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This is the problem with technology. Some people just want to use it, so it's quite hard to tell whether this is really a quality of life improvement, or if it's just exciting for some weirdo (any programmer counts as weirdo here).

I've personally had to track down a beep before and used a similar technique as you suggest: time the beeps then be in right place to perform a kind of binary search to home in on it. I found a smoke alarm in the roof space above my flat, nailed to the top of the rafters that had been there since the building was built 20 years prior. It was annoying but I'm sure it took way less time and effort than "getting AI to do it".

by devilsdata7 hours ago|

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This is also why it's been difficult for me to decide on portfolio projects to build. I just don't have anything I really need to build. I made a compound interest calculator as my first React app, but could have made an excel sheet or python script.

by skydhash2 hours ago|

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I use a frustration threshold. A lot of times, I’ve got a working solution, but it’s not “right”, so when that become frustrating enough, I build something.

A few examples

dotnet does not work on OpenBSD, so to run jellyfin (supported by the infuse app on the apple tv), I have to run Linux. I wonder if I can replicate the API somehow

calibre is quite nice, but I don’t use much of its capabilities. I could try to make a simpler system for my use cases.

And so on.

by StilesCrisis3 hours ago|

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Yup! This is fun and cool, but the OBVIOUS solution is "just unpack." You need to do that anyway, and life is giving you motivation.

by simonw1 hours ago|

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I mean, yeah, that was the joke.

I spelled it out a bit more on Bluesky etc:

> There is a mysterious intermittent beep coming from somewhere in your room of unopened boxes. Do you:

> 1. Open the boxes methodically one by one until you find it

> 2. Vibe code software that lets you set up two laptops, two iPads and a phone in various points around the room to triangulate it

https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net/post/3mzvuqd4ndk2...