In line with yesterday’s post about how I use AI, here is a post on an app I find useful.

LocalSend has become my go-to app for sharing files between devices. If you’ve ever been frustrated by the limitations of AirDrop or struggled to move files between devices without using the cloud, then this app is a game-changer. It’s like AirDrop, but for everything under the sun.

LocalSend is an open source, cross-platform file-sharing app that lets you send files and text between devices on the same local network. No internet connection or third-party server required.

It works across all major platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. I also find it to be more reliable than AirDrop, which can be extremely finicky. LocalSend just works. It’s fast, finds devices quickly, and transfers files without random drop-offs.

Another big plus: privacy. Since LocalSend operates over a local network, your files never leave your devices. There’s also no file size limit, making it perfect for transferring large files without needing a USB drive or cloud service.

I use LocalSend for everything from moving files between my laptop and phone to transferring books to my e-reader. If you’re looking for a fast, reliable, and private way to share files, LocalSend is worth checking out. It’s replaced AirDrop for me in many situations!

My latest generative AI obsession: Suno. You provide it some lyrics, give it a musical style to emulate and hit the create button. It’s pretty wild.

I wrote some fun lyrics about deploying code on Fridays, set to some catchy 80’s pop. The result is pretty crazy.

[Verse]
Testing in production (oh yeah)
That is how we roll (whoa)
Testing in production
using my flawless code

[Bridge]
Why should I write tests (what?)
My code is never a mess (oh no)
Did I just rhyme,
Tests and a mess (yeah he did)

[Chorus]
It’s Friday afternoon.
It’s time to deploy my code. (whoa yeah)
The weekend is almost here.
It’s time to deploy my code. (watch out)

[Verse]
It’s Friday afternoon.
I don’t have anything to fear
It’s time to deploy my code.
The weekend is almost here.

[Bridge]
Why should I write tests (what?)
My code is never a mess (oh no)
Did I just rhyme,
Tests and a mess (yeah he did)

[Verse]
It’s Friday afternoon. (Whoa)
It’s Friday afternoon. (Whoaaa)
It’s Friday afternoon. (Yeah!)
It’s time to deploy my code. (WAIT WHAT)

[Bridge]
Why should I write tests (what?)
My code is never a mess (oh no)
Did I just rhyme,
Tests and a mess (yeah he did)

[Chorus]
It’s Friday afternoon.
It’s time to deploy my code. (whoa yeah)
The weekend is almost here.
It’s time to deploy my code. (watch out)

[Chorus]
It’s Friday afternoon.
It’s time to deploy my code. (whoa yeah)
The weekend is almost here.
It’s time to deploy my code. (watch out)

A problem that often happens to me: I get the inspiration to whip up something in Node.js  (for fun, for experimentation, for a side project, etc) but then I realize that I need to go through the process of actually setting things up before I can even start writing some code.

Usually, I have to dig through previous projects and copy over my eslint and prettier config files, read through some documentation and remember how to setup TypeScript again, install the correct dependencies for running tests. Before I know it, I’m bored and tired and no longer interested in doing whatever I was going to do.

I decided to experiment with some command line tools and created a Node.js script that can help me quickly bootstrap a new project with common configuration parameters that I use. It’s available on GitHub: Bootstrap Node Project.

The GIF above shows this tool in action. I’m able to get the scaffolding for a new project up and running within about 20 seconds! After running, the project structure looks like this (with associated npm start and test scripts, all ready to go). That is pretty awesome.

my-cool-project/
├─ .husky/
├─ node_modules/
├─ src/
│ ├─ index.js (.ts)
│ ├─ index.test.js (.ts)
├─ .eslintrc.json
├─ .gitignore
├─ .prettierrc
├─ package-lock.json
├─ package.json
├─ README.md
├─ tsconfig.json (optional)

Obviously, it’s highly opinionated and caters to configuration options that I personally like to use. But I figure it’s a great resource for anyone who wishes to roll their own utility to quickly bootstrap projects as well.

I recently built a side project recently that automatically downloads GOES-17 imagery every 10 minutes and then compiles it into a video.

The result is pretty darn awesome! Here is 3 weeks of GOES-17 imagery sourced from NOAA / CIRA / RAMMB. The video begins the night of August 15th, 2020 as lightning storms rolled through Northern California and runs until the afternoon of September 10th, 2020.

Almost immediately, you begin to see smoke plumes from fires created due to lightning strikes.

Note: The blue and yellow blocks that you see periodically flash on screen are the result of corrupted image data downlinked from GOES-17. I’m not sure exactly what causes this, but these errors are present within the original images files hosted on NOAA’s CDN.

(Be sure to bump up the video quality — YouTube’s default compression really ruins the image)

Even though you’re still around until July 1st, 2013, I think it’s best to break up with you now. We shared so many fun times since 2005.

I’ll never forget you, Google Reader.

Has it really been seven years?

iOS 7: It’s crazy to think it’s been seven years since the first release of iOS / iPhone OS (and the original iPhone) way back in 2007. If you haven’t seen the original video of Steve Jobs’s keynote announcing the iPhone, I highly recommend watching it. It marked the beginning of a new era in how all of us interact with technology.

During today’s iOS 7 keynote, I tried to lay low and not read too much into what people have been saying on Facebook, Twitter, and the comment sections of Engadget and The Verge. The levels of snark are off the scale on days like this and for the most part, it doesn’t positively contribute to the conversation.

What I’m excited about

Everyone has their own likes and dislikes when it comes to their favorite mobile operating system. For the most part, I’m pretty excited about some of the new features announced in iOS 7. I think this release finally tackles a lot of limitations and features that people on other platforms have harped about for years and it’s significantly mitigated the remaining reasons to jailbreak.

One caveat: I write this without having had an opportunity to download the latest beta. That said, I’m really excited about 3 things in particular: namely, the new control panel (a simple swiper from the bottom of your screen brings up a panel offering quick access to common system settings), improved multitasking (Apple’s implementation is allegedly “smart” — apps know when to wake up, update / download data, and go back to sleep. This is huge for apps I commonly use like Feedly, Pocket, and Downcast), and an improved notification center (it’s something I was so happy with when iOS 5 was announced but it’s always felt so limited — now we can see a list of relevant and important information at a glance, in addition to all the missed notifications we’re collecting).

What I’m not excited about

My one and only gripe (albeit, it’s minor in the scheme of things) are the default first party icons. (Others have been complaining about this as well.) Their overly simplistic look doesn’t really appeal to me and I’d actually argue that they look bad. I’m not sure what happened in the design process here but it’s something that detracts from the overall polish of iOS for me.

Anyway, its going to be a long wait until fall. But I’m excited about this new direction and can’t wait to see where companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft continue to take us in the mobile space.

For the longest time, I’ve used the infamous Blue Screen of Death from Windows as the lock screen wallpaper on my iPhone. It’s always elicited awesome (and even perplexed) reactions from people who see it.

In light of recent events, I’ve temporarily updated my lock screen wallpaper to use the almost-as-infamous Sad Mac background. The BSOD wallpaper will be back soon!

  This piece was originally posted on gdgt. Check it out, here.

A number of third party browsers have been developed and released for Apple’s iOS. Despite the requirement that they must use WebKit, most of the browsers have executed some pretty interesting ideas and provided a lot of enhancements over the basic Safari browser found in the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Some of the browsers off the top of my head:

• Atomic Browser
• Dolphin Browser
• iCab
• Mercury Browser

What I would love to see is them offer some extra enhancements that would seriously make me switch. What are some of these enhancements?

• TextExpander support: A number of applications (mostly text editors) have been released for iOS that take advantage of TextExpander. I would love to see this added to browsers! I do most of my work in a browser window each day anyway, and on the desktop, TextExpander has been a completely critical feature.
• 1Password: If 1Password could find a way to allow other applications to user their database / keychain for passwords (similar to how other apps can use TextExpander macros), this would be huge! I use it all the time to ensure that I have completely random passwords, and if any one site is compromised, I don’t lose access to everything. The 1Password app on iOS is well done, but I don’t want to use their built-in browser. If there was a way I could access the passwords from another browser, this would be huge!
• Xmarks: Xmarks has been an important tool for me when keeping all my browser bookmarks in sync between Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on the laptop. Why not bring that over a third party browser in iOS? If this was available in any third party browser, it would instantly become my go-to browser.
• Ability to set a default browser in iOS: (Sadly, it will take Apple to build in this feature — there’s no way developers or users can do this short of jailbreaking) I’ll admit, having the option of running third-party browsers in iOS is pretty damn nice. But it still feels like a kludgy hack when you open a URL in any other application in iOS. It always goes to Safari, without fail. If there were a way to set a custom default browser in the system preferences, this would be awesome!

What sorts of other features do you want to see in third party browsers that they don’t currently offer (and aren’t offered in Safari)?

  This piece was originally posted on gdgt. Check it out, here.

Been using various iOS 5 betas (and now the GM) for awhile now. One of my favorite features (besides proper notifications, of course) is Safari Reader. Basically, it strips away all the cruft from a webpage and simply displays the content you want to read. It works similar to things like Readability.

It’s especially nice, since it presents the content in an eBook like format and you can dynamically resize the text.

Something I find interesting though — I haven’t really been using the “Reading List” feature. Basically, it’s a way to temporarily bookmark articles and websites you want to read late. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t do offline access though (so, I’ll still be sticking to Instapaper for my offline needs).

More info on Apple’s website.

I’ve been messing around with the ridiculously cheesy (but pretty fun) Songify app on the iPhone which auto-tunes spoken word and applies it to a backing musical track.

I thought I’d make my own musical debut. Rebecca Black, watch out!

It’s Monday. (Only it isn’t, because I’m dumb and recorded this song this morning — when it was actually Tuesday.)

[audio:http://daveschumaker.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Dave-Schumaker_-_Its-Monday.mp3|titles=Dave-Schumaker_-_Its-Monday]

[MP3 link]