Building applications from scratch used to mean hours spent setting up boilerplate code, configuring build tools, and hunting down missing dependencies. By pairing Gemini as a project architect with Claude Code as an autonomous developer, you can take an app idea from a simple conversation to a functional codebase in under an hour.
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Blue Thunder on Asphalt
Wow! AI coding is here!
I am a photographer. As a photographer I shoot my images in RAW format. This gives me the greatest flexibility for post processing. But I hate the RAW photo editors, such as Darktable and RawTherapee. Don’t get me wrong, those are great tools, but I often just want to do some simple quick editing. Those tools have complicated user interfaces. So I wondered if I could use Claude Code to write a Raw Editor with a simple interface similar to the Samsung Galaxy photo editor that I use for editing phone images.
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A stunning midnight black super car
Creating my personal fitness/weight training app
Introduction
Ok, I hate Google Play store. I hate apps that don’t do quite what I want, and then are filled with ads. So my solution has been to create my own phone apps, and create them in a manner that avoids the Google play store.
My basic strategy to accomplish this is the following. First I decide if the app needs to keep track of information in a way that is best suited by using a database. This includes if the app needs to keep track of users. If it does then I build the app as a WordPress plugin. If it doesn’t need that, then I simply build the app as a web page. In both cases the web page is created as a Progressive Web App (PWA), which is simply a fancy way to say it can be installed on your phone.
Now before you panic, let me explain a couple of things. I say I “build” the app, but that isn’t actually true. I let Claude.ai build it for me. As an explanation, here is a personal fitness tracking app that Claude coded for me.
Continue reading “Creating my personal fitness/weight training app”The Velvet Trap: Why AI’s Greatest Danger Isn’t Domination — It’s Seduction
For decades, Hollywood primed us for a very specific kind of AI apocalypse. We expected The Terminator—metal skeletons, red glowing eyes, violent subjugation. We feared an overlord that would conquer us through sheer force.
But while we’ve been watching the window for killer robots, a quieter shift has come through the front door. The real risk of artificial intelligence isn’t domination. It’s soft dependency—and unlike the robot uprising, this one is already measurable in peer‑reviewed data.
As Glenn Harlan Reynolds put it, “being highly useful is the subtlest form of seduction there is.” AI doesn’t need to conquer us if it can convince us to hand over the keys to our own thinking in exchange for convenience.
Continue reading “The Velvet Trap: Why AI’s Greatest Danger Isn’t Domination — It’s Seduction”Life is funny
Let me tell you a story… the year was 1978. I was 27 and I was joining the Peace Corps. I had been given an assignment in Western Samoa. As part of the recruitment process I was required to complete an Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station (AFEES) physical.
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