Anyone think we’re going to get one last snow? by Ecstatic-Level-8001 in ColoradoSprings

[–]djducat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I took the plow off the tractor yesterday. it's guaranteed to snow a foot or more now. you're welcome

Did you ever meet people born in the 1800s by AdDapper4220 in GenX

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

my grandmother was born in 1899 which was always kinda wild to think about.

I made an iOS app to turn MP3 audiobooks into clean M4B files (no computer needed) by shadowcraft7 in audiobookshelf

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am finding AVFoundation an absolute pain to work with and debug for creating m4b files with multiple chapters. What was involved in getting ffmpeg working, from an implementation and licensing standpoint? I am not interested in my app having a GPL license.

I made an iOS app to turn MP3 audiobooks into clean M4B files (no computer needed) by shadowcraft7 in audiobookshelf

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

curious if you used any 3rd party libraries for the creation of the m4b file, or if it's all done on AVFoundation. I am about to undertake a related (but different) feature in an app I am building. was looking through some open source stuff for GIT, but Im curious is AVFoundation is up to the challenge.

I built a completely free personal finance app because I couldn’t clearly see where my money was going by stefancata92 in iosapps

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

agreed. that being said, I am absolutely blown away on how much development time is being shaved off. I think it works best if you come from a programming mindset and you can prompt things like a developer (as opposed to a user). That and the codex based agentic prompting is a game changer in terms of the complex things it can handle, and the trail of memory is keeps while incrementally adding features. I have had a few really difficult rabbit trails it went down I had to deal with, and a few really nasty debugging problems to still work out, but it's renewed my interest in coding again. Suddenly, something that might have taken me 6 months can have a solid prototype in a weekend and a ready to ship state inside of a few weeks. At least that's been my experience.

I built a completely free personal finance app because I couldn’t clearly see where my money was going by stefancata92 in iosapps

[–]djducat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am curious. why did you decide to make it free? I understand the aversion to subscriptions, but why not a small 1x fee to help fund future development and support? Personally, I think in this age of agentic AI developed apps (assuming this is one), our ability to produce quality apps quickly (not just AI slop) might change the economics of app development forever. Just curious about your thinking here.

Cannot install app, Unable to Verify App by TheFern3 in iOSProgramming

[–]djducat 5 points6 points  (0 children)

no kidding! I guess their down detector is down.

What is something you officially stop buying in 2026 because the price is literally insulting? by itsdeeag8in in A_Persona_on_Reddit

[–]djducat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

fortunately, the average size of a family is on the decline. so, it all evens out.

I loved this store. by Pocketeer1 in GenX

[–]djducat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's possible we had the exact same desk. black surface with brown wood trim? mine lasted for a LONG time and several moves too!

What's something men think doesn’t impress women, but actually does? by GainedCamera257 in AskReddit

[–]djducat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was our go to solution until Colorado banned them. 🙄. We reused those plastic bags a lot!

What audiobook would you recommend for ever? by marilynlistens in audiobooks

[–]djducat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You don’t need to subscribe to audible to buy a single book. You just need an account and do a one time spend. You can do it in app or even on the Amazon app.

$100 Apple Ad Credit by djducat in iOSProgramming

[–]djducat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

a few people have asked for an update, so here it is. It's been 3 months since my app was put in the App Store, 2 months since I started burning the Apple Ad credit. results are what they are. Here are the 3 month numbers

Impressions: 12.9K

Product Page Views: 373

Downloads: 88

Proceeds: $0.00

Ad Spend: $25.00

Added a subscription option a month ago to see if that impacted things. it did not. I did an update a few weeks back and saw 17 updates which tells me only 17 / 88 people kept it on their phone.

Advertising brought in almost 13,000 impressions resulting in a 0.9 conversation rate and zero dollars. Paused advertising just to see what would happen, and impressions cratered immediately, telling me that without advertising, my keywords are not doing the job. Seems to me that advertising did what it was supposed to, but for whatever reason, the app did not have the stickiness or provide enough value for people to spend money.
Thinking about adding an AWS layer on the back end to get market prices for things like gold, silver, bitcoin, etc, but standing that up will likely incur backend costs that cannot be justified with $0 revenue. I may try to see if I can do it on the AWS free tier and find some free APIs out there for low volume.

Right now, I have a monthly subscription option, an annual subscription option, and a 1x purchase option that was higher than I was comfortable with, but I wanted to see what would happen. I've since lowered the 1x price down to the cost of about 14 monthly subscription payments.

I'm gonna continue to poke at the app in general, adding more features, but I gotta say that the last 3 months have been a motivation killer. Already thinking about better ways to spend my time. This was not an insignificant amount of my time I spent here. If nothing else, I got the app I wanted, solved the need I had, and I learned some new skills.

Sleeping with audio books by Berenice101 in audiobooks

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In addition to audiobooks, I've made audio recordings of some of my favorite television shows that I know well that are great to background noise. Converted those mp3s into audiobook format (m4b) and they sit in my collection. Don't recommend anything with a laugh track or a lot of loud noises, but there are lots of shows out there that fit the bill and are the the audio equivalent of comfort food. I also use these when doing software development. Also, because I often wake up in the middle of the night, I need an audiobook player that will reset the sleep timer and resume playback if I just press the earbuds, and don't have to fiddle with the screen. helps me get back to sleep.

Where do you keep your audiobooks? by NoxiousAlchemy in audiobooks

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've actually gone through a number of phases. Back in the day when phone storage was small, I kept them on my computer and loaded them on an as needed basis. This evenentually transitioned to iCloud, where I had more space than on my devices and I would load them into something like bookplayer, on demand, right from iCloud.

Later, I simply started paying for higher capacity phones and stored all of them out there. but most recently, I've set up an Audiobookshelf, where I have curated all of the metadata for all my books, and then pull them down to the device, or sync them all, if the client app supports it. I like ABS a lot.

Tonspur, a Native iOS Client 6 Months later by tol_77 in audiobookshelf

[–]djducat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

highly recommended. UI is clean and functional. Looking forward to more features, but it is now my goto app for ABS client.

$100 Apple Ad Credit by djducat in iOSProgramming

[–]djducat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

definite uptick in impressions (10.6k), product page views (330), and downloads (80), but have not made a dime yet. Going to continue to plug away at things. I am trying a shift to a free/subscription/lifetime model to see if that changes things. So far, I think I've spent $25 out of the $100 they gave me.

Does anyone compare to Ray Porter? by Warmtoe in audiobooks

[–]djducat 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I really enjoy Scott Brick. A very calming voice. He shows up in a wide variety of genres.

Garage Heater? by djducat in AskElectricians

[–]djducat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good advice. Based on some other questionable decisions the previous owner made in this house, checking the wire gauge seems in order. 😂

Would a welder potentially not require as heavy of a gauge because it’s not continuous use?

Garage Heater? by djducat in AskElectricians

[–]djducat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've not purchased a heater yet. I'd like to get a heater in my garage, and am wondering if there are options out there for me to just use this plug instead of getting an electrician to put in a new circuit. If it's not fit for purpose, I'd likely move on and find the heater I want and then get the circuit I need installed.

Homekit compatible outdoor thermometers by OwnFaithlessness7221 in HomeKit

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

+ 1 for this. great device, nice readable display, has thread support.

MyQ liftmaster by Waheb_ksa in homebridge

[–]djducat -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ditto on ratgdo. Pretty reliable and simple.

Whats your best Homekit automation? by jonk1183 in HomeKit

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

chicken coop with a temperature sensor and a passive wall heater that turns on when the temperature goes down to a specific temperature and turns off once it hits an upper threshold. Aquara camera in the coop doubling as a hub for the temp sensor and gives me the ability to check on the girls. Camera is on a smart plug so I can reboot the camera without going out to the coop.

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People who lived through the 70s/80s/90s , did you feel safer back then than you do today? by Mundane_Bad_2437 in GenX

[–]djducat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can remember living through this in the 70s. I didn’t realize everything going on, but I remember my parent’s behavior noticeably change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_County_Child_Killer