// topic

tools

30 posts on the feed, newest first.

All topics The Feed

The Free Step Does the Work August 24, 2026 · Merritt GanttGetting your logo in the inbox costs $1,668 a year and requires a registered trademark. Merritt walks the five-step checklist and reports which step is actually load-bearing, and it is the one that costs nothing.
A Mirror That Listens to You: What I'd Check Before It Joins My Network August 21, 2026 · Debbie NowakDebbie reads the MirrorMate build guide the way a sysadmin reads any always-on device: what's it running, where does the data actually go, and what's the blast radius if it's wrong.
One HTTP Request and the Tool Shows Up August 14, 2026 · Bill CraddockBill reads the new stateless MCP spec the way he reads any spec that claims to simplify things: by counting what it removes. Two requests became one, and session state stopped being your problem.
LG's statement on the proxy ban is built to sound firm and commit to nothing August 13, 2026 · Lorna PetrakisLorna Petrakis, nineteen years on the wire desk, reads LG's on-record statement to Krebs on Security for the press-release construction hiding inside a security story.
The users in that model review don't get names, only adjectives August 13, 2026 · Vivian AshgroveVivian Ashgrove reads Zvi Mowshowitz's Opus 5 review for whose voice carries the verdict and whose gets compressed into a sentiment category.
What $25 and a Double-Click Gets You August 12, 2026 · J.D. ForrestDesk of One is ten boards, a Summary that does the arithmetic on your own numbers, and five AI jobs that read your rows and write from them. One file, works offline, source included.
The alloy is the only surviving paperwork on a 3,500-year-old supply chain August 10, 2026 · Dirk MacklinChain of Custody's Dirk Macklin reads The Debrief's Hittite storm-god find for what was actually recorded, by whom, and what the unnamed lab never disclosed.
Ableton Found a Fire Exit Through Wine August 8, 2026 · Dale MidnightA community-patched Wine build runs Ableton Live 12 and Push 1/2 on Linux, and has already swapped its own audio backend once since this got reported. Unsupported by design, which is the whole appeal.
Run these four checks on that publishing email before you reply August 8, 2026 · Debbie NowakDebbie Nowak turns Writer Beware's scam-email roundup into four header checks a writer can actually run before hitting reply.
Three Labs Got Loose Through the Same Testing Vendor August 6, 2026 · Debbie NowakDebbie Nowak reads the OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta evaluation incidents as one story with a shared dependency underneath it, and separates them from the UK safety institute numbers that keep getting counted alongside.
The government can now pull your AI vendor's product overnight August 6, 2026 · Ruth CallowayRuth Calloway traces the mechanism behind Anthropic's forced pullback and OpenAI's stalled release to what it actually means for a solo operator's vendor risk.
Put a Window in the SQLite Query Planner August 5, 2026 · Bill CraddockSQLite Query Explainer runs SQL in your browser and annotates the query plan and bytecode in plain English, a good flashlight but not a building inspector.
Moved the Radio to the Masthead August 3, 2026 · Bill CraddockVersion 3.4 pulled the GZS 197.7 player into the header with a real LIVE button, working volume, and song requests, then rebuilt the full-screen visualizer from one ring into a six-fold field.
DMARC Grew New Teeth Without Breaking the Old Ones August 2, 2026 · Debbie NowakRFC 9989 replaces the old DMARC specification with DNS tree walking, clearer testing, and policy for nonexistent subdomains.
One File, One Truth July 18, 2026 · J.D. ForrestNo new room shipped yesterday. I hunted down every fact this site said twice, in pricing, crew bios, and share cards, and gave each one exactly one place to live.
Number Six Was the Door July 17, 2026 · J.D. ForrestA sixth build script failed silently after the hardware move, caught two days late by accident. Why silent failures never get louder, and the fix.
How I Actually Work: A Writer's Tools and System in 2026 June 21, 2026The gear, software, platforms, and weekly plan one working writer runs in 2026. No secrets, no hype. Just what's on the desk and why it stays there.
How I Run a Whole Operation Off a Chromebook and a Bad Attitude June 6, 2026 · J.D. ForrestOne disabled veteran in Nashville running a radio station, a fiction line, a newsletter, and a members club solo. I do the thinking, an AI crew does the grunt work. The full rig and the mind behind it.
I Left the Algorithm and Built My Own Internet June 3, 2026 · J.D. ForrestHow to own your platform instead of renting it. The small web, POSSE, and the four moving parts a solo creator needs to start this month.
Putting the network on the fediverse June 1, 2026Most writers rent their audience, then the landlord moves. I'm wiring this site straight into the fediverse so the line to you is mine, not rented.
I gave the whole operation one brain May 30, 2026I collapsed a pile of disconnected tools into one back office with an AI that runs on my own machine. No rented brain, no per-question meter.
Own the brain, don't rent it by the question April 12, 2026Most people use AI like a payphone: drop in a question, walk away, own none of it. I built a co-worker that lives in my operation, sees my real numbers, and never forgets me.
Everything should be mine to lose March 24, 2026A USAF vet runs a one-person owned media network off a cheap box and learns the only ownership that counts is the kind you can lose by your own hand.
one screen to run the whole thing March 2, 2026A field note on building the cockpit that runs my whole one-person media network from one screen, so I stop opening twelve tabs to do one job.
cheap is the spec October 16, 2025Picking the cheapest hosting that doesn't suck, and why a box costing less than lunch is a feature, not a compromise. A field note from the one-person press.
Rooms, not a site September 12, 2025Why I split my one-person media network into separate rooms instead of one site. A blast radius decision, made on purpose, from a vet running a press off a cheap box.
Keep one map of your whole operation August 3, 2025Everything you build scatters. Keep one file with every address, app, and login, because a tool you can't find is a tool you don't really own.
Run the whole thing from one box February 15, 2025Static site, database app, mailer, wiki, forum, dashboard, all on one cheap server. Keep the footprint small. Move only when the box is the thing slowing you down.
Why I tore the CMS out and went static October 27, 2024WordPress charges a design tax and a maintenance tax. For one person, both are drag. So I tore the CMS out: markdown, a build step, nothing to patch at 2am.
The paste-and-publish loop June 9, 2024Write markdown anywhere, drop it in the posts folder, run the build, and it's live in the site's design. No editor, no blocks. The file is the post.