One email a week - something from which I hope you'll get real value. We talk about things we can build, and how to defend them. That can apply to cybersecurity, physical buildings, digital products, and .... just about anything. It gives me a lot of latitude in what I can write about, but the two concepts are important for progress - as individuals, and as society.
Today's topic is: Software
🔨 BUILD: Any Software You Can Think Of
I've probably talked about it before, but with AI today, you can build literally anything your mind can think of when it comes to software. I used to use an image viewer call "Xee3" (it was "cubed" but I'm in an airport lounge and don't want to find the "superscript" function) and it did everything I could want when it came to viewing images. It was taken over by the same people who make "The Unarchiver" and they have told me personally (well, via email) that they will no longer develop it.
I've recreated it.
It will be called "PicturesQ" (pronounced "picturesq") and will be available early next week.
It's written in Rust with a Svelte front end (I really have no idea what Svelte is, though I know what Rust is) and is cross-platform. It runs on Mac (Apple Silicon - and Intel!), Windows, and Linux. It will have a number of features that will be available for free, and then an upgrade path to more advanced image functions and an MCP server. Yes, I built in a way for your AI to communicate with an image viewer that I built with AI. Is that meta or just circular?
Here's how I did it:
I brainstormed the idea with my OpenClaw bot, Talos. I told him the features in Xee3 (I found the superscript! Let's hope it stays for beehiiv....) and asked him what additional features might be interesting. He suggested a number of them, which I implemented. Then I typed "claude" in a terminal tab because I have claude code installed. Then I told Claude what I wanted. Then it made the basic image viewer with the basic features. Then I told it to make each additional feature in turn. After a certain point, I had it version the software with git to gitlab.com, so I could roll back if necessary, but it was never necessary. Then I had it develop the upgrade path for the software where I could have a license key entered, and it's building - right now - the Mac App Store upgrade path.
Did I mention I'm in an airport lounge?
The really crazy thing? I can just .... connect to it with my phone. I used "/remote-control" and it gave me a method by which I can just resume the session on my phone. If I want. I'll just wait until I get to Taiwan to check in on it.
Also, Talos built me a server to do licensing on the backend.
🛡️ DEFEND: Any Software You Can Build
So .... "I" am building this software. It gets crazier still. I need to test the software, too, right? Well, yes, and .... no. Because Claude can test it for me too. That blew my mind when I first thought to ask it. I went to the next tab (there's five you see) and I typed "claude" and then I said "Hey, I have another instance of you building this software for image viewing, and it's in the same directory in which you are 'sitting' and can you test it for me?" And he said "Yes, absolutely, I'm surprised you didn't think about this sooner, do I have to think of everything for you human?" Except it stopped after the first word and I made up all the rest of that.
I then decided to have it test the SaaS offering I'm building. It not only tests the code of the web pages, it tests the user flow. THE USER FLOW. It can pretend to be a user. That is CRAZY. It builds a little map of the site, uses playwright to control a browser (playwright is a skill you can install) and then .... it just clicks through. Pages, forms, inputs, it does it all.
IT GETS BETTER.
It prepares reports for me - in markdown - which I can then give to Talos. So then Talos fixes the things that Claude finds. How crazy is that?
Oh, and Talos is the system administrator who built the server on which all the code is running - and has connected the AI in the SaaS to my local instance running on my Mac Studio (for now) which means that I have Talos building software that Claude tests (while Claude is testing software that Claude wrote), while Talos fixes software that Claude tested on a system that Talos built and which is connected to a local AI that is in the SaaS which is also doing things and is being tested and doesn't know it.
All I'm doing is orchestrating. Oh, and paying the monthly subscriptions. 😉
💰 STACK: Terminal Instances
I use "iTerm2" on Mac. It's fantastic. It has it's own AI. I'm not going to get that one involved just yet because I might have to start thinking more in cubed terms and while I'm comfortable doing that, I'm not sure how many of them I can juggle at once. But I'm getting better at that, and eventually, I can probably get an AI to manage the AIs - which is where the "AI Business" comes into play potentially!
🔗 LINKS
iTerm2
PicturesQ (sneak peek!)
If you might be interested in it, feel free to leave me your email address. I won't spam you.
Also, note that Talos made the website too.
💬 ONE THING
Passive income .... $325 or higher with the flat rental? I'm still undecided. Send me an email at [email protected] and let me know if you think I should go with the higher number.
Thanks for reading this newsletter! Feel free to respond any time.
Thomas
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