Are these powerful LLM’s enabling anything actually groundbreaking in software? Or are they just cheapening things? I feel like most of the AI sharing posts I read are about how people are ‘supercharging’ their AI ‘setup’ so they can work more efficiently. But I’m curious what the output is.

Recently on HN the posts are things like making an AI companion for Skyrim or using Claude to hack the hardware on your desk. Even my own work like LitraSwitch or my demo app for my D&D Assistant using On-device Gemini Nano are things that I could have built by hand, but LLM’s just let me do it faster / actually complete something. But the software itself isn’t groundbreaking. Honestly it’s maybe a little bit worse - but it exists.

I haven’t gotten to a conclusion on this train of thought yet. I have just been having this feeling for awhile - that the rise of the modern LLM’s should be getting us somewhere that it isn’t. But honestly I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing.

I passed my exam & earned my Claude Certified Architect - Foundation certification today 🎉

At my company, Livefront, we’re trying to build great products in a very competitive market. AI is a tool that is enabling us to be more competitive and adaptive. It’s strange times for software dev and I have a lot of conflicting feelings. I think we can at least do our best to build smarter, especially when considering the costs of using LLM’s to solve problems. This is easy to say and hard to do, so I’m still trying to put my thoughts together on how the average dev can put those words into practice.

Just today in dystopian tech…

Google Buys Spirit Airlines’ Data for $10 Million

Google has reportedly said it bought the data to improve its AI services. The underbidder was Mercor, a company that provides data to train AI models. So clearly Spirit’s data is of value to AI companies.

Amazon is Trashing Rare Books to Train AI

Amazon’s team uses a T. rex preparing to devour a book as its logo.

Meta Files Patent for Auto Facial Recognition of People

Meta earlier was caught earlier this year sending video clips of “bank details, sex and naked people” to workers to train, with almost no privacy protection in place.

Pair this with the fact that ICE is using Meta AI glasses with no oversight already.

This video from DnD Shorts does a great job of diving into some details that explain why 2024 D&D just feels slightly worse. As a D&D Beyond user who invested heavily in 2014 content, I definitely feel like I’m being pushed to either pay for ‘updated’ content or be slowly pushed off the platform.

35 years is kind of crazy. Just have to keep being grateful for every little everyday glimmer. I’m really lucky!

I’m starting to get an unhealthy obsession with collecting old copies of D&D and other TTRPG books… Started branching out of 5e D&D and now I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Bye! 🐇🕳️👋

Our daughter was born today! 🥳✨🥰

Another AI post related to support & open source that I think should help inform how we think about software development / management in this new era.

Let’s talk about AI slop

Indigo - a social app that allows you to combine your Mastodon & Bluesky timelines - has been a very pleasant experience so far!

I’m not sure if this a Links-worthy link yet, but a very interesting and insightful read for today.

Why senior developers fail to communicate their expertise

Just some public notes-to-self:

• Learn more about OpenCode’s Configuration options.
• Learn more about Claude Code Settings

The ‘AI Mode’ default in Chrome is infuriating (using a managed browser for work). I’m glad I have the option to turn this off, but it’s like you can feel the walls of the AI-choked web closing in.

I finally released a new version of Unclack with support for macOS Sequoia & Tahoe! 🚀

I’m really excited this little Mac utility can live on. If you get any use out of it, let me know on Mastodon.

fuzZzy just dropped it’s biggest update yet.

Version 2.1 brings a Sleep Timer, and a HUGE update to the premium offering including a ton of brand new sounds for sleep, meditation, and focus.

This is the closest fuzZzy has been to feeling like a ‘real’ app. I’m hoping some more folks find it and get some better night’s sleeps.

I really like this post from Mihai Eric about implementing Claude Code in ~200 lines of code. It just does a good job of highlighting how simple the Claude Code ‘wrapper’ is.

It is essentially creating a super simple tool API for Claude, while the LLM handles the reasoning about what tools to call. I initially clicked on the link thinking it might make me feel better about Claude in some way — it didn’t — but it does help demystify how Claude Code works when it interacts with your computer.

Another exciting release hit last week!

Version 2.0 for fuzZzy brings my super-simple sound machine app into this decade. Check it out and watch this space for more updates soon!

Just pushed an update to OctoNote (2.0.1) that allows users to review their version history and restore old versions of their notes. Super happy to bring some new functionality to the app so soon after the version 2 release. Check it out now!

I broke down and purchased an HHKB in 2025. Professional Classic with printed caps, in the classic white.

I was just missing the form factor of my beloved Poker 2 and started going down the Topre rabbit hole. Here I am. I’ll have to post some actual desk photos when it arrives.

We moved to Akron, Ohio! Excited to start this new chapter.

“My warmest wishes to you Joyce. I can’t follow your banner any more than you can follow mine. But the world is wide and there is room for both of us to be wrong.”

• H.G. Wells

If you want to start building strength, I can’t recommend Strong Lifts enough. It’s not exactly what I do now, but it’s what got me into building strength and something I would recommend to anyone.

Today is my first day at Livefront!

It’s these two. These two stupid imports. Android Studio currently struggles with auto-importing these functions when trying to do property delegation with the by keyword for State objects.

import androidx.compose.runtime.getValue
import androidx.compose.runtime.setValue

Of course you only need getValue if you’re dealing with a val, but dropping them both for my future copy-pasting. If you know of a better way to automatically get these things imported on the fly, let me know!

A few Android sessions to check out from I/O 2025:

• What’s new in Android did a good job at an overview of what was coming to Compose. Including some cool new libraries like Navigation 3 and Media 3.
• Android notifications and Live Updates promises to tell us how to implement Live Updates, a feature like iOS’s Live Activities.
• Android accessibility updates is an every-year must watch, and there’s a special session for Jetpack Compose accessibility.
• Build next-level UX with Material 3 Expressive promises to let us build our apps to align to the new Material design language.
• Gemini Nano on Android: Building with on-device gen AI excites me, because anything on-device is extremely appealing to me as a native dev looking to hack together something fun.

Honestly there looks to be a ton of fun stuff in the Android focus area!

I read about the reincarnation of Pebble today. I immediately dug out my Pebble Time and plugged it in. Hit with a wave of nostalgia as I watched the adorable charging animation pop up.

Take me back to 2015

I recently started to learn how to play guitar! Just want to try to learn the basics and be able to play a few licks. So far it’s been super fun! I can play A, D, and E chords 😎.

I deleted my Twitter account.

You can find me on Mastodon @aj on AndroidDev.social. I’m also on BlueSky. But mostly, find me here.