Tom Hicks
@hicksyfern.bsky.social
Full stack TypeScript dev working on making web maps.
Also: F1, rugby, cricket, music
Also: F1, rugby, cricket, music
Xcode melted my biscuits
November 7, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Xcode melted my biscuits
Time for Clippy to come back.
“It looks like you’re going insane. Would you like some help?” 📎 👀
“It looks like you’re going insane. Would you like some help?” 📎 👀
if you're ever Photoshopping your own face into the smoke of the Twin Towers, Adobe should have a pop-up that says "are you sure that whatever it is you're doing is a good idea"
November 5, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Time for Clippy to come back.
“It looks like you’re going insane. Would you like some help?” 📎 👀
“It looks like you’re going insane. Would you like some help?” 📎 👀
Person 1: “Whoa who just rolled that massive stone up that massive hill?”
Person 2: “Sisyphus”
Sisyphus (offended): “what did you just call me?”
Person 2: “Sisyphus”
Sisyphus (offended): “what did you just call me?”
November 3, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Person 1: “Whoa who just rolled that massive stone up that massive hill?”
Person 2: “Sisyphus”
Sisyphus (offended): “what did you just call me?”
Person 2: “Sisyphus”
Sisyphus (offended): “what did you just call me?”
I don’t know who needs to know this, but about 15 years ago my friend taught me a cure for hiccups and it actually works, instantly, with a 100% success rate over perhaps 20 attempts with various people.
It should be in accepted medical literature.
It should be in accepted medical literature.
November 3, 2025 at 12:51 PM
I don’t know who needs to know this, but about 15 years ago my friend taught me a cure for hiccups and it actually works, instantly, with a 100% success rate over perhaps 20 attempts with various people.
It should be in accepted medical literature.
It should be in accepted medical literature.
My kid lives the Cars soundtrack, which has got some Brad Paisley songs on it. Now Apple Music thinks I like country music.
With LLMs literally everywhere in everything, I really want a box to type in "I don't like country music"
With LLMs literally everywhere in everything, I really want a box to type in "I don't like country music"
November 3, 2025 at 8:30 AM
My kid lives the Cars soundtrack, which has got some Brad Paisley songs on it. Now Apple Music thinks I like country music.
With LLMs literally everywhere in everything, I really want a box to type in "I don't like country music"
With LLMs literally everywhere in everything, I really want a box to type in "I don't like country music"
absolutely insane situation evoling with a Play Store submission @developers.google.com
App was incorrectly rejected
I appeal
Google accepts the appeal and asks me to resubmit for review
I resubmit as requested
Get an immediate rejection "for not resolving the previously communicated policy issue"
App was incorrectly rejected
I appeal
Google accepts the appeal and asks me to resubmit for review
I resubmit as requested
Get an immediate rejection "for not resolving the previously communicated policy issue"
October 31, 2025 at 2:00 PM
absolutely insane situation evoling with a Play Store submission @developers.google.com
App was incorrectly rejected
I appeal
Google accepts the appeal and asks me to resubmit for review
I resubmit as requested
Get an immediate rejection "for not resolving the previously communicated policy issue"
App was incorrectly rejected
I appeal
Google accepts the appeal and asks me to resubmit for review
I resubmit as requested
Get an immediate rejection "for not resolving the previously communicated policy issue"
As much as people might complain about Liquid Glass and iPad not running macOS, you have to admire Apple’s strategy of gradual convergence of their operating systems over the last 10 years.
Each form factor continuing to play to its strengths and matching hardware and consumer capabilities, etc.
Each form factor continuing to play to its strengths and matching hardware and consumer capabilities, etc.
October 31, 2025 at 11:46 AM
As much as people might complain about Liquid Glass and iPad not running macOS, you have to admire Apple’s strategy of gradual convergence of their operating systems over the last 10 years.
Each form factor continuing to play to its strengths and matching hardware and consumer capabilities, etc.
Each form factor continuing to play to its strengths and matching hardware and consumer capabilities, etc.
i've learned that i can smell tailwind
October 30, 2025 at 2:19 PM
i've learned that i can smell tailwind
Google Play just rejected an app update, saying that the app shouldn't use some image library permission, linking me to documentation that explicitly explains that apps like this one **can** use that image library permission 🤦🤦🤦
October 29, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Google Play just rejected an app update, saying that the app shouldn't use some image library permission, linking me to documentation that explicitly explains that apps like this one **can** use that image library permission 🤦🤦🤦
New in bad UI spotting: the "see more" button that takes up more space than the content it covers up.
October 29, 2025 at 8:58 AM
New in bad UI spotting: the "see more" button that takes up more space than the content it covers up.
Liam Lawson: “I could have killed them”
… if you’d just turned the wheel a bit more towards them?
… if you’d just turned the wheel a bit more towards them?
October 27, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Liam Lawson: “I could have killed them”
… if you’d just turned the wheel a bit more towards them?
… if you’d just turned the wheel a bit more towards them?
Trying tanstack router from @tannerlinsley.com for a new work thing and it’s really, really nice.
Hard to explain exactly why but it just kinda does things how you want them to be done.
Only issue was file based routing seems to hang webpack so had to use manual route tree.
But still great.
Hard to explain exactly why but it just kinda does things how you want them to be done.
Only issue was file based routing seems to hang webpack so had to use manual route tree.
But still great.
October 25, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Trying tanstack router from @tannerlinsley.com for a new work thing and it’s really, really nice.
Hard to explain exactly why but it just kinda does things how you want them to be done.
Only issue was file based routing seems to hang webpack so had to use manual route tree.
But still great.
Hard to explain exactly why but it just kinda does things how you want them to be done.
Only issue was file based routing seems to hang webpack so had to use manual route tree.
But still great.
graphql.tada is amazing.
I faffed around with various codegen settings and different vscode plugins and they couldn’t seem to agree on what constitutes a query.
But graphql.tada just works, with no watchers, no scripts, no language server.
I faffed around with various codegen settings and different vscode plugins and they couldn’t seem to agree on what constitutes a query.
But graphql.tada just works, with no watchers, no scripts, no language server.
October 24, 2025 at 3:53 PM
graphql.tada is amazing.
I faffed around with various codegen settings and different vscode plugins and they couldn’t seem to agree on what constitutes a query.
But graphql.tada just works, with no watchers, no scripts, no language server.
I faffed around with various codegen settings and different vscode plugins and they couldn’t seem to agree on what constitutes a query.
But graphql.tada just works, with no watchers, no scripts, no language server.
Moustaches are getting bigger
October 24, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Moustaches are getting bigger
wondering if I can put my tax bill into ffmpeg
October 23, 2025 at 10:03 PM
wondering if I can put my tax bill into ffmpeg
“Is AWS down?”
“How to cheer up an AWS region”
“How to cheer up an AWS region”
October 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
“Is AWS down?”
“How to cheer up an AWS region”
“How to cheer up an AWS region”
Qui ha robat el Louvre?
Només respostes correctes.
Només respostes correctes.
October 20, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Qui ha robat el Louvre?
Només respostes correctes.
Només respostes correctes.
TIL Steve Buschemi uses CloudKit
One of the most difficult parts of distributing your user's data across multiple devices is handling when devices have different versions of the schema.
Our SQLiteData library handles this seamlessly behind the scenes without you having to think about it.
Quick demo here 👇
Our SQLiteData library handles this seamlessly behind the scenes without you having to think about it.
Quick demo here 👇
October 18, 2025 at 10:06 AM
TIL Steve Buschemi uses CloudKit
New hobby. Truncating headlines for comic effect
October 17, 2025 at 8:17 PM
New hobby. Truncating headlines for comic effect
Dark chocolate
October 17, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Dark chocolate
Maintaining software is essentially an exercise in complexity management.
What is necessary complexity?
What is incidental complexity
Where and how should we hide complexity?
It’s actually not very much about “the code” but about structures and systems.
What is necessary complexity?
What is incidental complexity
Where and how should we hide complexity?
It’s actually not very much about “the code” but about structures and systems.
October 16, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Maintaining software is essentially an exercise in complexity management.
What is necessary complexity?
What is incidental complexity
Where and how should we hide complexity?
It’s actually not very much about “the code” but about structures and systems.
What is necessary complexity?
What is incidental complexity
Where and how should we hide complexity?
It’s actually not very much about “the code” but about structures and systems.
This looks good.
I genuinely can’t wait for all the “we don’t need types” to change to how useful types are and how many fewer tests you need and how much mental overhead it saves.
I genuinely can’t wait for all the “we don’t need types” to change to how useful types are and how many fewer tests you need and how much mental overhead it saves.
Elixir v1.19 released: enhanced type checking, broader type inference, and up to 4x faster compilation for large projects
Elixir v1.19 released: type checking of protocols and anonymous functions, broader type inference, improved compile times, and more
elixir-lang.org
October 16, 2025 at 12:07 PM
This looks good.
I genuinely can’t wait for all the “we don’t need types” to change to how useful types are and how many fewer tests you need and how much mental overhead it saves.
I genuinely can’t wait for all the “we don’t need types” to change to how useful types are and how many fewer tests you need and how much mental overhead it saves.
I dunno probably like Boeing or whatever
October 15, 2025 at 2:19 PM
I dunno probably like Boeing or whatever