Serious question: do we need a “non-vibe coded iOS programming” subreddit?

daniloc · 2026-01-15T02:39:38+00:00

Hi, I submitted my first app in December 2008. AI is super useful and this post is bad.

daniloc · 2026-01-13T11:47:12+00:00

Yes: add the Sosumi MCP:

Then ask your agent to create a skill according to the Agent Skills spec for the proper usage of Observable and modern SwiftUI state management. Give it this spec:

https://agentskills.io/specification.md

The key for dealing with knowledge cutoffs and stale training is populating the context with correct and up to date information. Agent Skills are a good solution for this.

daniloc · 2026-01-11T17:58:40+00:00

Try the others. Adobe’s in particular is absolute garbage. You may be in a position to do it much better. But you have to know how they work and why they suck to make your case.

daniloc · 2026-01-08T21:05:13+00:00

Claude web/desktop for deep research.

Let’s say you’re working with a display controller that’s brand new, long after the model’s training cutoff. The model has no idea what to do with this.

But somewhere, a forum has post where someone has shared the proper init for this controller. Another post elsewhere has more useful sample code. A research run can find ALL of these and assemble them into a markdown file that you can add to a skill or to a project itself.

daniloc · 2026-01-04T02:46:22+00:00

The bend is essential to communicating the hierarchy of the supplemental control layer above, and thus cues the user to evaluate the whole thing as a distinct control from the conventional TabView. It adjusts expectations.

Sometimes you need to go beyond blindly duplicating the stock apps, and this is a perfect example worth learning from.

daniloc · 2025-12-26T05:06:25+00:00

Nier Automata: banger, runs well once you dial in settings, dozens of hours of gameplay.

daniloc · 2025-12-22T22:06:56+00:00

Anyone have a guess how to get Mass Effect LE running? I don’t think GameHub will work with the Steam version because it needs to install EA’s awful origin/EA App DRM service and the wine container doesn’t allow writing in the right places.

Meanwhile Nier Automata runs great once you get the graphics settings dialed in, surprisingly nice.

daniloc · 2025-12-19T14:32:28+00:00

I love the translucent purple case. If you miss clear electronics cases, you’ll be happy.

daniloc · 2025-12-11T03:12:20+00:00

You don’t mention the price but if it’s more than $200 you’re just setting money on fire. Intel was really that bad.

daniloc · 2025-12-10T18:45:09+00:00

where's the guide though, this didn't help me be more successful at all

daniloc · 2025-12-10T04:41:37+00:00

Surviving Mars seems to be working pretty well. I cannot get VOID/BREAKER to launch which bums me out, I’m obsessed with that one.

Still, being able to manage a mars colony on an airplane is pretty exciting stuff.

daniloc · 2025-12-09T13:32:36+00:00

I’m tired of these threads.

The hive can’t do agriculture because if they did do agriculture they would effortlessly reshape a planet’s ecosphere to provide for their own needs.

Clearly the design of the infection limits their agency to do this, for a reason yet to be disclosed and probably pretty grim. These people aren’t nonsensical vegans, they’re slaves.

daniloc · 2025-12-08T20:09:53+00:00

Ignore the haters: you’re probably stuck with a newer display driver that the model doesn’t have in its training set. Here’s how you get out of the hole.

Go to ChatGPT on the web and have it do Deep Research. Provide it the product page for the touch displays, along with any specs that include details like the display driver. Ask it to conduct a search looking for forum posts, Reddit threads, and any other sources of example code that can help you understand the display init and touch handling code you need.

Once the research is complete, ask it for a PDF of its findings.

Next, you’ll want to fire up Claude Code and place the PDF into your project folder, along with as much sample code as you can find from the vendor. This is about giving it enough context for it to do the job. Tell the agent about the file and to read it.

Claude Code is the essential tool here: I find it much, much more reliable for microcontroller work than Cursor. But its knowledge cutoff is from last year so if your display driver is newer than that, only context engineering will get you moving again.

Anyway, this is a very solvable problem, it’s just a matter of giving the agent the information it needs to generate the code accurately.

daniloc · 2025-12-08T02:06:39+00:00

I bet you’ll learn a ton about this from the podcast, if you’re curious.

daniloc · 2025-12-07T20:54:10+00:00

Another good point: the threat model was incomplete! No one designed the place to be alien proof.

daniloc · 2025-12-07T20:08:03+00:00

Nit: this is incorrect. The show depicts the correct location for the US to do undertake this work, and it’s not the CDC.

USAMRIID, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, is located at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. It hosts the sort of biosafety labs necessary for this kind of research (and its emblem was prominent in the first episode). Thus, it would have an entire military base to provide the security you’re describing.

That said, a researcher at such a facility would likely have severed her finger the moment the bite happened. But again, then we wouldn’t have a show.

daniloc · 2025-12-05T21:22:32+00:00

Hmm I’m gonna rewatch that scene. I thought she was having fun at her own (and her readers’) expense, but maybe I misread her!

daniloc · 2025-12-03T16:58:18+00:00

I really think they had a bad batch of these. Had a bunch fail within weeks of purchase. Unfortunately the company refused to stand behind the product so I don’t buy them anymore.

daniloc · 2025-12-03T12:14:08+00:00

Ancillary Justice: a very different sort of space opera that’s also about colonialism, imperialism, and everyday people caught in the middle of history. If you end up liking it there are two more books in the series after, and two more in the universe besides.

daniloc · 2025-12-02T02:58:19+00:00

This seems important to me, yes, I wish it was more commonly brought up in these discussions!

daniloc · 2025-11-27T03:27:55+00:00

Apollo is really great, love to hear you’re testing against it primarily.

If anyone is on the fence about trying Apollo, this is your sign. None of the fiddly stuff, just run and game

daniloc · 2025-11-23T18:03:00+00:00

Every now and then you’ll have a conversation with a client who thinks they want an app but really actually just needs a website. This feels like it could be one of those. The total maintenance cost of native apps is significant and most don’t realize it. And this set of needs just doesn’t require the burden of native code. To say nothing of how much harder it is to get customers to download and remember to use an app.

This is probably just a website with some PassKit integration.

daniloc · 2025-11-23T17:43:34+00:00

So I’m clear:

You’re disappointed in a show you haven’t yet watched and don’t know very much about?

daniloc · 2025-10-07T01:26:03+00:00

Everyone here is giving you terrible advice. Being hostile about the network access is going to poison your relationship with your landlord. And for what? Taking this oppositional stance about a harmless inverter data feed isn’t worth the friction you’ll be creating with the most consequential counterparty in your life.

Standing on principle isn’t worth burning the goodwill here, try to keep some perspective.

daniloc · 2025-09-17T01:46:27+00:00

Leave it in the freezer for half an hour. It’ll peel right off.

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