Aaron Parecki

I am loving the updates that Aaron Parecki has been making to the Overland tracking app as a beta tester via Apple TestFlight. This is a good case study for using AI code tools alongside existing legacy code to add new features and clean up potential holes.

• Can now use automations in Shortcuts to, for example, auto-start a car trip when my iPhone connects to CarPlay (I don't have one set to end the trip when it disconnects, because CarPlay sometimes disconnects and reconnects, and the pause is just long enough to convince Overland to end the trip). I'm looking for other ways to automate things like starting walking trips when starting an Outdoor Walk workout (or vice versa), &c.

• Screen widget lets me see an active trip and end it from the home screen without needing to open the app.

• Additional trip types, including running, e-bike, hiking, &c. (Although I somewhat jokingly suggest there should be one for amusement park ride—Disney World frequent flyer).

And to the idiot who saw fit to criticize the use of an AI tool to help write code—you're certianly welcome to go back to writing Assembler code if you like, have fun with it.

I do not use AI at all and it stole my work and fucked up my career but!

I don't think we need the same amount of hate and vitriol to the one person who disclosed that they vibecoded a tiny part of their website as we give Sam, Dario, and Zuck

If we want ppl to disclose AI use (we do) this is not a good strategy for small servers/communities. Clear community rules about disclosure or what's allowed help, dog-piling does not

#ai #indieweb

This is great, thank you for writing it. I'm 100% with you. I love that you started with the indieweb value that it'snot about the tools. The evergreen debate there used to be self hosting; maybe now AI coding is another one. Who knows. Anyway, well written, appreciate the nuance, go forth and Claude Code.

@brennan Oof.

As for what we can do: I think some of us should self-host the services we care about. And some of us should write their own implementations. That's what standards are for. Having the first implementation be the only implementation that's used widely is a problem.

@brennan (This feels like it came across a little antagonistic, which wasn't really my intent. I should write an actual post on this, but life is not in that shape right now 😅 Apologies if needed)

@brennan ...if it's the thing that finally allows Aaron the capacity to move forward on some of these improvements, then I'm not sure the community has a right to complain about that?

If that crosses a line for you and means you have to migrate to different tools, that's totally fair enough. Frankly, I applaud anyone who takes that moral stance.

But if we're calling for people to come forward to fork those tools now, I'd ask why we haven't been doing the same for maintenance up to this point 🤷

@brennan A couple of points I feel are just worth remembering: you don't actually need to use any of Aaron's services to be even capital "IW" IndieWeb; and Aaron has provided those services for free for *years*, regularly asking for help in maintenance, and whilst some folks have helped, the most recent releases have implemented several reworks and features that have been requested (without support) for years as well.

I'm not a huge fan of AI. But...

@aaronpk oh, I forgot that was this weekend, what a great shot!

“I don’t t fit neatly into job descriptions. I never have. I am brilliant, resourceful, and intuitive. I write. I teach. I connect the dots others don’t t see. I can talk to anyone. But none of that fits into a hiring algorithm.”



Boy, can I relate to that.

https://carriebickner.com/2025/02/12/i-am-not-okay-are-you-okay/ #notok

@aaronpk Now THIS is the kind of info I need. Thank you so much!

@aaronpk those look lovely!

Can’t be too careful, I guess #wordpress