Tag: why-i-built-it
All the articles with the tag "why-i-built-it".
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Why it exists · Ward Why I built Ward: a porn and website blocker where the hard part is the off switch
1,600 one-star reviews of porn blockers say the same four things: a paywall after a quiz, a VPN that breaks the internet, an easy bypass, and a fee to uninstall. Ward's answer is a free filter that blocks on the device, a waiting time instead of a wall, and a DNS-only tunnel. What iOS does and doesn't let you do, and why the hosts file wins on desktop.
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Why it exists · ADB Remote Why I built ADB Remote: the thirty-second IDE launch for a three-second command
Android Studio is the right tool for writing code and the wrong tool for pulling a file. ADB Remote is the window in between: logcat, Gradle, device files, screenshot diffs and Git checkouts as a native macOS app built with Compose Multiplatform for desktop. Why a desktop GUI, what it wraps, and why it's signed and notarized.
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Why it exists · Mantra Why I built Mantra: your own words on the lock screen, and the Android bug where setting a wallpaper kills your Activity
Affirmation apps push other people's quotes; wallpaper changers have no words. Mantra is the gap between them. The Play Store keyword that decided the name, the Material You re-theme that recreates your Activity a second after you set a wallpaper, WorkManager's first-run surprise, adaptive scrims from luminance stats, and why user photos are never paywalled.
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Why it exists · QuestLog Why I built QuestLog: a game backlog tracker with a roulette wheel, and the API that died halfway through
The Friday-night problem: more games saved than played, and an hour spent choosing. QuestLog's roulette wheel, why time-to-beat is the most important field in the app, what happened when RAWG shut down mid-build and IGDB replaced it, shipping a Kotlin Multiplatform codebase to Google Play, and two Compose bugs that cost real days.