iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 07/09/2026

Two new PHP elephants for the herd! Up to 14 now. #php #elephpant

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 13/04/2026

These skimmers are getting out of hand

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 02/01/2026

A 2026 resolution of mine: share things I use and enjoy. Today I renewed my email account at Fastmail. - Avoid the Google machine eating all your data - Emails for every domain (perfect for serial project starters like me) - Calendar, too! 10% off your first year: join.fastmail.com/dc5bc18e

Fastmail – Email and calendar made better

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 13/11/2025

Stupid things I’ve said to my cats #319: “Are you investigating my underwear?” Photo tax of said investigator:

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 19/08/2025

Late night shenanigans 🤖

A screenshot of JSON structured text, with the key "message" and the value "LangChain Application is running!"

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 04/08/2025

TIL Arizona has a license plate option that looks like it's from the Matrix 🤯

An Arizona license plate with seven zeros and a background with green ones and zeroes like often seen in The Matrix movies

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 11/07/2025

New glasses, who dis? 🤓

A selfie of me in my office, wearing new glasses: clear frames, more rounded shape

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 18/06/2025

BUT I'M TOTALLY GONNA GET TO THEM, OKAY

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 11/06/2025

My portfolio and consultancy website has a fresh new look! 🎨 My software engineering contract/consultancy services are now highlighted, along with showcasing the products I'm building. Take a look, and tell me what you think! cryode.com

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 27/05/2025

My to-do list for today. What’s on yours?

Today:

- Ship Whatnot order
- Finish and release Cryode v1
- List 3-5 Hot Wheels or LEGO for sale
- Clean the toilets
- Read a chapter of something

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 23/05/2025

Heading a different direction with the site design. I was spending too much time trying to implement an unclear vision. Pivoting to some pre-built design components. #buildinpublic

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 22/05/2025

Messing around with a website redesign. On a scale of gross to meh, how obvious is it that I'm not a designer? 😅 #buildinpublic

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 13/05/2025

I wish this tree would bloom longer. It looks like this for about two days 😭

A bloomed crab apple tree full of pink petals, next to a home and outdoor deck

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 06/05/2025

Excitement of the day: watching yet another salvage crew try to take an abandoned boat out of Milwaukee's lakeshore. Not sure what they intend to do about this rock line...

An abandoned boat dragged onto a sandy shore, with a large rock line to the right. Surrounded by workers in reflective gear and hard hats. Spectators in the distance.

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 28/04/2025

Photos from a hackathon I judged this past Saturday! With an AI focus, teams created themed chat bots, a resume writer, a pet finder, a real-time mood analyzer, and teachable object detection. If you have an opportunity to attend a hackathon, do it! And build something using AI 🤖

People gathered at tables in an office, listening to hackathon presenters speaking

A hackathon team gathered at a conference room table

A hackathon team gathered at a white board, where one person is writing

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 25/04/2025

ESPN app on Fire TV used a translation key literally 😅

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 23/04/2025

Not sponsored, just genuinely valuable! I attended a keynote recently by co-author John Zeratsky. He introduced the concepts in the book, and we did a hands-on workshop applying some of the concepts to our own projects. More about it on MKE Tech Hub's page: www.linkedin.com/posts/mketec...

John Zeratsky giving a keynote at a pre-release event for the book Click, organized by Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 23/04/2025

On sale today! If you are a founder or work on products, you need to read it. Click – How To Make What People Want introduces a Foundational Sprint system to ensure you're building what people actually WANT. Highly recommended – you WILL get actionable advice. www.amazon.com/Click-Make-W...

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 22/04/2025

Expensive bullshit I will own one day: an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 22/04/2025

Might need to bust this thing out again soon

A man wearing full leather racing gear and a helmet sitting on a green sport bike, in a residential driveway

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 21/04/2025

@amirgal.bsky.social Mango Squeezy mobile (iOS, iPhone 12 Pro) image not sized great: Keep building! 🏗️

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 07/04/2025

The text you always love to get from your customers 🥰

A screenshot of a text message reading "Just checked it out and it looks perfect. Exactly what I was thinking."

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 01/04/2025

Hoping Wisconsin makes good choices today 🗳️

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 24/03/2025

BUILDING 🏗️ - Persistence of JWT token via HTTP-only cookies, used automatically when making API calls ✅ - Onboarding page to gather more info if someone signs in for the first time (registers) ✅ #buildinpublic

A screenshot of a web app's onboarding page, with an input field asking for a preferred name

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 23/03/2025

BUILDING 🏗️ Magic link auth combining registration and login ✅

A screenshot of an app's "Register or Sign In" form with a single email input

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 19/03/2025

Did a little gardening today 🌱 I have many things I’d like to do to my yard this spring. To keep it from feeling overwhelming, I’m working on it here and there. Save energy for the big projects. Here’s a Daylily I cleaned that will be divided when it’s warmer:

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 17/03/2025

My niece asked me to take her to a concert this past weekend. She was excited to see the opening act JILUKA, a Japanese metal band. I don’t normally do metal (or concerts, really), but I’m glad she did! It was fun, and I got to learn a bit about her and a subculture she’s a fan of (visual kei).

The Japanese metal band JILUKA playing on stage, bathed in red light

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 04/02/2025

Wall mounting successful. Super happy with the end result! Eventually we’ll add a soundbar and replace the console with a nice one.

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 29/01/2025

Before and after! Wall mounting this weekend 🛠️

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 29/01/2025

Happy Chinese New Year! 🏮🧧 May this new year bring prosperity, good fortune, and cherished moments with loved ones. 恭喜發財 (Gong Hei Fat Choy)!

A graphic with a Chinese New Year theme, showing traditional paper lanterns, a geometric snake, and the word "Year of the snake 2025"

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 13/01/2025

10/10 would cry again 🧙🏾

Entrance to a single move theater screen, with a marquee showing “WICKED 2:30”

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 06/01/2025

Debating getting a new TV. I dunno… what do you think? 🤔

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 05/01/2025

What my wife has to deal with when she asks for a picture of my fresh haircut:

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 03/01/2025

Vintage style Casio Christmas gift recipient checking in!

A vintage style Casio watch in a watch box

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 03/01/2025

I see I have some cat fans following me, so here’s some recent cuteness:

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 03/01/2025

New Years Day in Chicago with my wife’s family 😊

Two people taking photos of the same plated meal

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 30/12/2024

SO MUCH BETTER 😍 The macOS menu took more work, and like 75% of the time would enter the emoji twice after I double clicked on it. Take away the pain, Raycast!

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 30/12/2024

I dig this install graphic!

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 30/12/2024

Laravel devs: is there a benefit to the tap() helper that might not be obvious? If you don't know what tap() does, it takes more cognitive load to understand these two pieces of code that I believe are functionally equivalent:

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 11/12/2024

About a year ago I got really into fragrances. My favorite YouTube channel, Gents Scents, created a handful of scents in collaboration with the brand Michael Malul. Recently I was able to find a killer bottle on these two, after I’ve almost went through my sample sizes!

Two men’s fragrances by Michael Malul: Terra Nova and West Loop

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 05/12/2024

Who approves copy like this? 🤨

A bottle of Mio water flavoring that says “natural flavor with other natural flavor”

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Aken Roberts @akenroberts.com · 05/12/2024

She likes me, I promise 🐈

Me holding one of my cats up, while making a silly face

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