- a web-based app for a F500 client for a workflow they’ve been trying to build for 2 years; won the contract

- built an iPad app for same client for their sales teams to use

- built the engineering agent platform that I’m going to raise funding

- a side project to do rough cuts of family travel videos (https://usefirstcut.com, soft launch video: https://x.com/xitijpatel/status/2026025051573686429)

I see a lot of people in this thread struggling with AI coding at work. I think my platform is going to save you. The existing tools don’t work anymore, we need to think differently. That said, the old engineering principles still work; heck, they work even better now.

I'm sure you feel the same watching Ghostty become what it has. Big thank you.

Furthermore, it's actually kind of annoying that the LLMs are not better than us, and still benefit from having code properly typed, well-architected, and split into modules/files. I was lamenting this fact the other day; the only reason we moved away from Assembly and BASIC, using GOTOs in a single huge file was because us humans needed the organization to help us maintain context. Turns out, because of how they're trained, so do the LLMs.

So TypeScript types and tests actually do help a lot, simply because they're deterministic guardrails that the LLM can use to check its work and be steered to producing code that actually works.

I have to admit that I wrote none of the code in this repo. I asked Codex to go and do it for me. I did a lot of prompting and guidance through some of the benchmarking and tools that I expected it to use to get the result that I was looking for.

Most of the plans that it generated were outside of my wheelhouse and not something I'm particularly familiar with, but I know it well enough to understand that its plan roughly made sense to me and I just let it go. So the fact that this worked at all is a miracle, but I cannot take credit for it other than telling the AI: what I wanted, how to do it, in loose terms, and helping it when it got stuck.

BTW, everything above was dictated with the code we generated, except for this sentence. And I added breaklines for paragraphs. That's it.

I have my own fork here: https://github.com/HorizonXP/voxtral.c where I’m working on a CUDA implementation, plus some other niceties. It’s working quite well so far, but I haven’t got it to match Mistral AI’s API endpoint speed just yet.

Clawd.bot really annoyed me at first. The setup is super tedious and broken and not fun. That’s mostly because I’m too impatient to tinker like I used to.

However, once you tinker, it’s so-so. I don’t think it’s a lot better than Claude Code or anything, but I think it’s just a focused vector for the same AI model, one focused on being your personal assistant. It’s like Claude Code vs. Claude Cowork. They’re the same thing. But given the low cost of creating custom tools, why not give people something that Clawd.bot that gives them focused guardrails?

Anyway, I could end up abandoning all of this too. And it’s all a kludge around things that should really be an API. But I do like that I can run it on my Mac Mini and have it control my desktop. It’ll be a cold day if I let it message for me; I’d rather it write deterministic code that does that, rather than do it directly.

This week I pulled out our big Meade 10” SCT and our small Meade 4” Newtonian to show my 7yo son the moon and Saturn from my parents Bortle 8 backyard. It was wonderful seeing his awe and surprise, and the fact that my parents were there to see it too.

That 10” SCT is on an old fork mount which is motorized but has no GOTO capabilities at all. I’ve also gone down the rabbit hole of researching mount options, thinking I could just buy my way out of it. However, as much as I like the idea of GOTO, a big part of the fun is finding the objects. So I’ve never been able to pull the trigger. I did buy a ZWO 585MC though, I’ve always wanted a dedicated cooled camera.

That said, we have lost way too many hours to trying to find objects. The Telrad isn’t always enough!

I’ve been looking into using my 3D printer and electronics know-how to build my way out of this. I was even thinking of swapping the motors for NEMA 17 steppers.

Then I stumbled upon PiFinder, and I think this project is going to be the exact balance of automation and Push-to guidance that I would like.

https://www.pifinder.io/

It’s a wonderful hobby and I think the latest in 3D printing and PCB manufacturing does mean we’re going to be able to solve a lot of these problems soon.

Because I’m in Toronto, grew up here, have lived in SF/Bay, back when Fry’s was around.

Sayal in Toronto was my go to electronics store. I didn’t realize they were in the US? Unless it’s a different one.

I aim for 1g per lbs of weight. There’s so many numbers out there for what’s the right amount, based on lean mass vs total mass, so I figure my number is close enough.

I’ve never measured body temperature. I’ll check tomorrow.

Blood work in February came back fine for everything, including thyroid, except lipids and slightly elevated alanine aminotransferase.

I can find the calories to cut, it just makes it difficult to sustain for longer than 2 weeks due to the mental load. Plus, I would bet my lifts in the gym would suffer after a while too.

Frankly, it’s probably easier to just go for an extra 20 minutes run.

Unfortunately, most people you’re going to encounter don’t have the depth or maturity to be good interviewers.

Some do though, and they know the truth. There is rarely a job in the world where everything is positive. If you can communicate the negatives in a way that I can understand, empathize with, and that demonstrates your ability to handle it with grace, maturity, and humility, I would probably value that more. At the same time, if you’re someone that harbours a grudge over it, like if someone decided against your advice and you’re bitter over it, I’ll take notice too.

Basically, you need to be a team player, but not an automaton. If we wanted that, we have AI now.

I'm turning 40 in May, so since the start of February, I've finally pulled up my bootstraps and started taking my health seriously. I was likely 225 lbs at 5'10". Easily 32+% body fat.

The first thing I did was a deep extended fast, drinking only water, electrolytes, supplements, bone broth, and black coffee. I was able to shed a good amount of weight, fast. However, the longest I could fast for was 6 days; No matter what I tried, I could not figure out how to get good sleep. I tried once more for 4 days, and saw no improvement, so I stopped trying to fast. Mentally I could handle it, but without quality sleep, there was no way I could continue. This was mid-March, and I was at 204.5 lbs.

Also in mid-March, I did a VO2 max test, while fasted for 72 hours. It was very apparent that my metabolism was fat adapted. My VO2 max was very low at 33.8 ml/kg, which was to be expected. My RMR was found to be 1998 kcal/day, and my fat max HR was 161 bpm. Crossover to 100% carbs was at 179 bpm.

Since then, I've done a 180, and started eating about 1800-2000 kcal per day. My first goal is to ensure I eat 170-200g of protein per day, through as much whole food as possible, using whey or protein when needed. The rest of my diet is very clean, with no real restrictions on fats, and keeping carbs as low as possible. It's a fairly ketogenic diet, but I don't get worked up if my net carbs go to 50+g. Foods are usually Greek yogurt, flax, pumpkin seeds, nuts, eggs, berries, fish, poultry, and green vegetables/salads. If I ever add fat to anything, it's extra virgin olive oil first, then maybe butter/cream (i.e. in coffee). I take a number of supplements like Omega-3 fish oils, multivitamins, magnesium, and make my own electrolyte drink. Creatine as well.

I find that by the time I've done all of this, I have a very difficult time eating, and even trying to fit anything else in. I am never hungry, nor do I feel cravings for other foods. We just came back from Miami, and I had some ice cream with the kids, and some baked goods. I enjoyed them, but I was very excited to be back to my normal foods.

Since then, I've been running 3-4 times a week, focusing on Zone 2 training. I do 4 days a week of weightlifting, focusing on the big compound lifts. I have a 10K race on May 11, and a sprint distance triathlon on July 27 that I'm training for.

For this entire month, I have stayed at a constant 207.5 lbs +/- 0.5 lbs. I have been tracking other measurements like circumferences and body fat (using calibers and BIA scale), and it's apparent that I have gained strength, regained muscle mass, and improved my overall fitness. Running is still at a slow pace, but actually enjoyable now. My wearables estimate that my VO2 max is 37 ml/kg; they did show 33 ml/kg last month when I had the test, so they seem to be correlated.

I think the hardest part of the last month has been the sheer amount of work I've put in, only to watch the scale stay steady. I track my intake rigorously, weighing everything I can and using MyFitnessPal to track it all. How are people able to eat anything else? I couldn't add rice or grains to my diet even if I wanted to, I would easily hit 2500+ kcal per day.

People eat that much? Or rather, burn that much? I burn 2000 kcal per rest day, and maybe 2800-3200 kcal on workout days.

I will stick with this, since it is working to improve my health and fitness. It would just be nice to see the scale move without having to fast for multiple days. Cursed slow metabolism.