Collin Donnell
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collin.social
Collin Donnell
@collin.social
Freelance software developer from Portland Oregon. Specializing in iOS and Ruby on Rails.

Blogger 🖋️ https://collin.blog
Film photographer 📸 https://collin.photo
Songwriter 🎸 https://collin.band

#ruby #rubyonrails #swift #iosdev #filmphotography
Here's the basic layout I'm working with in Logic Pro. As I add more categories of things, I'll create summing stacks (busses) for those, as well with their own send tracks for global fx. This is a fairly good translation of how I'd set things up on a console, although it looks a lot different.
November 5, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Like all Teenage Engineering products, the EP-133 KO II has some pretty serious limitations that definitely affect the music I can make on it. I'm still having fun and doing something with it everyday though.
October 2, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Learning how to use this thing has been a good distraction this week.
September 14, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I spent all day setting up cremation and figuring that stuff out. I just got back to my hotel, looked at my phone and realized that my favorites were my mom and dad, but my mom doesn't have her own phone anymore because she has Alzheimer's and my dad is gone. So now I'm crying again.
September 10, 2025 at 3:10 AM
I made it to Las Vegas on my roadtrip from Portland to Knoxville. I'm afraid this trip will end in tears, but at least this was cool.
August 27, 2025 at 3:31 AM
"AI responses may be inaccurate."
August 20, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Playdate at the post office. #Playdate
August 19, 2025 at 7:14 PM
It's pretty insane they're going to ship this.
August 12, 2025 at 8:44 AM
I know it's not really much, but considering I didn't know Lua or the Playdate SDK at all a few days ago, I'm pretty excited with where I've gotten. I also know how to put enemy sprites on the screen, animate them, and do collisions, although I didn't record that here.
August 10, 2025 at 1:20 AM
I made this non-scientific chart to illustrate my concern over relying on AI for coding. With traditional research, knowledge and skills continue to compound indefinitely. With AI, you'll be much faster at the beginning, but there's only so far that can take you.
August 7, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Getting out of the house for a little reading and journaling.
August 5, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Some photos around Portland. #FilmPhotography
July 17, 2025 at 8:56 AM
I find the “normal people can’t tell” to be a bit offensive to the non-technical. You think if you showed this photo of CG Tarkin next to Peter Cushing to someone asked which is real they’d have no idea? If they say they can’t it’s probably because they’re trying to get out of the conversation.
July 15, 2025 at 10:23 PM
EDC Reddit is obsessed with pry bars, and I find that pretty funny. Multiple posts about them every week.
July 14, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Me waiting for ink to dry on Tomoe River paper (which I like).
July 9, 2025 at 6:30 PM
This isn't going to mean much to anyone who isn't an F1 fan, but I just found out my dog Link is Leo Leclerc's uncle. Wild.
July 6, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Cathedral Park yesterday.
July 4, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Yesterday's hike was a bit harder than I've been going, so I paused my fitness rings and declared today a "no bones" day. It's probably healthy to give myself one day a week where I actually don't do anything.
June 29, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Tolinda Trail hike up by Saint John's.
June 25, 2025 at 2:00 AM
I always liked the app I made where it would geolocate the addresses out of your contacts and show you how far they were. Maybe I'll remake it. Probably no one else would use it, but it would be a fun little project.
June 25, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Another hike today 💪 🥾
June 24, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Trying to get in shape by going on hikes of various difficulty levels and hitting my move goal every day. I plan on adding some yoga and strength training later on as well. I want my mind and body to be as good as they can be so I’m ready to kick ass whenever I start my next job.
June 23, 2025 at 2:37 AM
So if I'm willing to make my own routes — which is fairly laborious— I think I'll get most of the features of an official Apple Maps hike? It's kind of crazy to me that in a city like Portland, someone hasn't gone and done this work for me already. Oh and of course I can't share my routes.
June 21, 2025 at 2:32 AM
This is getting out of hand very quickly.
June 19, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Alright, so I've got my resume details specified in YAML, and I'm generating HTML and PDF files based on that using my own styling. I am a real nerd. It looks pretty good though.

I could turn this into a gem pretty easily if other people were interested. #Ruby
June 19, 2025 at 10:42 PM