoing debate about whether Stable Diffusion itself is legally sound. The images used for training might fall under fair use, but courts could eventually rule that copyright is required for all training data. This uncertainty makes the output of these models questionable, and you might not be able to sublicense any of it legally.

Monetization Challenges

While the applications of this technology are straightforward and easy to build, it's challenging to monetize them. There are countless apps available that allow users to generate images using Stable Diffusion on their phones. Despite their abundance, I don't find them particularly good. However, the sheer number makes it difficult to charge for such services.

My Solution

Ultimately, I've decided to offer my app for free, covering minimal API usage costs myself. Currently, there's a limit of about 30 images per day per user. I'll see how sustainable this model is. If you're interested, you can check it out at pica.so—it's like Picasso, but with one 'S'.

]]> https://indie.am/james/a9ef0d0798f9da94c3713277d42e4fcc https://indie.am/james/a9ef0d0798f9da94c3713277d42e4fcc Tue, 07 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I lost about two weeks in January building this whole app around AI artwork generation I just got really sucked into learning everything I could about stable diffusion running it on every laptop with a GPU I had Building an API around stable of fusion generating images figure out how to index and search them and access the open API's and already exist for that like lexica Building everything into a new database service, I hadn't tried out bit.io before but they offer some pretty good post-gress cloud options It's pretty neat actually Tried out tiny bird for the first time for a click house. That's actually pretty cool. Previously eight One of my big blockers from using click house and personal projects versus Work projects, which I use click house a lot is that there 's no real Cloud hosting service for post-gress. It's cheap and easy and well-run and it looks like tiny birds going to be something like that What else built like this pwa into a Test flight and Android app and all that came out really well with capacitor for Don't regret learning a lot of new things. It was really fun, but I'm so glad I got that out of my system because As fun as it is to play around generating AI artwork and building an app and all that like I Would not start a company around this. It's just uh I don't know. It's very consumer very low-end there's not a clear answer on the copyright issues whether Stable to fusion itself is tainted or not They may have scraped images in what you could call fair use or courts could end up ruling that You need to own copyright to all the images used for training data in which like all these models have questionable output you may not be able to sub license any of this output legally in the end That's not a big thing to worry about. It's just The clear applications of this are kind of iffy B2C is real easy to build and use and it's really clear where it is right now But it's really hard to get anybody to pay anything for that and there's a ton of apps out there I don't think they're very good, but there's a ton of apps out there. You can just use wrap-stable to fusion generate images on your phone But yeah, I had a left on with this. I'm just gonna give it away and pay for a minimal amount of API usage and Just let people use it for free. I've got like a 30 images a day limit or something on it right now, so I'll see how long that lasts and If you are interested the URL is pica.so. It's like Picasso with 1s P-i-c-a.so [BLANK_AUDIO] false 00:03:34 <![CDATA[You should let Figma buy Adobe, with Adobe’s Money]]> Adobe's Acquisition of Figma: A Game-Changer?

The Big News

Adobe recently announced its acquisition of Figma for a staggering $20 billion, split evenly between cash and stock. This deal doubles Figma's valuation and represents a 50x multiple on their reported $400 million in annual revenue. Many are questioning the logic behind such a high price tag, even considering the value of Figma's talented workforce.

My Perspective

As an Adobe employee, I have no insider information on the decision to acquire Figma. However, as a designer who doesn't use Adobe XD daily, I have some thoughts on the matter.

Adobe's Legacy

Adobe has long been a leader in native software, dominating various verticals since the 1990s. From raster graphics with Photoshop to photo editing in Lightroom, Adobe's suite has been a staple for designers. UX design traditionally happened in Illustrator and Photoshop, but these tools were never ideal for UX designers. After acquiring Macromedia, Adobe discontinued Fireworks, leaving designers to revert to Photoshop or Illustrator.

The Rise of Figma

The design landscape has evolved significantly, with Figma emerging as a cross-platform, collaborative tool that fills a gap Adobe has struggled to address. Figma's dominance in this segment is undeniable, and Adobe's acquisition can be seen as a strategic move to capture this market.

The Financial Puzzle

Wall Street analysts largely agree that the $20 billion price tag seems excessive, suggesting Adobe overpaid by at least 100%. However, the strategic rationale may lie in preventing competitors like Microsoft or Google from acquiring Figma and integrating it into their ecosystems.

A New Path for Adobe

This acquisition offers Adobe an opportunity to reinvent itself. The company has faced criticism for its subscription model, which many view as predatory. By integrating Figma, Adobe can reshape its image and potentially revitalize its product offerings.

The Potential for Transformation

One underreported aspect of this acquisition is the potential synergy between Figma's team and Adobe's ongoing projects, such as Photoshop Web and Adobe Express. By leveraging Figma's expertise in web-based, collaborative design tools, Adobe could transition its traditional desktop software to more modern, web-based platforms.

Conclusion

While the acquisition might seem like a simple expansion of Adobe's design software dominance, it could represent a transformative moment for the company. If managed correctly, this could lead to a rebirth of Adobe, much like an inverse of the Lockheed Martin and Boeing scenario. By integrating Figma's culture and innovation, Adobe could add significant value beyond the $20 billion investment.

]]> https://indie.am/james/3bd02597e2c22341116a448759a69d22 https://indie.am/james/3bd02597e2c22341116a448759a69d22 Sun, 18 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So the latest headline Adobe purchasing Figma for $20 billion, half cash, half stock, double their valuation, 50 times they're reported 400 million in annual revenue, expensive, even few value their employees at millions and millions of dollars. I'm going to share my thoughts. This is somebody who works at Adobe who has no insight into the deal, no insight as to why Adobe would make purchase Figma, no idea this was happening before the news was announced. But at the same time, a UX designer who would never use Adobe XD on a daily basis, who's kind of my thoughts. If you think about Figma versus Adobe's products, Adobe builds a lot of native software runs across platforms, but they're maintaining this suite of native software, which is dominated pretty much every vertical since the 1990s. I'm going to talk about raster graphics with Photoshop, photo editing, in light room. For a long time, UX design happened in Illustrator and Photoshop before that. These were never good tools for UX designers. And so, fireworks came along and UX designers loved that, so after Adobe acquired Macromedia, they killed that off. And most UX designers went back to Photoshop or Illustrator . And when I said UX designers, nobody was calling themselves a UX designer back then. Everybody was calling themselves. There was a lot of blurring the lines between what we would call a UI designer and a UX designer today, or a product designer. It was kind of a more holistic thing. And we had a lot of scumorific design happening. And up until the mid 2000s, late 2000s. No, mid 2010s, really. So, having a tool like Photoshop or Illustrator with the power to create highly detailed interface designs, also be the tool that you use to create UX designs. This was not a horrible idea, but there was always a desire for something faster, nimble, and lower fidelity than Photoshop in Illustrator. And Sketch was a revival of that tool, followed by Figma, which became, you know, the cross platform. More collaborative version of that, right? And Adobe's never called that segment of the market back. Whereas Figma basically dominates it right now. So, if you look at any Wall Street analysts, I've read half a dozen takes, and they're all exactly the same. If you look at the numbers, there is no way $20 billion makes sense. Adobe overpaid by at least 100%. But think about why they 've overpaid, because if you wait a couple years and let this become a generic late start-up life cycle market acquisition, somebody like Microsoft, or Google by Figma, right? And this becomes a generic tool. The team, you know, they make a nice home for the team to continue working on their tool and make surface level integ rations into other Microsoft products, and they guarantee that, you know, there's a Windows-based design tool that competes against max dominance in the design industry. Like , there's a path for that, it's just not very exciting. There's a more exciting path for Adobe to reinvent itself and to rebrand itself away from kind of the negative image it's developed through its predatory subscription model. And that's not an opinion. Like, that's not... I'm sure, you know, it's not a popular thing to say as an employee, but charging early termination fee on a two-year contract for a piece of software is just predatory. There's no other word for it. And if you talk to designers, you never hear them complaining about any aspect of Photoshop or Lightroom or Illustrator that they don't like in the software, right? They very rarely complain. There's a lot to complain about, but that's not the complaint you hear that makes them not want to use Adobe products. It's the pricing model. But anyway, back to the more interesting path that Adobe could take. Surface level, people might see this as an acquisition where Adobe just acquires Figma and now they dominate every vertical of design software across all platforms, and they've, you know, restored themselves to where the company was in the mid-2000s. And that alone makes it worth $20 billion, especially considering what is Adobe going to spend the additional money on anyway, stock buybacks, developing new products like they're not cash strapped. There are more in a situation like Apple is today, or they don't know what to spend the money on. No, more interesting is one thing that's been under- reported, I think, is the release of Photoshop Web and Adobe Express. This is a trend that I'm kind of seeing from inside the company, but it's un-official. I mean, you see the trend from outside the company too. It's, there's no secret around this. But if you think about a company that wants to shift from multi-platform desktop software gradually into web-based collaborative versions of that software, think about the impact of hiring the team that built the most successful cross-platform web-based design tool in the industry. And then filtering some of those people into the teams working on a web version of Photoshop and Illustrator and Adobe Express and filtering them throughout the company and letting that culture intermingle with Adobe's culture and reinvigorate the company. I'm not saying this is what's going to happen. I don't even know if management teams intend to do this, but you could really rebirth Adobe as a totally new company out of the Figma acquisition if you did it right. But then again, it would be a little bit like an inverse of the Lockheed Martin acquisition by Boeing, where people joked Lockheed Martin bought Boeing with Boeing's money. If you let Figma buy Adobe with Adobe's money, the resulting company, if you get the culture right, adds more than 20 billion of value to Adobe. false 00:09:08 <![CDATA[Why I focus on Content Marketing & SEO]]> Choosing the Right Marketing Platform for Your Business

Every founder, at some point, must decide on their marketing platform—the medium through which they will reach their customers. There are several options to consider:

  • Cold Calling: You could reach out and pitch potential clients you find on LinkedIn.
  • Social Media: You could become a social media wizard.
  • Content Marketing and SEO: Like me, you might choose to dive into content marketing and SEO.

Why I Chose Content Marketing and SEO

The reason I chose content marketing and SEO is straightforward. It's not that I believe content marketing and SEO are the only worthwhile pursuits. The truth is, I am an introvert. My version of hell is spending every day on LinkedIn, searching for people who might use my product, and then cold emailing them. I've done it, and while it works, it's not something I want to continue doing.

The Right Fit for Me

The characteristics of content marketing and SEO suit me better. I want to build something that continues to work over time, regardless of my input. I'm willing to sacrifice quick, immediate wins for long-term gains. I'm okay with that trade-off if it means I don't have to hunt down customers every day and pitch them repeatedly about my business.

Choosing the right marketing platform is about finding what aligns best with your personality and business goals. For me, content marketing and SEO provide a sustainable path that matches my strengths and preferences.

]]> https://indie.am/james/78f820e4bc0e6bd650b6e251c640426c https://indie.am/james/78f820e4bc0e6bd650b6e251c640426c Sat, 16 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Every founder at some point has to choose their marketing platform, their medium. That is, if you want to get customers, you could call and pitch potential clients you find on LinkedIn. You can become a social media wizard or like me. You can dive into content marketing and SEO. Why did I choose content marketing and SEO? The answer is really simple. It's not that I think content marketing and SEO are the only worthwhile pursuits. I am an introvert. My version of hell is going on LinkedIn every day, googling people who might use my product and then cold emailing them. I've done it. It sucks. It works, but I don't want to do this. The characteristics of the marketing platform suit me better. I want to build something over time that continues to work regardless of my input. Sacrificing those quick, immediate wins for long-term gains . I'm okay with that trade-off. If it means I don't have to go and hunt down customers every day and pitch them over and over and over on my business. false 00:01:27 <![CDATA[Indie Hackers Win in Recessions]]> The Coming Boom in Small Startups: Disrupting the Tech Giants

We are on the precipice of a boom in hacking by small startups, disrupting medium to large enterprises and established tech companies, especially those backed by venture capital. This shift is starting right now, fueled by recession fears.

The Challenge for CMOs

What do Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) do when they face economic headwinds and sales start to drop? Marketing becomes more difficult. I'm not talking about the top 1% of marketers, but the average tech CMO whose entire executive team outsources creativity. Their idea of marketing is to acquire a budget and spend it.

These average tech CMOs look at the economic landscape and recession indicators, acknowledging the high chance of entering a recession. The smart move they make is to consider two strategies:

  1. Team Player Approach: They pitch in as team players, helping to find headcount for layoffs, saving budget, and trimming costs. They highlight how well their team is doing, while downplaying the dropping marketing conversion rates and fewer leads in the funnel. They know they are fighting against market forces, and even if they maintain their effectiveness, metrics will drop.

  2. Opportunity for Small Startups: If you're a small startup, this is your chance to "eat their lunch." As larger companies drop their Google ads and stop spending on new campaigns, you can seize the opportunity. Don't let it slip by. As a low-cost competitor to a major product, it's easier to cut expenses in half than to lay someone off.

Seizing the Opportunity

Think about your target audience and the established product that every other venture-backed company chooses. Position yourself as the cost-effective alternative. Be the product that people switch to, allowing them to report to their bosses that they are cutting costs. For example, switching from Intercom to Crisp could save $1,000 a month.

If you can be that alternative, you can potentially capture a third of the market from your biggest competitors over the next year. While others are minimizing costs and laying off staff, go out there, give it your all, and make some money.

]]> https://indie.am/james/a444e2c7a7a0a221922fa878ecb429eb https://indie.am/james/a444e2c7a7a0a221922fa878ecb429eb Sat, 16 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am We are on the precipice of a boom in indie hacking in small startups disrupting medium to large and enterprise and established startups companies especially tech companies VC backed companies and it's starting right now. It's the recession fears. What does CMOs do? when they face economic headwinds sales start to drop on their own marketing becomes more difficult. I'm not talking about your top 1% of marketers. I'm talking about your average tech CMO who's entire executive team outsourced as creative. They don't come up with their own ideas. Their idea of marketing is acquire a budget and spend that budget . Your average tech CMO they look at the economic landscape. They look at the recession indicators. Yeah, we we we have a lot of chance of going into a recession, but the mistake they make Well, it's not a mistake. The smart thing they do is They think about two ways they could play this they can either pitch in and say hey We're a team player look we helped we helped you find head count for layoffs. We helped you save budget We helped you trim costs look at how well our team is doing and oh, yeah Ignore the fact that our marketing conversion rates are dropping and becoming less effective We're bringing fewer leads into the top of funnel, et ceter a, et cetera because they know they're fighting against market forces if they change nothing If they maintain their effectiveness as marketers All their metrics are going to drop anyway. That's what economic headwinds do Now think about the other way you can play this if you're a small startup It's literally your chance to go eat their lunch. They drop their Google ads. They stop spending on new campaigns they stop doing their jobs while they and while they look for greener pastures, right? used Take advantage of that opportunity Don't let it slip by because this is the point Where a low cost competitor to a major product Everybody's trimming budgets. It's way easier to Cut your expenses in half than delay somebody off. I know that's what I'd want to do So you think about your target audience You think about the established product the one that's an obvious pick for every other established venture back to company to go and buy right? And you think about yourself as the cost competitor be that product that people switch to so they can go to their bosses and say look our department We're team players. We're cutting costs. We just switch you know from intercom to crisp and save a thousand dollars a month, right? I just pulled something out of my head Could be anything, but if you can be that alternative you can absolutely go out and Still a third of the market from your biggest competitors over the next year while everybody is minimizing costs and Ignoring opportunities laying off staff Go out there Give it your A game and Make some money false 00:03:57 <![CDATA[Contrarianism won’t make you rich]]> Embracing Contrarianism: A Path to Success

There's an idea that I can borrow from the startup community, particularly from the Y Combinator crowd, and that's the concept of contrarianism and doomerism. These philosophies often make you seem smart, especially if you're already someone intelligent. They can make you appear insightful and right about things most of the time. However, they don't necessarily make you rich or successful.

The Limits of Contrarianism

Contrarianism and doomerism might enhance your intellectual image, but they won't lead to wealth or success. To achieve success, you need to be a bit delusional and work against the natural entropy of the universe and the world around you. This is something I'm contemplating right now, as the current outlook seems very bleak. Everywhere you look, there are problems.

Predicting Failures: A Common Trap

It's easy for a smart person to predict failures. It's easy to point your finger and say, "This is going to fail," "This is going to collapse," or "This is going to break." However, simply predicting failure won't make you rich or successful.

Finding Success Against the Odds

To truly succeed, you must find a way to be contrarian against the contrarians. You need to discover something where you can snatch success from the jaws of failure and be right about it. When you do, the world will reward you.

]]> https://indie.am/james/8325828793e91bbe4d691a69aeba9384 https://indie.am/james/8325828793e91bbe4d691a69aeba9384 Sat, 16 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am There's an idea that I can't borrow from the startup community, the Y-combinator community, that kind of crowd. And that's the contrarianism and doomerism. They can make you seem smart, especially if you're already somewhat intelligent. They can make you seem smart and seem right about things most of the time. But that doesn't make you rich. They won't ever make you rich, and I would say it would ever make you successful. You have to be a little bit delusional and work against the natural entropy of the universe, and the world around you in order to be successful at anything or in any field. And I'm thinking of that right now. As things look very, very bleak, the everywhere you look, there's problems. It's easy for a smart person to predict the failures. It's easy to point your finger and say, "This is going to fail, this is going to collapse, this is going to break." But that's not going to make you rich, and it's not going to make you successful. You have to find a way against the odds to be contrarian, against the contrarians, and find something where you can achieve a success away from failure and be right about that. And the world will reward you. [BLANK_AUDIO] false 00:01:26 <![CDATA[What are chargebacks?]]> Understanding Chargebacks

Chargebacks can be a significant indicator that your User Interface (UI) or support process may not be meeting user expectations.

What Are Chargebacks?

Chargebacks occur when a customer disputes a transaction with their bank, effectively reversing the payment. This often suggests that the customer found it easier to resolve their issue through their bank rather than directly with your service.

The Role of UI and Support Process

Have you ever used your bank's website to initiate a chargeback? It's not known for being user-friendly or quick. If your customers are choosing this route, it may indicate that your support process is introducing too much friction.

Key Considerations:

  • User Experience: Evaluate whether your UI is intuitive and easy to navigate.
  • Support Efficiency: Ensure your support process is responsive and resolves issues promptly.

If you're experiencing a high volume of chargebacks, it might be time to reassess these areas to reduce friction and improve customer satisfaction.

]]> https://indie.am/james/5305258388c31a3ba7021acf077a0a1e https://indie.am/james/5305258388c31a3ba7021acf077a0a1e Sat, 09 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am What are chargebacks? Chargebacks are an indicator that your UI, your user interface, or your support process is worse than somebody's bank. If you ever use your bank's website, you ever use it to initiate a chargeback? The UI is not great, the experience is not faster frictionless. If you're getting a lot of chargebacks, you're introducing way too much friction in your support process. false 00:00:30 <![CDATA[Thoughts on Branding Great Domains without Robust Trademark Protection]]> The Challenges of Generic Domain Names and Trademarks

I've been thinking a lot about Damon's company and a recent experience with a domain auction that got me pondering the complexities of generic domain names and trademarks.

A Surprising Auction Encounter

The other day, I stumbled upon an auction for the domain testimonial.TO. It was promoted in a promotional email sent to everyone registered for their aftermarket newsletter. Intrigued, I forwarded the information to Damon, who decided to place the minimum bid. However, the auction turned out to be quite competitive, with two other bidders driving the price up significantly. I won't disclose the final amount, but the aggressive bidding made me suspect that the buyers might have nefarious intentions.

The Problem with Generic Domains

This experience led me to explore the Google AdWords traffic for testimonial.TO-related keywords. I noticed several competitors running ads for terms like "testimonial.TO pricing." This got me thinking about the inherent issues with generic domain names, which can't easily be trademarked.

For most startups, if you raise a decent amount of money, you can invest in trademarking your brand name for about a thousand dollars. This allows you to protect your brand by filing complaints against Google AdWords ads that infringe on your trademark and preventing others from registering similar domain names.

The Limitations of Trademark Protection

However, with generic names like "testimonial," you can't trademark the word itself. You might be able to trademark "testimonial.TO," but that wouldn't stop someone from registering "testimonials.io" or similar variations. Getting Google to remove such listings could prove challenging.

A Personal Reflection

This situation made me reflect on my own domain registrations. I've registered a few generic domains that I like from a branding perspective, such as "servers.deal." However, I hadn't fully considered the complications of protecting these domains once they mature. Without the ability to trademark them, they remain vulnerable to similar issues.

In conclusion, while generic domain names can be appealing, they come with unique challenges that require careful consideration, especially regarding trademark protection and brand security.

]]> https://indie.am/james/a5a10ff98701ca13b5ed9a528e99882d https://indie.am/james/a5a10ff98701ca13b5ed9a528e99882d Sat, 25 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I've been thinking a lot about Damon's company, Testimonial .TO. The other day I bumped into an auction from Register.TO. They sent a promotional email to everybody who'd registered for their aftermarket newsletter and at the bottom of it they promoted Testimon ialsplural.TO going up for auction. I took a look at it and forwarded it to Damon and he placed the minimum bid. It turned out to be a fairly aggressive auction to other people got in. They bit it up pretty high, I'm not going to say how much, but it was just so aggressive that it got me thinking that whoever was interested in buying this definitely buying it for somewhat nefarious purposes. So I got to thinking about a little bit more and I took a look at some of the Google AdWords traffic for Testimonial.TO related keywords. I noticed there's a few competitors who literally run ads for things like Testimonial.TO pricing and it got me thinking about generic domain names which can't really be trademarked. It presents an issue that most startups wouldn't run into. Normally if you raise a decent chunk of money you just put in the thousand bucks or so to trademark your brand name and then you don't have to worry about stuff like this. You can just forward that to Google AdWords complain about people running ads against your trademark. You can stop people who want to, I don't know, register a domain name after your trademark's filed and solicit five or six figure, rent some offers for a domain name to prevent it from falling the typo squatters. It's one of those things where you can 't really prevent this from happening because you can't really trademark the word testimonial. You could trademark Testimonial.TO, I imagine, but you're not going to be able to defend that if somebody registers Testimonials, plural.io or something like that. You might have a hard time getting Google to remove similar listings, etc. I don't know just something to think about. I've registered a few very generic domains that I really liked from a brand perspective, but I haven't really thought through that specific complication before. Like, I registered servers.DO. I liked the domain a lot, but if I develop it, you don't really have that ability to protect it with a trademark once it matures and it's just something I thought about. false 00:03:14 <![CDATA[January 6th Hearings Format]]> Analyzing the Format of the January 6 Hearings

The format of the January 6 hearings is quite intriguing. The use of videos suggests that the production is crafted with a prime-time audience in mind. The creators seem to be aware that the majority of viewers will encounter these hearings through clips reproduced on various platforms, such as nightly news broadcasts, YouTube, or other online media.

Video-Centric Approach

A significant portion of the hearings consists of video footage of testimonies from the past year and a half. This choice is noteworthy as it highlights the emphasis on visual storytelling and direct evidence presentation. The reliance on video clips serves to engage viewers by showing rather than telling, which is a departure from traditional hearing formats.

Dramatic Structure

Another compelling aspect of the format is the way each hearing concludes. Liz Cheney provides a "next time on the January 6 hearings" segment, complete with a video clip and a preview of upcoming content. This approach is reminiscent of the ending of a serialized drama, where viewers are enticed to tune in for the next installment. The use of these "previously on" and "next time on" segments adds a narrative structure that is designed to maintain viewer interest.

Republican Representation

Interestingly, the hearings predominantly feature Republicans. Most of the time, the arguments are presented by Republicans, and the questions are posed by them as well. This strategy of showcasing testimony, often from individuals within the Trump administration, aims to construct a narrative from their perspective. It is a method of "show, not tell," where the committee members are not overtly pushing their agenda but instead allowing the testimony to speak for itself.

Addressing Partisan Criticism

Despite the anticipated criticism labeling the hearings as a partisan witch hunt, the format is meticulously designed to counter such claims. By focusing on video evidence and Republican voices, the hearings aim to make it challenging to argue in good faith that the proceedings are purely politically motivated.

In conclusion, the format of the January 6 hearings is a strategic blend of visual storytelling and narrative engagement. It remains to be seen whether this approach will prove more engaging than previous hearings, but it certainly sets a new precedent for how such events can be presented to the public.

]]> https://indie.am/james/3660d61ca9e9a3b62d529e0a7dfa7d8b https://indie.am/james/3660d61ca9e9a3b62d529e0a7dfa7d8b Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am The format of the January 6th hearings are pretty interesting. It's a use of a lot of videos, so it seems like the production for primetime event is very aware that a majority of viewers are going to see clips of this reproduced in other mediums, whether it's the nightly news or YouTube, or some other online platform. So, the use of clips, like a majority of this is just video footage of testimony from the past year and a half. I think that's very interesting. Another interesting part of the format is at the end of each hearing. Liz Cheney gives a next time on the January 6th hearings. Complete with a video clip and a preview of what's going to happen when to tune back in. It's very interesting. It's almost like the end of a linear drama getting that previously on the January 6th hearings. Next time on the January 6th hearings, kind of intro and outro to each proceeding. I think the format is interesting and we'll see if it's more engaging than other hearings have been. I guess another interesting point is that this is fairly, fairly, I say most of the time, almost all the time that you're watching this, it's a Republican speaking or the best form of each argument is made by a Republican. The questions are asked by Republicans and it's a lot more show not tell. It's not the committee members pushing a narrative. It's a committee member showing a clip of testimony usually from somebody inside the Trump administration. Constructing their own narrative and explaining the point from their point of view. I imagine that all you'll hear for the next six months, these were partisan witch hunt blah, blah, blah, but they're really going above and beyond on the format too. At least make it very difficult to argue in good faith that this is being driven solely by politics. false 00:03:06 <![CDATA[Arcade.gs using SQL.js http virtual filesystem (Static SQLite)]]> Exploring the JS HTTP Virtual File System with Arcade Games Data

In this follow-up to the JS HTTP virtual file system post, I experimented with a new website using a different data set. This time, I utilized a 10 MB data set of arcade games from the Internet Archive's Arcade project. The data is spread across flash games, categorized under titles and names, and comprises about 11,000 to 12,000 records in a SQLite database. Most of the data is indexed, and I built a view to test the performance.

Performance Insights

CDN Performance

The CDN performance is outstanding, slightly faster than anything else I've deployed to any CDN I've used. This gives me a good idea of where the system excels and where it might fail. The website is impressively fast, featuring infinite pagination for each category. It loads 30 records at a time using normal paginated SQL queries like LIMIT and OFFSET, making the process almost instantaneous. On a fast internet connection, the loading indicator is practically invisible, with subsequent requests for additional pages taking only about 30-40 ms, which is imperceptible.

Cold Start Challenge

However, there's a significant cold start problem. The WebAssembly module must be loaded before the first request, taking anywhere from 900 ms to 1.5 seconds. The module is a 1.3 MB binary WebAssembly file containing the SQLite database driver. This delay can be hidden by using it as a feature, starting the download asynchronously when the webpage loads.

Query Performance

The initial query requires loading about 1.2 MB of the 10 MB database, but subsequent requests are extremely fast, often around 5-10 ms, likely due to caching. For instance, some requests come in at about 40-50 ms for 30 KB of data.

User Experience

When users land on the homepage, the initial cold start problem can be masked since it occurs asynchronously. The webpage loads in under a second, and the download of the WebAssembly file begins, taking about a second. As long as it takes users a couple of seconds to navigate to their desired category, the experience feels quick and seamless.

Considerations for Larger Data Sets

Optimizing further might not be feasible with a 10 MB data set. For larger data sets, the cold start problem can be hidden effectively. I considered how this approach might work for platforms like Netflix or HBO Max, where the entire public database of titles could be stored in a database, with URLs to images, descriptions, and titles.

Memory Usage

One trade-off is that the data gets cached, potentially consuming a significant amount of memory in JavaScript, equivalent to the entire database size. This could be an issue for platforms like webOS or lower-end Android devices, especially Amazon devices. However, higher-end devices like Apple TV could handle it, though implementing such technology might not be worth the effort due to the need to reinvent everything from scratch.

Conclusion

This technique allows deploying a website directly to a static CDN without worrying about a database server, while still providing the ability to query a SQL database in read-only mode. It's a neat solution with potential use cases, especially in data science for exploring data sets.

]]> https://indie.am/james/df02d9175eb7cf159902d056c143e267 https://indie.am/james/df02d9175eb7cf159902d056c143e267 Mon, 03 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Okay, quick follow up to the sequel, JS HTTP virtual file system post. I both the new website to test out a different data set. This is a 10 MB data set of arcade games from archived.org, their Internet arcave project their spread across flash games. In my as titles and name arcade games, this is about 11 or 12,000 records in a sequelightte database. Most things are indexed and I built a view next friend in deposit now, if I test things out so performance, why is the CDN performance just about the best I've ever seen him it's a little faster than anything else, I've deployed to either city and I've used. I have to look into a little bit. More just gave me a good idea of kind of where the 60s and where this fails, so the website is pretty blazing fast, like I have infinite pagination going on for each category, and I am it loads 30 records at a time in normal paginated. Sql queries like limit offset and it's pretty instantaneous like. Basically, you can't see the light indicator at all and that's on it pretty fast Internet connection, but like each of the subsequent request for additional pages are so fast that I don't like 3040. Ms, I keep you. Can you can't perceive it really so you end up with the system. It'S really really really fast. However, it doesn't up with a pretty hefty coldstart problem. It'S web assembly see you have to load the web assembly module before you make your first request that takes about an hour, let's see anywhere from 900, ms to 1 1/2 seconds from the tasks I've done. It'S a 1.3 MB by Ineri Wassom file that contains basically sequel, eight recycled address as a project name for the driver. Anyway, that's about a second just to say you can hide that basically behind you can use as a future to use a high that I am but I'll just start with that also the requests required to perform. My first query on the status are in the Bing about a 1.2 MB presentational 1.2 MB of that 10 MB database and an additional requests end up being just blazing fast, like somebody's come in at like five or 10. Others must be cash. Some of these come on. Let'S see yeah these ones have ask HR they end up. I will just not being really really fast. I guess I'm not 4050, ms 70. Ms, for that, one wrong impression about 30 to call bytes of data. So what is our website? Look like well basically, when users light on the homepage. I can come hide that initial coldstart problem, since it happens, asynchronously the webpage Lowe's in under a second. If it's just a normal knock, stop serving basically start a countdown for the homepage and then, when the page loads. It kicks off that download in the load to initialize the Wasem file and takes a second and then IT by making a query from the homepage. To get that big one megabyte query out of the way, and so basically as long as it takes the user a couple of seconds to click to the category they want to browse, it just seems very, very quick and fast. However, it's probably not possible to optimize too much further. Like you, I think, if you're going to use this approach, do you have to be looking at a larger data set, probably larger than 10 MB? That is index in a way that you're gon na have a lot of subsequent queries, but you can come home hide that cold start problem was actually thinking about it on lake a website like Netflix or the HBO max app. Since I worked on that before I was kind of thinking about that contacts like conceivably, you could take the entire public database of titles that were available to the user and you could stick all the public meditator. Just like you know, URLs to images and descriptions. Titles things like that you can stick all of that in a database if you have, if you had the coldstart problem on the student up being super fast, I guess one trade-off is this. Data ends up getting cash, so your theoretical maximum usage of like memory in your JavaScript deep, is basically the entire size of the database. So that's something to keep in mind, especially for lake Ella webOS. I don't think webOS could handle. Maybe FiOS FiOS, some android TV could, I bet Apple TV definitely could but like why Apple TV doesn't have a technologies is matter. You have to reinvent everything from scratch. It'S probably not worth it. Blake say you implement in webOS for LG TV is. That will probably end up being yeah. I don't think you want your your data set in the consuming 5060 MB of memory in that platform in my name, become an issue in lower and android devices, especially Amazon devices. But I don't have an interest in technique, especially if you use her desktop like I'm. Just imagine you can deploy website directly, can get home to a static. Cnn Kinda, not really think about the problem of a database server while still and I'm getting the unlimited ability to carry a SQL database and read only mode. That'S pretty neat and I'm sure, there's used cases for it, especially data science, are exploring data set alarm. false 00:08:21 <![CDATA[Sql.js-httpvfs (Static SQLite) 5 months later]]> Exploring SQL.js HTTP VFS: A Journey in Remote Database Querying

I've been experimenting with SQL.js HTTP VFS for a few months now. Essentially, this is a SQLite engine compiled into WebAssembly that can run against a remote database. The intriguing part is that it implements a virtual file system and supports range requests.

The Concept

Imagine you have a gigabyte-sized SQL database stored in the cloud. As long as your server supports range requests, this setup allows you to fetch data one kilobyte at a time. This is similar to how SQLite would read a local database from the file system if configured to page with file reads of 1024 bytes. The exciting aspect is that if you index and organize your data efficiently, you could theoretically perform the same requests remotely from a browser to a SQL database on a CDN. This means your backend server wouldn't need to run a database instance.

Initial Experiments

In August, I spent a couple of weekends writing a possible analytics clone using SQL.js HTTP VFS. It was an interesting project, but I didn't delve deeply into it. The implementation cleared a lot of data, almost as if downloading the entire database, so it didn't thoroughly test the concept. However, it served as a valuable proof of concept.

Rewriting and Optimization

Fast forward to December, I decided to rewrite the project. I started with an injected log parser, ending up with a 300 MB log file, which I parsed into a roughly 300 MB SQLite database. This provided a substantial database to experiment with. The size required me to optimize log parsing and inserts, reducing the time to parse over 1.3 million rows to about 57 seconds. This included parsing IP addresses, country lookups, URLs, and user agents—all done locally without web requests.

Querying Challenges

Running queries on this indexed database locally resulted in approximately 13-second queries to group by pathname and count requests for the top 25 pages. This wasn't ideal, especially since I only loaded eight hours of data. In a production environment, the dataset would be much larger. Adding a few indexes significantly improved performance, reducing query times to 100-300 milliseconds.

The Realization

As I was about to implement the WebAssembly module to run everything remotely, I had a realization. What does this setup truly offer? While it allows for scaling the number of reads infinitely, it doesn't make much sense unless you're dealing with massive datasets that can't be pre-computed. For my use case, with only eight SQL queries to run, pre-computing on the server was more efficient.

Conclusion

This project was an intriguing exploration of a virtual file system over HTTP. While it was fun and educational, it didn't present a compelling use case for my needs. Unless you're dealing with scenarios where pre-computing data is impractical, the benefits of this approach are limited. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating experiment that expanded my understanding of remote database querying.

]]> https://indie.am/james/5cc4533d5724efd5642255f34d45299a https://indie.am/james/5cc4533d5724efd5642255f34d45299a Sun, 26 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I've been playing with sql.jSHTtPvfs for a few months now. Basically, what this is is it's a sequel light worker compiled in web ASM and it runs against the remote database now the interesting that is the implements, implements a virtual file system and arrange requests. So say you have a gigabyte SQL database somewhere in the cloud. As long as you have a FASTSIGNS support range requests, then this is just grabbing data, one kilobyte at a time. Similarly, to how a sequel, I would read a local database from the file system if it was configured to page with file, reads of 1024 bias anyway, that's the interesting part. So what makes it interesting is, if you indexed an organize your data, in a way that a request would be fast from a local SQL database, then in theory, you could perform the same requests remotely from the browser to that SQL database on a CDN, but you're Back in the server would not be running a database senses and in theory, if you optimize those they would be, they have some overhead for every request. But in theory it's not horrible, but maybe your hundred millisecond request becomes her 900 and the second request, something like that. So I was thinking about it and in August I wrote a possible analytics clone in a couple weekends that used sequel to JSHTTPVFS end. It was interesting, but it was not interesting to me as I just very Leslie implemented it. It cleared a lot of data, it might as well just download the entire database because it didn't really taste the idea out too thoroughly, but give me a chance to play around with it. And it was a nice proof of concept fast forward to December, and I rewrote this at to start off with in injects walk parser, so that I will have a pretty large status at minded up with a 300 MB log file, which I parsed turns into a Roughly 300 MB equal a database, and that gave me a large enough database to play around with him. It was large enough that I had to optimize long, parsing and inserts so that it didn't take an incredibly long mountain time to parse over. I think 1.3 million rose. I got it down to about 57 seconds and then includes a bunch of like I Peed, a country, look at parsing, URLs person, user agents, things like that, nothing that requires a web request, just things that can be done locally and I know it's all stored in Sql light which brought me to actually querying the database running it locally or indexed that size Deezer about 13. Second, queries to just group by pathname to do like top 25 requested pages and then count of requests for that page, not ideal and for the server that I was looking at. I actually only loaded like eight hours of data, so it would be a much larger data set in production. So obviously that's not gon na work, even if it run locally. So I would never have a whole of adding a few indexes and immediately you know that clears up the problem that becomes like 100 and 300 millisecond. Where is than when you get to the end of all this and get it working, and you know I'm just about to implement the web assembly module and do it all remotely when it occurs to me, why why? What does it get you to get you like? A little bit of scaling, you know say that there's no overhead, it just means you can scale. The number of reads infinitely doesn't really make a lot of sense. It'S like now that I reduce this to like the eight or so columns that I want to index. I'Ve basically written out the only eight SQL queries in a run against this. I might as well pre-computer or from the sky surfer, because it's it's kind of pointless to do this over 80 TTPVFS unless you're talking about sticking it on a CDN and then, like millions of people, view those charts and you just can't be bothered to pre-compute the Data, this is like the most interesting little thing I've played around with in a while. I got to the end of it, and it's just like wait as fun as this is like. This is not a compelling use case for the virtual file system that works over HTTPit's like really interesting, and it blew my mind. I saw that technique for months back and I want to build something with it, but once I got to the end of this thread that I've been pulling on for the past few months, I just realize there's nothing there like. I can't understand, unless, like it was, you were building some kind of. I don't know something like mix or something like that where you couldn't pre-compute the data or it would be kind of ridiculous, the pre-computer data, maybe something like that, would be a very used case. I don't know, but with all – four adult shows: U how many people visited website type URLs they had and what countries R from what browsers R using like. I was really easy to build, but it's not a compelling enough used case and then post once you index. Everything C quite literally doubles in size anyway. Anyway, that's it. false 00:07:53 <![CDATA[AirPods Max]]> AirPods Max: Day One Review

I've been using the AirPods Pro pretty much since they came out, and they are probably my favorite pair of headphones ever. I've tried higher quality headphones, including some nice open-back ones, which I can appreciate for short listening sessions of an hour or less. If headphone jacks and wired headphones were still a realistic option, I would consider investing in a high-quality set to maximize audio quality. However, the AirPods Pro offer a great mix of features: fast wireless pairing, decent battery life, durability, portability, wireless charging, excellent noise cancellation, and perfect ergonomics around the touch controls. As I said, they are my favorite pair of headphones, even though there's a bit to be desired in audio quality. When compared to over-ear headphones, you can notice the difference.

Testing the AirPods Max

I tested the AirPods Max a few times in short, 10-minute sessions. Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed as I hoped to be. They do deliver a better range than the Pros, especially over time, with lows and highs that are pretty much nonexistent on the Pros. However, after using them for a day, the ergonomics are just not up to par. The overall experience of using the Pros is a 10 out of 10, but the Max offers about 30% higher quality audio at the cost of losing a lot in other areas.

Ergonomics and Usability

The buttons on the AirPods Max are in a weird place, and the headphones don't fit well. They tend to move around, especially when I'm wearing glasses. I often have to remove the headphones to adjust my glasses, which is quite annoying. My ears also get hot and sweaty after an hour, so I have to take them off. Additionally, noise cancellation turns back on every time I start a listening session, and I can't find an option to fix that. It's a minor issue, but still inconvenient.

Charging and Build

I feel like a dinosaur with the lightning cable. When I lay the headphones flat, the metal bits bang against each other unless I position them askew, which feels odd. Perhaps a stand could solve this issue. The sound quality is significantly better, akin to a nice set of wired open-backs, maybe 20% better. However, I'd still rather sacrifice that 20% for the convenience of wireless headphones.

Conclusion

The entire experience of owning and using the AirPods Max doesn't feel as polished as the AirPods Pro. I'm going to give it a few more days, but I don't think this is going to work out.

]]> https://indie.am/james/8e19915c99456fb5727052bf43f621af https://indie.am/james/8e19915c99456fb5727052bf43f621af Wed, 08 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am AirPods Max, day one review. So a little bit of background. I thought the AirPods Pro pretty much since they came out. It's probably my favorite pair of headphones ever. I've tried as far as higher quality headphones. As soon as it makes some nice open backs, I can appreciate it for short sessions of listening and hour or less. I've tried not a couple times. And if like headphone jacks and wired headphones were still phones were still a realistic option. I would consider just trying to max out absolutely best audio quality possible and investing in a nice set of headphones. But AirPods Pro has a great mix of features, vast wireless pairing, decent battery life, durability portability, wireless charging, really great noise cancellation, and perfect ergonomics around the touch controls. Like I said my favorite pair of headphones I've ever owned. Even though I'd say there's a little bit to be desired in audio quality. And if I'm being honest you you compare it to any over the over your headphones you know back to back you're going to notice the difference. So I've tested the AirPods Max a few times a short like 10 minute sessions. I wasn't as impressed as I hoped I would be either time. Like maybe I've been this four times. But they do deliver better range than the Pro especially when I like low-end. That's pretty much non-existent on the Pro's. The trouble is after using these for a day the ergonomics are just trash comparing to the Pro's. Like the overall experience of using the Pro's is 10 out of 10. But the Max is like let's eke out 30% higher quality audio. But you're gonna lose a lot. This is go list like the case is stupid you probably heard that before . The buttons are in a weird place. The headphones don't really fit head they don 't stay on unless I'm perfectly still sitting down. And even if I'm perfectly still sitting down like working. They move my glasses around. They're kind of tight . So they move around the point where like I have to remove the headphones adjust my classes replace them adjust them again. That's kind of annoying. My ears get hot and sweaty after an hour. So listening I have to take them off. For some reason noise cancellation is turned back on every time I start listening session and I can't really find an option to fix that. I guess that's a minor issue though. I think the little thing is like you know I definitely feel like a dinosaur charging these things with a lightning cable and like just sitting them down like you turn the headphones to like flat . They like the metal bits bang up against each other. You have to kind of like sit them down a skew in a weird way. It's it's kind of odd feeling. But you know maybe that can be solved with a stand or something like that. Trouble is the sound quality is way better. And I can appreciate that. And stay like a nice set of wired open backs or maybe 20% better than this. I'd still rather sacrifice that 20% for a set of wireless headphones. But like the entire experience of owning and using these headphones just doesn't feel as polished as the AirPods Pro. I'm going to give it a few more days but I don't I think this is going to work out. [BLANK_AUDIO] false 00:04:23 <![CDATA[I broke my Amazon Account (not interesting)]]> How I Broke My Amazon Account: A Tale of Two Addresses

Managing multiple addresses on Amazon can be a tricky business, especially when your living situation requires a bit of creativity. Here's how I ended up breaking my Amazon account due to having separate addresses for living and package delivery.

The Problem: Two Addresses

I live in an apartment building that uses a service called Fetch. Fetch receives our packages on our behalf and hand-delivers them to our door. This service eliminates the need for package lockers, a mailroom, or dedicated staff. It works well, but it requires us to use an alternative address downtown for package deliveries.

How Fetch Works

Packages are shipped to the Fetch warehouse and then re-shipped three to four times a day to our apartment building. Someone from Fetch usually delivers them by van. This system generally functions smoothly.

The Amazon Account Dilemma

The complication arises when some packages need to be delivered to my actual home address, while others need to be routed to the Fetch address. This situation ended up breaking my Amazon account.

The Customer Support Saga

I spent about 45 minutes with Amazon customer support to resolve the issue. Here's what I learned: Amazon stores a separate default shipping address for each of its services, such as Fresh, Prime, and Subscribe & Save. However, when you visit the addresses tab, it only allows you to change your default address for Amazon Prime.

The Address Tab Limitation

The addresses tab shows which addresses are being used for services like Subscribe & Save or Fresh, but it doesn't let you change the default. To fix this, I had to create duplicate addresses and juggle them across the different services. It was a bit of a convoluted process, but eventually, I managed to set the addresses correctly.

Conclusion

After about 45 minutes of tinkering, I finally resolved the issue. For a while, my Amazon Fresh deliveries were going to the wrong address, but now everything is back on track. If you find yourself in a similar situation, be prepared for a bit of a hassle, but know that it can be fixed with some patience and creativity.

]]> https://indie.am/james/307fe6dfca96d245ebb0a94a6f08ff00 https://indie.am/james/307fe6dfca96d245ebb0a94a6f08ff00 Tue, 07 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I broke my Amazon account by having a separate address that I live in versus one that I received packages at. Let me explain our apartment building uses a service called fetch which receives our packages on our behalf and hand, delivers them toward door. It alleviates the needed for package lockers a mail room or dedicated staff. It works pretty well, but we have to use an alternative dress downtown for packages. They basically get shipped to the fetch warehouse and then re-ship 34 times a day to our apartment building, and then somebody comes through and hand delivers them, usually from a van or something like that anyway, that usually works pretty well. However, what it creates is the need for some of my packages to be delivered to my actual address and some of them to be routed to this fetch address and this broke. My Amazon account. I had to get on customer support for about 45 minutes to get it resolved, but basically Amazon behind the scenes stores a separate default shipping address for each of the services you use fresh prime subscribe and save probably more. I just don't use other ones. However, when you go to the addresses tab, it only gives you the ability to change your default address for Amazon. Prime now it'll show you that your addresses are being used for subscribe and save or fresh, but it won't actually let you change the default. So when is it having to do something kind of funky where we created some duplicate, addresses and Gullum all three on the separate addresses that were all the same address and then edited the addresses to be the ones we wanted to be, which is kind of funny. But I am wind up fixing it after about 45 minutes or so, but for a while, my Amazon fresh on my Amazon account was completely broken and Amazon fresh delivery's were going to the wrong address. false 00:02:38 <![CDATA[Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit]]> Myocart Live Home Circuit: A Delightful Innovation

Myocart Live Home Circuit is easily one of the most delightful and creative products created in the last two years. It features a real-life Mario Kart with a camera attached, enabling augmented reality (AR) on the Nintendo Switch. While it might be slightly overpriced, with a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of around $130—about half the price of a Nintendo console bundled with Mario Kart 8, the latest version of Mario Kart—it's a delightful concept.

A Unique Experience

I've been playing around with it for the past few days, and I managed to snag a super slick Black Friday deal, bringing the price down to about $20 after purchasing a bunch of Apple gift cards for something else I was planning to buy anyway. The product is polished to the last detail and works exceptionally well, although it has a limited shelf life.

The kart drives around in circles in spaces like the kitchen island and the living room. Unfortunately, we don't have enough space to create many creative circuits. However, it's super quick and easy to get started with the light cardboard cut-out gates included with the game. The experience is incredibly realistic, almost identical to playing Mario Kart, the video game.

Innovation Over Profit

It's fascinating to consider companies green-lighting products that may not be profitable. While a limited run is possible, this isn't a project you green-light expecting it to become a cash cow. Instead, it's a project you approve because it's probably the most innovative and interesting thing Nintendo has done as a company since the launch of the Switch.

Nintendo has essentially replicated the Mario Kart experience on a 1/25 scale with a little car you can race around your house. It's crazy! You can even have two players with two switches, remotely controlling two of these karts. It's a truly polished product.

A Delightful User Experience

When I think of a delightful user experience or first experience, Myocart Live Home Circuit is the one that comes to mind. It blows my mind that a game company could create something like this today.

]]> https://indie.am/james/295c2b13db6105455d009211dcc1632f https://indie.am/james/295c2b13db6105455d009211dcc1632f Thu, 02 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Myocard Live Home Circuit, it's easily one of the most delightful and creative products created in the last two years. What it is, it's a real life Mario Kart with a camera stuck to it, so it does AR on the Nintendo Switch. It's a little bit overpriced, I think it MSRP is at about $130 something like that, so half the price of the Nintendo console bundled with Mario Kart 8, the latest version of Mario Kart, but it 's such a delightful concept. I've been playing around with it for the last few days, I ended up getting a super slick black Friday deal and got it down to like $20 after buying a bunch of Apple gift cards for something else I was going to purchase anyway, but it is just polished. Every last detail of this is polished, it works very well. It's got a really limited shelf life. It drives around in circles around our kitchen island and through our living room. We don't really have enough space to create very many creative circuits, although it's super quick and easy to get started with the like cardboard cutout gates that come included with the game. It feels very realistic, like it is the exact same experience as playing Mario Kart, the video game. It's such a unique and awesome product, even though it's something that you only get to experience a couple of times before you can end up done with it. This is really interesting to think about, it's really interesting to think about companies, greenlining products, which will probably not be profitable. I suppose you can do a limited run, but this is not a project that you greenlight because it's going to become a cash cow. This is like a project you greenlight because it's probably the most innovative, interesting thing Nintendo has done as a company since the launch of the Switch. They basically replicated the Mario Kart experience on a 125 scale on a little car you can race around your house. It's crazy. You can get two players and two switches and you can remote control two of these. It's a really polished product. It's the what I think of now when I think of a delightful user experience or first time experience. It just blows my mind that a game company created it today. That's it. false 00:03:07 <![CDATA[Should Reddit Clone Clubhouse?]]> Should Reddit Clone Clubhouse?

The Question

Should Reddit clone Clubhouse? It's a question worth considering. Reddit is reportedly planning to integrate a Clubhouse-like feature into its mobile app. The hope is that this will boost user retention and increase mobile app usage. But will it work? Let's explore the arguments for and against this move.

The Pro Argument

Getting Ahead of the Trend

Reddit should consider cloning Clubhouse because it's a new format that's gaining traction. By adopting it early, Reddit can prevent its users from jumping to alternative platforms that offer similar features. The format is particularly effective with large audiences, and Reddit, with its vast user base, could introduce a new type of interactive behavior within its already organized communities.

Leveraging Existing Structures

Reddit already has a discovery mechanism in place, and there's significant value in launching a new app feature that leverages this. By integrating a Clubhouse-like experience, Reddit could enhance the way users interact with topics they are passionate about.

The Counter Argument

Lack of User Demand

There's no clear indication that Reddit users are clamoring for a Clubhouse-like experience. Historically, Reddit users have been quick to adopt new content formats, often before Reddit itself addresses these needs. For instance, when users wanted image hosting, they created Imgur, and it took Reddit years to catch up. The same pattern occurred with video content and chat features, with platforms like Discord filling the gaps.

Asynchronous Nature of Reddit

A significant challenge is that most Reddit content is asynchronous. Users consume content at their own pace, regardless of time zones, and it doesn't require simultaneous participation. In contrast, Clubhouse content is synchronous, requiring users to engage in real-time, which is not how Reddit typically operates.

Resourceful Moderators

Reddit moderators are known for their resourcefulness. If they wanted to host Clubhouse-style meetups, they would likely have already found ways to do so. The absence of widespread adoption of such tools suggests there's no organic demand for Clubhouse-like interactions within Reddit communities.

Limited Applicability

The only subreddit that currently resembles a Clubhouse format is AMA (Ask Me Anything). While integrating Clubhouse-style content creation into Reddit's mobile app could be fun, it's important to consider that Reddit users and moderators are adept at finding their own solutions to meet their needs.

Conclusion

If Reddit users truly desired to share content in a Clubhouse format, we would likely see posts across popular subreddits with links to upcoming Clubhouse rooms or Twitter Spaces. However, this isn't a common occurrence today. While the idea of integrating Clubhouse features into Reddit is intriguing, the contrarian viewpoint suggests that Reddit users will continue to find their own tools to fulfill their content creation desires.

]]> https://indie.am/james/c3852339c92a603a3fe0ac7785e4fcc6 https://indie.am/james/c3852339c92a603a3fe0ac7785e4fcc6 Thu, 02 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Should Reddit clone clubhouse? That'S the question: what's a bad question: they are, they will it's gon na ship inside the Reddit Mall app they're, hoping it will increase retention usage of the mobile app and who knows maybe well maybe it won't. Here is the pro argument why they should clone it. It'S a new format. They should get ahead of it, get ahead of it before red user is jump for alternatives, since there are so many alternatives out their own competing platforms. The format works really well with large audiences, most umbrellas have a large audience and you could introduce a new type of interaction. Behavior in those audiences were already organized. Around topic. Theory have a discovery mechanism, there's a ton of value you can get in by launching that app. Now here's the counter argument, there's no real indication that Reddit users actually want to use clubhouse. Here'S why Reddit users are probably the quickest to adopt new contact new forms? A contact, and typically they beat read it by month, three years at addressing those short comings and the Reddit platform, when Reddit users wanted images, they created Imgur, probably five years for Reddit images to come out same with video contact, same of chat, counter and discord. It just the list goes on and on and on - and here is, the big issue is that almost all Reddit contact is asynchronous is consumed in a feed at your own pace and whatever time zone you're in and it doesn't matter whether you login at the same Time as a contact creator or not, however, clubhouse counter is very, very synchronous, or at least the creation aspect involves a community creating's contact synchronously in the same time zone in a way that just doesn't happen on Reddit organically. The other side of the same coin is Reddit. Moderators are incredibly resourceful if they wanted to host clubhouse meet ups for their communities. They already be doing it they've, never taken more than a few weeks to figure out the tools in the process to introducing new Contin typed their community if they're not already adopting another tool. That means there's no organic desire in any sub Reddit for clubhouse, like interaction and really, if you think about the way the clubhouse room operates, really there's only one sub. The operates like that, it's AMA is the same as that is the only sub Reddit, where users create contact in the clubhouse format. Today now granted ANA is on Reddit and Reddit mobile app with clubhouse style content creation. It be in the really fun to play with it's a great idea, but it's really hard to ignore the contrarian viewpoint that Reddit users and Reddit moderators always find their own tools. Very quickly to fill to fulfill their desire to create contact in a specific format, and it really seems like if Reddit users wanted to share contact with other Redditors in the clubhouse format. They would B posting all across popular sub Reddit's, with links to upcoming clubhouse rooms. R upcoming quick tour spaces, and that's just not something you say today - false 00:04:39 <![CDATA[Pokémon brilliant diamond shining pearl]]> Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: A Review

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have been well ported, and thankfully, they aren't plagued by bugs. The gameplay is smooth, but there are some notable issues that stand out.

Faithful to a Fault

One of the main criticisms is that the game feels too faithful to its original handheld version. This transition to a TV console hasn't been as seamless as one might hope. The biggest problem with many Pokémon games, including this one, is the lack of challenge. It's simply too easy.

Tedious Interactions

A specific issue with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl is the excessive need to press the confirmation button. This repetition makes the game feel slow and cumbersome. The user interface and navigation through menus and dialogues are not as smooth as they should be, especially for a game of this caliber.

Lackluster Design

In terms of design, the gym layouts are uninspired, and the storyline fails to excite. Overall, the game lacks the thrilling elements that make a Pokémon game engaging.

The Battle Experience

The battle system is another area where the game falls short. Players often find themselves spamming the A and B buttons to rush through slow menus, loading screens, and battle introductions. This process is time-consuming and detracts from the overall experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl offer a faithful port of the original games, they suffer from several design and gameplay issues. The slow navigation and lack of engaging content make it feel lacking in the user experience department.

]]> https://indie.am/james/f0d31ba8b5fe8eb3a9bf4a21a0e2f6c1 https://indie.am/james/f0d31ba8b5fe8eb3a9bf4a21a0e2f6c1 Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So Pokémon, brilliant diamond shining pearl, it's pretty well ported, it isn't super buggy. It'S pretty smooth to play. I'D say the biggest problems are that it feels like too faithful of a port from a handheld console to the TV. What is the biggest problems or any Pokémon game? It'S too easy, but realistically this one specifically there was just way too many times. You have to press the confirmation button. It'S it's pretty pretty slow, like the Oregon helmet for this game are pretty poor. I would say over everything else like gym, design is kind of boring stories, boring it's not super exciting of a game, but as far as just like a call you a poor like the biggest thing, that's really probably bugging me is that it's not super smooth. Just going through like menus and dialogue in the battle, there's like it is a AAA AAA, you're spamming, a and B as quickly as you can to try to get through this slow menus and loading screens and battle intros, and all that it's just super time consuming. It feels really like I said it feels really lacking in the economics department. false 00:01:40 <![CDATA[Stadia’s product positioning is such a disappointment]]> The Curious Case of Stadia: Potential and Pitfalls

Stadia is a fascinating yet somewhat disappointing product from a consumer perspective. I've been exploring it through a free trial, and the performance is impressive. It offers 4K visuals with minimal input lag, all functioning seamlessly. With data centers located in Seattle—or perhaps Kirkland—it's no surprise that it works well.

The Promise of Stadia

Imagine pitching Stadia as the next generation of gaming. It could be marketed as an infinitely powerful game console, surpassing the capabilities of the PS5 or even a truckload of Xbox Ones, all instantly available and free to use. However, the current marketing strategy is to repurpose existing devices for gaming, which feels like a missed opportunity. They're not effectively highlighting the unique value or benefits of the product.

The Marketing and Positioning Problem

Stadia's marketing strategy seems to lack clarity. They're attempting to create their own versions of Game Pass or GeForce Now, but the positioning is unclear. This isn't just an issue for Stadia; similar services face the same challenge. Microsoft, for instance, doesn't want to undercut Xbox sales, and Nvidia benefits from hardware sales.

The Current Messaging

Here's the exact copy from Stadia's homepage: "Stadia turns the things you already own into portals to the biggest games. Try Stadia Pro free for one month, $9.99 a month after trial, cancel anytime." This messaging doesn't convey the true value of Stadia. It doesn't tell me that I can play games like Cyberpunk at higher quality settings than on any computer I own, or on a PS5, PS4, or Xbox One. Instead, it suggests that with a TV and a Chromecast, you can play games—missing the point entirely.

The Confusion and Missed Opportunities

The entire page neglects to mention that Stadia has a free tier, allowing users to play without a monthly fee or additional hardware. This oversight creates confusion. Stadia could be a cash cow if it adopted a business model similar to console hardware vendors, who lose money on hardware but recoup it through software sales. Google could control the marketplace, encouraging third-party games on Stadia, which should be straightforward given it's a cloud-based PC game platform.

A Vision for Stadia's Future

Imagine if Google allowed users to use any controller with any hardware, similar to how Game Pass Ultimate operates. They could potentially earn more from software sales than the $9.95 monthly fee from Pro users. This pricing model seems out of touch with the potential of the platform.

The Competitive Landscape

Game Pass Ultimate could be the Xbox One killer if Microsoft chooses to pivot. They could partner with Apple to bring Game Pass Ultimate to Apple TV, offering a smooth experience that competes with Google TV and Fire Stick. It seems like Microsoft's game to win if they're willing to make sacrifices.

Google is the only player gaining new market share, while others like Nvidia aren't selling titles with GeForce Now subscriptions. The economics of server space may not work out positively for cutting-edge Nvidia hardware. Microsoft could capture more PC game sales from platforms like Steam and Epic by bolstering their own store.

Conclusion

Stadia represents a massive opportunity for Google, yet its current positioning is painfully inadequate. There's so much potential here, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

This is me posting an audio log after a while. Cheers!

]]> https://indie.am/james/9e7b4d15b42267f8b60240bb9fbcdc0b https://indie.am/james/9e7b4d15b42267f8b60240bb9fbcdc0b Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Stadia is really interesting and really disappointing from a product perspective. I've been playing around with it on a free trial, and the performance is really great for K. Very little input lag. It all works really well. I get it. They have data centers in Seattle. It's not crazy. Sorry, I think Kirkland. Anyway, the fact that it works, like, do you think about it a little bit? They could pitch this as the next generation of gaming, right? They could pitch this as it's an infinitely powerful game console, more powerful than the PS5, more powerful than a whole box full of PS5s, more powerful than, like, a truckload of Xbox ones that you can't get because they're out of stock everywhere. Instantly available and free to use, but they don't. They're currently marketing this as take the existing items that you own and repurpose them for gaming, which is kind of crazy. It's kind of disappointing from a product perspective, because they're not really highlighting any of the value or benefits of the product. They're just kind of like, "Oh, yeah, we're going to make our own game pass. We're going to make our own GeForce Now." I guess from that perspective, the marketing problem and the positioning problem isn't just stadia. All three of these services have that sort of positioning issue, although you could argue Microsoft is not about to undercut sales of the Xbox, and Nvidia stands to gain from when you call it. They stand to gain, basically, from creating, like, selling hardware, hardware sales. So that makes sense. I'm looking up right now in Cognito. Here's their exact copy on their homepage. You have what it takes. Stadia turns the things you already own into portals to the biggest games. Try Stadia Pro free for one month, 9.99 a month after trial cancel any time. So where's the value here? This isn't telling me that I can play games like, "Oh, what is that game?" Like, I can play Cyverpunk at higher quality settings on St adia than I can on any computer I own. Then I can on, I don't know, play PS5, PS4, Xbox One, but it's not telling me that. It's telling me. Oh yeah, you got a TV, we'll send you a Chromecast, and you can play games on it, like, this is such a waste. The other thing is it's creating confusion in that the entire page neglects to mention that they have a free tier, and that you can use Stadia without paying a monthly fee. And you can use Stadia without buying additional hardware. Now, it's crazy. I guess the last thing that occurred to me is this would be such a cash cow of a business too. If you think about the business model of like console hardware vendors, they lose money on every unit of hardware they sell. Again, a market share, and then they recoup 30, 40% fees for every title sold produced by a third party. The same model could be adopted if Google treated Stadia as a console. If they control the marketplace, they already do. If they can get third parties to put games on it, which, I mean, it's a PC game. It runs in the cloud, like I assume it's dead simple to export a game from Unity. They probably make you build it for limits or something. They're not paying Windows license and fees, but anyway, it 's probably very easy to develop a game for Stadia. Compared to, I don't know, PS5 DevKit, something like that. They could give this away. Let you use whatever controller you want with whatever hardware you want. Similar to how game path ultimate works and make more money off of software sales, then this 995 a month per pro user. It's just ridiculous that pricing model. I guess that's where that leads me is game pass ultimate, because the Xbox One killer. If Microsoft decides they can't really compete with Xbox's, they don't have a TV stick though. They do a partnership with Apple maybe, something like that . It's a game pass ultimate on an Apple TV. That would probably be a very performant, a very smooth experience. Then you go after Google TV, Fire Stick. Yeah, it seems like this is Microsoft's game to win. They just have to sacrifice. Google is the only one who is earning new market share. Anybody else who is competing for market share? Nvidia is not selling any titles when they get a GeForce Now subscriber. They have to make the unit economics of ours spent on a server. They have to make that work that may never work out to be positive for cutting edge in video hardware. They have to stand up data centers. It's not really a great business. Microsoft could shift sales from Steam to their own store. Microsoft is what it is. The Xbox store, I don't know our game center, something like that. They could capture a larger portion of the PC game sales. They're currently happening on Steam and Epic and other platforms. Google has such a massive opportunity and it's being positioned so horribly. Oh, this is painful. Anyway, this isn't me posting an audio log because I haven 't posted in a while. Cheers. false 00:07:47 <![CDATA[Interesting FedEx issue]]> The Curious Case of My Delayed TV Delivery

My TV delivery saga began with an unexpected twist. The TV was supposed to arrive on time, but it reached Portland a day earlier than scheduled. This early arrival threw the FedEx status updates into disarray.

The FedEx Status Confusion

Initially, the status update was baffling. It claimed that the projected delivery date was "yesterday," which was clearly a mistake since it was already the third of the month. The update stated that the delivery had been changed from the fourth to the second—a date that had already passed.

Stuck in a Pending State

As the system tried to reconcile these errors, the delivery status got stuck in a pending state. It couldn't provide a new projected delivery date. Despite being in Washington, the package didn't make it onto a truck for delivery today.

The Outcome

While the delay is not a major issue, it certainly was an interesting experience. The TV will be delayed by another day, and I'm left waiting for the next update. Hopefully, it will be on a truck soon and arrive without further complications.

]]> https://indie.am/james/065be488cdbb854d3272428dc25f9ab7 https://indie.am/james/065be488cdbb854d3272428dc25f9ab7 Thu, 04 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am My TV's a day late because it arrived in Portland a day early and then the status and FedEx got all messed up and it didn't make it on to a truck this morning although it was already in Washington and so it's not out for delivery today and it'll be delayed another day. Not a big deal. It was just really interesting. First when I saw the update, it said, "Oh, I'm gonna say that I'm gonna say that I'm gonna be the first to get this morning." I'm gonna go into a truck this morning although it was already in Washington and so it's not out for delivery today and it'll be delayed another day. Not a big deal. It was just really interesting. First when I saw the update, it said, "Projected Delivery will be yesterday," which was a day in the past, which didn't make sense because it was already the third and it said, "Projected Delivery is now a day in the past, which didn't make sense because it was already the third and it said, "Projected Delivery is now a day in the past." Delivery is now updated from the fourth to the second and then once it figured things out, it just got stuck in a pending state. It won't project when the delivery will be but it doesn't look like it's going to be on time because it doesn't look like it got on to a truck. false 00:01:08 <![CDATA[Shameless copying (as a product designer)]]> The Era of Shameless Cloning in Tech

In recent years, we've witnessed a trend in the tech industry that raises eyebrows: the shameless cloning of successful products. It started with stories, then moved to Clubhouse, and now, it seems, Microsoft has joined the fray with its clone of Notion, named Loop.

The Legality and Ethics of Cloning

While such actions are technically legal or legally defensible, especially for a large company, this kind of cloning is something that didn't happen as blatantly in the past. We're not just talking about copying a few features here and there; we're seeing entire products being replicated, right down to font sizes, button placements, and color schemes.

The Designer's Perspective

As a designer, this trend feels unsettling. It's easy to label it as being in poor taste, and it certainly feels "dirty." However, I'm sure the legal teams have thoroughly vetted these actions to ensure they don't breach any monopoly laws. Despite this, it still feels inherently wrong.

A New Norm?

It's a strange time to be a designer. If this becomes the norm, can you imagine being on a team tasked with cloning a product? It's a bizarre concept and one that challenges the creative integrity of the industry.

The question remains: Is this the future of product development, or will the industry push back against such practices? Only time will tell.

]]> https://indie.am/james/ae4dc169c77e2f2bf448b6f3f01879b5 https://indie.am/james/ae4dc169c77e2f2bf448b6f3f01879b5 Wed, 03 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Shameless copying first, I guess it was stories. Then it was clubhouse. Now it seems to be Microsoft. Clone of notion named loop. It'S interesting it's one of those things that I'm sure is technically legal or legally defensible by a big company like this, but it's something that didn't used to happen at all. The cloning of an entire product, like I'm not talking about just like copying, features like the other shameless copying of a product right down to font sizes and button placement and color schemes like this type of cloning. It'S easy to say it's kind of poor taste. It feels really dirty as a designer, but I'm sure it's legally defensible. I am, I am sure that the appropriate teams have vetted their ability to get away with it. I'M sure that it doesn't breeds any monopoly issues. It just feels very wrong and it's a very weird time to be a designer. If this becomes the norm like can you imagine being on a team task to clone a product? I just kind of crazy false 00:01:48 <![CDATA[United Airlines Flight Delayed by 42 minutes]]> The Untold Story of United Airlines Flight 93

On September 11, 2001, at 8:00 AM, United Airlines Flight 93 was scheduled to depart from Newark International Airport. However, after just a one-minute delay in departing from the gate, it found itself prioritized behind several other airplanes, experiencing heavy traffic. This resulted in a total delay of 42 minutes, with the flight finally departing at 8:42 AM. This was just six minutes before the first plane struck the World Trade Center.

The Hijacking

You have likely heard the stories of what happened that day. You probably know most of the facts, but unless you've heard them presented in a very specific way, the significance might escape you. This certainly escapes the most common narratives. As you might know, at about 9:20 AM, as the plane neared Cleveland, Ohio, terrorists broke into the cockpit and incapacitated the pilot and first officer, taking control of the plane and hijacking it. We know this from an air traffic controller transmission from the cockpit before it breaks into radio silence: "Mayday, hey get out of here, get out of here, get out of here," and then silence. The plane started to fly erratically after that, with its altitude suddenly dropping 700 feet, likely due to a struggle.

The Response

Air traffic controllers were now aware that there might be another hijacking. One of the flight attendants telephoned United Airlines to report the hijacking. Just six minutes later, 13 passengers aboard the plane, between the hijacking at 9:28 and the time of the crash at 10:03 AM, were able to make phone calls to their family and friends, their loved ones.

The Passenger Rebellion

At 9:57 AM, the passengers and crew began their assault on the cockpit, likely only because they knew of what had happened earlier that morning. If they had not known, it was likely their plane would be flown into a building, and their lives were already forfeit. Standard procedures would be to cooperate with the hijackers, as this is typically how you survive a hijacking—not by resisting. However, those 13 phone calls after planes struck the World Trade Center likely changed the outcome of Flight 93 on September 11.

The Significance

What's the significance of this? Think about the targets from the flight plan and the information of the plot. We have narrowed it down to either two possible targets: the White House or the Capitol Building. Consider the enormous response to 9/11, and now consider if the nation's capital, the symbol of the United States government, had been destroyed. Consider who may have been in that building at the time, such as the Vice President. This is only speculation, but consider the response if the White House had been destroyed, along with the other targets in the September 11 attacks. It doesn't take long to realize that history over the last 20 years would have been wildly different if members of the government and the nation's capital had been destroyed, instead of a plane landing in an unknown part of Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM.

]]> https://indie.am/james/4f583b6e8cdec9d3b05b5be0708d8252 https://indie.am/james/4f583b6e8cdec9d3b05b5be0708d8252 Sat, 11 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am On September 11, 2001 at 8 AM United Airlines Flight 93 is scheduled to depart from Newark international airport, but it doesn't after just a one minute delay in departing from the gate. It's now prioritized behind several other airplanes at the airport, experiencing heavy traffic in total will be delayed by departure 42 minutes departing at 8:42. Am this is just six minutes before the first plane with strike world trade center. You are heard the stories of what happened. You know exactly what happened 20 years ago. He probably know most of the facts of what I'm about to tell you, but unless you've heard them presented in a very specific way, the significance of that might escape. It certainly escapes the most common narratives. We talk about what happened 20 years ago, as you might now, at about eight 9:20, AM as playing near Cleveland, Ohio Terrace broke into the carpet that incapacitated the pilot. In first officer. They took control the plane hijacking it. We notice from an air traffic controller transmission from the cockpit before it breaks before radio silence. Mayday, hey get out of here, get out of here get out of here and then silence the plane started the fire radically. After that, the planes altitude, suddenly shop 700 feet likely a struggle air traffic controllers now, where that might be another one. Another hijacking and one of the flight attendants telephones, United Airlines to report hijacking. Just six minutes later 13 passengers aboard the plane between the hijacking at 9:28 and the time of the crash at 10:03 AM were able to make a phone call to their family and friends. Their loved ones, I 9:57 AM the passengers and crew began their assault on the cockpit likely only because they knew of what it happened earlier this morning. If they had not known that, it was likely, their plane would be flown into a building and their lives were already forfeit. Standard procedures would be to cooperate with the hijackers. Typically, this, how do you survive a hijacking not by resisting, however, those 13 phone calls after planes struck the world trade center likely changed the outcome of flight 93 on September 11. What'S the significance of this thing about the targets from the flight plan and the information of the plot that we have ignored it down to either two possible targets, the White House or the capitol building, consider the enormous response for 9/11 and now consider if the nations Capital, the symbol of the United States government has been destroyed, consider who may have been in that building at the time. Vice president, this is only speculation but consider the response. The White House been destroyed, along with the other targets in the September 11 attacks. It doesn't take long to realize the history over the last 20 years, would've been wildly different and members of the government and the nations capital been destroyed instead of a plane landing in an unknown part of Pennsylvania at 10 AM false 00:05:23 <![CDATA[Recording from MacBook Air (Desktop, Web)]]> https://indie.am/james/4e09dd192f70ce90ce37cace8153ae29 https://indie.am/james/4e09dd192f70ce90ce37cace8153ae29 Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:00:04 <![CDATA[Finally Updated for TestFlight]]> Updating My App for TestFlight

I recently undertook the task of updating my app to rebuild and re-deploy it to TestFlight. Following the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), I downloaded the beta versions of macOS and iOS for my devices. However, I soon realized that Cordova was lagging behind, which meant I couldn't build for the new targets on these machines. This issue persisted until, well, September.

Now that Xcode 12.5 and iOS 6.2 are supported, I can finally rebuild the app, test it, and upload it back to TestFlight using the latest versions of all the build chains. Fingers crossed that everything works smoothly!

]]> https://indie.am/james/1da9c1a0d50c0bf92638dcf1b312eeda https://indie.am/james/1da9c1a0d50c0bf92638dcf1b312eeda Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I finally updated my app so that I could rebuild it and re-deploy it to TestFlight. After WWDC, I downloaded beta versions of macOS and iOS for my devices and I didn't realize that since Cordova was a little bit behind, I wouldn't be able to build for those new targets on these machines and test things out until, I don’t know what is this, September? So now that Xcode 12.5 iOS 6.2 are supported, I can rebuild this, test things out, and upload it back to TestFlight using the latest versions of all of those build chains. We'll see if it works! false 00:00:48 <![CDATA[WWDC21]]> Reflections on the WWDC Keynote

Watching the WWDC keynote was quite an experience, especially given the time difference. It started at 1 AM and wrapped up around 3 AM, and it was packed with information. The presentation was essentially two hours of bullet points detailing everything that each team has been working on for iOS.

Highlights from the Keynote

There were some truly magical and innovative announcements. One standout was the Universal Control feature, which promises seamless interaction across devices. Another exciting development was the text translation capabilities, which have been significantly enhanced.

FaceTime Enhancements

Apple is also enhancing FaceTime, adding features that aim to position it as a viable alternative to Zoom. This is a welcome update, given the increased reliance on video conferencing tools.

Less Exciting Announcements

However, not everything in the keynote felt essential. For instance, the introduction of new Apple account recovery methods seemed less impressive. It might be a useful feature, but it didn't feel keynote-worthy, especially at such an early hour.

Final Thoughts

Perhaps it was the late hour, but some parts of the keynote felt less impactful. Nonetheless, the event was a whirlwind of announcements, showcasing Apple's continuous innovation and expansion in the tech world.

]]> https://indie.am/james/7f2434da65a21e202b9f213b616d2338 https://indie.am/james/7f2434da65a21e202b9f213b616d2338 Tue, 08 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am The WWDC keynote was kind of crazy to watch from here. It starts at 1 in the morning and ends at 3am and there's just a lot of stuff packed into it. Like it was like two hours of bullet points about everything that every team was working on for iOS. There was stuff that was magical and crazy and new, like the universal control thing. And the text translation, there was some cool stuff like how they're making FaceTime, giving it more features to be more of a zoom replacement. And at the same time, there was some stuff that was like really dumb added into the keynote like new Apple account recovery methods. I don't think that's a keynote worthy. But it's just, maybe I was tired, but just watching it at 1 in the morning and like, you know, getting kind of delirious and about an hour and a half in suddenly, like I swear, like, you see something kind of crazy pop out of nowhere. Like, it was kind of nuts. I heard a lot of people, a lot of rumors and a lot of people were expecting a lot of different things and it seemed like none of those things materialized. I don't think it's really that surprising we're in the middle of a chip shortage. It's kind of crazy to think that Apple would be going from a one year to a six month cycle on iterating and releasing new hard or new silicon during a chip shortage. I guess this puts their next Apple silicon update at the one year anniversary of the original M1 release, which makes a lot more sense that'll be concurrent with the iPhone. That makes total sense. I don't know why everybody was predicting 10 cores, 20 cores, 100 cores, people were making crazy predictions for a 16 inch MacBook Pro announced at WWDC. It seemed kind of crazy, but I would have loved to see it, I guess. But yeah, anyway, I am installing betas on all my devices now to see how this works. false 00:02:38 <![CDATA[Vaccine Tourism in Guam]]> Vaccine Tourism in Guam: A New Initiative for American Expats in Asia

Introduction

A few weeks ago, Guam launched an intriguing program aimed at promoting vaccine tourism specifically for American expatriates residing in Asia. This initiative seeks to address the limited access to American vaccines that many expats face in the region.

The Program Details

According to Guam's press release, there are approximately 750,000 American expats in Asia. Recognizing the challenges these individuals face in obtaining American vaccines, Guam has developed a program that offers a unique solution.

How It Works

  1. Travel to Guam: As a U.S. territory, Guam provides a convenient location for American expats to receive vaccinations.
  2. Testing and Quarantine: Upon arrival, participants undergo an initial test followed by a six-day quarantine period.
  3. Vaccination: After completing quarantine and a subsequent test, participants receive a free vaccine.

Additional Benefits

To further support this initiative, Guam offers free accommodation in a quarantine hotel for the duration of the stay. This added benefit is designed to make the process as seamless and appealing as possible for potential participants.

Conclusion

Guam's vaccine tourism program is a strategic effort to leverage its status as a U.S. territory to provide American expats in Asia with much-needed access to vaccines. By offering free vaccination and accommodation, Guam hopes to attract a significant number of participants and contribute to global vaccination efforts.

]]> https://indie.am/james/87b618f6d2c05bfd22cb886865a507d3 https://indie.am/james/87b618f6d2c05bfd22cb886865a507d3 Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So this is interesting, I thought I would share a few weeks ago Guam launched a program for vaccine tourism targeting American expats in Asia. So on their press release they said, you know, there's 750, 000 American expats in Asia. And since they have abundant access to American vaccines, they want to benefit from this vaccine tourism. So they set up a program where you fly to Guam, which is a US territory. And you do a test beforehand, you do six days of quarantine , you do a test after. And then they give you a free vaccine, which I thought was really, really interesting. They also put you up in the quarantine hotel for free. I guess what they're hoping for is like, it gets them responsible, vaccinated tourists. You can pick whatever vaccine you want. Like if you do the Johnson & Johnson, you can just immediately fly back wherever, or I guess they're hoping that you'll do another vaccine and stay for three or four weeks in between. I thought that was really interesting. I don't know. I'm not sure. Times are quite desperate enough to consider it, but it's interesting that it's happening. There's still only, you know, like three or four cases a day on the island. So I guess there's not really any drawbacks to it. There's some people with more money than time that might think that's a good deal. Who knows? I just thought I would share since it was really interesting. interesting. false 00:02:00 <![CDATA[Lockdown Level 3+]]> Taiwan's Current Lockdown Situation

Taiwan is currently under a Level 3+ lockdown, particularly affecting Taipei and other major cities. Despite meeting the criteria for a Level 4 lockdown, authorities are hesitant to escalate to this level. Instead, they have opted to add more restrictions to Level 3, hoping that people will voluntarily adhere to guidelines and do the right thing.

The Impact on Daily Life

The strategy seems to be effective as the city is notably empty, with almost no one outside. Public places are largely deserted, indicating that the measures are being taken seriously by the population.

Avoiding a Full Lockdown

The government is keen to avoid a full Level 4 lockdown if possible. By enhancing Level 3 restrictions, they aim to maintain control over the situation without resorting to more drastic measures.

Current Situation and Statistics

The reproductive number (R0) has been reduced to 1.06, indicating a stable situation. Additionally, the number of cases has been flat or slightly declining, suggesting that the current approach is working to some extent.

In summary, Taiwan is navigating its COVID-19 response by strengthening existing measures and relying on public cooperation, all while trying to avoid the need for a full lockdown.

]]> https://indie.am/james/9e7394b1d6adfcad188312667f532bdb https://indie.am/james/9e7394b1d6adfcad188312667f532bdb Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am For Taiwan is currently in lockdown level 3+ plus for Taipei in Gallicano nephew other cities but basically they don't want to enter level for a lockdown even though they met the criteria so they're kind of try to skirt around it by Adam more restricted shins to level three and rely on people to mostly do the right thing the city is pretty empty almost nobody outside to go places are pretty much empty so it's working fairly well they just don't want to actually do the level for a walk down if they can void it and I've got in the RO down the 1.06 which is pretty much stable and cases of been flat deck lining slightly pretty much since false 00:03:07 <![CDATA[Taiwan enters level-3 COVID Restrictions]]> Taiwan's Pre-Lockdown Measures Amid Rising Covid Cases

Taiwan recently entered a pre-lockdown phase following a significant increase in Covid-19 cases. On the day before the announcement, 160 new cases were reported, primarily from local transmission. This was a substantial rise compared to the previous record of 29 cases just a few days earlier, and 16 cases a few days before that.

Understanding Taiwan's Covid Restriction Levels

Last year, around March or April, Taiwan established a four-level system for Covid restrictions:

  • Level One and Two: For the longest time, Taiwan operated under these levels. The measures included basic precautions such as wearing masks on public transportation. Level Two also involved social distancing and contact tracing, particularly for large events.

  • Level Three: This is the current level Taiwan has entered. It is a step before a full lockdown. While not as restrictive as a complete lockdown, Level Three includes more stringent measures to curb the spread of the virus.

Taiwan's strategic approach to Covid-19 has been to implement these levels progressively, adapting to the situation as needed. The move to Level Three reflects the government's proactive stance in managing the recent surge in cases.

]]> https://indie.am/james/1a1f496a5abc62899cddc2f45438edcd https://indie.am/james/1a1f496a5abc62899cddc2f45438edcd Sun, 16 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So Taiwan entered pre-lockdown yesterday after 160 cases of Covid were reported, most of them. Local transmission on the previous record was like 29, a few days earlier and 16 a few days before that I am what that means. Basically, last year, when I think in March or April, they said four levels of Covid restrictions. Like the longest time, we were on level one and level two which was basically just like wearing masks and the train and like level three. I are level two involved. I don't know social distancing and contact tracing for like large events, things like that level, three, which is what we just entered now, it's not locked down. It'S like the step before lock down. false 00:03:33 <![CDATA[Apple is about to destroy Podcasting as we know it- and it might be a good thing?]]> Apple is About to Transform Podcasting: Why It Might Be a Good Thing

Yesterday, during the Apple event, some significant changes were announced regarding the way podcasts function within the iOS ecosystem and iTunes. Essentially, Apple plans to introduce new features to podcasts that go beyond the capabilities of the traditional RSS feed currently used by podcasts.

The Limitations of the Current Podcasting Standard

Having worked on a social audio app for the past five months, I've frequently encountered the limitations of the current RSS standard for podcasting. It's clear that there are numerous potential directions for social audio that are constrained by this standard.

The Future of Podcasting

With Apple's upcoming changes, the landscape of podcasting could be dramatically altered. These enhancements could pave the way for more interactive and dynamic podcast experiences, potentially benefiting both creators and listeners.

While the idea of changing something as established as podcasting might seem daunting, these innovations could lead to exciting new possibilities in the world of audio content.

]]> https://indie.am/james/e0cc22ecdf68dd5ff3ddcdb6e446887d https://indie.am/james/e0cc22ecdf68dd5ff3ddcdb6e446887d Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Apple is about to kill podcast thing as we know it, and that might actually be a good thing. So yesterday, during the Apple event, they announced they were making some changes to the way podcasts work in the iOS ecosystem and iTunes, and basically, what they're going to do is add new features on top of podcasts, which aren't possible with a simple RSS feed like podcasts Used today, I'm a little bit of background since I've been working on this social audio app for for five months now, that's one of the things I kept running into is just how limiting the IRS standard for podcasting wise. It'S really obvious that a lot of the directions you could take social audio in Podcasts false 00:08:38 trailer <![CDATA[Taiwanese show Lack of Interest in Getting Vaccinated]]> Taiwan's Covid Press Conference Highlights

Today's Covid press conference in Taiwan provided some intriguing insights. The health minister shared updates on the current Covid situation, expressing concerns about the public's apparent disinterest in receiving the vaccine.

Vaccine Hesitancy Concerns

The minister highlighted that there are approximately 320,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that are set to expire on May 31 and June 15. Despite the availability of these doses, there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm among the Taiwanese public to get vaccinated.

Eligibility and Priority Groups

The vaccine has been made available to the highest priority groups, which include about 618,000 individuals. However, the uptake has not been as high as expected, raising concerns about vaccine wastage and public health safety.

The press conference underscored the importance of increasing vaccination rates to ensure the safety and health of the population, especially with the looming expiration dates of the current vaccine stock.

]]> https://indie.am/james/569392cec5b12593ab9d2ad494a8f9dc https://indie.am/james/569392cec5b12593ab9d2ad494a8f9dc Thu, 15 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So today's Covid press conference in Taiwan was pretty interesting— we have a daily press conference, where the health minister gives an update on all things Covid and he basically, he was concerned that the Taiwanese public appears to be disinterested in receiving the vaccine, he said. I guess we have a couple of hundred thousand.. Let's see— about 320,000 doses, that expire on May 31 and June 15, these are the AstraZeneca doses, and it's been opened to the highest priority groups about 618,000 people are eligible to be vaccinated... false 00:03:08 <![CDATA[My Last 2 Weeks on Bitclout]]> My Journey with Big Cloud: Overcoming Initial Hurdles

Introduction

In the past couple of weeks, I've had an intriguing experience with Big Cloud. It feels like I've come full circle, from initial challenges to a deeper understanding and excitement about the platform.

The Onboarding Challenge

A couple of weeks ago, I embarked on the onboarding process with Big Cloud, only to encounter some significant scaling issues. Initially, I faced trouble verifying my phone number. Despite several attempts, the verification process was blocked until I tried using a proxy for my US number. It was then that I realized the issue was with the user USAP verification.

Overcoming Hiccups

After navigating these initial hiccups, my experience with Big Cloud became incredibly engaging. For a few days, I was completely absorbed in exploring the platform's features and potential.

The Excitement of Big Cloud

As I delved deeper, my enthusiasm for Big Cloud grew. I became particularly excited about the Big O dark mode Chrome extension. Initially, I even referred to it as the "designer body Chromatix tension," highlighting my eagerness to integrate new tools and features into my Big Cloud experience.

Conclusion

Despite the rocky start, my journey with Big Cloud has been rewarding. Overcoming the initial onboarding challenges has only fueled my excitement and interest in what the platform has to offer.

]]> https://indie.am/james/c20cf847ab018f6d7692e9ae7e2146fa https://indie.am/james/c20cf847ab018f6d7692e9ae7e2146fa Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I wanted to do a post on BitCloud because I feel like I've come full circle now over the past couple of weeks. So I discovered that a couple weeks ago the onboarding process was kind of buggy and it was not really working. They had some scaling issues originally. There was some trouble verifying my phone number the first couple times I tried. It wasn't until I tried using a proxy for my US number. I was trying to verify to use a US IP that I figured out. Oh, that's what was blocking the verification process. So I had some hiccups getting started but then it was super interesting for a few days watching that. I got super hyped about BitCloud. I ended up building a dark mode Chrome extension and I called it designer mode Chrome extension at first. I basically just like went and cleaned up all the CSS things that bugged me in the app, published it on the Firefox out on marketplace and Google Chrome. Some people downloaded that. That was interesting. I ended up creating like 30-bit call accounts, buying some creator coin, investing in a few , some of them went up, some went down, made a little bit of fake money. I don't know why exactly. But it was really fun to play around with. I was really impressed by the developer. He scaled the app to handle the additional load. It's been adding features and fixing bugs. It seems to have a good bit of institutional backing. Like injuries in horror with Gemini, Coinbase, Alex, and Sohanian. It was like just I think an initialized capital as well. There's just like this huge laundry list of investors who've pumped like $170 million into this app or something crazy. It is mind-boggling how much unofficial, official endorsement it has and credibility backing it. But I don't know. After a few days, it's just a bit, I don't know. The posts aren't that great. The content is very much about people trying to pose as BitCloud experts or people talking about BitCloud still. They aren't really talking about anything else. There's not really like, I feel like I'm in a subreddit about BitCloud. All people talk about this BitCloud. And all people seem to be trying to do is coming up with like schemes to get investors or get people to invest in their coin or drive up the value of their coin. There was a little bit of NFT stuff being posted for a while and I thought that would be pretty interesting. I thought it would be really interesting if like NFT creators posted their content and like a lot of discussion came up around that. But it didn't really happen. I haven't seen very much multimedia content posted. It's just getting really boring and I think it's because the algorithm is super simple right now. Like it's basically just the most up-folded stuff from the most popular creators in the last few hours on your global feed and if you follow people it's just what they're posting. I don't found anybody who's super active yet and nobody seems to be posting the type of content I would normally consume on Twitter or other social networks. So it's kind of like an algorithm thing right now. It just isn't like matching me with the right content that I would want to see yet. And so, you know, after the initial hype wears off, it really got boring quick. I really have no incentive to stick around or use the product and that bothers me a little bit. I'm really interested to see where this goes and I'm overall bullish on the idea for the app and I hope that it continues to improve, gain users and exceed expectations. false 00:04:52 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update]]> Reflections on My Founder Journey

I'm currently walking through a park on my way home, and I felt like sharing some thoughts about my journey as a founder. This year, I've dedicated a lot of time to various projects, almost everything except my primary business. A friend of mine humorously referred to this period as my "maker vacation," and indeed, it's been quite an extended one—about four months, starting back in December.

During this time, I've accomplished several things:

  • Server Development: I worked on and completed the development of servers.
  • App Launches: I successfully launched the TestFlight and got a working web app up and running.
  • Project Completion: I wrapped up a project called "Change Log That Life."
  • Social Media Engagement: I spent a few months learning the ropes of Twitter and growing my audience there, although I haven't found a significant purpose for it yet.
  • Public Launches: I launched a project called "Help in Public."

This journey has been a mix of learning, experimenting, and achieving milestones, even if they weren't directly related to my main business.

]]> https://indie.am/james/b177e1b522c3d13a07e1660c24402d63 https://indie.am/james/b177e1b522c3d13a07e1660c24402d63 Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I'm in a park walking home and I don't know just wanted to share some of my thoughts about what I've been working on in my in the founder journey. I spent a lot of time this year, all of it actually working on pretty much anything. I could, except for my primary business friend of mine, called that my make her vacation and it's been a long one. It'S been like four months started in December. Really am I've worked on those servers that do completed that bill in the a.m. launch. The TestFlight got a working web app and everything runs on that belt and pretty much finished change log that life and spent a few months learning Twitter and growing. My Twitter audience for basically no good reason yet launched help in public false 00:02:26 <![CDATA[Welcome from Bitclout!]]> Audio Log Introduction

Hey, this is James. I maintain an audio log on indie.am, and today, I wanted to try something new by posting an audio log on BitClout.

A New Platform

This is the first audio log I'm sharing on BitClout, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it.

Share Your Feedback

Let me know what you think!

]]> https://indie.am/james/01b15cd7ad57157ae99ff70b6600b237 https://indie.am/james/01b15cd7ad57157ae99ff70b6600b237 Fri, 09 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Hey this is James. I keep an audio log on indie.am and I just wanted to try posting an audio log to bitclout. It’s the first one I think. Let me know what you think: false 00:00:13 <![CDATA[Developing Domain Expertise]]> Developing Deep Expertise: A New Perspective on Innovation

It's fascinating how individuals develop deep expertise or think profoundly about a specific aspect of the Internet, a product, a company, or a problem. This deep dive often leads to a series of innovative ideas, all sparked from that unique insight or perspective they cultivate.

The Evolution of Startup Advice

The traditional startup advice from two decades ago emphasized the importance of having a unique insight. This insight was seen as crucial for providing a distinctive perspective on solving a problem or founding a company. The question often asked was: What is your unique insight that gives you a unique perspective for solving this problem or founding this company?

A New Approach for Product Designers and Founders

Today, especially for product designers and founders, the focus has shifted. The modern approach asks: What have you deeply explored in this field? This question encourages individuals to delve deeply into their area of interest, fostering a deeper understanding and leading to innovative solutions and ideas.

By embracing this new perspective, individuals can harness their deep expertise to drive innovation and create impactful solutions in their respective fields.

]]> https://indie.am/james/376797066358fef4801e486d757b2876 https://indie.am/james/376797066358fef4801e486d757b2876 Sun, 04 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I think it's really interesting how people develop a deep expertise or think deeply about us pacific aspect of the Internet or of a product or of a company or a problem, and then that leads them to have a series of ideas all sparked from that unique insight Or that unique perspective that they develop the old canonical start up advice from 20 years ago was like what is your unique insight that makes you that gives you a unique perspective for solving this problem or founding this company etc., but I think the new version of That, especially for product designers and in the founders, is like what have you dive deeply into in this, like false 00:03:23 <![CDATA[Twitter is Actively Displacing Slack]]> The Rise of Twitter DMs: Replacing Slack in 2021

Introduction

I have this theory that Twitter DMs and your social graph on Twitter are replacing Slack in 2021. If you think of Slack or Discord as your team collaboration infrastructure, they were traditionally siloed within just your company. You didn't work with people outside of your company, or if you did, that was the exception, not the rule.

The Shift in Collaboration

Now, if you're starting a new business in 2021, networking, or talking to people, this is largely happening on Twitter. Your social graph on Twitter is becoming more important, especially as a founder, than your real buyer or company graph on Slack.

Conclusion

In essence, Twitter is evolving into a crucial platform for business communication and networking, surpassing traditional tools like Slack, which were once confined to internal company use.

]]> https://indie.am/james/db22910bc51c2f58469941ecbe35608d https://indie.am/james/db22910bc51c2f58469941ecbe35608d Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am template. I have this theory that Twitter, DMs, and your social graph on Twitter is replacing Slack in 2021. If you think of Slack or Discord as your team collaboration infrastructure, it used to be siloed to just your company. You didn't work with people outside of your company, or if you did, that was the exception of your program. Not the rule. Now, if you're starting a new business in 2021, or networking, or talking to people, this is largely all happening on Twitter now. And your social graph on Twitter is becoming more important, especially as an indie founder, than your real blight for your company. Real blight for your company graph on Slack. And I've just had so many experiences over the last two years that have happened in Twitter, DMs, instead of happening somewhere else. The only thing I can conclude is that, potentially, right now, we're kind of witnessing a shift from siloed, semi- private communication channels like Slack to Twitter. And then I imagine, what if you just retooled Twitter DMs? To do everything we're doing today in tools like Slack or even Zoom? What if I could give you a Mac OS app with all your Twitter DMs and the ability to create group conversations and channels, maybe even do one-on-one video calls? Would I even use another tool to communicate other than Twitter? Twitter plus blank, whatever it is? I don't think I would. I don't think I'd use Discord. I don't think I'd use iMessage. I don't think I'd use email. I don't think I would use Slack. I don't think I would need a Slack team for my company. And this is a really interesting insight. I wonder how pervasive that is. If it's unique to like startup founder and indie hacker communities. Or if this is kind of a picture of what a global distributed remote-person works environment looks like five , ten years from now. false 00:03:05 <![CDATA[Clubhouse Clones, Incoming!]]> The Evolution of Startup Advice: Competitors and Copycats

When Paul Graham wrote his first essays, the prevailing advice for startups was clear: don't worry about your competitors coming along and copying you. The fear of a big company, like Google, replicating your product was not considered a significant threat. There were numerous reasons why startups failed, and being copied was rarely one of them.

The Case of Justin Kan's Calendar Startup

The first notable exception to this rule was Justin Kan’s calendar startup. It was essentially an early version of Google Calendar. Whether it was a direct copy or just a similar product that Google had already been developing before Kiko launched is debatable. Nonetheless, it marked a shift in the landscape.

A Decade of Stability

For at least a decade after Graham's essays were published, this advice held strong. Startups rarely saw their products copied outright by competitors. It was a period where innovation and unique value propositions were the main focus, rather than the fear of being replicated.

Conclusion

While the landscape has evolved, and the threat of being copied has become more prevalent, the foundational advice from Paul Graham's early essays remains relevant. Startups should focus on creating unique and valuable products, rather than being overly concerned about potential copycats.

]]> https://indie.am/james/09e6bf44b87d680e14950490fcf8ed24 https://indie.am/james/09e6bf44b87d680e14950490fcf8ed24 Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am When Paul, Graham wrote his first essays, the canonical advice for startups was: don't worry about your competitors coming along and copying you. Don't worry about what if some big company like Google comes along and copies my product, because there's so many reasons why start ups die, and that was almost never the case. I think the first example that broke that rule was Justin Kan’s Calendar start up, but it was basically an early version of Google Calendar which may or may not have been a copy. It was probably just a similar product that was already in development before they launch Kiko, but I'd say for at least a decade after those essays came out, that was really solid advice. You almost never saw a product copied by a competitor out right. The first time.. false 00:05:18 <![CDATA[Curious]]> Pokémon Go: How Much Are You Playing These Days?

I'm just curious—how much Pokémon Go are you guys playing these days? Is it a lot? I bet it's a lot.

Let's dive into the world of Pokémon Go and see how this game continues to capture our attention and time. Whether you're a casual player or a dedicated trainer, there's always something new to explore.

]]> https://indie.am/james/fcf755453d096efb4979a4eddd576c77 https://indie.am/james/fcf755453d096efb4979a4eddd576c77 Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I'm just curious, how much Pokémon Go are you guys playing these days? Is it a lot? I bet it's a lot. false 00:00:07 <![CDATA[Best Part about buying a new MacBook 😅]]> The Joy of a New MacBook: A Fresh Start

One of the greatest perks of purchasing a new MacBook is the opportunity to start fresh. It's like declaring bankruptcy on all the clutter that has accumulated in your downloads folder, settings, and configurations. All those little things that have gone awry in your current environment can be wiped away, allowing you to begin anew.

Embrace the Clean Slate

With a new MacBook, you gain:

  • Tons of Free Storage: No more worrying about running out of space.
  • Up-to-Date Settings: Everything is current, eliminating the quirks and bugs that often come with older systems.
  • No More Bugs: Say goodbye to the weird issues caused by a five-year-old operating system or botched configurations.

The Best Part

And let's not forget the most exciting aspect—it's a brand new MacBook! Enjoy the sleek design, improved performance, and the satisfaction of a clean, efficient workspace.

]]> https://indie.am/james/1e4fed5825c273766305c48c246cfc7f https://indie.am/james/1e4fed5825c273766305c48c246cfc7f Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am The best part about buying a new MacBook is you get to declare bankruptcy on all the crap in your downloads folder, your settings, your configuration little things screwed up when you're done environment you just get her wipe it all away and start over fresh. You have tons of free storage. You have all your settings up-to-date, no quirks, no weird bugs from a five year old operating system where you screwed up some part of your desk configuration or settings trying to get something to work. None of that that's the best part. Oh yeah and it's a brand new MacBook false 00:00:46 <![CDATA[Godzilla vs. Hong Kong]]> Donkey Kong vs. Iguana: A Surprisingly Great Movie

Wow, the Donkey Kong vs. Iguana movie was actually really impressive! Congratulations to everyone involved!

A Boost for HBO Max

All my friends who used to work with me are thrilled to see HBO Max making waves again. This movie is helping push the app back to the top of the iTunes charts, which is fantastic news.

No Spoilers, But...

I especially enjoyed the ending—though don't worry, I won't spoil it for you. However, I will say that the title is incredibly misleading.

Overall, it's a must-watch!

]]> https://indie.am/james/cfc79c15cf6db32f56d6e3018cdf6916 https://indie.am/james/cfc79c15cf6db32f56d6e3018cdf6916 Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Wow that donkey Kong versus iguana movie was actually really freaking good. Congratulations! All my friends are used to work with on HBO Max. This is pushing the app back to the top of the iTunes charts again good news. I especially like the part of the end, where no, no, no, I'm just kidding no spoilers here, but I will say the title is incredibly misleading. false 00:00:31 <![CDATA[YouTube is finally cloning TikTok (Shorts Beta)]]> YouTube Shorts: A TikTok Clone in the Making

It's happening—YouTube is finally cloning TikTok with their new beta product called Shorts. However, the user interface (UI) for Shorts is, well, not great. It's not amazing.

About a year ago, I created a little clone of the TikTok UI just for fun. During that process, I realized something crucial: for the experience to work, the video must fill the screen completely. This edge-to-edge display is essential.

Unfortunately, YouTube Shorts often crops videos and adds black bars, which really breaks the mobile experience. Instead of a seamless flow, you're swiping up and down through what feels like a vertical slideshow—similar to stories, but with a vertical orientation.

This UI choice disrupts the immersive experience that TikTok has mastered, where each video fully engages the viewer without distractions.

]]> https://indie.am/james/2a228e83c5167c42ae8d20b9ec060060 https://indie.am/james/2a228e83c5167c42ae8d20b9ec060060 Mon, 29 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So it's happening, YouTube is finally cloning, TickTock and the UI for the beta product called shorts is well, it's not great. It'S not amazing. I made a little clone of the TickTock. You are just for fun like about a year ago, and I remember when I was playing with that. The biggest realization I came up with was that, no matter what the video has to fill the screen at the edge for the experience to work and the YouTube shorts, you, why constantly crops and add black bars to video, and it just really breaks the experience on Mobile because basically you're swiping up and down through a slideshow, it's like stories but vertical and false 00:01:58 <![CDATA[Gaining Experience as a “App Developer”]]> The Real Reason Behind Building the A.M. App

I wasn't sure where to share this, so I decided to make it an audio blog post. I realized I've never really discussed the true motivation behind creating the A.M. app. Initially, I was captivated by the idea, but there was a deeper reason that drove me to develop it.

A Journey into Mobile App Development

The primary reason for diving into this project was my limited experience in building and launching complete mobile apps for iOS or Android. My entire business revolves around one simple cross-platform mobile app. Remarkably, it's the first app I ever published on the App Store.

Learning Through Experience

While I have contributed to larger apps and collaborated on projects with others, the A.M. app represented a personal challenge. It was an opportunity to enhance my skills and gain more hands-on experience in mobile app development.

In summary, the journey of building the A.M. app was less about the initial idea and more about expanding my capabilities and experience in the world of mobile applications.

]]> https://indie.am/james/dfc2f0f61843fbc82d30c8b52c9a004a https://indie.am/james/dfc2f0f61843fbc82d30c8b52c9a004a Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I don't know I have a space to post this anywhere so I just thought I would do it as an audio blog post but I guess I never really talked about like the real reason why I thought it be a good idea to build in the a.m. app yeah I wasn't really because I was super in love with the idea I was when I first came up with it but the real reason why I wanted to dig in and build the apps because you know I haven't really built and launched very many complete mobile apps like for iOS or android at all like my entire business is one really simple cross platform mobile app and it's literally the first one that I put on the App Store and I've worked on larger apps and I've worked on other peoples apps false 00:02:35 <![CDATA[Embedded Analytics using Plausible]]> Integrating Plausible.io Analytics into a Change Log

I recently completed the integration of Plausible.io analytics into a change log. The idea behind this is to simplify the process by using Plausible's analytics instead of building a custom solution for my customers within their dashboard.

Why Plausible.io?

Initially, I was linking to a public Plausible.io page. This worked well, but Plausible has since improved their offering. They now allow you to convert a share link into an embeddable iframe. This enhancement has made it possible to embed the analytics directly into the app programmatically.

How It Works

With this new feature, users can view all the charts and data they would typically see on Plausible.io, but now it's conveniently located within their dashboard. Users can navigate to their list of change logs and simply click on the Analytics button for the change log they are interested in. This action will display all the relevant charts, graphs, and top pages directly in their dashboard.

This integration provides a seamless experience for users, allowing them to access detailed analytics without leaving their dashboard environment.

]]> https://indie.am/james/aa9380aa4b78250da6609878d836e257 https://indie.am/james/aa9380aa4b78250da6609878d836e257 Wed, 17 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am All right, I just finished integrating plausible.io analytics for a change log that life the ideas basically, instead of building my own analytics for my customers to pair inside the dashboard I'll, just use possible analytics. So I was doing this before because I figured out how I could link to a public plausible that I/O page, but now it's gotten even better because they allow you to turn to embed link into a so. They allow you to turn the share link into an I-frame in bed, which I have stuck inside of the app programmatically. It shows basically all of the charts he would normally see implausible but inside the users dashboard, so they can go to their list of change logs and then they just click on the Analytics button for the change log, they're interested in and I'll see all the charts And graphs and top pages are false 00:01:57 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update]]> Indie Maker Update

Here's my Indie maker update! I've been working on changelog.life pretty much nonstop for the past week. I've been playing around with it on and off for the week before that, making a bunch of updates.

Domain Drama

You might know about my changelogging.com drama. It's still unresolved. I've paid for and registered the domain, but Verizon is not explaining why they automatically banned the domain at the registrar level. This is really confusing and a bit frustrating.

Moving Forward

I'm glad I'm not 100% dependent on that name. When I registered it, I thought it would be a really good .com that you could use for your subdomain website. For example, if you were going to have yourname.changelogging.com, that seems kind of neat.

Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to work through these challenges!

]]> https://indie.am/james/36d3b6c7ddca613e0916372d8297df47 https://indie.am/james/36d3b6c7ddca613e0916372d8297df47 Wed, 17 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So here's my Indy maker update I've been working on change log that life pretty much nonstop for the past week, I'm playing around with it on and off for the week past that bunch of updates, you might know my change logging.com drama. That'S still unresolved. I'Ve paid for and registered the domain, but at Verizon is not explaining why they automatically banned the domain at the registrar level, which is really confusing a little bit frustrating I'm glad I'm not 100 % dependent on that name. But when I registered it, I thought it would be a really good.com that you could use for your sub domain website like if you were gon na, have your name.change login.com that seems kind of Americans. Undera.Com false <![CDATA[What do you call your junk file in Figma?]]> What Do You Call Your Untitled Draft in Figma?

Hey designers, let's talk about that one Figma file we all have. You know the one—your untitled draft. It's like a digital junk drawer. It's where you go when you just need to resize a JPEG or crop a little bit out. Maybe you want to quickly change a background or compress a scanned document that's too large.

Does this sound familiar? This file has been with you since you first downloaded Figma, and by now, it's probably filled with hundreds of individual pieces. So, what do you call that file?

]]> https://indie.am/james/0eb6daa8e126d717a188652140d12d9c https://indie.am/james/0eb6daa8e126d717a188652140d12d9c Sat, 13 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Ok designers, what do you call your untitled draft in Figma? You know what I'm talking about. The junk drawer, the one where you just wanted to resize a JPEG, oh, I just want to crop this little bit out. Oh, I'm going to change the background in this file, real quick. Oh, I scanned this document, but it's too large. I need to compress it. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's been in Figma since you first downloaded the app, it's now probably got hundreds of individual pieces in it. What do you call that? false 00:00:37 <![CDATA[Checks and SaaS B2B Billing]]> https://indie.am/james/08fa34a355b0bb47b8358a67d0326089 https://indie.am/james/08fa34a355b0bb47b8358a67d0326089 Sun, 07 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Starting seeing some traffic to an interesting thread on Twitter I participated in, so I thought I would share a few stories about SaaS billing, specifically for B2B companies. The big thing I learned about that surprised me the most: checks. You might say, but we don't accept checks. Yes you do. You will have customers google your address, google your name, and mail random checks to any address they find. Is it a PO Box that you don't check more than once a year, because it's only for your corporate filing or the address of your registered agent? If they can find on Google somebody at some point- a nonzero number of people- a surprisingly large number of people, will find that address and just throw money at it, and then they'll contact you via your support email and yell at you, because.. false 00:01:39 <![CDATA[Changelog but Twitter]]> https://indie.am/james/d97fb9afc1e3f6e294f880f8dcfe3946 https://indie.am/james/d97fb9afc1e3f6e294f880f8dcfe3946 Sun, 07 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I'M prototyping something new today. Basically, I want my product to change log to live on Twitter. It might be a necessity to have a page link to your site where or an in bedded with it, where you can display recent updates to the application you can do. Pop-Up windows - I don't know that doesn't matter as an indie maker, I don't want to have to go somewhere special to post out updates to my change log in my own app I don't wan na pour get meds because those are poorly formatted they're, not great. I just want to make it really effortless to keep my Changelog up-to-date inside my product, so I'm prototyping pulling tweets filtering them by specific usernames and hashtags, and using those tweets to auto generate a change log that you never have to update. false 00:02:49 <![CDATA[Have you Tried Tailwind?]]> https://indie.am/james/3aab5df99ba79d99193aecea5d39d987 https://indie.am/james/3aab5df99ba79d99193aecea5d39d987 Sun, 07 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I'm a frontend developer in 2021, over 10 years of experience building websites - since I don't know 2005, 2006, 2007, and I still use bootstrap and people ask me sometimes, you know, why I still use bootstrap. Why don't I use something more like Tailwind or have I heard of Tailwind or have I heard of Bulma, and I get a laugh out of that every time I hear it. I don't use it, but I like it, but I have a really interesting reason for why I think I don't use Tailwind. Let me tell you a story: I basically came up with tailwind in 2014, the exact same syntax, exact same kind of completion process. I called it declarative CSS. You can find it on my GitHub. I used it for a dozen or so projects. false 00:06:07 <![CDATA[Spacehey Plays Pokémon]]> https://indie.am/james/f11798d2064f3b4ff169221d26788fa7 https://indie.am/james/f11798d2064f3b4ff169221d26788fa7 Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I took a break this week and built a thing called space. He plays Pokémon, it's a playable, Pokémon red instants. You can play from my space her profile. This is inspired by Twitter plays Pokémon because it's self inspired by twitch plays Pokémon for years ago. What it is, is it's a game boy, emulator, playing Pokémon red running on Wassom boy, which is a emulator written and go compile the web assembly running under no Jay as a little server. And basically, what happens is somebody presses a button from my profile page? It links to a page and if multiple people are playing at tallies them up and the highest, though every second hour is counted as the end. But then it false 00:02:03 <![CDATA[Twitter Spaces: UX Teardown]]> https://indie.am/james/d653cc423834e1171256044edebd90d6 https://indie.am/james/d653cc423834e1171256044edebd90d6 Sat, 27 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I got an invite to host rooms on Twitter spaces are completed on boarding. Yesterday I tried things out. I want to share my initial impressions of the app. I think I've been in for five large rooms that I host a room yesterday for a few hours and just let people drop in serendipitously to try things out and I feel like. I have a pretty good idea of the current state of the user. Experience of the app I've made my comparisons with Clubhouse, and I just wanted to crystallize those things and capture that so to set the stage Twitter spaces they've made a pretty good copy of the clubhouse room. Experience there's one big difference and that's that they've limited their design just to the room experience and it feels like. Can I get on a group call with people you already known false 00:01:11 <![CDATA[Apple Sounds]]> https://indie.am/james/8b039405aadd3dc5be3d0247e948ece3 https://indie.am/james/8b039405aadd3dc5be3d0247e948ece3 Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Apple sounds: Loading, Funk, basso, sosumi, logged in, submarine, mail sent, new mail, put trash, empty trash, invitation, FaceTime ringer, FaceTime accepted, FaceTime hang up, AirPods connected, AirPods disconnected, AirPods low battery. false 00:00:40 <![CDATA[American Airlines confirms UFO contact near New Mexico]]> American Airlines Confirms UFO Contact Over New Mexico

American Airlines has confirmed an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO) over New Mexico. The incident occurred on Sunday as the aircraft was en route from Cincinnati to Phoenix.

Details of the Encounter

  • Date and Time: The sighting took place at 1:19 PM Central Time.
  • Location: The aircraft was flying over the northeast corner of New Mexico.
  • Altitude: The plane was at approximately 37,000 feet.

Communication with Air Traffic Control

The pilots radioed Albuquerque Aircraft Control to report the sighting. In the communication, they described the object as "long and cylindrical," noting that it moved very quickly and passed directly over their aircraft.

Official Response

While the sighting has been confirmed by American Airlines, the company has emphasized that this does not necessarily imply extraterrestrial involvement. The term "UFO" simply indicates that the object remains unidentified. A debriefing has been conducted, but the nature of the object remains unknown.

Conclusion

This incident highlights the ongoing mystery surrounding UFO sightings. While intriguing, the lack of concrete evidence means that the true nature of the object remains speculative.

]]> https://indie.am/james/38e4aef4d8c3afb8db81f11656e9db84 https://indie.am/james/38e4aef4d8c3afb8db81f11656e9db84 Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am American Airlines confirms UFO contact over New Mexico on Sunday. The aircraft was flying from Cincinnati to Phoenix and at 1:19 PM central time over the north east corner of New Mexico, they were at about 37,000 ft they radioed Albuquerque Aircraft Control. Here's a clip: [audio clip] — They said it was something long and cylindrical: it moved really fast and right over top of them. I don't think this is a credible siding, but they've confirmed the incident. They've done a debrief, they've basically just said that this is a UFO sighting doesn't mean aliens, it just means they have no idea what they ran into and what they saw. false 00:01:05 <![CDATA[Shareable Videos]]> https://indie.am/james/f9689b9ddf9d4fff66fa76071181e993 https://indie.am/james/f9689b9ddf9d4fff66fa76071181e993 Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So now, every time that you record a new audio log, the transcriptions are turned into subtitles, which are applied in real time to the playback in the app. But I also use the subtitle files to generate a video file with FFMpeg, and video file shows the subtitles in real time overlaid in the audio. That way, if you share the video file to Twitter or another social network, and somebody doesn't turn the audio on, they can still read your post. false 00:00:39 <![CDATA[I used to feel weird going out without shaving]]> Embracing the Mask

I used to feel weird going out without shaving, but now, thanks to the pandemic, we can wear masks when we go outside.

]]> https://indie.am/james/173eb42991042b7a344ea93de8418dad https://indie.am/james/173eb42991042b7a344ea93de8418dad Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I used to feel weird going out without shaving, but now, thanks to the pandemic, we can wear masks when we go outside. false 00:00:08 <![CDATA[Timestamp Maps]]> https://indie.am/james/51d25b9801ff5d8ddd34e2cff0f31d3a https://indie.am/james/51d25b9801ff5d8ddd34e2cff0f31d3a Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So here's my indie maker update today, I'm not doing anything really interesting, I'm just doing something for fun. I am doing a transcription point map for the transcriptions that come from the iOS app when you do a new recording. Basically iOS will give you updates in real time for the completed transcription. It doesn't give you timestamps. So it's a somewhat interesting problem to create that mapping of, you know, just break that completed paragraph of text for the transcription up into smaller segments and timestamp them. That’s all. false 00:00:48 <![CDATA[New M1X Leaks (Apple Silicon)]]> https://indie.am/james/846f5ddc273a9af8fc84299e0f624ff8 https://indie.am/james/846f5ddc273a9af8fc84299e0f624ff8 Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:00:12 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update]]> https://indie.am/james/2e0ba947ef3e2fc1a28bae72b2bcb933 https://indie.am/james/2e0ba947ef3e2fc1a28bae72b2bcb933 Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Ok, here's my big in the a.m. update for the day. I'Ve updated the website that you get automatically the default theme middle of improvements to that completely rebuild it from scratch, so that it would be a decent looking website that you could share with your friends share on social media etc. lots of improvements, it should feel really Polished also, I added the guides to submit your RSS to the podcast directories, a good guide published in medium and linked it from the app so that you could set all that up. false 00:00:50 <![CDATA[Twitter Played Pokémon Launched Today (Side Project)]]> https://indie.am/james/18e3b38a50c68ac05e7458c5ffff8b41 https://indie.am/james/18e3b38a50c68ac05e7458c5ffff8b41 Sat, 20 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am The Twitter plays Pokémon game finally completed today after six weeks of continuous play, the avatar updated every 15 seconds when somebody commented up down, left right AB, select or start on a specific Twitter thread penned by Ashe screen shakes. So today my side project was Twitter played pokémon.com. Basically I created a video player of the entire stream, so you could play it back at any speed. You wanted and published that you can also press the speakers to play a random Pokémon. Might I file - and I applied what I learned over the last few weeks about video CD ends and video fail back video quality control and a few things to make that work. false 00:01:01 <![CDATA[Twitter Beats Pokémon Red after 6 Weeks]]> https://indie.am/james/2f35c76e241daaf5a5540f7ce74098a5 https://indie.am/james/2f35c76e241daaf5a5540f7ce74098a5 Sat, 20 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Oh, this sucks Twitter plays Pokémon was just taken off-line, I'm not sure if it was like a server scaling issue or Twitter or Nintendo took the soft line, but before the game actually ended and people could actually beat the game, it was taken off line by the Creator, I have a sucks if you hadn't seen it. I created a little player inside of a game boy where you can play the Twitter plays Pokémon game on my website, a link to it. But I guess it doesn't work anymore. false 00:00:37 <![CDATA[Custom App Icons]]> https://indie.am/james/4a40181e262c37abe9e8ad01304b0c80 https://indie.am/james/4a40181e262c37abe9e8ad01304b0c80 Sat, 20 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I spent a full day, probably making icons and making an icon picture that works on iOS 13+ in Cordova. It was a really interesting process. I learned a lot from it. It was all kicked off, because a friend of mine pointed out that there was an interesting trick that clubhouse used to indicate that their servers were down. They change the app icon and it kind of indicated that the servers were down, and I realized that was a new Developer feature added an iOS 13 and I kind of want to play around with it replicate something like the Apollo. I pass for Reddit, where you can pick your icon from the left. Then change your icon do whatever you want it to be, so I ended up making about a dozen icon variations and coming up with one that I like better than the placeholder icon. I have been using him they&#39;re all kind of in a can. false 00:02:19 <![CDATA[Dialing Attempt 1 of 5.]]> https://indie.am/james/45807330e07cc921d226203e9ed2fb93 https://indie.am/james/45807330e07cc921d226203e9ed2fb93 Thu, 18 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:00:30 <![CDATA[Audiologs as Twitter Embeds]]> https://indie.am/james/01fe68d6cc504a434e136269cc5e56d7 https://indie.am/james/01fe68d6cc504a434e136269cc5e56d7 Wed, 17 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I spent basically all day playing around with audio and beds in Twitter. I initially thought that it wouldn't work, but it turned out that was just the documentation was pretty bad and I was pretty dumb. But if you're listening to this now, it's probably on Twitter and you're, probably on desktop or you'll, see the fall in bed or mobile web or you'll also see the fall in bed. The mobile app captures the link and either redirects to the iOS app. If you have it installed, or it opens up a full page in your browser with your normal audio log theme, to play things back up, so I'm hoping what I can do now is complete that share cycle. Where you download the app you record a few posts and then you can share those out on social media and start to get more people to your audio log. false 00:01:01 <![CDATA[Stick your head in the Sakura!]]> A Day in Northeastern Taipei: Cherry Blossoms and Perfect Weather

The weather was truly delightful today, with temperatures around 77 degrees. Taking advantage of the pleasant conditions, we decided to visit a park in Northeastern Taipei to witness the cherry blossoms. It seems that Sakura season has begun here in Taipei. Interestingly, in Tokyo, the cherry blossoms typically start blooming at the end of March, so we're experiencing them about a month earlier.

During our visit, we wandered around the park and ended up taking around 100 photos. Among these, I captured one particularly stunning macro shot of a bee with its head buried in a Sakura blossom. The photo turned out exceptionally well, and I'm quite pleased with it.

Overall, it was a wonderful day, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

]]> https://indie.am/james/675900f2d5b0b6f98ee4eb9f110fe844 https://indie.am/james/675900f2d5b0b6f98ee4eb9f110fe844 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am The weather was really nice today, about 77 degrees, so we went to a park in Northeastern Taipei to see the cherry blossoms. I guess Sakura season has started in Taipei. I think it starts at the end of March in Tokyo. So I guess we're like a month early on cherry blossoms, but we ended up walking around. It's probably took like 100 photos, but I got one really good photo of like a bee sticking his head into Sakura on like the blossom on a macro shot. It turned out really well. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with that, I had a pretty good day. false 00:00:48 <![CDATA[Passing the Software Park, on our way to NE Taipei]]> https://indie.am/james/a0d14cd760765c8b11d73d0dd6eb7ea9 https://indie.am/james/a0d14cd760765c8b11d73d0dd6eb7ea9 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am A software park sounds a lot like a place where you take your line of business programs to go socialize with other software and do their business behind the bushes. false 00:00:11 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update]]> https://indie.am/james/5f3997d4a38ec209d9cb4c6ef9aea02a https://indie.am/james/5f3997d4a38ec209d9cb4c6ef9aea02a Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Here'S my Indie make her update for Monday February 15, so I spent a good bit of time yesterday tweaking the audio encoding pipeline. I thought about it for a while, and I just turned up the audio quality settings to optimize more for higher quality output. Instead of optimizing for better compression, I just thought you know it's really small and while the app is like a really small scale, it doesn't make sense to try to like Pinch a Penny. Zundelowitz costs just to let you know if it sacrifices audio quality at all. So I think the audio compression is still a lot better than your typical podcast, like it used, is a lot less bandwidth that works, because it's primarily spoken audio, most podcasts that I find don't really false 00:01:30 <![CDATA[I’ve officially switched from Sketch to Figma]]> https://indie.am/james/68aae8cc150818c728af2632a879bc9c https://indie.am/james/68aae8cc150818c728af2632a879bc9c Sat, 13 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I have officially switched from Sketch to Figma: but it&#39;s not what you think, I&#39;m not abandoning Sketch, but the other day when I tried installing Sketch on my new M1 Mac, I ran into a maintenance window and I couldn&#39;t renew my license. So I ended up having to install Figma and I ended up using it for the past three days without really running into any issues, so I have officially switched from Sketch to Figma. It might be temporary, but not looking back right now. false 00:00:35 <![CDATA[Random Server Errors = Sweat Bullets for an Hour]]> https://indie.am/james/5a989c50b2058fc864875cb2024dd067 https://indie.am/james/5a989c50b2058fc864875cb2024dd067 Sat, 13 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am I woke up this morning with about four hours of sleep. I'Ve got a funny alert on my phone or static city and server was returning errors strange errors. Sometimes it was working. Sometimes it wasn't. I looked at the logs a little bit on my phone and decided to get up and investigate it. It turned out back blaze B2, which is an AWS, is three alternative that we use to store static files was down. Was it a bad? Push to production occurred problem now, due to an abuse report. Go daddy had suspended one of the domains they used by the service so instantly millions of people who depended on back, please be to the other apps that use the service were off-line or broken or in someway impacted. false 00:02:16 <![CDATA[8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR For Lack Of Dinosaur Stories]]> https://indie.am/james/cffb4a8015d6eb814f6e87e72b0bb173 https://indie.am/james/cffb4a8015d6eb814f6e87e72b0bb173 Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:01:27 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update]]> https://indie.am/james/08b066a76c725e1b8eb7a51e479f2c56 https://indie.am/james/08b066a76c725e1b8eb7a51e479f2c56 Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So here's my update for Wednesday February 10 just got test flight approved for public access, which means I can give people a link to opt into the TestFlight instead of having to invite them as a user in our organization, which is really cool. But ups are limit from about 100 users to 10,000, which will probably last quite a while, and we still don't have to do a full App Store review process, but the obstacles were pretty significant. I thought that it would take longer to get through them, but it seems like if you make a good faith effort to adhere to all of the requirements for your social media and audio app they're just thumbs up the test flight they wanted. It could be a little bit more stringent on actual App Store review, but you know: there's there's a bunch of things. You have to add, like your dad. false 00:01:41 <![CDATA[Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen Clubhouse Q&A]]> https://indie.am/james/1ba0caac1b213c5b1b2ccfb50812ed4f https://indie.am/james/1ba0caac1b213c5b1b2ccfb50812ed4f Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Mark Andriessen and Ben Horowitz just hosted a room on clubhouse, and I thought I would recap a few interesting things that came up. One of the most interesting topics that Mark brought up was just that large scale systems usually don't age well, and it applies to a lot of things, especially our government. Basically, it's really hard to make a large scale system work in the first place and those things generally don't hold together very long, and he points out that, basically, what we've done is we've come up with some systems that worked really well at some point in time And it's really crazy that we were able to seal them up as large as we did, and we just got into the problem that it takes a lot of work from a lot of people to change them. And so it's creating a lot of problems in our politics today, but that was an interesting perspective. false 00:03:14 <![CDATA[Cofounder Question Cards]]> https://indie.am/james/f18c46f1cc424a27f0909485b27d2bb4 https://indie.am/james/f18c46f1cc424a27f0909485b27d2bb4 Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am A friend of mine, Brian Hall, is about to launch on product on a tool he created called cofounder question cards. It'S basically a website you go to, and it's great questions that you can ask your potential cofounder of something that's inspired by an earlier article called date. Night questions - and you know one of those things were. It was like interesting questions to ask like somebody on a date, but this is more focused towards cofounder dating him. So I thought I would go through the deck and answer one arm and get a couple of other people to chime in on the thread and answer one of the cards. I will share a link as the first reply to this post. false 00:00:55 <![CDATA[Audio-based Social Networks]]> https://indie.am/james/ef5980889e1aeabfcc58bf335333ee22 https://indie.am/james/ef5980889e1aeabfcc58bf335333ee22 Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I'm gonna kick off at the register talk about audio best social networks in general I am this all happened inside of the in the a.m. app feel free to chime in if you have any thoughts on the subject false 00:00:14 <![CDATA[Clubhouse is Taking Off in China!]]> https://indie.am/james/7c32cc102cde2c178c4cad7d1087ccd2 https://indie.am/james/7c32cc102cde2c178c4cad7d1087ccd2 Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am It'S been crazy following the uptake in Mandarin speaking users in the clubhouse up over the last couple of weeks, and so I remember when I first went to Clubhouse the only Mandarin speakers. There were a few Americans in Taiwanese in like language practice room. There is a club where you can practice Mandarin in, like a few hundred people, maybe at most were on the app at a time just like practicing with language learners. Things like that, you know up until a few weeks ago there were no non-English, almost no non-American rooms on Clubhouse and now a couple of weeks ago. I think God, maybe a week ago there was an influx of Hong Kong city, discovered Clubhouse and they start false 00:03:47 <![CDATA[Jason Blum on Picking what to Greenlight]]> https://indie.am/james/11881aca3d577cc9afe23f74db86fbef https://indie.am/james/11881aca3d577cc9afe23f74db86fbef Mon, 08 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So I just got out of the clubhouse room, with Jason Bloom from blue Mounds and BJ Novak, and they were talking for a while about streaming media and the existing film industry, television, industry and the transition to streaming Netflix on your a few things that I've thought Pretty deeply about as a technologist are used to work at HBO work on HBO max, and so it's some thing I thought about, although I don't have the expertise either of these people. However, the perspective adjacent, bloomer, big, Novak or Mark Andriessen has on these things out. It'S really interesting one of the things that Jason bloom, bloom house and down for is they make low budget everything's low budget relatively low budget for the industry, I'm $ 10 million or less, and despite that they've been all day, they have more false 00:03:59 <![CDATA[Taiwanese News Headlines]]> https://indie.am/james/1496221e504184fb7802615bdbf92071 https://indie.am/james/1496221e504184fb7802615bdbf92071 Sun, 07 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:00:05 <![CDATA[Taking a Short Walk (a thread)]]> https://indie.am/james/c37208731c80706d1e994d9e1e1a33d5 https://indie.am/james/c37208731c80706d1e994d9e1e1a33d5 Sun, 07 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:00:27 <![CDATA[Faster Audio Uploads & Other Improvements]]> https://indie.am/james/3efa44b6ac6ad3ca0952ff59c00e8fb3 https://indie.am/james/3efa44b6ac6ad3ca0952ff59c00e8fb3 Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:01:45 <![CDATA[Conversations on Indie.am]]> https://indie.am/james/bb9bd5cc19581cfe0f349debdc86d4b4 https://indie.am/james/bb9bd5cc19581cfe0f349debdc86d4b4 Fri, 05 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am So today, I'm working on what I think will become the core feature of this app in that thread and conversations. I'Ve just started experimenting with us a couple of days ago, but basically the idea is when I post a new topic, it's one audio file, all the replies to that become a threat just like a Reddit thread or a hacker news thread or a tweet storm or A Twitter thread, but because you have audio replies it just takes on this. It fundamentally becomes like a Playlist inside of your feed. You kind of take a detour to this thread to you know, to engage in conversation versus consume contact, and I just false 00:01:29 <![CDATA[Twitter Spaces]]> https://indie.am/james/110d850cb5b3f85b5f56b7e8d8d518b5 https://indie.am/james/110d850cb5b3f85b5f56b7e8d8d518b5 Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:01:54 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Check-in]]> https://indie.am/james/646ce028bb719db38a967967ad9552f3 https://indie.am/james/646ce028bb719db38a967967ad9552f3 Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am Here is my Andy make her check in for Thursday, February 4 haven't worked on the app for a few days I've been minor bug fixes but I got a lot done today and I basically just worked on it all day and implemented a few tweaks to how the fees and timelines work I implemented notifications on an activity feed so that you can see who has a commentator followed you you can also like edit and delete comments you can follow and Unfollow anybody on the app and I think that's about it but it's a lot of work when do those features today you should notice on lotta changes if you download the app on the 0.2.19 version of the app false 00:01:02 <![CDATA[Timeless]]> https://indie.am/james/80d3cd44137e2b83e2e0843e26b094d9 https://indie.am/james/80d3cd44137e2b83e2e0843e26b094d9 Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey James Futhey James Futhey, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey false 00:01:51 <![CDATA[Meme Jesus descends upon Clubhouse]]> https://indie.am/james/6136889e6bdd718e03dc6324f3568e50 https://indie.am/james/6136889e6bdd718e03dc6324f3568e50 Mon, 01 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:03:32 <![CDATA[Am I Getting Old?]]> https://indie.am/james/57d6cc65fcaab1d271a978db30912e4d https://indie.am/james/57d6cc65fcaab1d271a978db30912e4d Mon, 01 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am Right, I want to try a new post format for this time. I'M sharing a meme with a very short audio clip false 00:00:12 <![CDATA[Fingers crossed!]]> https://indie.am/james/f621723e594e4fc229ce9088be50cc19 https://indie.am/james/f621723e594e4fc229ce9088be50cc19 Sun, 31 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am Fingers crossed if this works it'll be really awesome but I've just completed my first attempt at transcribing audio as it's recorded and uploading it with every post one in the a.m. false 00:00:19 <![CDATA[New Years Gift Set!]]> https://indie.am/james/bf483516d19a1dfbc32bfaee7bde9985 https://indie.am/james/bf483516d19a1dfbc32bfaee7bde9985 Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:01:22 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Update (Indie.am)]]> https://indie.am/james/790af3407c1b88527f2d2ae296a1fa03 https://indie.am/james/790af3407c1b88527f2d2ae296a1fa03 Thu, 28 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:01:57 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Check-in]]> https://indie.am/james/448b40c5ed32a000bbfe710f7dd2a277 https://indie.am/james/448b40c5ed32a000bbfe710f7dd2a277 Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:01:44 <![CDATA[That dumb sound from Rick and Morty]]> https://indie.am/james/65976cef6d079a8d45236044e2008ca8 https://indie.am/james/65976cef6d079a8d45236044e2008ca8 Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:00:04 <![CDATA[Nonigiri]]> https://indie.am/james/493825b1c4ed372f7b63d5261c44632c https://indie.am/james/493825b1c4ed372f7b63d5261c44632c Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:00:10 <![CDATA[Indie Maker Check-in]]> https://indie.am/james/ffefe664b2f893ee274f143481ea005b https://indie.am/james/ffefe664b2f893ee274f143481ea005b Mon, 25 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:00:26 <![CDATA[Final Fantasy XV Quirks]]> https://indie.am/james/fa59d0b7c30d133b4fdf4b0f3dd69522 https://indie.am/james/fa59d0b7c30d133b4fdf4b0f3dd69522 Mon, 25 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT futhey+kg@gmail.com James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷 James Futhey 😷, Indie.am An audiolog published on Indie.am by James Futhey 😷 false 00:02:16