Lately, I’ve become proficient at creating project resource plans for presales using Claude Code. It turns out very cool. That is, you create an interactive model with sliders that shows the final cost of the project for the specified team and specified flexibility (more or fewer roles, some stages have a larger or smaller buffer). The main thing is that such a model is very specific to a particular project and generally useless as a template for the next, but the principle of building models is the same. In the end, you adjust the sliders to what looks believable and satisfies the level of risk, and you see the sum, and then you generate artifacts for the client, which after manual refinement (sometimes major) are ready to be shown to the client.
Category: Software
Revamping Smartfolio.me: A New Era of Personal Knowledge Workspaces | September 26 2026, 12:51
I’ve updated my smartfolio.me (In short, it’s a personal workspace for knowledge, built around pages that contain other pages, where a child page can reveal a selected snippet in the context of the parent. You write in a full-featured editor—text, formulas, images, embedded PDFs with annotations, saved web pages—and instead of organizing documents into folders, you insert one page inside another, or create a child page as an explanation through LLM of the selected snippet in the context of the parent document. Incoming items accept material from outside, search finds what is left unlinked, and several LLM plugins can parse raw transcription into connected sections, assemble a whole subtree into one document, translate a page without touching its formulas and layout.)
Previously, Smartfolio was a SaaS and stored documents only in Turso—SQLite as a service. Now, in addition to local SQLite and Turso, there are three new storage options: a folder on the disk (for local installation), a GitHub repository, and a folder in Google Drive.
Synchronization has been introduced, and it’s three-way: what A and B have and what they last agreed upon. As a result, “they differ” becomes “this has changed”—without referring to clocks owned by someone else’s machine. Storage pairs are by default bidirectional (a unidirectional mode exists for backups, and the interface writes “only from X to Y”, not drawing an arrow that might be interpreted in reverse); they can be restricted to a page and everything it reaches—including assets identified directly in the content. Conflicts preserve both sides in the form of a conflict copy, rather than merging or discarding them. Pairs are remembered in both storages, so a setup configured on a laptop also appears on the next machine, and the record of consensus lives in exactly one place—if each machine had its own, a regular edit from one side would turn into a conflict.
GitHub and Drive connect easily via oauth; afterwards, the profile shows repositories that the token may write to, or folders in Drive created by this app—selecting an existing one uses it, rather than creating a second one alongside. This is precisely how a second machine connects to already existing notes.
Desktop versions are now available on Electron—for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Smartfolio also works from a mobile browser.
Demo (somewhat outdated, without synchronization) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWSzEsgciaY
For now, everything is by invitation only—both the service and the source code.
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Nostalgic Business: Selling Websites on CDs in the Early 2000s | August 18 2026, 16:31
In the early 2000s, I had a “business” selling the internet at retail – on CDs. I would make agreements with content providers – websites like algolist, openbsd, and cooking recipes to place a “buy this site on CD” banner on every page, and in return I invested time in creating a static version with search functionality and recording it onto discs. Links from the pages led to .nadiske.ru, where there was a large order button and upsells from other projects, related and not. A percentage from each disc went to the content owner. Delivery was done by cash on delivery through the Russian Post (meaning, I sent the discs without prior payment), and I collected the money at the post office. The site effectively had two pages – a product list with checkboxes and an order form. However, there were as many sub-sites as there were partners – on each of them, the main product was listed first, and the rest were upsells. The idea was that since we’re already ordering, let’s get something else too”.
So, several interesting problems arose back then. How to match the money received with the orders posted? For each order, I dynamically formed a price – adding pennies so the price was unique. For the end customer, it made no difference whether they agreed to a price of 150 rubles or 150 rubles and 12 kopecks, but for me, it was convenient for matching. Together with the date, it was quite reliable.
The second problem was where to manage orders with statuses and the like. In the end, I chose Microsoft Access. It pulled XML with new orders from the website. I developed the whole system on Access in a couple of hours. It was ideal. By the way, has Access died out yet?
Interestingly, the top sellers were discs that I had produced just to expand the selection – Unixes and Linux. Understandably, there weren’t any links from partner websites to these, but they were bought as add-ons, and ultimately they topped the sales and were the easiest and cheapest to produce.
Also, I developed a search engine for the CD to search through this content. I don’t remember how, but back then it was possible to embed executable code in the browser that opened index.html from the disc. Either there were ASP inserts and DLLs, or something of that nature.
I closed the project when it became clear that decent internet would eventually reach the regions, and the demand for discs would someday wane. Plus, everything was heading in that direction. Additionally, the disks required updates, and it was a pity to invest more effort and time, especially considering the first point.
Challenging the Limits of AI with ARC-AGI-3 Tests | August 17 2026, 04:51
Today I came across ARC-AGI-3 tests for AI models. That is, if you think that AI can do anything for you, consider that you have already earned a large part of the $850,000 prize fund – just submit your beautiful code, and let it be the best. But it doesn’t work that way. Humans handle 100% of tasks, while programs have not yet surpassed the 2.5-3% mark. What are those tasks?
The program is given not a textual task but a mini-game. There are no instructions or descriptions of the rules. At each step, the program receives a “frame” — a JSON object with the current state of the field. It is a grid of up to 64×64 cells, where the cells are encoded with numbers from 0 to 15 (representing different colors or types of blocks). The agent has a standardized interface (actions 1–7), including basic steps and the ability to specify specific coordinates (X, Y). But AI does not know beforehand what these actions do! In one task “Action 1” might shift a block to the right, in another repaint it, in a third turn on gravity. To understand the logic, AI must actively “poke with a stick” at the environment. It performs an experimental action, the environment reacts and returns a new frame. The agent must analyze the changes, update its theory about the physics of this particular world, and make the next deliberate step. The game can end with the status WIN, GAME_OVER, or continue further.
Again – humans score 100%, machines – 2-3%. You can try it at the ARC PRIZE website, there are sample tasks available.
Exploring Unpublished Social Sharing Previews: Solutions and Simulations | August 14 2026, 14:49
It’s interesting that there seem to be no tools available to check how Social Sharing Previews for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter work for a site that is not yet public. I can think of two solutions for this: simulating social network behavior and creating a page with stripped content but correct headers, which is opened to the public for a minute, then preview generation is performed through the actual tools of FB, LI, Twitter, conclusions are drawn on what to adjust, and the page disappears. The simulation could also be done, seems not too complicated.
Automating Disk Analysis with AI: Towards Smarter File Management | July 23 2026, 12:24
I contemplate creating a small program that would scan the disk and analyze all folders and files, peering inside the files only if necessary – primarily focusing on their names, and using LLM to tag and briefly describe entire hierarchies, and more importantly, classify, and save the size of files in the hierarchy. It’s assumed that such a tool runs in the evening and the results are discovered in the morning, because naturally all this is slow. But in the morning, I receive a detailed, structured, relatively small comprehensive report on what needs to be backed up, what can probably be deleted (for instance, a clone of some repository from the public domain), sorted by impact (freeing up space, less clutter, etc.).
Of course, throwing tens of thousands of files at an LLM – is an unreasonable waste of tokens. An agency scheme is assumed – the system takes the top level, makes assumptions, checks them, looks at the time files were modified, checks if there have been changes since the creation of the entire hierarchy and asks the LLM very compactly, setting a percentage of confidence in the judgement about the necessity/unnecessity of any given folder. Then the user can manually check something, or ask to take a closer look at something else.
I wonder, would such a thing be useful to anyone else?
Yuka App Reveals Surprising Health Scores: The Uncommon Bread That Scores Perfectly | July 14 2026, 19:18
There’s an app called Yuka, and it shows how healthy food is based on its barcode from 0 to 100. You’ll never guess what scored a 100 out of 100 from the photo. It’s not berries and not salmon. It is – bread.
Ezekiel 4:9. It’s truly not ordinary bread. There’s no flour in it. It’s made entirely of sprouted grains, seeds (like flax, sunflower, and chia) and psyllium as a binding agent. Sprouted Grain Bread. Well, in terms of texture, it’s bread as usual. Speaking of which, the regular white and yellow sandwich bread from the same store scored a 4 out of 100.
How Yuka evaluates products. Three criteria – nutritional value according to the Nutri-score system (60%), presence of additives (30%), organic status (10%). The algorithm adores products high in fiber and protein but severely penalizes for caloric content, saturated fats, sugar, and salt. Salmon, due to fats and high caloric content, scores 78/100. Meanwhile, ready-to-eat French fries score 66/100, and BBQ chips – 4/100.
Parking Woes at Cocoa Beach: A Costly Oversight | July 12 2026, 13:09
Florida, Cocoa Beach. Parked the car not far from a roadside restaurant. The sign says paid parking, here’s the parking number, here’s a QR code to download the app. Took photos of the QR code, my car’s number, and the parking spot number and thought as I walked the hundred meters to the restaurant, I’d install the app and pay then. Installed it, entered the parking number, and now it’s asking for the parking spot number! Darn, have to go back. And there I was, already greeted by a parking ticket… Talk about efficiency
Mind-Blowing Facts About SQLite: From Naval Beginnings to Mars | June 18 2026, 12:48
Today I learned some mind-blowing and brain-blasting facts about SQLite — the most widely used database in the world (A trillion installations. In every smartphone, browser, vehicle, A350 aircraft, even on Mars). So, it was born on the military destroyer USS Oscar Austin. It’s developed by JUST THREE people. Open source. But. You can’t just walk into this open source – it’s invitation-only and through an affidavit. The company is called Hwaci (“Hipp, Wyrick & Company”). Also involved in music (founder’s wife is a musician). Check out the website. Office — in a residential house in Charlotte. 600+ lines of tests for every line of code. 100% branch coverage and MC/DC. That is, they simulate OS crashes, power outages, I/O errors, and memory shortages. The main test suite is proprietary and closed. Imagine that, open source with paid private tests. Want access — join the consortium for $120,000 a year.
And the strangest thing — the spirit of the project is almost monastic. Instead of a Code of Conduct, they have a Code of Ethics, taken from chapter 4 of the Rule of Saint Benedict (literally 1500-year-old “tools for good deeds”). At the beginning of each source file instead of a legal notice — a blessing: “May you do good and not evil…”.
(They have not yet found a suitable version control system and wrote their own for themselves — Fossil (based on SQLite, of course). And their parser-generator Lemon is also homegrown. Just like Linus with Git.)
Innovative DIY Program for Live Transcription and Screen Capture Analysis | June 18 2026, 04:47
I made a really cool thing for myself. I launch a program, it turns on the microphone and listens. I switch to, say, a browser, comment on what I see on the screen, periodically pressing a hotkey to take a screenshot. Meanwhile, my program makes a time-stamped transcript of my comments, saves the screenshots with time stamps, then it recognizes the screenshots, extracting therefrom the spellings of various words, brands, identifiers, people’s names, so as to then transform the transcript of my speech into correct text. And all this – local models, running on my laptop, which means, absolutely free.
After I finish talking to the computer, I start processing the transcript, which takes the raw transcript and text-recognized screenshots as input and outputs a processed transcript, which now looks presentable (Gemini API is used here). One could even go a step further and automatically cut out fragments from the screenshots that were discussed, and insert them in the text exactly where they were mentioned.
Or here’s another thing I can do: just turn on a video on the speakers and the program immediately makes such a transcript for me. Google on YouTube the video “Angular HttpClient Under The Hood. Design Patterns & Source Code Overview” starting at 3:51 – I just put it on autopilot for a couple of minutes, then stopped my script.
