Troy Davis

skeptical optimist. everything is an experiment.

🔗 tacoapp.com, simpleoptout.com, reportphonespam.org, sawsafely.org, seattleix.net, yort.com. ex papertrail.com. 9600 8-N-1.

Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

if Apple had acquired the iPad app Concepts and released it as Freeform, users would still be talking about it.

I started using Concepts to sketch wood products, then clay. it's got the best of vector tools, like infinite zoom, infinite canvas, and stroke-level edits. it's no harder to use than any bitmap drawing tool.

concepts.app/en/ , youtu.be/LqhyWSPukM4?t=160

December 19, 2022
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

Half of every Mastodon intro is spent on choosing a server.

Can we make it easier, so more visitors become users? Imagine:

1. On JoinMastodon.org, a Sign Up page asks for the user's preferred username.

2. The page lists instant-signup servers. Servers with this username available are first, highlighted.

Each server row shows high-level ToS & 1-line summary.

Bonus: Geocode client & highlight in-country servers.

3. User clicks through to a server's signup page.

Thoughts?

/cc @Gargron

December 18, 2022
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

bored this afternoon? X-Plane 12 moved from beta to release today.

the free demo allows 15 minutes per flight, which is enough to take off, do a low-altitude pass between buildings, and crash (er, land…): x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/

the in-app intro covers taking off pretty well: increase throttle (F2) then slowly pull the yoke (mouse). no need to adjust trim.

when you tire of crashing, here's landing in a nutshell: x-plane.com/manuals/desktop/#l

December 17, 2022
Troy Davis
troyd@mas.to

hi! if you're reading this , then I should try to make myself useful 🙂

so, here's some topics that people have asked me about:

• choosing a mattress

• turning a kitchen island into a 1m² ceramic studio ()

• making fitness fun. 👍 VR boxing

• privacy (simpleoptout.com/)

• designing products (discussions.apple.com/thread/2)

• Seattle's best sandwiches

• "bootstrapped" businesses (troy.yort.com/papertrail-joins)

• safe woodworking (sawsafely.org/)

DMs welcome

December 17, 2022