Sodaware

I started with DarkBasic but moved to BlitzBasic after a few months. Wrote a couple of small games and really enjoyed just messing around with it - it felt just like when I started programming on my first computer.

I still use BlitzMax for game development (when I get time) - there's an updated version with some nice language additions support for more architectures, including the Raspberry Pi: https://blitzmax.org/

I used to use Jekyll. I still do, but I used to, too.

I grew up with an Atari ST and I've enjoyed revisiting it. Growing up I stuck to really simple stuff, so it's been fun to to learn more about how it all works. There's a library called Atari Game Tools (AGT) that can do some really impressive things even on a stock STFM. With cross-compilation tools it's possible to build software on a PC in a few seconds before testing in an emulator.

The VIC-20 is another fun machine to work with. There's not much memory and the way it handles graphics is quite interesting.

[1] AGT: https://bitbucket.org/d_m_l/agtools/wiki/Home

I like the idea!

One small suggestion: if this is a free product I'd reword "Get started for free". That phrase makes me think I'll be signing up for a free trial.

My new startup uses machine learning built on Quantum Blockchain technology (patent pending).

I'll take my VC money now, please.

Privacy Badger: blocks a bunch of trackers - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-badge...

Privacy Possum: blocks additional trackers that Privacy Badger sometimes misses - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-possu...

Stylus: Let's me adjust the CSS of any website. I use this to tweak websites that have poor contrast or text that's too big/too small - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/styl-us/

The experience reports on erowid.org make for some interesting reading.

[0] https://erowid.org/experiences/

I don't at the moment, but I find I feel much better (more positive and a clearer head) when I write. I wrote daily for a while and it definitely helped.

> But I'm sure heating can be accomplished without chopping down trees at all. Through solar, for instance.

In a perfect world, yes.

But this is the problem with conservation work in poor countries. 1.7% of US energy generation comes from solar [1], so going to Madagascar and saying "hey, you should be using solar instead of chopping down trees" rings a little hollow.

[1] https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

> But whatever method we chose, it should not ignore the actual people living there, their intelligence comparable to our own and their fight for survival.

A couple of years ago I attended a talk on lemur conservation, and this was one of the key points they brought up. Habitat loss from slash-and-burn agriculture is a huge problem for lemur populations, but from a conservation point it's not effective to visit Madagascar and tell people not to do it. To the Malagasy you're just a rich tourist telling them off for living without offering any help.

So instead they focus on education. Two of the initiatives they mentioned were teaching people more effective methods of cultivating food (such as setting up fisheries), and providing them with plans for more efficient wood-burning stoves.

A bit like how /r/unpopularopinion on Reddit ends up being full of popular sentiments.

I've been using Beeminder for 8 years[1], and it is no exaggeration to say it has massively changed my life. It helped me run a marathon, procrastinate less, write more words, workout regularly, and a bunch of other stuff.

It's weird and it's not for everyone, but if it works for you then go for it. I'm not ashamed that I need to wear corrective lenses, and I'm not ashamed that I needed help to get my shit together.

[1] https://www.philnewton.net/blog/beeminding-8-years/

Interesting read! I'm not a particularly good writer, but I do find it useful to explore my thoughts through the written word.

I just finished an experiment where I wrote a blog article every day for 30 days (a more detailed summary is here https://www.philnewton.net/blog/30-day-blogging-summary/). I normally only write a few posts every year, so it was a pretty big increase for me. I don't think it improved my writing skills in any significant way, but it did bring out a lot of ideas that had been floating around in the back of my mind.

I don't really like PHP, but it pays my bills. There are some big improvements in this release. Named arguments and actual attributes (instead of special tags in comments) are really nice.

I was affected by this. I appreciate them putting out such a thorough breakdown of what happened (and why).

There's a typo in the "How much does it cost?" section:

> Excelent English.

I use goaccess for analysing my server logs and that's it. I look for pages that are popular, traffic spikes, and any referrals that stand out. There is so much referrer spam these days that it takes a while to clean things up to the point where it's useful.

I remember Microsoft pushing hybrid apps called "Smart Clients" back in 2003.

Bring back the `<marquee>` tag.

Worked fine on Chrome, but broke the back button on Firefox.

I'd love to own a Falcon, but the prices on eBay make my eyes water.

There are so many things the ST does badly - weak sound chip, screen memory laid out like a Venetian blind (to quote Jeff Minter I think), and a mouse that was designed in a universe where ergonomics did not exist.

But I still love it. Without the ST I wouldn't have discovered programming and all the highs (and lows) that it brings. Looking back now, I'm surprised people were able to get as much out of it as they did.

And iPhones with TikTok pre-installed are already going up on eBay.

It's not an exaggeration to say that org-mode changed my life. I started using it after my first year as a freelancer; I was really struggling to get myself organized and was prepping myself to get out of software entirely.

Switching to org-mode helped me keep on top of everything in a way I'd never really experienced before. Since then I've expanded my usage of org considerably - I use it for taking notes, tracking my diet+exercise, and planning out my projects (more info here: https://www.philnewton.net/blog/emacs-org/).

It's not everybody's cup of tea, but for me it fits my mental models better than anything I've ever used.

Back in 2004 I made a Pocket PC app for my girlfriend; it was an interactive map that showed how to get from the bus stop to my university. She was visiting from abroad and didn't know the area, but wanted to come visit me after my lectures. It had photos of the important junctions and landmarks that could be enlarged by tapping on the map.

She did not get lost.

Is that a common rumour for ice cream vans? I remember growing up there were the same things said about our local one.

It's fun, if you're into that kind of thing.

It's more like building a car in the garage. There's no real need to do, but some people enjoy the process of figuring out how everything fits together.

It took me about three years to go from starting out to being able to pay all of my bills (rent/food/etc) entirely through freelance work.

I started out working through upwork charging $10 an hour. It was mostly building WordPress themes and plugins for bloggers and small businesses. Over time I had clients refer other people to me and things grew from there.

Three biggest mistakes I made:

* It took me a couple of years to be confident enough to put my prices up to a reasonable level. I could have been self-sufficient much sooner with a bit of courage.

* After a few years I got complacent and did most of my work for the same client. They decided to switch to another company and overnight my income was down to almost nothing. There's no severance pay when you're freelance.

* Some clients just aren't a good fit for me, and it's a good skill to recognize them. These days I'm a bit more selective.

It's nothing major, but I built a simple web scraper for collecting screenshots from various forums and then creating a static site from it.

I've also used it to build small tools like generating project documentation or collating data from online api's.

Emacs was my gateway (via org mode) and I messed around with Emacs lisp for a while before learning Common Lisp. Developing in Emacs + SLIME is a lot of fun once I get in the rhythm.

It's an interesting that could be quite useful. Two things I noticed from a quick use:

* The page doesn't scale well on mobile. Which is a shame, because I could see it being something I use on my phone to answer quickly

* The homepage doesn't really say a lot about what the app does. Even though it's quite simple looking, a screenshot or two would be nice. Especially when there's a premium option listed on the homepage without showing what it is.