How I'm building applications these days
Over a decade after an inspiring conference talk, an idea became an initial site in a day. What building looks like for me now: the method, the desk, the Laravel kit, the Cloud habits, and what still bites.
Notes from the workbench
Writing.
Some practical. Some personal.
Things I’ve learned by paying attention.
26 articles matching “technical”
Every story at its own pace
Highly performant content consumption and rendering with Laravel, across sophisticated CMS-driven workloads.
Following the sun with Laravel
How my solar experiment collects readings, saves them in Valkey and shares updates through Laravel Cloud, Reverb and React.
A Raspberry Pi an OpenClaw and a packet of peanuts
I built an open-source AI agent that runs on a Raspberry Pi, takes commands via WhatsApp, and gets better at its job over time. It started with a knock-knock joke. By Wednesday morning it was ordering peanuts from Amazon.
Feature flags with Vercel Toolbar, Edge Config, and Next.js
How I set up feature flags to toggle between two homepage designs using Vercel Edge Config, the flags SDK, and the Vercel Toolbar - including the gotchas that cost me an evening.
Releasing Uptimer – a self-hosted uptime monitoring tool
I built Uptimer over a weekend using Next.js, Neon PostgreSQL, Vercel, and Resend. It monitors websites and APIs, tracks SSL certificates, sends email alerts, and provides clean dashboards - all within free-tier limits. Today I'm releasing it as an open-source template.
Building a second brain with Claude and Obsidian
I've been building software for decades, but my second brain was always a whiteboard. In early 2026 I decided to build a proper one - local, Markdown-based, Claude-assisted, and completely mine. This is what happened.
X's API is accessible again-here's the full Vercel stack to use it
How I rebuilt my automated weekly X (Twitter) tweet using the X API, Vercel AI Gateway, AI SDK, Cron, and Workflows-with a nod to the old days when posting to Twitter was the hello world of the hour.
Building a Travel Map with Next.js, Leaflet, and Vercel Blob
How I built an interactive travel map for my personal site using Leaflet, Vercel Blob for image storage, and an admin interface for managing travel data. A deep dive into the technical challenges, production deployment issues, and the solutions that made it work.
Building an AI Chatbot with Vercel AI SDK and AI Gateway
How I built a professional AI chatbot for my personal site using Vercel's AI infrastructure, Next.js, and a custom floating interface. A deep dive into the technical implementation, RAG considerations, and the benefits of Vercel's AI ecosystem.
Optimising for AI SEO with Next.js and Vercel
A comprehensive approach to making your website AI-friendly using Next.js App Router, Vercel's edge infrastructure, and modern web standards. How I transformed my site for better AI discoverability and search rankings.
Bluesky profile update automation
Automating Bluesky profile updates with Next.js and Vercel Cron