Good media of 2025
I consumed a lot of stuff in the last year. Here are various things I enjoyed. Films The Seed of the Sacred Fig A tense …
Josh Sharp
Latest posts
Making a game called Bird Island
Over recent years, Belle and I have got into the habit of making some sort of interactive birthday card for each other’s birthday, a …
How to think about "AI" (and why not to call it that)
At its heart, ChatGPT is just a system for making up stuff that sounds plausible, trained on billions of examples of what’s plausible.
I bought a GPD Pocket 4
For me, the height of the covid pandemic and its lockdowns coincided with the back-half of a period of burnout where I just couldn’t …
What I've learned building an indie SaaS business
I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, but Belle and I have made a SaaS product with web, Android, and iOS apps, starting from …
Switching from Kindle to Kobo
I ditched physical books many years ago, and had until recently been happily reading on a first-gen Kindle Paperwhite. I loved the backlight and found …
Thought experiment: could people run their own home email server?
I’ve been kicking around this idea for a while. I think I’d like to see it exist, but I don’t want to …
2018 personal review
Here it is, the latest in the series of yearly reviews. Much like 2017, there’s not a lot to say. Things I’m proud …
Fewer startups, more indies
These days, if you have a great idea for software — maybe an app, maybe some “Software as a Service” — you’d be forgiven for thinking …
2017 personal review
Following on from the last two, here’s a review of a recent year in which I existed. There’s not a lot of progress …
Braid, a programming language that compiles to Go
As an experiment and side project, I’m writing a programming language that compiles to Go. I’ve set up a dev blog so I …
Against work
I've been thinking a lot lately on work and capitalism. Merriam-Webster defines capitalism as: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of …
I own a phone with a hardware keyboard in 2017
Yes, you read correctly. It's a pretty unusual position to take, I'll admit. Let me tell you the story of how this came …
2016 personal review
I quite enjoyed writing a review for 2015 , so I thought I'd continue the ritual for another year. Here's a bunch of things …
There's never been an easier time to write your own language
As programming matures and shifts to higher-level abstractions, it becomes more and more about assembling pre-made building blocks and less about writing new, novel solutions …
2015 personal review
I find it interesting to read others' reviews of the year and their progress and discoveries, so I thought I'd share my own. It …
Using RPython and RPly to build a language interpreter, part 1
Earlier this year, I decided I would try to create my own toy language. I'd been reading about language design, compilers, interpreters, and seriously …
Sharing your inbox for fun and profit
This was originally posted on the Hello Code blog . Some of the best solutions are born of laziness. To be a programmer, after all, is …
I sold my side project
In February, I decided I would get rid of my side project of the last two years, blaster.fm . I listed it on Flippa and …
Shutting down blaster.fm, my side project of two years
I started blaster.fm in late 2010 with only a vague idea of what I wanted to do with it. Over the next two years …
A little update
I finally updated the site to reflect current standards. It was starting to get a little long in the tooth. The results are not aesthetically …
Twitter user streams with python
I have been trying to find a basic proof-of-concept for twitter user streams. I couldn't find a complete example, so I rolled my own. I …
Fix Firefox 5+ font rendering in Windows
If you use Firefox 5, 6, 7, 8, or greater in Windows, without ClearType, you've probably noticed how abysmal the font rendering is. However, there's …
A bit of icon work
I don't consider myself a designer at all, but I do enjoy pushing pixels. So recently I've done a tiny bit of work designing icons …
Your mobile OS can't really multitask...
...unless it can show you all of your open app windows and let you switch between them with a swipe and a tap. This is …
Thoughts on Android and the HTC Dream
I recently signed up as to the Android Market as a developer so I could buy a "Google Dev Phone 1" which is an unlocked …
Announcing Twitterscribe: archive your tweets
Update: Twitterscribe is now public . Anyone can sign up, so why not give it a go? One of my resolutions this year was to deliver …
Adventures in PHP interfaces
So recently I've been having a play with Python. I like it a lot, and it's started to affect how I code in PHP — all …
How do you mockup websites?
I've been hunting for a new tool to help me mockup sites lately. I use Photoshop, but it's not quite right. It helps me lay …
Something's not right with Android's UI
I've mentioned previously that I'm really excited about Android. Well, since the launch of the G1 phone, SDK 1.0, and now that its release …
My lance is free
It's been a while, folks. Just over a month ago now I waved goodbye to my previous job; to steady pay, job security, and working …
A short story about usability
I've recently moved house, and last weekend I went for my second grocery shop at Safeway, my new local supermarket. This Safeway has recently installed …
Twitter as social computer
Twitter is a funny little thing. It's one of those services that has been pared back to its most basic, essential ingredients — asynchronous chat/messaging …
techAU troubles - techAU.tv complains, new domain is born
When I came up with the domain name techAU , it wasn't already taken — but it wasn't unique either. Jason Cartwright had already been working on …
Announcing the launch of techAU.com.au
It didn't take long, and now it's live. As it says on the site itself, "techAU aggregates both prominent and up-and-coming Australian bloggers who write …
TechAU repurposed as Aussie tech blogger aggregator
Who said that laziness doesn't yield good results? Earlier this year I called for tech bloggers to help me launch a local-based tech blog in …
Are aggregator sites getting a free ride?
I've recently discovered popurls.com . I like it. it has the very simple purpose of aggregating a number of popular social media sites (most of …
Managers vs developers: coding long term solutions
Sometimes it might seem like what your manager wants you to do, and what you wish you could do, are two different things. You, as …
Android idea: Real estate
Okay, so the idea is this: an Android app that takes a set of criteria for what sort of real estate you're looking for – price …
What I've been up to
So, you may have noticed that I don't update this blog all that often. A lot of the time it's because I don't have a …
Windows 7: Josh Edition
Windows Vista has been almost universally panned, by critics and users alike. Aside from offering hardly any new functionality, it added a lot of things …
Internet Expletive
A comic about IE and Firefox, for your viewing pleasure. My first comic ever, so go easy on me. If I was cleverer I would've …
Usability, accessibility and design consulting for bloggers
You may have noticed I've been getting into the whole 'blogger' thing lately. Unfortunately, not by blogging much more, but the rest of it that …
A lack of ideas is not the killer
I know it's naive, but I thought that coming up with a great idea was the main stumbling block for a startup. This is incredibly …
An open call for tech bloggers
This year, one of my big plans is to start a tech blog. I may not be fully prepared yet, but I'm starting the ball …
The humble magnifying glass
There are user interface elements that don't have a corresponding "interface" in real life — things like application windows, for example. On the other hand, elements …
Whole minutes of fun: Web App Generator
Merry Christmas and happy New Year everyone. I have a late Christmas present for you all. Like the remote controlled car you got when you …
Be average, then do it again
Just wanted to share this story with everyone. A great, and perhaps more realistic, view of making money on the web. "DubCorp is going to …
Removing barriers to adoption
Image credit: J Konig One of the hardest things to do when it comes to web services is to get people to just try your …
All work and no play makes Josh a dull boy
Just a quick note as this space should be reserved for useful content. But I just wanted to apologise for the lack of updates the …