2026-06-08 16:42:10
Today I turn 40.
I'm the healthiest, fittest and happiest I have ever been in my life.
I've been married for 15 years, have an amazing, and hot, wife and a beautiful daughter. I couldn't ask for more!
I have a handful of very good friends and it's more I could ever ask for.
My life is just beginning!
✌️❤️
— Vincent
2026-06-07 23:15:53
The past few months I had to take a hard look into reworking website uptime monitoring for Tinylytics — which has been working great with updown.io for some very long time now. I don't have anything against Updown, however I had some very niche edge cases that I wanted to tackle. So I've built my own that fits my own use case. I don't want to step on his toes — Adrien, the founder, has been nothing but fantastic over so many years I've used it.
Saying that, I did try and create my own internal tool some years ago which didn't work out well at all — because I didn't know much about it. But that has changed since.
So, I'm introducing Thunder Clap — my very own take on uptime monitoring.
Initially I designed it to be API first so you can hook into it from within your projects, like Tinylytics, but I've been working hard on the UI to make it work.
Monitors run for HTTP and HTTPS sites, with auto handling of OK statuses and even honouring redirects — you can also set your own expected status code also, including expected string within the response. You can set the location of the checks and if you need, set the threshold when to mark a monitor as down (for example some sites may respond as down from 3 out of 6 locations — which would trigger an email or webhook event to you). It's all quite flexible.
I want to open this up for others to try, so you can sign up and I'm including a 90 day trial to this so I can flesh it out over the school summer holiday. I may extend that though, and I am certainly in no rush.
The strength in Thunder Clap is webhooks that updates your apps with any downtime or updates, including being super easy to get started with — without having to think too much about it. I've also been super careful with marking micro outages and also general wrongly marked downtime, when in fact everything looks correct.
It also has some good documentation on the API. Have a look.
What I also found is, is that the UI is great — everything updates in real time, giving you a great overview what's happening — which actually is useful to me for Tinylytics.
For now, I am unsure about where this project goes next, and I need to build a few things out like hosted status pages — that will come. There is also pricing to figure out... so I am unsure about that right now. I'll probably do something similar as I did with Tinylytics and start low, but bring up the price as the subscriptions grow.
Anyway — I invite you to take a look, see what you think, and please share your feedback. Here for you.
✌️❤️
— Vincent
2026-06-04 22:11:00
In the last few weeks I've been taking care of a lot of things. All personal in nature. Mostly good, but it took time away from what I usually do.
This has been necessary to keep going with what I do, and where I want to go, for the foreseeable future. Next week is my birthday... and a significant milestone for me as I worked through things the last few months.
There are a great many things happening behind the scenes of everyday life that I don't ever share. An internal retreat, quiet, sitting, thinking. The universe nudging me over the years.
So, it's been quiet here and around my projects, even though I've been quietly shipping a lot of things — I even created a new side project to support another.
It's been hard to catch up with everything. Keeping changelogs fresh, work on client projects and you name it.
Saying that, I have so many ideas in my head across all my projects, current and new, and can't wait to share them as time goes. But first the school summer holidays starting in July — so it's time for family and a slow release cycle.
The great thing about all of what has unfolded is that it makes room to grow my projects and spend more time on them.
(and no, I didn't sell them)
✌️❤️
— Vincent
2026-04-18 17:11:22
There seems to have been quite an influx of "ship or die" mentality across the tech industry, even just around my own circles — or the circle that do similar things to me. Feature after feature, after... feature — and not to mention ruthless feature copying because "why not" — another thing to put on your homepage — so easy.
I've been having some back and forth conversations with a few people on this topic throughout the last months, and also a lot of internal dialog on the matter. A recent exchange had made me think about this even more.
The rush to cram in something new, without thought, is easier than ever if you're a programmer now — just describe it in plain English and the predictive text engine will do it for you. This has been a net positive in terms of productivity for sure, although I believe it's a double edged sword.
It's great being able to prototype and iterate quickly with the results mostly good enough to ship — and why not, no one ever asked me to do it, just an itch and a quick turnaround.
I don't think this phenomena is unique though and has been part of society for a long time — the missing out syndrome.
This has affected my own work and my own contributions to my projects — iterating quickly to get in features, giving it a test, more or less happy with the results and shipping. However, I noticed also that it takes away some of that care to attention and detail.
When I look at my own Tinylytics, it seems a bit of a mess and a divergence of the original project — even though I am following the plan that I had envisioned for it. The interface seems full and crammed, and not well organised anymore — although I might be staring at it for too long.
A simple system now getting overly complex, full of features that probably only a handful of people use.
Don't get me wrong, I love the fact I can add new things, however I think it's worth also taking a step back now.
Because I can do more in less time, doesn't mean I need to. Simple as that. What used to take a day, now takes just mere hours (if even that).
I came to this conclusion yesterday as I was tidying the kitchen and listening to this YouTube video (just the sounds — it's a fantastic channel exploring Japan that I've been following for some time). I found it so calming and peaceful. So much so that it's really affecting me.
Where does this bring me? I really don't know.
For now, I am going to take a look at all my projects and see where I can simplify — especially Scribbles and Tinylytics. Scribbles has been largely minimal and I want to hone in on that even more. Right now I am actually thinking of removing unnecessary things. Tinylytics could do with a much cleaner interface, whilst keeping the powerful features.
Now that I have more free time, I can concentrate on this more — be more thoughtful and simplify.
Less is more.
2026-03-29 03:59:50
I've been super fortunate to be able to use an Android phone (Pixel) for the past few months, mainly for app testing, and improving, the Micro.blog apps.
Switching to Android has been a breath of fresh air. It's different. It actually does a lot of things I like, and I love it for the fact that it, in some way, does feel a bit more personal than your "normal" and well-polished SpongeBob (iOS) — if you know the episode where SpongeBob turns normal you know exactly what I mean. I know, a bit off a tangent, you get the point I hope.
iOS is very normal, for the average person. They give you a features set that they think suits 99% of the people buying it. That's what I think anyway. That's perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with average.
Android also feels normal, but it allows you to go outside of the bounds of what Google would want you to do — yes, it feels a little less polished because of it, but I think given the flexibility and general freedom (not 100%, but 100% more than Apple would give you) makes it a superior platform in general. Funny enough, as far as I know, Android is actually open source too.
Android feels like it has heaps of personality compared to iOS — from the boot up, to the little sounds and how it feels to use, to how it behaves day to day like the way it notifies you when it sense it's in the pocket. Little things, you know.
It's been an unexpected surprise for sure. It's also been an itch I wanted to scratch for a very long time, and I am happy to have had the opportunity. Given the choice between an iPhone and a good Android device, I would struggle what to choose.
As a very small back story where I come from, once Apple introduced the original iPhone, and I was fortunate enough to buy it just after my flight training, I never went back nor looked at anything else. Everything was beneath it for such a long time — I regret every moment telling people why to choose the Apple product in all cases — I even worked in an Apple shop for some time.
Long story short, Android gets a lot of things right, but also gets a lot of things wrong. It's a balance. Each platform offering something just slightly different, better or worse. Same for iOS.
Now a lot folks might be well into each ecosystem — that's understandable. When you come from Android and go to iOS it's much easier as Google do provide all their apps there. Apple does not. That is if you heavily rely on their services, which is of course a sticky point for most blog posts I see about this topic. Fair.
Personally I barely use any third party apps, nor do I use cloud storage (iCloud/Google Drive) or anything I might need on hand — I prefer it that way. Looking back over the years, having a note or 2 at hand was all I needed — but not much else. This makes it easier for sure, and that was years in the making. I don't have reminders/to-do lists, nor do I need notes in general. As long as I can get into my gym, with their app (I know!!!), that's all that matters! Pictures were important to me when our daughter was smaller — not so much anymore. I take 99% less photos now.
During this test I also gave my wife my iPhone (a Mini) as hers was being weird, and I inherited her SE. Needs a new battery and the top of the screen no longer accepts any meaningful touch input at all and the screen goes crazy because it probably thinks it's being touched. Fine with me. This exchange also allows me to keep my Apple Watch — I use it for time telling, waking me up in the morning and to allow me to listen to music in the gym (I don't track any workout, ever). I desperately want an iPod Shuffle, that you can clip on, that can connect to bluetooth headphones! Please god. Please!
The iPhone SE — WHAT A PHONE! It's absolutely magical. It's small, light and doesn't feel like it's going take over your life.
I kept the iPhone off for a while, especially during December and January (and parts of February) — I would only turn it on for updates and sync my Watch.
Funny thing, the Apple Watch has been fantastic since turning off the iPhone — no distractions with notifications, no nonsense — just a Watch and music player. It didn't feel like an extension of my phone at all which was great. It felt like its own little device. Which it should be really.
I'm not a fan of connecting a device to another — these should be standalone and have their own purpose.
And that brings me to my point of the post.
Both Android and iOS devices are not the devices I am looking for.
A long time ago I heard the word "Ambient Computing" — I think it was Google that said this during one of their keynotes.
I would love a device that, without taking away attention from the real world (important!), that I could potentially talk to to get messages to my loved ones (wife and daughter) and just go about my day without ever to having to really look at it.
I don't need a big screen, if any. I don't want to know about anything except allowing my wife and daughter to get in touch with me.
I want to use my voice to interact and, if I can't, perhaps with simple touch to get things moving and be done. I don't need much.
The Apple Watch seems to be that device for me — doesn't take away my attention, allows me to message the people I care about and also gives me a good time in the gym with good music.
I hope that this space expands more in future. The less screen I have, and the more time in the real world I can spend, the better.
Allowing me to talk at home with a device, or outside somehow with another (wearing on a wrist) and all be connected without giving it much thought? Bliss.
Will it ever become true? I don't know.
One can dream for sure.
That's the kind of device I am looking for.
2026-02-17 02:16:38
The other week, I published a post I shouldn't have "Keep Moving Forward" — about how I felt inside with blogging and in general. Some of you read this. Whilst I wanted to make an excuse that I didn't mean to write that, I kind of did — I left it up for less than 12 hours and then reverted my whole blog to nothingness. Silence is golden.
So, I'm going to see what happens this year — thoughts to digital bits, a stream of consciousness.
Anyway, I'd like to give this another try, mainly to let go of things I hold on to or just talk. No promises though — never say never... I guess.
🤷♂️✌️❤️
— Vincent
