Category Archives: I.T.

Airtags v2

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Airtags!After my recent technology upgrade, I started getting more and more interested in the Apple ecosystem. I looked into their Airtags, but there were rumors about a new version coming up, so I patiently waited. They are here now and I think it was a smart move to wait for the new version. Better battery, better precision, better sound to help find it. All that for the same price.

I was never really interested in getting an Airtag because I just did not see the use for them, but now that they have supposedly improved accuracy it did get my attention. I sometimes play escape-room like games with my family. Solve riddles, search for things, break locks, hidden messages, etc. Adding an airtag looks like a very fun addition.

I will give it a try, and afterwards I can always use the Airtag to track my luggage for when I travel, or maybe track my backpack, or my car. I’ll see that usage is worth it for me.

Mushroom Mayhem 1.2

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Mushroom Mayhem WIN!It does work. I had rushed the initial version of Mushroom Mayhem into the store, with quite a few bugs still in it and really only the bare minimum features needed to make it playable. I strongly suspected that doing this would prevent the project from stalling again and me not looking at it for years. And it worked. Even though there are only around 20 people that installed the game, I’m motivated, and many evenings I find myself improving and fine-tuning the app.

Another pretty big update. This time I used an ‘agent’ to add large chunks of functionality all at once. An agent recieves a job, breaks it up in logical parts and assigns all the parts to a collection of AI tools that work together to carry out each task. After a while when all the tasks are complete the agent combines them all to a final result and marks the entire task as completed. After completion I could review everything and approve it if it was all correct. Super easy, as long as you describe the initial task clearly.

AI updates:

  • Integrate Apple game center to keep a leaderboard for the daily challenges.
  • Integrate Apple game center and added a list of achievements you can win while playing the game.

Nieuw Mushroom Mayhem icon!I also did some things myself and updated all the apps graphics, so everything looks a little bit cleaner, the app has a brand new icon and there are a number of bigger changes:

  • Improved explanation of the game.
  • This time you’ll see your score after finishing a game.
  • You can also specify in the settings how difficult a ‘quick game’ should be. By default, a quick game is manageable with a bit of logical thinking, but now you can choose the difficulty yourself, from ‘very easy’ to ‘very hard’.

Get Mushroom Mayhem!

AI Amazement

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I got to use an AI for free for a month. I have to admit, even after a month of usage I’m still amazed at how much work the AI can do, and how precisely it understands what I mean with just a few short instructions. I started with very small tasks and gradually began giving it bigger assignments. My free month is almost over, but I’m pretty sure I’ll continue with the paid subscription.

The productivity boost that AI provides is enormous. I stopped developing years ago because family life took up too much time, and I lost the long stretches of uninterrupted time I used to have. I always needed a few hours in a row to really focus on what I was building. But now, suddenly, even one hour is enough to make real progress. Fixing bugs, which was always tedious work, is no longer necessary, the AI handles that. All I have to do is test and fine-tune. It’s truly amazing what’s possible now, and it feels like having a team member who can take a lot of work off your hands.

Mushroom Mayhem 1.1

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MM 1.1!I’ve shifted the work I do on MM to the evenings. Before going to sleep. Rather than enjoying part of a movie or an episode of a series I now spend the last hour of my day talking and experimenting with my programming assistant. Over the past few days, I’ve made some improvements, so you can now get the new version.

Thanks for your feedback! The new version has a daily challenge and new edible mushrooms which you can use to get a little help when you’re stuck.

  • New daily challenge!
  • Five new levels in the adventure mode. These are very hard levels, so be patient!
  • A whole new gameplay dimension: you can now find edible mushrooms (and click to collect them), which can be used to investigate any block you suspect might contain a toxic mushroom.

    Once collected, the mushroom is stored for future use. Consuming an edible mushroom increases your awareness of nature and gives you a brief burst of intuition. It allows you to focus your thoughts and pick up on insights you might otherwise have missed. Simply click the edible mushroom icon in the top right, then select the area you wish to explore to get a sneak peek, whether it’s something worth uncovering or something best avoided.

  • New immersive music track.

Get Mushroom Mayhem!

MagSafe

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I was a bit underwhelmed when I first started experimenting with my new iPhone 17. Coming from an old SE, I had expected the jump to the 17 to be a major change for the better. What I noticed instead were lots of relatively small improvements and a few big ones. Everything worked just a little bit better, a little smoother, and it made me realise my old phone wasn’t even that old. A noticeable upgrade was the larger, better screen, and the biggest change was the battery. I can now use my phone all day without worries.

There was one more big improvement that I didn’t notice at first: MagSafe. After getting a MagSafe charger for my nightstand, it didn’t take long to adjust to the new level of comfort it offered. There was a small issue with the bright LED built into the charger, but a small sticker quickly solved that. Step two was a MagSafe charger for my car, and that was all I needed to stop using cables altogether. It’s a very satisfying reality where I simply drop my phone onto the magnet or pull it off again. Sure, it might take a bit longer to charge, but since my phone is now my alarm/clock and it charges while I sleep, I don’t care.

My old phone used to turn itself off at least a couple of times a year from overheating. That’s what you get for living on a tropical island, I guess. The new phone has a cool feature to avoid overheating: a vapor chamber that should distribute heat more evenly so the phone can cool down faster. The really warm and sunny days are still a few months away, so this feature is something I’ll put to the test in the future.

For now, my conclusion is simple. My new phone wasn’t the jump into the future that I expected, but it has enough improvements to make me happy. The new magsafe (new for me, it been available for a few years already) did make me experience a jump into the future, and makes me happy.

Indie developer

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Indie developer!Ofcourse I have heard about ‘indie developers’. I like these kinds of games a lot, but suddenly I realised something…

No publisher, no external boss, no committee telling me what the game should look like. I decide the mechanics, the art style, the branding, the emotional tone and that creative autonomy is the core of being indie. My projects come from nostalgia, curiosity, and joy, not market pressure. That’s classic indie energy: making something because it matters.

Well, that also applies to mushroom mayhem… it just hit me: I am an indie game developer. Good times!

Mushroom Mayhem

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Mushroom Mayhem!Mushroom Mayhem is a puzzle game set in a mysterious woodland filled with hidden mushrooms. Each tap uncovers a piece of the forest, reveals subtle clues, and challenges you to deduce where the magical fungi are hiding. Trust your intuition, read the signals of the woods, and unravel the pattern before the mayhem begins. A cozy blend of strategy, nature, and a touch of chaos.

Gameplay is easy, intuitive and challanging. Tap to reveal the tile. Tap and hold to mark as dangerous. The numbers show how many mushrooms are around that tile. Calculate possibilities, play it safe or take some risks. Like life itself, it is up to you.

Get Mushroom Mayhem!

Day three

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In the first two days I got a lot of work done. Today in Spain we celebrated the three kings day, so I had another day available. The third day gave me some time for testing, tweaking and finetuning. I tried the app to find stuff that didn’t feel right, logic that did not work as I expected, and other small issues. I changed some images, modified some gameplay, and used the AI to improve what I already had. Three days (and a clear idea of what I wanted) was all I needed to go from a five year old concept app to a good looking game that gave me a really good feeling. Color me amazed!

Weekend with the AI

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I had one weekend without the kids, so I suddenly had some extra time. I decided to invest it in a game I started building five years ago but never finished. I used Copilot AI, which is very nicely integrated with Visual Studio Code.

First two hours
The first few hours I could use the AI for free, just to get a taste. And did I get a taste. My old app was extensively modified so it would run again in a modern environment. Work that would have taken me days was done effortlessly by Copilot in a very short time. All the files that made up the project were updated, and every change was clearly explained. I was left amazed.

First full day
After a few hours, my free time with the AI ran out and I got a monthly subscription to continue. The level of cooperation the AI provided felt genuinely valuable. It was like talking to a colleague who had been working on the same project with me. I used the AI to review and correct code, configure my development system properly, and connect my iPhone for testing. The AI quickly understood requirements and implemented them just as I would have done myself. It adapted to my style. Impressive.

Second day
Yesterday I used the AI for small functionality changes. Today I took it a step further. The AI created the entire adventure mode, first 5 levels, and later expanded it to 25. It implemented the background music and helped me fine-tune the settings page. The AI helped me update all the graphics. The amount of work completed would have taken me weeks on my own.

The app I created was small and quite simple, but the AI’s contributions left me speechless. Copilot boosted my productivity enormously. I felt like a tester whose feedback was fixed immediately by the AI. Incredibly satisfying. Dreaded errors in project dependencies or startup issues no longer caused stress, the AI simply fixed every error that appeared and got the app running.

A few more tweaks are required and then I will place the app in the appstore. To be continued!…

Vintage

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Vintage! Vintage, a beautiful word. For some it means old, for others valuable or beautiful. For me it means used and beloved. Usually it takes a while before an object becomes vintage, but I now have a phone case that has aged at lightning speed.

It’s a high-quality green tech woven case for my iPhone 17 Pro. Not the official version, but a pre-release sample where the sides aren’t made of plastic, but also of tech woven material. The result is a case whose color has almost completely worn off in the spots most often touched. In just two months, the case has aged so much that it looks as if I inherited it from my grandfather.

Some people might think it looks rather sad, but I’m absolutely delighted. I find it fantastic to have such an antique-looking case around my ultra-modern phone. Still, I’ll have to see if it holds up for a few more months. For now it has lost some color in certain areas, but structurally it remains a great case.