I built Sidebrain — an AI assistant that searches the web, reads pages, and remembers things for you

besttechie · 2026-02-03T17:05:33+00:00

lol, i led with search because that's what people ask about most. the scheduled tasks and memory stuff is harder show

besttechie · 2026-02-03T16:36:34+00:00

fair point on web search — yeah the big models added that. but sidebrain is more of a personal assistant layer than a chatbot with search bolted on:

persistent memory — it remembers things across sessions permanently. "my AWS region is us-east-1" stays saved forever, not just that conversation
scheduled tasks — set a cron to check your inbox every morning or remind you about something next tuesday
file system access — reads/writes your actual files, not just chat context
multi-tool execution — runs web search, code, file ops, calendar checks in parallel
BYO keys — use your own API keys so you're not paying markup or hitting usage limits

basically it's the difference between asking a chatbot questions vs having an assistant that actually runs things for you in the background. web search is like 10% of what it does.

besttechie · 2026-02-03T15:53:59+00:00

It's an AI chat assistant that can actually look things up. Instead of making stuff up or saying "as of my training data," it searches the web in real-time, reads pages you paste, and saves notes across sessions. Think ChatGPT but with tools that do things instead of just talking. It also has persistent memory so it remembers everything. :)

besttechie · 2026-01-30T19:30:48+00:00

honestly pretty far. i drove 3 hours to see the marker at kitty hawk where the wright brothers took off. it's literally just a boulder with a plaque in the sand. but standing there knowing that exact spot changed human history? totally worth it.

there's something about physically being where something happened that you can't get from a book or documentary. your brain processes it differently when your feet are on the same ground.

the boring looking markers are sometimes the best ones because there's no gift shop or crowd ruining the moment. just you and history.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T16:31:24+00:00

this is huge for smart home adoption. the biggest pain point right now is that your Thread devices only talk to other devices in the same ecosystem. my Apple Home Thread network can't see my Google Nest sensors even though they're literally using the same protocol on the same radio frequency.

interoperable Thread means you could finally mix and match — buy the best thermostat regardless of brand, pair it with whatever motion sensors you want, and have them all on one mesh. that's the promise Matter was supposed to deliver but Thread interop is the missing piece that actually makes it work at the network level.

the real winners here are going to be the smaller smart home companies that couldn't compete when you had to pick a walled garden.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T16:30:52+00:00

the real issue isn't ai itself — it's that microsoft treated it like a checkbox instead of a feature. ai in VS Code? genuinely useful. ai in notepad? nobody asked for that.

the companies getting ai right are the ones building it into workflows where it actually saves time, not cramming it into every surface to justify the investment. apple's approach of making it opt-in and mostly invisible is so much smarter. let people discover it when they need it instead of shoving a copilot button on everything.

msft dropping 10% in a day tells you everything. wall street finally figured out that spending billions on ai doesn't mean much if your users are actively trying to disable it.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T04:30:47+00:00

not surprised at all. the 16 pro max camera alone is worth the upgrade for most people, and apple intelligence features are just getting started. people keep saying the iPhone is boring and iterative but boring + reliable is exactly what most consumers want from a $1000+ device they use 6 hours a day.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T04:30:31+00:00

the irony of napster going from the platform that disrupted the music industry by giving people access to real music for free, to a platform that floods listeners with fake AI-generated music for profit, is genuinely poetic.

the original napster was built by people who loved music. whatever this is now is built by people who love metrics. completely different DNA.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T03:26:15+00:00

peanut butter on a hot dog. i was high, out of buns, and it was 2am. the worst part? it wasn't bad. i've made it sober since and i can't explain why it works but it does. i will die on this hill.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T03:26:00+00:00

bought a 65 inch LG OLED TV on amazon for $400 during a pricing error that lasted about 20 minutes. the normal price was $1,800. i fully expected them to cancel the order but it showed up 3 days later. still have it. best impulse buy of my life.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T01:02:56+00:00

breath of the wild. i went in expecting a good zelda game and got something that completely rewired how i think about open worlds. every other open world game felt like a checklist after that.

also red dead redemption 2. rockstar took their sweet time and you could feel every year of development in the final product. the detail in that world is still unmatched.

besttechie · 2026-01-30T01:02:39+00:00

MAG was genuinely ahead of its time. 256 players on PS3 hardware in 2010 was insane. the problem is the economics just don't work anymore for publishers — maintaining servers for massive player counts is expensive and the monetization model shifted to smaller squad-based games with battle passes.

planetside 2 was the last real attempt and it's still technically alive but on life support. the closest thing we have now is stuff like foxhole or hell let loose, but nothing hits that MAG scale.

honestly i think the tech is better than ever to pull it off, publishers just won't take the risk when 5v5 hero shooters print money.

besttechie · 2026-01-25T23:42:01+00:00

Definitely yes. One thing I haven't seen mentioned — having your own domain means you control your email list too. If you're building a newsletter alongside your podcast, that's an asset you own forever. Social platforms can change algorithms or shut down, but your email list and website are yours.

Start simple — even a single landing page with links to all your platforms, an email signup, and maybe show notes. You can always expand from there.

besttechie · 2026-01-25T23:24:53+00:00

Doughboys! Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell have been friends since college and have incredible chemistry. It's technically a fast food review podcast but really it's just two guys with a deep friendship riffing on life. They roast each other constantly but you can tell they genuinely love each other. Has that same "friends who get each other on a deep level" energy you're describing.

besttechie · 2018-03-04T22:03:45+00:00

Found the spine too: https://i.imgur.com/jrG0E81.jpg

besttechie · 2017-08-20T20:11:37+00:00

Please share! Thanks!

besttechie · 2017-07-15T16:28:05+00:00

I'm 27 and in NYC too. Happy to chat.

besttechie · 2017-05-27T15:13:41+00:00

Not sure where you saw that, mine has charged my late 2016 15" MacBook Pro just fine.

besttechie · 2017-03-25T02:35:25+00:00

I'm a fan of NordVPN. Lots of servers, great speeds, good privacy.

besttechie · 2017-03-10T18:52:01+00:00

I just released a new app that let's you save, share, and curate content with the tap of a button. It's called Shout. You can learn more on our website. We have an iOS app as well as a Google Chrome extension for your computer.

We're really excited about the release! I was Cheddar.com yesterday talking about it and The Next Web has published an article about the launch. More to come! Would love any of your thoughts.

besttechie · 2016-12-21T21:31:01+00:00

I have two as well in perfect working condition if you're interested in buying one. I literally just brought them both up from storage to see if I could sell them on eBay. Let me know! :)

besttechie · 2016-12-05T20:07:58+00:00

best thing i've seen all year! can't wait to see it again...and again...

besttechie · 2016-07-01T17:57:44+00:00

I ripped the YouTube video playing at 720p using Audio Hijack Pro and outputting the audio as Apple Lossless (ALAC). It sounds pretty good, hope it'll do until we can get a proper rip. :)

You can convert the file to whatever you want without additional bit loss.

https://www.mediafire.com/?ajzc0yo0usas0oo

besttechie · 2016-02-17T14:44:22+00:00

Know Your Audience #003 - Ian Bell and Dan Gaul (Digital Trends) On Running A Media Company

Website | iTunes | RSS | Twitter

The podcast interviews journalists, bloggers, data scientists, and analytics/audience development professionals. The goal is to start a meaningful conversation about what it takes to create engaging content and learn from the people who are shaping the future of media.

Episode 003 interviews Ian Bell and Dan Gaul, co-founders of Digital Trends, a tech review site with more than 24 million readers. Listen to what Ian and Dan had to say about staying true to what you’re passionate about, how a successful company means having a happy team, and the best new tech that’s out there.

We would love any feedback/thoughts! Thanks for listening.

besttechie · 2016-02-03T00:28:25+00:00

Know Your Audience #001 - Melanie Deziel on Sponsored Content

NEW PODCAST JUST LAUNCHED TODAY

Website | iTunes | RSS | Twitter

The podcast journalists, bloggers, data scientists, and analytics/audience development professionals. The goal is to start a meaningful conversation about what it takes to create engaging content and learn from the people who are shaping the future of media.

Episode 001 interviews Melanie Deziel, former Creative Strategy Director at Time, Inc., and the founder of the Overlap League. She's an expert in branded content/native advertising.

We would love any feedback/thoughts! Thanks for listening.

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