2026-06-23 18:18:40
I've been wondering about my desk lately, and its purpose. There has also been a fundamental shift for myself on how I think about computers too — what even is a computer these days?
Do I have to always sit at my desk? Why does the desk dominate the room with a screen on it, always visible?
Should I get a smaller desk? Maybe I can sit on a cushion on the floor where my desk sits now. Perhaps a standing desk, because I don't like being stationary for too long. But no, that is also a desk.
Creativity doesn't always strike at my desk either — in fact it is quite the opposite too many times.
I do need a desk though. I don't have a laptop, so I am stuck with a big screen — perhaps that's changing soon. Who knows.
So, now I am planning. Do I need a desk?
Work can happen anywhere — at the old (the one I am sitting at now) desk, the dining table, kitchen counter, my bed, a coffee shop like good old times.
No desk also means less emphasis on technology sitting there, waiting to be used. Calling out — "hey, I am here, look at me with my dark screen" — waiting.
I am planning on no desk. That's my aim.
Intentional.
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.
