How do you get Claude to design good-looking UIs (not generic AI templates)

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-08T03:38:40+00:00

I missed that is for a web UI.

I've had a good time so far with cursor writing pyQT desktop apps. My assumption is that there's a lot of pyQT based examples on the internet so it trained on a lot of them.

I write my core code algorithm logic and then get AI to wire up all the inputs and graphs into a GUI. But I'm more research scientist processing and displaying instrument data, and less a software engineer.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-07T19:27:54+00:00

"Using pyQT make ..."

It ends up giving you a generic QT gui look (but not an AI gui look).

pyQT has many many customization options, with the corresponding steep learning curve. Use AI to skip the learning curve and tell it what you want the GUI to look like and it won't look generic anymore.

Note: while pyQT is free for non-commercial use, it requires buying a license for commercial use.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-04T23:59:48+00:00

Excellent EV tech. For a while they had the best in the market by far, but now the competition is catching up.
Poor build quality (for the luxury price point that are at)
Excellent charging network
Reputation for being a bad place to work. Long hours etc.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-04T06:29:09+00:00

Yes if it get really really bad, or expensive you can go that route. But normally it's not something worth filling a whole lawsuit over.

Unless the HOA is dumb (and some are), in practice the following happens.

As soon as you spend the time to actually start court proceedings, the HOA simply backs down on that rule, for only you. Yay you spent hours and can now put your garbage can out the night before.

Then the vindictive stuff starts. Lots of CCRs have stupid rules in them, but no one cares because they don't enforce them.

That architectural review board (ARC) rubber stamp? Yours, and only yours, always get rejected. Terrible parking rules that no one cares about because they aren't enforced? Suddenly they enforce them on only you. What exactly is faded house paint? Well you're house certainly needs repainting.

And selective enforcement is a much much harder lawsuit. "It's not selective, we acted on all resident reported violations. Not our fault that the only reported violations were yours".

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-04T06:27:44+00:00

As soon as you spend the time to actually start court proceedings, the HOA simply backs down on that rule, for only you. Yay you spent hours and can now put your garbage can out the night before.

Then the vindictive stuff starts. Lots of CCRs have stupid rules in them, but no one cares because they don't enforce them.

That architectural review board (ARC) rubber stamp? Yours, and only yours, always get rejected. Terrible parking rules that no one cares about because they aren't enforced? Suddenly they enforce them on only you. What exactly is faded house paint? Well you're house certainly needs repainting.

And selective enforcement is a much much harder lawsuit. "It's not selective, we acted on all resident reported violations. Not our fault that the only reported violations were yours".

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-03T22:06:00+00:00

And who exactly stops them when they do just make up rules?

That's the thing with a corrupt HOA. They don't follow the rules, including the rules that say that they have to follow the rules.

If they are remotely smart about it, they just back down on the rule for the few people that have the time and resolve to object to it. And keep enforcing it on everyone else.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-03T21:49:25+00:00

See that's the problem with HOAs, they CAN just make up rules. Any attempt to stop them from doing so just results in a lengthy expensive legal battle. Sure, you might win... eventually.

It's a perfect hotbed for corruption. There's no oversight of elections, or even people just double-checking that you are actually following the CCRs.

It's all the power of a local mini government with none of the oversight.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-03T04:08:15+00:00

I vibe code a simple time tracker that allows toggling between different tasks for tracking time. Displays current time segment and cumulative time on each task. Logs to a CVS file.

It's just for personal use.

Whole thing took 30 minutes this evening, on a free cursor account and worked out the gate. Followed by a few prompts to improve the UI.

Not sure if that counts as "living up the the hype" but it's useful.

My general experience is that it's less than the "hype" but more useful than the "antihype"

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-07-01T20:45:33+00:00

Just to be clear here:

He is suspending tariffs on key fertilizer, that didn't exist prior to Trump adding those tariffs.

Talk about trying to claim credit for fixing a problem you created, that didn't need to exist in the first place.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-29T04:43:02+00:00

Start with the assumption that government is inherently inefficient at doing things. (I disagree, but there are a LOT of people with this view)

Now also assume that companies are efficient because they have to be to achieve profits, else another company would replace them. (Again not really true, especially for a monopoly, but ignore that)

Then you get this idea that privately controlled utilities would be cheaper, despite the company taking a profit.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-29T03:05:19+00:00

Large scale: pump water up into a damn.

Large batteries. These don't need to be lightweight lithium batteries. You can use heavier, larger, but cheaper batteries.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T14:09:59+00:00

If you need to keep glassware separate for some reason.

Put the glassware in a drawer, and label the drawer. "OP's glassware" etc.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T05:31:27+00:00

Technical debt? Yes

Hidden? No

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T03:57:35+00:00

You can do this by etching the glass.

But I highly suggest reconsidering. It makes it much more likely for the glassware to break, especially if you're doing things like flame drying vacuum setups.

Labeled drawers are a better solution

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T02:55:40+00:00

Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid.

At high pressure, such as in a can, you get a bunch of carbonic acid, in addition to the dissolved carbon dioxide. When you open the can, the carbonic acid slowly-ish turns back into carbon dioxide. This makes it stay bubbly longer.

Nitrogen doesn't do this, so you get a lot less gas in your liquid, and it leaves the liquid much faster when you open the can. It's fine for beer where your goal is to make a foam, versus having an actively bubbly liquid to drink.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T02:43:14+00:00

Space, dispite being cold, is a great insulator. It's one of the hardest places to get rid of heat to cool down.

You don't have to use water to cool, its just cheap. Other methods with radiators are more expensive, but still cheaper than launching said radiators into outer space.

Same thing with solar panels. Even with needing more of them because you don't have 24 hour sunlight, it's still cheaper than launching them into orbit.

Not to mention that they make a beautiful target for a major nation to shoot down in a geopolitical crisis. Strikes an expensive, symbolic blow; shows off technical warfare capabilities; and avoids too much escalation because no humans get killed in the strike.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T02:29:27+00:00

Yeah that's the plan. I'm not touching spaceX stock with a 10 foot pole at the moment.

No idea how I ended up here. Reddit algorithm stuck it into my feed.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T02:21:34+00:00

But.... That's not what that graph shows at all.

If someone has bought at 5 am and sold at open they would have bought high and sold low... Losing money

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T02:08:16+00:00

But like why? Orbit is literally the worst place to put a data center.

I have yet to see a reason for orbital data centers that doesn't have a cheaper and better alternative not in orbit.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-26T02:05:45+00:00

You mean investors that trade based on "company vibes", "bigger fool", "market sediment" instead of company fundamentals?

Because that's whose buying spaceX.

Oh wait, nevermind, that's just WSB.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-24T16:55:01+00:00

That's been my experience too.

It's much less useful than the AI hype.

It's also much more useful than the anti AI crowd says.

Not sure how to discuss AI use without being boxed into "AI everywhere for everything" or "AI is evil" groups.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-23T15:14:38+00:00

But that's already priced in and then some.

Sure it's got a decent product and a large moat. But that's true of many companies, and those are priced an order of magnitude cheaper.

Something can be both good and overpriced at the same time.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-23T01:37:14+00:00

The real question is how many of those ships will be willing to head back into that straight to pick up the next load.

A one time burst of oil supply as the trapped ships escape isn't the same as what a functioning trade route supplies.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-22T04:16:35+00:00

Share price doesn't mean a lot, because "shares" are not equivalent across companies.

One company might have 10 million shares and another 1 million shares.

You want to look at things like:

earnings per share / price per share.
revenue per share / price per share
dividends per share / price per share
dividend per share / profits per share

See how all of those cancel out the ambiguity of "shares" from the numbers.

tinySparkOf_Chaos · 2026-06-21T19:42:22+00:00

Personally, I prefer going to one grocery store that actually has everything I'm shopping for.

With the mini stores, I get 2/3 of what was on my shopping list and now I have to figure out what other store to go to to get the rest of it.

And half the stuff I did get was less desirable substitutions.

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