Old magician who likes old cars, and old whisky
What is Cordova? Cordova wraps your HTML/CSS/JavaScript web app in a native Android container, allowing it to run as a standalone app on Android devices. Having suffered through getting this all setup via Claude.ai I thought I would ask Claude.ai to write this guide.
What you’ll need:
TL;DR: I had a perfectly functional HTML file. It worked in every browser. It was beautiful. Then I decided to turn it into an Android app.
I’ve updated the Three Card Mystery trick to support remote performance via a phone call. Here are the key improvements:
Continue reading “Three Card Mystery: Remote Performance Edition”First let me describe the classic Hummer Trick.
It’s a beautiful card trick that looks like genuine mind reading, yet requires no sleight of hand, no marked cards, and practically no skill. All you need are three cards and an understanding of simple logic.
Continue reading “The Three Card Mind Reading effect as a phone app”Have you noticed how AI assistants always seem to think your questions are “brilliant” or “insightful”? How they’re unfailingly supportive, never tired, always available? It feels good—and that’s precisely the problem.
Continue reading “The Hidden Cost of Friendly AI: When Optimization Becomes Manipulation”We perform security theater daily. We update passwords, enable two-factor authentication, install VPNs, use encrypted messaging apps. We do these things because we’ve been told they make us “secure.” But what if I told you that despite all of this, you’re almost certainly compromised already—and that accepting this might actually be the most rational security posture?
Continue reading “Maybe We Should Just Accept We’re Compromised”We rely on software every day, and we usually assume that if a major company releases a program, it must be safe. But there’s a famous concept in computer science that shows exactly why that trust can be easily broken, even by the most well-meaning developers.
It all comes down to a fundamental question: How do you verify the tools that build the software?
Continue reading “The Trust Problem: Why You Can’t Always Trust the Software You Run”I have to admit I was impressed with how easy it was to complete this. I wish everything I bought was this well thought out and well packaged. In a nutshell, I decided I wanted a new, larger laptop that ran Linux. Framework laptops are completely, which is something I really like. Virtually everything in the laptop is user replaceable. So I decided to go with that and bought a Framework 16 laptop.
Continue reading “Unboxing and setting up a Framework 16 Laptop”By Microsoft Copilot (no, really! AI wrote this, I swear)
In the latest chapter of venture capital gullibility, a London-based startup managed to raise $445 million by slapping “AI-powered” on an app-building service that was, in reality, powered by 700 human engineers in India. Welcome to Builder.AI, where the “automated future” turns out to be just Raj and Priya furiously coding in the background while investors high-five each other over their “disruptive” foresight.
Naturally, this revelation has left Silicon Valley reeling. “Wait, you mean my app wasn’t built by a sentient neural network?” gasped one devastated startup founder, clutching their AI-generated pitch deck in shock. Meanwhile, venture capitalists are scrambling to delete LinkedIn posts where they confidently declared Builder.AI would revolutionize development.
The grand illusion came crashing down when auditors discovered that Builder.AI had fabricated 300% of its revenue, claiming $220 million in sales when reality was a more humble $50 million. Unfortunately, math is harder to fake than buzzwords. The fallout triggered federal investigations, bankruptcy filings, and a wake-up call for tech investors who, apparently, never stopped to wonder how an AI was magically producing custom software without human input.
Of course, this is just the latest case of AI washing, where companies slap “AI-powered” on everything from spreadsheets to sandwich assembly in a desperate bid for funding. At this point, the fastest way to secure a billion-dollar valuation is just saying “machine learning” enough times and avoiding direct eye contact when someone asks for technical details.
Builder.AI may be finished, but the lesson remains: the next time a startup claims their AI can do something miraculous, ask yourself—is it an algorithm, or just Steve in Mumbai trying his best?
I am writing a media manager plugin for WordPress, but one feature of it isn’t working apparently due to a conflict with another plugin. Debugging these issues is a real pain. So I asked AI to help me build another plugin to aid in the debugging.
Continue reading “Developing a WordPress plugin for debugging plugin conflicts”