Desktop app situation is truly a mess for the trillion dollar AI companies, OpenAI and Anthropic.
After updating codex, it disappeared and chatdpt was still the old version. So I downloaded the latest chat gct from the website and it just said: "Couldn't install ChatGPT"
So I had to open Claude which was just a completely blank screen to try and debug the installation of ChatGPT.
I built a dictation and meetings after trying other apps (Wispr Flow, Willow Voice, Granola, open source) and realised they're either user hostile, buggy or have limited feature set. For example, many of these dictations app opt you into Context awareness, which means your entire page contents get streamed to their server. The open source apps don't have dictionary, shortcuts (say "linkedin link" → and it pastes your actual link), or ability to use any proprietary API.
So I made my own dictation app. Supports arbitrary API providers (e.g. Deepgram, Speechmatics, Elevenlabs), Offline models and a subscription if you want it. Otherwise it's free forever for BYOK and offline models. Deepgram is a YC startup from 2016, and have models that are genuinely good - so it's up to you if you want to use them.
Also, Granola doesn't let you read your own meetings after 30 days. So I added a feature in DuckType to import your data from Granola, unlocking all your meetings from their paywall.
Another app: OpenCook https://open-cook.com/ . We curated and wrote our own recipes into StashCook, which requires a subscription just to read your own recipes on the web app. So I got Codex to extract our recipes and rebuild one that is open source, OpenAPI and includes AI features.
This won me 1 year of GPT Pro at the codex event :)
I hope you can tell... I'm tired of companies designing their products to lock you in, to charge you more, with no added value. I build software for people like me. So I'll be building more apps that replace this user hostile software.
Respectfully, I don't think it's "very" smart. It is a fair option given their limited options? Everyone is doing FDE or (customer engineering to be more transparent) because otherwise they will just be seen as markup on token cost. And the Neo-SaaS companies will take the money instead.
Yes, a replacement will cost money. But probably less than a year contract with Palantir.
Mistakes were made (I would argue intentionally because of local wallet minima with stakeholders), there is a sunk cost to using Palantir. The country can't even develop it further, because it's Palantir's. That's not an argument to keep using it.
The country needs to develop the ability, to develop critical national infrastructure (this includes software, obviously is not limited to it). I would also argue it already has the ability, we need to prevent it from withering away.
Palantir will do the same as local companies (building on top of open source) except it needs to make a large tech profit and with its monopolistic ability, It will capture the value for itself.
Procurement has a misaligned efficiency incentive. Procurement and governments want a single provider so it's less direct cost on them on managing projects. Sadly, they've actually unnaturally forced a monopoly, resulting in serious costs and inefficiencies in the long term. We need a way to encourage multiple providers for the same thing, and allow new companies to join in even when they're late. Just like B2B and B2C.
I was at an event in London that involved a lot of government people. It came up that Palantir was not a very good company, Someone felt compelled to shout out, oh don't talk about that here, "we like Palantir here". It is certainly the elephant in the room (elephant in cost, and a very difficult situation).
Free software from Palantir is not free. Peter Thiel's co is all about monopolies.
Okay great advice, thanks. I'm already using Bitwarden and found out they have an SSH Agent feature too [1]. I've tried lastpass, Bitwarden, 1password and I prefer Bitwarden (good UX, very affordable)
It was on development branches. The threat actor was trying to delete development work.
Their main branch was already protected. I don't think it makes sense to protect every single branch in a repo? Since not all devs will have the ability to turn this off
Even if they did provide more money, it doesn't mean it'll go to the right place. Government money is not the solution here. Money is already being spent.
Maybe they went with burgers because it's low effort: everything else is the same (bun, salad, fries). Just replace the patty, which still goes through the same process.
Again, missing the opportunity that vegetarian/vegan food can be healthier, not just removing of animal cruelty and death.
I recently travelled the US (California, Arizona, Utah, Ohio), I found it really hard to find vegan options. Some restaurants that used to sell vegan burgers or vegan options have stopped (McDonalds, Applebees) - because not enough people ordered them. Some restaurants that have Beyond Meat burger patties as on option "don't have any in stock" - probably for the same reason.
According to GPT o4-mini, these are the restaurants that have stopped in the past few years: Habit Burger & Grill; McDonald’s; Carl’s Jr.; TGI Fridays; Del Taco; Denny’s; Dunkin’; Wendy’s.
I will say beyond meat tasted pretty good, and I would prefer to eat that than to go hungry at US restaurants. But it's very expensive and very annoying to cook at home (smoky). Not sure how healthy it is either - highly processed?
Also, people who are vegetarian/vegan know the health benefits. They're not going to pay more to get less healthy.
Drone startup | Product Engineer (Typescript) | 1 day/week in the office (London, UK) | Citizens of the UNITED KINGDOM only
You'd be working with engineers who previously worked at Google, Amazon, Helsing, Darktrace and an F1 team. We build drones (software and hardware)
We're looking for engineers that straddle real world problems, and use technology as a solution. We prefer personal projects or relevant hobbies, not hard leetcode questions. We value collaboration: pair programming, discussing, teaching and learning from others. We're looking for mission-driven engineers. People who see problems in the world and want to help solve them.
You'd be working with me to build the most intuitive, performant, and modern mission planning and flight monitoring software for drones, and related applications (tools for drone design and manufacturing). For my project, we use React, Tailwind, Node, drizzle-orm, Postgres, SQLite, deck.gl, Python, FastAPI, asyncio, and more. You're allowed (and compensated) to use AI services.
Because we are a small team, you will be noticed and rewarded for performance.
*Please don’t apply if any of these resonate:*
• You prefer narrow ownership—“I only touch the backend or the code I've written”.
• You think it's more about "who you know, not what you know".
• You haven’t actively learned a new tool or hobby in the last year.
If interested, email my temporary email: [email protected] with your CV and some personalised information about why you'd be the right fit.
My personal website, if you want to know who you would work with: tlduck.com
Ardupilot is really cool, and a lot of people use Mission Planner with it. What do people think of Mission Planner, and are there any other software options people enjoy using?
Drone startup | Product Engineer (Typescript) | 1 day/week in the office (London, UK) | Citizens of the UNITED KINGDOM only
You'd be working with engineers who previously worked at Google, Amazon, Helsing, Darktrace and an F1 team. We build drones (software and hardware)
We're looking for engineers that straddle real world problems, and use technology as a solution. We prefer personal projects or relevant hobbies, not hard leetcode questions. We value collaboration: pair programming, discussing, teaching and learning from others. We're looking for mission-driven engineers. People who see problems in the world and want to help solve them.
You'd be working with me to build the most intuitive, performant, and modern mission planning and flight monitoring software for drones, and related applications (tools for drone design and manufacturing). For my project, we use React, Tailwind, Node, drizzle-orm, Postgres, SQLite, deck.gl, Python, FastAPI, asyncio, and more. You're allowed (and compensated) to use AI services.
Because we are a small team, you will be noticed and rewarded for performance.
*Please don’t apply if any of these resonate:*
• You prefer narrow ownership—“I only touch the backend or the code I've written”.
• You think it's more about "who you know, not what you know".
• You haven’t actively learned a new tool or hobby in the last year.
If interested, email my temporary email: [email protected] with your CV and some personalised information about why you'd be the right fit.
My personal website, if you want to know who you would work with: tlduck.com
Drone startup | Product Engineer (Typescript) | 1 day/week in the office (London, UK) | Citizens of the UNITED KINGDOM only
You'd be working with engineers who previously worked at Google, Amazon, Helsing, Darktrace and an F1 team. We build drones (software and hardware)
We're looking for engineers that straddle real world problems, and use technology as a solution. We prefer personal projects or relevant hobbies, not hard leetcode questions. We value collaboration: pair programming, discussing, teaching and learning from others. We're looking for mission-driven engineers. People who see problems in the world and want to help solve them.
You'd be working with me to build the most intuitive, performant, and modern mission planning and flight monitoring software for drones, and related applications (tools for drone design and manufacturing). For my project, we use React, Tailwind, Node, drizzle-orm, Postgres, SQLite, deck.gl, Python, FastAPI, asyncio, and more. You're allowed (and compensated) to use AI services.
Because we are a small team, you will be noticed and rewarded for performance.
*Please don’t apply if any of these resonate:*
• You prefer narrow ownership—“I only touch the backend or the code I've written”.
• You think it's more about "who you know, not what you know".
• You haven’t actively learned a new tool or hobby in the last year.
If interested, email my temporary email: [email protected] with your CV and some personalised information about why you'd be the right fit.
My personal website, if you want to know who you would work with: tlduck.com
Drone startup | Product Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer | 2 days/week in the office (London, UK) | Citizens of the UNITED KINGDOM only
You'd be working with engineers who previously worked at Google, Amazon, an F1 team, and very early engineers at Darktrace and Helsing. We build drones (software and hardware)
We’re looking for engineers who prioritise real world impact, and use technology as a solution. We prefer personal projects or relevant hobbies, not hard leetcode questions. We’re looking for mission-driven engineers. People who see problems in the world and want to help solve them.
You’d be working with me to build low latency, multi-drone, modern mission planning, flight monitoring and control software for drones. Other applications include tools for drone design and manufacturing. For my project, we use React, Tailwind, Node, drizzle-orm, Postgres, SQLite, deck.gl, Python, FastAPI, asyncio, and more.
If interested, email my temporary email: [email protected]. Temporary only because of spam emails (not related to hiring).
After updating codex, it disappeared and chatdpt was still the old version. So I downloaded the latest chat gct from the website and it just said: "Couldn't install ChatGPT"
So I had to open Claude which was just a completely blank screen to try and debug the installation of ChatGPT.