Betting long on the quiet AI companies?

Why I think that companies who don't mention AI but are quietly building AI capabilities are a good bet.

November 9, 2024

One of my all-time favorite books is The Phoenix Project. Toward the end, the character Erik shares this insight:

“I’ve long believed that to effectively manage IT is not only a critical competency but a significant predictor of company performance,” he explains. “One of these days, I’d like to create a hedge fund that invests in companies, taking long positions on companies with great IT organizations that help the business win, and short the companies where IT lets everyone down. I think we’ d make a killing. What better way is there to force the next generation of CEOs to give a shit about IT?”

Kim, Gene; Behr, Kevin ; Spafford, George. The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win . IT Revolution Press. Kindle Edition.

This idea has stuck with me: top companies excel at IT quietly. The less it’s talked about, the better it’s working. I believe the same is happening with AI. Companies that succeed long-term won’t tout AI, but they’ll be curious, finding efficiencies without hype.

Take this quote from Meta’s 2024 Q3 earnings call:

“More than a million advertisers used our GenAI tools to create more than 15 million ads in the last month, and we estimate that businesses using Image Generation are seeing a 7% increase in conversions – and we believe that there is a lot more upside here.”

That’s AI as a tool for business augmentation, not the business itself. (yes, I know Meta is also building out Llama…but stay with me…)

Audio Brevity - How I Use Auto Summarize

How I Summarize my Podcasts with Audio Brevity

October 4, 2024

When I built Audio Brevity, I wanted something to help me keep up with more podcasts than I had time to listen to. I also wanted the summaries to be emailed to me so that, when I had time, I would know which episodes were worth adding to my queue.

Auto Summarize

The key feature here is “Auto Summarize.” But what’s somewhat counterintuitive is that I don’t actually have my favorite podcasts automatically summarized. If I know I’m going to listen to them anyway, why get the summary? I can always grab it later if needed.

For me, the real value of Auto Summarize comes from the podcasts I like, but where not every episode grabs my attention. How I Built This is a perfect example. I love the show, but not every episode is interesting to me. So, I set it to summarize every episode and email me the summaries. If a summary catches my interest, I add that episode to my queue.

Whether you’re busy or just need a little help deciding what to listen to, check out Audio Brevity to explore and summarize more podcasts.

I’ll be sharing more posts about Audio Brevity, including new features like powerful search options, where you can search across multiple episodes or even podcasts and get relevant summaries.

Stay tuned!

Comparing MX Speed Silver and MX Brown Keyswitches on the ZSA Moonlander

Listen to the difference between MX Speed Silver and MX Brown keyswitches on the ZSA Moonlander mechanical keyboard.

September 19, 2024

Just a quick post with the audio of the MX Speed Silver and MX Brown switches on the ZSA Moonlander.

First is the MX Speed Sliver, Second is the MX Brown

Odd note: it’s kinda weird how self-conscious I am about the sound of my typing

image from this post generated by DALL•E 3

Audio Brevity - the technical bits of the stack

What tech stack did I use for Audio Brevity.

September 7, 2024

A few months ago, I shared the tech stack for Audio Brevity on my private podcast (found here Adventures from the Pad). Since then, some things have changed. Two weeks ago, I embarked on rebuilding it from the ground up using Laravel.

Previously, the app was primarily built with Pocketbase and an Express app. Now, it’s built on Laravel. Here’s what happened, why I’ll still use Pocketbase again in the future, and why I’m absolutely in love with Laravel.

CI Cost Reductions - five quick tips

Some tips for reducing the CI costs for tests, builds, and other meta tasks.

July 17, 2024

I wrote a post over on synaptiq.ai’s site where I shared some lessons about how we’re keeping some of our costs down. It’s great for us and our clients as across the board we’re continuing to find cost savings without reducing our ability to leverage our CI.

1. Cancel non-critical runs
2. Use tags to hold back non-critical runs
3. Use bigger runners to reduce overall billed time
4. Balance human labor vs computer labor
5. Buy a Raspberry Pi and use it as a runner (or two)

You can read the full post over there if you’re curious.

main image from this post generated by DALL•E 3

NextJS Responsive Image in Version 13

The replacement that I found to work in NextJS 13 when the layout="responsive" prop was deprecated.

April 2, 2024

I was doing a quick update on a NextJS project and found that the layout="responsive" prop was deprecated in version 13. I’ve found that sometimes NextJS doesn’t have good docs for upgrading and this was no exception.

Before

<Image
  src="/image-link.jpeg"
  alt="Image description"
  width={1190}
  height={577}
  layout="responsive"
/>

With this one gets a warning Image with src "/image-link.jpeg" has legacy prop "layout".. The link to docs doesn’t specify what to do with layout="responsive", though.

TL;DR: I’ve found style={{ width: '100%', height: 'auto' }} to be a good replacement for layout="responsive".

After

<Image
  src="/image-link.jpeg"
  alt="Image description"
  width={1190}
  height={577}
  style={{ width: "100%", height: "auto" }}
/>

ecobee Follow Me with Kids

I finally figured out why the kids' bedrooms were not affecting the heating or cooling

November 8, 2023

First off, I love our family’s ecobee—it’s just fantastic. I’ve now purchased three: one at our previous house, one the day we signed the dotted line on our new build, and then one when they launched the latest model with air quality monitoring.

The one thing that I couldn’t quite figure out was why the kids’ rooms, which are kind of the only rooms that I really care about, were not contributing to whether the heat or AC would be on. This was mainly the case with the heat, but sometimes the AC as well. I have a sensor in each of the kids’ rooms, and our downstairs living room (and the ecobee in the upstairs hallway is also a sensor). At night, which, with young kids, we have set to start at 6:30 PM, the only sensors that are tied to the comfort setting are in the kids’ rooms and the hallway. Our air intake is in the hallway near the thermostat on the second floor. This should mean that we’re fine. But something always bugged me—the kids’ rooms would always seem to be colder than the hallway (which makes sense, given windows, etc.), but it wouldn’t trigger the heat to come on. The kids’ rooms would show temperatures sometimes as low as 65º F when our house was set to 69º F, and yet the heat wouldn’t turn on. Even if I raised the temp to 70º F, it was no use.

I finally spent some time reading how this all works and realized that the issue was with the Follow Me setting.

A Porch Pirate Got Away...until they didn't

Our experience with a neighborhood porch pirate

November 6, 2023

Updated date: November 6, 2023

[Update] There’s been a twist in the story! I’ve updated the end of the post with it.

Last weekend a package thief stole a box from our porch at 11:00 in the morning. Something about the experience has me compelled to share what happened and it might be of interest for those trying to get ahead of the thieves this time of year.

I thought I’d done what I should with our security cameras as a deterrent. I had up three cameras in the front of our house with great coverage. But all that meant is we had excellent footage of her driving past scouting for packages, pulling a u-turn, getting out, putting a phone to her ear to look like she was talking to someone, and then grabbing the package and driving off. Great footage that allowed the police to tie her to all the other packages that were stolen in the neighborhood that day but that’s it.

My main goal of the cameras was to hopefully keep the crime from happening in the first place because once it’s happened the gig’s up - the package is gone.

We don’t have any signs up indicating we have security, but a neighbor who does have a security sign also had their package stolen so they don’t care about the cameras it seems especially because she looked right into our doorbell camera.

There was some humor in the fact that she had her phone to her ear backwards and it’s super clear in the photo.

Breville Flow Rate Lever Fix

Fixing the flow rate lever on the Breville Precision Brewer

November 4, 2023

How I Fix a Stuck Flow Rate Lever on My Breville Precision Brewer

My Breville Precision Brewer has been a reliable companion for my family’s coffee needs. However, it does have one quirk: on occasion the flow rate lever gets stuck in the up position. I haven’t sorted a specific reason that it does, but when it does it’s a dealbreaker because it blocks me from taking out the brew basket.

I found this post on Reddit about at least I’m not alone.

The Simple Fix

Here’s what I’ve found consistently fixes it when it happens.

1. Leave the water tank empty after your last brew.

2. Initiate a Brew Cycle and the machine will alert you to add water, but the magic is that it will also release the lever.

Two cups

A Thought Process for Managing Overwhelm

May 22, 2023

When I was a Starbucks Partner, I quickly learned something about the feeling of overwhelm. Imagine being in the middle of a holiday rush with ten drinks queued up and a group of ten people followed by several families, all ordering complex blended drinks and seasonal drinks, with some even requesting half-and-half steamed to 145º added on top of the usual 2% milk. That’s enough to make anyone go crazy. What I was taught, however, was to not see the entire queue of drinks, but instead to focus on – you guessed it – the two drinks in front of me.

Starbucks is a machine of beverage preparation productivity, and the established rhythm supported working on the first half of one drink, finishing the second drink, then starting the next drink, finishing the previous one, and so on. It was an ingenious system and, as someone who thrives in a flow state, I found it incredibly satisfying.

EcoFlow Delta Pro Whole House Battery Backup

How I installed the EcoFlow Delta Pro for whole house battery backup.

March 6, 2023

Problems to solve:

• Maintain power during outages due to weather/other happening more regularly
• Expandable if we needed to extend the house in case of more frequent outages (OR)
• Expandable if we get solar panels to store more sun
• Not locking me into transfer switch or generator inlet
• Simple installation to start with, just allow us to get house powered when mains are down - able to be complex later if desired

Which At-Home Coffee Maker To Buy

Let's talk about what coffee you want to make and what your budget is to find the right at-home coffee set up for you. From Espresso and Lattes, to everything in-between.

April 15, 2020

Setting up the criteria for your decision

What do you want to make?

I’m going to focus on just two very simple coffee styles: Lattes and Brewed Coffee. From experience, if we start to break out into all the variances (especially on the brewed coffee side) then we’ll be here all week. So what coffee do you like?

Now, if you just want to copy me, I wrote a post about what my coffee setup is these days. You can see that here: My 2020 Coffee Setup.

What is your budget?

You can start as affordable as $10 for a great coffee maker setup and I’ll top out at around $800 for everything you need. We’ll chat about everything in between.

What goes into coffee?

Let’s first talk about what goes into a good cup of coffee. Water and ground beans. Let’s start there.

My 2020 Coffee Setup

My daily coffee setup and what I love about it.

April 15, 2020

A few years ago I wrote about how I brewed my coffee in the morning. Honest, I have more gear now but I often revert back to the simpler times with just my AreoPress. That said, I’ve changed things up a bit and I couldn’t be happier.

How to Change the Temperature of the Breville Infuser Espresso Machine

The Breville Infuser (BES840XL) has a programable PID allowing temperature changes from 196º F to 204º F. Here is how, and why, one might want to do this.

April 17, 2018

Why would one want to change the temperature?

Coffee is nearly all water. That said, the water you use to extract your coffee impacts the flavor of the coffee. Temperatures below 195 ºF (90.5 ºC) will produce a weakly flavored, or under-extracted, shot of espresso. The higher the temperature, the more “total dissolvable solids” will be present in your final shot leading to a more developed shot of espresso. Of course, you can go crazy and have your temperature too hot. Your Breville Infuser’s PID limits you to 204 ºF (95.56 ºC) F so you can’t get too wild.

How I Make My Morning Coffee

In the mornings I like to keep my coffee routine simple. Here's a step-by-step guide on how I make my coffee using an Aeropress.

January 2, 2017

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about how I make my coffee. Being a massive coffee nerd (I have more than 4 textbook style books on coffee and its chemistry) people seem to think that making my morning coffee could be equated to launching the Space Shuttle. I can assure that it is not.

Here is a super simple step-by-step inspired by Marco Arment from this podcast. This is how I make my coffee using an AeroPress every morning.