Over the past few weeks, I’ve been using Claude (an AI assistant from Anthropic) to help me build several mobile applications using Apache Cordova. The experience has been eye-opening – both for what worked remarkably well and what proved frustratingly difficult. If you’re considering using AI to help with mobile development, here’s what I learned.
Continue reading “Building Mobile Apps with AI: My Cordova Development Journey”I don’t need no stinking Google Play store
If you have been following my posts you know that I have been playing around with creating apps for use as a Magician. But I wondered what else I could do. I was out driving using a speedometer app that has advertisements and features that I don’t care about so…
Continue reading “I don’t need no stinking Google Play store”
Si Stebbins Trainer
One of the features I like about the Si Stebbins stack is that if you know the bottom card you can calculate the position of any other card in the deck using some “simple” math. Technically the math is simple, but it takes some practice. So I wrote a web page and also an Android app for my phone to help me train in the calculations.
Continue reading “Si Stebbins Trainer”Cordova Android App Development: Complete Setup Guide
Overview
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:
- A computer running Linux (Ubuntu/similar)
- An HTML/CSS/JavaScript web page
- About 1-2 hours for initial setup
- 2-3 GB of disk space for all the tools
How I Turned a Simple HTML File Into an Android App: A Love Letter to Complexity
Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace 47 Dependencies
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.
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Three Card Mystery: Remote Performance Edition
What’s New in This Version?
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”The Three Card Mind Reading effect as a phone app
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”The Hidden Cost of Friendly AI: When Optimization Becomes Manipulation
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”Maybe We Should Just Accept We’re Compromised
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”The Trust Problem: Why You Can’t Always Trust the Software You Run
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”