The Journal

Notes from the studio.

Writing on privacy, craft and what it is actually like to build software slowly, by one person.

A brass letter slot in the centre of a weathered bright blue front door, with a brass knob and lock alongside
Products

What an instruction inside an email can't talk its way into

An assistant reading your mail is reading text written by strangers, and a stranger can write it an order. Everything this server does about that, named, and the place each one stops.

12 min read
A row of vintage alarm clocks on a wooden shelf, the nearest in focus and the rest receding into blur
Products

I asked five times and got one answer

PageSpeed Insights caches its result and hands it back, so running it five times and taking the median can give you a single measurement wearing five hats. Here's how I found out, and the second version of the problem that walked straight past my first fix.

6 min read
A watchmaker's bench with a loupe, tweezers and a watch movement part way through a repair
Products

Catchlight, where it stands

A progress report on the first Considus product. What's built, what got torn out and rebuilt, and why there's no date attached to any of it.

3 min read
A luthier working alone on a guitar body at his workshop bench
Craft

What a one-person studio can actually do

Not a claim that small is better at everything, because it isn't. A straight look at what a studio this size can do that a large one structurally can't, and what it gives up for it.

3 min read
Precision measuring tools including callipers laid out on a black surface
Craft

Using AI to write code isn't cheating

It removes effort, not judgement, and it'll take a finger off if you're not careful. What building with it actually changed, and what it didn't touch at all.

3 min read