qnoid.com

2025

Hope for the best; expect the worst.

Chaos

In the last 15 years, I have lost all of my savings twice now and gone into a significant debt twice more . Each time I have rebuilt my life back up. In the last 15 years, I have only earned a salary in 10 of these and had no other income to live by. In the last 15 years, I have faced anxiety and depression and came back from the brink. I have done all that while moving across countries, cities,…

In case of emergency break (empty) glass

Somehow, I made it . I am lucky son of a bitch. I know it. I prey that my luck does not run out in this lifetime. At times, it feels that’s all I have. A lucky star. Perseverance? Yes. Patience. Plenty. Grit? Check. Still, you can be capable and demonstrate all of that yet still fail the dice roll. I was well past the deadline of giving notice to my flat. Which in practice would mean being…

Countdown

I don’t know how to write this post. I can write it as a rant. I can write it to be hopeful, put a positive spin on it. I can write it in a way that is reflective, poignant and sad. I am upset. That much I know. I am upset that I find myself in a situation I thought I had escaped or at the very least moving away from. Between my 9 years relationship coming to an end, resigning from a…

Delta’s 10-year journey to the top of the App Store

David Pierce at TheVerge has an interview of Riley Testut about Delta’s 10-year journey to the top of the App Store on the latest episode of the VergeCast . To distribute Delta Riley went through the effort of creating an alternative App Store, AltStore . AlStore on the iPhone which is now officially supported by Apple as of iOS 1 17.4 is made possible thanks to EU regulation. Riley’s…

Debugging Closed Source Code

NSLondon kindly offered me a slot to talk about a whodunnit mystery at NSLondon 2024.2 . I have been absent from the developer scene in years, cause life! I had a great time and got a buzz out of giving this talk. My favourite moment was when people clapped at the big reveal! Thank you! It was good to see some familiar faces from back in the NSConf 1 days 👋🏽. I want to give a special shout out…

A decade of progress in finance is only the beginning

Ever since coming to the UK, first time in 1998 as a student, there has always been a need to exchange currencies and send money across borders. Back then, my mom would have to convert Greek Drachma 1 and wire them to a UK bank account as British Sterling. In the nineties, making a bank transfer from one country to another, in a different currency was an opaque process, associated with high costs…

Back in London

It’s almost been 5 years since I left. Yet it feels like I never did. I am getting goosebumps writing this. The Smiths is playing on Spotify. Take me home tonight. Take me out tonight. Because I want to see people and I want to see life. I see the light UK drizzle outside. Tears of happiness are running down my eyes. I can’t believe I’m back. I made it. I’m back. Back in my…

A change is gonna come

Interview on the CERN Alumni Podcast

CERN AlumniCast - Interview (Part 1) with Rachel Bray . Rachel asked me to give an interview as an alumni about my experience arriving and working at CERN. We talk about the circumstances that lead to my arrival at CERN, my life there as a technical student and how CERN defined my career trajectory for the next 10 years. Also, the great people that supported me and taught me valuable lessons at…

Developing Applications for iOS using SwiftUI

Stanford has shared the Spring 2020 course online for free. You can find lecture videos, presentation slides and assignments that will teach you the basics and guide you on your way to becoming an iPhone developer. This is how I started as an Apple Developer back in 2009. Know that doing the course is only the beginning. You will still have to dedicate time and effort practicing what you have…

To live without fear

In May of 2015 I visited a long time friend in Israel. It was my first time there. Our friendship dates back to the late 90s where we studied together at University. All these years, he kept asking me to visit. I was nervous. Israel had a long history of conflict and turmoil. I finally took the plunge and booked a flight. I stayed for a week and I remember feeling unsettled at least for the first…

Two more examples of Encoding and Decoding Custom Types in Swift

Overview Swift provides a Foundation API to serialise from and to JSON “ by implementing the Encodable and Decodable protocols on your custom types ”. The team at Apple has also written a great article about Encoding and Decoding Custom Types that provides a few examples to get you started and a few ones that require “ a custom implementation of Encodable and Decodable ”. I…

People, teams, creativity and innovation

I watched a few documentaries on the history of video games and the rise of an industry. Insert Coin by Joshua Tsui. From Bedrooms to Billions: The Playstation Revolution by Nicola and Anthony Caulfield. From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years! by Nicola and Anthony Caulfield. From Bedrooms to Billions by Nicola and Anthony Caulfield. High Score by William Acks, France Costrel, Sam LaCroix and…

Bravery

Bravery is looking despair in the eye. Feeling hopeless yet not letting fear overcome you. Knowing that there is nothing you can do for the people you love and care about yet still facing that fear head on. Even if that is merely not collapsing under that enormous pressure.

What it takes

The music that YANNI produces has this amazing quality of moving me to tears, getting me pumped, making me melancholic and inspiring me. I have been listening to his music since the 90s and it still has the same effect on me. Just recently I came across a Q&A with Yanni at The Grammy Museum with journalist Steve Hochman at the Los Angeles, USA dated September 18, 2014. Here are a few things that…

Knowledge

One of the things I remember being told that has stood the test of time, goes back to my University years. It is about what is expected of you at each stage of your higher-level education and where the knowledge you achieve leads you. First and foremost, to obtain a bachelor, you must prove that you can research . In other words, gather enough information on a subject that will help with your…

Tired

Back to the 80s and the 90s

Between listening to Poolside FM 1 and watching the PlayStation Revolution documentary it felt good to escape the constant news cycle, twitter 2 and coping with my mental struggle. Everyone at Poolside FM, know that joining you at the pool has brought joy to my life. Thank you. The fact that “Poolside FM was conceived one awfully rainy summer in the Highlands of Scotland” blows my…

Apple's letter to developers

Paraphrasing The App Store is not simply a marketplace – it is part of a larger bundle of tools, technologies and services that Apple makes available to developers to develop and create great applications for iPhone, iPad and other Apple products. We know you knows this. You have been a major beneficiary of this investment and support. You have made great use of Apple-provided tools, such as…

Oh how far the apple has fallen from the tree

What has become of Apple?

At some point in the last few weeks the ability to run code on both an iPhone and an Apple TV I own has not been possible. In Apple Developer terms, Xcode fails to codesign with an error “Signing for [project name] requires a development team. Select a development team in the Signing & Capabilities editor.”. Under “Preferences”, “Accounts”, I get a “No…

Over a year since Apple gave me an ultimatum on Windmill

Yesterday, I watched live a session by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on “Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law | Online Platforms and Market Power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.” It so happened that yesterday, was the 1 year anniversary of the post Where is Windmill on the iPhone? . Hearing the committee standing up for small…

Fear, support and endurance in the face of adversity

A dear friend lost his father recently. On the day of the service, I went by his house early morning as we had to drive for about an hour to attend the funeral. In that hour long drive, there were moments of laughter, quietness, reflection, sadness. All interwined with one another. As he was facing the casket, I stood by, just a few steps behind and to his side, holding onto his shoulder. He was…

Programming

I felt like learning something new . This time web related. Eventually, I arrived at Kotlin. Between my background experience as a Java Web Developer and an Apple Developer , I thought Kotlin sounded like a good investment and fun to play with. With Kotlin I should be able to bring forward all that Java EE knowledge I have while also learning a new language. Given that Kotlin is also used for…

Debt and borrowed time

I have been trying for weeks to write this one technical blog post on how Windmill secured over-the-air downloads on iOS. I just can’t. My brain just tells me no, it refuses. It tells me I need to spend more time looking for a job. I am wasting precious borrowed time. I am piling up debt that I need to pay back. It tells me that I need to make some progress getting my life back in order. I…

Coding challenges as part of an interview

Brent Simmons writing about coding challenges as part of an interview process. I’ve read a bunch of the advice on this, and the advice says things like: “Start talking. Restate the problem. Talk out an approach. Consider how much space/time it will use. And then start writing code.” I feel like Brent is speaking for myself when he says: Which is of course not at all how I solve problems. He then…

I miss London

I miss London. I miss walking around. I miss the night sky. I miss walking around Fitzrovia, past that little chapel hidden away in a residential block where apartments have full glass windows. I miss walking up Primrose Hill, turning around and looking at the skyline. I miss Covent Garden. I miss SOHO. I miss the lions at Trafalgar Square. I miss London so much. I feel like the clock has turned…

The Windmill source code is now public

I have made the decision to release the source code of Windmill . Windmill on the Mac Windmill on the Mac is a native macOS application written in Swift 5 on Xcode 10 targetting macOS 10.14. The codebase is about 16k LOC. Windmill on the iPhone Windmill on the iPhone is a native iOS app written in Swift 5 on Xcode 10 targetting iOS 12.2. The codebase is about 5k LOC. Windmill REST API The Windmill…

Hugo

I have been using Jekyll for quite some time. Quite possibly since the beginning of this blog. I have now migrated to Hugo . There wasn’t a strong reason to do so. Jekyll was serving me just fine up until now. I even used Jekyll for the Windmill website. Why do it then? I just felt like doing something productive and wanted something to tinker with. Hugo seems more geared towards building a…

Coding

What’s the point in life? To have fun? I’ve certainly had fun with this Next and that is good enough for me. But if you want the wider story, then I think there are several avenues. For some, this could simply be a programming platform free from all the libraries, framework and constraints of modern day system. It’s like the 80s all over again, where you plug in a machine, and…

Evolution

I want to evolve this website to something more than just a blog . A website that is deeply personal yet it’s not about me. A website that is about forming relationships, removing barriers, breaking taboos. A website that raises awareness to issues that trouble me. A website that recognises contributions made by others and elevates them. A website that helps people make sense of their lives…

The next 10 years

BScIT (aka Biscuit) class of 2003 at the University of Sunderland . There is a whole story of how I ended up working at CERN but that’s for another day. What’s relevant is that at CERN, in 2001, I was “christened” a Java Developer. I had no prior experience in Java or related backend stack (e.g. databases). Fast forward to 2003, back in Greece, that experience landed me a…

Open-source

I am not sure what to make of open-source software anymore. I am not referring to free and open-source software nor open-source with a commercial license. There is also open-source, like NetNewsWire and Homebrew which are free and developed in the open. I am not talking about those either. I am referring to open-source software addressed to developers. Open-source software where a developer is the…

The curtain falls on Windmill

This is it. I am officially ending Windmill . The writing has been on the wall for some time now . I will begin by dismantling the infrastructure that supports Windmill on the iPhone. I will also make a public announcement on the Windmill website. I expect the website to stay up until the domain expires if not sooner. Windmill made continuous delivery accessible, without compromising on security…

Game Awards

I watched The Game Awards last night. The whole show was oozing with talent, creativity and positivity. I came away feeling inspired. Special shoutout to Lual Mayen who from refugee became a game developer . Fereshteh Forough for founding Code to Inspire in Afghanistan. Luke who built the “Let’s Be Well” video game to raise awareness and talk publicly about mental health. Mathew…

MacBook Pro random shutdown fix

I mentioned in the past how the MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013 would randomly shutdown and shared my experience with an Apple Premium Service Provider in Athens, Greece. I have been running RealMacMods , NoCrashMBP for over 3 weeks now and I haven’t experienced any random shutdowns ever since. From the RealMacMods website. The CPU has several power states and voltages. Some CPUs have…

Apple Premium Service Provider

There is no official Apple presence 1 in Greece. As a result, there are no mail orders, no mail-in option to repair and you have to rely to a 3rd party to service your Apple Hardware . About 2 months ago, I noticed that the battery on the MacBook Pro (Retina 15-inch, Late 2013) had swollen. I took it to an Apple Premium Service Provider in Greece where I was told that the issue is indeed the…

The state of Apple hardware I currently own

I own a MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013 . At the time I bought it, April 2014, I maxed out both the RAM at 16GB and HD at 512GB SSD. About 2 months ago, I noticed the battery had swollen, so I had it replaced at a cost of ~€340. Since then, I have been experiencing random shutdowns, ranging from every few hours to couple of days. There has been an incredible amount of back and forth with…

The future of Windmill

The last update on Windmill was really the news about Windmill on the iPhone getting rejected . I have yet to put any more work on Windmill . Windmill on the Mac is a standalone, native, macOS app 1 that has always been free to download and use. Developers don’t even need to have an account. I genuinely don’t know how many developers do actually use 2 it. I never actively tracked…

3 months off Twitter

It has been about 3 months since I have deleted my Twitter account. I had been an avid user for 10 years. I don’t miss it and I am happier. At the time it felt important. I could reach out to others and others could reach out. I was “in the know”. I am enjoying the focus. No one seems to be missing “qnoid” either. It’s all good!

Taking back control of my life's narrative

This is a deeply personal post. It is a way for me to process, come to terms with, move forward and take back control of my life. I don’t have any advice to offer or lessons to teach yet. I am still caught into this. I don’t know how this story ends. I was raised by a single mother. Born in the eighties. My mother was a hairdresser, running her own beauty salon just around the corner…

Respect the baby steps

“Respect the baby steps.” - Dimitra I have gotten used to having to deal with big changes that are happening in my life. In the begining, those changes were dealt like a deck of cards. Until I started embrasing them. I have become the orchestrator. I am not afraid of change. I even get a kick out of it. I swallow change. These are a few 1 highlights of change. I left Greece when I was…

Kiva

Back in 2015, as a birthday present, I got a Kiva gift card . It’s one of the best gifts I have ever received. Kiva allows you to micro-loan people around the world that are at a financial disadvantage. A family in Dushanbe, Tajikistan to help pay their daughter’s tuition. A farmer in Kaduna, Nigeria to help them increase yields. A group in Prey Veng, Cambodia to help buy a water…

Reasons I have resigned, quit or was let go of a job.

I thought I’d share this. I get the feeling, we don’t talk openly about it. Not that we should. Quite the opposite. Why share then? I hope people will see that leaving a role is part of life and there is nothing more to it. I believe it’s inappropriate to ask this question, it won’t get you any meaningful answers and it may lead to awkward conversations and I do mean as…

An Apple Developer for 10 years

Back in September of 2009, I was let got of a role as a Java Developer. I had come to Athens looking for a job a few months prior. Instead of looking for another role, I decided to move back to Crete. At that time, Stanford University was running “ CS 193P iPhone Application Development ” on iTunes U. I took the opportunity to invest in learning what seemed like the future. I was just…

Anxiety looks different in men (The Wall Street Journal)

Source: Anxiety Looks Different in Men By Andrea Petersen When a man explodes in anger over something seemingly insignificant, he may appear like just a jerk. But he could be anxious. Anxious “men may present as loose cannons, but they are worriers,” says Kevin Chapman, a clinical psychologist in Louisville, Ky. “Aggression tends to be more socially acceptable to many men than anxiety.” In…

Anthony Bourdain - Parts Unknown

Have restarted watching Parts Unknown . Antony’s narration alongside the superb editing and direction of the show is so immersive that I am immediately transported to the place where he is at. Antony’s genuine curiosity alongside the background research on both the history and the present of a city provides an incredible insight into its political circumstances and people’s daily…

Brain drain

I left Greece in May of 2010. I didn’t leave because of the crisis which neither had been felt at the time nor people knew how destructive it would be or how long it would last. I left because of the archaic work mentality and ethos, the lack of options, progress and professionalism. I left because it didn’t feel like Greece wanted to change or wanted someone like me 1 to help bring…

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

A multifunctional, environmentally sustainable center of education, arts, sports and recreation. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation - Cultural Center , based in Athens is home to the Greek National Opera and the National Library of Greece . You might have come across it when Obama gave a speech about Democracy on his last trip as the President of the United States in Greece during his last days in…