# ve tried (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 2 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover ve tried. Page: Feed: --- ## [Quickly viewing Markdown files with AlfredApp](https://mark.biek.org/2026/05/quickly-viewing-markdown-files-with-alfredapp/) _2026-05-12 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ For years, I ve been a huge fan of AlfredApp as a replacement for the macOS Spotlight. I could write an entire post about all of the things I use Alfred for (and I probably should) but, for this one, I ll focus on a new workflow I built to quickly view Markdown files using glow. I \[ \] ## [“Geography is 4-dimensional” – revisited](https://mark.biek.org/2026/05/geography-is-4-dimensional-revisited/) _2026-05-11 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ In Geography is four-dimensional, Derek Sivers says Geography is four-dimensional. You can’t know a place only a place as it was at a time. Where is bound to when. From age 6 to 15, I lived in Redding, CA. At my youngest, I wasn t really aware of it as a place at all. At \[ \] ## [I built a self-hosted RSS reader](https://mark.biek.org/2026/04/i-built-a-self-hosted-rss-reader/) _2026-04-28 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ I ve tried lots of different RSS readers over the years (RIP Google Reader) and haven t been super happy with most of them. The biggest issue is finding something that works equally well on desktop and mobile. Most of the solutions I tried had various sync issues and were cumbersome to use, especially on mobile. So \[ \] ## [An Automattic Experiment](https://mark.biek.org/2026/04/an-automattic-experiment/) _2026-04-27 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ This month, we re running an experiment at Automattic called Radical Speed Month. For a month, small (usually two-person) teams have been given the go-ahead to build and ship whatever they want! No approvals required. If you have an idea for something cool, an experience you ve always wanted to fix, whatever, this month you can do it. \[ \] ## [We need junior developers](https://mark.biek.org/2026/03/we-need-junior-developers/) _2026-03-30 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ I started my career as a junior developer in 1998. I was incredibly fortunate that a company was willing to take a chance on a new college graduate and start teaching me the realities of software development outside the classroom. I wrote a lot of terrible code, made mistakes, broke things, mis-estimated projects, and pretty \[ \] ## [Shout out to my mom](https://mark.biek.org/2026/03/shout-out-to-my-mom/) _2026-03-08 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ This International Women s Day, I have to shout out my mom who is the entire reason I learned about computers and fell in love with them. She brought home a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old introducing me to the joy of computer games and BASIC programming. She owned a medical transcription company \[ \] ## [Announcing the launch of Boring Space Game](https://mark.biek.org/2026/02/announcing-the-launch-of-boring-space-game/) _2026-02-23 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ https://boringspacegame.com This is a clicker/resource-management game in the style of Universal Paperclips or Kittens Game. You play as a benevolent AI in charge of helping humanity flee a dying earth. You will eventually start colonizing our solar system and, if you manage things carefully, maybe even travel beyond. It s playable in the browser on desktop \[ \] ## [I built a personal AI agent and then killed it](https://mark.biek.org/2026/02/i-built-a-personal-ai-agent-and-then-killed-it/) _2026-02-18 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ Yeah, that title s kind of sensationalist. You won t believe what happened next! Since I m a human and we pack-bond with and anthropomorphize everything, I actually felt kind of bad shutting her (it? 🤷) down. There s a Github repo if anyone else wants to use it as a starting point: https://github.com/markbiek/pilar-bot The bot has her own \[ \] ## [This is a post about LLM coding agents](https://andromedayelton.com/2026/02/13/this-is-a-post-about-llm-coding-agents/) _2026-02-13 · Andromeda · andromeda yelton_ When I was in my classics MA program, I took a course on Latin prose composition. A thing to know about classics degrees is you spend a lot of your time in Latin and ancient Greek courses. You learn history and philosophy and so forth, but mostly via reading those works in their original languages. Continue reading This is a post about LLM coding agents ## [Simplenote MCP Server](https://mark.biek.org/2026/02/simplenote-mcp-server/) _2026-02-02 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ I ve been an avid Simplenote user, long before I started working at Automattic. I love how easy it is to just fire up a note and start typing. I can tag, type text, use markdown formatting, and link to other notes. And that s basically it! I ve tried things like Obsidian and Notion but they just \[ \] ## [Accept your Doppler invite (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/Kt2T43XanEux) _2026-02-02 · **Sponsored**_ Create your Doppler account using the invite code you received. ## [I built a file-watching tool](https://mark.biek.org/2026/01/i-built-a-file-watching-tool/) _2026-01-20 · Mark Biek · Mark Biek_ I love automating small tasks. It s so satisfying to have something done for me automatically without having to open a terminal and run a command. One thing I do a lot is to convert .heic or .heif files from my iPhone to JPG. I was thinking about writing a little alias in my ~/.zshrc but \[ \] ## [AI in the Library, round two (vs ChatGPT and the zeitgeist)](https://andromedayelton.com/2026/01/10/ai-in-the-library-round-two-vs-chatgpt-and-the-zeitgeist/) _2026-01-10 · Andromeda · andromeda yelton_ Once upon a time, I taught a course on AI in the Library in an iSchool. (Check out the reading list and syllabus, which are relevant context for this post.) I haven t taught it for a while I got busy with other things, and then ChatGPT dropped and immediately rendered my syllabus obsolete and Continue reading AI in the Library, round two (vs ChatGPT and the zeitgeist) ## [In which we ask Copilot to do the team a solid](https://andromedayelton.com/2025/07/30/in-which-we-ask-copilot-to-do-the-team-a-solid/) _2025-07-30 · Andromeda · andromeda yelton_ So, I wrote an alien artifact no one else on my team understood. (I know, I know.) I m not a monster it has documentation and tests, it went through code review for all that that didn t accomplish its usual knowledge-transfer goals and there were solid business reasons the alien artifact had to exist Continue reading In which we ask Copilot to do the team a solid ## [how I think about classes](https://andromedayelton.com/2025/07/08/how-i-think-about-classes/) _2025-07-08 · Andromeda · andromeda yelton_ Someone in a Slack I m in asked for advice on how to understand classes in programming, and I wrote a mini-novel about how I understand them, so I figured it might as well be a blog post! Here we go A class is a noun. That is to say: And I make a class Continue reading how I think about classes