Richard Smith

experiments

Building Bob's Word Search Game

I've tried several times to learn iOS development and have the books, online course purchases and mostly empty Xcode projects to prove it. I never really clicked with Objective-C, and the process of getting a project up and running just to get something basic on the screen just

artificial intelligence

Clawdbot

OpenClaw (previously Clawdbot or Moltbot) is a locally installable AI assistant that you can chat with via WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, Discord, Slack etc. It is, without a doubt, a vibe-coded security nightmare. Installed on your local machine it can be given access to calendars, reminders, your browser, a search engine,

artificial intelligence

Long Running Coding Tasks

Cursor published an interesting blog post last week regarding using agents for long running coding tasks. In other words, if we have multiple Claude or GPT agents all working on the same codebase, can we make them work together to achieve a well-defined goal without the need for constant human

artificial intelligence

AI Language Choices

Not every programming language works well with AI tools. As a Python developer, I'm spoiled by there being lots of Python that the models have been trained on (and the model trainers also using Python). I would be at a similar advantage if I was using Javascript. I

artificial intelligence

LLM Disruption

30 years of commercial development later, and LLM code generation is the biggest disruption I've encountered. Put aside the moral, environmental, bubble worries or aversion to the hype. I think the bubble is accounting malpractice and Sam Altman makes me sick. But if you're hiring developers,

artificial intelligence

Buy the Future

About 2 and a half years ago, a leaked internal Google memo said that they "had no moat" and that open source and smaller models would be their competition in AI. They figured that OpenAI was in the same position. I believe that this memo put too much

technology

Why MySQL won... and is now losing

When I first started working with database-powered websites in 1998, MySQL was a choice made for me by the person I was working with. For 26 years, it was my first choice when it came to choosing a database server for a project (or a variant like MariaDB). PostgreSQL might

apple

Resize the Wrong Boxes

iPadOS 26 (now in developer beta) introduces features that many iPad enthusiasts have been asking Apple to add for years - including a windowing mode that has finally taken inspiration from the Mac. It seemed so obvious to many - make apps full screen for those users that just want

technology

You Moved The Button

Most enterprise software gets worse because of the "you moved the button" problem. Software evolves over time. You answer customer requests with new features, extend workflows and add new columns in reports. But your training department are struggling to show customers how everything works. Your documentation team can&

artificial intelligence

Magic Button

If you were a kid, and could push a button, and your homework was done - would you? If you're a parent with kids, go ask them what they would do. Would that be good for them? Would they learn anything if they pushed that button? I think

python

SQLAlchemy 2.0 Query Style Is Awful

I write code in Python, and I use SQLAlchemy to connect and query the database. I do this because after 20 years of writing Perl and connecting to the database with DBI and writing hand-rolled SQL, I decided that I wanted a slightly easier life. 99% of all web apps

technology

Tapestry and Timeline Apps

Last week saw the release of a new app from The Iconfactory called Tapestry. It can give you a read-only view of feeds from: * Youtube * Mastodon * Bluesky * Reddit * Tumblr * RSS * Podcasts And more, with the ability to build additional connectors using Javascript. I have heard many people say that they

gaming

PC Gaming is Ruined by PCs

My son spent the weekend thoroughly enjoying Spider-Man 2 on PC, having counted down the days until its release. What both us did not enjoy was getting our gaming PC working well enough for him to play the game after he purchased it. Let us ignore that Sony had pre-order

artificial intelligence

Deepseek and Forced Limitations

Deepseek is fascinating for many reasons. That it appeared out of nowhere and benchmarks so closely to what OpenAIs o1 model is capable of - the supposed current state-of-the-art in AI generative models. That I can download a distilled version of it and run it locally, on my Mac Studio,

development

The Technical Debt Slippery Slope

I had a conversation last week about a new feature implementation that the developers were struggling to get working. They had based it on existing feature, but were having problems getting it to work. After some investigation, I found the issue, but also that the approach they were taking was

television

Live Virtual Tennis

I have seen various attempts at turning live sports into some form of 3D rendered animation. This is usually an attempt to coax younger viewers into watching sport they may previously not have been interested in. The most recent one I've seen is the Simpsons NFL game from

gaming

Nintendo Switch 2

There have been so many leaks over the past couple of weeks, the Switch 2 hardware is not much of a surprise. It looks like a Switch with magnetic controllers, a bigger screen and an additional USB-C port on the top. That it still plays all Switch games is a

construction

Giant HS2 Box Structure

This is a UK construction project doing something that sounds totally ridiculous when you describe it. They need to tunnel under the motorway so that new train lines can be built, and they need the motorway to then pass overhead on a bridge. But they cannot close the motorway for

technology

Homemade IPTV

If you cannot find what to watch on streaming services, but you have a bunch of your own media, like Youtube downloads or DVD rips, then you may be interested in creating your own local IPTV channels. I have been experimenting lately with ErsatzTV, a Github project which you self

technology

Crippled By Experience

I have been doing web development for a long time. In the early days that meant editing HTML without CSS, just font tags and animated gifs in Notepad, uploaded via FTP to my ISP provided "web space". Web pages were basic and very simple to construct. I learned

music

John Williams In Tokyo

I found this when browsing through Disney+ a couple of nights ago. It is impossible to deny that John Williams, as my brother put it, "wrote a few bangers". So of course the music here is fantastic. That he's still sharp at 92 (demonstrated by the

smart home

Agile Octopus Experience

Agile Octopus is a product from the UK energy supplier Octopus which we signed up for in December 2023. Since it is now January 2025, that means we have a full year of data and I thought it might be useful to write up our experience. With Agile, your electricity

development

Work, Good, Fast

There is an adage in software development: * First you make it Work * Then you make it Good * Then you make if Fast Of course it is not always that straightforward. It may not be good, if it is not fast. And it may only be possible to make it fast

technology

Extending Home Network Over UK Aerial Sockets

I don't have many problems with WiFi (I use an Asus RT-AX82U). But for my Synology and other mini PCs mentioned earlier, it's just better if they're on Ethernet. But despite my best efforts while they were building our house, the builders wouldn'

development

Remaking Super Mario World In Godot

I am not a Godot developer, but I am a fan of Super Mario World. And this video series presses my nerd buttons. It's interesting to learn more about both.