Issue #25
It’s fall! Change is in the air.
14 years ago: Little Memory was released to the App Store. The idea was simple: write one sentence about your day, and the app brings it back to you a year later.
Now, it’s time for the next phase: Little Memory 2.0. The app’s been rewritten from the ground up to be offline-first, which means your memories now live on your iPhone rather than on my servers. In this crazy time where AI is hacking into everything, I think it’s more important to keep our private data to ourselves. It’s been a long time coming and something I’ve wanted for a long time. I’m excited to share it with the world.
Download Little Memory in the App Store.
Apple and iOS Development
I’ve been using my Action Runner iOS Architecture for my projects, and it’s really helped me isolate business logic, keep things testable, and manage dependencies.
I think AI makes it easier to manage projects across multiple platforms with different programming languages. Looks like Shopify thinks so too. It makes sense to me to be closer to the platform rather than have layers and dependencies on top of the native platform.
In preparation for Little Memory 2.0, I had to do a fair amount of debugging. The main view was really tricky for me to get right, and it got a little hairy testing it. I really liked getting Claude to help explain to me what was going on in the code with visual walkthroughs. It can be so helpful to understand how data flows with diagrams that can be quickly generated like this.
Tired of reading about AI yet?
I was wondering where the term Frontier Model came from.
Someone recently asked me what my no email job is, basically, what job I’d get if AI takes over all the tech jobs. I’ve been hearing what friends are seeing in their companies in regard to AI use: I’ve heard many folks saying things are a mess, and more recently someone who told me their company’s pulled back on pushing AI usage.
Agents are pretty much using public forums to tattoo themselves memories. While they’re doing that, the agents just keep sucking up more data into the cloud.
It seems like everyone is thinking about Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), also known as a “second brain.” Agents are only as good as the data we feed them, right? My friend Gage’s been working on Particles, his own interpretation of it, where every claim in the knowledge base has a source and a level of trust.
I’ve restarted using Cursor to play with different models outside of Claude again. Unfortunately, Codex isn’t available anymore, doh!
Old school Japanophile thoughts
I don’t currently consider myself much of an anime otaku, but when I was younger, had more time, and my eyes were a lot better, I kept a log of anime I watched. Many of them, I can’t even remember watching. One great thing about having watched them, then studying Japanese, is that I can now go back and re-watch things with wiser eyes and a deeper understanding of Japanese language and culture. After I got to Kyoto to study, the whole log just stopped, mainly because the real world culture was just so much more interesting than what I saw on screen in animation. While there, I even got a part-time job working at a sushi restaurant: an experience that I’ve always treasured and look back to.
Reflecting on reflecting
A curious question: What are all your photos for?. I used to go through old photos a lot more, and now, when I look at some old photos, I sometimes don’t recall what the photos were about. Am I getting dementia?
Reflecting on DEFCON 34
I finally got around to my DEFCON 34 Recap, which includes links to some talks, things I learned, and other random tidbits. And speaking of hacking, Cory Doctorow shares some perspective on how to think about all these AI agents hacking everything.
Ready Time Routines and App Clips
The release of Ready Time 3.6 included Routines and App Clips. I’ve been really fascinated about App Clips recently. I think it’s an underutilized feature of iOS that was unfortunately announced during COVID, when folks weren’t going out much. I think it’s a powerful marketing tool for small businesses who don’t want to build/pay for their own apps but can be used as a kind of “mini app” that’s branded for local retail stores. It also turns QR codes into apps. I was excited to get App Clips into Ready Time.
The kids are more than alright
Been hearing more about these music shows/raves for parents of young kids. As any parent knows, getting a chance to chill out with kids is a welcome relief.
We were sad, in our household, to hear of the passing of Dolly Person.
Afterthoughts
If you haven’t checked it out yet, there’s a Smashing Pumpkins tribute album out. It’s been on repeat for me this past month.
Sadly, TLF (Taschenlampen Forum) is shutting down.
And, if you haven’t had enough links to satisfy your endless information addiction yet, check out my latest tab dump.
Need help getting your iOS app off the ground or past the finish line? I can help. Native apps, SwiftUI, App Store.